Comment On Meet The LAN Form

You know how the lower 20% of people think they have the upper 60% of skill? That explains the next hundred comments.

It explains all the first 101 comments really.

I love the way it's got options for IBM compatible and MacIntosh, but the former is already selected. I'd be straight outta luck anyway - my machine's a Sun workstation.

The only apparent real WTF is Word spelling checker highlighting 'Profile' as incorrect.

Knock knock.

"Who is it?" asks the tenant behind the door.

"LAN form," comes the reply from the other side.

The tenant opens the door and is promptly swallowed by a land shark.


(Apologies to 1970's SNL)

Brady Kelly (proudly in Jo'burg):

The only apparent real WTF is Word spelling checker highlighting 'Profile' as incorrect.

They probably left the space out between Profile and Setup.

What on earth is wrong with this? The form does exactly what it is supposed to do. It's only used internally in the organization, so it doesn't matter how it look. The only consequence of it being a screenshot instead of a document, is that the admins get less calls asking how to open it. It gives a nice papertrail, so that everyones ass is covered. Absolutely not a WTF.

I guess I'm missing something, but I don't see much WTFery there.

It's a form. It's slightly odd to have it as a screenshot, instead of just downloading the Word document or a PDF, but I guess it means you don't need any extra software to use it.

Because, obviously, the only way to get a form into image form is to take a screenshot, right?

The process be praised!

Indima:

What on earth is wrong with this? The form does exactly what it is supposed to do. It's only used internally in the organization, so it doesn't matter how it look. The only consequence of it being a screenshot instead of a document, is that the admins get less calls asking how to open it. It gives a nice papertrail, so that everyones ass is covered. Absolutely not a WTF.

Indeed, but when i do this at least i edit the red lines in paint.

Indima:

What on earth is wrong with this? The form does exactly what it is supposed to do. It's only used internally in the organization, so it doesn't matter how it look. The only consequence of it being a screenshot instead of a document, is that the admins get less calls asking how to open it. It gives a nice papertrail, so that everyones ass is covered. Absolutely not a WTF.

The real WTF is you.

Frankly, this isn't really all that bad. They have a paper based system that works and the posted a copy of the form on the web to make it easier to find. Oh noes.

This system would bean improvement over the current system at the research department I work at: the walk around the building until you spot a facilities or IT person method.

Campog:

This system would bean improvement...

Must be the Paula Bean improvement.

There will be fun situations when your network or the printer is broken, and you can't get them fixed without filling LAN form. Unfortunately filling the form requires working printer and network. MU.

It's clunky but it works. It doesn't pretend to be a web-based system. Most admin staff don't know how to use Word for non-trivial things, and since MSWord didn't support PDF export until recently, it's asking a lot for a secretary to find and install a print-to-PDF driver.

TP:

There will be fun situations when your network or the printer is broken, and you can't get them fixed without filling LAN form. Unfortunately filling the form requires working printer and network. MU.

Or you could go get a printed copy from the office?

Kushiage:

Indima:

What on earth is wrong with this? The form does exactly what it is supposed to do. It's only used internally in the organization, so it doesn't matter how it look. The only consequence of it being a screenshot instead of a document, is that the admins get less calls asking how to open it. It gives a nice papertrail, so that everyones ass is covered. Absolutely not a WTF.

Indeed, but when i do this at least i edit the red lines in paint.

Because it's too difficult to put it into print preview prior to taking your screenshot, I suppose?

Dude seriously... if you can't feel the WTF-uckery here, something is wrong with you.

Oh dear. This is about the same way students at my university go about requesting we open up firwall ports for them. I am working on changing that...but right now they're using a modified LAN Form for that task. :shudder:

Well I typed my comment, took a screenshot, printed it out and tried to fax it to Alex, but it seems the jack his fax is plugged into is not on, so I'll just submit it like this instead...

Claxon:

Well I typed my comment, took a screenshot, printed it out and tried to fax it to Alex, but it seems the jack his fax is plugged into is not on, so I'll just submit it like this instead...

Invisible comment!

This is like that literary critic's writeup of the Alanis Morissette song -- all those things that happen aren't actually *ironic*, they're just "a series of bummers". Likewise, this isn't really a WTF, more than a sad admission that there's a process in place that's a bit more painful than it needs to be.


Where I work, your timesheet needs to go on a certain standard form. Somebody wrote their own app to track your time in/out and leave usage, and print up a filled-in copy of the sheet, which you could sign and submit hard-copy. Payroll didn't like the app, because it tracked your leave for you, but didn't rectify the balances with the Official System, so if you hosed your balances, you might think you had more leave than you really do and take too much from a given category.

So they *eventually* (years and years later) got around to producing a PDF timesheet you can fill in yourself (with fewer features than the old app, of course), and told everybody to stop using the old homebrew app. Someday, they'll start taking the PDF forms electronically, but for now we're still printing them and submitting hardcopy. The moral of the story? All these form submissions *should* happen through a webapp. It's a manifestly better system. But it takes time and effort (read: money), and the "technical debt" simply isn't great enough to warrant the investment.

