• Ralph (unregistered) in reply to Coyne
    Coyne:
    ...a lovely demonstration of how few people in the world really care about whether things work...
    So, so true! And the only reason MS ever lived past about year two.

    I really wish I could go to another planet where there weren't so many mentally lazy twits.

  • Silent D (unregistered) in reply to Jerry Rig

    Yep, I've seen this happen many times. My current company groups countries into sales regions, except for one large client that is considered its own "region" (and of course the client operates in several countries). So now instead of a correct data model, we have dozens of reports that need special logic to handle this. Not that I'm bitter.

  • saepius (unregistered) in reply to da Doctah
    da Doctah:
    Funky spelling of FICTITOUS POINT reminded me of one of those portable traffic signs I saw at a construction zone outside a hospital this week: EMERGENY ROOM.
    My guess is that the spelling mistake is what caused the problem: they probably use loads of FICTITIOUS POINTs in their database, and just filter them when sending the data to the monitor.
  • Friedrice the Great (unregistered) in reply to bluebearr
    bluebearr:
    You know, I'm a Windows guy. I like Windows. I've built my career around Windows.
    I forgive you. Now go and sin no more!
  • Luiz Felipe (unregistered) in reply to Coyne
    Coyne:
    bluebearr:
    You know, I'm a Windows guy. I like Windows. I've built my career around Windows.

    But TRWTF, for me, is all the kiosk/display systems that show up in this space that are based on Windows. I had no idea. Why would you ever use something as complex as Windows to run something like a movie marquee?

    Wouldn't you use something more minim (like my CAPTCHA)?

    If you've watched this site for a while, you'll see that Windows is used quite a bit for marquee and advertising displays; which are usually snipped to just a small section of a desktop.

    Apparently, the display software is set up to position a window to an exact location, and then video capture clips that section out for display on the marquee.

    So there have been numerous pictures of sections of blue screens (even whole blue screens; 640x480?) and desktops, with the latter often showing a system dialog indicating some type of failure.

    It's amazing that display companies don't seem to be able to go so far as to have their own private video card; and how often Windows subverts a perfectly good ad display by killing some program, blue screening, or going into update or screen saver mode.

    Makes a lovely advertisement of the fact that Microsoft does not make Windows for control or long-running static applications, but rather for a user who will be sitting right in front of the screen with their fingers on ctrl-alt-Del. Something that remains true even for the "server" versions.

    It also is a lovely demonstration of how few people in the world really care about whether things work. You can just imagine this exchange:

    Customer: Ummm...your sign out here is showing a program failure dialog.

    Counter person: Hey, George! Need to reboot the sign again!

    George: No problem! It's been pretty good; that's only the second time today!

    People that do this are lazy and cheap ridden. They put worst hardware that exists on Earth to used as display. They even configure windows to autorestart on error, nor configure display program to autoopen or recycle on crash or some kind of watchdog program. I imagine also these kind of machine dont have UPS and run on worst electrical connection that happens to be in place. I am not counting the overheat of place that the poor machine was put into. Then when it fails, the guilty is of O/S, or the coder that was "told" to do this mess. Never is the chic that "thought" this was a good idea.

    By the way, windows server is pretty stable, if you use decent hardware and keep humans away from it, ie, dont let them remote connect on the server and no problem will even happen. This apply to all situations when dumb people mess with things.

  • Rourke (unregistered)

    (2) "Entschuldigung, wo ist Flugsteig Z66, bitte?" (laughing) "Same terminal as Z18, where you can catch a plane chortle to that other great city snicker 'Washington'!" (rotfl)

    (3) Also note the creative spelling of LUXEMBERG

    (4) The music of the 2730s sounds just like the 1980s rehashed. Yes, it's that bad

    (5) How many people rely on the Chicago train system to tell them the date? "Commuters on Platform 3, we have a delay of approximately 72 hours to your next service to Randolph/Wabash. We apologise for the inconvenience and lack of cots"

