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Best gift I ever got myself.
CAPTCHA: eros - OOOOoooooooooohhhhh YYYYYYeeeeeaaaahhhhhhh!
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For the most part it's a simple 6-letter shift. 'a' becomes 'g', 'b' becomes 'h', et cetera. There's a gap at the 'q': 'p' goes to 'v', but 'r' goes to 'w' (and I can't tell what happens to 'q' itself, there are no 'q's in the article.)
Things get weird towards the end of the alphabet. 'v' becomes 'fi', 'x' becomes 'Th', and 'y' becomes 'ff'.
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Correction: 'v' becomes 'fi', 'w' becomes 'Th', 'x' becomes 'ff', and 'y' becomes '"'.
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The newspaper text reminds me of "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn. Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn." ...Are the Old Ones coming back?!
And Citibank might have been visited by Little Bobby Tables (gotta have that immortal xkcd reference, ya know).
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It's definitely not EBCDIC to ASCII, as someone else suggested; I know how that looks and...not like this.
My guess is a corrupted font in memory. You might note places where the text makes sense ("Daughter's Prayer" and "He's a player"): These show up wherever the rendering algorithm switches to another font style (italic). So it definitely looks like a base font issue of some kind.
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I like the other variation better:
Fortune Not Found: Abort, Retry, Ignore ... except in bed.
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It's not corruption, it is a rendering error. I used to write software RIP engines and I am (unfortunately) familiar with the cause of this. On Windows systems, typically pre-Win2k systems, printer drivers which pass vector text will typically shift the encoding by some small amount, which basically depends on whatever the first letter of the printed text was. Call it what you will, a quirk, a bug, or whatever. This shift in the encoding is okay, because the downloaded vector typeface is shifted in the same way -- you are seeing what happens when poor PDL RIP software gets its hands on this and makes assumptions about the encoding that it shouldn't be making. Most likely, this was a PCL5 data stream with an embedded custom encoding which was not honored by the software RIP correctly -- it assumed an encoding by default, got a shifted one instead, and fucked up the rendering.
If you look carefully, you see the pattern. The letter which are shifted by 6 positions occur before 'p' in the alphabet. The letters shifted by 5 positions occur AFTER 'q' in the alphabet. The non-uniform shift is because the encoding is allocated on an as-needed basis -- some letter, probably 'q', was not used anywhere in the text, it therefore received no place in the encoding and the encoding "bumped" around that letter.
The italic text is unaffected because it is a different typeface with an encoding that the software RIP managed to get right.
I'm glad I don't work on, or have to debug, this kind of shit any more.
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I think those characters are actually getting shifted into ligatures, e.g. 'fi' and 'ff'. 'Th' is unusual, though, there doesn't seem to be a Unicode code-point for that.
Note that 'y' actually becomes '“' whereas 'z' becomes '”'.
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I had to read it out of sheer perverse curiosity, but that's 30 seconds of my life I'm never going to get back.
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Until quite recently, commercial developer support was quite poor for Linux-based embedded systems - High End Systems (who make that DL3 in the article) were quite badly burned by that around 8 years ago when developing the WholeHog 3, so I'm not surprised they abandoned it for most new developments.
However, Microsoft used to provide pretty good commercial developer support for Windows CE and XP Embedded - though neither are available now, and MS have pushed everybody into 7 Embedded or Phone 7 for new products whether they like it or not.
Old products are being pushed that way as well, which is even more worrying - there are rumours of XP Embedded licences becoming impossible to purchase in the next year.
It's that commercial support that you need as a developer - when something doesn't work, you need to be able to call somebody who will help you immediately, not post on a public forum and hope somebody else will be willing and able to help you.
However, now that you can buy that support from several Linux suppliers.
The licensing models also mean that high-volume products are often better off with Linux, as the per-unit licence cost becomes significant if you expect to ship 1,000,000 units - while if you only ship 10,000, it probably doesn't really matter.
Then you come to proper industrial machinery, which is probably running VXWorks or a similar RTOS.
In summary: That set-top-box or TV you have is quite likely to be running under Linux.
Your car is more likely to be running under VX Works.
