The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2014-04-30 Reply Admin

Coyne:
But it's sooooo much easier without all that authentication nonsense.
Sigh.

I had this coworker who set up servers for various purposes. I swear I heard him, at least once a week, explain to some luser that, "No. The server must have a password. I realize it's harder to access, but it must be password protected." Etc.

Yah, just tell your coworker lusers they don't need a password for their email. After all, no one could possibly want to send an insulting or nasty email to the CEO using someone else's email account ...

2014-04-30 Reply Admin

DCRoss:
Or look for the "/" key and then type "ftp". If that doesn't jump immediately to the section you want, press "n" until it does.
If you are reading man pages through a web browser then locating the "find" command is left as an exercise for the reader.

I'd ask how to find where to read instructions on how to locate the "find" command but...

TRWTF is that you expect everyone to know how to use vim without having been told where instructions are located on how to use it. Or worse, how to find how to find their way through vim's online help, which was written with great sincerity but painful to use.

2014-05-01 Reply Admin

Loose Bree:
I'm surprised someone can barf a mostly normalized schema with indexes. Presumably it's structured to serve the software's design goals. I couldn't ask for much more in a database.

A normalized schema is of little use when the design goals include stuffing it full of serialized data.

2014-05-01 Reply Admin

Doug Hofstadter Jr.:
DCRoss:
Or look for the "/" key and then type "ftp". If that doesn't jump immediately to the section you want, press "n" until it does.
If you are reading man pages through a web browser then locating the "find" command is left as an exercise for the reader.
I'd ask how to find where to read instructions on how to locate the "find" command but...

TRWTF is that you expect everyone to know how to use vim without having been told where instructions are located on how to use it. Or worse, how to find how to find their way through vim's online help, which was written with great sincerity but painful to use.

VIM, really? I don't think many people read man pages with VIM. Most people I know use 'man' to read man pages...

2014-05-01 Reply Admin

Forgot to add: and 'man' seems to usually spawn dome sort of text reader, not a text editor. On my machine it appears to be 'less', which also uses the / to search.

And if you didn't know that, press 'h' for help ;)

2014-05-01 Reply Admin

Scourge of programmers.:
So what exactly is stopping you people from moving to warmer climes?

Well, the options are learn a new language, or move in with the loud mouthed barbarians. I'm terrible with languages, I can't even speak the language of where I'm from, so that's out.

And at the end of the day, living in a civilized democracy with healthcare, unemployment insurance, an education system, worker's rights, consumer protection, etc. is well worth a bit of cold.

2014-05-01 Reply Admin

Drak:
Doug Hofstadter Jr.:
DCRoss:
Or look for the "/" key and then type "ftp". If that doesn't jump immediately to the section you want, press "n" until it does.
If you are reading man pages through a web browser then locating the "find" command is left as an exercise for the reader.
I'd ask how to find where to read instructions on how to locate the "find" command but...

TRWTF is that you expect everyone to know how to use vim without having been told where instructions are located on how to use it. Or worse, how to find how to find their way through vim's online help, which was written with great sincerity but painful to use.

VIM, really? I don't think many people read man pages with VIM. Most people I know use 'man' to read man pages...

You don't read many man pages on the console, do you? man and more/less more or less use the same key bindings for search functions, and these in turn match those of vim.

I'm not that deep into linux/unix history to tell you whether those key bindings originate with vim or more but it doesn't matter much anyway.

2014-05-01 Reply Admin

I've just looked over that htaccess page on troubles

performance - not relevant here
not good if you allow uploading/modification - not relevant here, it wasn't allowed
not good for the host provider - not relevant here, htaccess not a problem

2014-05-01 Reply Admin

Rick:
We also use remote car starters - that starts the car's engine without unlocking it or requiring a key in the ignition. So while it's true the engine is running, the doors, steering wheel and gear shift are all still locked.

But remote car starters are expensive, and there, many people do not have them and/or cannot afford them.

