Recent Feature Articles

Jun 2012

Peachy Real Time

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Back in 1952, the economist William Vickrey proposed a fairly unique solution to New York City’s subway congestion problem: introduce a variable fare that fluctuated during peak times. The idea was that the market powers would help tackle the ever-longer commutes by introducing some simple supply-and-demand principles.

While Vickrey’s subway proposal didn’t gain a lot whole of steam, the congestion pricing concept quickly spread to the public roadways, and eventually became a mainstream economic idea. And in 1995, after technology had finally caught up with theory, California implemented the first such system on Interstate 15. This computer-controlled system of variable pricing has spread to highways across the world, and I’m sure is the exact prior art that IBM “inventors” Christopher James Dawson et al paid homage to when they “invented” and patented this exact system in 2008.

186 comments - Last comment @ 2012-07-31

The Program-Generator Program

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When you've been in IT for as long as Pat McGee, you're bound to have survived at least one or two COBOL horror stories. While COBOL is certainly not the worst platform to develop software on (MUMPS will most certainly hold that title through at least our grandchildren’s lifetimes), its extreme verbosity and unique idiosyncrasies make it a challenge for organizations to develop clean, maintainable code.

To COBOL's credit, it was one of the first attempts – actually, it was probably the first attempt – at self-obsolescence. Like today, the programmers of old were far too talented to meddle in trite matters like "business rules." After all, if the managers and analysts could conjure up these business rules, they could certainly write them up in a business-oriented language.  A COmmon Business-Oriented Language, if you will. Of course, we all know how that story ends, and five decades later, COBOL programmers are still paying for that arrogance today.

119 comments - Last comment @ 2012-07-27

Server Room Fans and More Server Room Fun

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"It's that time of year again," Robert Rossegger wrote, "you know, when the underpowered air conditioner just can't cope with the non-winter weather? Fortunately, we have a solution for that... and all we need to do is just keep an extra eye on people walking near the (completely ajar) server room door."

63 comments - Last comment @ 2024-06-13

Sponsor Appreciation, *bleep*ake mushroom, and More Error'd

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Please take a few moments to check out the great companies that sponsor The Daily WTF.

TDWTF Sponsors
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And now back to our regularly scheduled program...

92 comments - Last comment @ 2012-06-13

Batch of Trouble

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Ben had already been with the University for a few years when Dave joined the team. At some point during the interview process, Dave reached the conclusion that he was here to modernize the team. As a result, he started on a Tuesday, and by Wednesday was telling everyone how he would do their job.

Dave strutted from desk to desk, playacting the highly-paid consultant. In reality, he was here to take over the student enrollment system from Ben. Ben had inherited it from Carl, who had inherited it from Bob. A whole chapter of begats was required to trace the roots of the system. It was mostly implemented in simple batch scripts, and it mostly was driven by simple text or CSV files. It wasn't a terribly pretty system, but it did have a few very important features:

  1. It worked.
  2. It didn't require much maintenance.
  3. It was thoroughly documented and well understood by the support team.

120 comments - Last comment @ 2024-06-03
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