Recent Articles

Jan 2008

For Security Purposes...

by in Feature Articles on

As the IT Director at a Real Estate company, most of John Sadowski’s work revolves around document management. Since many documents are still transmitted by the age-old method of facsimile, his company uses a fax-to-email service to help inject some modern technology into the realm.

Their fax-to-email provider has a slick web interface with excellent security. He became a bit worried, however, on the day he needed to change the email address that faxes were sent to. After clicking on [Change Email Address] button, the website displayed the following message:

120 comments - Last comment @ 2024-10-19

What Error Message?

by in Error'd on

This is what happens when you accidentally type in "DisplayMesageToUser()" instead of "//".


(from Andrew)

68 comments - Last comment @ 2024-08-30

Rutherford, Price, Atkinson, Strickland, and Associates Dentistry, Inc

by in Feature Articles on

Dr. Rutherford July 19th, 2004 marked a new chapter in New Portlandopolis’s rich dentistry history. It was on that day that the bitter rivalry between Dr. Rutherford, DDS; Dr. Price, DMD, DDS; Dr. Atkinson, DMD; and Dr. Strickland, DDS/DDS-PhD, had finally come to an end. Though there’s much debate on what exactly started the feud, everyone knows what brought the dentists together: the nationwide “denta-corps” that can out-price, out-service, and out-anything their small, family dental practices.

Although the partnership talks had begun years before, July 19th was their agreed-upon D-Day, wherein the four separate practices would officially combine to be Rutherford, Price, Atkinson, Strickland, and Associates Dentistry, Inc. In the months leading up to D-Day, and after much bickering and debate, the four dentists got everything ready from new signage to new logoed toothbrushes. The only thing that remained was combining their computer systems. That task was left to Aaron B, an IT consultant who had the pleasure of working with each office through many of the “ugly years.”

123 comments - Last comment @ 2017-06-22

On a Budget

by in Representative Line on

Not all of us are fortunate enough to work in "spacious, windowed private office" like the pampered developers over at Fogcreek. At my company (Inedo) for example, developers are constantly trying to figure out, do I get a chair today, or is it my turn to plug-in to the network? While I'm sure your work environments are equally less-than-ideal, not too many can compare with Baughn's experience.

"I was called in by a small company to make some minor changes to their software," Baughn wrote, "mostly language translations. Apparently, the normal maintainer had just up and quit."

152 comments - Last comment @ 2016-11-28

Phoning It In

by in Feature Articles on

In the late 1980s, Andrew Harkavy was working as a lead developer for a large hotel chain. He was responsible for 240 hotels that ran off 4 regional minicomputers. Each minicomputer served around 60 hotels, with six ports designated for each one for its terminals, printers, IT dial-in support, etc. Most of the time things worked pretty well, though the hardware was being pushed to the limit.

One day, Andrew got a call from a hotel employee with a strange issue — the screen's output kept coming out of the printer. Some time later, Andrew got another call from the same hotel employee, this time it was print jobs being output to the screen.

100 comments - Last comment @ 2010-08-10

¿Qué?

by in Error'd on

Errrrmmm... qué?


(from Jon Witte)

87 comments - Last comment @ 2013-07-01

Announcement: WTF in Polish

by in Feature Articles on

I am very excited to announce the launch of The Daily WTF: Wersja polska at pl.TheDailyWTF.com.

61 comments - Last comment @ 2009-05-14

Status Report, Please

by in Best of the Sidebar on

Originally posted by "military fool" ...

A while back, I worked for a company that required *frequent* status reports, at every level, with roll-ups from lower-level reports to each level, al the way up the chain.

87 comments - Last comment @ 2016-11-28

Coding Like the Tour de France

by in CodeSOD on

Last year, while watching coverage of the Tour de France, Stephan M noticed something a little strange. If he tilted his head by 90° and squinted just a bit, the profile maps showing the peaks and valleys of the mountain stage looked rather familiar. They were just like the monstrous routines written by his predecessor - the very same coder behind the Quadrasort.

"Following is a stripped down version of an almost 700 LoC method in Java," wrote Stephan," I removed anything except the control flow statements, so that you can grasp the full beauty of this masterpiece.

119 comments - Last comment @ 2019-11-17

Do not run this script, ever!

by in Best of the Sidebar on

Originally posted by "snoofle"...

I worked in a fairly large department that used a spreadsheet as the bug-submission-tracking "system". Naturally, the person who assigned the work kept it open at all time, making it impossible for anyone to actually open it to enter a new bug.

187 comments - Last comment @ 2014-03-04

Elegant Syntax Error

by in CodeSOD on

At some point, you've probably thought to yourself "I'd love to write some code, but the keywords in my language of choice are just so pedestrian." Your vocabulary is more embiggoned than that of your colleagues. While they're content with DROPping a database object, you'd prefer to efface it. A contractor that Charles I.'s worked with was one of these elite.

