upgrade yes.... pay for upgrade hmmm

Lightroom 2 just launched today. Sadly for me, its £69 + VAT to upgrade from Lightroom 1.4 to 2.0 grrr... really want some of those new features tho, a list of changes are on the Adobe Lightroom blog.

tfl api...

Anyone out there know if tfl (Transport for London) have an API for accessing the current Journey Planner and real time travel updates?

I have a cunning plan (so cunning you could do something that blackadder once said with it) that would require access to the TFL journey planner, preferably by an API to make it simple. But google gives me no joy, so I'm guessing it's not out there. TFL are owned (I think? Might be wrong here!) by the Mayor's office, or at least (partially) funded by the Mayor's office, so that data should be free for all to access, no?

.mac is dead. long live mobile me!

Been seeing a few comments about the new .mac replacement, 'MobileMe' site being up intermittently today.

Just tried to get into www.mac.com (the old .mac website), but it's down for maintainence right now, and my iDisk just went offline also (not that I've ever really used my iDisk ever, so it's not a problem!). I guess the switch over to MobileMe is kicking in so I'm hoping to wake up tomorrow and have a bunch of new software to install:

• MobileMe app/prefs/etc (whatever sync software they need)
• The iPhone 2.0 software (this is the 'biggie' for me!)
  
• All the apps I've already downloaded (free ones only! Twitteriffic, Exposure, Facebook and the Apple Remote control software) from the iTunes App Store - already upgraded my iTunes today. Weirdly, doing a 'Check for Update' from iTunes didn't find the update, but going through Mac Software Update found it. Strange...
  

Big day for Apple tomorrow - lots of new stuff coming out on the same day all over the world. Don't think I can be bothered hanging about outside an O2 shop in the early hours of the morning to fight for an iPhone 3G upgrade, I'll just grab the 2.0 software, and wait until the 3G furor dies down a bit. There goes my early adopter status!

OS X Aqua apps - update?

I've just skimmed through the Apple Human Interface Guidelines, but I can't spot where the 'Check for Updates' option is supposed to go in a desktop app under Aqua. I really like this feature, esp. when the app goes off, downloads the update, and unpackages and deals with any migration of existing versions/data etc without having to mess about with it. But it's never in the same place in every app!

Sometimes it's under the Application menu, sometimes under the Help menu, and sometimes hiding in a preferences panel for the app somewhere. Personally, it logically should be under the Application menu, as it's an application action (not a 'help' action really).

Weird that it's not documented in the guidelines. Hint, hint Apple!

Who tests the testers?

Got an interesting situation at my current contract. The application I'm working on sources data via various ETL (extract, transform and load) processes, via various datamarts, and into our application database.

In the application, there are various calculations that drive off the data in the database. Some of these calculations can get rather hairy. As a tester, we have to prove the calculations on the UI are correct, based on what's in the database (as we can't go any further back to enter/source data), so we write rather large, ugly SQL scripts, that possibly make incorrect assumptions, or may be just plain wrong.

As the test lead, I need to come up with a method to minimise mistakes made by the testers, so we're not creating too much 'noise' in the defect list. I have some possible solutions, none of which are perfect, but should suffice in the short term. It will be interesting too see if the development team have made the same assumptions or conclusions re how to derive the answers, based on the same Use Cases as we have.

I guess this is a bit of a questions of 'who tests the testers' - how far down the line of testing the test scripts do we want to go? Should it be a case of the project team just biting the bullet, and sucking up the extra analysis time needed from all involved on the first few times these queries are run, to get them correct based on the requirements documentation?

Image courtesy of post406's photostream (creative commons licence)

The king is dead, long live the ...

An old workplace of mine has gone into receivership. Pretty sad really, as I met a lot of great people there, who I still see every now and then.

These guys gave me my first insight into the software world - they worked us hard and long, and there were a few tears here and there, but all up it was an experience that I think has helped me in the long run.

