The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2011-02-16 Reply Admin

error_NoError:
I don't get the whole formatting the floppy part, what did that have to do with stopping the auditor from scanning their computer? The article mentions a "DOS prompt" and a mouse which in 1997 would suggest they were running a hard disk based OS like Windows 95. Even Quake is too large to fit on a floppy, so I don't get what would have been on the floppy for them to destroy to keep the auditor from finding anything.

You're troll-fu is week.

2011-02-16 Reply Admin

Syntax:
No actually it is correct as before. In order for Indian Code to be shit, you have to assign shit to it (which is what Indian programmers do... assign shit to Indian Code). Thus, you can then apply the 'equals' operator (==) on the Indian Code to test for shit. So really it should look like this:
Indian Code = shit; print( (Indian Code == shit) ? "Indian code is shit" : "Indian code is ingenium" );

captcha: ingenium

Your code is shit! It actually has to be:

if(Indian Code == shit) {
  print("Indian code is shit");
} else if(Indian Code != shit) {
  print("Indian code is not shit");
} else {
  print("FILE_NOT_FOUND!");
}

2011-02-16 Reply Admin

nonpartisan:
"White men can't jump", in and of itself, is not a racist statement. It is a false statement; in general, unless there is an underlying physical problem, white men can jump. But to assign a judgment against white men (I know this to be in the context of basketball, so we'll say that it means white men can't play basketball) makes it racist.

But suppose this were true. Let's say you counted the number of white men and non-white men in top 10 NBA teams and found that 9 out of 10 men are non-white. Let's also say you ruled out other factors (like white men not applying for NBA positions, etc.), leaving ability to play basketball as the only factor. Would it still be racist to acknowledge the fact that white men are poorer basketball players?

nonpartisan:
If Indian coding is worse than what are considered to be generally accepted software engineering principles, then that is not racist. But to use it as a value judgment that all Indian software engineers suck at their trade is racist.

But one follows from another, doesn't it? Software engineers who don't suck produce quality code. If the majority of indian code is low-quality, doesn't it follow that the majority of indian software engineers suck?

nonpartisan · 2011-02-16 Reply Admin

gil:
nonpartisan:
"White men can't jump", in and of itself, is not a racist statement. It is a false statement; in general, unless there is an underlying physical problem, white men can jump. But to assign a judgment against white men (I know this to be in the context of basketball, so we'll say that it means white men can't play basketball) makes it racist.
But suppose this were true. Let's say you counted the number of white men and non-white men in top 10 NBA teams and found that 9 out of 10 men are non-white. Let's also say you ruled out other factors (like white men not applying for NBA positions, etc.), leaving ability to play basketball as the only factor. Would it still be racist to acknowledge the fact that white men are poorer basketball players?

No, because now there is scientific evidence that, as a general trend, white men don't play basketball very well. That's not racist. But that is a generality. There are white men (and I continue to use "white men" simply because that's the example used here) who are the exception to this evidence. If I am a basketball player (and it really doesn't matter if I am Caucasian, Hispanic, African American, etc. etc. etc. because an individual can be racist against one's own race) and I look at a white man and say "You can't play basketball; you're white!" . . . that's making a value judgment against an individual without even knowing his abilities. And that becomes racism.

gil:
nonpartisan:
If Indian coding is worse than what are considered to be generally accepted software engineering principles, then that is not racist. But to use it as a value judgment that all Indian software engineers suck at their trade is racist.
But one follows from another, doesn't it? Software engineers who don't suck produce quality code. If the majority of indian code is low-quality, doesn't it follow that the majority of indian software engineers suck?

Maybe. Maybe not. I'm in the networking field; programming for me was many years ago. If one Indian firm is the popular choice as an outsourcing firm, and their programmers suck, but they have great touchy-feely customer service and management loves them . . . then it can be that this firm produces crappy code, they produce the majority of outsourced code, but other Indian firms produce better quality code but perhaps without as much touchy-feely customer service. So one firm (or a small subset of firms) throws off the curve for everyone else.

To just decide, however, that an applicant cannot join your company because (s)he is Indian without looking at prior experience and skills, however, becomes racism. That's applying a value judgment against an individual, which is totally unfair to that person, without allowing the individual to prove him/herself.

2011-02-16 Reply Admin

nonpartisan:
No, because now there is scientific evidence that, as a general trend, white men don't play basketball very well. That's not racist. ... There are white men (and I continue to use "white men" simply because that's the example used here) who are the exception to this evidence. If I am a basketball player (and it really doesn't matter if I am Caucasian, Hispanic, African American, etc. etc. etc. because an individual can be racist against one's own race) and I look at a white man and say "You can't play basketball; you're white!" . . . that's making a value judgment against an individual without even knowing his abilities. And that becomes racism. ... To just decide, however, that an applicant cannot join your company because (s)he is Indian without looking at prior experience and skills, however, becomes racism. That's applying a value judgment against an individual, which is totally unfair to that person, without allowing the individual to prove him/herself.

