• Chris Angelico (github)

    -O - and redirecting stdout to /dev/null rather than, oh I dunno, -O /dev/null. If you don't see that as TRWTF, read man wget.

  • Kuli (unregistered)

    This is what I call multilingual programming.

  • Quite (unregistered) in reply to Kuli

    yes, me very multi-languegial da toveritch nilly non!

  • Ron Fox (google)

    So the real WTF is that Java's typically obtuse interfaces, which don't make typical use cases easy, encourages kludges like this.

  • Bert (unregistered) in reply to Ron Fox

    I think this is a grey area in the "encourages"/"doesn't explicitly discourage" continuum. You could say the same thing of a submission that, say, ran Sticky Notes over the network to add a note to the receptionist's monitor with emailing instructions.

  • Mycroft (unregistered)

    "Well, PHP, an obviously superior language..."

    I've always hated how PHP is so superior. It's all like, "I'm the best", and "Lots of people use me for web", and "I'm all over the place". I wish PHP would just lose the attitude, ya know?

  • ZB (unregistered)

    This is what happens when you code wearing boxing gloves.

  • (nodebb) in reply to ZB

    This is what happens when you code when punch drunk.

  • Moi Meme (unregistered)

    This is what happens when you just have to make it work... and nobody cares about the rest. Until they have to!

  • Herby (unregistered)

    Sounds to me like using a helicopter to run the 100 meter dash. It works, but taking into account all the spin up of the rotor, the gas involved, and the hiring of a pilot, it is easier to just walk. Either way you will lose!

  • (nodebb) in reply to ZB

    Frist draw an "S" for "snake"... or "dragon"...

  • Lazerbaems (unregistered)

    +1 for Homestar Runner reference. -1 for not changing "TIS Report" to "TPS Report"

  • Derf Skren (unregistered)

    TRWTF is what happened to StrongBad. :-(

  • strangeBad (unregistered)

    You're not Ali, you're not even literate!

  • webdings (unregistered)

    they probably only put that in because they didn't want to wait around to see what happened first: HPE to process the request to open port 25 or the heat death of the universe

  • (nodebb)

    Would that be Strongbad the Bad, nemesis of Noggin the Nog?

  • PHP: PHP Human Programmer (unregistered)

    As a bad programmer with 12 years of experience programming in PHP I fail to see what is wrong with this solution...

  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    Perhaps this machine is behind some kind of firewall that blocks outgoing SMTP traffic.

    Or maybe the email has to be signed with the private key which is stored deep inside an ancient piece of obfuscated legacy PHP code that no one wants to touch.

  • Koen van Dratel (unregistered)

    I'm not fluent in Unix, but wouldn't the logging of ";:(){:|:&};:;" spark off a fork bomb?

  • (nodebb)

    I had occasion recently to need to send mail using Java. I looked at javax.mail, quickly closed my eyes before they could suffer any more damage, and decided to roll my own instead.

    It took about one screenful of code. Not quite a short as this version, but at least I didn't have to include PHP as a dependency.

Leave a comment on “Strongly Bad Emails”

Log In or post as a guest

Replying to comment #476512:

« Return to Article