Tag IBM

A Well-Timed Ad

Yesterday, at work, I got an ad from IBM that said

Today’s business requires actionable insights.

Today, Slashdot is reporting that IBM and Intel executives have been arrested for insider trading.

I guess the actionable insight they had was “if we use information about the company that the public doesn’t have, we can make a killing on the stock market!”

May I also suggest “If someone orders something from you, and you take their money but don’t ship the product, you can reduce your operating costs” and “You can make a ton of money just by pointing a gun at people and taking their wallets.” No, don’t thank me. The thought of you enjoying some quality time with your cellmate Bubba is all the thanks I need.

The Worst README in the World

While trying to install some drivers on a machine, I ran across for them.

CONTENTS

1.0	About this README file
1.1	  Who should read this README file
1.2	  How to get help
2.0	IBM2105.RTE Change History
3.0	Procedure for upgrading AIX OS, Host attachment, and/or SDD
4.0	User license agreement for IBM device drivers
4.1	  Background / Purpose
4.2	  Definitions
4.3	  License grant
4.4	  Responsibilities
4.5	  Confidential information
4.6	  Limitation of liability
4.7	  Termination
4.8	  Representations and warranties
4.9	  General provisions
5.0	Appendix A
6.0	Notices
7.0	Trademarks and service marks

How anal is it to include a table of contents in a README? I just hope that the section numbers are updated automatically. It would really suck to be the guy in charge of manually renumbering the table of contents when someone edits the file.

At any rate, note that the only interesting part is section 3.0, the actual installation instructions. That section reads, in full:

3.0  Procedure for upgrading AIX OS, Host attachment, and/or SDD

     Please refer to the latest SDD readme file for the detailed procedure.

Wow. Three lines. Out of a 522-line file. And all to say “this is not the file you’re looking for.”

I think the stick up IBM’s ass has officially taken over the entire company.