@TGV said:
@Spectre said:
A debugging aid, most probably.You routinely trap the String constructor? You are a shadowy figure...
So are most of us...
@TGV said:
@Spectre said:
A debugging aid, most probably.You routinely trap the String constructor? You are a shadowy figure...
@rohypnol said:
@Mole said:
Either option opens a file selector to save the file, but only "yes" actually saves the file.I don't see any WTFs here
I see four:
@spankathon said:
I would have bought an extension lead, and plugged the power cord into a socket inside the building.
The power button is still on the roof, though. The fundamental problem we're solving here is that the unit does not restart itself when power-cycled at the outlet. You need to hit the button for it to do so.
@Isuwen said:
But isn't that script just replacing a several-gigabyte log file with a several-gigabyte file of... nothing?
You're thinking of /dev/zero. /dev/null produces end-of-file when you read from it.
@mallard said:
@dtech said:
@Zecc said:
Anyone care to try advancing aplausible explanation as to why this pattern may be used?
The way I see it, it slows down expression evaluation -- with or without of evaluation shortcutting -- and decreases legibility, specially when P is textually big.I don't know exactly why and how this is used, but isn't that the easiest way if you want to do something, well, when either condition P or not condition P but condition Q?
No, "P || (!P && Q)" is exactly equivelent to "P || Q".
If your language has side effects but not short-circuit evaluation, they're not equivalent, they're a mess.
@KattMan said:
@morbiuswilters said:
Well, from a purely scientific standpoint there really are only 3 genders: male, female and "defective".
Actually five chromosonal genders:
XX = female
XY = male
XXX, XXY, and XYY are the three defectives, there is no YYY as you will always have at least one X from the mother. Externally they usually appear female (not always), have shorter lives, stockier and usually infertile. Theories abound as to why these happen including things similar to "sexless drones".
It's more complicated than that. For example, there are a number of mutations that can produce an XY female, most of them infertile. XXX usually, but not always, produces a perfectly normal female., while XYY is a normal male. You can also have XXXX (50% normal) or XXXXX (severe medical problems). Male variations of these (XXXXY, XXYY, XXXY, etc.) almost invariably result in miscarriage, but if they don't, the result is usually fertile. Monosomy X is usually infertile, monosomy Y is non-viable.
Wikipedia's articles on intersexuality and gender identity might be good starting points.
@morbiuswilters said:
@DaveK said:
Anyway, the whole discussion is hypothecated on a false premise: that ad-blocking is an active, positive act, rather than what it actually is: a passive lack of action. See, I don't block ads: I simple don't actively go out and fetch them. HTTP, everyone seems to forget in the way they use language in this debate, is a pull medium, not a push medium. The implications and associative meanings of the terms chosen colour the emotional tone of the debate in a way that pre-judges a certain desired conclusion.Congratulations, this is the weakest attempt to justify theft I think I've ever seen. The fact is you are violating the social contract by taking content without upholding your end of the bargain. That makes you a thieving bastard. If you can live with that, fine, but stop spewing bullshit in an attempt to rationalize your choice.
My web browser does not support Flash, so I see very few ads. Does this make me a thieving bastard?
@ekolis said:
In order to assign dgtID, it would first need to compare the existing value of dgtID to the link button ID, but in order to do THAT, it would need a value of dgtID to compare, but dgtID is not declared yet, which should cause a compile error...
Last time I checked, BASIC was not C, and didn't require you to pre-declare variables.
@Wolftaur said:
The real proof is people who go insane encrypting their hard drives and then just back up to unencrypted media.
Presumably it's easier to store the backup media in a physically-secure location (say, a safe) than it is to store a live server there.
@movzx said:
@anima said:
To sum things up and start the story, the place in question is a school. As such, one might expect to have good IT technicians, and certainly that they know how to handle their stuff.Ahahahahahahahaa!!
I guess you haven't worked with schools much in the past. :)
Out of 700+ schools I can count the number of competent IT folks on both hands.
The average school has no shortage of competent IT people: if you've got a problem, ask one of the brighter students to fix it.
