November 2011 mensming Twitter Posts

January 23, 2012 by mensming.

Not anytime soon - Linux syslog may be on way out - bit.ly/w0aXPH
30 Nov

So true - Why everyone hates the IT department - bit.ly/s70rTq
28 Nov

Posted to testingpodcast.com - RBCS: Software Testing: Listen to Your Defects - bit.ly/urNp0g
23 Nov

Posted to testingpodcast.com - TWiST #72 - With Matt Heusser of STPCon, Part II - bit.ly/t47wGx
23 Nov

Posted to testingpodcast.com - TWiST #71 - With Matt Heusser at STPCon, Part I - bit.ly/sItclV
23 Nov

RT @estellevw - For those of you visiting relatives for Thanksgiving, can you do all us web developers a favor? Please update their browsers. Thanks!
21 Nov

Finished reading _The Lean Startup_ by Eric Ries - amzn.to/urSASG
21 Nov

Beekeeping in your apartment - so many things could go wrong - bit.ly/shkpQr
18 Nov

It comes closer to me… Comcast: Deployment of IPv6 Begins - bit.ly/sEgsP6
17 Nov

Posted to testingpodcast.com - TestCast - Show #9 Please Hire Me - bit.ly/sgsRoP
16 Nov

Get rid of password - DARPA to detail program that radically alters security authentication techniques bit.ly/txeSym
16 Nov

Finally! - Facebook Settles With FTC To Make New Privacy Changes Opt-In - tcrn.ch/uKyB7f
15 Nov

A Day in the Life of Privacy | SecurityWeek.Com bit.ly/sNep3Y
14 Nov

Posted to testingpodcast.cm - Twist #70 - More Test Coaching, Part II - bit.ly/splVEL
12 Nov

Analysis of 250,000 hacker conversations - bit.ly/tYNetU
11 Nov

FLOWCHART: Navigating NPR’s Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books - bit.ly/vOcn4H
10 Nov

Tough tests flunk good programmer job candidates | Application Development - InfoWorld bit.ly/smJcIX
9 Nov

DARPA Shredder Challenge - $50K to reconstruct a shredded document - bit.ly/sUK0SO
7 Nov

Just posted to testingpodcast.com - Twist #69 - More Test Coaching - bit.ly/vFbOlX
5 Nov

"Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose." - Bill Gates
4 Nov

Academic Paper - Comparing Perl to randomly generated language syntax - bit.ly/sdHv9Z
3 Nov

RT @cvilly - LOVE it! "@paisleyboxers: I don’t always read fiction, but when I do it’s a spreadsheet with timelines in a developer meeting."
1 Nov

The Rare Find: Reinventing Recruiting - Businessweek buswk.co/puG9vy
2 Nov

Just posted to testingpodcast.com - RBCS Podcast: Advanced Software Testing: Integration Testing - bit.ly/se07s7
1 Nov

 

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October 2011 mensming Twitter Posts

November 7, 2011 by mensming.

Posted to testingpodcast.com - TWiST #68 - on Motivation - bit.ly/sSPzPO
31 Oct

Tip: Want to be more productive? Don’t file your email - bit.ly/oAzXxN
31 Oct

RT TonyAudino - Don’t miss our event next week! lnkd.in/V3Ep5s
28 Oct

RT Conenza - Dear HR & Recruiting friends, please join us at Conenza’s Talent on the Move event on Nov 2nd talentonthemove.eventbrite.com RT Pls
27 Oct

Finished reading _Building and Testing with Gradle_ by Tim Berglund and Matthew McCullough - amzn.to/s2PLTv
25 Oct

Finished reading _Flash Foresight: How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible_ by Daniel Burrus - amzn.to/mYFoIL
24 Oct

Posted to testingpodcast.com - Coding QA Episode 67 - Learning From Experience - bit.ly/mWLOeX
22 Oct

Posted to testingpodcast.com - Twist #67 - Test Coaching Part II - bit.ly/q4j7Wd
21 Oct

Sam Ramji: Cloud makes open source ‘inevitable’ for Microsoft, others bit.ly/oAtQfa
20 Oct

This is only happening now? - AOL Launches New ‘Lights Out’ Data Center - bit.ly/qNOXdE
19 Oct

SEC Says Public Companies May Need to Disclose Attacks - bit.ly/oscjOy
18 Oct

Which apps are the most used vector - This is how Windows get infected with malware bit.ly/nlD4KI
17 Oct

Posted to testingpodcast.com - Twist #66 – Continuing Conference Coverage, Part I - bit.ly/nQSO2c
15 Oct

98 billion apps to be downloaded in 2015, study says - CNET News cnet.co/nteJhi
14 Oct

Have you ever wondered what 1,000,067,088,384,000,000 pennies looked like? bit.ly/oast9e
13 Oct

I am one - RT @zeljkofilipin: The Three (Musketeers) Michaels are helping me with the Testing Podcast site testingpodcast.com/about/
12 Oct

Read _Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard_ by Chip and Dan Heath - amzn.to/rhLqpt
12 Oct

Big data sets often results in overconfidence in the findings - bit.ly/qbjof9
11 Oct

Facebook’s URL scanner is vulnerable to cloaking attacks | ITworld bit.ly/plYnh5
10 Oct

"If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes." - John Wooden
6 Oct

Top 10 reasons why Darth Vader was an amazing project manager - GeekWire bit.ly/no8mtR
5 Oct

Read _Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die_ by Chip and Dan Heath - amzn.to/ph87ph
4 Oct

Variables of Waste: Start-Up Style bit.ly/p5hd1m
3 Oct

 

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Security Reference: CIA Triad

October 22, 2011 by mensming.

