davidray's Comments

Information Technology Dark Side : What is a tester's job?

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 22:22:41 +0000

Well, the fact that you have managed to fit in among such smart peeps is a credit to you, but I think you're being a bit bashful by suggesting you don't do those things. It's just really, really easy the vast majority of the time for you. That might be because the things that you don't entirely control (who you work with) and the things you do control (your own behavior) work nicely together to create a really productive culture. Let me prove my point. If you had a tendency to cry wolf, or were perpetually out of sync with the devs... what would happen? Someone would fix that problem, probably through peer pressure. In other words, I think you're probably pretty good at bug advocacy. You're also in a place where bug advocacy is less about people skills and more about facts. You still have to collect and explain those facts effectively. Anyway, I think your situation brings up a good point about context. I still think a testers job is to make the product better, but what that means varies widely based on the context of the organization, product, and other things. In your case, you've got a sweet gig and your life is pretty pleasant and productive. In another environment that is not as healthy or effective, it might mean something entirely different. But the job is the same - to make the product better. A tester might have to do much more than test stories to make that happen, but it's still part of the job.

Information Technology Dark Side : Book Review: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 01:49:44 +0000

Yes. I quit my mindless job and joined a startup, doing stuff I enjoy from an office in my home. I also started my own startup, trooptrack.com.

Information Technology Dark Side : How to Pronounce Indian Names

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:07:05 +0000

I've only ever had southerners think my name was David Chris Jansen. I'm not sure why, but maybe there's some funky regional bias in play.

It's�kris-TEE-ann-sen, I think, but really if you get the pronunciation right and the enunciation wrong, it's not likely even I will notice.

Thanks!

Dave

Information Technology Dark Side : How to Pronounce Indian Names

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:38:04 +0000

My guess is:�

VEE rah rah gaw vah n

That's a hard name.

Information Technology Dark Side : Noodling on Contributor Agreements

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:19:06 +0000

Hi Baldguy,
We use Atlassian Confluence for at least 95% of the documentation we create. This even includes our product documentation and help manuals. It's nice because it's easy to collaborate on stuff - no files to download or email around, and when we're done we can export them as a pdf if we need to (we usually don't, except when we are responding to an rfp or something). It's great because you can really organize your documentation however you want, it doesn't become stale as easily, and it is uber-accessible.

Does that help?

Dave

Information Technology Dark Side : Noodling on Contributor Agreements

Thu, 13 May 2010 10:36:55 +0000

Like this: %ownership * profit

Information Technology Dark Side : Slow Growth is a Competitive Advantage

Wed, 12 May 2010 21:30:11 +0000

Yeah, that's kewl stuff. Thanks Mike!

Information Technology Dark Side : Was that Your Butt I Saw on YouTube?

Thu, 1 Apr 2010 14:52:46 +0000

Yay! I got one victim. Now email it to all your friends - I'm hoping to get this puppy listed on Snopes.com!

Information Technology Dark Side : DJ 1.0: How I Accidentally Fell in Love With My Boss

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:06:21 +0000

Sunny. You're lame. Did you even read the story?

Information Technology Dark Side : An Awesome Response to My Evolution Ponderings

Tue, 2 Mar 2010 18:44:20 +0000

And, I suppose that since Keith has called me on the Genesis bit I'll have to post that soon. Just not today.

Information Technology Dark Side : An Awesome Response to My Evolution Ponderings

Tue, 2 Mar 2010 18:43:48 +0000

Keith makes some good points that I appreciate and agree with, particularly about the evidence that all life evolved from the same beginning. I think there's nothing to debate there. Fortunately, my post wasn't about trying to disprove evolution. I was just simply trying to express some thoughts I have about it that seem still very mysterious to me. And kind of funny, to tell the truth. I think it's interesting that we imagine (via films like Star Wars) this huge diversity among humanoids, but so far there is very little diversity at all. I like Keith's description as the brain quest as a sort of race, and the first one to get a brain worth using earns domination over the planet. I hadn't thought of it that way. Here are two very interesting evolutionary tidbits. I'm providing them from memory, so if you're academic you're gonna have to find the references on your own. Sorry. 1) There is archaeological evidence that wolves became dog-like in a very short period of time, and I'm not talking in geological time. Human time! The evolution of a wolf into a dog very likely occurred in less than 70 years. Yup. A human could have been born around wolves and died around dogs. That's what the fossil record suggests anyway. 2) A Russian researcher devised a simple test for domesticatability among foxes in the 1950's as a way of making it easier to produce pelts en masse. He would put a thick glove on his hand and stick it in the cage with the foxes. The foxes that attacked it were destroyed and those that were curious or friendly were allowed to breed. Within a few short years, he was able to domesticate foxes, but in the process they took on rather dramatic physical changes. The shape of their ears changed, and they began to have previously unseen variations in color and markings on their pelts. They also began to bark, much like dogs. Isn't that crazy? Sometimes, evolution happens very fast. To Keith's point about evolution not seeing more than a generation ahead, I think it's very possible the intelligence lightning struck very fast.

