Project manager screwed up and failed to notice and notify us that a project was approved a month ago, and it was supposed to be completed and merged two days ago. I wait with joy to see how the people who don't understand agile at all will see this.

Have you ever seen a constructor/initializer with 70 lines of parameters?

I have.

Now excuse me, I need to drink some methanol.

Corporate Windows group police disables customer wallpaper. You get the gray corporate logo so you know you're in hell, and that's it.

But if you replace the corporate "TranscodedWallpaper" file in your profile and call `SystemParametersInfo()` it will update your wallpaper. I made a Powershell script to update my wallpaper.

It stopped working though. Add-Type which gave me access to the win32 function I needed in user32.dll now trigger a FalconSensor virus protection.

...and the wallpaper has been stuck on a photo of an ex-girlfriend who I loathe that I took years ago in Croatia. Why did I even keep this in my wallpaper rotation folder?! Oh god ... I'm in fucking hell.

Today I learned that programming isn’t about writing code.

It’s about questioning your entire existence because your code worked yesterday and doesn’t work today… and you changed NOTHING.

You stare at the screen.
You re-run it.
You Google the same error for the 100th time.

Then suddenly it works.

You don’t know why.
You don’t touch anything.
You’re scared to breathe.

Being a developer is basically living in fear of your own code.

https://shroudlabs.tech

I got bored and decided to figure out webapps. Hosting something I find useful. Feel free to poke at it and tell me why it sucks and what breaks

Today I'm fishing in the client's server.

They have a vulnerable app, I've restarted it and monitoring closely to see which payload exploits the known RCE. While I'm waiting for THE fish, load of other tiny ones keep trying their luck and swimming away after a single shot at it.

It's actually quite fun to just sit and stare at the terminal, waiting for that single fish to bite. IDK why :D

Writing user documentation is still such a boring part of the job :((

Windows you fucking clown OS, leave my desktop icons the fuck alone! I put them where they are for a reason, not for you to go and vomit on my preference settings and mess everything up again!
Is there a single human dev left at Microsoft or is it completely taken over by AI slop now?

I don't really understand the flow that my senior dev wants to do for graphql. Normally graphql should be 1 request for your data with what you need but this is proposed flow.

1) Get all custom fields/columns of "products"
2) Append the custom fields in the frontend by all hardcoded default fields in my object
3) Fetch the relationships
4) Fetch the custom fields of the relationships
5) Add hardcoded default fields + Append that to my "master object"
6) Fetch the custom fields of "secondary key" that is not included in step 4 or step 1
7) append that to my master object
8) Fetch data

So the frontend needs to be rebuild the database structure and send 4 (or 5) graphql requests to load in 1 table... I don't know how to describe it anymore lol

This flow has to be redone for every table

I was wondering why my db changes kept crashing my backend as I was testing locally against the testing db. Turns out I modified the prod db without realizing. Good thing it wasn't about deleting things or anything critical. 🙃

Have you ever done a programming language/stack switch in your career? And how do you defend that if you don't have experience in it? Let's say you worked 4 years in Java and now you want to move to C# .NET. I know this has been answered before. lol

Employers are always whining that I don't have experience in it, so it's not a match. This is what happens when you have an HR dumbo as your first interviewer.

- they are both OOP
- they are both compiled + interpreted (JVM and Bytecode vs .NET runtime vs MSIL)
- very similar syntax, data type ecosystem, etc

Clients refusing you because recruiter says "oh it's not a match 'cause he doesn't have the 4 years .NET you asked for".

Sigh.

The college I went to has changed their rules regarding AI-assisted coding. Any proof that you are vibe coding or using AI tools would be an immediately failure of that class

I wonder how they detect that efficiently and without any errors.

They also had rules for not copy pasting code from stackoverflow, blogs or docs. I used to do that and add the link & tried to explain the code myself. But I never got feedback if that is good or not or if the professor did grade that part of the code or did not grade.

it makes sense for me that you want the students to actually learn. But is it also not important that students can use AI tools efficiently? Does the end user really care if your website is AI coded or not (not the content, but the actual website) as long as it works like you want. It's also important to stay upto date especially as a student. But at the same time, being stubborn and bashing your head on a problem till it works is a nice skill, sometimes AI can't solve it.

