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| Unique Visitors: 0 |
| Total Unique Visitors: 195 |
| Visitors Out: 68077 |
| Total Visitors Out: 126684 |
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| Pause at the Pump |
| 2008-07-26 23:34:00 |
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 inside the car that I can't hear well enough to understand.I swipe my credit card in the pump's card reader. The pump responds by prompting me to "SELECT WINDOW OR OUTSIDE".The children are still talking to me. I still don't understand.I pause and stare at the keypad.Is there a problem here?I pause to think for a moment.I hear the children asking me questions that I still don't understand through the closed car windows.I scan the keypad again.I cant find the "OUTSIDE" button.Recognizing BugsAt CAST last week, Pradeep Soundararajan gave a Lighting Talk about the importance of testers being able to recognize a bug...
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| Images of CAST 2008 |
| 2008-07-19 11:18:00 |
The third annual Conference of the Association for Software Testing (CAST) happened this past week in Toronto, Ontario. This was not your typical sit-down, shut-up, and listen conference. Everywhere I looked, I saw testers conferring -- and that makes a good conference. Day 1 - TutorialsDay 2 - ConferenceDay 3 - ConferenceBen SimoQuestioningSoftware.com
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| Announcing FROSST 1 - Front Range Open Space Software Testing Conference |
| 2008-07-12 09:14:00 |
ThinkTalkTest, Ltd., co-founded by Ben Simo and Heidi Harmes-Campbell, is pleased to announce the first FROSST (Front Range Open Space Software Testing) conference.FROSST 1 will be held on October 10th and 11th in Westminster, Colorado. The conference will be held on a Friday evening and all day Saturday.The purpose of this conference is to facilitate collaboration amongst software testers in Colorado and beyond. Invite your friends and colleagues.FROSST is free to all participants. Anyone with something to share or learn about software testing is welcome. Participation is limited to the first 150 testers that sign up. Sign up now to claim a spot.FROSST is an open space conference. This means that the participants will create the agenda for the conference. This will be done leading...
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| Let's Talk Testing at CAST |
| 2008-06-12 12:54:00 |
I attended the Conference of the Association for Software Testing (CAST) last year and discovered something new: a conference that does a great job of mixing presentations by testing thought leaders and practitioners with conferring. CAST is now my favorite testing conference.In addition to learning from expert keynote presenters (including Jerry Weinberg and Cem Kaner), I look forward to time spent with people that care about software testing.Testers tend to question things. The organizers of CAST recognize this and allow for questioning of every presentation. I saw this in action last year. I heard audience members add insight to what was presented. I heard assertions challenged and discussed. I even observed discussion move into another room and continue beyond the scheduled session...
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| Is There A Problem Here? |
| 2008-05-20 18:24:00 |
msn videoTo use this product, you need to install free softwareThis product requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 with Microsoft Media Players 10 and Macromedia Flash 6 or higher versions, or Mozilla Firefox 1.5 with Macromedia Flash 8, or Safari 2.0.4 with Macromedia Flash 8. To download these free software applications, click the links below and follow the on-screen instructions.Step 1: download firefox 1.5download firefox 1.5Step 2: Download Macromedia Flash PlayerMacromedia Flash player is free to download.If still having problems, uninstall Flash and then re-install Flash.Once the installations are complete, reload this page.
Ben Simo
QuestioningSoftware.com
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| Aggravation Testing |
| 2008-05-10 06:18:00 |
An example:How Long Do I Have To Wait?A few hours? I don't have hours. I am sitting in the car using borrowed WiFi from a campground. I had to seek out Internet access to use software that came on a CD. I finally find Internet access and now it says I may have to wait a several hours. Can I abort if it takes longer than I have? What happens if I lose my internet access while the firmware update is underway?I'm already frustrated with this device. I'm already frustrated with the software. I was hoping that a firmware update might fix bugs and usability issues on the device itself. I have reached the tipping point. This thing is going back to the store.
Ben Simo
QuestioningSoftware.com
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| Terrified by Improvisation |
| 2008-05-04 10:12:00 |
[Improvisational comedy] involves people making very sophisticated decisions on the spur of the moment, without benefit of any kind of script or plot. That's what makes it so compelling -- and to be frank -- terrifying. ... What is terrifying about improv is the fact that it appears utterly random and chaotic. It seems as though you have to get up onstage and make everything up, right there on the spot. But the truth is that improv isn't random or chaotic at all. ... Improv is an art form governed by a set of rules... How good people's decisions are under the fast-moving, high-stress conditions of rapid cognition is a function of training, rules, and rehearsal.- Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without ThinkingNow, reread the quote above and replace improv with exploratory te...
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| Don't be fooled by the green lights |
| 2008-05-03 14:55:00 |
If we're uncertain about the reliability and value of code, writing more code seems like a highly fallible and paradoxical way to resolve the uncertainty.- Michael BoltonThere is a disturbing trend in software testing. This is a trend towards redefining test to be code and testing to be a coding activity.In his book, Testing Object Oriented Systems, Robert Binder writes "Manual testing, of course, still plays a role. But testing is mainly about the development of an automated system to implement an application-specific test design." While this book contains a great deal of useful information about test design and test automation, I wholeheartedly disagree with this statement -- and I make a living developing test automation. I find Bob Martin's statements about manual testing being im...
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| A Good Practice |
| 2008-04-04 18:20:00 |
The Association for Software Testing (AST) is a professional organization dedicated to advancing the understanding and practice of software testing. The AST provides forums for academics, students, and testing practitioners to discuss testing. AST does this through online forums, workshops, education programs, and conferences. The third annual Conference of the Association for Software Testing (CAST) provides a great forum for face-to-face conferring. This is not your typical conference where experts talk at the masses. This is the software testing conference that puts the confer back in conference. Ever sit in a presentation about testing and think anything like the following?Yeah that works for you but it'll never work in my situation.What do you mean by X?She must work with idiots....
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| Retraining the unskilled to code software |
| 2008-03-02 10:32:00 |
I stumbled across a 46 year old newspaper article about how automation is changing business. The following statement caught my attention."Unskilled workers can then be retrained to handle peripheral jobs in the EDP system such as coding, card punching and so on."Computor Invasion Scares The Unskilled,WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, 1962Times sure have changed. If retraining unskilled workers to code software was a viable option, then they must have been coding some pretty simple software. Maybe "coding" really refers to the process of entering code designed by someone else. Maybe "coding" meant data entry.Regardless of what "coding" meant in 1962, computers and the software we create today are more complex than they were 46 years ago. It is too bad that some who would never think of coding as un...
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