  • foo (unregistered) in reply to Juha Autero
    Juha Autero:
    I wonder if Fictitous Point is the capital of BDG Export Sales.
    Indeed, it is. I was there at their national holiday, the 0th of May.
  • foo (unregistered) in reply to da Doctah
    da Doctah:
    Funky spelling of FICTITOUS POINT reminded me of one of those portable traffic signs I saw at a construction zone outside a hospital this week: EMERGENY ROOM.
    Wasn't that a TV show (sometime in the 2730s) starring GEORGE LOONY?
  • (cs) in reply to bluebearr
    bluebearr:
    But TRWTF, for me, is all the kiosk/display systems that show up in this space that are based on Windows. I had no idea. Why would you ever use something as complex as Windows to run something like a movie marquee
    Good question. Does Windows Embedded even have a desktop? And considering how often this happens, why to they even have those icons on the desktop????
  • (cs)

    I am guessing that I am not the only person who figured out that the subway signs and airport thing could ONLY be the result of either PhotoShop or malicious intent... right?

  • (cs)

    Flying to a railway station (Cologne) would need some terrific piloting skills in order to land exactly on the tracks. I can only assume that particular flight is with something like a Cessna, or it wouldn't fit...

  • dogmatic (unregistered) in reply to java.lang.Chris;
    java.lang.Chris;:
    I've just Googled "cream pie" with safe search switched off, and there's no way I'm eating one of those.

    You should google 'lemon party' instead. Its much tastier!

  • (cs) in reply to foo
    foo:
    da Doctah:
    Funky spelling of FICTITOUS POINT reminded me of one of those portable traffic signs I saw at a construction zone outside a hospital this week: EMERGENY ROOM.
    Wasn't that a TV show (sometime in the 2730s) starring GEORGE LOONY?
    Obviously, these people are opposed to using C. (But using the spellings "EMERGENC++Y ROOM" and "GEORGE C++LOONY" really wouldn't fix things....)
  • stang (unregistered) in reply to Juha Autero

    Mod parent up.

    Captcha: damnum. Write your own damnum joke (and always preview before posting).

  • gstein (unregistered) in reply to bluebearr
    bluebearr:
    You know, I'm a Windows guy. I like Windows. I've built my career around Windows.

    But TRWTF, for me, is all the kiosk/display systems that show up in this space that are based on Windows. I had no idea. Why would you ever use something as complex as Windows to run something like a movie marquee?

    Wouldn't you use something more minim (like my CAPTCHA)?

    i work at a small, independently owned theater. we replaced our showtimes marquee with a tv, and a pc running XP. why? because the management was unwilling to purchase a professional solution, and the people tasked with creating a solution were familiar with windows. (believe it or not, it's reasonably stable.)

  • rioki (unregistered) in reply to JiP

    Actually it get's even more hairy, with 90% of all rail lines in Germany electrified, you must also doge the power line...

  • al;wioerug (unregistered)

    what sort of wierd ass order are those countries in?

    Definitely not alphabetical, and geographically (or linguistically) not much related either.....

    THe 2nd US, a place in Europe, just south of US, South America, back to Europe

    Can't remember if Austria is famous for scnitzel, Wooden Boots, sausages or those big mice that jump around on Warner Bros....

  • Wody (unregistered)
    so we saw 'My Documents' instead," writes [b]Dan L.[b], "It was not very good."

    Liar! We all know you keep your pron collection in 'My Documents' Okay, it sucks, but it's your pron, so at least you should have enjoyed it.

  • iMalc (unregistered)

    At least it wasn't a "Ficboobious Point"!

  • sd (unregistered)

    Two separate Banana split Blizzards with different calorie counts...ok

  • Skip (unregistered) in reply to Blizzards are yummy
    Blizzards are yummy:
    Umm, you guys are nuts. Those things are delicious.

    http://www.dairyqueen.com/us-en/Menu/Treats/Banana-Cream-Pie-Blizzard-Treat/

    That's the first site I've ever know to realise I'm in the Southern Hemisphere, and turn the picture upside down so I can see it....