In security parlance, the following 3 points make up the "CIA Triad":

• Confidentiality
• Integrity
• Availability

The Wikipedia article on the CIA Triad describes confidentiality in this context as "prevent the disclosure of information to unauthorized individuals or systems"; integrity as "data cannot be modified without authorization"; and availability is described as when the information can be accessed.

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September 2011 mensming Twitter Posts

October 9, 2011 by mensming.

Screenshot - Connection is currently busy. Try again? (1273×973) http://bit.ly/njqoow
30 Sep

7 Lessons From Successful Companies on LinkedIn http://on.mash.to/qWvplr
29 Sep

RT @KristaLindley - We are chaning the date of the Nov. QA SIG to Nov 2nd. Our guest speaker for Nov. is Dr. James Whittaker of Google. http://lnkd.in/_URJMn
28 Sep

RT @Conenza - Conenza presents Talent on the Move 2011 Seattle Conference - November 2nd - Keynote Speaker @MichaelMarlatt - http://bit.ly/qFbzuA
28 Sep

EFF’s Open Source Security Audit Uncovers Security Vulnerabilities in Messaging Software - http://bit.ly/q2dz6z
28 Sep

Real world puppet example - Ever wondered how the Wikimedia servers are configured? http://bit.ly/ndz556
27 Sep

EFF builds system to warn of certificate breaches | Encryption - InfoWorld http://bit.ly/nVHZvi
26 Sep

Posted - My notes from the Hive 2011 Conference - http://blog.meesqa.com/2011/09/24/hive-2011-conference-notes
24 Sep

The Past, Present and Future of Software Security | threatpost http://bit.ly/o8ZB3J
23 Sep

Seattle, Meet Shopobot: Amid Amazon Sales Tax Fight, Comparison-Shopping Startup Flees San Francisco | Xconomy http://bit.ly/pBH3ki
22 Sep

Making Facebook Self-Healing | Facebook http://on.fb.me/q5rqJv
21 Sep

Just checked out my first book on my kindle - Amazon Kindle library lending program launches in beta - GeekWire http://bit.ly/mZfZRA
20 Sep

QWERTY vs touch interfaces - Weak typing - the lost art of the keyboard http://bit.ly/qQ6Itl
19 Sep

Just arrived at the #Hive2011 conference
16 Sep

Internet Security: Top Ten Most Influential Programming Books of All Time http://bit.ly/rnkaR2
15 Sep

Google’s "real name policy" — or, why you are the product http://bit.ly/pNO8J7
14 Sep

For those people still using Windows XP - Certificate cleanup for most personal computers - http://bit.ly/qmQ1EH
13 Sep

Finished reading: _jQuery: Novice to Ninja_ - http://amzn.to/qVDoTC
12 Sep

The Growth Of Social Media (INFOGRAPHIC) http://huff.to/ofslRw
12 Sep

More signs that flash will be less prevalent - Google Abandons Maps API For Flash | TechCrunch http://tcrn.ch/ntiAVg
9 Sep

Pew: Half of US adults now use social networks - BostonHerald.com http://bit.ly/owPz0j
8 Sep

Infographic: For Better or Worse, We’re All Mobile Now - PCMag.com - http://bit.ly/pHLBKn
7 Sep

Posted to testingpodcast.com - Twist #60 - with Timothy Western - http://bit.ly/o0IkPa
6 Sep

Facebook’s new privacy controls: Still broken | ITworld http://bit.ly/nb5LHr
6 Sep

Finished reading _The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable_ - http://amzn.to/pd1EkO
5 Sep

Posted to testingpodcast.com - Show #7 With James Bach (Part 2) - http://bit.ly/p8Xttg
5 Sep

Posted to testingpodcast.com - TWiST #59 with Miagi-do?! - http://bit.ly/r2BKSh
4 Sep

Posted to testingpodcast.com - TWiST #58 - with Brett Leonard - http://bit.ly/nLgadj
2 Sep

Social media could render covert policing ‘impossible’ - Techworld http://bit.ly/pJ2pfQ
2 Sep

Posted to testingpodcast.com - TWiST #57 - With Noah Sussman - http://bit.ly/qFNoG3
1 Sep

Posted to testingpodcast.com - Show #6 James Bach (Part 1) - http://bit.ly/mY1uLr
1 Sep

BBC News - Facebook pays for security loopholes http://bbc.in/nawnvR
1 Sep

 

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Hive 2011 Conference Notes

September 24, 2011 by mensming.

On Friday, September 16, 2011 I attended the Hive 2011 conference on the Microsoft campus.  The conference had the tag line “Where Design and Tech Meet”.  The attendees were evenly mixed between designers and developers with a mix of program managers and other business functions thrown in.  In that sense, the conference lived up to its tagline.  However, the presentations were almost entirely from the designer point of view and therefore the conference missed the mark.  Like most conferences the speakers often offered up contradictory advice. All that being said, I think it was time well spent.  Below are some of my notes I jotted down (they don’t make complete sense a week later…) :

Workshop – Designing for the Future

This was a great workshop about identifying market opportunities and how to identify and develop product ideas.

Hillel Cooperman, Jackson Fish Market  - Professional Software Design. Don’t try this at home.
· Creativity is often dismissed
· Design is an opinion.  Demanding proof that it is the “right” opinion is a waste of time
· Popular wisdom is that a designer must be like able to design and to program.  This is a not a good use of talent.
· Designer needs real power over engineering deliverables and dates

Jay Greene, CNET – Design is How It Works

This was a talk using examples of design from his book by the same name.

Kim Obbink, Filter – