diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'docs/ta/vg151_funny_shit.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/ta/vg151_funny_shit.md | 285 |
1 files changed, 285 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/docs/ta/vg151_funny_shit.md b/docs/ta/vg151_funny_shit.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f2d510a --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/ta/vg151_funny_shit.md @@ -0,0 +1,285 @@ +# VG151 — Funny Shit + +Being a TA is mostly pain, but occasionally you get comedy as a side +effect: newbie questions that make no sense, hilarious program behavior, +creative approaches to a problem, you name it. Every time I see one, I'll +post it here. + +All screenshots and conversations are anonymized. If you see yourself in +this blogpost, please don't take it personally. These funny stories are +TAs' primary source of amusement. Please let us have them. Oh, and the +"shit" in this post's title is by no means derogatory. + +If you feel extremely uncomfortable with any entry below, please send +email to `<fkfd at fkfd dot me>`. + +## 2022-09-13, Lab 0 + + + +This is a reenactment of a screenshot they sent me to troubleshoot. + +## 2022-09-15, group chat + +Someone asked if the compiler they need to install was VSCode. One TA +corrected them that VSCode is an IDE. Another TA corrected that TA because +VSCode is technically a text editor, and Visual Studio is an example of an +IDE. + +_slow down we'll be getting there_ + +## 2022-09-22, TA group chat + +One of our TAs decided to get a Moss account. The +[website](http://theory.stanford.edu/~aiken/moss/) says: + + + +<details> +<summary>Transcript</summary> +<p>To obtain a Moss account, send a mail message to moss@moss.stanford.edu. +The body of the message should appear exactly as follows:</p> +<p>registeruser<br/> +mail <i>username@domain</i></p> +<p>where the last bit in italics is your email address.</p> +</details> + +Well, here my colleague goes (reenactment): + + + +<details> +<summary>Transcript</summary> +To: "moss@moss.stanford.edu"<br/> +Subject: Moss Register<br/> +registeruser<br/> +mail <i>their.email@sjtu.edu.cn</i> +</details> + +Minutes passed and no reply. Another TA told them they should compose in +plaintext and that italics were unnecessary. Stanford lied; turns out the +message _doesn't_ "appear exactly as follows" after all. + +## 2022-09-24, Gitea + + + +AH, nothing like seeing a user on gitea with a pfp of a distinguished +alumnus of ours. + +## 2022-09-25, DM + +Paraphrased: + +> Will you teach us how to finish the project step by step? + +My reply was: + +> of course + +and 10 seconds later: + +> not + +## 2022-09-27, Lab 2 + + + +P… pretty sure it's called a nucleic acid test? \*Ground rumbles\* \*Hears +the word "Chernobyl" in the distance\* + +## 2022-09-27, teaching team channel + +One student reached out to ask this question (paraphrased): + +> Can I use other languages than MATLAB for project 1? + +Their rationale is, they thought the project description document we +handed them didn't specify which language (spoiler: it did), so they +assumed they could use any. + +Well _in theory_ you could write the project in Python with matplotlib. Or +in C/C++ with OpenGL. But… better not talk about it. + +(See followup below) + +## 2022-09-30, Gitea + +On 16:54 it came to my attention while `git pull`ing all the students' +homework repos that one branch was 108.26MiB in size. When uncompressed, +it grew to 831.3MiB. It should not be larger than 1MiB. + +I smell fuckup fumes from a distance away. Upon close examination, they +pushed their project code, which should have been strictly kept personal. +Worse, there are two versions. Worse, neither is in Matlab, but in C++. +Worse, one of them is built on Qt. Worse, they were written with Visual +Studio. Worse, they pushed all the vsidx, vcxproj, ipch and all kinds of +crap. + +Manuel predicted that students will do all sorts of stupid things, going +as far as considering git lfs. Real conversation: + +> TA: will lfs be used in this course? + +> Manuel: it should not but we never know what they will push by mistake… + +Murphy's law worked. Apart from this VS atrocity, students were pushing: + +- tarballs / zip files they should be submitting to the OJ +- batch file automating tar +- pdf +- symlinks to the pdf +- a CC BY 4.0 International license + +## 2022-10-01 to 2022-10-02, Canvas (and everywhere else) + +Right