  • Mitch (unregistered) in reply to Rourke
    Rourke:
    (2) "Entschuldigung, wo ist Flugsteig Z66, bitte?" (laughing) "Same terminal as Z18, where you can catch a plane *chortle* to that other great city *snicker* 'Washington'!" (rotfl)

    (3) Also note the creative spelling of LUXEMBERG

    (4) The music of the 2730s sounds just like the 1980s rehashed. Yes, it's that bad

    (5) How many people rely on the Chicago train system to tell them the date? "Commuters on Platform 3, we have a delay of approximately 72 hours to your next service to Randolph/Wabash. We apologise for the inconvenience and lack of cots"

    You make a very good point.... I understand why banks and other institutions put dates on the wall (so you can put the right date on your paperwork), but why does a train station need to show the date? Do you think a passenger cares what day it is today? They probably don't even care (too much) about what the current time is, just how much time until the next train. Other than that a miss is as good as a mile (ie you're either early or late, but late is late, no matter how late - unless it's so late you're better off turning around and going the other way)
  • (cs) in reply to al;wioerug
    al;wioerug:
    what sort of wierd ass order are those countries in?

    Definitely not alphabetical, and geographically (or linguistically) not much related either.....

    THe 2nd US, a place in Europe, just south of US, South America, back to Europe

    Stop reading the NBC website for your geographical information!

    al;wioerug:
    big mice that jump around on Warner Bros

    Unless of course you are talking about this guy?

  • McVaio (unregistered) in reply to Coyne
    Coyne:
    bluebearr:
    You know, I'm a Windows guy. I like Windows. I've built my career around Windows.

    But TRWTF, for me, is all the kiosk/display systems that show up in this space that are based on Windows. I had no idea. Why would you ever use something as complex as Windows to run something like a movie marquee?

    Wouldn't you use something more minim (like my CAPTCHA)?

    If you've watched this site for a while, you'll see that Windows is used quite a bit for marquee and advertising displays; which are usually snipped to just a small section of a desktop.

    Apparently, the display software is set up to position a window to an exact location, and then video capture clips that section out for display on the marquee.

    So there have been numerous pictures of sections of blue screens (even whole blue screens; 640x480?) and desktops, with the latter often showing a system dialog indicating some type of failure.

    It's amazing that display companies don't seem to be able to go so far as to have their own private video card; and how often Windows subverts a perfectly good ad display by killing some program, blue screening, or going into update or screen saver mode.

    Makes a lovely advertisement of the fact that Microsoft does not make Windows for control or long-running static applications, but rather for a user who will be sitting right in front of the screen with their fingers on ctrl-alt-Del. Something that remains true even for the "server" versions.

    It also is a lovely demonstration of how few people in the world really care about whether things work. You can just imagine this exchange:

    Customer: Ummm...your sign out here is showing a program failure dialog.

    Counter person: Hey, George! Need to reboot the sign again!

    George: No problem! It's been pretty good; that's only the second time today!

    That's interesting, because my Windows 2003 servers never ever crash. One of them is even a development server. The only reboots are for updates once every 30 days. But even so, at the office of a friend of mine they have Windows servers running with an uptime of 300 - 400 days. So please stop talking shit.

    The fact is that almost every single public display (even the ones that advertise iPhones as we have seen here once) is run by Windows. Is it really that much of a surprise that of the millions of Windows-run displays all over the world, now and then they pop up here showing an error or bsod?

  • rbrb (unregistered) in reply to JiP

    Lufthansa cooperates with the German railway company. They have a Lufthansa check-in at Cologne central station, and the train ride to the airport (Frankfurt in most cases, I think) is already considered part of your flight, i.e. you have Lufthansa staff on the train, Lufthansa is taking care of taking your luggage to the train and from there to the plane, and if the train gets delayed it's not your liability if you're late for the plane.

  • AGo (unregistered)

    TRWTF is that they have planes going to central (train) stations...

  • (cs) in reply to Some Jerk
    Some Jerk:
    .oO(Wonder if them trains are considered early or late...?)

    I am totally fed up for this site showing favouritism to this poster. There is nothing particularly great about this comment and I really can't stand anymore him being favoured over me all the time here.

  • (cs)

    the real WTF is that this site has ceased to be funny anymore and has turned into a two-tier clique

  • Ru (unregistered) in reply to bluebearr
    bluebearr:
    But TRWTF, for me, is all the kiosk/display systems that show up in this space that are based on Windows. I had no idea. Why would you ever use something as complex as Windows to run something like a movie marquee?