@AssimilatedByBorg said:
@bstorer said:
But can the Atlantic Ocean stop FedEx delivery trucks?I'm going to go out on a limb here: I sincerely doubt it switched to a delivery truck for the trip from Memphis to Great Britain.
Filed under: The Atlantic Ocean cannot stop curses
@morbiuswilters said:
No, but the forum software won't let me add a "humor" tag.@Carnildo said:
The Real WTFTM is that you call it a "tube" station when it's clearly a covered platform.Are you serious?
The Real WTFTM is that you call it a "tube" station when it's clearly a covered platform.
Is that a Java applet they're using for the calendar, or is there some other reason why the "save" and "cancel" buttons don't match the rest of the user interface?
@tgape said:
@Carnildo said:Last night, the battery in the UPS "protecting" my home server failed its self-test. This revealed a couple of WTFs.
- The battery self-test apparently involves temporarily disconnecting the UPS from the mains supply. This means that when the battery failed, the unit power-cycled the computer it was supposed to be protecting.
Oddly enough, at work, they always schedule an 'outage window' whenever they do their periodic UPS testing - despite the fact that all of our gear is supposed to be dual powered.
Every UPS I've ever personally used also disconnects power from the main when doing a manual test. This includes APC, Belkin, and Tripp Lite, as well as a few whose brands I'm not recalling at the moment. As such, it's more than just the other people on this board who think it's not a WTF that the self-test actually tests the UPS completely.
This is the automatic every-fourteen-days test. Manual testing involves unplugging the unit from the wall, and in that case, if the battery were failing, I'd expect it to power-cycle the attached computer.
@Sir Twist said:
- Usually, the battery will be detected as failing long before it
can’t carry the load during the test. Did you perhaps under-rate the
UPS for the connected devices. (I see you chose the 350 VA Back-UPS from the list; is the power supply in the server >= 200W1? Is there something else also connected?)- To test with a resistor it would have to have something like this resistor and a big hunk of aluminum for a heatsink.
You should probably consider a higher-rated UPS and possibly one of the higher-end models, especially for something you’re classing as a “server”
@DaveK said:
@Carnildo said:
Last night, the battery in the UPS "protecting" my home server failed its self-test. This revealed a couple of WTFs.Just exactly how good a test do you think it's going to be if it doesn't involve actually testing whether the dam' thing is going to work in a crisis or not?
- The battery self-test apparently involves temporarily disconnecting the UPS from the mains supply.
I expect it to run the test in a fail-safe manner, perhaps by connecting the inverter output across a high-wattage resistor for a few seconds.
Last night, the battery in the UPS "protecting" my home server failed its self-test. This revealed a couple of WTFs.
@TwelveBaud said:
...while the most compatible option is MP3+XviD in an AVI RIFF container.
The most compatible option is old-fashioned MPEG-2. There's none of this nonsense about containers or codecs, and since it's the standard format for digital television and DVDs, everyone supports it.
@KattMan said:
Long lines are relative. What constitutes a long line for you?
Anything you need a second punchcard for.
@astonerbum said:
@Carnildo said:
@astonerbum said:The point someone made on TDWTF forms a while ago is that the web page does not have to use HTTPS(SSL)... just the submition does. Just because you connected using HTTPS does not mean that they cannot submit any form or do any server-interaction in non-https. Your browser icon is worth just as much as the pandora icon. Its just a way to make you feel more secure.
Every web browser I've used will throw up a dialog if you're on a secure page, but the URL you're submitting the form to is insecure. The browser icon means this page is secure, and the lack of a warning means that the next page is also secure.
Yea, but notice that MOST people will hide that warning permenently!
What browser are you using? Opera considers the "submitting a secure form to an insecure URL" message critical enough that you can't disable it.
@MiffTheFox said:
@campkev said:
You must correct the following errors before proceedingYour Question contains invalid characters please reenter
TRWTF is that there are even invalid characters to consider.
Unless the company is using a plain-text file for a "database", or not using SQL escaping, there's no way the question would contain invalid characters. (I'm assuming it's being stored as plaintext. Then again, it may not considering the WTF.)
It's quite possible to have invalid characters even if you're using SQL escaping. For example, U+FFFE is not a valid Unicode character, and many programs have problems with U+0000 characters within a text string.
