Alex Papadimoulis

Founder, The Daily WTF

May 2009

Meal Ready to Eat

by in Souvenir Potpourri on

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: Big Box of Awesomeness).

Getting any kind of mail — aside from bills and things addressed "to Current Resident" — is always kinda fun. Maybe it'll be a check! Maybe it's a sticker request! Maybe it's another letter from the President of the United States thanking me for being a bad enough dude to rescue him! But as cool as a letter is, a box (like this one from (Matthew Burden, Ontario) is that much cooler. Especially when it's filled with all sorts of goodies.

61 comments - Last comment @ 2014-06-17

Ad Hacked

by in Error'd on

"This popped up after I exited from the game Combat Arms," Nathan notes, "the anti-hacking tool bundled with the game thinks its own post-game advertising is a hack."

60 comments - Last comment @ 2009-07-17

Beaten Into Submission

by in Feature Articles on

Don't worry, it's just make up.Dan Wiebe had grown all too familiar with the routine of the 2:00 AM phone call. Bbbbrrrrrdddddiiiing. What the – huh? Bbbbrrrrrdddddiiiing. Oh, great. What time is it? Bbbbrrrrrdddddiiiing. Okay, okay, I’m coming! Bbbbrrrrrdddddiiiing. Please be a wrong number, "Hello?"

It was never a wrong number. It was always someone from support, they were always calling about some system or another that had crashed, and by the time it got to him, the problem always required a solution a bit more in-depth than "just reboot the server." This time proved to be no different: the data link server flat-out refused to communicate with the daily extracts loader.

221 comments - Last comment @ 2016-09-01

All Pain, No Gain

by in CodeSOD on

"My company has very strict policy on direct access to the database," Steve writes, "no hand-built SQL in the front-end code and always use a stored procedure to access the data. The reasoning behind this was simple and sound: Avoid SQL injection attacks and increase database performance. "

"The execution, however, was not so simple and sound. They went through all the pain of needing to use stored procs, but none of the gain. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to see why."

116 comments - Last comment @ 2010-01-06

Very Little, Very Late

by in Error'd on

"I recently received this letter from my insurance company," Graeme writes "but I'm unsure how to clear my outstanding premiums. Should I just send a cheque for the amount stated and backdate it to the date due?"

83 comments - Last comment @ 2010-01-04

Classic WTF: Really, Really Custom Software

by in Feature Articles on

Really, Really Custom Software was originally published August 29, 2007.

"Tim was a hardware engineer for a large technology company," wrote in Brent, "and was responsible for analyzing cable signals. He purchased a tool to analyze these signals from a different company, call them Initech."

69 comments - Last comment @ 2009-06-08

Sponsor Appreciation, Emptiness, Empty Support & More

by in Feature Articles on

Please show your support for The Daily WTF by checking out the companies that have been kind enough to sponsor us. And, in doing so, I’m sure you’ll find some pretty cool products and services built by like-minded developers and IT professionals.

 

Microsoft/web   Microsoft/web - We teamed up with Microsoft/web to answer a burning question: with the dizzying array of languages, frameworks, tools, and technologies, what do you think about web development? Take the survey and let us know... there's a free TDWTF sticker in it for you!
 

Develop Better & Smarter
Business of Software 2009   Business of Software 2009 - interested in building long-term, sustainable and profitable software businesses? Then you need to go to Business of Software 2009. I went last year and will definitely be there in November to learn from speakers like Joel Spolsky, Geoffrey Moore, Donald Norman, Paul Graham, Ryan Carson and many others.
Sûnnet Beskerming   Sûnnet Beskerming - focued and driven to provide Information Security services. Whether it's through Security Patch Briefing Packs (ever wonder what is in those security patches that your system is bugging you to install?) or Site Guardian (vulnerabilities, attack techniquies, etc. against your website software), Sûnnet Beskerming can helps you improve your Information Security position today.
 

