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  • Please bring your purchases to the front.

    Seriously, why do places do this?
    http://utdallas.edu/sis

    Why can't I pay my bill after 10pm? It's an automated system? Why on earth does it have operating hours?



  • @jesirose said:

    Please bring your purchases to the front.

    Seriously, why do places do this?
    http://utdallas.edu/sis

    Why can't I pay my bill after 10pm? It's an automated system? Why on earth does it have operating hours?

    It would be really sweet if they implemented that very literally.  As in, if you try the link after 10:00 pm, you get 404 errors.



  • @jesirose said:



    Seriously, why do places do this?
    http://utdallas.edu/sis

    Why can't I pay my bill after 10pm? It's an automated system? Why on earth does it have operating hours?


    Both .edu & .gov. The internet has provided more and more efficient ways of aggravating the ever loving shit out of you.



  • Ah, it must be the edu :)

    Seriously though, it took more effort on their part to make it "close" at 10pm then to just LEAVE IT ALONE!

    rant



  • I'm pretty sure my school had that system ("sis") or something like it. I was vaguely aware that some giant backup/sync-with-the-mothership task happened every night during the down time. During the day, you're seeing a snapshot of the REAL data (affected by administrators, teachers entering grades, government granting you money, etc) only as of LAST NIGHT. In other words, the system works on a disconnected database during the day.

    I imagine the great length of the scheduled downtime has to do with the syncing task being manual and/or to allow for any WTFery that might ensue if something went wrong.

    I'm not defending anything here, just explaining. :^)



  • And for heaven's sake, if the system doesn't routinely require manual intervention every night, then why the hell is it closed before 2:00am?! How long do you really need to do a database sync? (No, please don't asnwer that with real evidence. I don't want to know.)



  • Considering the hours (especially Friday), I'm guessing they don't want
    it operating during periods when no support people are on call.



  • I just went to read one of their support things, for what to do on an error message
    http://www.utdallas.edu/SIS/login session expired messages.htm

    Some of those are pretty funny. Some of them are not actually solutions either - it's called "Login Session Expired Message Resolutions"

    - You are using America Online's browser
    - You are using WebTV
    - You clicked a link twice

    headdesk



  • It's probably because the system is a mainframe running CICS.  I
    was the architect on a project that was putting a web frontend to a
    government employer tax site.  It was gonna be great.  All
    the employers could file their taxes online without having to fill in
    those huge paper reports.



    Not knowing much about mainframes, I was certain to ask -- several
    times -- mind you, if the mainframe people would be able to provide me
    with 24/7/365 access, and they assured me that they could.



    Of course, five months and three-quarters into the project, when we
    commenced system integration, I made a comment to one of the employees
    about now that it was crunch time, we'd have to start working some late
    hours, to which he replied,, "Oh no.  You can't use the mainframe
    after 6:00pm."  WTF???



    I told him that I thought we could use the system 24/7/365 and he said,
    "You CAN.  You just can't use CICS.  "  Which, of
    course, is where all the data was.



    Our solution:



    "Operating hours: M-F 8:00-7:00"



  • @jesirose said:

    I just went to read one of their support things, for what to do on an error message
    http://www.utdallas.edu/SIS/login%20session%20expired%20messages.htm

    Some of those are pretty funny. Some of them are not actually solutions either - it's called "Login Session Expired Message Resolutions"

    - You are using America Online's browser
    - You are using WebTV
    - You clicked a link twice

    *headdesk*

     

    I liked that one too .. have you EVER watch the average person use a web browser .. they would be screwed!!! Apparently they have not!



  • @badpauly said:

    I told him that I thought we could use the system 24/7/365


    Ok...  Can't take it. :-)

    It can't be "24/7/365". It can be 24/7, or 24/365, but not 24/7/365.

    This is one of those things that just drives me nuts!



  • @KenW said:


    It can't be "24/7/365". It can be 24/7, or 24/365, but not 24/7/365.

    This is one of those things that just drives me nuts!

    likewise. I guess, if you must have a three-part one, you could say 24/7/52.



  • @KenW said:

    @badpauly said:
    I told him that I thought we could use the system 24/7/365


    Ok...  Can't take it. :-)

    It can't be "24/7/365". It can be 24/7, or 24/365, but not 24/7/365.

    This is one of those things that just drives me nuts!




    There's always 24/7/52 -- if you're prepared for blank stares of "what's 52 mean?".



    I'm also fond of the "open every day except Christmas" store signs
    which you'll see occasionally.  I wonder if anyone has tried that
    online...




