90 thoughts on “Meme Baby One More Time

    1. Too dang often.

      Along with:

      “It worked fine last month!” (Just because adding a snippet of code that exposed the flaw in last months code.)

      “Well. S*** can’t do that!”

      “Um. That didn’t work.”

      “oops. Didn’t mean for that to happen.”

      I’m missing some. Hey, I’ve been out of coding now for almost 8 years. I’m starting to forget all the difficult times. Starting to blend into all only successes. :-) :-) :-) (ROFLOL – JIC)

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      1. I’ll be honest Dep729 I’ve been doing it for 40+ years, you just find new and unique ways to screw things up :-) .

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        1. (Almost) 35 years programming before I retired. But then I started mid-late 20’s. And, yes. I am pretty sure I’d have come up with creative ways to get into coding trouble if I hadn’t retired 8 years ago.

          My first required programming class, and last, until ’83, was winter term ’76. I swore to have nothing to do with computers. Flow charts were a foreign language. The mainframe basic, on a teletype (at least not cards) was worse, and the whole thing kept going down. Never done any programming, at all, before that.

          Then ’83 when forced into a career change (Forestry). (Aside note: Timber tanked, true, but since career tanked, how about starting a family? … That was not happening either.) Talked a councilor to see what I needed for accounting (if can’t do what I wanted, then will do what is easy. Trust me, accounting would have been easy. Not fun, but easy.) Councilor said “You’d be good at programming. Should try that.” I laughed at her. Bottom line, still had to take the 3 series accounting classes and the intro to computers, that summer to start. Big difference a little over 7 years made. I loved programming. Before winter term, ’84 I was tutoring and getting paid to code (I tend to dive into stuff). Didn’t get paid for software engineering/design/coding until ’90, after got the 4 year degree. (First full time employer wanted me to have the computer bachelors. Employer paid for it, one term at a time, until they moved out of town. Finished on my own working part time.) Rest is history.

          Liked by 1 person

      1. Morning of 11/11/2023. I finally gave up after getting up to use the bathroom for the 5th time … every hour since 1 AM. Sigh.

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      1. Whiner is complaining he had a cookie, biotch I only had an old thin mint covered in cat hair.
        tee hee

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  1. It’s even more interesting when the comments don’t explain the code. Or, when the comments refer to several previous revisions of the section. “But I was in a hurry!”

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    1. At least in my experience, the source code to relatively bug-free games is full of stuff like:
      // WARNING!! MUST BE FIXED BEFORE LAUNCH!!
      // really kludgy, takes 500ms but should only be called once
      // I fixed this while drunk, don’t ask me how it works
      // a list of queues is the worst way to handle this, but we launch in three weeks
      AssertMsg(rot > 7, “f you Joe, this is radians, not degrees!”)
      // forget everything you learned in school, you work at [company] now
      // if this happens again, it is reality that is wrong

      And in my experience, the source code to relatively buggy games…has few and only serious or nonsensical comments.

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      1. LOL. Never worked on games. But did have to leave the following comment in code Feb 1996 after the division assets (timber lands) were acquired, and split, by 2 different companies. Then I was told each had plenty of programmers, and I wasn’t needed. Okay then:

        // Temporary fix until new system is written:
        // Make code changes.
        // Send code to Xenix machine at remote location.
        // Compile
        // Test at remote system
        // Copy EXE back to Unix system
        // Test on Unix system
        // Compare results
        // Repeat as needed.
        // Note. Believe it or not this is faster than dialup remote connection to make code changes, compile, and test, before copying exe to unix system and testing. Because the dialup connection Will Fail.
        // Main system had failed. Updated to Unix from Xenix, because new hardware will not run Xenix. But compiling Cobol for Unix and touching the data changes the data format. Now programs and data are incompatible and with the two remote systems, which can not be updated to Unix. Replacing the hardware is not an option. Per PTB, must be compatible.
        // System takes 2 years to test to verify data not corrupted by OS change. Note, it was.
        // System is being rewritten to integrate into SQL and GIS system
        // Compiling on old Xenix OS on remote system, copying EXE back to Unix, keeps everything working properly. Thus the above instruction patch.
        // Oh. Have. Fun.

        Comment in 2002 C code dealing with file indexes:
        // I know there is a dang, very infrequent, bug in here, but darn if I can find it. (Details of symptoms reported.)

        Details, that now, 2023, I do not remember. But, 8 months after I got bankruptcy cut, when called by one of the surviving hardware engineers, I was able to direct to where I thought the problem was. Interestingly enough, they didn’t find it either. One of those, If problem can’t be recreated, code is not getting changed.

        Was also known to put in comments of what cause and fix were, like:
        (FYI, not guilty of either original bug.)