The software still lives, tho under a different company, so there is a little bit of my influence still out there in the world :)

stuck in a loop!

oh no! the developers who build quicksilver have managed to get themselves in a bit of a pickle...
the latest version has a "feature" which causes the app to ping their site looking for updates a bit too often, with the consequence of bringing down their download site as it's such a popular app.

yikes! time to go download the fixed version from macupdate or whatever your fav mac software tracker is and help them out :)


(via lifehacker)

nz schools vs microsoft

...Microsoft Office programs have been ordered to be removed from about 25,000 Apple Macintosh computers in schools.
The Ministry of Education did not renew its deal for the programs, meaning that students using the Apple computers will not have access to common programs such as Excel and Word unless the school buys the software independently. ...

NZ Herald article via slashdot

It's about time Microsoft *really* started supporting education, by giving schools free or almost-free licences of Office etc. All those kids will probably go on to use Office in their jobs/home PC's so help grow the user base.

But there's also a great argument for this being a good opportunity to switch over to NeoOffice (an OpenOffice implementation on Mac), or other 'office' type apps (the google suite?) - and show them there's not always just one solution available. I've used NeoOffice, and while it's features aren't as strong as MS Office, or 100% compatiable, it's still fully usable for doing most word processing/spreadsheeting functions.

So... should schools be teaching the 'mainstream' apps to make life 'easier' in future, or teaching concepts they can apply to any application/solution? Personally, as a trained scientist who was taught concepts, and had to figure out how, where, and when to apply them, I'ld go for the second option, but that's just me. :) As a Software Tester, the same principles apply, so I can walk into almost any Testing job and quickly get up to speed on the systems/processes/applications in use. Brings to mind the old "teach a man to fish" proverb huh.

great filler text

so many apps leave blank spaces or boring messages when fields/text areas have nothing to display. kudos to google calendar for making their 'comments' area a bit more interesting :)

Sorry, nothing to read here. Try Google News if you are bored.

planning to fail

today's Dilbert hits a little close to home...

stuck in the middle with you...

I keep coming across this one really annoying *bug* (?feature?) in lotus notes, and it annoys me so much I thought I'ld have a little rant about it :)

In a meeting scheduled by someone else, if you accidently hit 'Request Information' button, you get a new memo open up addressed to the scheduler that you can't cancel... The options all either send the message, or send you back to the message (see the attached screenshot). What is needed is the 'No' button to trash the draft memo, rather than send without comments or something.

The only way I've found to trash the memo without looking like a total retard and sending out emails is to kill the lotus notes process. Pretty drastic! If I'm missing something, let me know. Otherwise IBM, PLEASE PLEASE fix this issue...!

[Lotus Notes v 6.5.4]

Edit: Note, I'm not picking on Lotus Notes for any reason than it's the piece of software I use the most every day, and it's really frustrating me --> email/calendaring/groupware software should be quick, easy and intuitive to use. Otherwise it's just reducing my productivity and increasing my stress levels }:[

Colibri - quicksilver for windows

Just found Colibri and am running it on my work PC (doesn't need admin rights to install, yay!). It's kindof like quicksilver (which I LOVE on my mac) for windows - not as fully featured, but does the basics. Doesn't have much 'OS' integration tho which I use a lot on my mac (empty trash, reboot, log out etc) as far as I can tell, tho that functionality might be hiding somewhere.

But it's great for simple things like launching google searches, start up apps, controlling volume, open up some system prefs, all with a coupla keyboard strokes.

ie to search google:
- hit ctrl+space to get the colibri dialog to open
- type goo (by then it's worked out i'm lookin for google)
- hit tab
- type the search term
- hit enter
And it opens the default internet browser and runs the google search. Easier than all that mouse clickin and tabbin around.

Looks like customising search paths etc is a bit ugly, as there is no nice interface to doing this yet - have to install sql lite browser and modify the sql db entries which is fine for someone like me, but impossible for the 'average' business user. They have an active community forum - will have to do a bit of reading and see whats goin down.

