July 2008
How Did I Get Started In Software Development? →
It turns out both Scott Cowan and Barry Dorrans have tagged me with the latest meme. I guess I should respond :) How old were you when you first started in programming? I guess I was a…
MSBuild – Build Visual Studio 2008 solution and... →
Previously, I have spoke about how you can update your AssemblyInfo file using MSBuild. However, I haven’t spoken about the very basics – how to build a Visual Studio solution and execute your…
Viva La Swag →
Hey, don’t forget, you can buy the QAnarchy shirt:
both with the philosophy statement (Here is the ultimatum of our camp: what can be smashed, must be smashed; whatever survives a blow…
Test Manager Forum Meeting →
Went to the Test Management Forum the other day and enjoyed it. Guest speaker was James Whittaker, very entertaining speaker with examples of bugs in the wild, how he became the top cheater on…
Employers and testers aren’t hooking up →
The software testing job market is confusing me. At the recent CAST conference, I asked several people, mostly independent consultants and consulting firm representatives, how the market looked to…
Going to Boston in the Fall? →
I went to Software Test and Performance Conference last spring in California and had an absolute blast, met some really interesting people, reconnected with some old friends, and learned a thing or…
A New Test Case for Server-based Applications →
Nested within a Daily WTF story, we find an interesting test condition.
“But what if you just, say, pull the plug? A Finally block won’t execute when the computer is turned off!”
If you need…
Loving My Eee 1000H →
I was attracted to the “netbook” market with the release of the initial Eee PC from Asus. The laptop was cheap and very small. Unfortunately, it had a really small screen and an even smaller…
Yummy In My Tummy →
My wife and I recently spent several weeks traveling around England and Scotland. (One reason I wasn’t at CAST.) An important part of our journeys was searching out nice nooks for noshing. We…
Gallery of Stack Traces: OleDB Timeout →
Here’s a simple entry into the Gallery of Stack Traces: a simple timeout that occurs when your Web server taps its foot and looks at its watch while the database isn’t showing up. Finally, the Web…
In The Event Of Nothing, Type Something Arbitrary →
Well, it’s not that bad. Not that bad.
The Lakeside Collection, a catalog mail order company with a Web site, prefers to know from what source it bought your name to send it a catalog, and…
Does your software test lab have a champion? →
Randy Rice has co-authored a book titled ‘Surviving the Top Ten Challenges of Software Testing’. You can find the summary of the top ten challenges here. The set of challenges have been…
Repetition begets skill…however →
In testing, I think there is a tendency to confuse repetition for the purpose of learning with repetition as the application of skill. I have heard that some expound using scripts as a means of…
Firefox Security Model Growth →
Okay, I can bet I’m going to get a lot of flack for this post, so before I start, this is only my opinion and is not at all based on actual numbers. The only reason I’m putting a graph here is…
Lessons Learned in Agile Development →
This begins a series of short essays on Agile development. I am writing these for several reasons. We are using many Agile methods in the development of Watir. We are using such methods as continuous…
June Issue of AST Newsletter is out - →
For those who don’t know, I am a paid member of the Association for Software Testing. Yes, my own pocket. No work reimbursement; I spent real money. The AST puts on an annual conference, has…
Testing tools, Twittuff, and more sidebarring →
Not sure how many of you noticed the blog’s sidebar, if at all, but there is a bunch of cool stuff there! Seriously!
The king of cool is a rather useful link called Dev & QA Tools. It contains a…
Binary String Finder and PyRAFT V0.01 Released →
Ed Foster is dead–A great loss for mass-market... →
Ed Foster just died.
Ed was one of the great journalists of Silicon Valley. He listened. He read. He asked probing questions. He changed his mind when the evidence proved him wrong. He understood…
Testing tools, Twittuff, and more sidebarring →
Not sure how many of you noticed the blog’s sidebar, if at all, but there is a bunch of cool stuff there! Seriously!
The king of cool is a rather useful link called Dev & QA Tools. It contains a…
Managing virtual machine sprawl across hypervisors →
Lets face it - there are many hypervisors available in the market today - some free, others not. Most of the big players have long realized the value of the platform play in the technology…
We Need Testing Example Videos →
A few days ago, Michael Bolton, Pradeep Soundararajan and I were sitting around talking about software testing. (Shocking, I know.) Pradeep brought something up that has been on my mind lately: we…
When Is A Home Button Not A Home Button? →
When it’s merely an image that looks like a button that says home on the untitled document that passes as the eventmentorTM home page:
Click for full size
Come on, only a fool…
History Hack Male vs. Female and Beyond →
Strangely enough there’s been a ton of things happening in the CSS history hacking world lately, and I thought I should recap some of the more important events of late. Firstly, Firefox 3.0 came…
Crabby Outlook Tips →
Have you read Crabby Office Lady? She’s an anonymous MSFT employee working in Office, who is full of great ideas for getting the most out of Office. In a recent post, she gives three tips for her 6…
If you were a CIO ... →
… What would your test policy be? Is an interesting question posed by Annie-Marie Charrett on the SoftwaretestingClub.com Site. It turns out that Annie-Marie is contributing to an IEEE council…
Japanese Company Wants To Complicate Browser... →
The headline really is Japanese browser maker takes on IE, Firefox: Fenrir wants to snare 5% of the browser market, but the result would be the same for you and I.