As we are working on solutions for exactly this market, we did a marketanalysis and looked at solutions from others. There, I have seen many aftermarket solutions to get such a function, to start the engine when it will get too cold. These are all a mess, and all require a key (or, at least, part of the key) to be in the car. The immobiliser system has to be made ineffective, too.

Thus, there, it is really a problem.

chubertdev · 2014-05-01 Reply Admin

me:
Rick:
We also use remote car starters - that starts the car's engine without unlocking it or requiring a key in the ignition. So while it's true the engine is running, the doors, steering wheel and gear shift are all still locked.
But remote car starters are expensive, and there, many people do not have them and/or cannot afford them.
As we are working on solutions for exactly this market, we did a marketanalysis and looked at solutions from others. There, I have seen many aftermarket solutions to get such a function, to start the engine when it will get too cold. These are all a mess, and all require a key (or, at least, part of the key) to be in the car. The immobiliser system has to be made ineffective, too.

Thus, there, it is really a problem.

They're really, really cheap. I had one on my car in high school.

2014-05-01 Reply Admin

chubertdev:
me:
Rick:
We also use remote car starters - that starts the car's engine without unlocking it or requiring a key in the ignition. So while it's true the engine is running, the doors, steering wheel and gear shift are all still locked.
But remote car starters are expensive, and there, many people do not have them and/or cannot afford them.
As we are working on solutions for exactly this market, we did a marketanalysis and looked at solutions from others. There, I have seen many aftermarket solutions to get such a function, to start the engine when it will get too cold. These are all a mess, and all require a key (or, at least, part of the key) to be in the car. The immobiliser system has to be made ineffective, too.

Thus, there, it is really a problem.

They're really, really cheap. I had one on my car in high school.

Yeah, agreed. Canadian Tire sells them for $119 CAD and will often install them for free. Lots of local auto shops sell them for under $100. For reference, a mid-range loaf of bread goes for approx $2.50 here, so a car starter costs about the same as 40 loaves of bread.

chubertdev · 2014-05-01 Reply Admin

Rick:
chubertdev:
me:
Rick:
We also use remote car starters - that starts the car's engine without unlocking it or requiring a key in the ignition. So while it's true the engine is running, the doors, steering wheel and gear shift are all still locked.
But remote car starters are expensive, and there, many people do not have them and/or cannot afford them.
As we are working on solutions for exactly this market, we did a marketanalysis and looked at solutions from others. There, I have seen many aftermarket solutions to get such a function, to start the engine when it will get too cold. These are all a mess, and all require a key (or, at least, part of the key) to be in the car. The immobiliser system has to be made ineffective, too.

Thus, there, it is really a problem.

They're really, really cheap. I had one on my car in high school.

Yeah, agreed. Canadian Tire sells them for $119 CAD and will often install them for free. Lots of local auto shops sell them for under $100. For reference, a mid-range loaf of bread goes for approx $2.50 here, so a car starter costs about the same as 40 loaves of bread.

A loaf of bread will feed you for a few days or so. A remote car starter will drastically improve your comfort throughout winter over many, many years.

2014-05-01 Reply Admin

faoileag:
I'm not that deep into linux/unix history to tell you whether those key bindings originate with vim or more but it doesn't matter much anyway.

vim didn't exist yet when Unix was invented. Unix didn't exist yet when those key bindings originated.

2014-05-01 Reply Admin

Drak:
Doug Hofstadter Jr.:
DCRoss:
Or look for the "/" key and then type "ftp". If that doesn't jump immediately to the section you want, press "n" until it does.
If you are reading man pages through a web browser then locating the "find" command is left as an exercise for the reader.
I'd ask how to find where to read instructions on how to locate the "find" command but...

TRWTF is that you expect everyone to know how to use vim without having been told where instructions are located on how to use it. Or worse, how to find how to find their way through vim's online help, which was written with great sincerity but painful to use.
VIM, really? I don't think many people read man pages with VIM. Most people I know use 'man' to read man pages...