Can also be installed on a usb key - so the user database(s) are installed there too. That's a nice feature.

I found a nice theme to run also- 'tordo'. The default one is fine however.

[found via lifehacker]

I don't get it...

Came across this summary of an article on StickyMinds today:

EBay's PayPal unit said a number of users had problems transferring money from their PayPal accounts to their bank accounts on Sunday and Monday. Amanda Pires, a PayPal spokeswoman, said a dedicated team was still trying to solve the problem on Monday afternoon. Pires said eBay was not sure what caused the glitch. "We are focused on fixing it, not diagnosing it," she said.

I really don't get that quote from the ebay spokesperson --> how can they fix an issue with their software, without diagnosing what the problem is? Sounds like a 'hack and slash' software development methodology - 'lets just mess around until it works like it should', rather than finding out what the problem actually is. I hope that quote was taken totally out of context :). And remind me never to be a spokesperson for any company!

http://www.stickyminds.com/s.asp?F=S11891_NEWS_6

New JIRA beta out

Oooh wish I was running JIRA here... keen to try out the new beta. Might
have to download it at home and put it on me laptop.

One feature that looks nice is the SVN/CVS commit functionality now can
force a 1-to-1 relationship between SVN/CVS checkins and JIRA issue
numbers in comments (The 'Commit Acceptance Plugin'). So JIRA can reject
changes if they don't contain JIRA issue refs via a pre-commit hook. Nice!
Great if you have developers who are guilty of sneakin in bug fixes and
changes without telling anyone :-) Tho if they are really sneaky, can
still sneak changes against other bugs/changes.

http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/JIRA+3.7+Beta+2+Release+Notes

Kaizen

'Kaizen (Japanese for "change for the better" or "improvement", the
English translation is "continuous improvement", or "continual
improvement) is an approach to productivity improvement originating in
applications of the work of American experts such as Frederick Winslow
Taylor, Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Walter Shewhart, W. Edwards Deming and of
the War Department's Training Within Industry program by Japanese
manufacturers after World War II. The development of Kaizen went
hand-in-hand with that of quality control circles, but it was not limited
to quality assurance.. [snip] A closer definition of the Japanese usage of
Kaizen is "to take it apart and put back together in a better way." What
is taken apart is usually a process, system, product, or service.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen

Just came across this term somewhere (can't remember where). Sounds like
what I like doing - tearing down processes/systems (whether it be
applications, protocols, or the general 'culture' of how things are done)
and putting faster, cleaner ones in. Might have to do some reading up on
this.

Test Management in JIRA?

From the i'm-frustrated-with-excel-spreadsheets-to-manage-testing department.

The lack of reasonably priced, extendable and usable (big feature for me!) Test Management tools is starting to annoy me... Test Director/Quality Center is too expensive for most places I've worked (you'ld think an Investment bank would be able to afford it but no! They are looking at some weird thing I've never heard of, so could be badly supported yikes!), and requires too much training/maintainence for a 'looseish' UAT process like we have here (ie there is a process, but too many people push outside it due to time restrictions and lack of testing knowledge). There are cheap/free alternatives around that I've tried, but they all seem lacking in lots of functionality, or just plain unsuable and inflexible.

I think JIRA (change/defect management tool) could probably be extended to include a Test management function --> if it had that, it would do everything that Test Director/Quality Center does excluding the linkages with automated testing (ability to schedule and fire off tests created with winrunner/loadrunner/QTP/Silk(?) and probably others), and would really help with the whole 'integrated' change management Suite if you don't care about running automated tests from the UI.

For sites that don't use automated testing, or automation platforms that don't play nice with Test Management apps, it could then provide a low(ish) cost 'total' change management system that hooks into scm also... mmmm dream on Rach!

A Test Case is not so different from the usual workflows - but it usually doesn't get 'closed' in the same manner as bugs/changes, and need to jump around in history against versions of test cycles (ie for regression testing). Then store results of testing and easily raise bugs/changes (mmm) on failures etc. From there, it's not a huge step to add requirements mangement also - as the linkages/relationships between requirements, Tests and Changes (defects etc) aren't all that different. Drop some reports into a dashboard specifically for Testing/Requirements, and bob's your uncle.