Cool Tools
Splunk   Splunk - Search, navigate, alert and report on all your IT data in real time. Logs, configurations, messages, traps and alerts, script, code, metrics and more. If a machine can generate it -- Splunk can eat it.
Caretta   Caretta Software - makers of GUI Design Studio, a specialized software prototyping and User Interface design tool for Desktop, Mobile and Web Applications. Quick and Easy to use, with No Coding! Why not give the 30-day trial a shot?
TechSmith   TechSmith - the world’s leading provider of screen capture and recording software for individual and professional use. Personally, I can't live without SnagIt, and am quickly getting addicted to Camtasia. The Jing project is also pretty interesting for instant sharing.
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.
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.
 

Great Components
div elements   Divelements - developers of WinForms, WPF, and Silverlight controls. Easily integrate the Office 2007 Ribbon Interface, Dockable Windows, and several other interfaces. All products are available with a 30-day trial.
Tall Components   Tall Components - makers of PDFKit.NET, a 100% managed .NET component for, reading, creating and manipulating PDF documents and PDF forms on the fly. You can also split, append, stamp, and encrypt PDF documents and forms. If you have to do anything with PDF, you should definitely download the free trial.
Data Springs   Data Springs - offers a whole bunch of DotNetNuke modules and SharePoint WebParts. In addition to their ever-growing list of complementary products, they can also help with just about any of your other DotNetNuke needs or integrations.
 

Solid Hosting
go grid   Go Grid - the first multi-tier, cloud computing platform that allows you to manage your cloud hosting infrastructure completely on demand through an intuitive, web interface. Get powerful dedicated resources on a cloud computing architecture that you can buy as you need instead of deploying servers and building complex load balanced networks. Get a $50 credit when signing up!
Cushy CMS   Cushy CMS - a hosted CMS built from the ground up with ease of use in mind. It's incredibly simple to use: no PHP or ASP required. If you can add CSS classes to HTML tags then you can implement CushyCMS. And best of all, it's free. Spend a few minutes and try it out!
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)
Peer 1   Peer 1 - provides award-winning Managed Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, Co-location, and Network services offered through 15 data center across North America. With over 10,000 businesses hosted on their legendary SuperNetwork™backbone, PEER 1 delivers one of the highest server performance and network outputs in the industry.
103 comments - Last comment @ 2024-01-21

HEREEEEEEE I AM

by in Error'd on

"This came on in the middle of a commercial," writes Rob S., "and surprisingly, stayed up for a good five minutes or so."

73 comments - Last comment @ 2009-06-05

A Winning Aptitude

by in Feature Articles on

Nothing screams sexy like an ad for a C# developer job at a well-funded start-up. In fact, when Frank's recruiter presented the opportunity to him, Frank knew it would be a long shot. After all, he had no commercial software experience and had only limited Web development experience. But he did know .NET pretty well, so he figured it'd be worth a try. Maybe his skills could translate to a Web-based software company.

His first interview went surprisingly well. They asked a lot of "aptitude" questions, as they were firm believers that "experience can be gained and skills can be learned, but attitude never changes." Apparently, Frank showed good aptitude and was asked back for a second interview.

101 comments - Last comment @ 2009-05-24

Multiple Message Messages

by in Error'd on

"I recently received two identical letters apologizing for multiple communications," wrote Corey A. Spitzer, "and I didn't even receive any of the voicemails the letters referred to. "


62 comments - Last comment @ 2009-05-22

Plain Old Regexs

by in CodeSOD on

Net 10Unlike just about all of his friends, family, and coworkers, Jack doesn’t have a fancy cell phone. No streaming video, no Bluetooth, and certainly no “apps”. Heck, it doesn’t even have a camera. It’s just a plain old phone with plain old service that can only dial and receive plain old calls. And it’s exactly the type of phone that Jack wants.

Because Jack hardly ever uses his cell phone, the whole monthly bill with annual commitments didn’t make a whole lot of sense, so he went the prepaid route with a company called Net10. Like all wireless providers, Net10 provides online account maintenance and – going along with the “plain old” model – their web app is barebones and a bit clunky at times.

100 comments - Last comment @ 2009-08-17

Defensive Programming and a Whole Lot More

by in Coded Smorgasbord on

"Some programmers like to program defensively," wrote Sam, "and then there's some of my coworkers. This is found at the top of nearly every function of our C++ classes."

if (!this) return false;
139 comments - Last comment @ 2009-06-11

Password... Protected!

by in Error'd on

"Dear Monster," wrote Eric, "why does it matter what words I use in my password?"

