Jimmy Miller

I was given like a week deadline, you know, okay. I get it. We put it into, we put it in service. And what it was doing was like sending a bunch of emails about some process or other. I didn't, you know, didn't know the details, but reading from a table, sending emails based on reading from the table, not complicated. And, uh,

I was given like a week deadline, you know, okay. I get it. We put it into, we put it in service. And what it was doing was like sending a bunch of emails about some process or other. I didn't, you know, didn't know the details, but reading from a table, sending emails based on reading from the table, not complicated. And, uh,

I immediately, like the day I turn it on, my manager comes over to me and says, please turn that program off. We are getting constant emails from people. Apparently, this program hadn't run in eight years. It was about something that was eight years old and it was spamming people's emails every half hour because it couldn't find the data it was expecting.

I immediately, like the day I turn it on, my manager comes over to me and says, please turn that program off. We are getting constant emails from people. Apparently, this program hadn't run in eight years. It was about something that was eight years old and it was spamming people's emails every half hour because it couldn't find the data it was expecting.

It had been not running for, it had been running incorrectly for eight years. They just finally turned on alerting and that's why they started noticing that it was failing.

It had been not running for, it had been running incorrectly for eight years. They just finally turned on alerting and that's why they started noticing that it was failing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've implemented it exactly right. It's just that, uh, yeah, nobody knew that it was failing because that program that, you know, part of the business had been gone for eight years, but those people were still there. Uh, so yeah.

I've implemented it exactly right. It's just that, uh, yeah, nobody knew that it was failing because that program that, you know, part of the business had been gone for eight years, but those people were still there. Uh, so yeah.

Yep. Well, that's wild. Yeah. I think the other one that I loved was like There were whole programs in source control that were just decompiled sources. So they were C sharp, but they had lost the source code to them. So they just took the binary, ran them through a decompiler and checked them into source control.

Yep. Well, that's wild. Yeah. I think the other one that I loved was like There were whole programs in source control that were just decompiled sources. So they were C sharp, but they had lost the source code to them. So they just took the binary, ran them through a decompiler and checked them into source control.

And you had to make changes to this application. And I don't know if you've ever worked with like C sharp decompilation or I imagine it's unreadable, right? It is completely, completely unreadable. It is compiler output. It's like if you had to work on JavaScript minified code. And I had a person, one of these was our time tracking system.

And you had to make changes to this application. And I don't know if you've ever worked with like C sharp decompilation or I imagine it's unreadable, right? It is completely, completely unreadable. It is compiler output. It's like if you had to work on JavaScript minified code. And I had a person, one of these was our time tracking system.

The way we tracked all employees was a custom built application, but we had lost the source control. We had lost the source code. So it was decompiled. And there was some list that was wrong according to a business person. So I go in there and I'm looking at this like Boolean logic that's been like optimized by a compiler. And I finally like get it.

The way we tracked all employees was a custom built application, but we had lost the source control. We had lost the source code. So it was decompiled. And there was some list that was wrong according to a business person. So I go in there and I'm looking at this like Boolean logic that's been like optimized by a compiler. And I finally like get it.

I write down like the logical formula and I plug it into Wolfram Alpha and it tells me like the simplified form. Oh, cool. It was great. I was so proud of myself for thinking of doing that because it was really complicated. It turns out to be like this and that or this and that or this and that. That was like the whole entire thing. figured out what each of these variables came up with.

I write down like the logical formula and I plug it into Wolfram Alpha and it tells me like the simplified form. Oh, cool. It was great. I was so proud of myself for thinking of doing that because it was really complicated. It turns out to be like this and that or this and that or this and that. That was like the whole entire thing. figured out what each of these variables came up with.

I was so proud of myself. I go to the business person. I'm like, all right, here's all the variables. Here's the Boolean logic. You know, what does it need to be instead? And she's like, oh, I don't know. I don't know what any of those variables mean. I don't know what any of these terms mean.

I was so proud of myself. I go to the business person. I'm like, all right, here's all the variables. Here's the Boolean logic. You know, what does it need to be instead? And she's like, oh, I don't know. I don't know what any of those variables mean. I don't know what any of these terms mean.