this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2024
947 points (99.4% liked)

Programmer Humor

19463 readers
301 users here now

Welcome to Programmer Humor!

This is a place where you can post jokes, memes, humor, etc. related to programming!

For sharing awful code theres also Programming Horror.

Rules

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

via: @memes@wetdry.world

https://wetdry.world/@memes/112717700557038278

the sqlite codebase is a gem.

tldr; mcaffee made a shit ton of sqlite files in the temp folder causing people to call the sqlite devs phone angrily. now they name all files etilqs to prevent this.

Text from the screenshot:

2006-10-31: The default prefix used to be "sqlite_". But then Mcafee started using SQLite in their anti-virus product and it started putting files with the "sqlite" name in the c:/temp folder. This annoyed many windows users. Those users would then do a Google search for "sqlite", find the telephone numbers of the developers and call to wake them up at night and complain. For this reason, the default name prefix is changed to be "sqlite" spelled backwards. So the temp files are still identified, but anybody smart enough to figure out the code is also likely smart enough to know that calling the developer will not help get rid of the file.

Code found at: https://github.com/sqlite/sqlite/blob/master/src/os.h#L65 (The line numbers in the screenshot and the code don't match up)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Killing_Spark@feddit.de 87 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Did you just expect people that call random devs at random times to actually read any information on a website?

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If that information said something like “McAfee users concerned about temp files, call (800) 123-4567”, then yes. Did I suggest anything more than that? No. 🙄

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 52 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Lol you never worked customer service or hell desk have you?

The kinds of people who need this message, you would have lost the second you said "temp files"

[–] tyler@programming.dev 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Well these people making these calls are finding the temp folder

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 23 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Irrelevant, these people will find their way into folders they have no business in and no idea what it's doing and break shit

It's a big reason MS started hiding the windows folder after Win 98 (maybe 95)

[–] T156@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Assuming that they went out to look for it, and didn't just poke google with ("sqlite hacked my computer") until they found a phone number.

If they had gotten the phone number for a company called Super Queasy Lite and Easy/SQLitE instead of the developers, the company might well have received the calls instead.

[–] tyler@programming.dev 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Assuming that they went out to look for it, and didn’t just poke google with (“sqlite hacked my computer”) until they found a phone number.

and how in the world did they know to type the word "sqlite" in. Dude, the files are in the temp folder. The only way they know the name "sqlite" is if they literally visited the folder and looked there.

[–] T156@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Error message? McAfee can't write to the drive because it's full of photos of their grandchildren and dogs, so it clicks up "can't write to c:\temp\sqlite_arcane_computer_magic.log: Disk is full", and it goes from there?

[–] randint@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 4 points 4 months ago

hell desk

Brilliant.