The ATM down the road is probably running Windows Embedded.
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That's GIST, not JIST.
If JIST were a word, it would probably be some kind of CSI-style protein-based stain (yuk!).
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A lot of embedded stuff runs Linux. You don't notice because it doesn't crash and burn all the time.
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Yeah, it's just silently crash to kernel panic.
Muahahaha suck it up loser
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Perhaps because any crap programer can program to windows and only good ones can program to linux. Then the enterprise saves buckets on programmer instead of license, to lower project costs. Anyway, crap hardware will crash always, even with linux. I have some modems that i know it runs linux, these damn thing always stop work. Not because SO, but because it is a crap thing.
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Only because Windows XP dont reset automatically by default. but Windows Vista solves this.
And, try to use some Dlink Modems and come back.
Crap hardware always crash and burn.
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Spoken like a true Ubuntu / Debian user.
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true dat. i have a dynalink broadband modem that is still going strong, rarely needs rebooting. but the internal modem in a linksys router kept failing but the wireless in the unit is still working though with nil to rare reboots. and we went through several dlink and belkin wireless routers. the dlink's and belkin's either craped on there firmware and wouldnt enter the config pages or just outright failed
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iLegal is what Apple considers legal. #CaptainObvious
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I want a boy for Christmas.
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If you see this, it's because Alex is a lazy-ass who can't be bothered to delete comments reported shit by NaN users.
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TRWTF: She's 13 in that picture?
I guess demanding ID is the only way to stay out of jail these days.
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Agreed. WTF? According to those pictures, I'd have put her on another page with another kind of... content. Not exactly singer/songwriter content. Scary.
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Translation:
"By Jennifer Roberts - Kingston This Week
When you're listening to the radio this June, listen carefully because you might just hear a familiar voice. Kingston's own Mary-Lynn Neil, who was recognized internationally for her 2009 song A Daughter's Prayer, is back with a new single set to be released June 1 and she's ready to sing her way to the top of the charts. He's a Player is the first song from Neil's new EP Fly, and is a collaboration of both Neil and her mentor/manager Brian Dolph, who co-wrote and co-produced the song, which was recorded in both Nashville and Kingston.
It's country, says Neil of He's a Player. But there's also going (wtf? missing bit) when she hears her songs on the radio.
It's great! she says with a laugh. It's exciting when I turn on the radio and I hear my songs played. It's really cool.
Neil was discovered at the age of ten by Dolph, an owner of the Café Music Group in Belleville, when she was performing in a singing competition in 2008. Since then, she has been working hard, releasing the Christmas tune I Want a Boy for Christmas and touring with Canadian legend Wayne Rostad's Christmas in the Valley tour. She also has the distinction of being named one the youngest members of the Canadian Music Association. My life has changed tremendously, she said. I was discovered in a singing competition."
Context (dates, places, people's names) found from her wiki page. Wording/translation found through little python script, this was the output:
"slauwers@slauwers-dell:~$ python src/pydec.py | sed 's/nb/w/g' | tr "+" "'"
hen our're listening to the radio this kunef listen carefull because ou might just hear a familiarcoice. mingston's o wn par -n nn reilf who was recogni ed internation- all for her 300^ son--h _\oabnl"m jl\tl, is back with a nend singll set to be released kune 1 and she's read to sing her wa to the top o- the charts. b"m \ jf\tl is the first song from reil's new c\ el f and is a follaboration of bothreil and her mentor/managerrian bolphf who co-wrote and co-produced the songf which was recorded both rashcille and mingston. [ht's countr -[sa s rei--fm \ jf\tl. [ut there's also going when she hears her songs on the radio. [ht's great-[ she sa s wit--- laugh. [ht's e``citing when h t-- on the radio and h hear m songs pla ed. ht's reall cool.[ reil was discocered at the age of ten b bolphf an o wner of theaf) pusic froup inel- lecillef when she was performin-- in a singing competition in 300]. ^ince thenf she has been work- -ng hardf releasing thehristm-- tune c r\hn \ ]itil ^blcmng\m and touring withanadian legenda ne ]ostad'shristmas in thealle tour. ^he also has the dis- tinction of deing named one the oungest members of theana- dian pusic _ssociation. [p life has changed tremen- dousl [ she sa s/ [h was discoc- --ed in a singing competition."Admin
More likely it just locks up/freezes, and it's not as obvious it's running Linux.