Also, the college does not offer computers and you have to buy one yourself. So they can't manage it. Even if they can do it, doesn't the average IT student have a very easy time to go around the block? I'm so glad I'm not in official education anymore lol

Who the fuck thinks that giving the user the possibility to delete/create any DB column is a good idea on a table that should have 100k+ records.

Why does this senior guy not realize how bad this is.

I find it very dangerous to work with folks that prefer speed over quality. I would prefer that folks do not request me to code review if they are going to ignore my comments and push to production without answering all my questions.

I built an addon to the system that we've been using for almost 15 years now that uses the exact same config screen as we've always used.
And, just because the configs are being applied to a new concept, it's being treated like I abducted them with a flying saucer and are forcing them to learn Alienese. The config screen is exactly the same otherwise.

- joins new company
- here for a month
- finds out entire team is getting laid off
- hr: "can you finish your 30 day survey please"

Whenever I feel bad about my engineering skills, I take a look at what people build who work in enterprise or the public sector, and I feel like a fucking 1337 pro.

Isn't it awesome when someone's "bugfix" causes new bugs which prompt "bugfixes" for the bugfixes in the same merge request?

Caching is a cruel mistress.

I've probably said that before, but I can't remember whether I've said it before or not, because caching is a cruel mistress.

10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Junior Developer

After a few years in tech, I’ve realized that most growth doesn’t come from new frameworks — it comes from mindset shifts. If you’re just starting out, here’s some advice I wish someone had drilled into me early:

You’re not competing with anyone but your past self.
Forget comparing your code to that genius on your team who breathes JavaScript. You’ll get there — and faster if you focus on consistent growth over ego.

Google is your best mentor.
Asking questions is fine, but make them good questions. Try solving things first. Seniors love helping, but they respect those who’ve clearly done their homework.

Readable > Clever.
Fancy one-liners might make you feel smart, but clear variable names and simple logic make you a great teammate. Code is for humans first, machines second.

Reviews aren’t attacks.
A pull request comment isn’t criticism — it’s collaboration. Listen, learn, and keep the good discussions going both ways.

Never fake knowing something.
“I’ll check and get back to you” will earn you way more respect than pretending you know the answer. Engineering thrives on honesty.

Think before you type.
Rushing code just to “finish it fast” often leads to rework. Taking time to plan saves you more time later than you’d imagine.

Document like someone will use it tomorrow.
Because someone will — maybe you. Nothing feels worse than debugging your own undocumented code months later.

Soft skills aren’t optional.
People remember how you made them feel, not how you formatted your code. Be kind, patient, and reliable. Those qualities get you rehired.

Run toward the scary stuff.
That weird legacy code? The new API nobody wants to touch? Take it on. Growth hides in discomfort.

Keep learning, even when your job doesn’t require it.
Your company won’t future-proof you — you have to do that yourself. Read, build side projects, and stay curious.

At the end of the day, being a great developer isn’t about knowing everything — it’s about always being willing to learn.

We are already in the Windows 11 era but they still didn't fix that thing about choosing "update and shut down" and it restarts instead.

What’s the worst company you’ve ever worked for that had zero understanding of technology I mean like, the kind where you wonder how their systems are still online and survive?

Fuck, its 2025 and we still cant shake away the "you work with technology, you must know how to fix my microwave" stereotype.
Seriously, I have fewer apps in my phone and access fewer websites and even spend less time on my devices than the HR old hags, and yet im the one who has to come and "explain to them how to print a PDF".
Holly fucking crap. I haven't used a printer in MONTHS. With the cost of the time I will take to figure out how to communicate with those mummies that is 'just click the print button', they could hire ChatGPT to do it for a decade.
Fuuuuuck, that is the reason those stupid AI chat bots exist! To endlessly toil at the repetitive and predictable task of saying 'hi there! Have you clicked "print"?'
Imma gonna leave work early and get pissed. Luckily, I've already done a couple hours of OT for the day, so it won't seem so out of the ordinary.

