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The prank cursor that resulted in an employee being fired before they
even started

[png]

Raymond Chen

November 10th, 20208

   

I learned the story of someone who got fired even before they
started. It resulted from a prank gone awry.

The perpetrator in question was completing an internship and
committed code into the Windows 3.1 code base that was a little prank
for the test team: Under a very specific error condition, it changed
the index finger pointer to a middle finger.

This was a very rude prank, but the test team would take it in the
spirit it was intended.

He then ended his internship and took a two-week break before
returning as a full-time employee.

It so happens that the build in question was selected to be a beta
release that went out to hundreds of hardware and software companies,
as well as beta testers. It wasn't long before some of these copies
found their way into the hands of the media, and the rogue cursor
reportedly nearly made it into a screen shot in an industry magazine.

As you can imagine, this created quite an uproar, drawing the
involvement of senior management. Executives from partner companies
were furious that such an unprofessional image could be included in
the product, and I'm sure a good number assumed that Microsoft
intended the rude gesture to be directed at them specifically.

This was a scandal of the highest proportion, and someone must pay.

The manager of this component replied, completely truthfully, "the
individual responsible for this regrettable act is no longer with the
company."

This helped calm the storm.

The person who made the unauthorized change rejoined the company a
few weeks later, as originally planned. I suspect there was a very
stern talk as part of the onboarding process.

Bonus chatter: A bug was filed in the RAID database to track the
problem and its resolution. In the bug, there was some discussion as
to how the issue should be classified. Was it an "off-by-one" error?
Or maybe it was a "bad pointer".

[png]

Raymond Chen

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Tagged History

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8 comments

Comments are closed. Login to edit/delete your existing comments

  * [png]
    Dave Gzorple November 10, 2020 4:02 pm
    collapse this comment  
   
    I got caught by something like that once. I'll leave the exact
    details under wraps but I was asked to "refrain from putting
    Joseph Stalin quotes in the user manuals".

  * [png]
    cheong00 November 10, 2020 6:06 pm
    collapse this comment  
   
    Yup, definately a case of "bad pointer leaked into the public".

    And IMO, this case is caused by arbitrary value. And bug caused
    by arbitrary value, even if just off-by-one from the value it
    should be, shouldn't be classified as "off-by-one" error.

      + [png]
        Dennis Adams November 11, 2020 6:59 am
        collapse this comment  
       
        I think you missed the humor. There is a cursor with the
        pointing finger. This one uses the next finger. Therefore,
        it's an "off-by-one" error.

          o [png]
            cheong00 November 12, 2020 3:38 am
            collapse this comment  
           
            No, I didn't miss it.

            The correct value is cursor with pointer finger, but he
            set it with cursor with middle finger. That's what we
            call arbitrary value.

            Say, if a function should return "Message ABCD" that is
            internal hash value of 1234, but I returned "Message
            FGHI" that has internal hash value of 1235, it's still
            not classified as "off-by-one" bug.

              # [png]
                Raymond ChenMicrosoft employee November 12, 2020 6:44
                am
                collapse this comment  
               
                It's a joke.

  * [png]
    Sukru Tikves November 10, 2020 6:26 pm
    collapse this comment  
   
    That is a failure of the QA and code reviews.

    If the intern can slip through a prank, good for them. This
    actually helps strengthen the company processes.
    I can understand the "temporary firing", but hope Microsoft
    actually held onto such an individual for the long run.

      + [png]
        cheong00 November 10, 2020 10:18 pm
        collapse this comment  
       
        I think the time of Win 3.1 "code review" was not even exist
        as established software development concept, and it's unclear
        whether the build was selected as beta release before the
        test team have chance to fully checked it (we know beta
        software are unfinished ones and can contain bugs, so a bit
        unrealistic to require test team check it fully before
        release it. Worse, the test team head shouldn't have known
        about the prank, and possibly said it's okay to release when
        upper management asked about it, based on prior progress of
        testing).

          o [png]
            Chris Crowther November 11, 2020 1:24 am
            collapse this comment  
           
            I've certainly known builds selected for beta testing by
            a customer that didn't even install properly.

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