4 ms·

Tales from the Programming Trenches

29 points by aerique 17y ago

forinti 17y ago
This stupid manager/analyst comes to my desk complaining that everything's stopped working. He was quite angry. I check it out and find out he has changed some tables. I confront him, and he replies "but isn't the system object-oriented?". Sigh. When we put lots of data into the database, the system starts working very slowly. He gets angry again. So I look carefully and find out that he didn't create any indexes. In fact, he didn't know what they were. And I was the one who couldn't touch the database, because I might break something! Sigh.
ganley 17y ago
Just wow. I must have been good and/or lucky at choosing where I work and with whom, because in my 15-year career I've never encountered this kind of stupidity. I've certainly never encountered the likes of Baltar.
larsberg 17y ago
He didn't have a chance to look too closely when he was a vendor at MSFT: - build.exe is not perl. Perl (and many other tools) have been used to do specific tasks within the build, but build.exe is essentially a makefile driver. You can read documentation on it in the Windows Driver SDK. - FCIBs (* checked in binaries) were the exception, not the rule. But sometimes, you have something from a third party that you don't have source access to. Even when you're MSFT. Given the security review paranoia now, I would be shocked if any still exist. - robocopy doesn't fix "bugs" in xcopy; it supports mirroring and checksum validations. Let's put it like we're in third grade again -- robocopy:xcopy::rsync:cp. Robocopy is available via the Windows Server Resource Kit, last I checked five years or so ago. I'm sure this guy has had a bunch of interesting experiences and has a lot to share, but the lack of any investigation whatsoever of the tools he was using on a daily basis and wildly incorrect statements about them feels like a Fox News Special Report.
- profquail 17y ago
  Robocopy is available in a stock Windows 7 installation. It may have been in Vista too, but I don't remember for certain. Just FYI...
DannoHung 17y ago
The thing about the XBox and not providing a Linux kit: I thought that there was some sort of import tariff on computers that wasn't on game consoles in the EU or something like that. Or maybe I've got it the other way around? I can't quite remember, my memory is fuzzy.
kabdib 17y ago
Everything he said about the Xbox internals and the attitude of the security folks there (which is fantastic) was wrong. Entertaining. But still wrong.

29 points by aerique 17y ago

This stupid manager/analyst comes to my desk complaining that everything's stopped working. He was quite angry. I check it out and find out he has changed some tables. I confront him, and he replies "but isn't the system object-oriented?". Sigh. When we put lots of data into the database, the system starts working very slowly. He gets angry again. So I look carefully and find out that he didn't create any indexes. In fact, he didn't know what they were. And I was the one who couldn't touch the database, because I might break something! Sigh.

ganley 17y ago

Just wow. I must have been good and/or lucky at choosing where I work and with whom, because in my 15-year career I've never encountered this kind of stupidity. I've certainly never encountered the likes of Baltar.

larsberg 17y ago

He didn't have a chance to look too closely when he was a vendor at MSFT: - build.exe is not perl. Perl (and many other tools) have been used to do specific tasks within the build, but build.exe is essentially a makefile driver. You can read documentation on it in the Windows Driver SDK. - FCIBs (* checked in binaries) were the exception, not the rule. But sometimes, you have something from a third party that you don't have source access to. Even when you're MSFT. Given the security review paranoia now, I would be shocked if any still exist. - robocopy doesn't fix "bugs" in xcopy; it supports mirroring and checksum validations. Let's put it like we're in third grade again -- robocopy:xcopy::rsync:cp. Robocopy is available via the Windows Server Resource Kit, last I checked five years or so ago. I'm sure this guy has had a bunch of interesting experiences and has a lot to share, but the lack of any investigation whatsoever of the tools he was using on a daily basis and wildly incorrect statements about them feels like a Fox News Special Report.

profquail 17y ago
Robocopy is available in a stock Windows 7 installation. It may have been in Vista too, but I don't remember for certain. Just FYI...

DannoHung 17y ago

The thing about the XBox and not providing a Linux kit: I thought that there was some sort of import tariff on computers that wasn't on game consoles in the EU or something like that. Or maybe I've got it the other way around? I can't quite remember, my memory is fuzzy.

kabdib 17y ago

Everything he said about the Xbox internals and the attitude of the security folks there (which is fantastic) was wrong. Entertaining. But still wrong.