    The barrier to entry is exceptionally low. You can get hold of a cheap box to run the OS, and the software licensing isn't exactly onerous. You can then run any old shite on it; one place I worked at used powerpoints on its big display screens.

    No special hardware, software, dev or admin skills required. Any old idiot can do it, so any old idiot does.

    McVaio:
    That's interesting, because my Windows 2003 servers never ever crash.

    There's a slight price disparity between the desktop and server editions of Windows; that alone might be enough to block that particular upgrade.

  • Spaatz (unregistered) in reply to Albertini Albertino
    Albertini Albertino:
    The real WTF is iOS and all who sail in her.

    TRWTF is blaming the OS for the bad data handling of the application.

    CAPTCHA: quis ... what!?

  • (cs) in reply to iMalc
    iMalc:
    At least it wasn't a "Ficboobious Point"!
    +1!
  • BlackKnight (unregistered) in reply to rbrb
    rbrb:
    Lufthansa cooperates with the German railway company. They have a Lufthansa check-in at Cologne central station, and the train ride to the airport (Frankfurt in most cases, I think) is already considered part of your flight, i.e. you have Lufthansa staff on the train, Lufthansa is taking care of taking your luggage to the train and from there to the plane, and if the train gets delayed it's not your liability if you're late for the plane.

    It's Germany, the train will never be delayed.

  • Jonp (unregistered) in reply to saepius

    "My guess is that the spelling mistake is what caused the problem: they probably use loads of FICTITIOUS POINTs in their database, and just filter them when sending the data to the monitor."

    Solid design! Carry on.

  • Jasper (unregistered)

    Ah, I see the real WTF!

    Please send me a postcard when you ever visit LUXEMBERG.

  • (cs) in reply to Anymouse
    Anymouse:
    Chicago is the most half-assed city I have ever lived in. The "L" signs don't show when trains are arriving like they do in every other city in the world. No -- they just show imaginary time.

    But that's just a single example. Walk (or, better yet, drive) around Chicago and you are inundated with more of this half-assed shit than you could possibly imagine.

    And our President used to live there. Surprise, surprise: CEOs and various union bosses practically living in the White House. What did we expect would happen?

  • SomeSignGuy (unregistered) in reply to Coyne

    It really depends on the manufacturer of the marquee sign. I work in that field, actually as tech support for these LED displays. Most of the time people set them up in unsupported ways, or have them set to Live Video and then forget to actually run their content.

    I'm just glad the sign in this post wasn't one we made.

  • Calli Arcale (unregistered) in reply to saepius
    saepius:
    da Doctah:
    Funky spelling of FICTITOUS POINT reminded me of one of those portable traffic signs I saw at a construction zone outside a hospital this week: EMERGENY ROOM.
    My guess is that the spelling mistake is what caused the problem: they probably use loads of FICTITIOUS POINTs in their database, and just filter them when sending the data to the monitor.

    Somewhere in my basement, there is a 35mm print of a picture I took on a trip to Montana many years ago. There was road construction going over the Beartooth Pass, just after passing the border into Wyoming, and we all laughed mightily at the sign that said "BE PERPARED TO STOP". (We had to look at that sign for about half an hour while waiting for our turn to use the road, you see, so it became the stuff of legend among our family.)

    Also funny was, upon crossing back into Montana, the obligatory 70 MPH speed limit sign posted on all Montana state highways at the border. This one was at an altitude above 10,000 feet, with the first of many switchbacks about a quarter of a mile further down the road. If you do make it up to 70, you'd better have good brakes.....

  • jay (unregistered) in reply to bluebearr
    bluebearr:
    You know, I'm a Windows guy. I like Windows. I've built my career around Windows.

    But TRWTF, for me, is all the kiosk/display systems that show up in this space that are based on Windows. I had no idea. Why would you ever use something as complex as Windows to run something like a movie marquee?

    Wouldn't you use something more minim (like my CAPTCHA)?

    Yes, I'm sure you could design a simpler operating system that would be the minimum necessary to run a kiosk. But why? Windows does the job and is available for modest cost.

    By the same reasoning, we COULD design a simple OS that would just support word processing, and another that would just support browsing the web, and another that would just support running an ATM, and another that would just support ... etc etc. And then we'd have 6000 incompatible OSs to support.

