The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

Screen Recording HARDWARE

by Erik Gern in Feature Articles on 2013-06-24

It was an all-hands meeting for the entire Los Angeles branch staff at InstaPet, the kind that Ellen always hated. It typically meant one of the three Ls: layoffs, lawsuits, or Lindbergh, their temperamental and flaky CEO. This time, it was the third L.

“It has come to my attention,” Lindbergh said from the front of the conference room, “that some divisions are using insecure software. As you know, we have a reputation for the most secure processes in our entire industry.”

86 comments - Last comment @ 2013-09-16

Excellent Sex

by Erik Gern in Feature Articles on 2013-06-17

Thomas was outrunning a hurricane.

Storm clouds loomed from the south, the outer fringes of hurricane Gustav. He and the other employees at a volunteer center in New Orleans had been mandatorily evacuated a few hours earlier. The battery LED indicator on Thomas’s phone shone red, the battery drained to 1%. He was still a few hours from Hattiesburg, where a couch at his brother’s house was waiting for him.

193 comments - Last comment @ 2024-03-21

A Bad Leg

by Erik Gern in CodeSOD on 2013-06-10

“The Killer Robot program won’t run correctly.” An middle-school student beckoned Artyom to her computer in the lab.

“Let me have a look.” Artyom pulled one of the child-sized chairs and sat next to his student. He had given his class some educational, open-source C programs to try out. Killer Robot looked like good, text-based fun, according to the SourceForge description.

146 comments - Last comment @ 2019-10-06

Who Automates the Automation?

by Erik Gern in Feature Articles on 2013-06-03

Steve huffed up the steps of the state Capitol to his office in the IT department. As he caught his breath in the lobby elevator, his PDA buzzed. The flag coordinator, responsible for processing state flag orders from citizens, had written him an email in his typical tone. WHY ARE THERE NO FLAG ORDERS IN THE SYSTEM? IT’S YOUR JOB TO GET THEM TO US!

Still panting from the climb, Steve logged in at his work computer and checked the FTP server where flag orders were stored after being faxed or mailed to the Capitol. Requests were uploaded as PDF files and renamed automatically with a numeric suffix, such as “flag_order_1234.pdf,” by the automated system in the flag coordinator’s office.

160 comments - Last comment @ 2013-07-06