The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

Mr. Testupacc

by Alex Papadimoulis in Error'd on 2011-04-29

"This was on the Princeton graduate school application form," notes Ahmed, "if I claim to speak 'Computer Language', does that mean I have to know all programming languages?"

130 comments - Last comment @ 2011-06-01

Security by Post-It

by Alex Papadimoulis in Feature Articles on 2011-04-28

Over the years, we've seen some fairly interesting security principles discussed here on The Daily WTF. While most in the industry already appreciate the benefits of Security by Obscurity, readers like you have contributed some fascinating alternatives including Security by Oblivity, Security by Insanity, Security by Letterhead, and and Security by Posterity. Today, I'm excited to add a new strategy for securing information systems: Security by Post-It.

With the rash of high-profile breaches happening everywhere from credit card processors to government bureaus to gaming networks, many organizations are clamping down on security to make sure that everything feels extra-secure. Now granted, many of these break-ins are a result of SQL Injection, social engineering, and simply forgetting to check authorization rules, anything could be a vector of attack – including your very own mind.

275 comments - Last comment @ 2024-12-28

Email Validation Validity

by Alex Papadimoulis in CodeSOD on 2011-04-27

There are a lot of different ways to validate an email address input field. The easiest – and mostly correct – method is to use a regular expression. Two of the more complicated – and among the most incorrect – methods follow.

Jonasfound this in a custom-built web app at a customer site, and commented that it's emblematic of the quality of the whole codebase.

184 comments - Last comment @ 2013-08-26

SODEC 2011 (Japan)

by Alex Papadimoulis in Announcements on 2011-04-27

I suspect this announcement will be even less relevant than the Detroit-centric announcement for Penguicon 2011... but here goes. For three of you that are reading The Daily WTF in Japan, I'll be headed out your way to attend SODEC from May 11-13.

Although this will be my first trip to Japan, I can assure you that won't be that gaijin guy. I am, after all, an expert in international language (i.e., raising my voice and SPEEEAAAKING VEEERRRYY SLLOOWWLY). Either way, I'll be chronicling my journey on Twitter (@apapadimoulis), along with a near-endless amount of pointless banter.

29 comments - Last comment @ 2011-05-06

Log in, Log out

by Alex Papadimoulis in Error'd on 2011-04-22

"From the new Medal of Honor," writes Michael, "I just wanted to log out, and even though I already WAS logged in I apparently needed to log in again in order to log out."

161 comments - Last comment @ 2011-05-04

Units of Software

by Alex Papadimoulis in CodeSOD on 2011-04-21

Marcus writes (via the Submit to The Daily WTF plug-in), "there are many days when I think that my company simply hired our development team because they were fast typists."

"It's not as if we're paid by the line of code, but our management team is run by a couple MBAs that love to quantify everything. And as we all know, nothing quantifies programmer productivity better than the 'units of software' delivered. And speaking of a unit of software, here's a valuable one put together by one of my more 'productive' colleagues.

172 comments - Last comment @ 2011-11-20

The Sixth Guy, The Company Pond, and More

by Alex Papadimoulis in Tales from the Interview on 2011-04-19

The Company Pond (from Adam)
Our company had one of those decorative ponds located in front of the building where people can gaze out their cubicles and dream of being outside. It looked nice enough, but it was disgustingly dirty with runoff and probably about half full of goose droppings.

I was interviewing a nice-enough woman for a position with our company when my receptionist sheepishly burst into the room.

174 comments - Last comment @ 2012-11-13

The Nondeterministic Hash

by Alex Papadimoulis in CodeSOD on 2011-04-18

The application that Sam F helps support acts as a sort of "parallel data entry" platform. Users from different parts of the world aggregate and enter all sorts of data from different sources. Duplicate data entry was fairly commonplace, but it was rarely a problem that running a few complicated scripts couldn't clean up later. And therein laid the problem: "later" sometimes meant days or weeks.

In an attempt to deliver more accurate data sooner, Sam's colleague was tasked with hashing the data upon entry and using it as a sort of "instant" comparison. The fix seemed to help: users were warned about duplicate data, and management was satisfied with the reduction in duplicate data.

144 comments - Last comment @ 2011-04-28

Penguicon 2011

by Alex Papadimoulis in Announcements on 2011-04-13

As I mentioned a few weeks back, I'll be headed to Notacon 8 a little later this week. If you're going, drop me a line and we'll grab a drink or something. And if you can't make it, not to worry - there's another event right around the corner. It's called Penguicon, and it's being held in Troy, Michigan from April 29 - May 1.

Penguicon is a unique blend of open source software and science fiction. When I first heard about it, I gave a Teal'c/Tuvok-esque eyebrow raise, and then realized, hmph... I guess there is a bit of an overlap. But it's a whole lot more than just that, as the events page shows. Take for example, this video from Penguicon 4 where Rob Landley (one of the co-founders) threw a bowl of liquid nitrogen into the hotel swimming pool.

47 comments - Last comment @ 2011-05-09

A Char'd Enum

by Alex Papadimoulis in CodeSOD on 2011-04-13

Ah yes, the enum. It's a convenient way to give an integer a discrete domain of values, without having to worry about constants. But you see, therein lies the problem. What happens if you don't want to use an integer? Perhaps you'd like to use a string? Or a datetime? Or a char?