Information Technology Dark Side : Scars from the Dark Side

Mon, 4 Jan 2010 02:04:54 +0000

Perhaps. I tend to believe it's more of a difference between an overall healthy organization and an unhealthy one. An unhealthy one will take a good boss and ruin him. A healthy one will purge bad boss's and make good boss's better.

Information Technology Dark Side : Collaborative Software Initiative and Utah Taking Open Source Vertical

Sat, 2 Jan 2010 02:32:42 +0000

Hi Mark, Community Edition is downloadable. Just go to the community edition site (http://trisano.org/) to get it. Feel free to join us in irc (freenode/trisano) if you have any questions about downloading/installing. Thanks! Dave

Information Technology Dark Side : Collaborative Software Initiative and Utah Taking Open Source Vertical

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:44:38 +0000

You're right Mark. Here's an updated link to the TriSano product site (we've renamed the product since this post). I hope that helps! http://csinitiative.com/products/trisano/overview...

Information Technology Dark Side : It's Better to Tell the Truth Poorly than to Lie Well

Tue, 8 Dec 2009 02:39:38 +0000

You know the saying that the exception proves the rule? This is definitely one of those moments. If you have to find an example that extreme as an (apparent) argument against this post, it is powerful evidence that it's a good rule.

Information Technology Dark Side : Twelve Months After the Escape - Is the Grass Really Greener on the Other Side?

Tue, 8 Dec 2009 02:37:36 +0000

Well Dennis, that may be your bottom line but it's not mine. I'm much more concerned about the long term impact of a job I hate on my health, wealth, and happiness than I am about a paycheck. That said, the pay is about the same. One major difference though - if we're successful there's a heck of a lot more upside than in IT. Conversely, failure is a lot rougher too.

Information Technology Dark Side : Twelve Months After the Escape - Is the Grass Really Greener on the Other Side?

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 14:06:05 +0000

Hi Jim, While this is perhaps not as detailed an analysis as you'd like, here are the differences that have been important to me: 1) I feel valuable to the company. I'm not treated like a cost center anymore - I think this is because I'm not. I'm directly tied to my company's revenue. 2) People listen to my recommendations. I don't always win, but when I lose it's because of what's best for the company, not because of what's politically expedient for my management chain. 3) I like my work. A lot of this is because of how important it is that we stay current. We're always close to the edge, and that is fun. 4) I don't have a lot of meetings. When we meet, it's because we have to, not because it's someone's mandate or best practice. 5) My leaders understand my job and actually grok the issues I face. 6) My leadership is under the same pressure to stay current in their responsibilities as I am and they do it. 7) We focus on execution and delivery. 8) We have simple, effective communication channels. None of these things were true in any of the corporate IT work I've done. Oh yeah, thought of one more: 9) We don't carry ANY dead weight. We are very careful who we hire and we don't keep low performers around. Dave

Information Technology Dark Side : Find Gimme Bugs by NOT Running the App like the Devs Do

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 12:49:05 +0000

That's a good idea Adam. I think I'll mess around with that. When I test our Enterprise Edition version I don't have to worry about that because the build process creates a working copy that is outside of git, but it's an issue with our Community Edition.

Information Technology Dark Side : The Perversity of Testing - I Lorve It

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:20:09 +0000

C'mon Jim. Don't you ever find a bug in the work of someone who is a friend of yours and think "Hah - this is such a stupid bug I can't _wait_ to tease Mac about it"? I agree with your assertion that testing is good for the team, but I'm also acknowledging that finding bugs is fun, partly because sometimes the bugs you find embarrass your buddies.

Information Technology Dark Side : Ten Best Practices for Effective Testing

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:12:03 +0000

That's so awesome. I love you true-to-the-faith context guys. I'm not being facetious - I really do. I should have had something in the list about context trumping everything because I totally agree with you, but I didn't really intend anyone to take me seriously. I think everything on the list is a good tip under the right circumstances, but I was really just trying to poke fun at best practices by making ten of them up in less than two minutes.