Most of the documentation about vim isn't in the man page. Most of it is ... accessible or inaccessible, which is my point, considering how hard it is to find things even though lots of very sincere volunteers wrote lots of very sincere explanations ... by typing the command ":help" into vim.

2014-05-02 Reply Admin

Doug Hofstadter Jr.:
Most of the documentation about vim isn't in the man page. Most of it is ... accessible or inaccessible, which is my point, considering how hard it is to find things even though lots of very sincere volunteers wrote lots of very sincere explanations ... by typing the command ":help" into vim.

Hmm, at startup my vim shown this in the edit area (unless I start it with a file already loaded):

~ type :q<Enter> to exit ~ type :help<Enter> or <F1> for on-line help ~ type :help version7<Enter> for version info

2014-05-02 Reply Admin

Drak:
Doug Hofstadter Jr.:
Most of the documentation about vim isn't in the man page. Most of it is ... accessible or inaccessible, which is my point, considering how hard it is to find things even though lots of very sincere volunteers wrote lots of very sincere explanations ... by typing the command ":help" into vim.
Hmm, at startup my vim shown this in the edit area (unless I start it with a file already loaded):
~ type :q<Enter> to exit ~ type :help<Enter> or <F1> for on-line help ~ type :help version7<Enter> for version info

Yes it does. Now have you actually used it and tried to find the information you needed to solve a problem? The information is very likely to be there, somewhere, down a maze of twisty passages.

2014-05-02 Reply Admin

Duke of New York:
That admin guy:
Duke of New York:
If you find a business-critical system that is not properly secured - STOP - DON'T TOUCH IT! - Tell an adult.
Definitely do not just lock it down on the spot. Someone could get hurt.

Exactly, if the company wanted to pres charges against whoever hacked the system, you just tampered with evidence. Plus you might have overlooked something and now you'll get blamed for any future compromises on the systems. It is best to just disconnect the machine from the network and await orders from your supervisor.
Which part of "Don't touch it" did you not understand?

Also don't tell anyone. And definitely don't pick up the phone. If anyone says anything, look busy, but for God's sake don't log into the server. It might trigger a logged action.

kilroo · 2014-05-02 Reply Admin

Rick:
Nagesh:
Rick:
I'm not sure why people are having trouble spotting TRWTF here. The original developers intentionally left the administration section unprotected to work around the fact that their curl call was failing authentication. They left themselves fully exposed because they couldn't figure out how to make their home-made Drupal module work. If I was on Slashdot a car analogy would be expected, so here goes:
This is like finding that the radio you added to your car doesn't work with the ignition key removed, so to make it work you leave your car unlocked and running at all times.

In very cold places like Siberai, you have to do that.

That Siberia as a region is so cold is a common myth (you can check Wikipedia for a monthly temperature chart.) My mom spent most of February in Siberia about five years ago. She said it's no different than Iqaluit or the Northwest Territories here in Canada, and was only a little colder than Ottawa (where we're from.) Typical Ottawa winters have overnight lows around -30C to -35C, with the windchill reaching -45C to -50C. Any car parked outside has a block heater that you plug in, which keeps the engine block warm enough to start. Gas has antifreeze added to keep it fluid to -65C, and you can do the same with the oil if necessary (I just use a thinner grade.) We also use remote car starters - that starts the car's engine without unlocking it or requiring a key in the ignition. So while it's true the engine is running, the doors, steering wheel and gear shift are all still locked.

To be honest, TRWTF is living in a climate like this...

"no different than[sic] Iqualit or the Northwest Territories" is still REALLY FREAKING COLD by the standards of a lot of people. I've heard folks make similar references to parts of Canada or Alaska. I think the reason Siberia gets most of the references is not as much because of a reputation for being colder than similar latitudes, but because of the cultural references developed (mostly during wars, I think) to people being sent there as punishment.

