The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

Brevity Is Important

by Jake Vinson in Error'd on 2007-03-30

Paul likes brevity, so he was discouraged when he received a really long and confusing error message. For those unfamiliar, "brevity" is defined by Merriam-Webster as a shortness of duration, or a shortness or conciseness of expression. To elaborate, it is the ability to describe a potentially complex idea in as quick a way as possible, leaving out extraneous details that would serve only to confuse the listener. If extra details are needlessly left in, listeners' eyes will glaze over and they'll stop paying attention to your message, which is why it is of the utmost importance that an idea be expressed clearly and quickly. Also, be sure to phrase your message in simple language. Overly uburbulous words will klologe readers if they have deblionic vocabularies. When trying to write humor, knowing when to end a joke is important, too. God damnit, here's your screenshot.

98 comments - Last comment @ 2008-01-08

Paging Dr. Null

by Jake Vinson in Error'd on 2007-03-28

Michael found his doctor by doing a search with no parameters. Of course, Dr. Null (which is a real last name) is not set to an instance of Dr., so occasionally patients are referred to Dr. File Not Found. I got a million of 'em!

57 comments - Last comment @ 2007-05-25

Apple, Simple and Elegant

by Jake Vinson in Error'd on 2007-03-26

Apple's new ad campaign has done a lot to educate consumers about the differences between Macs and PCs. The bumbling, nerdy PC fumbles to get through a sentence about gray bar graphs (because he doesn't understand colors). That is, if he manages to go without crashing every 3 seconds! The suave, Keanu Reeves-esqe Mac outputs the most elegant, easy to understand dialog box in the history of computing. Even though it poses a yes or no question to the user, Rob L. knows there's only one answer: Apple. I mean "OK."

140 comments - Last comment @ 2007-04-30

Now Hiring SQL Injectors

by Jake Vinson in Error'd on 2007-03-23

Dice.com has done some ridiculous advertising in the past and, as Robert B. points out, they're still doing ridiculous advertising. Now they're targeting SQL developers. If this is actually how you do job searches on their site, they may want to add a disclaimer; Please do not enter the following in either field: ";DELETE FROM JOBS;SELECT * FROM JOBS WHERE "1" = "1

115 comments - Last comment @ 2007-03-29

Don't Wait Till the Last Minute

by Jake Vinson in Error'd on 2007-03-21

I'm on year 4 of my free 30-day WinZip trial. I've really gotta register that thing. Brenda likes to be prepared, and appreciated a 50,504,432,782,230,120-year advance warning that her PGP key was expiring.

78 comments - Last comment @ 2007-03-26

Science Fiction Tried to Warn Us!

by Jake Vinson in Error'd on 2007-03-19

Remember that science fiction movie/book/video game/epic power metal album where the computer/robot/spaceship had such advanced AI that it became power-hungry and enslaved humanity? Well, I hope you're ready to be suspended in life-sustaining fluid so your body can be harvested for energy. Nick captured this terrifying messagebox, showing that computers are beginning to make primitive attempts at sarcasm. Soon computers will computationally generate insults, then they'll develop a hatred of humanity, and before you know it we'll be facing the robocalypse.

66 comments - Last comment @ 2007-08-31

Mixed Messages

by Jake Vinson in Error'd on 2007-03-16

Max wrote down his password and shortly afterward felt guilty about doing so. Maybe this is a tough love lesson from cPanel. Maybe cPanel is challenging Max to think for himself. Or maybe the copy editor was lazy.

98 comments - Last comment @ 2017-07-26

What Do I Do Here?

by Jake Vinson in Error'd on 2007-03-14

Robert S. sent in was missing , confusing alienating users. Settings only changed Spy++.

83 comments - Last comment @ 2009-12-30

Techno by Accident

by Jake Vinson in Error'd on 2007-03-12

D. D. never cared much for breakcore until hearing some that Winamp accidentally generated. Personally, I like track 27: iframe>');. It's the one that goes TCHHH SKREEE TCHHHHHHHHHHHH RRRCHHHHHHH RRRRRRRRRRRR TCHHHHHHHHH.

64 comments - Last comment @ 2008-02-29

Moderate Traffic Impact

by Jake Vinson in Error'd on 2007-03-09

Dave was disappointed to find that his commute will be a little longer due to construction. He was even more disappointed when he found out that the construction would be lasting over 3,000 years. Evidently, the pharaoh's slaves are constructing a pyramid near Sandplant Hill. Still, it's fortunate that the construction will only have a moderate impact on traffic.

71 comments - Last comment @ 2014-05-30

Autocorrect is Grate

by Jake Vinson in Error'd on 2007-03-07

See if you can spot the autocorrect mishap sent in by Ron below:

All,
 
We apologize for this repeat message, however, it has 
come to our attention that there is a typo in the 
outage table below.  The second entry for "Sunday", 
May 18th should be read "Thursday", May 18th.  Again, 
we apologize for any incontinence this may cause.

Sincerely,
Sprint - Business Implementation Management

84 comments - Last comment @ 2024-06-13

Mounting and Screwing

by Jake Vinson in Error'd on 2007-03-05

Jason W. recently ordered a bulky server, and I mean that literally — the thing was 82 lbs and required specialized screws to mount. Having no luck finding the screws he needed, he called Dell and asked for some. Dell apologized and overnighted the screws in several foam padded boxes. You know, so the screws wouldn't get damaged in transit.

97 comments - Last comment @ 2008-09-30

Utter Garbage

by Jake Vinson in Error'd on 2007-03-02

If you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all. For instance, I may think a piece of software is garbage, but I'm not going to say what software it is. If I thought said software sucks because it installs a bunch of desktop shortcuts with GREAT OFFERS for FREE INTERNET ACCESS, installs an unnecessary system tray application, tries to reset all file associations for all media files on my computer each time I run it, adds a Quick Launch button and top-level Start Menu shortcut, and installs a useless IE toolbar, I should keep it to myself. Instead I'll let Gabe R.'s submission do the talking.

120 comments - Last comment @ 2022-12-08

Recent Error'd