    Why not make one OS that supports a wide range of functions? Then we don't have to design, build, and maintain a new OS for every conceivable function.

    This is pretty much the whole idea of a modern stored-program computer. One box can do many different things just by running a different program. Thank you Mr von Neuman!

  • jay (unregistered) in reply to saepius
    saepius:
    da Doctah:
    Funky spelling of FICTITOUS POINT reminded me of one of those portable traffic signs I saw at a construction zone outside a hospital this week: EMERGENY ROOM.
    My guess is that the spelling mistake is what caused the problem: they probably use loads of FICTITIOUS POINTs in their database, and just filter them when sending the data to the monitor.

    This is why magic values are evil. Assuming your theory is correct, they could have had a "fictitious point" boolean flag that would unamiguously say whether a given point is fictitious or not.

    It reminds me of a Java program I worked on where instead of using boolean values the author used strings containing the text "true" or "false", and then did String.equals to compare them. I found a function where he passed in the value "flase" [sic] for one of these values. So flag.equals("false") returned false, giving unexpected results. But of course it was buried deeply enough in the function that it wasn't obvious that this was the problem.

    (Of course, this technique does make it easier to expand the list of values, for example, when you need to add "FILE NOT FOUND".)

    He had another one where he expected values of "open" or "close", and then he set the field to "Open". (i.e. upper case on the first letter.)

  • jay (unregistered)

    I thought Fictitious Point was a promontory on the island of Sans Serif. I visited it once on the Front Side Tour Bus.

  • jay (unregistered) in reply to Mitch
    Mitch:
    Do you think a passenger cares what day it is today? They probably don't even care (too much) about what the current time is, just how much time until the next train. Other than that a miss is as good as a mile (ie you're either early or late, but late is late, no matter how late - unless it's so late you're better off turning around and going the other way)

    I would think that a passenger at a train station would care a great deal about the current time. If you know that your train leaves at 4:16, what good does that information do you if you don't know what time it is now? And for something like train schedules, that are supposed to be very precise, I'd much rather go by the station's idea of what time it is than my watch's idea of what time it is. Maybe my watch is off a few minutes.

  • jay (unregistered) in reply to Jerry Rig
    Jerry Rig:
    The "country" of BDG EXPORT SALES is probably an example of what I call "database overloading", which does not mean your database is too full. Rather, it is like operator overloading.

    Year 1: Create a table with country codes and a couple related items.

    Year 3: Manager wants a sales report by country.

    Year 7: Company signs a megacontract with BDG EXPORT SALES.

    Year 7.000001: Manager wants to know how much we've sold via BDG EXPORT SALES, and he wants to see it broken out on the sales report by country.

    Year 7.0000013: Dev team can't take the time or bother to change the data structure, so they just jam BDG EXPORT SALES into the country table.

    Year 999...: All sorts of logic is screwed up every time the BDG EXPORT SALES country row is processed.

    Personally I doubt step 7.000001 was even in there. More likely they had a country table, at some point the users came along and said they needed some special handling for BDG, and some genius programmer said, "Oh, man, it would be so much trouble to add another column for this to the database just to support this one report! We'd have to change the table structure, add a field to the edit screen to let the user enter it ... Hey, I've got a brilliant idea! Why don't we just stick BDG in the country table!"

    At my present job, I just recently found that we have a language table with a language id and language name. There are just four records: 1 - US English, 2 - UK English, 3 - German, and 4 - Foobar Corporation (name changed to protect the innocent). This way we can internationalize our documents in English, German, and Foobarese.

    I cried.

  • Mitch (unregistered) in reply to jay
    jay:
    Mitch:
    Do you think a passenger cares what day it is today? They probably don't even care (too much) about what the current time is, just how much time until the next train. Other than that a miss is as good as a mile (ie you're either early or late, but late is late, no matter how late - unless it's so late you're better off turning around and going the other way)

    I would think that a passenger at a train station would care a great deal about the current time. If you know that your train leaves at 4:16, what good does that information do you if you don't know what time it is now? And for something like train schedules, that are supposed to be very precise, I'd much rather go by the station's idea of what time it is than my watch's idea of what time it is. Maybe my watch is off a few minutes.