2014-05-02 Reply Admin

nitePhyyre:
Scourge of programmers.:
So what exactly is stopping you people from moving to warmer climes?
Well, the options are learn a new language, or move in with the loud mouthed barbarians. I'm terrible with languages, I can't even speak the language of where I'm from, so that's out.
And at the end of the day, living in a civilized democracy with healthcare, unemployment insurance, an education system, worker's rights, consumer protection, etc. is well worth a bit of cold.

Learning Spanish is more or less optional. The native language of the (black) Caribbean coast is close enough to English. Belize is also an option; they speak English there officially. Costa Rica or Panama might be better choices though. I spoke maybe twenty words when I first came to Costa Rica and it was fine. If you want to be an active part of the local culture, sure, you should be able to speak Spanish, but otherwise "dos cervezas, por favor" suffices for most daily requirements ;)

You're also doing Costa Rica, Panama, and probably Belize a disservice by implying that they don't have democracies with all of the above listed features. Education is probably the worst by comparison, but in general the social safety nets are reasonably good. Also keep in mind that, as long as you can maintain 1st world income levels, living in most places in Central America is absurdly cheap.first

I think you're ignorant of both the potential upsides and downsides, and arranging your beliefs to fit your preconceptions. The culture shock is probably the major reason why gringos move back, not any other deficiency. I'm not saying that you should move down here, I'm just saying that these particular reasons you have stated for not doing so are uninformed.

Written from Isla Bastimentos, Bocas del Toro, Panama.

nasch · 2014-05-02 Reply Admin

Web Gringo in C. Am.:
The culture shock is probably the major reason why gringos move back, not any other deficiency.

It might be the humidity and bugs for me. ;-)

nasch · 2014-05-02 Reply Admin

Doug Hofstadter Jr.:
The information is very likely to be there, somewhere, down a maze of twisty passages.

Do they all look alike?

chubertdev · 2014-05-02 Reply Admin

kilroo:
"no different than[sic] Iqualit or the Northwest Territories" is still REALLY FREAKING COLD by the standards of a lot of people. I've heard folks make similar references to parts of Canada or Alaska. I think the reason Siberia gets most of the references is not as much because of a reputation for being colder than similar latitudes, but because of the cultural references developed (mostly during wars, I think) to people being sent there as punishment.

s/it's not the heat, it's the humidity!/it's not the cold, it's the Gulag!

Pawprint · 2014-05-02 Reply Admin

kilroo:
"no different than[sic] Iqualit or the Northwest Territories"

"Sic"? "Than" is the proper word. If you think it should be "then," you are very, very wrong.

On the other hand, if you are thinking that it should have been "different from," they're pretty much interchangeable. And if you think it should be "different to," then I projectile vomit in your direction. That phrasing is a blight on the language.

chubertdev · 2014-05-05 Reply Admin

Pawprint:
kilroo:
"no different than[sic] Iqualit or the Northwest Territories"
"Sic"? "Than" is the proper word. If you think it should be "then," you are very, very wrong.
On the other hand, if you are thinking that it should have been "different from," they're pretty much interchangeable. And if you think it should be "different to," then I projectile vomit in your direction. That phrasing is a blight on the language.

My guess is that they put the [sic] after "than" when they meant to put it after "Iqualit."

2014-05-06 Reply Admin

DCRoss:
no laughing matter:
Looking for options related to FTP-transfers? Of course don't forget looking in the P-section!
Or look for the "/" key and then type "ftp". If that doesn't jump immediately to the section you want, press "n" until it does.
If you are reading man pages through a web browser then locating the "find" command is left as an exercise for the reader.

On my browser the "/" still invokes a "find" command, although you have to press F3 or Ctrl+G to find next.

2022-07-28 Reply Admin

Lol. I will never unsee that now. Thank you?

Eric Cartman · 2024-01-09 Reply Admin

this is insane

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