His first order of business? Get rid of those (ugh) "while" loops that his mouth-breathing coworkers used. With the belief that elegant code should embody every aspect of the word "elegant," he wrote all of his "while" loops as "whilst" loops.

165 comments - Last comment @ 2024-10-19

The Speed-up Loop

by in Feature Articles on

“So what do you think about the opportunity,” Ben’s recruiting agent asked. He thought about it for a few moments. It wasn’t exactly what he was looking for, but then again, he had been out of work since November of 1989 – nearly three whole months – and figured he should probably get back in to the swing of things. He told the recruiter that he’d like to talk to the client and asked to schedule an interview for the following week.

“Actually,” the recruiter replied, “they need someone A-S-A-P. Can you go in any sooner? As in, later today?”

231 comments - Last comment @ 2023-08-08

Disowned by Driver

by in Error'd on

Ron sent in this screen grab from what I can only assume is a soap opera intended for robots.

54 comments - Last comment @ 2013-06-20

Never Quite Made the Interview

by in Tales from the Interview on

If you’ve ever had the opportunity to review a handful of resumes, you’ve probably seen a few bad ones in the bunch. And if you’ve reviewed a whole lot of resumes, you’ve definitely seen some really bad ones. And if you’ve reviewed a whole crap ton of resumes, then chances are, some of ‘em definitely belong here.

Joel McNary sent in a resume that he received a while back for a programmer position. Based on the cover letter, I’m guessing the candidate never quite made the interview…

157 comments - Last comment @ 2020-01-30

Right Under your Nose

by in CodeSOD on

There are a lot of reasons to reinvent software. Maybe you don't trust the person who wrote it in the first place. Maybe you wrote it back when you didn't know what you were doing, but this time you'll get it right. Or maybe you didn't know that the solution was built already, right under your nose the whole time.

H. Y.'s colleague, as far as he could tell, fell into that third camp. He had a problem — he needed to read a value from web.config (an XML file that holds common settings for .NET applications, like authentication, authorization, connection strings, etc.) — and skipped past the research phase directly to solution engineering.

95 comments - Last comment @ 2024-07-06

Lock and Key

by in Feature Articles on

When a young, entrepreneurial beautician decided to open up a tanning salon, she wanted her new business to be "high-tech." She wasn't exactly sure what that meant, let alone how to go about doing it, so she retained the services of a software consulting firm to help her get there.

The first order of business, so the consultants said, was to develop a "complete management package." This involved tying together and customizing several different software applications-point of sale, accounting, customer relations-into "one congruent solution." Whatever that meant, it sounded good and the business owner went with it.

73 comments - Last comment @ 2008-08-08

Translation Not Available!

by in Error'd on

How many "Translation Not Available!"s can you find?


(submitted by Greg I.)

55 comments - Last comment @ 2009-06-30

Yee-hawtf!

by in Best of the Sidebar on

Originally posted by "jgoewert" ...

While everyone else was partying like it was 1999, I spent the night in my company's war room braced for any Y2K issues. Being naive, right out of college I took a job at a major railroad company doing green screen work. The mainframe was ready. The minutes ticked by. At 12:00:00, everything sat pretty with no major problems. A collective sigh eminated.

105 comments - Last comment @ 2008-05-21

OnClick Does What?!

by in CodeSOD on

When Doug D. was asked to investigate a data truncation issue, he figured it'd be pretty easy. He clicked through the application to test it out, and discovered that validation was only handled client side. After turning JavaScript off, he could submit text boxes with more text than would fit in the database column.

There was just one problem; he didn't see the client-side validation code next to the other functions defined on the page. He scrolled down to the submit button to see what it did in its OnClick.

91 comments - Last comment @ 2008-11-19

Announcement: Yet Another New Look

by in Feature Articles on

It was that time again. The Daily WTF needed yet another new look. I don’t know about you, but the pastel look wasn’t quite working for me anymore. While I could go on and on about the new “missing corners” look and gradient heading colors of the new theme, let’s take a peek into TDWTF-past at some of the old looks…

 

214 comments - Last comment @ 2008-01-25

Anything Will Do

by in Souvenir Potpourri on

Ever since the first Free Sticker Week ended back in February '07, I've been sending out WTF Stickers to anyone that mailed me a SASE or a small Souvenir. Nothing specific, per the instructions page, "anything will do." Well, here goes anything!

In addition to a map of the Madrid Metro, Adrian (from Spain) sent a 5-Peseta coin, and ¢10, ¢5, ¢2, ¢1 Euro coins. Seriously Europe, you really need a ¢2 coin?