@astonerbum said:
The point someone made on TDWTF forms a while ago is that the web page does not have to use HTTPS(SSL)... just the submition does. Just because you connected using HTTPS does not mean that they cannot submit any form or do any server-interaction in non-https. Your browser icon is worth just as much as the pandora icon. Its just a way to make you feel more secure.
Every web browser I've used will throw up a dialog if you're on a secure page, but the URL you're submitting the form to is insecure. The browser icon means this page is secure, and the lack of a warning means that the next page is also secure.
@dtech said:
Incorrect. You should know the only correct definition of boolean is one of the elements of {true, false, FILE_NOT_FOUND}
You sure of that? I recently encountered a boolean where the possible values were {"no", anything else}.
@morbiuswilters said:
@DaveK said:
@Physics Phil said:
@morbiuswilters said:It would be a@Carnildo said:
I don't know if
you're familiar with how SSL certificates work, but they're issued for
a specific URL. If you're visiting www.google.com, and the site
presents your browser with a certificate for www.microsoft.com, your
browser isn't going to let the connection go through: someone has
hijacked the site or your connection. This does not depend on any
action on the part of the user. (1) by itself isn't very useful, but
between them, (1) and (2) prevent a very wide range of attacks.I
don't know if you know how users think, but something like
ebay.comerce.ru is going to look legit to a lot of users. Hell, a
lot of people don't know what a URL is.
pretty half-arsed browser which didn't check for a domain name mismatch
and warn the end user about it. IIRC, even IE6 did that.But
there won't be any mismatch. "ebay.comerce.ru" is really the name
of the site; the fact that it's not owned by eBay, but by some russian
mafia phishing operation, cannot detected by verifying the certificate.In
this situation, SSL just guarantees that you're speaking to the phisher
that you didn't know you were talking to, and not being overheard by
some MitM.Precisely. So if the user doesn't pay attention to the URL all they see is the lock icon, colored-in address bar, eBay's logos, etc.. So yet again I will restate it: SSL certs are useless if users don't act with caution and intelligence. The CAs should catch stuff like "ebay.scammer.ru", but they don't always. Plus, there are many ways to work around it anyway if users aren't educated.
@morbiuswilters said:
@Carnildo said:
@morbiuswilters said:@gotPSP said:
Filed under: Security by "because we say it is"PROTIP: All Internet security is like that. Same thing with the Verisign logos and all that. Even certs themselves only mean security by "I paid that guy over there some money to look me over (along with millions of other people) and decide if I look trustworthy and he said I was cool." As always, you need to take responsbility and be intelligent. You can't expect technology to solve basic social problems like dishonesty.
In addition to "you look trustworthy", a certificate (properly used) says two other things, as well. 1) The connection is encrypted, and 2) the connection has been made to the website you think it's being made to.
1) An encrypted connection to a malicious party means nothing.
2) It means the cert has a name that looks legit and that the user reads it and understands. This has failed in the past, it will fail in the future.
I don't know if you're familiar with how SSL certificates work, but they're issued for a specific URL. If you're visiting www.google.com, and the site presents your browser with a certificate for www.microsoft.com, your browser isn't going to let the connection go through: someone has hijacked the site or your connection. This does not depend on any action on the part of the user. (1) by itself isn't very useful, but between them, (1) and (2) prevent a very wide range of attacks.
@belgariontheking said:
@Sunstorm said:
Needs more goatse.I don't really see that happening, as the css file in question resides on the website for a church.
Hotlink it!
@morbiuswilters said:
@gotPSP said:
Filed under: Security by "because we say it is"PROTIP: All Internet security is like that. Same thing with the Verisign logos and all that. Even certs themselves only mean security by "I paid that guy over there some money to look me over (along with millions of other people) and decide if I look trustworthy and he said I was cool." As always, you need to take responsbility and be intelligent. You can't expect technology to solve basic social problems like dishonesty.
In addition to "you look trustworthy", a certificate (properly used) says two other things, as well. 1) The connection is encrypted, and 2) the connection has been made to the website you think it's being made to.
