Conversations I've genuinely had at work:

Me: "Do you want some advice understanding that function?"
Dev: "Yeah, please!"
Me: "Get a plastic bag and some super glue..."

Dev: "I think I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!"
Me: "It's just the train of mental bitchslaps coming in the other direction."
... Some time later
Dev:"You were right... "

Dev: "If the system is so unstable, how does it keep working?"
Me: "Do you see any goats in the office?"
Dev: "Uhm no... Why would there be goats?"
Me: "There aren't, now, we ran out."
Dev: "The hell are you talking about?"
Me: "We just sacrifice our own blood to Cthulhu these days, it's cleaner and we didn't have to pay to have all the goats blood and waste matter to be cleaned up. That and it was needlessly cruel to the poor goats and that is why there is no goats and despite conventional logic the app continues to work."

Dev: "So what language is the web app written in?"
Me: "You need to understand I inherited this project, I had nothing to do with it's spawning..."
Dev: "OK, that sounds ominous... How bad is it?"
Me: "Java..."
Dev: "..."

Dev: "So what's it like working on this project? What should I expect?"
Me: "You'll call your grandmother during your lunch break just to know there's a world beyond this project. You'll go home, nose bleeding and you are gonna sit in the shower and rock back and forth, holding yourself and feeling like you're suffering imposter syndrome. You'll question why you joined this team and it'll get inside your head til it's all you think about..."
Dev: "Damn man, why are you still on it?"
Me: "Stockholm syndrome, it's too late for me..."

PM: "You're such a dark person, we're not gonna find you hanging from the lights one day are we?"
Me: "Impossible, we use those industrial fluorescent strip lights, there's no cord to hang from."
PM: "That really wasn't the comforting answer I was looking for."

Head of department: "So I need to apologize, you were never meant to be left on your to manage the product on your own, it's something someone way more senior should have been doing and we reassigned him. It wasn't professional of us, it wasn't fair of us, we're sorry. Truth be told,we're impressed you've not gone mad."
Me: "I think I have. Wibble."

A card goes round work for a sick member of staff I've never met.
Me: "How would you describe her condition?"
Dev: "She said that she 'survived' the surgery."
Me: "Yeah, I'm not great at being appropriate but even I think writing 'glad to hear that you are not dead' in a get well soon card isn't the done thing."

A while ago the company I'm working for had this independent designer on contract so I was assigned to set up his workstation. Brand new pc dual monitor Photoshop license gaming keyboard and mouse cause "the lights kept him focused". We're talking about a 2000€+ machine and tools. I don't know exactly what that wanted him to do as I didn't ask. Who cares. The best part is below.

So I set up his things and all and make him a shortcut to the file server on his desktop. I then proceed to explain to him that this server has the files of every dpt in the company and told him where he could find his.
His only response was when he asked "how about my internet access?"
Me: everything except some "very certain sites"
He: Eeeehh well I kinda need those. Just give me access, I won't tell anyone.
Me: Sorry sir, I cannot do that company policy.
He: I'm telling you I need the access, I'm not kidding.
Me: Ok sir, if you really need it, open a ticket to the admin and if you explain your reasons I'm sure you will come to an agreement.
He: That's bullshit kid, if you won't do it I'm gonna report you for denial of service and do it myself.
Me just nodding and walking away: You do that sir.

So ofc I went and informed the admin that this guy might pull something.

Soon enough, a few weeks later the admin calls me over to his desk and points at the screen trying not to burst in laughter.
The guy (designer) brought an HDD and filled his folder on the server with porn. We're talking about 200gb or something.
When confronted he said something about severe anxiety and that porn was his way of calming down. Some guys told me my name came up in the VPs office but after the "evidence" nothing really happened except his contract getting terminated.

I think we learned something that day. Don't jerk off in the office guys :)

Office prank time! It was some years ago when the horror movie "The Grudge" came out, with that creepy Japanese dead girl who made that horrible "aaahhhhhh" sound. A coworker, who was just as shocked by the movie as I was, would occasionally send me emails with sceenshots from that movie.