182 comments - Last comment @ 2025-08-31

OurBoolean

by in CodeSOD on

"While digging through some database code in our system," Paul L wrote in, "I noticed an interesting pattern emerge. Whenever a boolean value within a SQL result was checked, it would look something like this..." 

if (result != null && result.toUpperCase.equals(OurBoolean.TRUE))
{ 
    ...
}
95 comments - Last comment @ 2008-01-22

The Horrible and Stupid System

by in Feature Articles on

Jared L. was feeling good. After a nightmarish stint at Initrode Global (That's One Way to Secure It), he joined the staff at CollaboSmart. His days of waking up to an ever-present sense of dread were over. And he could hardly believe that it had ended a mere two months ago.

After he left, Jared kept in touch with his friend Stephen, who still worked at Initrode. Eager to catch up on how each other were doing, they met for lunch.

144 comments - Last comment @ 2008-01-31

Is it just me, or is it hot in here?

by in Error'd on

Sure, 489°F may seem a bit warm, but you should have seen what it was like before Eugene installed the additional harddrive cooling fans ...

76 comments - Last comment @ 2008-01-25

We're not a software company

by in Best of the Sidebar on

Today's Best-of-the-Sidebar was originally posted by "aikimark."

When I asked the tech from the bone density scanner company about the poor performace of their software, they replied with "we're not a software company." I'm glad we were listening on a speaker phone, because I have witnesses to that statement. What refreshing honesty! Of course, I didn't disagree.

64 comments - Last comment @ 2008-10-17

O Error, Where Art Thou?

by in Feature Articles on

Another day, another bug to resolve. This time, Mark C. was tasked with figuring out why users of their behemoth, in-house disaster of an application were getting the following message from time-to-time:

We're sorry, but your request cannot be processed at this time for the following reason(s):

Unable to delete
This sale has been previously approved.

72 comments - Last comment @ 2016-12-08

Suzanne the 1000th Malone

by in Feature Articles on

"In my home county of Wake County, North Carolina", Scott "Malone" wrote in, "when you request library books from another branch, an automated telephone system will call you back when the books arrive at your local branch. However, whenever my wife reserves books, the telephone system calls up and lets 'Suzanne the 1000th Malone' know her books are ready."

The messages sounded just like this: suzanne1000.mp3. Or, if you can't listen to that message:

This is the Wake County Public Library. Suzanne, the 1000th, Malone, you have materials waiting for you at the Cameron Village branch. They will remain on hold for three days before returning to circulation. Thank you, and have a good day.
146 comments - Last comment @ 2013-11-22

Leaning Towards 'A'

by in Error'd on

Real Programmers don't buy in to that whole "User Friendly" thing...


(from Eric)

71 comments - Last comment @ 2008-07-28

The Really Big Log File

by in Feature Articles on

As the only computer programmer in his family, Kim Johnsson is uniquely qualified to solve any technical problem that might come up, ranging from installing a digital camera to fixing the "blinking 12:00" on a microwave. A recent support call had him diagnosing the all-too-common "it keeps crashing with all these messages" problem on a cousin's computer. After a lot of back-and-forth, Kim was finally able to determine what one of the messages was like:

101 comments - Last comment @ 2010-12-03

Far Too Fancy

by in CodeSOD on

Although the .NET Framework ships with a comprehensive XML library, Sam B's coworkers aren't big fans of it. It's far too fancy, they claim. Instead, they prefer to use StringBuilders, concatenation, and IndexOf(">")-style parsing.

"What on Earth do we need XML-Navigation and Nodes for," they'll often rhetorically say, "come on, it's all just string manipulation!" As it turns out, "XML-Navigation" and "Nodes" certainly do come in handy, especially when one needs to, say, navigate nodes in XML, as they'll often have do.

73 comments - Last comment @ 2008-01-20

The Ear Michael and Danger!

by in Best of the Sidebar on

I'm not sure when this was posted on the side bar, but it was the warning sign at the top of the SkyJack that Robin Harrison was using to install wireless access points on the ceiling of a warehouse...

125 comments - Last comment @ 2009-08-10

Infinitely Recursive Accessibility

by in Feature Articles on

The Section 508 amendment to the 1973 Rehabilitation Act updated and extended the act beyond its original 1973 text, which simply allowed individuals with disabilities to participate in federally funded disco dancing competitions. Section 508 specifically applies to technology and electronic communication to minimize or eliminate barriers to people with disabilities. And as is wise to do with all federal mandates, Clive S. took this one seriously.

After developing a web site and presentation about how to be safe with online banking for a government web site, Clive got to work adding accessibility features. He made sure that images had descriptive ALT tags, he summarized every chart with text, and ensured that all video presentations were captioned.

