I have done a stupid!!!!!
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In a rush to email some code last night, I sent the wrong executable one which contained the following bit of test code
if (txtSerialNumberRead != txtSerialNumber_ReadIn)
{
MessageBox.Show("ERROR!! Kill all humans");
MessageBox.Show("Serial Number Entered Does Not Match **** Attached", "**** Tester", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error);
}
//elseThe proper build does not offer death to humanity just the lower message, here's hoping the recipients look at there next mail before running it! Anybody else had this happen, shipped something with a dumb comment not hidden? or is it just me! Glenn
quick one when I was very young... had a dataease database, that I was using to mailshot clients with, part of the data export procedure to create the mailshot was it would give them a client code based on the first 3 letters of the first name of the company followed by the first letter of any other word (I was very young and green) took a while before anyone noticed what it was calling "Cunningham Turner Solicitors"...
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quick one when I was very young... had a dataease database, that I was using to mailshot clients with, part of the data export procedure to create the mailshot was it would give them a client code based on the first 3 letters of the first name of the company followed by the first letter of any other word (I was very young and green) took a while before anyone noticed what it was calling "Cunningham Turner Solicitors"...
Like it!
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In a rush to email some code last night, I sent the wrong executable one which contained the following bit of test code
if (txtSerialNumberRead != txtSerialNumber_ReadIn)
{
MessageBox.Show("ERROR!! Kill all humans");
MessageBox.Show("Serial Number Entered Does Not Match **** Attached", "**** Tester", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error);
}
//elseThe proper build does not offer death to humanity just the lower message, here's hoping the recipients look at there next mail before running it! Anybody else had this happen, shipped something with a dumb comment not hidden? or is it just me! Glenn
I used to work for a firm that made tracking electronics and a colleague of mine was was testing a touch memory reader. For those that don't know, Dallas touch memory devices primarily contain (among other things) a "semi-unique" serial number that you can use for identification purposes which can be read by electrical contact using a two-wire protocol. The thing was like a gun with a trigger and a small LCD display. The idea was you touch the memory device, read its serial number it reports what it was purporting to represent on the LCD. Well, being the wag that he was, the test data loaded into the prototype unit were such edifying gems as "Betty Swollocks" and "Mary Hinge". This was great fun until a customer came around for a demo and was not very impressed by what she saw.... Yep, the moral of the story is just don't do it. :D
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I am regarded the same way, give it Glenn, if he can't break it no one can with ease!
Nothing quite as embarassing as that. I occasionally would put a movie quote in the comments as a joke for the other developers, in case we had to work on each other's code. So, in this one Excel macro, which was summing up values, I wrote: "There is not enough time to explain, let me sum up..." - Inigo Montoya A year or so went by, then I got a phone call from someone who had run the macro, and received an error and had chosen "Debug", which of course displayed the line which the error had occurred and the comment above.
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Thats a good idea! hadn't though of that ;)
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quick one when I was very young... had a dataease database, that I was using to mailshot clients with, part of the data export procedure to create the mailshot was it would give them a client code based on the first 3 letters of the first name of the company followed by the first letter of any other word (I was very young and green) took a while before anyone noticed what it was calling "Cunningham Turner Solicitors"...
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I used to work for a firm that made tracking electronics and a colleague of mine was was testing a touch memory reader. For those that don't know, Dallas touch memory devices primarily contain (among other things) a "semi-unique" serial number that you can use for identification purposes which can be read by electrical contact using a two-wire protocol. The thing was like a gun with a trigger and a small LCD display. The idea was you touch the memory device, read its serial number it reports what it was purporting to represent on the LCD. Well, being the wag that he was, the test data loaded into the prototype unit were such edifying gems as "Betty Swollocks" and "Mary Hinge". This was great fun until a customer came around for a demo and was not very impressed by what she saw.... Yep, the moral of the story is just don't do it. :D
but if you must try not to be too offensive a little clean humour can at times be useful.
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In a rush to email some code last night, I sent the wrong executable one which contained the following bit of test code
if (txtSerialNumberRead != txtSerialNumber_ReadIn)
{
MessageBox.Show("ERROR!! Kill all humans");
MessageBox.Show("Serial Number Entered Does Not Match **** Attached", "**** Tester", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error);
}
//elseThe proper build does not offer death to humanity just the lower message, here's hoping the recipients look at there next mail before running it! Anybody else had this happen, shipped something with a dumb comment not hidden? or is it just me! Glenn
That isn't as far off of normal error messages as you think. Consider what non-computer people think when they encounter error messages that make sense to us. For instance, my grandfather a few years ago told me the story of getting his first computer, using it for a while, and then suddenly a screen came up that said, "Illegal instruction. Fatal error." and he nervously glanced out the window to see if any police cars were around, and wondered if his will should be in order. He was joking when he told the story, but he probably didn't have any idea what that message actually meant, whereas it had never even occurred to me that those words would mean something completely different to a non-programmer.
