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Admin
Yikes!
Admin
A fine example of my theory that putting an exclamation mark at the end of an error message is the equivalent of adding "you idiot".
Admin
Golden rule number 3: if you need custom software, do not hire consultants to perform the bulk of the work.
32 hours!!!
Admin
I do miss the days when IE was king.
Admin
The worst thing about this is that, plainly, IniCenture had already "built" three hundred lines of broken gibberish to "handle" non-compliant browsers. Probably twenty years ago.
So, not only are you paying for something that only meets requirements because it's broken and doesn't do the thing that you didn't want it to do in the first place. But you are also paying for something that was present in the first place. Now, admittedly, at (say) $200 per hour, you're only paying $6000, which is probably chicken-feed compared to the rest of the rip off. But still, it's extracting the urine.
Admin
So ... TRWTF is that you've got an IT worker whose identifying gender does not match the societal convention of his assigned name?
Admin
Their assigned name. Where I work we even have a field in our profile to specify our gender words
Admin
A financial services company I worked at previously hired such an expensive consulting firm to build a simple form. It should have been a java web app, but they convinced the company to build it as a fill in PDF (this in mid 2000s). After a year's worth of billing it did not wok; however it was noticed that the consulting firm had run many generations of new hires through the project as a training effort. Company sued to recover the $1M, not sure what the result was, but it was clear to everyone except management that this was going on.
Admin
That's why we need certifications. If making a bad program was a way to loose your programming license much the same as making a bad bridge is for architects our industry would not be in the mess it is in. I also support chopping off peoples fingers in case of extreme violations.
Admin
Speaking as a consultant, naturally I disagree. And I wish it was easy to get people to pay up for work they needed and got.
That said, I submitted my own story here about a consultant paid for 160 hours of work to essentially write 'qsort().' Results with consultants can definitely get bizarre.
Admin
If this page is shown only to browsers that the application doesn't support, then broken JavaScript in that page isn't really a bug, is it?
Admin
Article says it's broken: "In the omitted sections is a pile of JavaScript that didn't work in any browser, IE included." We can only presume somebody tested it, but bug, schmug. TRWTF is anything that forces you to use a particular browser because standards are harder to follow than the specific syntax and implementation of a particular engine.
We have an application that is so hell-bent on Microsoft that even its Java programs puke if the system you run it on is not Windows. Java. As in, "java -jar filename.jar" Let that sink in for a bit.....
Admin
Speaking as somebody who not only had to fix a Java app so it didn't contain Windows specific file paths, but also had to correct things like:
I'm not at all surprised
Addendum 2022-01-11 11:59: No, they were clever enough to put the double quotes in. That they aren't there in this example is my fault.
Admin
No we don't.
Admin
I can imagine how the discussion went. The HPC said we'll charge you 100 hrs to test in various browsers.
Whereupon the client said: "No, just test in IE." HPC then says "OK. but we'll have to bill 32 hrs to limit to IE only, since we won't cover warranty work on non-tested browsers".
Client then says "Great! We have a deal."
I've been present for more than one discussion just like that.
Admin
Looks like they've fixed it.
Admin
I've worked with a male Lakshi before. /shrug
Admin
Given that's it was Enterprisy it probably did still have a bunch of old crap that didn't work on any modern browser.
Admin
Sorry Remi, but you are off by seven years about Microsoft for public acknowledgment of mess. Briefly: After antitrust MS moved IE development under Windows, but Vista happened its associated delays, so they had to create new team (mostly new members IIRC) and while reworking security they had to catch up with standards. And first they needed to rework internals which took a few versions, but main acknowledgement was done in 2005. Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/ie/ie-and-standards
Admin
software is in the same place as the medieval cathedral builders whose edifices crashed around them until they established guilds...hope it doesn't take as long to figure that out...
Admin
Start work for free. Churn clients, churn programmers like foul balls in the home run derby.
Have one project that's bulletproof. Sell that one same project over and over again.
Bail out quick. Hand it off to groupies. When they mess up, they pay you to fix it.
Flip client contracts. Do a little work, and sell the client to another programmer.
Admin
“Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind.” (Terry Pratchett) You had just three though, so you're off the hook, but just barely.
Admin
Certification and standards are like any other laws. The only ones that have anything against them are those that stand to loose from their existence. I for one will not be happy with our industry until the day I hear the words "programming malpractice" used in law.
Admin
Exactly, there are a plethora of laws which cause millions of people to lose: money, freedom, happiness, even their lives. Yes I am against those laws because I stand to lose one or more of those things, or even more of those things than I already lose because of other dumb headed laws.
Admin
1, I couldn't care about his opinion any less, 2, he is not used to internet chat room lingo, and 3, insanity and genius frequently go together!!!!!!!
Admin
And yet this is one case where we need to willingly give up some freedom for the greater good.
Gone are the days of old when software was just about making life more convenient or the odd video game. Now it literally runs the world. We run the world. A mistake today be it born of malice or incompetence isn't just going to cause someone to be annoyed his software crashed. It can literally bring down economies, cause industrial accidents and generally lead to a horrific loss of life, limb and wealth.
And sure, the majority of us are not in such positions. But there are people who are. There are those of us who quite literally hold the keys to the kingdom. And with every passing day as our world becomes ever more reliant on software for even the most basic things we hand out ever more of those keys. And yet there is absolutely no standardized formal way in which the laypeople who will be hiring programmers to hold them can tell the good from the bad.
The next time you sit in an airplane or do a bank transfer think about the software doing that. And while you are at it think about the software in your local chemical plant, atomic reactor or the missile warning systems that can start WW3. Right now sitting at a computer somewhere is someone writing an update for them. And that someone might just be Paula Bean.
If that does not terrify you than I don't know what will.
Admin