    The current time is irrelevant - as is the fact that the train is due at 4:16. All the pax actually cares about is the difference between due time and current time, not the times themselves - ie: PAX cares that the train is due in 3 minutes, not that it is currently 4:13 and the train is due at 4:16....

    BEFORE getting to the station (ie when PAX leaves home or work or wherever they're going) the PAX cares about the schedule and the time, but at the station the PAX only cares about the time difference, not the time itself. Even extrapolating that a bit further, these days given the technology available the pax probably doesn't even care the train is due in 3 minutes, but rather that the train is probably 5 minutes away...

    Also, although I'll admit I've never been to Europe, train schedules aren't something I've ever noticed to be very precise....

  • Jonathan (unregistered)

    Am I the only one who checked "2360s" to see if there was any Star Trek present?

  • jay (unregistered) in reply to Mitch
    Mitch:
    jay:
    Mitch:
    Do you think a passenger cares what day it is today? They probably don't even care (too much) about what the current time is, just how much time until the next train. Other than that a miss is as good as a mile (ie you're either early or late, but late is late, no matter how late - unless it's so late you're better off turning around and going the other way)

    I would think that a passenger at a train station would care a great deal about the current time. If you know that your train leaves at 4:16, what good does that information do you if you don't know what time it is now? And for something like train schedules, that are supposed to be very precise, I'd much rather go by the station's idea of what time it is than my watch's idea of what time it is. Maybe my watch is off a few minutes.

    The current time is irrelevant - as is the fact that the train is due at 4:16. All the pax actually cares about is the difference between due time and current time, not the times themselves - ie: PAX cares that the train is due in 3 minutes, not that it is currently 4:13 and the train is due at 4:16....

    BEFORE getting to the station (ie when PAX leaves home or work or wherever they're going) the PAX cares about the schedule and the time, but at the station the PAX only cares about the time difference, not the time itself. Even extrapolating that a bit further, these days given the technology available the pax probably doesn't even care the train is due in 3 minutes, but rather that the train is probably 5 minutes away...

    Also, although I'll admit I've never been to Europe, train schedules aren't something I've ever noticed to be very precise....

    Umm, yes, but how do you suppose "time until this train is due to leave" is communicated to the passengers? I don't know how they show departure times in European train stations, but any airport or train station I've been to in the U.S. shows departure time as a time of day, e.g. "4:16 pm", not "6 minutes from now". So you have to compare the scheduled departure time to the current time to know how long until the train leaves.

    So okay, it would be possible to convey the required information to the passengers without telling them the current time. But this is the easiest way to do it, and the way everybody I've ever heard of does it.

  • (cs)

    Does Vince like mmmmmbananas?

  • (cs) in reply to Jonathan
    Jonathan:
    Am I the only one who checked "2360s" to see if there was any Star Trek present?
    I'll bet that at least a new series of it is still running.
  • (cs) in reply to jay

    National Rail (Southern Region):

    +----------------------------------+
|Time   Destination        Expected|
+----------------------------------+
|12:45  London Waterloo    12:47   |
|lling at: Rowlands Castle, Petersf|
|12:31  Brighton           Delayed |
+----------------------------------+

    Delayed meaning "Not now, and no ETA"

    London Underground: +----------------------------------+ | Uxbridge 3m | | Heathrow Terminal 4 5m | | Uxbridge 6m | +----------------------------------+

  • Shea (unregistered) in reply to saepius
    saepius:
    da Doctah:
    Funky spelling of FICTITOUS POINT reminded me of one of those portable traffic signs I saw at a construction zone outside a hospital this week: EMERGENY ROOM.
    My guess is that the spelling mistake is what caused the problem: they probably use loads of FICTITIOUS POINTs in their database, and just filter them when sending the data to the monitor.

    Actually that's a clbuttic one there. Ficbreastous at it's finest!

  • (cs) in reply to Esse
    Esse:
    And seriously, who made up those names? "Cream Pie"? "Butterfinger"? "Choco Cherry Love"
    And where's "Cappuccino Heath"? Is it near Hampstead Heath?

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