|
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Messages - milifist
Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 ... 10
1
« on: June 30, 2007, 12:12:53 PM »
Alternate title: Make milifist feel better about his job.
What is the craziest thing you have ever seen at work? Absurd code? Wacky policies? Anything to reaffirm my belief that other people have to deal with workplace insanity.
I'll start with my job to give a baseline.
I work as a web developer in a small subsidiary of a huge heartless corporation. We develop websites for a specific industry. These are hosted solutions that the clients sign multi-year contracts for service.
The insanity:
The core of our sites is a set of 10+ year-old C programs that generate the html that is sent to the browser. The basic page layouts are stored in an Oracle db. The C programs connect to the db, read the layouts, pulls in the specific data the is placed in the layouts, and then generates html tables to format everything.
Wrapped around the C programs is a mess of php, java, perl, javascript, and shell scripts. Our sites all use frame sets. They rely heavily on javascript for code functionality (including security), and our main menu is a java applet.
We typical host only two-three accounts per webserver. However, all of the accounts essentially connect to a single Oracle db server. And, all of the servers are running SCO UnixWare.
And if all of that weren't bad enough, we offer an offline version of our sites (each site is customized for each client). The offline version is basically a copy of the online version hosted an XAMPP. Which means that virtually anyone can see all of our source code (minus the C garbage).
No one involved in the creation of the C programs still works at the company, however we have a couple of old, ardent, C coders that insist php is too inefficient. So it is unlikely to be any changes anytime soon.
Make me fell better, top that for insanity. Please.
On the upside though, my boss is hot! Even if she is a bit like one of those touchy-feelly, go team! type managers...
2
« on: May 13, 2007, 12:07:19 PM »
Well maybe you don't but, heads with other people, but I do. Jerk: You're wrong. You don't even know what you're talking about. milifist: But, heads! Jerk: . . . . 
3
« on: May 11, 2007, 06:43:41 AM »
I loathe Chick Publications. However, that first tract does bring up an interesting question: why do so many parents lie to their children about Santa Claus, et. al. ? I just don't understand the logic of it. Kid: Mommy, why does Santa give me Christmas presents? Mommy: Well obviously because that total stranger loves you more than I do. My parents never lied about Santa or the Easter bunny (for pretty much the same point made in the tract: how could the expect me to believe what they say about God if they lie about Santa), so maybe the lies add some magic and mystery to the season the I missed out on.
4
« on: May 09, 2007, 03:04:18 PM »
everybody's a comedian these days. nobody is a GOOD comedian, but pro only
implies having been monetarily compensated. look at Kenny G, for heavens sakes.
so technically, you're all a real barrel of monkey's. thanks for the help. mentioning
that my father died wasn't a sick joke, btw. I'm trying to figure out if it's worth
the trouble to make his computer more functional. it's proving to be a
DELL-emma of Biblical proportion.
I would never have bought the thing, but here it sits. at least the processor
and the monitor are 'probably' worth keeping, like you give a rat's arse.
have a peachy day, Mr. Comedian 
oh, and if ya'all got ya a day job? hang on to that rascal, ya he'ah?
cheers!
Why bother making his computer better? He's dead! A better system isn't going to help him now.
5
« on: May 09, 2007, 12:23:55 PM »
I'm almost afraid to ask, but why are you reading up on making thermite?
6
« on: May 08, 2007, 10:59:04 PM »
He was still getting payed above minimum wage. WI's minimum is 6.50 (effective last June).
This is all one of the reasons I oppose raising the minimum wage. Everyone make over minimum also expects to get bumped up in pay. Employers have to pay more to get employees and the increase is ultimately pass on to the end consumer. It is what I call the $20 Big Mac scenario.
7
« on: May 07, 2007, 08:23:51 AM »
There has been a lot of people talking about why no one did anything when that kid was "obviously" crazy.
Obvious because he didn't talk much.
Obvious because he avoided eye contact.
Obvious because he sometimes signed attendance sheets in a non-conformist way.
Obvious because he wrote dark stories.
