The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

The New Hire's a Bust

by Remy Porter in Feature Articles on 2011-09-27

"Hey, Stan. Congrats on your promotion," John S. said without terribly much sincerity. Stan was a nice enough co-worker, but a promotion to VP doesn't mean much to a company that hands out promotions like glowsticks at a rave. Stan was now the 4th VP in the 30 person company. It didn't actually mean very much at all.

"Well, thanks John. I'm really excited. I talked to the other VPs, and they're all really enthusiastic about my proposals."

138 comments - Last comment @ 2013-07-23

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr and more Support Stories

by Alex Papadimoulis in Feature Articles on 2011-09-22

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (from Ken Cox)
It was 1994, and I was working for a small weekly newspaper. One fine morning, the lady who handles subscriptions called me up to say that her computer had “gone crazy”, and that I need to help her right away. Being the closest thing to desktop support that the small paper had, I dropped what I was doing and went to see what she meant by “crazy”.

When I stopped in her office, I noticed that her screen was filled up with line after line of ever-expanding “r”s. Looking down at her keyboard, I saw that the “r” and several other keys were stuck down. Turning to her, I asked the obvious: “did you spill anything on your keyboard?”

123 comments - Last comment @ 2011-11-06

Get to da COPPA!

by Remy Porter in Feature Articles on 2011-09-20

Corporate meetings about how new government regulations are impacting the business aren't the most interesting meetings. The intersection of corporate responsibility and politics is as exciting as watching a pumpkin rot. Derek tuned most of the meeting out, but got the important takeaway: "Due to new government regulations, we will have to massively overhaul our flagship products."

The same year that Google was founded, the Federal government was trying to figure out this whole Interwebs thing. They passed the Child Online Privacy Protection Act, and among its many "think of the children!" provisions, there were rules governing what sort of data web service providers could collect from minors without written parental consent. Derek's company made a set of Java-powered applications designed to let schools run websites that let students do homework online, which meant they needed to be COPPA compliant.

152 comments - Last comment @ 2024-10-10

Sponsor Appreciation, Unfree Parking, A Sincere Farewall, and More

by Alex Papadimoulis in Feature Articles on 2011-09-16

Our sponsors help pay the bills so please, try to check out what they do!

TDWTF Sponsors

Aurigma makes it incredibly easy for users to upload photos, documents, or any other kind of file directly into your app. Give your users the power to upload multiple files at once, resize photos prior to upload, and so many other things without any complications.

FusionCharts makes your data look stunning. With 2D, 3D, static, animated, and interactive charts, FusionCharts lets you visualize data in just about every way so that your data doesn't just look great, but feels great. Plus, FusionCharts is now available in HTML/JavaScript, too.

New Relic is basically a magical, real-time performance and user monitoring tool that works on virtually any web platform: Java, Ruby, PHP, .net, Python, Ruby on Rails. I'm not sure how it works (magic?), but it's incredibly easy to use and is pretty inexpensive. Remember: performance is a must-have feature!

Inedo - the makers of BuildMaster, the v, and easy-to-use, web-based deployment and release management tool. Going far beyond Continuous Integration, BuildMaster delivers a series of robust features unparalleled by other build-promote-deploy-distribute tools. Oh, did I mention it's free?

SoftLayer - SoftLayer is the innovation leader in Cloud, Dedicated, and Managed Hosting with 13 data centers worldwide. We integrate best-in-class connectivity and technology into the industry’s only fully-automated platform, empowering enterprises with complete access, control, security, and scalability

And now, back to our regularly scheduled, slightly off-topic program.

94 comments - Last comment @ 2023-06-09

The Cooling Kludge

by Alex Papadimoulis in Feature Articles on 2011-09-13

photo credit: Strupey @ flickr Alex’s phone interrupted dinner with his Fiancée. It was the office. Again. The phone server had gone down, and that meant callers were being greeted with a busy signal instead of the friendly auto-attendant. As one of the few employees capable of toggling a server power switch, Alex asked for a doggy bag and headed to the office to reboot the server.

It was the third weekend in a row that the phone server had gone down, and Alex was getting a little tired of the mid-weekend interruptions. He didn’t mind providing the occasional off-hour support, but this was getting a little out of hand.

140 comments - Last comment @ 2011-11-04

WTF Factor Authentication

by Mark Bowytz in Feature Articles on 2011-09-08

Recently, when Jeff T’s credit union enhanced its online banking, it forced him to re-register his account under the new system. He thought that this was strange because, well, the "old" system was fairly reasonable. Beside the usual username and password, they had your typical Wish-It-Was Two Factor authentication and an even anti-phishing image presented during the logon process to make you feel that much more secure. It wasn't great, but it wasn't Harland Financial bad.

However, this new system didn’t inspire a ton of confidence. First, were the security questions. The previous security questions allowed for any old free-typed answer, but instead, they were replaced with different set of really dumb questions, each one limited to a dropdown of possible answers.

140 comments - Last comment @ 2011-10-26

Common Educational Oriented Language

by Remy Porter in Feature Articles on 2011-09-01

"The problem," Alex's guidance counselor explained, "is that you simply do not have enough elective credits to graduate high school."

In the latter half of the 80s the US was into terrible music and leaving children behind. Schools weren't run on standardized tests, but on credits and coursework. Alex had bounced around through a few school districts before landing in the River City Schools "Talented and Gifted" magnet school. He enrolled specifically because the district assured his family that the program would give him enough credits to graduate on time.

159 comments - Last comment @ 2024-07-04

TDWTF Sponsors
		Aurigma makes it incredibly easy for users to upload photos, documents, or any other kind of file directly into your app. Give your users the power to upload multiple files at once, resize photos prior to upload, and so many other things without any complications.
		FusionCharts makes your data look stunning. With 2D, 3D, static, animated, and interactive charts, FusionCharts lets you visualize data in just about every way so that your data doesn't just look great, but feels great. Plus, FusionCharts is now available in HTML/JavaScript, too.
		New Relic is basically a magical, real-time performance and user monitoring tool that works on virtually any web platform: Java, Ruby, PHP, .net, Python, Ruby on Rails. I'm not sure how it works (magic?), but it's incredibly easy to use and is pretty inexpensive. Remember: performance is a must-have feature!
		Inedo - the makers of BuildMaster, the v, and easy-to-use, web-based deployment and release management tool. Going far beyond Continuous Integration, BuildMaster delivers a series of robust features unparalleled by other build-promote-deploy-distribute tools. Oh, did I mention it's free?
		SoftLayer - SoftLayer is the innovation leader in Cloud, Dedicated, and Managed Hosting with 13 data centers worldwide. We integrate best-in-class connectivity and technology into the industry’s only fully-automated platform, empowering enterprises with complete access, control, security, and scalability

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