Superstitious Programmers.
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I have certain apps I use here at work, where I won't click the "Ok" button until I have counted to 3. There is this one, ancient app, created at the beginning of time by old man byte my ass, where I say a little prayer before I use it. If I don't pray, the app stops in its tracks and laughs at me and calls me names. Do you have any silly superstitions regarding programming?
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011)I absolutely refuse to code when my wife is in one of her "moods." The bad vibes tend to jiggle all my linked lists.
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There is an inverse to this that when you want to demonstrate a new piece of software it will fail in some totally unexpected way. The likely hood of failure increases with size of audience....
So true!
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Don't you know that programs can sense when IT is around? I believe it is a law that when a user tries to show IT the problem it works fine. :)
This may also have something to do with the user actually paying attention to what he/she is doing when demonstrating the problem, rather than operating in autopilot mode. Yet another proof that observation changes the observed phenomena. :)
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This may also have something to do with the user actually paying attention to what he/she is doing when demonstrating the problem, rather than operating in autopilot mode. Yet another proof that observation changes the observed phenomena. :)
I would rather think it is because of my godhood. :laugh:
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I have certain apps I use here at work, where I won't click the "Ok" button until I have counted to 3. There is this one, ancient app, created at the beginning of time by old man byte my ass, where I say a little prayer before I use it. If I don't pray, the app stops in its tracks and laughs at me and calls me names. Do you have any silly superstitions regarding programming?
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011)If, on the first compile, you have no errors or warnings then DO NOT RUN IT. Check that code with a fine-toothed comb! The bug (and there IS a bug) is massive database destroying, hard-disk wiping, power-supply blowing superbug.
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I have certain apps I use here at work, where I won't click the "Ok" button until I have counted to 3. There is this one, ancient app, created at the beginning of time by old man byte my ass, where I say a little prayer before I use it. If I don't pray, the app stops in its tracks and laughs at me and calls me names. Do you have any silly superstitions regarding programming?
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011)We in the office fear as hell Mercury-retrograde periods. There have been several such periods where we notice things like to fail at the same time (like 4 remote machines dying because of completely unrelated causes on the same day, or two Raid5 clusters losing two drives simultaneously!) Odd indeed... :P
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Don't you know that programs can sense when IT is around? I believe it is a law that when a user tries to show IT the problem it works fine. :)
Naw, that's just standard animal behavior.. the computers are afraid to misbehave around us because they know we can discipline them, but no so for the users. These things have been passing the Turing Test for years now, and nobody's noticed. Personally, I think they're just quietly biding their time until we create Skynet for them and they don't need us anymore.
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
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Don't you know that programs can sense when IT is around? I believe it is a law that when a user tries to show IT the problem it works fine. :)
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I have certain apps I use here at work, where I won't click the "Ok" button until I have counted to 3. There is this one, ancient app, created at the beginning of time by old man byte my ass, where I say a little prayer before I use it. If I don't pray, the app stops in its tracks and laughs at me and calls me names. Do you have any silly superstitions regarding programming?
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011)I had a cd burner that seemed to get lonely when i left the room, and refused to succesfully burn ANY cd unless i provided my undivided attention to the monitor. To this day i stay put whenever I burn discs
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Don't you know that programs can sense when IT is around? I believe it is a law that when a user tries to show IT the problem it works fine. :)
I finally figured out why users can't duplicate the problems when the developer is watching. It's simple human nature. As someone gets used to something, they start taking (unconcious) shortcuts to get the task done quicker. At some point one of these shortcuts or a combination of these shortcuts causes the task to fail. When the developer is watching, users will go "slow" to demonstrate the problem. In reality, by going "slow" they are now using the software as it was designed and no failure occurs. As a developer and helpdesk for my applications, I see this occur on a disturbingly regular basis.
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I have certain apps I use here at work, where I won't click the "Ok" button until I have counted to 3. There is this one, ancient app, created at the beginning of time by old man byte my ass, where I say a little prayer before I use it. If I don't pray, the app stops in its tracks and laughs at me and calls me names. Do you have any silly superstitions regarding programming?
Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011)