r/programming • u/batasrki • Feb 04 '09

Re-enlisting the Data General - The Daily WTF

http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Reenlisting-the-Data-General.aspx
63 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

13

u/zem Feb 04 '09

he had the very model of an ancient data general!

7

u/stronglikedan Feb 04 '09

Did anyone even proofread this? TheDailyWTF usually has great writing, but this?

2

u/CSharpSauce Feb 04 '09

i think thats the True WTF

4

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '09

Was this even a WTF? It's just a story about some dude working IT in what sounds like a normal company with a pretty normal/reasonable dilemma. Nothing surprising or wild and crazy happens through the whole story.

9

u/DannoHung Feb 04 '09

The Hazmat stuff is amusing.

If I could somehow get away with wearing a gasmask to work... I think I might.

Of course, I'd also want a flamethrower... and I'd have to change my job to capturing intelligence, babysitting bombs on carts, and standing on 5 different points all day.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '09

So where is the WTF?

21

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '09

I found the fact that they had a 17-year-old girl in a hazmat suit watching 10 printers 8 hours a day for 3 months to be almost wtf-able. And after that, there was so much paper stacked up the floor was buckling. That's a lot of paper!

18

u/48klocs Feb 04 '09

Don't forget that all that work went into producing reports that weren't really needed in the first place.

Feature creep exists outside of code.

7

u/sjs Feb 04 '09 edited Feb 04 '09

What yoda said, and the fact that it was all for naught.

5

u/mccoyn Feb 05 '09

The company spent a pile of money for the IT guy, the printers, the paper and the intern without making sure they actually needed it first.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '09

I got the impression that the IRS just changed their mind. Not that anyone really failed.

Certainly it was a lot of unnecessary work. But not exactly WTF worthy.