Alex Papadimoulis

Founder, The Daily WTF

Mar 2009

Wosl'd Besu Saodwici

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"Actually," writes Greg Buhtz, "my lunch at SUCWAY SAODWICIES was rather enjoyable."

92 comments - Last comment @ 2024-06-13

Sponsor Appreciation, Real Ingredients, and More

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Without our sponsors' support, The Daily WTF simply wouldn't be. Please show your support by visiting these fine companies and checking out their products & services. Or by sending in a cool souvenir. Or by even buying me a beer. But the first one's probably the easiest.

 

Resolver Systems   Resolver Systems - developers of Resolver One, an Excel-compatible spreadsheet designed for reliability that's programmable in Python, easily integrates with .NET, and comes with a built-in Web server. Give it a shot, make an awesome spreadsheet, and send it in to win the $25,000 Resolver One Challenge!
Mindfusion   MindFusion - a great source for flow-charting and diagramming components for a variety of platforms including .NET, WPF, ActiveX and Swing
Software Verification   Software Verification - software engineering tools for memory leak detection, code coverage, performance profiling, thread lock contention analysis and thread deadlock detection, flow tracing and application replay on the Windows Vista, 2003, XP, 2000 and NT platforms.
Mosso   Mosso - massively scalable hosting for .NET (2,3,3.5) PHP, Ruby, etc., with unlimited sites & mailboxes, simple online provisioning, and an enterprise clustered platform that's supported by real people.
SlickEdit   SlickEdit - makers of that very-impressive code editor and some pretty neat Eclipse and VisualStudio.NET tools and add-ins, some of which (Gadgets) are free. Check out this short video highlighting just one of SlickEdit's Visual Studio integration features.
SoftLayer   SoftLayer - serious hosting provider with datacenters in three cities (Dallas, Seattle, DC) that has plans designed to scale from a single, dedicated server to your own virtual data center (complete with racks and all)
WTF   The Non-WTF Job Board - Powered by HiddenNetwork, it features some great job opportunities like:
122 comments - Last comment @ 2017-02-10

A Nasty Error

by in Error'd on

"I saw this error message on one of Air Canada's back-of-the-seat terminals," Adrian Petrescu writes, "what a comfortable error message to be reading 11,000 feet in the air."

 

96 comments - Last comment @ 2022-06-06

The Executive Summit

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photo credit: minxlabs @ flickr It took him twenty years of playing corporate politics and climbing his way up, but Scott had finally made it to the top. Not the tippy-top, but close. He was the Director of Applications Management at an international, ten-thousand employee, forty-billion dollar company and was responsible for running a department of a few hundred people.

Long gone were the days of doing anything technical or even supervisory. Instead, Scott focused on positioning, synergy, mindshare, projection, and everything else you’d expect to see in Buzzword Bingo. He also played an important role in the “$100 million initiative to streamline and centralize global processes across key, strategic applications.” Or, in other words, build and/or buy a bunch of enterprise software to help the company run better.

156 comments - Last comment @ 2017-08-02

Tax Broke

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"I received this in the mail a little while back," Vinny writes, "it seems the UK Chancellor is obviously doing his bit for the nation by charging £0.00, rather than the threatened £100."


            

        

   
    


    

        

            93 comments - Last comment @ 2023-08-30
        

    






   
        

            
            
Where the Wild Web Things Are

            
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"Working for Opera Software's QA department gives you in-depth perspectives on the web's wild and varied coding practises," writes Hallvord R. M. Steen. "I still wasn't prepared for the curious solutions that power the menu on the new Israel Railways website."


"The coding is unbelievable," Hallvord continues. "Diving into the website's source code shows that its coders must have fallen asleep during the what's the point of XSLT lesson. It's more like an XML parser/serializer stress test than a production site."


            

        

   
    


    

        

            122 comments - Last comment @ 2009-05-27
        

    






   
        

            
            
Code Ownership Gone Awry

            
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"Here at Company X," Jay Smith writes, "we have a senior programmer who, through the years, has developed a terrifying combination of complete code control issues and an image with the owners that makes his decisions right (despite real life implications)."


"This is the programmer who hates to use freely available libraries like STL, boost, or any third party API that could make his (and his team's) world simpler. He rewrites data structures per project, drags around a custom XML parser when others would suffice, reinvented the wheel so many times he may actually may own the patent by now. He has such code ownership problems, if you propose a solution that doesn't involve his code, hissy fits ensue complete with resultant silence treatment.


            

        

   
    


    

        

            164 comments - Last comment @ 2013-03-04
        

    






   
        

            
            
What Should I Do? and More Support Stories

            
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What Should I Do? (from Chaz Larson)

Years ago, when I worked the phones, I got a call from a guy who opened up with, "let's just clear something right away: I'm a tech, too, and know what I'm doing." After a bit of back and forth, it turned out that he needed to reinstall the fonts that shipped with our product. This was just a plain old Mac install on about a dozen floppies, and he wanted me to walk him through it.


