- Feature Articles
- CodeSOD
- Error'd
- Forums
-
Other Articles
- Random Article
- Other Series
- Alex's Soapbox
- Announcements
- Best of…
- Best of Email
- Best of the Sidebar
- Bring Your Own Code
- Coded Smorgasbord
- Mandatory Fun Day
- Off Topic
- Representative Line
- News Roundup
- Editor's Soapbox
- Software on the Rocks
- Souvenir Potpourri
- Sponsor Post
- Tales from the Interview
- The Daily WTF: Live
- Virtudyne
Admin
NullPointerException("No place for something")
Admin
can you send me a jar for this exception because it does not show up properly here
Admin
All her existing jars are full of other substances, which prevents her from being able to accomplish anything useful at work.
Admin
Beyond the real WTF of moving from .NET to Java (why pick an inferior language!?), I have to say that the ending at least was good. But this sort of thing is all too common. It seems that your average CxO doesn't really care as much about "their" company as they lead you to believe and expect everyone else to be if they're willing to play shit like this. Why do you suspect this is? Arrogance? e.g. I can do it, so I will? Ignorance? Do they just think the person is skilled because they believe their friend, and then refuse to see that they were lied to?
With how often you see situations like this come up, there has to be an underlying reason why these types of people consistently try to sink their own company by making stupid choices and then trying to go along with it to the bitter end. Arrogance based on their position and a refusal to admit that they could ever be wrong (so essentially megalomania) seem to be the most likely answer ("I'm the boss, how can I be wrong?")
Admin
It was some CxO, not the company owner. As the CxO, it's not his company and not his money that gets spent when he helps a friend. Obviously, in a privately held company that kind of behaviour would be a sackable offence.
Admin
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException at com.initech.wtfclient.ClueBat.swing(ClueBat.java:5306) at com.initech.wtfclient.Main.main(Main.java:840)
Admin
TRWTF is thinking that ".NET" is a single language
Admin
I've worked for enough idiots that I think idiocy is the most likely scenario. If someone doesn't understand what a role entails, it's hard to tell what's incompetence and what's just a few problems getting used to a new environment.
People running small businesses mostly aren't any good at doing so, they're just good at bringing in the work. Running things well will improve profit margins, but in my experience of you don't have enough margin to run things badly and still come out ok, you don't have much of a business.
Admin
I don't believe Kiesha "lost her job" through firing so much as promotion.
Admin
I don't believe Kiesha "lost her job" through firing so much as promotion.
Admin
The old saying, "don't ascribe to malice what can be explained by stupidity" (or something like that).
It's certainly not that all managers are stupid; I've worked for some really competent people over the years. But the thing we don't realize until we've gotten experience is that they're just people. They make mistakes, also might not be particularly smart.
But having a title makes you immune (in many organizations) from legitimate criticism. It has to be a cultural change; when someone's exposed as being incompetent at their job, they need to go, even if they are CTO (or whatever).
Admin
Heh.
I worked in a place which had an office at the end nicknamed the "departure lounge". Because every single manager who was installed in that office to manage our team, one after the other, left the company soon afterwards. We used to believe it was because ours was such a challenging team to manage (we were the only team in the building doing actual software development) that their shortcomings as a manager were exposed in very short order -- and out they went.
Admin
The real WTF is porting a windows app to Java in the first place, someone in management must have heard java is the new hot thing and goes in more than just coffee cups....
Admin
Sorry, I couldn't gather enough management to write a successful comment. Can you send me one?
Admin
The real WTF is how common Keisha-like people there are on the planet, who have the power to do handle anything more than a balloon on a stick.
Next group stand up meeting: "The balloon burst"...
Admin
some would say Kiesha's jars were empty instead of full
Admin
The first red flag was "Don't worry," they said, "Intelligenuity only employs the most brillant programmers."
Admin
Whereas I'd read that as whoever's doing the hiring not understanding what the position requires. TRWTF is, that's something I only learnt from experience
Admin
Ah, yes, our place had several Keishas:
#1: Knew LISP. So we let her write a simple program in LISP. A month later, she was still asking about the difference between CR and CDR.