None of those things are indicators of insanity. So he wasn't an outgoing person. I'm not either and I've never killed anyone. So he wrote creepy, violent stories. I've been known to write some really dark, violent stuff and I've never killed anyone. I think it was inappropriate for his creative writing professor to decide that he might have mental health issues because of his writings.
Now the real problem indicators were the stalking accusations, and something was done about that.
8
« on: May 04, 2007, 08:13:30 PM »
It appears that you were the victim of a fairly cruel prank. I don't think he actually meant for you to degauss your monitor. I hope for your sake you didn't actually do it.
Degaussing pretty much ruins your monitor and video card by sending a low voltage current attenuation through both, normally for the purpose of clearing residual electrical charges. However, if one isn't there, it usually sends too much current through the main capacitor of the monitor, shortening its life significantly.
You'll be shopping for a new monitor in probably a month or so.
And when the monitor finally goes, it'll take the video card with it. Usually when monitors finally stop working, the video cards burn out because they have no place to send the signal. The best course of action is to replace the monitor before it actually burns out... that way you don't have to replace your video card too.
I work in IT for a living. I've seen it a million times. We just went through about 15 monitors where I work because of crap like that, and we had to replace the video cards in almost every case too.
9
« on: May 04, 2007, 04:45:06 PM »
By the way, any of you fine, wonderful people work with Oracle much? The company I'll be working for uses Oracle predominantly. I've only really worked with MySQL and a tiny bit of Transact SQL. I plan on taking a crash course in it over the next couple of days, but it would be nice to know if there were anyone I could get help from if I need it. At any rate, don't be surprised if I start posting lots of general SQL problems.
10
« on: May 04, 2007, 12:23:14 PM »
Yesterday I interviewed for a web application developer job. Four hours after the interview they called me back to offer me the job. So today I started brushing up on my javascript, php, etc. I started by printing off a bunch of cheat sheets from ILoveJackDaniels. Some of them are quite neat, particularly if you print them out on good card stock. I figure that if I end up in a cubicle (I haven't seen where I'll actually be working yet), I'll line the wall with 'em. The Regular Expressions one will be particularly useful for me because I can never remember them.
11
« on: May 03, 2007, 07:07:40 AM »
It is amazing the difference between a good, quality, (expensive), silk necktie and an average one. From now on, only really good ones for me.
12
« on: May 02, 2007, 08:21:36 PM »
Excellent! Never seen the bread trick. +1 I hate soldering copper, pex is so much easier to work with. And less likely to get stolen. Scrap copper price just skyrocketed up around here, so there is lot more people stealing copper. They've been mainly targeting AC units, but there were a couple of Food Lion maintenance guys who got caught stealing over $20K in copper from some of their buildings. Of course, sometimes you can't escape using copper. We recently had to connect a couple of big sanitizers for a hospital that involved a lot of soldering. Wouldn't have been so bad except it was a very confined work area and we had to work in bunny suits and booties (we worked on the contaminated side). Your tutorial is spot on. 
13
« on: May 02, 2007, 06:04:12 PM »
I doubt this is going to head into FCC territory.
I think the real difference is that no one really takes rappers too seriously. Many people may take offense at their language, but I suspect most people don't care enough about the opinions some recording artists passing themselves off as rhyming street hoods to get that worked up. No one really expects them to behave respectably. Imus was trying to straddle the fence between shock jock and respectable media personality.
14
« on: May 01, 2007, 04:06:52 PM »
Only the illegals.
15
« on: May 01, 2007, 01:51:17 PM »
Just got done listening to them. They are great!
I couldn't quite make out the words to TV, but it rocked none the less. Well done!
I was half-expecting aboriginal blues, but you can't really judge a book by the cover.
16
« on: May 01, 2007, 09:42:40 AM »
 I hate applying for new jobs. I never have any good references to give. I've spent too much time working in family-owned businesses. Makes it hard to give a reference who isn't related. The vast majority of people I've worked with in the last 10 years were related somehow.