One of our internal web apps stops loading the content when you switch to another tab.

How do you even implement horse shit like that?

I think you‘d have trouble to implement it even if it was a requirement. Fucking how?

Anyway, if you want to spend the long ass loading time by doing something else in another tab, then no!

Tough luck motherfucker!
You‘ll be watching that loading spinner like the rest of the thousands of users daily!
It‘s doing hard work loading all that crap for the convoluted clusterfuck of a web app!
You better appreciate that and watch it loading!
🤡

I recently joined a bank as an IT Quality Analyst, and it's been an overwhelming experience. I feel like I've been working like a donkey for a fraction of what I deserve. My responsibilities include testing all types of software, including some that, frankly, seem poorly shity written by vendors.
The project managers are not helping matter....they push projects through UAT and expect me to sign off on everything as if it’s ready for production. They seem indifferent to how compromised the testing can be. They want me to say all tests passed even when there are unresolved issues. If I do find any failed tests, they expect me to chase after developers for fixes.

As a developer myself, I took on this QA role to explore a new area of IT, but it's clear that this environment is not what I hoped for. The stress is mounting every day, and I find myself wanting to avoid the PMs entirely. It's disheartening to see them receive compensation that feels entirely unwarranted given the pressure they put on the testing process without regard for quality or thoroughness. I need to voice these frustrations because it's becoming hard to stay motivated in a role that feels so misaligned with my values and professional ethics.

hoop: – "masterkey" is not okay. Please replace all instances of "master" immediately #WeValueInclusivity

cprn: – Just to clarify, "master" in this context is standard (as in "master key" in databases). It's not intended to be offensive. Replacing could affect functionality. Call to talk more?

hoop: – STOP overthinking, just change it. I DON’T CARE, JUST DO WHAT I SAY. #DoItForTheCulture

cprn: – Got it. You want me to replace every instance of "master" in the codebase, including comments and variable names. Just confirming?

hoop: – YES. NO EXCEPTIONS. #MoveForward

PR Update: Replacing all instances of "master" as requested. Please, verify before accepting.

hoop: – Perfect. Now we’re on the right track. 👏

After 2 failed attempts at explaining, I blindly replaced all instances of "master" with "boss", and hand-delivered my letter of resignation. I left them with "complied with your request, have fun figuring it out". It was 2 years ago, and I was the last coder who knew that system after a big merger.

Do you have a master's degree and 14+ years' relevant experience in IT, or a Bachelor's + 18 years of experience in IT?

Is this a fucking joke?

We have a no AI use policy at the company.

I had a contract developer added onto my team. I start to see AI generated comments in his code all the time. Point out that the code being contributed is def AI nonsense. I brought it up with my boss which reports to the CTO. Response: “As long as he doesn’t get caught I guess.”

He did get caught. This is me catching him and telling you.

It's amazing just how bad Visual Studio/.NET is .. and the way this shop does stuff.

I was just copying existing projects and renaming/modifying everything for new tasks, but this time I tried to create a new project from scratch. No matter what I get:

Could not load type 'System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RequiredMemberAttribute' from assembly 'NJsonSchema, Version=11.3.2.0, Culture=neutral

Everything has the right .NET framework. Dependencies look mostly identical to other projects. No one in the work chat has seen it before. I'm about to move this project to a tmp dir, copy and existing project, search and replace all the name, empty it out and copy my source into it. What you want to bet it will "just work."

I hate everything about Windows/.NET .. I'm glad I have a job again, but .NET is just so fucking painful. How has Visual Studio remained this bad for this many decades? I swear VS 2022 is just like VS6 with a fucking dark theme.

bug with no steps to reproduce

logs show null pointer exception but doesn't have a stack trace to point a bad line of code

fuck jersey and jettycounts