September 29, 2011

A New Browser To Test - Amazon Silk

Amazon Silk

As part of their big press conference for the new Kindle versions yesterday, Amazon announced that the Kindle Fire tablet would come with a new browser - Amazon Silk.

The concept is to provide the ability to dynamically offload some of the work a browser must perform off of the device, and on to Amazon's powerful cloud services. copyrightjoestrazzere

  • Split functionality between the device (for now, just the Kindle Fire) and the Cloud (Amazon's EC2)
  • Predictive pre-fetching and pre-caching
  • Some pre-rendered images
  • Based on Webkit
  • Uses Google's SPDY (optimized http)
  • Might become available on other devices

If your system will be accessed from a Kindle Fire, it will make sense to add the new Amazon Silk browser to your list of test platforms.  You may very well find that your site behaves differently on Silk than it does on other browsers - perhaps better, perhaps worse.

We'll have to keep an eye on this browser once it makes its way into the hands of testers, to see how it stacks up against other Webkit-based browsers.

This will be interesting to see....

See also:
http://amazonsilk.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/introducing-amazon-silk/
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/09/amazons-silk-web-browser-adds-new-twist-to-old-idea.ars
http://9to5google.com/2011/09/29/the-secret-to-amazon-silk-browsers-speediness-webkit-and-spdy/
http://9to5google.com/2011/06/13/googles-spdy-protocol-rolls-out-commercially-expected-in-android/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2011/sep/29/amazon-silk-kindle-fire
http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/amazons-silk-browser-one-ups-operas-approach-the-web-174387

This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://strazzere.blogspot.com/.
2 comments
Labels: ,

September 22, 2011

3 Characters Missing From A Resume


Hi there. I'm a resume, and I represent a candidate for the open position. Filter me.

I had been trying to fill an open position for quite some time.

Now that we are part of a big corporation, the hiring process involved the creation of a job description and inputting it into the system, and a discussion with the (remote) internal recruiter. We talked about the needs of the position, the characteristics of a good candidate, and the technical skills that would help a person succeed in this role.

I conducted phone interviews with a number of candidates, and face-to-face interviews with some, but hadn't yet found the right person.

One of the QAers on my team mentioned that he was going to refer a friend. This is always a good thing - good for me, since I get access to people that my terrific team members think would fit, and good for my team member, since he can earn a significant referral bonus. The process requires that the referred candidate's information and resume get entered into the system, that it go through the internal recruiter, and then eventually come to me.

But after a week, I hadn't seen this particular candidate's resume come through! So I contacted our internal recruiter and asked about him.

The recruiter indicated that since XML was one of the technologies I mentioned as being important, and since the candidate didn't mention XML on his resume, the recruiter hadn't considered this candidate as qualified. I asked that the candidate be moved forward anyway. copyrightjoestrazzere

When conducting a phone interview with this candidate, I quickly learned that he was clearly well-versed in XML, and just hadn't considered it important enough to mention on his resume. In the end, we hired him, so all's well that ends well, I suppose.

But I almost missed out on a really good candidate due to 3 missing characters.

In thinking back, I have been trying to determine what I should have done differently. I have to let the recruiter do his job, and I have to let him filter out unqualified versus qualified candidates - otherwise I'd be forced to read through thousands of applicants' resumes. Perhaps I was too strict in my qualification, but XML was really important for this particular role. Perhaps I should have asked to see some of the rejected resumes early in the process to make sure the recruiter's filter was appropriate for the open position.

Anyway, when I re-write my resume, I might consider somehow squeezing in keywords representing every single technology I've ever touched, so that I don't miss out on great opportunities for which I'm clearly qualified. I don't want to be omitted by an over-zealous recruitment filter!

This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://strazzere.blogspot.com/.
6 comments
Labels: ,

September 19, 2011

Collecting Friends

Hugh J McDonald

Last Monday, my brother-in-law Hugh passed away.  He was buried last Friday.

In between, we got to see the many, many family members, friends and acquaintances who knew him all come to pay their respects and say goodbye to Hugh.

