Please amputate my data



  • An interesting error screen on a config page for a Dell printer:

     




  • That just screams "outsourced."



  • @djork said:

    That just screams "outsourced."

    without QA



  • Yup, it certainly does. For me though, the blame still lies with Dell. Did they just put the software onto their CDs without testing it at all?



  • @slyadams said:

    Yup, it certainly does. For me though, the blame still lies with Dell. Did they just put the software onto their CDs without testing it at all?

    Of course not. They outsourced the testing too.

     



  • Speaking of amputated data, all I can view is top 1/5th or so of the image.



  • Please explain to a poor non english speaker, but where is the wtf? It just tell user you can't operate on this data for now :/



  • @tchize said:

    Please explain to a poor non english speaker, but where is the wtf? It just tell user you can't operate on this data for now :/

     I can't see the whol image myself, as it appears to have been amputated, but I would imagine it is the use of the word amputate:

    Amputate:
    to cut off (all or part of a limb or digit of the body), as by surgery.

    They should have probably used

    Truncate:
    Mathematics, Computers. to shorten (a number) by dropping a digit or digits: The numbers 1.4142 and 1.4987 can both be truncated to 1.4.

     



  • @tchize said:

    Please explain to a poor non english speaker, but where is the wtf? It just tell user you can't operate on this data for now :/

    Operations are usually performed on human beings in a hospital. Especially in the grammatical context "operating something" (the data). One type of operation is amputation (removing an arm or a leg or some other part of the body), which is what the title of this Side Bar WTF submission is trying to indicate. By the way, I am a non-native english speaker myself, so please forgive me if the explanation is not good enough.



  • I am no native speaker as well, but remember the expression BoFH: bastard operator from hell. An operator might also be someone who handles a machine. To operate, as well as its equivalents in latin languages, may also mean "to work or use a machine, apparatus, or the like", according to dictionary.com.

    This WTF is more of a word play than a misused word, though there are better ways to express the same idea with less ambiguity.



  • @tchize said:

    Please explain to a poor non english speaker, but where is the wtf? It just tell user you can't operate on this data for now :/

    Wtf #1 is that there is no clear antecedant for "it", leaving us to interpret "it" to mean "the data".

    Wtf #2, then, is that "operate the data" is nonsense. You can operate a machine or operate a car, but you cannot operate data.

    #3 It would be grammatical, but weird, to say "operate on the data" (even you know more English than whoever wrote this message--you supplied an "on" where none existed in the source).

    #4 So now the native English speaker has decided that this should say "Operate on the data again later". This makes no sense. The human is not operating on the data--the software would be the one to operate on the data. So telling me to operate on the data again later is meaningless.

    #5 Now I'm back to trying to figure out what the "it" refers to. The webpage? We don't say "operate [on] a webpage" either. There is just no handy noun hanging around anywhere in this context that would naturally lend itself to being the object of the verb "operate". So, really, there is nothing to attach the word "it" to that makes any sense.

    #6 Next the beleagured English speaker tries to see if this sentence makes sense if you delete the "it". You get "Operate again later." "Operate" without a noun following means "perform surgery." So this web page is now telling me to perform surgery later. Possibly on my data.




  • That reminds me of the screen my Linksys wireless router shows when I save changed settings:

    "Settings are successful"

    Oddly the screen remains unchanged in the open-source DD-WRT firmware.



  • @Eve Teschlemacher said:

    @tchize said:
    Please explain to a poor non english speaker, but where is the wtf? It just tell user you can't operate on this data for now :/

    Wtf #1 is that there is no clear antecedant for "it", leaving us to interpret "it" to mean "the data".

    Wtf #2, then, is that "operate the data" is nonsense. You can operate a machine or operate a car, but you cannot operate data.

    #3 It would be grammatical, but weird, to say "operate on the data" (even you know more English than whoever wrote this message--you supplied an "on" where none existed in the source).

    #4 So now the native English speaker has decided that this should say "Operate on the data again later". This makes no sense. The human is not operating on the data--the software would be the one to operate on the data. So telling me to operate on the data again later is meaningless.

    #5 Now I'm back to trying to figure out what the "it" refers to. The webpage? We don't say "operate [on] a webpage" either. There is just no handy noun hanging around anywhere in this context that would naturally lend itself to being the object of the verb "operate". So, really, there is nothing to attach the word "it" to that makes any sense.

    #6 Next the beleagured English speaker tries to see if this sentence makes sense if you delete the "it". You get "Operate again later." "Operate" without a noun following means "perform surgery." So this web page is now telling me to perform surgery later. Possibly on my data.


     

    Eve gets the prize for both understanding the WTF and my terrible article title.

     

    Another small WTF is that there seems to be consensus that this appears to be an error page. But no, the update worked and the new settings are visible on the printer.

     

    To the guys who can only see part of the image, I assume you can see down to the "Operate it again later". I cropped the image at that point to protect sensitive information.
     


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