The customer-support types at Pandora would have me believe that the little orange icon in the corner of the screen is proof that the (flash-based) form here is using encryption.
@Benanov said:
Lemme guess: modifying $Scrubee doesn't update the array.
Aah the joy of not understanding string mutability.
Well of course modifying $Scrubee doesn't modify $_[0]. They're different variables. What language are you programming in where "=" creates references rather than copies?
Recursion: See "Recursion".
@derula said:
@Gabelstaplerfahrer said:I am stupefied. HP has put a tool on their website, waaaay back in 2005 actually, that fixes the scanner problem. It's called the LaserJet Fix Scan Utility, and for once, it's not bloatware. The tool can be found here, and if the link doesn't work, it can be found at the bottom of the page where your drivers can be downloaded. Suggestion: unzip the .exe in a folder and run the .exe from there, the utility doesn't need to be installed.
What if I'm using Linux?
Then you didn't have the problem in the first place.
@morbiuswilters said:
@Carnildo said:
@_moz said:I don't know who you fear may have a claim against your company for that advert. Does a third party own the rights to one of the images used or something?Sarah Palin owns the personality rights to her appearance and name. X10 could be facing a hefty lawsuit.
She's a public figure. She has no right to sue.
As a public figure, it's very hard for her to sue for slander, which is what I suspect you're thinking of. However, that has nothing to do with personality rights (see Wikipedia's article for an overview of the subject). Since they're using her likeness and name in advertising, presumably without permission, she most certainly can sue.
@_moz said:
I don't know who you fear may have a claim against your company for that advert. Does a third party own the rights to one of the images used or something?
Sarah Palin owns the personality rights to her appearance and name. X10 could be facing a hefty lawsuit.
@operagost said:
My household only spends about $100 a month on electricity, and I don't think my area has particularly cheap energy. That number alone doesn't pass the smell test, because apparently I would be only spending $17 a month if I unplugged my microwave and wall warts.
I've always wondered about these multi-hundred-dollar electric bills I keep hearing about. The monthly bill for my apartment is around $35, and that's with an electric water heater, electric stove, electric baseboard heating, and eight computers.
@tdittmar said:
@TGV said:
ApplicationInstance.Instance.Database.OpenDatabase = true;That's not C# specific - you can do that in Delphi, C#, Java, etc. Actually, this is quite common. For example:
- To run the .NET Timer (the one you place on your form), you set its <font face="courier new,courier">Enabled</font> property to true.
- Most properties of graphical components in .NET call the Invalidate() or Update() method when their value is changed (e.g. the background color).
Just because a language can do something doesn't mean you should do it. See, for example, the International Obfuscated C Code Contest: yes, you can write incredible programs in 2k of unreadable C code, but should you?
@TwelveBaud said:
Ender, why did you change the ThreeDFaceText to be illegible on your WindowBackground? nVidia cannot be held accountable for your changing of color schemes.
He might not be the one at fault. nVidia has a habit of using horrid color schemes on their installers. Case in point: in the video driver update I installed recently, someone thought that black text on dark grey was a good color scheme for buttons.
@Daid said:
It should:
daid@server:~> cat test.c #include >stdio.h< int main(int argc, char** argv) { long i; char buffer[1024]; sprintf(buffer, "DROP OFF ERROR SQL:%ld,valid:%ld", i); return 0; } daid@server:~> gcc -o test.o -c test.c -Wall test.c: In function `main': test.c:7: warning: too few arguments for format
GCC is unique in that it can do type-checking on printf() format strings. None of the commercial compiler writers have figured out how to do it.
@MiffTheFox said:
This is 2008, people!
<account>
<username>pbean</username>
<password>oevyynag</password>
<year>1973</year>
</account>
Not flexible enough:
<account> <username encoding="ascii">pbean</account> <password encoding="ascii" encryption="rot13">oevyynag</password> <year calendar="gregorian" base="10">1973</year> </account>
@Zemm said:
I used to use ZipSlack on an actual parallel port Zip-100 drive (which I still have and still works with my Ubuntu, although 100MB media are pretty much useless these days) but I did move it onto a real hard drive (even converting the UMSDOS filesystem to ext2) after getting rid of DR-DOS/Win3.1. The Click of Death never affected me.