One day, I upped it. I knew he was the first in the office in the morning, so I arrived even before him. It was still dark. I put a walkie-talkie under his desk, set it to "no beep", switched off the lights again and hid two rooms away.

Sure enough, he arrived. I waited for about 10 minutes to be sure he was sitting at his desk. Then I used my walkie-talkie and "aahhhhh".

WOAH, his scream was loud even two rooms away!

How to tell a programmer from a fraud:

1. Wait for some idiot to crank up the brightness of the dimmable ceiling lights at the office to the max with the motivation "the difference in brightness between the screen and surroundings is damaging your eyes"
2. You found him/her

I cannot even begin to describe the rollercoaster of emotions I just went through. I'm on the train, the prompt says next station !my_station. By then the sign says my_station. So I rush off the train. I feel the lightness of a heavy weight lifted off my shoulders... And realise I'm missing my laptop bag, the heavy weight that should be on my shoulders. So I rush to the station office and describe everything about my bag and what's in it and the seat I was in. The guy can't get through to the conductor but the train will be back at this station in 30 minutes. I head home quickly because it's nearby and my fiance offers me a lift back to the station on her car. Suddenly we're running late. She's running red lights. I'm not going to make it. It's 2 minutes past arrival time. But the train is 3 minutes late! I'm running along the platform looking into the carriages for my bag but unable to see much, panicking. The platform is empty. The train. Is going to leave. Except for one lonely figure walking down with a bag in their hands. The conductor gives me my rucksack, tells me it's really heavy and heads back to his duties. I thank him and head back to the station office to thank the man on duty also. Fuck me that was scary.

Been wearing sunglasses to the office for a few months now because I'm sick of bright screens, light themes of co-workers, the daylight outside that shines through the windows (I moved to another desk further away from the windows), the ceiling lights that are always on (even when there's daylight from outside, thanks boss) and people expecting me to have my eyes open in meetings when there's nothing to look at so now I can just close them and switch to "standby" while I'm still listening.

I am a devampire.

Vampire devs?

In my office, we have a big glass wall (a window wall, however you wanna call it), so we don’t need to turn on the lights until 5 o’clock.

Well, even though I’m goth, I hate to work on a dark office, but two of the other programmers don’t. Actually our boss adviced us to turn on the light to prevent vision problems. Fortunately, a partner of mine always turns on the light at 5 o’clock. They complain, so he tells them “oh, you vampires!!!” And they say “Elizadeath is the vampire here!”

What do you think is better? What works for you?

The cleaning lady

Yeah, I should not be at work this late, but it happenes from time to time..
Anyhow, she still doesn't know where the switches for each light are, so whenever she comes, lights start to flicker on off on off... Yeah, lightshow baby!! //read this in austin powers voice
I fear for people with epilepsy.. Yeah, I get it, push and toggle switches are mixed in pannel, but we do have a schema for each of them..ofc she doesn't use it..

And every goddamn time if I work later than when she leaves, she disturbes me to ask if I will turn off the lights when I leave.. NOoOooo, I will leave them on like an asshole.. :/ I once even wrote on the whiteboard in bigg letters 'yes, I will turn of the lights when I leave' and left it there for some days... coworkers were all puzzled/amused when they saw it.. //I know, shitty attitude on my part too, but I've repeated myself a dozen times already.. + I always turn off lights she actually manages to switch on and leave them like that, even the ones not in my part of office

And when she vacuums..well.. I usually get up and go on a cigarette break to give her space so she can do her job around my desk.. but she insists that I am not in her way and I don't need to leave... Well I prefer not to be proded and poked with the hose, thank you..

