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I thought it'd be fun for us to share funny/horrifying tales of programming accidents, pranks, interesting anecdotes, and so on. Maybe we'll learn something.
32 replies to this topic
#1
Posted 29 September 2009 - 12:17 PM
dargueta
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Writes binary right handed and hex left handed
sudo rm -rf /
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#2
Posted 29 September 2009 - 12:23 PM
dargueta
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Writes binary right handed and hex left handed
I'll post first, I guess.
One time I accidentally crashed the Library of Congress' website. I was data mining for a project I was working on, using a program I wrote that used 64 threads to simultaneously query the LOC site for records on ISBN number. So I got it running, but after a few seconds I noticed that my program was spitting back error messages stating that the webpage returned was in an unexpected format. I opened up Firefox, checked the website, and got an error page (this is a paraphrase from memory):
I quickly killed my program and refreshed the page...lo and behold, there was the site I was expecting.
Moral of the story: Don't use too many threads to download from the same site.
One time I accidentally crashed the Library of Congress' website. I was data mining for a project I was working on, using a program I wrote that used 64 threads to simultaneously query the LOC site for records on ISBN number. So I got it running, but after a few seconds I noticed that my program was spitting back error messages stating that the webpage returned was in an unexpected format. I opened up Firefox, checked the website, and got an error page (this is a paraphrase from memory):
Quote
We're sorry, but our servers are currently down due to an unexpected high volume of traffic. Please try again later.
I quickly killed my program and refreshed the page...lo and behold, there was the site I was expecting.
Moral of the story: Don't use too many threads to download from the same site.
sudo rm -rf /
#3
Posted 29 September 2009 - 01:01 PM
Guest
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Writes binary right handed and hex left handed
When I was a freshman in high school (two years ago), I took a class called "Computer Software Applications". That name was very misleading, all we did was Microsoft Word and a little bit of Power point! Well I was always bored in that class, what I was really interested in at the time was TCP/IP. I was always messing around, scanning the network and getting past firewalls to play games. One day I had downloaded a new program to play with in class. I tried using it to connect to one of the school servers. Well, the program ended up crashing the school server! I didn't even know it until I went to the office. I got 10 days out of school suspension for that.
Moral: don't download mysterious programs and try them for the first time at school.
Moral: don't download mysterious programs and try them for the first time at school.
Root Beer == System Administrator's Beer
Download the new operating system programming kit! (some assembly required)
Download the new operating system programming kit! (some assembly required)
#4
Posted 29 September 2009 - 01:09 PM
dargueta
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Writes binary right handed and hex left handed
BWAHAHAHA! Sorry to hear you got suspended, though. That must've been fun explaining to your parents.
Our network administrator in high school didn't set permissions correctly on some of the network drives, and didn't hide the login scripts from students either, so I managed to figure out where the teacher login scripts were, and from there I gained access to the faculty directories on the server--grades, salaries, lesson plans...Needless to say he was not amused.
Our network administrator in high school didn't set permissions correctly on some of the network drives, and didn't hide the login scripts from students either, so I managed to figure out where the teacher login scripts were, and from there I gained access to the faculty directories on the server--grades, salaries, lesson plans...Needless to say he was not amused.
sudo rm -rf /
#5
Posted 29 September 2009 - 01:27 PM
WingedPanther
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A spammer's worst nightmare
One of my favorites. In 1998, I was still using my 486 with Windows 3.1 to connect to IRC. One time, a lady who had "hacker buddies" told me they could knock me off-line. Intrigued, I accepted the challenge. They tried to knock me off with method 1. I didn't go anywhere. Method 2, I stayed online. It wasn't until they got around to attempt 4 or 5 that they stopped using Win 95/98 exploits and got something old enough to affect me.
#6
Posted 29 September 2009 - 01:28 PM
dargueta
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Writes binary right handed and hex left handed
We used to have a 486 running 3.1 as well! Then our massive 400Mb hard drive crashed.
sudo rm -rf /
#7
Posted 29 September 2009 - 02:43 PM
amrosama
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Writes binary right handed and hex left handed
lol @WP
last month i had some major changes to a website im working on. so i worked offline(for 5 hours) and when i finished everything i uploaded the whole project folder using filezilla . doing that un-did my partner's hard work and he was extremely mad but didnt know what the reason was. so he called me for an explanation..... i.. i lied and said that my boss must be restoring backup :/
last month i had some major changes to a website im working on. so i worked offline(for 5 hours) and when i finished everything i uploaded the whole project folder using filezilla . doing that un-did my partner's hard work and he was extremely mad but didnt know what the reason was. so he called me for an explanation..... i.. i lied and said that my boss must be restoring backup :/
yo homie i heard you like one-line codes so i put a one line code that evals a decrypted one line code that prints "i love one line codes"
eval(base64_decode("cHJpbnQgJ2kgbG92ZSBvbmUtbGluZSBjb2Rlcyc7"));
www.amrosama.com | the unholy methods of javascript
#8
Posted 29 September 2009 - 04:00 PM
dargueta
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Writes binary right handed and hex left handed
I did IT for my high school one summer, and while installing some new routers I accidentally pulled the wrong wires out and disabled the entire phone system across the school. Took me a long time to figure out which wires had come from where.
sudo rm -rf /
#9
Posted 29 September 2009 - 04:41 PM
debtboy
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Programming God
A few years ago at work, I had to delete 2 bad records,
so I tried my existing web interface which no longer worked
(due to additional security), so I ran a delete query on the
database directly, and then noticed...
I forgot the record ID in the criteria.
almost 10 million records gone!!! :scared:
Luckily I get along well with the DBA
and the Sys Admin, love those backups!!
(they will never let me live it down)
so I tried my existing web interface which no longer worked
(due to additional security), so I ran a delete query on the
database directly, and then noticed...
I forgot the record ID in the criteria.
almost 10 million records gone!!! :scared:
Luckily I get along well with the DBA
and the Sys Admin, love those backups!!
(they will never let me live it down)
#10
Posted 29 September 2009 - 04:45 PM
dargueta
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Writes binary right handed and hex left handed
One time, my roommate and I were collaborating on a project. I tried to give him access to my workspace using the fs setacl command, and instead completely locked myself out of my own workspace.
sudo rm -rf /
#11
Posted 29 September 2009 - 05:50 PM
amrosama
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Writes binary right handed and hex left handed
hahaha
i was using phpmyadmin to make a backup of almost 500mb database to drop the database and import it on the server, when i imported the database on the server i noticed that i only exported just one table . the whole database was gone. they used a one week old backup...
i was using phpmyadmin to make a backup of almost 500mb database to drop the database and import it on the server, when i imported the database on the server i noticed that i only exported just one table . the whole database was gone. they used a one week old backup...
yo homie i heard you like one-line codes so i put a one line code that evals a decrypted one line code that prints "i love one line codes"
eval(base64_decode("cHJpbnQgJ2kgbG92ZSBvbmUtbGluZSBjb2Rlcyc7"));
www.amrosama.com | the unholy methods of javascript
#12
Posted 29 September 2009 - 08:38 PM
dargueta
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Writes binary right handed and hex left handed
After taking three intensive programming courses (all Linux-based), my roommate asked me what GCC was. (I think he was high at the time, though.)
sudo rm -rf /