        // Records getting cut because, when moving blocks of file data by 1k blocks, code was only copying 1000 bytes, not 1025 bytes.

        // Program slowed because instead of swapping least used 1k memory key buffer to drive, swapping Most used 1k buffer.

        // key files of large presorted lookup files are (much) bigger than actual data files because the B-Star key buffers are only half full when process is completed. Huge problem on device with very limited RAM disk space. Fix: If program detects presorted file, do not split buffer when full, just add a buffer. If a key has to be inserted into a buffer, split buffer then, but only then.

        Oh. The above file stuff? I had comments that ran two screen pages on how the data and index files actually worked. Once I had it figured out, did not want to have to do it again.

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  2. “Quotes from Actual Performance Evaluations” reads suspiciously like my performance reports from my active duty days.

    Civilian life is a lot better though; in 24 years at my company, I don’t think I’ve seen “F–KWIT” appear on my performance appraisals a single time!

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    1. Never got a negative or cutting review. I think only the military could get away with those.

      At worst got the kind that justified (not said or written, but translation) “You are important to us, but not as important as others on the team.” Because the total money available for annual raise were limited. The people they didn’t think they could afford to lose, got higher percentage raises.

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      1. Not just the military. I’ve given reviews that requested the reviewee be banned from using tools because to him every single one ends up used as a shovel, including his mouth. I’ve asked that flogging be reintroduced to reinvigorate company morale. One employee was requested to either stop taking drugs, or start, whichever was applicable, in order to rectify the craniorectal problem.

        By and large, I’ve managed about 15% good, hard workers and 65% more or less meh workers, with the remaining 20% not much more than rocks in the gears of economic activity (dense as, dumb as, slow as…).

        Sometimes the only language folks will hear must be blunt and direct. That, I can do.

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      2. In the Air Force at least, a horrible performance report would be based on faint praise — I remember one example was along the lines of “Captain Smith is making great progress on the weight management program.”

        On the other hand, I remember an example of a really good report: “If I had to command a million airmen, I’d want Chief Jones as my First Sergeant. Any questions?”

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        1. There was a story about a ship’s First Officer annoyed by his Captain’s log entries being “The First Officer was drunk today” and the Captain claimed that he could not change the log entries.

          So the First Officer started making Log Entries that said “The Captain was sober today.” :twisted:

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          1. First Officer started making Log Entries that said “The Captain was sober today.”
            ……………………..

            Ouch.

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          2. I think this one actually turned into a court case that decided that yes, you could implicitly slander someone by stating a truth.

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    2. During a recent me/boss/hr meeting, I commented to the effect of:

      “Well, I must be doing -something- right by (company) standards. I have been here twenty years now. Every boss with whom I have seriously gotten cross is no longer here. So doing something right, yes? Willing to work with you on all this.”

      Perhaps that wasn’t the most tactful way to put it. But it is factually correct.

      (Grin …. teeth showing a bit…)

      Hm. Perhaps keep me away from any diplomacy…..

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Never forget, the pen is mightier than the sword!

    You can only kill one meme maker at a time with your measly sword, but a well constructed pen could uncomfortably hold tens of thousands of them!!

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    1. “The pen is mightier than the sword” was first written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, source of the (misquoted) “It was a dark and stormy night” and impetus of the Bulwer-Lytton Contest.

      I always find that amusing.

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  4. Um, does writing the book I had no intention to write, to avoid working on a detailed technical analysis of a topic for the book I plan to write, count as writing?

    Liked by 2 people

      1. Even if you’re writing a “side project” that threatens to eat swathes of time that might add up to either a college degree or a toddler, depending?

        Theoretically. Totally imaginarily. Hypothetically, even.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Well, one is forced to admit that work avoidance by writing may not necessarily be a -good- thing, but it is still writing.

          Escapism. Not just for readers, but writers too. ~:D

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    1. Novel writing?

      Post-apocalyptic journal story, on old manual typwriter, where POV youth author has to adapt to three broken keys, and doesn’t use something visually similar.

      Would that be novel enough?

      (Giggles and runs off to do chores)

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          1. Just shared it with my beloved. He said, when I mentioned high school, “It was written that long ago?”
            I asked him which finger he wanted. He said he knew which one he was going to get.

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              1. I’m sure he’d agree.
                On a more pleasant note, I just re-read Spacehounds of IPC, and if you went on an E.E Smith tear you could do worse. Yes, the solar system is totally wrong, but was it good for the 1930s? It rated a sneer from James Blish, which is a point in its favor.

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                1. There is a passage from Spacehounds that I consider the distilled essence of what is best and worst of Doc Smith. It’s the one where the hero explains how he’s got to re-engineer all of scientific history to rebuild the spaceship. It is both awesome, and so, so wrong about how knowledge (in the aggregate) works.

