The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

Half Empty

by Jake Vinson in Feature Articles on 2008-02-26

"I don't know how many times I have to say it — our server room is outdated and we need some money approved for new equipment. Or at least someone to come in and check out the air conditioner. It's making that sound again." Peter was losing count of the times he'd complained about their aging infrastructure.

"Oh, for f*ck's sake! How many times do I have to say that our equipment is fine?! Now would you kindly f*ck off?" Peter's boss's winning personality was made worse by all of the service requests. He'd always considered the requests to be power grabs from subordinates that wanted to see how much money they could milk out of him.

74 comments - Last comment @ 2008-10-03

Gears in Demotion

by Jake Vinson in Feature Articles on 2008-02-21

"Hey, Marcin, do you have a second to talk? Come meet me at my office. No big deal, just when you have a sec." Marcin spun around in his chair, stood up, and walked to his boss's office.

"Come in, come in," his boss waved. "And close the door."

90 comments - Last comment @ 2008-02-26

Super Contact Management 3D

by Jake Vinson in Error'd on 2008-02-21

Space Invaders + Contacts Management - Fun = Space Blitz.

(submitted by Kevin)

72 comments - Last comment @ 2023-04-29

Perls of Wisdom

by Jake Vinson in Feature Articles on 2008-02-19

The day after I finished "Final Fantasy VII," I sat down for lunch with some friends who had also completed the game. We all enjoyed it, but felt it wasn't all it could have been. We thought we -- a group of jobless, inexperienced students with no resources -- could do better. I was the only one who had ever flipped through a book on C++, so I became lead developer. Tony, who'd never used a computer for anything except playing "The Oregon Trail," had a knack for drawing and became lead artist. Everyone else (Dan and Tim) was split up between writing (Dan) and marketing (Tim). How hard could it be?

Well, it turns out that all those people thanked in the end credits actually knew how to do stuff.

93 comments - Last comment @ 2008-03-13

Do You Sure?

by Jake Vinson in Error'd on 2008-02-19

Do you sure? And just how sure do you? Thom P. sure does!

60 comments - Last comment @ 2024-03-04

The Honor System

by Jake Vinson in Feature Articles on 2008-02-18

After a few years at a large, soulless corporate conglomerate, "Henry L." needed a change. Since his skills were in high demand, he had no trouble lining up interviews at several other large, soulless corporate conglomerates. He'd grown tired of working at such large companies, though, and started looking into some smaller businesses.

After scrolling through a few pages of job posts, he found one that sounded perfect. "Small firm in the financial industry seeks skilled, motivated developer." Henry took a deep breath and called the number.

67 comments - Last comment @ 2011-04-26

Interview with a Secretary

by Jake Vinson in Feature Articles on 2008-02-12

Business was booming. Smartypants Software was selling licenses for their fancy new web portal software about as fast as they could generate license keys. Developers were working later and later into the night, and the tech support staff could hardly catch their breath between calls.

Management knew they had a big problem on their hands, though they acknowledged that having too many customers is a good problem. There was one bad problem, though — they were turning dozens of customers down who wanted to purchase a Java version of the portal software. So amid all the chaos, they began working on the new version of the software.

140 comments - Last comment @ 2008-09-11

XML Abuse

by Jake Vinson in CodeSOD on 2008-02-07

"Where I work we keep a lot of data stored in XML files," Ben writes. "They're not your average XML files, though — they're special." His colleague invented the following technique (recommended for senior level XML programmers only).

<rootNode>
   <numberOfAddresses>110</numberOfAddresses>
   <address_1>442 Fake St.</address_1>
   <address_2>61 Main St.</address_2>
   ...
   <address_110>3881 N 4th Ave. #5D</address_110>
</rootNode>

99 comments - Last comment @ 2013-01-30

The Hard Way

by Jake Vinson in CodeSOD on 2008-02-05

For some tasks, you're presented an opportunity to do things the easy way or the hard way. When your friend is proudly showing off his work at replacing a light fixture, the switch, and all the wiring, you might wonder why not just replace the dead bulb?

"I was just fixing a bug in our software, and I came across this function," Johnny A. writes. "It works perfectly — does exactly what it says on the tin. I can't help thinking it could have been done with a few less lines of code, however. One, for example."

83 comments - Last comment @ 2008-02-13

Getting Past Security

by Jake Vinson in Error'd on 2008-02-04

Say, Patrik M., what have we here?

59 comments - Last comment @ 2017-09-06