93 comments - Last comment @ 2016-12-08

The Zero Dollar Bill

by in Error'd on

Sagar Mittal came across this message on a self-service checkout machine at a WalMart...

125 comments - Last comment @ 2013-04-24

I am right and the entire Industry is wrong

by in Best of the Sidebar on

Originally posted to the Side Bar by Chris, following the response from "Gary" (a manager at his former company) about a question importing Word-HTML into their template system.

Hi Chris,

226 comments - Last comment @ 2016-11-28

Easy Authentication

by in CodeSOD on

Forget your password? Don't worry, you can still use the original invitation password that was sent to you when your account was created!

Curious to try out another's account? Don't worry, you can use the original invitation password to log in as anyone!

75 comments - Last comment @ 2008-02-04

Access Abomination

by in Feature Articles on

In his college years, budding developer Troels L. wanted to get a leg up over his fellow students. He figured a job to supplement his studies would serve him well, so he looked for employment at IT firms, banks and insurance companies, but no one was hiring students. The companies only had positions available to candidates with degrees.

Finally, Troels found a large non-IT company in his area that was looking for college students for a planned project. He read and re-read the job post to assess whether he had the skills called for in the project -- specifically in the area of database integration using a trio of technologies: Access, VB and Encarta.

86 comments - Last comment @ 2008-03-01

Slightly Outdated

by in Error'd on

There's no doubt that it's a challenge keeping up with the constantly changing country lists and country names, but come on Avery... I think it's time that you update yours.


(submitted by Michael F)

166 comments - Last comment @ 2009-10-29

The Case of the Clueless Candidate

by in Tales from the Interview on

Today's Tale from the Interview comes from Scott McNair. Don't forget to submit your own interview story, from either side of the table. 

The company I was working for had an opening for an additional .NET developer, and the technical portion of the interview process fell to my coworker and me. We wanted to make sure we had candidates with average-to-strong SQL experience, so we came up with a question that would hopefully expose the candidate's knowledge.

188 comments - Last comment @ 2024-06-13

These Go To Fourteen

by in CodeSOD on

"Actually," the lead on Chris G's team said defensively, "this is a quite elegant solution for displaying data in a JSP. This way, we don't have to use the real object and can save memory."

And unlike the previous version checked in source control that only went up to ten, this ListBean goes to fourteen...

102 comments - Last comment @ 2008-10-09

Announcement: Free Sticker Week Reminder & Update

by in Feature Articles on

Today is your last chance to (easily) get a WTF Sticker through the free sticker form or PayPal! After today, stickers will only be available via snail mail.

The "TheDailyWTF.com" sticker is a 2"x3" sticker that's designed "to last outdoors for a long, long time" and is "great for applying to anything that gets exposed to the elements of weather." It's made of vinyl (which means that it's easy to remove in one piece) and doesn't have a super-strong adhesive (which means that removing it won't also remove whatever it's attached to).

33 comments - Last comment @ 2008-01-07

Could You Explain Programming Please

by in Best of the Sidebar on

Today's Best-of-the-Sidebar was originally posted by "Yahweh" ...

Being a programmer and the only computer literate person in my family, I get tech support calls from my family all the time. I got a phone call from a brother-in-law today:

378 comments - Last comment @ 2024-06-13

Biltmore Can't Log In

by in Feature Articles on

"Biltmore can't log in," David's boss said in a panic, "you need to fix this. Now!"

It was the perfect way to start a Monday morning. When Biltmore couldn't log in, that meant that Biltmore couldn't get Biltmore's executive reports. And that meant that the entire company would grind to a halt and focus entirely on getting Biltmore's reports.

155 comments - Last comment @ 2012-02-07

Process of Elimination

by in Error'd on

Though Dion was a bit rusty on the physics for this question, he's pretty sure he'll be able to do fine using process of elimination...

82 comments - Last comment @ 2009-08-28

One User at a Time, Please

by in Feature Articles on

"Wait, why do you need to shut the SQL Server down?" Henry O. didn't like where this conversation was going. "We've got a lot of people using the database right now. I'd really like to do this upgrade without shutting it down."

"Well, we have to shut it down," Tom, the vendor, reiterated. "Because... because."

43 comments - Last comment @ 2008-01-31

The Mostest Wrong Datatype

by in CodeSOD on

While working a contract at a small educational institution this past summer, Dave R. was asked to "clean up" some of the PHP code behind the institution's main web site. In particular, the IT manager asked if course listings couldn't be sorted so that courses appeared ordered by their starting dates.

The web site had been written by five or six different contractors over the past few years, and the most recent and capable of these had declared that it “was not feasible” to sort the course listings by date.

73 comments - Last comment @ 2016-09-27
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