To summarize, racism is when I either (a) apply a value judgment to an individual based on him belonging to a group defined in racial terms; or (b) if I apply a value judgment to a group without scientific validation? OK, I see your point.

2011-02-16 Reply Admin

Oh its still Quake ;)

2011-02-17 Reply Admin

Mike:
1997, an era of before thumb-drives and when Quake was the best deathmatch money could buy
And today, the best deathmatch money can buy is... ?

Quake Live. It's an online adaption of Quake III and starts at the low price of Free.

2011-02-17 Reply Admin

anon:
Sylver:
American Aircraft Carriers > Indian Aircraft Carriers
Have you ever flown with Jet Airways (major indian airline)? They beat the *** out of ANY American airline I have ever used.
I advise you to never, ever learn what an aircraft carrier is. The ensuing revelation of just how stupid you are might be more than you can handle.

Hahahaha!!! I read that and thought that the idiot got confused!! Aircraft Carriers are large ships used for landing and taking off aircraft.... The term 'carriers' on it's own relates specifically to the airline industry... What a tit!! This explains a lot about Indian code and it's normally down to the language barriers (how can you expect to understand complex code in an English language when you can't speak English correctly first?)

2011-02-17 Reply Admin

well pointed, did as requested, got the point. But isn't that true that black people are better at having dark skin? (whatever that would mean)

As a white one, I suck at having my skin dark, compared to black ones.. or even brown.. it's a fact. Saying so, isn't a discrimination, therefore no racism.

2011-02-17 Reply Admin

Indian prostitutes suck.

Or is that racist...?

2011-02-17 Reply Admin

Why, Quake III Arena, of course.

drfreak · 2011-02-17 Reply Admin

Ultimate Fighting on Pay-Per-View? :)

drfreak · 2011-02-17 Reply Admin

Based on the article, I think what the poster did was remote-format the auditor's disk, destroying all the data he had collected.

2011-02-17 Reply Admin

Mike:
1997, an era of before thumb-drives and when Quake was the best deathmatch money could buy
And today, the best deathmatch money can buy is... ?

Unreal Tournament

Eternal Density · 2011-02-18 Reply Admin

Humans are intrinsically better coders and builders than Bears.

2011-02-18 Reply Admin

Huh ... nice story!

But, someone tell me please ... since when can you write to the MBR of a network drive?

2011-02-18 Reply Admin

windows vista

2011-02-18 Reply Admin

Call of Duty # 544.

2011-02-18 Reply Admin

Eternal Density:
Humans are intrinsically better coders and builders than Bears.

Goddamn specists.

SQLDave · 2011-02-18 Reply Admin

Unfortunately, a week later, it was revealed that the audit had been little more than an attempt to shrink the department down before everyone was laid off. Their twenty-person IT staff could be replaced by twenty people in Bangalore for a fraction of the cost and with absolutely NO drop off in quality.

FTFY

2011-02-18 Reply Admin

...

/waits with his ellipses //Maybe Mike has a point?

2011-02-19 Reply Admin

And today, the best deathmatch money can buy is... ?

Team Fortress 2

2011-02-21 Reply Admin

Mike:
1997, an era of before thumb-drives and when Quake was the best deathmatch money could buy
And today, the best deathmatch money can buy is... ?

UBERSTRIKE!!!!!!!

2011-02-21 Reply Admin

"And today, the best deathmatch money can buy is... ?"

The original Unreal Tournament.

2011-02-22 Reply Admin

Quake III. But no money can buy back the days of youth and Quake I

2011-02-22 Reply Admin

Aliens vs Predator 2, but you have to run your own servers because it's an old game and the maker's servers were shut down years ago. Of course, no problem if you're having a LAN party.

2011-02-22 Reply Admin

A close second to AVP 2. Or maybe Mechwarrior 3. Nothing like strapping on 60 tons of endo fiber and a pair of PPCs.

2011-02-22 Reply Admin

Ones that you don't use money for.

2011-02-23 Reply Admin

Quake III Arena :D

2011-02-23 Reply Admin

How about Quake 2?

2011-02-24 Reply Admin

Mike:
1997, an era of before thumb-drives and when Quake was the best deathmatch money could buy
And today, the best deathmatch money can buy is... ?

Quake 3.

2011-02-27 Reply Admin

A highly debatable matter of opinion. Back then Quake was the only "3D" deathmatch game around.

2011-05-04 Reply Admin

i would think that would be team fortress 2

2023-08-28