Worst Working Conditions You Had To Write Code In?

sausaw writes "I recently had to write code in a hot dusty room for 20 days with temperatures near 107F (~41C); having nothing to sit on; a 64 Kbps inconsistent internet connection; warm water for drinking and a lot of distractions and interruptions. I am sure many people have been in similar situations and would like to know your experiences."

15 years or so ago

[wiredog]

Working in industrial automation. Installing a machine, and tweaking the code. An un-airconditioned plating shop in Oklahoma, in August, in a heat wave. So 100F+, near 100% humidity. Sometimes hanging above a vat of nasty chemicals while debugging with an oscilloscope.

Fun times.

Re:Hmmmmm

[palegray.net]

Try having to sit across from a guy who loves Hanson and can't stop talking about how the industry is full of lies about Vista, the best operating system ever created. I wanted to use his head to stress test the impact rating of windshields in the parking lot. Sure would've relived my stress.

Why is this being posted everywhere?

[almost_lunchtime]

This identical question can be found here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/741581/what-are-the-worst-working-conditions-you-have-written-code-in [stackoverflow.com]

Please

[jDeepbeep]

Mod parent informative

Debugging Java in Sub-Zero

[virtigex]

I was working for a car company on a project for communication between vehicles and infrastructure. The end-of-year demo was in Michigan in January. Because of the cold, I had to deal with car batteries failing, in addition to bugs cause by GPS inaccuracies. Oh and failing hands, because of the temperature. My boss, holding down the fort in California, was please that the demo was a success, but what really cracked him up was the fact that I came down with the flu after the demo.

Re:15 years or so ago

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I've heard that's how it looks outside academia.

Right Now...

[gmletzkojr]

Right now I'm learning to code Java - it's pretty terrible.

Re:Laugher in cube next to me

[StCredZero]

> The laughter is fine...As long as they are not doing your code review! :)

Any laughter is fine...As long you are doing it on the way to the bank!

True story:

My first industry job was 13 years ago building dynamic website stuff for a Public Television station. I was doing Perl-CGI, and all they gave me was a 2 foot by 2 foot junk table, an old wooden chair with peeling paint, and a green-screen DEC terminal in a noisy server room. To develop a web site! I had to debug my code using Lynx! (Text-only web browser.) The reason why I had this lovely setup was that I also had to deal with a redneck idiot admin who didn't understand the web and who thought that all of the station's online presence should be through the BBS he set up. So he was deliberately trying to sabotage the project.

Yes, definitely an idiot. He had no concept of process isolation on modern OSes. His understanding of C programming was along the lines of "magic." And he once was convinced he found a security breach in my code because he composed a GET request, making a pistol gesture and a "pow" sound. I had to point out to him that the CGI script was merely returning him to the home page because it had detected a nonsensical request, and it was designed to do exactly that! (I showed him the unless clause doing it.)

Well, in the end, the project was successful, and redneck idiot BBS man left the job. But his fundie contacts got him a 80k programming job in Atlanta. This is why I tell people, "any idiot can get an 80k programming job." (If they're well connected.)

Re:Why is this being posted everywhere?

[palme999]

And at Hacker News: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=558365 [ycombinator.com]

Microcontroller Reprogramming

[Stormcrow309]

The worst place I had to code is when I had to reprogram a microcontroller in place using a laptop while waste deep in sewage. We had to fix an issue and didn't have enough time to pull it out of the controller box and put it into a test box. So I coded and tested the patch on an emulator then trudged across in waders and types as fast as I could into the terminal window. Thank goodness it took the first shot. Other places we had to code micros... 110 degree utility shaft and a 20 degree roof in high winds. I love my office job now.

Re:Hmmmmm... eligibility??

[Anonymous Coward]

Constitutional eligibility seems to no longer be an issue in this country.

(edit) wait, why is my "confirm i'm not a script" word 'concede'..??

Re:Hmmmmm

[lightversusdark]

WTF is "semetic" and why's it got any modern usage?"

In a modern sense an "anti-semite" is someone who is hated by Jewish people.