  • @jesirose said:

    - You clicked a link twice
    headdesk

    Yeah, I've seen many web systems with that problem before. Had it happen on one of my companies systems once, so I sent the designer a message with a link to the definition of "idempotent" and a link to the http standards document. Amazingly enough, he understood and changed it to work properly. Naturally, I was shocked.



  • Ah, I see the RU Screw is still operating at peak efficiency (I'm an ENG '98). 



    They really might as well keep the thing running 24/7.  90% of the
    students who work for Computing Services are up all night anyway
    playing Quake (or whatever it is you kids play these days) from their
    broadband-enabled dorm rooms.  Beeper + telnet access = problem
    solved.



  • @KenW said:

    @badpauly said:
    I told him that I thought we could use the system 24/7/365


    Ok...  Can't take it. :-)

    It can't be "24/7/365". It can be 24/7, or 24/365, but not 24/7/365.

    This is one of those things that just drives me nuts!




    Ok be that way, but that government official knew exactly what I was talking about. 



    You probably also get angry when you see signs that read "ATM
    Machine",  or when the checkout clerk tells you to enter your PIN
    number.  Man, that last one really burns me. :^p



  • @KenW said:

    Ok...  Can't take it. :-)

    It can't be "24/7/365". It can be 24/7, or 24/365, but not 24/7/365.


    Why the hell not?  It's shorthand for "24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year".  That is to say: no daily downtime, no weekend downtime, no downtime on public holidays.  This is a perfectly logical set of guarantees, and makes perfect sense even to a pedant such as myself.

    (Either that, or the guy was promising that it would be possible to use the mainframe on the 24th of July, 365 AD.  Was this related to some kind of time travel research?)



  • @Iago said:

    @KenW said:
    Ok...  Can't take it. :-)

    It can't be "24/7/365". It can be 24/7, or 24/365, but not 24/7/365.


    Why the hell not?  It's shorthand for "24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year".  That is to say: no daily downtime, no weekend downtime, no downtime on public holidays.  This is a perfectly logical set of guarantees, and makes perfect sense even to a pedant such as myself.

    (Either that, or the guy was promising that it would be possible to use the mainframe on the 24th of July, 365 AD.  Was this related to some kind of time travel research?)

    They're complaining about the redundancy.  How could you be available 365 days a year, but yet not be available 7 days a week?  24/365 says everything that 24/7/365 says.



  • Any business seriously wanting to trade on the internet should remember that it is always shopping time somewhere in the world, and should ensure their web-presence is available and fully operational 24*365.25

     



  • @Iago said:

    @KenW said:
    Ok...  Can't take it. :-)

    It can't be "24/7/365". It can be 24/7, or 24/365, but not 24/7/365.


    Why the hell not?  It's shorthand for "24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year".  That is to say: no daily downtime, no weekend downtime, no downtime on public holidays.  This is a perfectly logical set of guarantees, and makes perfect sense even to a pedant such as myself.

    (Either that, or the guy was promising that it would be possible to use the mainframe on the 24th of July, 365 AD.  Was this related to some kind of time travel research?)


    Wrong. :-) If you mean "24 hours a day, 365 days a year", it's 24/365.

    Do the math. 24 hrs * 365 days is 8760 hours (hours in a non-leap year). 24 hrs * 7 days is 168 hours. Both of those make sense. But 24 hrs * 7 days * 365 days? WTF does 61,320 hours signify?

    Ken



  • @KenW said:

    @Iago said:
    @KenW said:
    Ok...  Can't take it. :-)

    It can't be "24/7/365". It can be 24/7, or 24/365, but not 24/7/365.


    Why the hell not?  It's shorthand for "24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year".  That is to say: no daily downtime, no weekend downtime, no downtime on public holidays.  This is a perfectly logical set of guarantees, and makes perfect sense even to a pedant such as myself.

    (Either that, or the guy was promising that it would be possible to use the mainframe on the 24th of July, 365 AD.  Was this related to some kind of time travel research?)


    Wrong. :-) If you mean "24 hours a day, 365 days a year", it's 24/365.

    Do the math. 24 hrs * 365 days is 8760 hours (hours in a non-leap year). 24 hrs * 7 days is 168 hours. Both of those make sense. But 24 hrs * 7 days * 365 days? WTF does 61,320 hours signify?

    Ken

    Actually my maths tell me that 24hours*365days is equal to 210240hours^2, and 24hours*7days*365days would be 35320320hours^3, or 2555days^3

    Now if i could know what a squared hour or a cubed hour is supposed to represent (time in 8dimensional and 12dimensional space?), i'd be very grateful



  • @Ozru said:

    And for places that are open 365 days a year, which day do they take off in leap years? Feb 29, or some arbitrary other day?

    March 11th, usually.


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