Alex Papadimoulis

A few weeks ago, TDWTF contributor Mark Bowytz shared some fun classic computer ads. Apparently, Mark has an entire attic filled with Byte magazine and other '80s computer magazines, and has dug through them to pull out some more. Stay tuned for more What the Ad?...

“A popular job interview question goes something like, ‘program me an elevator control system,’” Stephen writes, "apparently, the elevator company never thought to ask their programmers that question."

Every job has its quirks. That’s what Kirk reassuringly told himself on his first day of work after meeting the company’s most egregious quirk, The Colonel. Kirk wasn’t quite sure if the impeccably-dressed man’s gruff introduction – which solely consisted of looking Kirk up, then down, then up again, and scoffing “that’s a pretty sad excuse for a Double Windsor” – was in jest or contempt, so he stuck with a the more palatable label of quirky. Fortunately, by the time Kirk realized that deranged was much more appropriate than quirky, he knew that he’d never have to personally work with The Colonel: the chain-of-command simply wouldn’t allow for it.

As a development manager at a midsize custom software shop, Kyle had seen his share of sticker shock. Fooled by the "Custom Apps, Only $499.99" -- type ads seen in the back of popular tech magazines, naive entrepreneurs would occasionally approach Kyle in the hopes that his company could build the next dot-com wonder-site overnight for $1,000, or maybe $2,000.

"I thought I'd be a little geeky-romantic with my girlfriend and write a sweet note to her," Jonathan writes, "however, it seems Amazon.com did not really like the idea and suspected '<3' as being malicious."

"I've signed up for online, 'All-Electronic' billing," Dave H writes, "and no matter what I do, they continue to send me monthly notifications in the mail telling me that my bill is now available online. "

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If you think back to the last job you regretted taking, there’s probably at least one non-defining moment that you wish you had paid more attention to. To any outsider, that harbingering moment – be it when the boss asked you to pick up his drycleaning (jokingly, of course) or when your coworker gave you the “First Day Hug” – would have immediately sounded the something-is-seriously-wrong alarm. But, blinded by optimism of the job opportunity, that moment – and many subsequent other moments – get simply written off as “quirks of the new job.” For Leigh, who had recently started as a development manager at a small software shop, that first non-defining moment was on her first day, when she met Shredder.

One of my all-time favorite pastimes is saleing. Garage saleing, yard saleing, rummage saleing, you name it. If there’s a large pile of household junk that someone’s selling, then I’ll be there, picking through it. It’s hard to explain; there’s just something sublime about finding stuff that I definitely don’t need and then incessantly haggling over its price.

For as long as The City (as I'll call it) has supplied water to its residents, it has had one big headache called "The Annual Water Survey." Like residents of all large metropolises, The City's residents want to make sure the water they drink has only a miniscule amount of the "bad stuff," such as heavy metals and pathogens, and just the right amount of the "good stuff" -- chlorine, fluoride, etc. The water survey -- a 100-plus-page report that details test after test after test -- was their vote of confidence.

"I took this picture at the local post office," George writes, "I guess they must have installed the same computers they use in airplanes and hospitals."

No one really liked Martin P. This is not to say that Martin was unlikeable per se, it’s just that everyone seemed to have a hard time getting over his unofficial title: the CEO’s sycophant.

"Looking back," Nathan Redding wrote, "I really should have taken advantage of this offer. I'm not quite sure we'll see 0% interst rates with $0.00/month payments again any time soon..."

For as long as anyone could remember, there had always been two server rooms: the Cool Room and the Hot Room. The Cool Room was exactly what you’d expect a server room at a mid-sized technology services firm to be: floor-to-ceiling racks along the walls filled with various servers, battery backups, monitors, and KVMs, all tied together with Ethernet and power cables that were neatly tucked in their trays. And, of course, it was a cool 65°F thanks to a pair of dedicated air conditioning units.

"All I want to do was take out some cash at the Huntsville, Alabama airport," Monty wrote, "unfortunately, I wasn't quite prepared and my brain threw a Divide_By_Zero error."