What if the fax machine is broken?

akatherder:

What if the fax machine is broken?

I walk over and hand it in

At the site I've just finished a 10 month contract on, I had to fill in a LAN Form (using a Word doc, thank goodness) AFTER I had my LAN password reset (first day back after Christmas holidays and I couldn't remember the number in my password sequence) and which needed to be signed by my manager.

Of course the org's IT outsourcer was Unisys which explains a lot of things and are about the only thing worse than EDS for IT outsourcing.

Petey:

Dude seriously... if you can't feel the WTF-uckery here, something is wrong with you.

TRWTF is semi-acronyms.

I guess other than the PNG part of it, I don't see anything especially WTFey.

The user and the computing services folks both have hard copy of the form for easy reference and, since the form requires signatures, it needs to be printed some way.

Perhaps the system is a bit archaic but not mind-bogglingly so. It's a University. Get used to it.

If I had to single out anything particularly oddball it would be the fact that only "IBM Compatible" and "MacIntosh" (sic) are available but no Sun or other system commonly found in a university setting. But perhaps those systems are only found in research labs and outside the purview of the computing services group.

Hey, just a few minutes ago, I had to download a PDF of my time sheet, print it out, fill it out by hand, sign it, and turn it in to the administrative assistant. They've been promising all electronic timekeeping for the past ten years here. This is the closest we've gotten. Go figure.

Ah, but the fax machine is broken because it fell on your legs and crushed them, so now you can't walk. Now what do you do?

At least they had the decency to use PNG over JPEG

mmmCoffee:

Ah, but the fax machine is broken because it fell on your legs and crushed them, so now you can't walk. Now what do you do?

I fashion bionic legs out of parts from the fax machine.

Ugh, forms. Our IT dept has a similar lame form asking everything from usernames to partition sizes, but at least it's in Word and somewhat easy to type into.

The worst kind of Word forms, and probably the most common, are those created by your typical administrative assistant and contains at least 3 different fonts, font sizes, and/or colors. And the obligatory: you try and type in a "field" causing the underscores to start moving and wrapping to the next line. (curses!)

Anon:

akatherder:

What if the fax machine is broken?

I walk over and hand it in

Ha! You suddenly develop a charley horse in your right leg. Now what do you do?

Zylon:

Indima:

What on earth is wrong with this? The form does exactly what it is supposed to do. It's only used internally in the organization, so it doesn't matter how it look. The only consequence of it being a screenshot instead of a document, is that the admins get less calls asking how to open it. It gives a nice papertrail, so that everyones ass is covered. Absolutely not a WTF.

The real WTF is you.

The real WTF is you.

"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle."
"That's some catch, that catch-22," he observed.
"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

The Chub-Chubs are Coming!!:

Anon:

akatherder:

What if the fax machine is broken?

I walk over and hand it in

Ha! You suddenly develop a charley horse in your right leg. Now what do you do?

You have been eaten by a grue.

Josh:

The Chub-Chubs are Coming!!:

Anon:

akatherder:

What if the fax machine is broken?

I walk over and hand it in

Ha! You suddenly develop a charley horse in your right leg. Now what do you do?

You have been eaten by a grue.

That would be gruesome which is what he would do next, as he grew some new legs.

I think people are missing a few key points, so let me clarify a couple of things:

1) The form is downloaded from an electronic help desk software package. Why stick with the form if there is a web-based system available that could automate things? "Because this is the way it's always been done" has been the most common excuse. Why a $5000 software package has to act as a glorified web page is beyond me. They've actually started using the web software but the LAN form is still the preferred method.

2) Pretend, for a second, you are a 56 yr old woman working on a Word document and not an IT professional. You need a color printer installed for the brochure you are working on for a vice chancellor. Now, as that woman, try filling in this form.

I love how Microsoft knows how to spell its competitor's name. Word detected that MacIntosh is not the right way!

There are layers upon layers upon layers of WTF here:

- It's a damn PrtScr, as the "red lines" show,
- This form could've been done as a form by the aforementioned $5000 system
- Even if you want to do the "download image" option, you could've only copied the Word thingy, and paste it in Paint. (I've already seen this done as a quick fix.)

Not to mention that printing this "form" might result in hilarious results when using different paper size/orientations... try printing this out with A4!

citking:

2) Pretend, for a second, you are a 56 yr old woman working on a Word document and not an IT professional. You need a color printer installed for the brochure you are working on for a vice chancellor. Now, as that woman, try filling in this form.

I would leave it blank except for a note in the 'Details of Request' field saying "Can you set me up with a colour printer please. Thanks, Jean in Alumni Relations (ext. 1234)."

In fact, I'll take a wild guess that 90% of forms received are exactly like that...

he said grue!