So yeah, fun times... O.o especially if working late due to some production fuckups I need to fix ASAP.. :/

Friend : Hey man lets watch world cup at 5.
Me: Sure why not, we will have a great time
Me: Leaves office early tho having bugs to fix
Me: starts watching the game at frds place slowly pulls up my pc
Frnd: Are you even watching the gamean, it was a goal now , did u see that , come on man
Me: ohh yeahhh goallll, goes back to vim
Game ends and he switches off the tv and stares at me for 20 mins,
Me: what hpnd man did the lights go off?

How many of you wear shades at work?

I started doing it after I faced some problems due to the extremely bright lights. It's such a complicated problem that no one in the management or admin team can do anything about it. 🙄

FUCK HTC, FUCK DYNALOGIC AND FUCK DYNAFIX PIECE OF SHIT FUCK COMPANIES

it started over a month ago, my HTC10 was charging with the included charger from a wall socket, took the Htc and cable to test a new feature I implemented on my xamarin project (see other rant). I attached it and nothing happend, tried another USB port still nothing, then I smelled it. My HTC was burning...

Contacted HTC, they referred me to a contact form and send 3 attachment with it. THE MOTHER FUCKING THING ONLY ACCEPTED 1! Oké calm down... so I went through the trouble of combining the attachment.

4 days go by and get an email if I could resend the attachment because there where non. the FUCKING contact form did not send it after my troubles!

A week goes by without response, I contacted them again, they apologies and promised me to call me the same day. BUT THEY FUCKING DIDN'T after that I thought maybe the next day but no call. After that I did not have time to contact them.

So I contact them after 4 days and get the FUCKING STUPIDEST and not well speaking person on the line that was constantly interrupting me. Finally got RMA and shipping in order but he managed to fuck the entire description of my problem of what I specifically told him.

So now dynalogic (a transport company) comes in place, they should have come to pick up my phone and bring it personally to Dynafix for repair. BUT THEY FUCKING DIDN'T.
Instead they drove by, put a 'you were not home so ship it yourself package' in the mailbox. BUT I WAS HOME and so were 4 others and lights and TV on. Not to mention our DOGS that react to anybody that enters our driveway. he was just a lazy PIECE OF SHIT.

So now I had to ship it myself, what resulted in my paying for shipment, paying for insurance and leave work early to get the the post office in time, since leaving early was not an option (deadline) I asked my parents if they could. BUT THEY FORGOT for 4 days.

Still having had good service from HTC in the past and being a loyal customer for years I was not angry and thought everything would be alright.

so now coming to today 1,5 I get an email that they WONT FIX IT BECAUSE OF FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT BULLSHIT REASON THAT WAS NOT THE PROBLEM.

tldr;
FUCK THEM, FUCK ME, they won't fix it after over a month for a bullshit reason. I am not gonna buy an HTC ever again.

!Rant

Lights off on my floor. Office-wide dark theme?

Well after working a normal office job for a while I'm kinda starting to think I thrive on isolation.

All of the people, the noise, the distractions, the lights, it's all so overwhelming. I have constant anxiety attacks.

Idk does anyone relate with this? We're they ever able to overcome? Cope? Bend their employer to the will of their isolationism by working at home more often and still producing results despite the Beck and call to "please stay in the office and fit in our prescribed work time box, you robot."

Those artificial "hair on fire" moments.

You know, those moments where a supervisor or executive walks into your office and says that something needs to be done "right away" but without any real business reason behind it other than they want it RIGHT NOW! Frequently subverts current work with real priorities which causes other "hair on fire" moments down the road.

As a former co-worker once put it, it works like so:

Step 1: Manager comes in and lights your hair on fire
Step 2: You run around a bit
Step 3: You set a coworker's hair on fire
Step 4: They run around a bit
Step 5: They set their manager's hair on fire
Step 6: Manager runs around a bit

Proceed at your own pace once you get the gist.

!rant or at least not dev related

I work at a school. Sometimes we get some weird training and shit we have to attend to. This time it had to do with what to do in the event of an active shooter.

Because you know. The U.S IS full of angry white kids with guns that if fucked up enough will just take fire on people.

