Re: Things that make me go WTF?

On 2006-12-20, <news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> <news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Peter Corlett <abuse@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
There was recently an Important Meeting (in which I was not present) where
the performance issues were considered and a Plan Of Action formed. The Plan
is to, erm, not change a thing and plod along with this crock.

There was once a performance problem with a database backed web site. It
used huge perl CGI scripts. We were asked to look at it. We suggested
seven different ways to speed up the CGI scripts. The changes ranged from
the trivial to the sightly complex (rewriting the script so it could use
mod_perl.)

The PHBs had a meeting and decided to spend $20K on a faster server and we
were forbidden from making ANY software changes that would lead to improved
performance.

Assuming salary of $60kpa, that's equivalent to 4 man-months spent
on not doing Other Useful Work(tm). Given that it's Prel, one would
expect it to take at least 6. Plus you'll have to buy a better
computer sooner or later anyway. It seems to me he's just saved the
company a few grand.

Dima

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