Hugh was an interesting man.  With his flat-top haircut, suspenders to hold up his pants over his big belly, and his love of black and white cowboy westerns on television, he was what you would call a "character". But in particular, Hugh was the kind of guy who would go into a coffee shop and come out knowing the name of the new waitress, where she lived, who her neighbors were, where she had gone to school, and the five friends they both had in common. copyrightjoestrazzere

So it wasn't much of a surprise to see the hundreds of people come to the funeral home. His family, sure. But also so many friends.
His school friends from way back.
His friends from the Big Dig and from lots of snowplowing.
His friend the mailman, who would drop off all the stamps Hugh received.
His friends who owned the local farms, and with whom Hugh would ride every week to check on the fields up North, or pick up a new pig.
His friends from the junk yard out back, where he would go to pick up a truck part, but stay for hours to chat with everyone there.
His friends from the hospital where he went every Friday to receive his medical treatments and always to talk with the nurses.
His friends from the sandwich shop just up the road where they knew Hugh by name.

My brother-in-law Hugh was a collector.

He collected model trucks and cars.
He collected stamps, particularly stamps with pictures of ships on them.
He collected coins from all over the world.

But most of all, Hugh collected friends.
This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://strazzere.blogspot.com/.
2 comments
Labels:

September 13, 2011

Mistakes Are...

Let's make better mistakes tomorrow

According to Google (and Google knows everything), mistakes are ...
  • Mistakes are an important part of learning
  • Mistakes are what make our fate
  • Mistakes are gods rainbows
  • Mistakes are the portals of discovery
  • Mistakes are okay
  • Mistakes are a fact of life
  • Mistakes are lessons
  • Mistakes are fixable
  • Mistakes are beautiful
  • Mistakes are all too common copyrightjoestrazzere
  • Mistakes are forever
  • Mistakes are inevitable
  • Mistakes are the best teaching tool
  • Mistakes are more fun than tips
  • Mistakes are good
  • Mistakes are only funny when no one gets hurt
  • Mistakes are in the past
  • Mistakes are a warning sign
  • Mistakes are more tolerated if you're the right gender for the job
  • Mistakes are too much fun to make only once
  • Mistakes are rare
  • Mistakes are gifts
  • Mistakes are an important part of life

Really Google - "gods rainbows"?

Can you add to the list?

This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://strazzere.blogspot.com/.
0 comments
Labels:

September 12, 2011

Perhaps They Should Have Tested More - Bright House Networks


Perhaps Bright House Networks Should Have Tested More



Last Tuesday, Bright House Networks customers throughout Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando, Hillsborough and Manatee counties in Florida were without phone, cable and high-speed Internet services.

Bright House engineers ultimately isolated the problem to a line of software that ended up cutting off service to much of the company's Tampa and Orlando service areas.

Normally, redundant systems should prevent a service breakdown, but this breakdown overwhelmed the network. "This was a software bug that caused a cascading effect," said Bright House spokesman Joe Durkin.
  • a software glitch was to blame for the outage
  • a widespread disruption caused by a software bug that affected the companies' high-speed Internet, phone and cable services
  • its worst outage in history
  • a substantial outage copyrightjoestrazzere
  • businesses couldn't run credit card machines
  • local government and police agencies lost service
  • public safety officials spent the day warning the public to use cell phones to call 911 in an emergency
  • Bright House's support website was inaccessible for much of that time, displaying only a "server too busy" message.
Do you have your television, internet and telephone all serviced by the same network? I don't.

One bad line of software overwhelmed the network and redundant services. Perhaps they should have tested more.

Also see:

This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://strazzere.blogspot.com/.
0 comments
Labels:

September 11, 2011

Remembering September 11, 2001

Anna Williams Allison

Ten years later, I remember September 11, 2001.

I remember being in a morning meeting and one of the staff members was late. When he came in, he asked if we had heard the news about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. We hadn't. We finished our meeting, then went upstairs to the lunch room (with its huge projection television) and saw that the news channels still weren't sure if this was an accident or some sort of attack.

Shortly after that, we watched in horror as another plan crashed into the second tower. Then it was clear that this was no accident.

A very sad, unsettling day.
copyrightjoestrazzere
The next day, I got a phone call from a friend. He told me some more sad news. A former co-worker was on America Airlines flight #11 - the first plane to crash into a tower.

Anna Williams Allison was a colleague at Bachman Information Systems. She and I both worked in the Quality Assurance department.  She was very smart, very energetic, and a terrific QAer.  I learned a lot from her, and I like to think she learned something from me.