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The real WTF is banks that think sending emails to their customers is a good thing given the large number of fake bank emails out there. If the bank needs to contact you, they should use telephone, snail mail or they should set up (and use) a messaging system on their online banking to notify customers.
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I was in a large shopping center today where the power had gone out. When the power came back on, I saw a whole pile of ATMs spring back to life, its surprising how many of them run Embedded Windows of some sort (probably XP era)
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Fortune Not Found: Abort, Retry, Ignore ... in the butt!
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Article appears to be online here : http://www.kingstonthisweek.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3139272
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Give that man a featured comment s'il vous plait!! Very interesting explanation, and I'm fascinated by the kerning pairs (fi, Th, ff) appearing at the end of the alphabet. Once upon a time I had a Commodore-64 and printer that would occasionally turn out shifted gobbledygook like this.
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Its entirely not uncommon to see a lot of hardware in the event-business running on Windows CE because its a decent realtime OS. Despite its bad image, it is a pretty stable foundation as vendors shy away from mainting their own patched realtime linux kernels.
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I got "Pick Another Fortune Cookie" as well. I also got "Ssoorryy dduupplleexx mmooddee oonn!!". Sometimes you have to laugh at the creativity of these.
CAPTCHA: causa -- what preceeds effecta
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And for the record, those DL3's cost quite a lot of money- we're talking $30,000+ here. Also, High End Systems makes lighting consoles, and while their "inexpensive" version (about $16,000) runs windows, their premiere console ($35,000) runs linux. Somehow both crash somewhat regularly.
They're nice for programming though, don't get me wrong.
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It's a real beast of a light.
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I restarted Acrobat and tried again, and it now printed correctly. This was on a Riso printer using its current driver, which had been working fine previously.
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You can't tick the box to say the form is enclosed because at the time of doing so it is not enclosed - unless you can write through the envelope using some carbon paper or something.
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That's not a very nice thing to say about a young girl who probably works harder then you do. Can't be easy maintaining an A average in an academic school program, working full time on a music career....and having to deal with morons who say idiotic crap about her the way you did. I see people walking down the street every day wearing less, and not looking as good doing it. Didn't your mother ever tell you that if you can't say anything nice to keep your rotten trap shut? Oh well, jealousy and prejudice are two things you can always count on.
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Fascinating. When I saw the image, I knew I couldn't resist the puzzle; not to know what the "cleartext" was because I was sure I could google it, but to try and tell what the issue was.
After confirming it was a mere character substitution cipher (there are too many "ynk" for it to be a coincidence), then applying the usual method for breaking such a cipher (find "the", find common english letters, etc., ah the memories...), helped somewhat by some journalistic constants like « "[...]" she says. "[...]" », I decoded it and came to a pretty close conclusion: that it was in the process of taking and placing the glyphs of glyph code runs, probably on the printer side, after most of the other typesetting steps (e.g. it's obvious word wrapping was done with the font metrics for the correct characters, the italic font was unaffected, the start positions of runs are correct, character to glyph conversion was already done as you have ligatures like "Th" that count as a single item for the purposes of the "cipher"). I did see an alphabet shift that was sometimes 5 and sometimes 6, but did not completely figure that one out, however.
This is (one of the reasons) why I frequent The Daily WTF: because there is a variety of programmers here who have done stuff way outside the realms of Windows desktop/web/business software and can shed a light on the software in these other realms and the occasional WTFs in there.
If anything, this goes to show how risky it is to rely on the Windows "ecosystem" for publishing anything. I shudder at the idea this could happen anytime two allegedly compatible systems, which were in fact never tested together, are made to work together.
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Utterly fascinating. I'm an embedded programmer, but in the other sense of embedded - that is, limited hardware specs and power/TDP (mobile phones currently). Now I know more about the world of OSes chosen to run a "computer" which is merely an embedded part of a greater whole.