James:

This is like that literary critic's writeup of the Alanis Morissette song -- all those things that happen aren't actually *ironic*, they're just "a series of bummers". Likewise, this isn't really a WTF, more than a sad admission that there's a process in place that's a bit more painful than it needs to be.


Where I work, your timesheet needs to go on a certain standard form. Somebody wrote their own app to track your time in/out and leave usage, and print up a filled-in copy of the sheet, which you could sign and submit hard-copy. Payroll didn't like the app, because it tracked your leave for you, but didn't rectify the balances with the Official System, so if you hosed your balances, you might think you had more leave than you really do and take too much from a given category.

So they *eventually* (years and years later) got around to producing a PDF timesheet you can fill in yourself (with fewer features than the old app, of course), and told everybody to stop using the old homebrew app. Someday, they'll start taking the PDF forms electronically, but for now we're still printing them and submitting hardcopy. The moral of the story? All these form submissions *should* happen through a webapp. It's a manifestly better system. But it takes time and effort (read: money), and the "technical debt" simply isn't great enough to warrant the investment.

I disagree - they guy who is afraid of flying, then has his plane crash on his very first flight - that's Ironic. (don't you think?)

citking:

2) Pretend, for a second, you are a 56 yr old woman working on a Word document and not an IT professional. (...) Now, as that woman, try filling in this form.

*takes text marker*
*scribbles some Xes on the screen*

danixdefcon5:

I love how Microsoft knows how to spell its competitor's name. Word detected that MacIntosh is not the right way!

There are layers upon layers upon layers of WTF here:

- It's a damn PrtScr, as the "red lines" show,
- This form could've been done as a form by the aforementioned $5000 system
- Even if you want to do the "download image" option, you could've only copied the Word thingy, and paste it in Paint. (I've already seen this done as a quick fix.)

Not to mention that printing this "form" might result in hilarious results when using different paper size/orientations... try printing this out with A4!

ummm...you realize that Microsoft MAKES Word for the Mac.

ChiefCrazyTalk:

James:

This is like that literary critic's writeup of the Alanis Morissette song -- all those things that happen aren't actually *ironic*, they're just "a series of bummers". Likewise, this isn't really a WTF, more than a sad admission that there's a process in place that's a bit more painful than it needs to be.


Where I work, your timesheet needs to go on a certain standard form. Somebody wrote their own app to track your time in/out and leave usage, and print up a filled-in copy of the sheet, which you could sign and submit hard-copy. Payroll didn't like the app, because it tracked your leave for you, but didn't rectify the balances with the Official System, so if you hosed your balances, you might think you had more leave than you really do and take too much from a given category.

So they *eventually* (years and years later) got around to producing a PDF timesheet you can fill in yourself (with fewer features than the old app, of course), and told everybody to stop using the old homebrew app. Someday, they'll start taking the PDF forms electronically, but for now we're still printing them and submitting hardcopy. The moral of the story? All these form submissions *should* happen through a webapp. It's a manifestly better system. But it takes time and effort (read: money), and the "technical debt" simply isn't great enough to warrant the investment.

I disagree - they guy who is afraid of flying, then has his plane crash on his very first flight - that's Ironic. (don't you think?)

No. If the man had been an outspoken advocate for the safety of air travel, then it would be ironic.

Also, rain on your wedding day is ironic, because it's supposed to be good luck, even though you would normally perceive that as being pretty crummy.

citking:

I think people are missing a few key points, so let me clarify a couple of things:

1) The form is downloaded from an electronic help desk software package. Why stick with the form if there is a web-based system available that could automate things? "Because this is the way it's always been done" has been the most common excuse. Why a $5000 software package has to act as a glorified web page is beyond me. They've actually started using the web software but the LAN form is still the preferred method.

2) Pretend, for a second, you are a 56 yr old woman working on a Word document and not an IT professional. You need a color printer installed for the brochure you are working on for a vice chancellor. Now, as that woman, try filling in this form.

Wow! Imagining that gave me the biggest sexual high I've had in weeks!

I probably need to get out more; or at least to train my imagination to pretend for more than a second at a time.

Don't concern yourself too much with the idiots picking imaginary nits: the WTFery is pretty damn obvious to any reader with more than two active brain-cells to bash together.

Sadly, there's no requirement to count the number of brain-cells before submitting to this site.

And if there was, it would almost certainly require filling in the LAN Form first.

PS I do so hope that the "Infosys" part of this tale wasn't anonymised. Just a small point of personal loathing, really.

Crabs:

Also, rain on your wedding day is ironic, because it's supposed to be good luck, even though you would normally perceive that as being pretty crummy.

Nope, try again.

It might qualify as a category error, but it doesn't qualify as irony.

Now: if it rained on the wedding day of the bloke who dumped Alanis -- that would be ironic.

Zylon:

I fashion bionic legs out of parts from the fax machine.

Your bionic leg malfunctions and starts randomly kicks people in the arse as you walk by. You pass by a campus police officerand kick um square in the arse! Now what would you do?