When we both left Bachman, we remained friends, and occasionally spoke, emailed, shared ideas about QA and work, and had lunch. She eventually formed her own company - doing QA training and presentations. She was very good for the QA field.

Anna was on flight 11, on her way to a customer engagement.

I miss her, both professionally, and as a friend. Each September 11th, as the country shares remembrances of a sad day in our history, I think of her again. We in the QA community are poorer without her.

This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://strazzere.blogspot.com/.
0 comments
Labels: ,

September 8, 2011

New From Amazon - The Kindle Daily Deal

Kindle Daily Deal

Recently, Amazon began a pricing experiment they call the "Kindle Daily Deal", where they significantly discount one popular book for a period of 24 hours. From their website:
Each day we unveil a new Kindle book at a specially discounted price. Check back daily to see what's next. Deals go live at approximately 12:00 a.m., Pacific time.
Some recent deals priced between $0.99 and $2.99 include:
  • The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly
  • Food Inc.by Karl Weber
  • Elizabeth Street by Laurie Fabiano
  • Hidden in Plain View by Blair S. Walker
  • Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Good books, good prices.

Check it out at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000677541

This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://strazzere.blogspot.com/.
0 comments
Labels:

September 7, 2011

Free Music From Amazon


Not actually my i-Pod


The Amazon MP3 Store now offers "Free Downloads from Artists on the Rise".

From their website:

Artists on the Rise


Each month, we'll shine the spotlight on new artists we think you'll love and give you a free track from each. If you like what you hear, you can pick up each artist's latest release next month for a great price.

Amazon also provides mini-reviews of the artists they select, telling you why they were selected and comparing them to a few other artists.  For example:


Natalia Kills
Why We Like It: Natalia Kills marries heavy dance floor-friendly beats with anthemic melodies that caught our ears on first listen. These well-produced pop jams wouldn’t feel out of place on the radio, in a club, blasting out of car speakers, or at a sweet summer BBQ.
Recommended if you like: Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Robyn

A pretty nice feature if you ask me!

The selections span a wide variety of genres, so you'll almost certainly discover some you like, some you don't like, and some you would never even consider purchasing. But they are free - so you have nothing to lose but a minute or two of your time.

I've found some pretty catchy tunes.  You might, too.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000655511

This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://strazzere.blogspot.com/.
0 comments
Labels:

September 6, 2011

Smart Monkey Testing

Rise of the Sequel of the Remake of the Movie Based on the Book as Translated from the Original of the Planet of the Smart Monkey Testing
copyrightjoestrazzere


Be careful when creating Smart Monkey tests.

Because you could go too far...

This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://strazzere.blogspot.com/.
0 comments
Labels: ,

September 5, 2011

Kayaking The Concord

The Concord River

Yesterday was hot, humid and overcast.  We decided to take the kayaks out to the Concord River.

We packed up the kayaks and some lunch, drove to Bedford, put in, and headed toward Concord.  This was our first time paddling against the current, and there was a breeze in our face, so it was a bit more work than we anticipated.  Still, we paddled for about an hour and a half before stopping for lunch.  After eating we paddled a bit more before deciding we had enough and turning around for the more leisurely paddle back.

This part of the Concord River is very slow moving (which is good), but it's mostly conservation land so there's not much to see (which is not as good).  We saw a few ducks, geese and a few other birds, but that was pretty much it for the wildlife.

It was fun, quiet, and good exercise, even if not much in the way of sightseeing.  Overall, a nice way to spend part of a Sunday.

This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://strazzere.blogspot.com/.
0 comments
Labels:

September 1, 2011

Imitation, Flattery and Copy Cats

Not exactly a Copy "Cat", but you get the idea


Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. 
- Charles Caleb Colton

Everything on this blog is meant to be shared. Read it, use it, quote from it, link to it, print it and pass it around - that's all good.

If you want to re-post it on your website, that's fine too! All I ask is that you include my name as the original author and a link to this blog. That's only fair, right? It certainly can't be too much to ask?

So when I see my words show up on someone else's site without my name or a link to my blog and passed off as someone else's work, I'm not thrilled.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, should I be flattered?

Are these folks Flatterers? Rip-off artists? Copy Cats?

This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance.
I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing.
Find me at http://strazzere.blogspot.com/.
3 comments
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)