The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

Anno Domini

by Lyle Seaman in Error'd on 2022-06-24

Buffalo, New York is a recovering Rust Belt city which has given the world several notable achievements. First, a fairly forgettable sliced meat sandwich au jus more known for its barely edible stale roll than for the entirely unremarkable beef entombed within. Second, an innovative repurposing of a castoff fowl appendage into a drunkard's delicacy (and Mlle Simpson's famed befuddlement). Most of all, it's indispensable for the construction of a lighthearted linguistic shibboleth: Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo... and so on. Unfortunately, the city also brings us bad news this week.

But first, Tony H. reminds us of a famously scandal-ridden bank. Theirs might not have been the worst fraud in 2016 (or 2017, or 2018, or 2019) but apparently they're now tightening down the screws on consumer lending. Tony observes, frostily, "a credit card with a limit below zero is alarming even for Wells Fargo."

22 comments - Last comment @ 2022-07-11

Meat!

by Lyle Seaman in Error'd on 2022-06-10

I remember when gasoline was under a dollar a gallon in the US! And penny candy was only a penny! And a pound sterling could buy you a decent dinner, not just a few ounces of meat product! And the euro! Let me tell you about the euro!!
I mean, um. Yeah. Things have changed, and it seems lately all our consumer goods and services have become suddenly more expensive, or smaller, or inferior in some other way. Have you priced airplane flights, even in middle seats with no luggage or food?
The lead submission this week isn't really a software Error'd. It's not even a wacky product offering from Amazon. But despite what seems an unconscionable price, the manufacturer has discovered a revolutionary method to deliver extra value by (apparently) literally altering the properties of the universe.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... MEAT!

Finally free from those awful EU restrictions, Michael R. now has access to 85% over-clocked pork sausages. "Not bad to get 185g meat out of 100g product.", he grunts gluttonously. "I will take 2."

19 comments - Last comment @ 2022-06-21

Cinch

by Lyle Seaman in Error'd on 2022-06-03

Yankee Ezra A. explains the screenshot below at some length. Says he: "I live in Newton, MA, an affluent, wealthy suburb of Boston. In general, city services are excellent, although the home page of the website is a bit crowded, so I was glad to get an email with a link to the page where I could see how the city is handling my request/complaint about sidewalks, via the city's 311 service (I have no idea what the 311 stands for) When I went to the website, I found what you see in the photo. I guess one can't really complain about one small error in a large website." It's certainly an effective strategy for keeping the complaints box empty!

13 comments - Last comment @ 2022-06-14