Not surprising. Most of the parallel-port Zip-100 drives were built before Iomega started cutting corners for the sake of increasing production.
@tchize said:
You know you don't need scripting of any sort to alternate row style, don't you?
Does this method work in real-world browsers, or only in a hypothetical browser that correctly implements all of CSS and HTML?
From Microsoft's documentation of the .inf file format:
Unconditional hooks are hooks that always get executed. These hooks are mentioned in the [Setup Hooks] section of the Internet Component Download INF file.....When the Code Downloader pulls down example.cab, it trust verifies the cabinet and then processes the INF. After Windows Internet Explorer finds that there is no [Add.Code] section, it processes the [Setup Hooks] section.
So, unconditional hooks are only executed if a certain section of the .inf file is not present. Doesn't seem unconditional to me.
@astonerbum said:
@Carnildo said:
@dhromed said:@BBC article said:
Mr Chambers, a state senator for 38 years, said he filed the suit to make the point that "anyone can sue anyone else, even God".I think this point has been made successfully, as the case was thrown out on legal technicality, rather than plain ridiculousness.
Ridiculousness can be appealed. Failure to serve notice can't.
Hmm does that mean that by this precidence god can no longer be sued since he has already been sued on all crap and had it thrown out? Doh
The only way to re-file a case that's been thrown out for failure to serve notice is to provide proof that notice has been served -- and the burden of effort is on the person wishing to file the suit. On the other hand, if a case is summarily dismissed for "being ridiculous", it can continue clogging up the system for a while as it works its way through appeals. Guess which method overworked judges prefer to use?
@dhromed said:
@BBC article said:
Mr Chambers, a state senator for 38 years, said he filed the suit to make the point that "anyone can sue anyone else, even God".I think this point has been made successfully, as the case was thrown out on legal technicality, rather than plain ridiculousness.
Ridiculousness can be appealed. Failure to serve notice can't.
@curtmack said:
@Zecc said:
@derula said:
Real Programmers use notepad! On Wine!I wouldn't be surprised if Notepad runs faster on Wine.runsfaster
Not doubting or anything, but how would that work? Windows always has common bits of code (like form controls) loaded into memory, whereas Wine has to load them into memory whenever a program is loaded. (Okay, so that's only a startup overhead, but I still don't see how it could be faster than using the native X11 libraries. Unless Linux+X11 uses less CPU cycles/memory than Windows, which is entirely plausible.)
Linux is much faster at allocating memory than Windows. You'd be amazed at how much of a difference that can make.
@DOA said:
Of course this posed the problem of deleting old emails. Someone, somewhere had to do it every now and then so the external server mailbox would not fill up. A certain user was chosen for this job, which we will be calling Paula. Paula was told to log into the external server via webmail and delete the emails every now and then.
Here's The Real WTFTM: you're asking a human to do a computer's job.
@Aaron said:
@CDarklock said:
Every twenty to thirty days, an iteration of the project is produced which is working and usable
Hahahahahahaha. Tell us another one.
Translated into ordinary English:
working = it compiles
usable = it doesn't always crash on startup
@lolwtf said:
The cause of the accident, which came as the crew tried to correct a reported fault in the aircraft's elevator control system, is being investigated by the the Air Transport Safety Bureau, with a computer problem considered a more likely explanation than air turbulence or human error.So while they were fucking around with the settings, it went down. Hm. Yep, must have been interference."The aircraft departed normal flight and climbed 300 feet," said Julian Walsh, director of aviation safety with the ATSB.
"The aircraft did that of its own accord and then, whilst the crew were doing the normal actions in response to that not normal situation, the aircraft then pitched down suddenly and quite rapidly," he said.
Normal procedure in response to uncommanded movement by the airplane is to disconnect the autopilot and restore level flight, something that any pilot with more than a dozen hours of flight time can do with ease. There's no "fucking around with the settings" involved.
These are ordinary lap belts, not five-point harnesses with helmets and head restraints. They'll keep you from flying across the cabin, but they won't protect you against whiplash or banging your head against the seat in front of you.