Well, as a military veteran. I feel pretty confident in knowing what to do when some asshole is trying to get his expert marksman badge on me. So i requested not to waste my valuable time on such bs. I was promptly denied and encouraged to attend the bs training.

The first dumbshit thing they tell you to do is to turn the lights off and hide(if you decide to not fight) for which I mentioned that it would not work.

You see. Our entire buildings have motion sensors on each room which would TURN the fucking lights on if you move........ and even though you can turn the switch on..some offices would still work through the motion sensor....exhibit A: my office.

Fuck this. Couldn't i just keep one of my guns with me?? It would just take about 2 shoots really....and I promise they would stay in.

This sucks man. I need to move to Canadia. I don't want my kids having to hear about "mandatory active shooter training"

That fucking bullshit should never be a norm.

10 bucks and a life says i have better aim than some crazy kid.

I used to associate logitech with quality, something you could spend a little more on and feel comfortable knowing you made a safe and robust choice.

For quite a few years now they've done that gamer branding thing where I'd be embarrassed to have that stuff seen on my desk - at ridiculous prices and for features I won't use. Their consumer/office grade stuff is alright but unremarkable.

I'll gladly pay more for quality and I'm super happy with my Das keyboard, but I switch out my mouse probably every year. I can't deal with mushy buttons and I'm not paying extra for marketing, branding, and rgb lights that I'll then be spending time on trying to disable properly.

I digress, but I'm legitimately curious to try a trackball. I know people kneejerk at it, but I've heard from a couple of people who prefer it when they primarily use their keyboard anyway.

How many engineers does it take to install Christmas lights at the office?

Company shutting down has its perks : after going to the bar with colleagues, ended up doing an after party with HR in the office, drinking cherry flavoured vodka
Tomorrow morning is going to hit as hard as a fucking truck, poor me being the rabbit caught in the lights in the middle of the road..

I've build a gaming station with a raspberry pi for a supermarket. I was running a quiz i also created with red blinking lights for false and green blinking lights right answers. Featured by cool 8-bit retro gaming sound and score printing to win a small prize if you answered everything correctly. It was so much fun building it and testing it in the office 😁

so what is worse than monday morning?

It's finding the right angle for your macbook pro screen because the office changed the fucking lights and they reflect more than ever.

AND THEY ARE BRIGHT AS HELL. MY EYES BURN!

!rant
My home pc has developed a sudden issue and wont boot up anymore.

Stays stuck on the POST phase and am unable to get into BIOS , just stuck with a big asus logo and a message to press
F2 or Delete to get into BIOS but the system seems frozen as the keyboard lights are on but unresponsive while the
Mobo reads an error code A2
( the manual claims that to be an IDE error although am using only SATA)

Unplugging all usb doesnt change anything.

Unplugging all other sata ssd ,hdd and disk drives except the os drive changes nothing.

Unplugging the os drive results in the system complaining about no bootmgr
(As expected), that allows me to at least look at the BIOS but there doesnt seem to be anything wrong or out of the ordinary..

Booting from a live cd works fine

Booted from a pc boot repair tool and plugged in the os drive into one of the hot swappable sata ports shows me the all the files still there and accessible , check disk revealed nothing wrong. Can't plug in the os drive pre boot as that locks everything up again)

Tried to boot with a windows cd then do a start up repair but plugging in the os drive into the hot swappable sata doesn't work since windows can't see the drive.

Tried to swap the os drive with another one of exact same model filled witb random files resulted in no boot mgr error as expected

Struggled a whole weekend to fix it but alas no progress
Ah and the OS drive's warranty ran out 2 weeks ago 😑

Mobo asus p9x79 deluxe
Os ssd samsung 840 250 gb
No changes in hardware for the last year
Or so
No BIOS changes in over a year

I did notice some odd files like 0002Found
On the os drive when i was using the boot repair live cd tool, will bring the drive to
The office where i can get my hands on an ssd sata to usb caddy and take a snapshot of The files there for you guys to see.

Any ideas ? 😞