past midnight, as the calendar flips to 2022-10-01, I began grading +all freshmen's homework 1 with a Python script inherited from past TAs. +The script got a few hiccups, because: + +- I misconfigured the # number of OJ test cases +- OJ server constantly crashes +- Students' first name on Gitea is capitalized but not on Canvas +- Off-by-one bug produces non-existent group, hgroup-00 + +It took me more than an hour to fix them. At 01:47, I finally released +freshmen's first homework grade. It was disastrous. By tradition we gave +them one day to fix mistakes they've made, and the next midnight I re-ran +the script. Signs of improvement are showing, but there still remains four +groups who got a full deduction (-2.5). + +Naturally, my inbox was flooded with complaints and questions (around 25), +especially from these four groups. When I woke up, I decided to +investigate. + +- Group A: Named their README file `README .md` +- Group B: Named their README file `README(ex1).md` +- Group C: Pushed to master but forgot to release +- Group D: Not enough teammates to approve PR + +Considering A and B made understandable freshman mistakes, C had +a technical problem as explained by team member, and D actually did +contact us beforehand, I negotiated a partial refund with Manuel. + +## 2022-10-08, JOJ + +While a fellow TA was developing a JOJ integration plugin for VSCode, they +discovered that they could submit Python code to a Matlab exercise, and, +better yet, pass all test cases by mimicking the "MATLAB is selecting +SOFTWARE OPENGL rendering" splash text. + +They said it only works if the file is named `foo.py` and uploaded via +handcrafted HTTP POST requests, not the website. + +The maintainer of JOJ claims, allegedly, that they had zero fucking idea +about it. + +## 2022-10-11, Mattermost + +We have an integration that posts all PRs from Gitea to MM. However, there +are two problems with text rendering: + +- HTML is not unescaped inside `<code>` +- Emoticons are converted to emoji, even when it shouldn't be one + +Enjoy whatever this is: + + + +<details markdown="1"> +<summary>Transcript</summary> +FOCS Gitea (BOT) 20:16 + +\[ENGR151-22/hgroup-REDACTED\] Pull request opened: #14 h3-REDACTED by REDACTED + + #14 h3-REDACTED + +\# Homework ❤\> + +This part is only for indivudal submission. Delete it for the group submission. +Replace all elements between `< >` by appropriate values. To tick a box +change `- [ ]` into `- [x]`. + +\## Overview + +Exercises completed: <1,2,3,4,5,6> +</details> + +## 2022-11-09, East Middle Hall + +A freshman asked me to arrange an office hour for their project 2, so +I did. Context: project 2 is an Uno spinoff but with regular poker cards. + +I checked their code. First thing I saw was `struct Puke`. I asked them +what it was. It was pinyin transliteration for "Poker". I tried to explain +"Puke" means "to vomit" in English. They didn't care. 🤷 + +## 2022-11-19, some conference room + +We were about to deliver a recitation class for the midterm, and my +colleague put on Minami-ke music (in case you didn't know, the three +sisters from [Minami-ke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minami-ke) are +recurring characters in the VG151 lore. + + + +## 2022-12-15, Mattermost + +We were about to hold the final exam the next day, and since it was +online, we decided that Canvas quizzes are the way to go. I clicked into +one they were working on, clicked Edit then Cancel, but a heads-up told me +the quiz was deleted. I was like "I done fucked up". Quickly I admitted my +mistake to my colleagues. + + + +<details markdown="1"> +<summary>Transcript</summary> +Me: @TA-redacted um, this is gonna be really awkward, but I accidentally +deleted the quiz + +Me: idk how it happened all i did was poke around + +TA-redacted: no, i [sic] deletes it + +Me: bruh + +(there was a ROFL emoji reaction below my first message.) +</details> + +## 2022-12-16, dorm + +I was grading project 2 late at night and saw this monstrosity. + + + +clang-format to the rescue. + +## 2022-12-18, dorm + +Still grading project 2, but this one made me chuckle. + + + +<details markdown="1"> +<summary>Transcript</summary> + +``` +//----------------Apple OS------------- +#elif __APPLE__ + +#if defined(TARGET_OS_OSX) +// MacOS + +#elif TARGET_OS_IPHONE +// IOS + +#else +// other APPLE os +#endif +``` +</details> + +For context, our project was meant to run on computers in the terminal. |