17
« on: April 30, 2007, 01:53:10 PM »
Downloaded! I can't wait until I have chance to listen to them tonight. I'm glad the two soundcard method worked for you. Keep'em coming!
18
« on: April 30, 2007, 07:09:15 AM »
The other day my brother-in-law mentioned setting up a my sequel server. It took my several seconds to realize he was talking about MySQL.
I've always pronounced each letter in SQL. I'd call MySQL: my ess-cue-el and MSSQL: em-ess ess-cue-el (or Microsoft ess-cue-el).
He always uses "sequel". Catches me off guard every time.
What do you call it?
19
« on: April 27, 2007, 12:08:18 PM »
For awhile there, when I would start learning a new programming language, book database was the first thing I would write. It usually covers all of the important aspects of the language. I did it with: QuickBasic (not to be confused with QBasic) C++ ASP PHP I've recently started learning C#, but I just can't bring myself to do a book database this time around. It just wouldn't be able to compete with Readerware.
20
« on: April 27, 2007, 08:12:26 AM »
I have had this problem before, I spelled Massachusetts so badly that the spell checker returned masochist.
Having been to MA a number of times, I am inclined to agree with your spell checker. With 600+ books sitting on my shelf at the moment (and who knows how many packed away), it would take to long to put together a comprehensive list. Here are a couple of highlights: Escape to Hell and Other Stories by Muammar Qaddafi 1998 Bizarre and often pretentious, but oddly engrossing. Dude is totally nuts. The Chevalier Bayard: A Study in Fading Chivalry by Samuel Shellabarger 1928 An excellent examination of France's forgotten hero. Napoleon by Felix Markham 1966 Everything you need to know about Napoleon in 300 pages. The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas 1963 The book on the Spanish Civil War. The standard against the others a judged. The IRA: A History by Tim Pat Coogan 1994 A fairly comprehensive account of the IRA. I like it better than J. Bowyer Bell's book. Guerrilla Warfare by Ernesto "Che" Guevara 1983 The revolutionary's handbook. It essentially defines the difference between revolution and terrorism. National Security Decisions: The participants Speak 1990 A wonderful insight into the Cold War. Very informative. Soviet Economic Structure and Performance by Gregory and Stuart. 1974 Certainly not for everyone. It provides an in-depth examination of the Soviet Union's transition from a poor, early industrial nation to a super power in an economic context. West's Business Law: Alternate UCC Comprehensive Edition by Jentz, et. al. 1984 My edition is grossly out-of-date, but still an excellent guide to business law. There is so much to know about the legalities of doing business; this book really helps. One of these days I intend to try my hand at setting up a corporation (probably non-profit) just to go through the process. C++ How to Program by Deitel and Deitel 1994 The most comprehensive C++ book I have ever seen.
21
« on: April 24, 2007, 11:26:12 AM »
Bruce pwnage.
22
« on: April 21, 2007, 07:51:50 AM »
Cool. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy.
(Crazier than usual, anyway.)
23
« on: April 21, 2007, 07:31:10 AM »
Nah; the first time it was only up for about five minutes. The only members that were on at the time were Socrates, BizB, buddamus, and ivan was on, then off, then back on. I only know for sure because I was watching everyone to see if anyone went to look at it and comment. No one did, and in five minutes it had really made me mad seeing it, so I deleted it. You must've seen it after it was put back up.
It was put back up? I can't seem to find it.
24
« on: April 20, 2007, 06:44:45 PM »
She posted an image of the Virginia Tech shooter holding a hammer, but with the head of some American Idolatry contestant's face pasted in.
I found it mildly inappropriate.
25
« on: April 19, 2007, 02:42:51 PM »
When he first joined HN, I thought he was mostly annoying. I didn't know him as long as you other guys. I really didn't get it. Then everyone started posting the sweet lovin' and I had to start lurking Somewhere to understand anything you guys posted. Eventually I did get it (it helped to learn he was a big fan of Carlin and Kaufman).
If it helps anyone, the things that influence my humour the most are The Simpson's (obviously), and Ghoulardi (by proxy through my dad who was a big fan).
Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 ... 10
|
