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Aug 09Web 0.1 Forms
by in Feature Articles on 2009-09-29Ever since being introduced to Web 0.1 — also known as flyer-to-print-to-photo-to-print-to-scan-to-web design — I've come to realize that there's a whole parallel universe of web development out there. A bizarro world if you will, where HTML is used to display images of formatted text, CSS serves to define <B> as "font-style:italic", and aaaaaaaaaaaaaa is a linebreak. Of course, since most of these examples don't come from the professional world of web development, they only show up on The Daily WTF on days I feel like breaking the "professionals only" rule. Like today.
The first specimen from the bizarro web was discovered by Steve Green. On first glance, it appears to be a standard contact form. Upon closer inspection of how it is to be submitted, it's apparent that it is, in fact, a standard contact form... for the world of Web 0.1.
Craig Landrum grimaced, sucking air through his teeth, clenching his fists, and tightly shutting his eyes. It wasn’t so much the 300-pound robot that was stampeding full-speed towards him while rotating its menacing gripper arm, but more The Admiral, who was wide-eyed with fear and instinctually reaching for his sidearm. Cha-cha-cha-chunk. Craig peeked through his left eyelid to see that the robot had halted on its track, not less than two feet from them, and nearly tipped over before zipping away in the opposite direction. Needless to say, the demo didn’t go so well.
Let's jump into the wayback machine, all the way to the summer of 1994. David G. was starting at his very first job out of school, developing some train control system software. Perhaps not thrilling work, but hey, it was a job.
The year was 1993, and that meant one thing: Old Iron was finally ready for 
In my career as a developer, I've worked in a few organizations (and survived through my fair share of re-organizations) but the general pecking order stays the same with regards to IT. Developers work together and take direction from a Project Lead who is directed by a Team Lead, who answers to a Department Lead who in turn receives orders from a person at the Executive level. There's the same thing at Hobson's work, however, their org chart has a additional...twist.
Their first correspondence was an unsolicited call from Vilhelm. "I'm calling because I hear you do web work." Gaye B. responded that yes, he did, and began collecting whatever scant details he could about the project, telling Vilhelm he'd need some time to prepare an estimate. Vilhelm casually mentioned "you know, your last name sounds familiar. You wouldn't happen to be the son of Bob and Alice, would you?" He was. "Oh, that's great! Our parents are friends, they met on vacation at the coast last year!"