I want human cloning to be legal just so I can join this club twice.
EpilepticFridgeBoy
@EpilepticFridgeBoy
Best posts made by EpilepticFridgeBoy
Latest posts made by EpilepticFridgeBoy
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RE: Official Membership Thread -- Just Reply Here!
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RE: Mandatory Fun Day
@Alex Papadimoulis said:
This should come as no surprise. Obviously, I have no sense of humor because I put up MFD, so what makes you think I'd have a sense to select the best funniest comments?
Heh, was just about to post and say your sense of humour seems quite different to most people I know, so of course you'd pick posts that were the funniest to you, but possibly not to the majority of vocal people here. The comments are good fun to read through though :)
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RE: Mandatory Fun Day
@Alex Papadimoulis said:
what's next... some jab that somehow manages to equate The Daily WTF being The Real WTF or something?
Yes! Get ready... here it comes... *ahem*... MFD is TRWFT.
Damn, didn't even get that right...
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RE: Mandatory Fun Day
I figured it out!
I've got it figured out! Judging by the laziness of today's reuse of previous artwork, the poor "joke", the continuing "explain everything until it isn't funny" trend and the complete waste of the potential of the super-villain boss, this is all leading up to April 1st where it will be revealed that it has been an elaborate April Fools joke!
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RE: Mandatory Fun Day
@Zylon said:
After reading today's MFD, I have to wonder if the author has ever actually used Wikipedia.
In fact, a consistent problem with the strip's humor is that it feels like it's written by an outside observer (and not even a very good one) of geek culture, rather than an actual geek. As such, it's always going to fall flat. There's little in this world more lame than someone trying to pretend they're part of a culture that they're not.
I absolutely agree. Poor observations, tired clichés, absence of punchlines. Tip for George : anyone can create a new wikipedia article. No one has to approve them. Oh, and the "linux person hates microsoft" joke has been done to death in thousands of other strips. You've done it three or four times yourself. Please stop.
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RE: F(i|un)ctional Specs
I'm trying to popularize the "when slot" phrase in our office, to mean "free time", e.g. "I'll get on to that as soon as I get a when slot."
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RE: F(i|un)ctional Specs
@Lysis said:
Are you so devoid of communication skills that when a user sits you down to discuss their business dilemma that you don't know what they are saying? I really don't see the issue of needing a BA. Perhaps a PM is useful in that he organizes and communicates with all parties involved for a certain software/IT project, but it's not saying much of hte programmer if they have been around the business for a reasonable amount of time and don't understand what needs to be done. I can see it being difficult if you're new and/or don't understand the business, or possibly being new to the application and not understanding what function the user is talking about. But these are things that even a BA has to learn and will never understand as well as the person programming it.
Sometimes, the developers are not expected to be the BA, Project Manager and Developer all in one. Often, new business is pitched for and specced up while the programmers are busy with other projects. Of course, this varies from company to company. BAs are specialised in being able to write these specs and ask the insightful questions that reveal what the problem is the client needs to solve. Sometimes, a company will write software for a wide range of clients, all with different business needs. It's quite a strain on the developer to expect them to keep up with all of that too. YMMV.
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RE: F(i|un)ctional Specs
@belgariontheking said:
All EpilepticFridgeBoy cared about was the implementation, and got frustrated when the user couldn't explain that to him.
In all cases, I was more than happy to sit with the user / functional team / BA involved and work out what it was they wanted, and I guess TRWTF is the backlash developers get from trying to do that. I had everything from being labelled "awkward" and "only works on the parts of the spec he wants to", to being threatened with redundancy.
The best method I've heard of to get the people writing the specs to understand what you need (and I may have heard it from these very boards), is to place a shoe on the table and get them to talk you through tying the laces.
"Ok, so take hold of the laces."
( I grab both laces in one hand )
"No, one in each hand."
( I hold one lace in each fist, with the fist as close to the shoe as possible )
"No, no no, between your thumb and index finger at the end of the lace."
... and so the exercise continues until they realise that they have to be specific with their specifications.
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F(i|un)ctional Specs
I'm by no means a veteran programmer, but I've got a fair amount of experience and seen (and unfortunately in my early days, produced) a fair amount of WTFs. Most alarmingly, the biggest WTFs come before developers even get a look in. "Functional" specifications are always a hoot. I thought I'd share some of the best I've seen.
The first batch come from work orders directly from the company's CEO. He was frequently out of the country, and would send these through to us at around 3am his time. And if you questioned them, he'd threaten to outsource development.
- The page with Sell for Good needs secure payment logo's visa cards etc on it to make it more comfortable for this user. Please can you suggest where and what does there ?
The request needs to be written in readable english to make it more comfortable for this developer. I can suggest where and what does there, if I knew what you meant.
- Page reference : BUY PAGE. Not always redirects so suggest change text to PROCEED TO CHECKOUT. Or you decide.
WTF? I almost changed all the text on the BUY PAGE to "PROCEED TO CHECKOUT", put the change live, and then tell him that it was what he requested when he complained. But I was having outsourcing threatened as it was...
- Does anyone know why this message is being presented to users see attached. Please an order and this is what I got ? Can you crack on with this when slot?
Yes, when slot. I'll do it when slot. When slot when slot when slot. As for pleasing an order, I complimented the order's haircut and bought it flowers, but failed to please it.
- Characters.. ‘any’
Unfortunately, I'm not making this up. I wish I was. That was the entire request.
Then there are the specs of this sort. The type that, in a spec about "capturing user data", include lines like :
- First name (e.g. Mark)
Thank you, I was wondering what a "first name" was.
- Date of birth (e.g. 03/04/81)
Hmmm.. 3rd of April or 4th of March? Should we really be using two digit years? Ok, whatever you say...
- The timetable operates on a 26 hour day.
... and no expanation of how on earth this should actually work. Great, explain to us what a "first name" is, but gloss over the specialized 26 hour day timetable. When this was questioned, the response was, "Oh yes, sorry, that's a typo. It should read '36 hour day'."
- Group bookings are discounted. For 2 adults and 3 children, the price would be the normal ticket price for one adult (43.50) plus the normal ticket price for two children (23.50 * 2)
Right. So, for 3 adults and 2 children... it would be... um... Care to elaborate? Or is there not enough space left in the document after you've told us in great detail what a surname is? No, I can't work it out from the information given.
- New items will have a star next to them.
Ok, no problem. How are you defining "new"? Unread? Received today? Unread AND received today? Are you sure you don't just want unread items displayed differently?
- You can tell if items are new by the star.
Yes, I get that. But how does the SYSTEM know to flag them with a star?
- Because they're new! Just like on yahoo!
i could go on... and on... and on... but I have some specs to read and implement as soon as I get a when slot.
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RE: Criticize my website
This can't be real... you can sign up with a username with html tags in it. It goes output as-is. So the user <script>alert('you suck');</script> would prove quite irritating...