"Okay," he said a few minutes into the install, it says 'Insert Disk 1'. What should I do?"


            

        

   
    


    

        

            203 comments - Last comment @ 2018-04-03
        

    






   
        

            
            
Replace This Title

            
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B.B. spotted this on on the Australian ABC News along with 1.1 Million other viewers.





            

        

   
    


    

        

            56 comments - Last comment @ 2009-03-24
        

    






   
        

            
            
Bulletproof JavaScript Detection

            
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"I work at a major financial services company," writes Seth. "We have a public site that requires JavaScript be enabled. When it's not, the visitor is redirected to an error page that explains the website's requirements."


Definitively determining whether someone has JavaScript turned on or not can be a pretty challenging task, but fortunately, Seth's colleagues developed a bulletproof method to figure this out. They used JavaScript.





            

        

   
    


    

        

            144 comments - Last comment @ 2010-06-18
        

    






   
        

            
            
Broke Bank

            
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"I understand some banks are short of cash these days," writes Greg, "I guess this is one way of breaking the news."







            

        

   
    


    

        

            82 comments - Last comment @ 2013-03-01
        

    






   
        

            
            
An Office Safety PSA

            
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Office safety is no laughing matter. Here at Inedo, when we’re not playing 5-finger filet blindfolded, having backwards Aeron races down the stairs, or constructing our own plywood cubicle loft, we're busy learning the "best practices" in the world of office safety. And boy is there a lot to learn; for example, did you know that BB gun fights violate OSHA guidelines?


That said, I was thrilled when Joe Breeden sent in some scans from a mandatory Office Health & Safety seminar he recently attended. "I wish I could say they were 'joke' pages to lighten up the mood before the serious stuff," Joe commented, "but they're not. They're very real and Safety, Health and Environment treats matters like these very seriously." Click the images for a full size view.





            

        

   
    


    

        

            220 comments - Last comment @ 2017-02-10
        

    






   
        

            
            
Wooden Links

            
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"I pressed 'View Larger Sample' and nothing happened," Rhett writes, "must be broken links."







            

        

   
    


    

        

            90 comments - Last comment @ 2009-03-20
        

    






   
        

            
            
Big Box of Awesomeness

            
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Ever since the first Free Sticker Week ended back in February '07, I've been sending out WTF Stickers to anyone that mailed me a SASE or a small souvenir. More recently, I've been sending out the coveted TDWTF Mugs for truly awesome souvenirs. Nothing specific; per the instructions page, "anything will do." Well, here goes anything, yet again! (previous: Irish Girl).




When this box from Dudley Fox (Austin, TX) arrived at the office, to say that I was filled with exuberance would be a gross understatement. I mean, really. First off: cheese. And secondly: cheese by fricken mail. Oh no, it doesn't get any better than this.





            

        

   
    


    

        

            81 comments - Last comment @ 2009-04-14
        

    






   
        

            
            
Rolling in the Money

            
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Kevin Saff is not what many would consider “the ideal candidate.” He started his career as a C++ coder for a major manufacturer, but then quit to pursue a mathematics degree in Canada. That didn’t quite do it for him either, as he then dropped out to pursue something far more interesting: canoe from Calgary to New Orleans. But after 1,200+ miles of rowing, his journey ended in Minneapolis with a cracked boat and a frozen river. Temporarily, of course, as he plans to pick up and continue south someday soon.


All that said, Kevin was pretty excited when he received his first response to all the resumes he’d been sending out to various Minneapolis-based companies. He immediately called back to schedule an interview and was pleasantly surprised at how flexible the interviewer was: Kevin could “stop by any time.”


            

        

   
    


    

        

            150 comments - Last comment @ 2025-04-03
        

    






   
        

            
            
Every Penny Counts

            
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"I appreciate Telstra's effort," A.B. notes, "it's nice of them to help the customer in the global credit crunch."







            

        

   
    


    

        

            115 comments - Last comment @ 2011-01-18
        

    






   
        

            
            
The Apocalypse Must Have Occurred?!

            
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Recently, Jörg S came across a rather interesting trouble ticket:




___ The Apocalypse Must Have Occured?! ___
 Ticket ID   : 76831
 Created By  : Cary L----------
 Assigned To : Jörg S-----
 Priority    : Low

   Legal wants to make sure that we have some special language in for 
   the 2010 Q1 release, but when I try to add it to ComplianceTraq,
   I keep getting the same thing:

       ERROR: Please ensure the system clock is correct. And if 
       it is... then God help us all, because the apocalypse must
       have occurred due to Compliance bugs, and we are still 
       trying to fix them. Damn you, Compliance!

   I know times are tough these days, but does ComplianceTraq know 
   something I don't? I didn't miss the apocalypse, right?!?!




            

        

   
    


    

        

            107 comments - Last comment @ 2020-03-07
        

    




    




        


        

            

                

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