The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

Mercy the Mercenary in… The App Store

by Erik Gern in Feature Articles on 2016-04-25

We return with the penultimate installment of the tale of Mercy, the Mercenary Developer. Last time, she implemented a countdown clock- but nobody told her what it was counting down to, because nobody knew.

It was standing-room only at Rockwood for Governor campaign headquarters. All the tables had been pushed to the walls or folded and stowed away; most of the chairs were stacked. Volunteers milled about, eating delivery pizza, wings, and (probably spiked) soda.

45 comments - Last comment @ 2016-05-25

Mercy the Mercenary in… The (not so) Final Countdown

by Erik Gern in Feature Articles on 2016-04-18

In the continuing saga of Mercy the Mercenary, she continues to struggle with a political campaign- Rockwood for Governor- and its backwards approach to IT. Last time, she had an uphill battle getting the kit to keep their website up.

The request seemed so simple, Mercy knew. Embed a video inside an email message.

43 comments - Last comment @ 2016-09-26

Mercy the Mercenary in… The Cloud

by Erik Gern in Feature Articles on 2016-04-11

The tale of Mercy the Mercenary Developer continues. Last week Mercy became the IT support for a political campaign because she knew how to stream from a cellphone, and thus knew more than anyone working at the campaign.

Mercy ground her teeth. Her wifi connection in Rockwood’s campaign headquarters had dropped again.

44 comments - Last comment @ 2022-02-22

Mercy the Mercenary in… Trouble at the Town Hall

by Erik Gern in Feature Articles on 2016-04-04

Mercy Francis sat inside a drab, storefront office. The walls were covered in posters, captioned the words Rockwood for Governor, for a Righteous Florida! To her right was a map of Florida covered in multi-colored thumbtacks. Below the map sat an aging desktop machine. On its case was slapped a piece of masking tape marked Rover.

Across from her sat Barbie Sullivan. She appeared to be in her fifties, just over five feet high, with a greying bob cut. She had introduced herself as the campaign manager.

34 comments - Last comment @ 2023-10-24