One day I'll do myself a el-cheapo Test & Requirements Management app (in Access if I'm desperate, or Java/JSP or something - might as well try to extend JIRA if I'm going that far, and if Atlassian still supply source code for your own tweaks :)) so I can work out the workflow/requirements of a good app myself, as I've never quite found one that does everything I want. Hmmmm wonder if Atlassian are lookin for a contract User Interface Designer/Business Analyst type person workin in London at London rates!

That's todays <rant/> for ya :-)

I heart JIRA

I am so missing JIRA, the issue management tool I implemented and championed at Virgin Travelstore a few years ago. I miss lots of things:

• Ability to schedule fixes into releases
• Sensible workflows
• Built in graphs/reports that work
• Assigning tasks to groups rather than people
• rss feeds (!)
• Exporting to csv(excel), pdf, can't remember other formats
• Usability! So easy to use compared to some other tools
• and lots more stuff that I can't even remember right now....

Haven't found another tool that works better yet for change management. Stuck with MKS currenlty (yeah I'ld never heard of it before!) and ClearQuest in my previous contract. Tried Test Director/Quality Center, but that still doesn't seem so powerful.

The Beast has been unleashed...

IE7 was released today...
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/10/18/internet-explorer-7-for-windows-xp-available-now.aspx

Just waiting for the first security hole reports to come in! Guarenteed there'll be a few, from those anti-IE hackers. And it will probably cause some havoc with webapps who are trying to deal with all of IE6's css 'quirks'. Gotta go handle all IE7's 'quirks' in ya stylesheets too. Scary!

Am I mental?

Really struggling today with my fav app in the whole world, Lotus Notes... I can't work out how to get my meeting to remove one guy and swap him with the guy he's delegated (Notes has sent me an email to say this guy was delegated to the meeting)... Is it just me? Is it impossible? Do I just have to 'remember' that someone else is coming in his place?

Also can't get a printout which includes everyone in my meeting... really frustrating - have to print out the meeting, then write in all the names that are hidded in the textarea/scrolly box. Am I missing something again?! [Edit] Found it! Under Print Page Setup there is an option (off by default...) to expand the names field. Why oh why would this not be on by default?! And it's not easy to find...

Grrrr the Notes redesign can't happen soon enough for me! Tho it will probably be six to twelve months after release before it's implemented here...

Portable User Accounts

http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/11/2148254&from=rss
Leading on from this article on slashdot, that talks about a patent lodged by apple for storing/carrying user profiles on portable devices, I'ld like to see it go a step further --> portable licences attached to a person, rather than a PC.

Similar to the Steam platform (gaming), where you buy a steam account, associate any Steam game licences with it (half life, counterstrike yadda yadda), and wherever you install Steam you can log on with that user account and have the relevant games unlocked. Probably similar to the
Microsoft 'rent-an-app' thing they keep bandying about (cant be bothered reading up on it tho!). My idea would be that application (and possibly even OS) licences would be stored either on a portable device (usb key,ipod etc), or on a central server along with your identity, so no matter
where you are, you can get to your apps. Ideally, the app would 'install' automatically on trying to start it (from the internet somewhere I guess), and uninstall again on removing your authentication (unless it's chosen to be permanently installed on that PC).

Sound good? Flawed? Could be an extension to the current single 'Identity' protocols out there... however it could still work with multiple logons to different sites/vendors, as long as you had a single sign on mechanism of some form (ie a USB key which contained all the logons or something). Hmmmmm

Drives me mental that I can purchase some software (like say MS Office or Photostop), but not use it when I'm away from my PC - would mean internet cafes and even home PC's become more like bare bones 'terminals' - turn up and either drop your own profile/licences on them, or 'rent' a profile from the internet cafe.