A Japanese software company is…
Evaluating NDepend →
I played with NDepend over the last two months and it turned out to be quite a useful tool. NDepend performs all sorts of static analysis on .NET code and evaluates code quality and complexity….
A first step toward saying what we mean when we... →
“In the universe, nothing can be said to be automatic, as nothing can be said to be without design. An imperfect parallel may be found in human inventions; springs may move springs, and wheels,…
Pause at the Pump →
My fuel gauge is on empty. I don’t want to stop, but pull into the gas station. I tell the children to stay in the car. I get out of the car. The children are asking me questions from…
Software - A game of questions and answers →
“The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong question.” — Peter Drucker
“Testing is a questioning process in order to…
'Tools for testers' course next month at STANZ →
Paul Szymkowiak and I will be running a one-day workshop on tools for testers, as part of the STANZ conference. The current run on August 13th is full, but you can register your interest via Softed,…
Private Blogs →
Yesterday, I spent yet another evening researching private blogging options. Several months ago, I started a private blog to share with the people who are helping us launch WatirCraft. I’ve had these…
Software Quality Assurance: SDL (Secure... →
At work, I’ve been helping one of my teams implement portions of Microsoft’s Secure Development Lifecycle (SDL). SDL is more than just plinking around attempting some penetration testing—it’s a…
TotT: Testing Against Interfaces →
To quell a lingering feeling of inadequacy, you took the time to build your own planetary death ray, a veritable rite of passage in the engineering profession. Congratulations. And you were feeling…
Python - Counting Items In A List →
Counting items in a list… Lets say you have a list like this: foo = [1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1]
… and you want to count the items in the list, ending up with a dictionary full of items (dict…
RubyCocoa (etc.) podcast →
I forgot to mention that I did a podcast with Daniel Steinberg:
Brian Marick on Ruby Cocoa and Testing
Who’s smart enough to program?
Brian Marick talks to Daniel Steinberg on a wide…
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO CATCH A FISH? →
- An Arsenal of Bad Answers – I tried to not pick up my pen – really I did… I battled with it for an entire week. But I cannot resist the call any longer. I promised myself a long time ago that I…
Perfect Operators →
Last month was a company social event, sailing to Cowes. Some people were happy to sleep onboard the boats the night before, others with not so good sea legs preferred a hotel bed so I had…
Most Bank Sites Insecure →
Most Bank Sites Are Insecure, InformationWeek reports:
More than three-quarters of bank Web sites have design flaws that could expose bank customers to financial loss or identity theft,…
ISQT Conference Snapshots at Testing Perspective... →
How to Write 3v1L, Untestable Code →
by Miško Hevery, Jonathan Wolter, Russ Ruffer, Brad Cross, and lots of other test infected Googlers This guide lists principles that will help you write impossible to tests code. Or, avoiding…
Private Investigator or Forensics Expert →
What do I have in common with Magnum PI? What does id have in common with Dog the Bounty Hunter? Well in the state of Texas we all need PI licenses. That’s right, if you want to help anyone…
Software Is Neither Organism Nor Machine →
The thinking tester asks:
Software - A machine or an organism or ?
Sardonically, we here at QAHatesYou.com humbly respond, with all the knowledge in entomology you get with a scarcely earned C…
2008 Gordon Pask Award for Contributions to Agile... →
We are soliciting nominations for the 2008 Gordon Pask Award for Contributions to Agile Practice.
Each year, the Agile Alliance awards the Gordon Pask Award on the last day of the Agile 200X…
A Nonworking Nonflash Alternative →
When you depend upon a Flash piece to jazz up your home page, you need to provide an alternative for users who don’t have Flash installed or who have a version your Web site and gee-whizzery doesn’t…
Going Right Out And Advertising For It →
An employer putting the real job duties in the title:
Click for full size
I assume that an analsyt is supposed to just sit on his or her butt all day and let dev and project management…
Software - A machine or an organism or ? →
“The first obvious difference between machines and organisms is the fact that machines are constructed, whereas organisms grow. … Whereas the activities of a machine are determined by its structure,…
Breaking the Law of Demeter is Like Looking for a... →
by Miško Hevery Every time I see Law of Demeter violation I imagine a haystack where the code is desperately trying to locate the needle. class Mechanic { Engine engine; Mechanic(Context...
Not Much Benefit →
Spotted this job ad and whilst I love my Friday morning fry-up I dont think it would be good for my health to have it 5 days a week. Nor would it be good for my health to be working at a…