#2: Was hired as a condition of her very Einsteiny husband's employment contract. Was asked to write a simple file reader, doable in about an hour. A week later she handed in some weird code that manipulated linked lists of characters.
#3: Didn't know a thing but very quickly picked up three computer languages. On her own wrote some tricky data import utilities. And so on, success after success. Turned out, she hadn't been born as a female.
COINCIDENCE?
Admin
Are....are you seriously intimating that women can't code?
Admin
There is a difference between "men are taller than women" and "every man is taller than every woman".
Admin
Some of the HR people I have seen have just gone along with a "standard" formula. "You are looking for a senior developer, so that means at least 10 years in the industry." This kind of thinking leads to needing 10 years experience with software that was only released 4 years ago, and a version that was only released last year. Are you recruiting from the people who wrote the software in the first place?
Admin
I'd assume not seriously, but neckbeards exist...
Admin
Many CxO's - especially the "E" variety - are sociopaths. So of course they're right!
Admin
Paula Bean had a child?
Admin
OOPS, that did come out a bit wrong. Let's see if I can recoup my losses: My father was in the audience of a lecture by Grace Hopper. We've named one of our cats "Grace", after Ms. Hopper. I was fired by an ex-programmer then manager who was a female. Not sure if that's a plus or minus. I better quit.
Admin
Thanks for the clarification! Grace is a great name for a cat.
Admin
There is also a difference between "taller" and "smarter".
Admin
Being able to code or not is not an issue of how "smart" you are. Its a way of looking at things, and many perfectly fine coders are quite "dumb".
Admin
I swear we worked at the same place! That office was cursed.
Admin
is mentioning Grace Hopper in programming discussion some sort of Godwin's law?
Admin
All .net languages are superior to Java. Except J#. The less said about that the better
Admin
No, but mentioning Dijkstra is. Double if (as I've seen more often than I like) you spell it Djikstra.
(Also: Wirth.)
Admin
Your limited knowledge proves some of the points already mentioned in this thread....
Admin
I'd say - hubris mixed with technical ignorance.
Admin
I would argue that a good programmer can write good code in any turing complete language. People who waste everyones time to argue why 'their' language is superior to any other one are usually just bad programmers or script kiddies.
Admin
Sorry for not being clear. By "smarter" I meant "smarter coder". I agree that other smartnesses are not relevant here.
Admin
I would argue that if you don't realise that some languages make certain things easier than others, then you aren't qualified to make that statement.
Assembler is a turing complete language, you're saying you can write good assembly code in the same time as someone using c#?
Admin
I wonder if most of the readers and authors realize that > 90% is this site is basically a form of simple bullying. You might lose the bully-flavor, once you stop re-iterating previous bullying actions. (I've read the Paula article and frankly, it's quite enough by now) A lot of senior programmers get off by criticizing / bullying others and it's mostly just because their own insecurity (oh noes, I'm replaceable!). I prefer (senior) programmers without a schoolyard mentality.
Admin
All .net languages are superior to Java
Man, you're setting the bar so low even Shemika Charles couldn't limbo under it.
Admin
'Next group stand up meeting: "The balloon burst"...'
"The balloon mysteriously disappeared, and in it's place there mysteriously appeared this damp rag."
Admin
Keisha huh? Not Jane? Not Sarah? Why not Sambo? A pretty good example of racist misogyny.
Admin
How so? There's certainly criticism of bad code and humorously improper behaviour, but it's not tied to any individual or group, and usually it's not even tied to an organisation. Wouldn't bullying require someone to be bullied?
Admin
TRWTF is not having used the superior language in the first place, and having voluntarily gone with .NET instead.
Admin
Have you seen what qualifies as Turing-complete languages?
Admin
Yet the clear implication of Grumpy's comment is that women can't code.
Admin
Ooh. I worked at a company liked this as well. Then one day some poor guy WHO WAS REALLY GOOD at his job, got allocated the office and he spent the next week or so being paranoid etc. Then we moved office buildings. He stuck around way beyond when I left.