106 comments - Last comment @ 2017-05-22

The Next Big Thing, "The Best" Interview, & Too Primitive for COBOL

by in Tales from the Interview on

Have your own Tale From an Interview? Don't hesitate to send it to me.

The Next Big Thing (from "CPound")
I recently found an advertisement in one of those thin newspapers near the entrance of the grocery store. It read:

122 comments - Last comment @ 2017-07-03

The Long Flight Home

by in Error'd on

"It felt like a long flight," Matt commented, "but I did not realize it went half way to the moon."

61 comments - Last comment @ 2022-12-16

Connect Betterer

by in Feature Articles on

Although Douglas Mezzer’s housemate had moved out many months ago, there was one recurring reminder of his prior residence: the monthly DSL bill from iiNet. Though Douglas had been paying on time every month, Douglas thought it’d be best if the bills came addressed to him instead of his former housemate. He figured it’d be a simple change that could all be accomplished through the self-service account management website.

After logging in, however, he ran into a bit of an issue. While he could change the address, phone number, email address, date of birth, and several other fields, the Firstname and Surname were disabled.

155 comments - Last comment @ 2025-05-29

Cell 24Z

by in Feature Articles on

As software developers, we're seen as by the world as the Experts of All Things Computer. Want more RAM installed? Of course we can help, we know C++! Blue screen of death? Our day job calls for .NET, so we know exactly what to do! Need a monitor plugged in? That's basically the same thing as programming!

Fortunately, our hard-earned skills of “reading an instruction manual” and “applying common sense” enable us to solve most of these vexing computer mysteries. But when it comes to anything more advanced than rudimentary, we tend to be as lost as our laymen counterparts. Take, for example, that little paintbrush-looking button in Excel. Did you know it's called the “Format Painter” and can magically copy/paste cell formatting? Did you even know it was there? I didn't until recently, and holy crap is it awesome.

157 comments - Last comment @ 2025-03-10

Password Pain

by in Error'd on

"The first time I logged into a new system, I was prompted to change my password," John said. "After I typed in what I thought was a perfectly acceptable password, this popped up."

81 comments - Last comment @ 2009-05-16

Laundry of the New Millennium

by in Feature Articles on

The hi-tech dryers in the Sogn Student VillageExcept for the dryers being infamous for not performing their most basic task – drying –students at the Sogn Student Village near the University of Oslo were happy with how the laundry system worked. Just swipe your laundry card and run load, and the charges are conveniently billed along with the rent. Neat. But of course, all good things must come to an end.

The university had decided to spend roughly $14 million on a new accounting/payment system. The large company responsible for this system shall remain unnamed, but the new system turned out to be an array of Seriously Annoying Programs. Amongst its effects, such as delayed salaries, was the fact that it couldn’t communicate with the laundry system. Unknown to most of the inhabitants of the student village, dark times were looming.

195 comments - Last comment @ 2009-06-11

Curves Forgotten

by in Error'd on

"I saw this in the Mar/Apr 2009 issue of IT Expert magazine," notes Mike Edwards, "I wonder if Google is going for the 'artsy' look or the 'oh crap, we forgot to export fonts as curves when we sent in the artwork' thing."

87 comments - Last comment @ 2013-03-05

Can You Say Your $a, $b, $c's?

by in CodeSOD on

For as long as he could remember, one Millan C's clients had always bragged about having their very own, in-house PHP Guru. "You could really learn something from this guy," they would often tell him, "he's brilliant, you know! And a guru!" Not being a particularly big fan of PHP, nor really interested in meeting the guru, Millan always put it off for "some day."

One day, however, it was pretty clear that "some day" would never happen, as the guru left for greener pastures. "It couldn't have been worse timing," Millan's client said frantically, "our website's traffic exploded, and everything is slowing to a crawl! The guru's consulting rate is just too high for us... can you fix it?"

161 comments - Last comment @ 2024-02-21
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