If that were the case, some might say just make a class that acts similarly, or then you clearly don't want an enum. But others, such as Dan Holmes' colleague, go a different route. They make sure they can fit chars into enums.

153 comments - Last comment @ 2011-05-18

The Qualities of Equality

by Alex Papadimoulis in CodeSOD on 2011-04-11

With complex datatypes, objects references, internalization, and all the other intricacies that go into modern day software development, the matter of equality is often a bit more involved than simply ==. Or at least it can be made to be, as today's two examples demonstrate.

First up is Willy's specimen, who adds "I particularly enjoy understatement of the comments in the dateAreEquals() and equals() methods.

169 comments - Last comment @ 2011-07-11

A Problem Has Been

by Alex Papadimoulis in Error'd on 2011-04-08

"I saw this on a display screen on a motel in Pigeon Forge, TN (also known as hell)," Corey D writes, "my favorite part? It was there for several days."

83 comments - Last comment @ 2023-08-08

Just-In-Time Business Cards

by Alex Papadimoulis in Announcements on 2011-04-07

As you may have noticed, I am a big fan of souvenirs, trinkets, and tchotchkes. And I know I'm not alone. Whenever I go to a conference, at least half of my fellow attendees join me in the pursuit for as much free stuff as possible.

Of course, it doesn't matter that I already have enough logoed pens and pads to write the entire contents of Wikipedia, twice over. Or that I have enough tee-shirts to wear a new one every day for the rest of my life (and that's assuming I live to be a hundred and fifty). No, this epic quest for swag is about something different. Something grander... and perhaps, even primal.

47 comments - Last comment @ 2011-04-13

The Phantom Password

by Alex Papadimoulis in Feature Articles on 2011-04-07

“Before I broke into the IT racket,” Scott Simons writes, “I was a front-line Customer Service Rep. At the time, the procedure for logging into our service management system was a bit puzzling.”

“Like many organizations, your User ID was assigned by the company, but you had to choose your own password. But instead of having a screen to do that, you had to fill out a Password Request Form and fax it corporate headquarters. And then things got strange.

177 comments - Last comment @ 2011-05-10

The Shortcut Guy

by Alex Papadimoulis in CodeSOD on 2011-04-06

"My official title is Junior Developer," writes J Banic, "but I've come to become known as The Shortcut Guy. Why? Because I tend to know a lot of 'shortcuts' that the mid- and senior-level developers haven't yet discovered."

"To give you an idea at the type of 'shortcuts' I help them with, following is an instant message exchange between me ('jbanic') and a colleague ('mroot')."

mroot (10:03 AM): Got a problem for ya...
mroot (10:03 AM): Any idea how I can parse a string of email addresses like this: [email protected]@[email protected]?
mroot (10:04 AM): I need them separated in an array. I was thining of looking for .net, .com, etc.
jbanic (10:05 AM): That's not really feasible... you'd have to know *all* existing domains.
mroot: (10:05 AM): Is there a web service to do that?
jbanic (10:06 AM): Ehhh... no.
mroot: (11:18 AM): Okay. What if there was a comma between the addresses? For example, [email protected],[email protected],[email protected].
mroot: (11:19 AM): That should be easy to put in an array?
jbanic (11:22 AM): Waitasec... how did you add in the comma like that!?
mroot: (11:24 AM): I just copy/pasted them from debug console. That's what my string has.
jbanic (11:25 AM): Hmm... can you send me the code?
mroot: (11:25 AM): Sure, no problem...
mroot: (11:25 AM): Here it is.

224 comments - Last comment @ 2011-09-03

Important-Function(), IsNumber(), and More()

by Alex Papadimoulis in Coded Smorgasbord on 2011-04-04

" "I found a function called 'Important-Function' in a colleague's PowerShell script," wrote B. Versteylen, "after expanding the function, I discovered this."

Function Important-Function()
{
#Hehehehehehe ^^
$logTime = Get-Date -Format "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss" #Just so it looks the same as a regular log entry :+
$randomNumber1Method = New-Object  System.Random
$randomNumber1 = $randomNumber1Method.Next(1,100) 
If ($randomNumber1 -EQ 30) 
	{
	$randomNumber2Method = New-Object System.Random
	$randomNumber2 = $randomNumber2Method.Next(1,15) 
	Switch ($randomNumber2) 
	{ 
     1 {Write-Host $logTime "Watching a colleague pick his nose..."}
     2 {Write-Host $logTime "Solving a binary sudoku puzzle..."}
     3 {Write-Host $logTime "Hoping to return anything useful..."}
     4 {Write-Host $logTime "Slapping random people with a trout..."}
     5 {Write-Host $logTime "Surfing porn sites on the internet..."}
     6 {Write-Host $logTime "Pondering the next move..."}
     7 {Write-Host $logTime "Formatting the hard drive..."}
     8 {Write-Host $logTime "Dividing by `$null..."}
     9 {Write-Host $logTime "Getting a cup of coffee..."}
    10 {Write-Host $logTime "Trying to fit a square into a circle..."}
    11 {Write-Host $logTime "Yawning as a cow races by..."}
    12 {Write-Host $logTime "Milking a goat..."}
    13 {Write-Host $logTime "Playing rock-scissors-paper..."}
    14 {Write-Host $logTime "Reading a manual on WMI..."}
    15 {Write-Host $logTime "Thinking about Jessica in Berlin..."}
	}
	}
}

128 comments - Last comment @ 2011-05-30