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    2. This is a Shikhari novel. It begins with those famous words, uttered across the width and length of history, “My dear, I can explain.” In this case it refers to the array of equipment – military and otherwise – and the hide and haunch of a wild leaper on the back verandah of Lt. Col. and Mrs. Thomás Prananda’s personal home.

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  5. Those last memes hurt. I’m 5,000 words behind my target for today for NaNo. Fine, I’m going to write some more before the night is over. I’ll probably clock out around midnight.

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      1. Marketing, or boss for client. Either works:

        “Just a simple quick change. Need it ASAP (i.e. yesterday).”

        Um. No. Rarely works that way.

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        1. “It can’t take that long. All you have to do is click a few buttons.”

          Those were actual words from a user where I once worked. :sad:

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          1. “It can’t take that long. All you have to do is click a few buttons.”
            ……………………..

            Gotten that one too.

            From a supervisor showing a district manager “See flipping data report sideways is easy” in Excel. If my glare could burn holes, he’d had a few. 1) the “data” example did not include dates. 2) Excel have dates in the fields, does (did? It was 1991) not retain the date, replaced with 1 or 0. Yes/No did not reflect the data required. The report was for supervisors to determine if employees had had all safety training, and the last date the training was done, flagged if due. Not only that, but the crews all had different requirement, so the report column counts varied depending on who was getting the report.

            Found a solution, that worked until a major (’96) development tool upgrade rendered the solution “a bug” (which hurt, big time, because that solution was kind of repeated in a lot of other applications). A bug that I never had to fix, because ’96 is the division was shutdown. Whoever took over the assets, including these applications, had to deal with the “bug”. I know at least one solution had it throughout the application.

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            1. Wise developers inquire whether a “bug” or its’ workaround is being widely used, and either incorporate the behavior with a data migration or leave it alone unless it compromises security.

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              1. Wise developers inquire whether a “bug” or its’ workaround is being widely used, and either incorporate the behavior with a data migration or leave it alone unless it compromises security.
                ………………………

                Not seeing how the ability I was using was doing either. I was using the methods the development tool used to create on the fly query temporary tables to generate reports, without using the reporting. The report building tool wouldn’t do what needed to be done (otherwise why was I needed?) I was already using C/C++ to access the database and report for other projects. No problem, coding wise, to rip out the sections and replace the parts that needed replacing. Time to do so OTOH, as it turned out, no.

                Truth be only 3 applications would have gone forward to the companies that bought the assets. Two would have been incorporated, eventually into GIS tools, and reporting. Whether they used the blue prints already designed to do so? Who knows. Supposedly they had 5 to our 2 (last 4 months, finally had help). The third? Don’t know what they did. They did call me for a “one day consult”, about 6 months later. Turned them down. If I had not been working, would have taken them up on it, even though they were bound and determined to disregard my free advice. Not that one day would have been enough. If they’d been able to figure it out without my help, like I did originally (given a buggy incomplete, but “working”, for degrees of “working”, that needed fixing, bugs and incomplete, and major additions), they wouldn’t have called me.

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            2. Constantly running unto, “But it’s so easy! All you have to do is (step they believe is unbelievably simple because they do it six times a day but which I’ve never heard of before).”

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              1. Or asked to build a prototype so PTB can “see” if it is feasible. When demoed, with nothing behind it, maybe 1% of even visible requirements, not even built in the tool needs to be in. Get “Great! Lets go forward.” Sounds okay, right? Right?!?!?! “You can be done next month …” or “What do you mean 18 (or more) months?!?!? It is mostly done!!!!” Reeeeeee

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  6. True story. 50 years ago. Standing in hall outside organic chem lab asking TA a question. He’s smoking a cigarette. I told you it was 50 years ago.

    Student runs out of the lab with a flaming waste crock in her hands.
    “Fire! Fire!”
    Hands crock to TA.
    “Here!”

    TA drops his cigarette into crock, carries crock into lab, puts metal pan over the top.

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    1. Given that it is well documented that the UN actively supports Hamas and helps it it stockpile weapons using UN facilities, while UN teachers in Gaza have lesson plans that promote mass murder of Jews, the vast majority of those UN workers are simply getting what happens to those who collaborate with genocidal mass murdering terrorists.

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      1. I recall the report or (amazingly) actual reporting that was summed up if not titled, “If you see blue helmets, run.” And I suspect that’s only because “If you see blue helmets, SHOOT!” is not an option for too many.

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  7. Me: I’m thinking of killing off a couple of characters in my current work.

    My editor: But … it’s an autobiography.

    Me: And your point is … ?

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