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That isn't as far off of normal error messages as you think. Consider what non-computer people think when they encounter error messages that make sense to us. For instance, my grandfather a few years ago told me the story of getting his first computer, using it for a while, and then suddenly a screen came up that said, "Illegal instruction. Fatal error." and he nervously glanced out the window to see if any police cars were around, and wondered if his will should be in order. He was joking when he told the story, but he probably didn't have any idea what that message actually meant, whereas it had never even occurred to me that those words would mean something completely different to a non-programmer.
I was afraid when I posted this that "proper" Softies would be very unsympathetic and scornful of some Hardware guy scratching at Windows, I have in the past when I was working on some embedded code and needed a way of showing an error made an LED flash SOS in Morse code (really just messing around until some body got back to me). That is now a valued feature of that product as it gives service guys an indication of what has gone wrong.
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but if you must try not to be too offensive a little clean humour can at times be useful.
Yeah, it certainly does help to inject a little humour into your work just to humanise it a little, I'm all for that. If you do, you just have to be careful who sees it :D On a related topic, at the same place, albeit in a different department and some years prior, I did see a serial protocol used to communicate with a handheld. We had two types of a particular application that ran on this Symbol handheld machine and to differentiate, the writer added a 4-character "identifier" to the stream header. In this case, the word was "FUKU". No chance of a customer seeing that, but it did bring a smile to me face.
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Yeah, it certainly does help to inject a little humour into your work just to humanise it a little, I'm all for that. If you do, you just have to be careful who sees it :D On a related topic, at the same place, albeit in a different department and some years prior, I did see a serial protocol used to communicate with a handheld. We had two types of a particular application that ran on this Symbol handheld machine and to differentiate, the writer added a 4-character "identifier" to the stream header. In this case, the word was "FUKU". No chance of a customer seeing that, but it did bring a smile to me face.
Ha, I knew it! also Symbol handheld, #FUKU# sounds familiar I might know the author in previous job.
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Ha, I knew it! also Symbol handheld, #FUKU# sounds familiar I might know the author in previous job.
There's actually no harm in being specific here since the company has long since disappeared. The company was Zengrange in Leeds, England and it was for a long defunct system for BOC. The guy who wrote the program has a nick name which I can't remember although it might have started with "M". No names, no pack drill and all that... If you wish to carry the conversation further, feel free to pm me.
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There's actually no harm in being specific here since the company has long since disappeared. The company was Zengrange in Leeds, England and it was for a long defunct system for BOC. The guy who wrote the program has a nick name which I can't remember although it might have started with "M". No names, no pack drill and all that... If you wish to carry the conversation further, feel free to pm me.
Oh not the guy I was think of. However the bit of code I was referring to came from the Leeds area so we might have inherited from Zengrange and modded it for an RF-ID use. Does the name 'Camper' ring any bells. Not too sure of how use the Private Messenger. Glenn
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Oh not the guy I was think of. However the bit of code I was referring to came from the Leeds area so we might have inherited from Zengrange and modded it for an RF-ID use. Does the name 'Camper' ring any bells. Not too sure of how use the Private Messenger. Glenn
No worries. I seem to remember that the software was for BOC/ICI to do with their tracking of dewar deliveries of gases I believe. I didn't work much on the code itself although I did do some mods on it. If memory serves me correctly, we used some of the REALLY early Symbol handhelds that you programmed by dropping in an EPROM. Testing was a bit of a trial. We had to compile everything up, download to a burner, erase and program up a prom, stick it in and try it. Ah, happy days. At some point I think we did try RFID tags, the idea being that the gas bottles etc would be tagged and you could scan the entire delivery by just being in close proximity. But reception was pretty bad and the metal of the containers would hide some of the tags so reliability was a problem. Mostly barcodes were used instead although they would get scuffed and rubbed off. The two guys that were mainly involved were Neil Carman and the other guy whose name escapes me for the moment although I do remember that he had a nickname (something like "murph") and was a really keen rally car racer. 'Twas all a really long time ago.
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No worries. I seem to remember that the software was for BOC/ICI to do with their tracking of dewar deliveries of gases I believe. I didn't work much on the code itself although I did do some mods on it. If memory serves me correctly, we used some of the REALLY early Symbol handhelds that you programmed by dropping in an EPROM. Testing was a bit of a trial. We had to compile everything up, download to a burner, erase and program up a prom, stick it in and try it. Ah, happy days. At some point I think we did try RFID tags, the idea being that the gas bottles etc would be tagged and you could scan the entire delivery by just being in close proximity. But reception was pretty bad and the metal of the containers would hide some of the tags so reliability was a problem. Mostly barcodes were used instead although they would get scuffed and rubbed off. The two guys that were mainly involved were Neil Carman and the other guy whose name escapes me for the moment although I do remember that he had a nickname (something like "murph") and was a really keen rally car racer. 'Twas all a really long time ago.
I think I have met (or crossed swords with more accurately) Neil Carman (or was Caraman?), to do with 13.56 Tag reflections off an antenna I designed. (cue dream sequence wibbly wobbly lines) Murph sounds familiar. Small, Small world! Glenn