3 ms·

The Smell-O-Vision

13 points by douche 9y ago

vijucat 9y ago
I find the language off-putting. Calling people who don't understand technology "grunts", and then "facepalm"-ing repeatedly at their failure to understand what you are an expert at...I believe this is called "Outgroup derogation": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingroups_and_outgroups#Outgroup_derogation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingroups_and_outgroups#Outgrou... Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-group_homogeneity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-group_homogeneity Put yourself in the place of that "grunt": would you expect a toaster or a microwave to be carefully shut down first, or expect it to be just fine when you turn the power off? IMHO, if their software is expected to be used in real-world, on-the-road situations by untrained generalists, then it is the failure of the software firm to have built resilience as a feature. To suck at requirements elicitation, suck at UX and then blame the user is not appropriate, IMHO. Did the "grunt" ask you to choose Windows XP as the vehicle of choice for your implementation? Ironically, it is exactly this kind of disconnect with paying customers and fellow humans beings that causes management to view programmers as the "grunt"-workers. Sorry for the screed. Summary: UX "R" compassion.
- majewsky 9y ago
  > Calling people who don't understand technology "grunts" Not a native speaker, but since the customer is the military, "grunt" is likely not meant derogatory, but just is (quoting Wikipedia) "an infantry man, in military slang". The repeated facepalming is clearly outgroup derogation, though. That's just thedailywtf.com; their articles are always like that. I had them in my feed reader, but got tired of that writing style eventually.
- Asooka 9y ago
  Doesn't he mean "grunt" in the military sense? TDWTF is not known as a bastion of PC, but they're usually not purposefully malicious in their language. For the rest I do agree that making an appliance that has to be carefully shut down is the real WTF. Article comments seem to agree, too.
- douche 9y ago
  The users were low-ranking US military service members. In that context, "grunt" does not particularly have any negative connotations, and if these folks were in reality REMFs, could actually be considered a compliment. Military slang is a whole wonderful world of its own http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=grunt http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=grunt
blkhawk 9y ago
Well this is typical dailywtf - while amusing most of the stories are massaged to be more entertaining to such a degree it become unrealistic. While Windows XP will offer to to do a repair when it gets shutdown suddenly normally doing that won't cause filesystem corruption or even HARDWARE damage as is implied in the story. My guess from the description is that the generator power is probably dirty - the right fix would have been an online UPS here with an app that shuts the machine down on power loss. A second factor might be that the PC was set to start automatically when Power was applied and while booting up it gets turned off again several times I think a Windows XP (and windows 7) machine will then ask for user interaction. You can turn this Function off tho and Windows will ignore power loss after that.
- thatwebdude 9y ago
  > the right fix would have been an online UPS here with an app that shuts the machine down on power loss. That's my thought. I've done enough end-user work to know I really should try to avoid all possible issues relating the user, assuming my work allows a timeline to do so.
- dmckeon 9y ago
  > A second factor might be that the PC was set to start automatically when Power was applied and while booting up it gets turned off again several times ... Small generator manuals often suggest that the generator motor be warmed up and running smoothly before an electrical load is applied. Possible scenario: generator motor is hard to start, or awkward to choke/unchoke, "starting" involves 2 or 3 rounds of: start generator, motor runs rough, choke setting is fumbled, generator stalls, PC halts before boot completes, lather, rinse, repeat.

13 points by douche 9y ago

I find the language off-putting. Calling people who don't understand technology "grunts", and then "facepalm"-ing repeatedly at their failure to understand what you are an expert at...I believe this is called "Outgroup derogation": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingroups_and_outgroups#Outgroup_derogation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingroups_and_outgroups#Outgrou... Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-group_homogeneity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-group_homogeneity Put yourself in the place of that "grunt": would you expect a toaster or a microwave to be carefully shut down first, or expect it to be just fine when you turn the power off? IMHO, if their software is expected to be used in real-world, on-the-road situations by untrained generalists, then it is the failure of the software firm to have built resilience as a feature. To suck at requirements elicitation, suck at UX and then blame the user is not appropriate, IMHO. Did the "grunt" ask you to choose Windows XP as the vehicle of choice for your implementation? Ironically, it is exactly this kind of disconnect with paying customers and fellow humans beings that causes management to view programmers as the "grunt"-workers. Sorry for the screed. Summary: UX "R" compassion.

majewsky 9y ago
> Calling people who don't understand technology "grunts" Not a native speaker, but since the customer is the military, "grunt" is likely not meant derogatory, but just is (quoting Wikipedia) "an infantry man, in military slang". The repeated facepalming is clearly outgroup derogation, though. That's just thedailywtf.com; their articles are always like that. I had them in my feed reader, but got tired of that writing style eventually.
Asooka 9y ago
Doesn't he mean "grunt" in the military sense? TDWTF is not known as a bastion of PC, but they're usually not purposefully malicious in their language. For the rest I do agree that making an appliance that has to be carefully shut down is the real WTF. Article comments seem to agree, too.
douche 9y ago
The users were low-ranking US military service members. In that context, "grunt" does not particularly have any negative connotations, and if these folks were in reality REMFs, could actually be considered a compliment. Military slang is a whole wonderful world of its own http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=grunt http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=grunt

blkhawk 9y ago

Well this is typical dailywtf - while amusing most of the stories are massaged to be more entertaining to such a degree it become unrealistic. While Windows XP will offer to to do a repair when it gets shutdown suddenly normally doing that won't cause filesystem corruption or even HARDWARE damage as is implied in the story. My guess from the description is that the generator power is probably dirty - the right fix would have been an online UPS here with an app that shuts the machine down on power loss. A second factor might be that the PC was set to start automatically when Power was applied and while booting up it gets turned off again several times I think a Windows XP (and windows 7) machine will then ask for user interaction. You can turn this Function off tho and Windows will ignore power loss after that.

thatwebdude 9y ago
> the right fix would have been an online UPS here with an app that shuts the machine down on power loss. That's my thought. I've done enough end-user work to know I really should try to avoid all possible issues relating the user, assuming my work allows a timeline to do so.
dmckeon 9y ago
> A second factor might be that the PC was set to start automatically when Power was applied and while booting up it gets turned off again several times ... Small generator manuals often suggest that the generator motor be warmed up and running smoothly before an electrical load is applied. Possible scenario: generator motor is hard to start, or awkward to choke/unchoke, "starting" involves 2 or 3 rounds of: start generator, motor runs rough, choke setting is fumbled, generator stalls, PC halts before boot completes, lather, rinse, repeat.