What a great idea

[brother mouse]

Ok.

So ${BIG_COMPANY} has been using ${TURD} PoS software based on the
original code from /decades/ ago. Time marches on and it becomes even
less maintainable as the few ${DEAD_LANGUAGE} practitioners die off or
retire.

So it's time to rewrite it in a modern language. Behold, ${TURD}2. Yay.
Everyone cheers. Tech support gets to support a new product they haven't
seen before (what's new).

Tech support soon realizes there is a major problem. ${TURD}2 does a
great job with the whole client/server model *except* some high-level
architect brainiac decided to take all timestamps from the client. This
means that if some yokel diddles his windows time/date (or if some XP
boxen choke on DST, like they just did) the timestamp injected into the
server's database is in the wrong time/date/year/decade. Oh boy!
Accounts Receivable is wrong! Customer statements are wrong! Reports are
wrong or invisible because they are in the future! Invoices are wrong!
Employee timecards (and therefore paychecks) are wrong!

I think you see a pattern developing here. It's a self-induced abortion.

Worse, development has a stone ear. "This is a workstation problem."
The problem simply can't be with the software since ${COMPANY} put so
much money into it.

Nice. Fscking retards.

[Kevin Williams]

The Underpants Gnomes tell me that
brother mouse <brothe...@nowhere.invalid> wrote:

> Worse, development has a stone ear. "This is a workstation problem."
> The problem simply can't be with the software since ${COMPANY} put so
> much money into it.

Active Dysentery, NTP, and WSUS are your friends, if you can't
convince the dev team to pull their heads out. Should keep you to
within a few minutes and refuse entry if you're not. And why are your
computers not respecting your authoritah on DST? That /is/ your
problem.

[bisho...@monkeys.with.typewriters.org]

brother mouse <brothe...@nowhere.invalid> wrote:
> Tech support soon realizes there is a major problem. ${TURD}2 does a
> great job with the whole client/server model *except* some high-level
> architect brainiac decided to take all timestamps from the client.

"I have a Mr Darwin on line two.... Evolution has failed, please kill
yourself."

That's a classic...... let's just trust the lusers not to fsck with their
clocks.

Ian

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[Richard Bos]

bisho...@monkeys.with.typewriters.org wrote:

> brother mouse <brothe...@nowhere.invalid> wrote:
> > Tech support soon realizes there is a major problem. ${TURD}2 does a
> > great job with the whole client/server model *except* some high-level
> > architect brainiac decided to take all timestamps from the client.
>
> "I have a Mr Darwin on line two.... Evolution has failed, please kill
> yourself."
>
> That's a classic...... let's just trust the lusers not to fsck with their
> clocks.

OTOH, TPTB not trusting me to see the built-in XP calendar is a pain in
the arse, as well.
Of course, the biggest fuckup is M$ making it so that to see that
calendar, you have to have change-the-clock privileges.

Richard

[bisho...@monkeys.with.typewriters.org]

rl...@xs4all.nl wrote:
> OTOH, TPTB not trusting me to see the built-in XP calendar is a pain in
> the arse, as well.
> Of course, the biggest fuckup is M$ making it so that to see that
> calendar, you have to have change-the-clock privileges.

This is, really, to my POV, the reason why you don't trust client-side
timestamps for key data. It shouldn't matter what timestamp is on the user
PC - have NTP on the server, and a single truth on timestamps. Problem
solved.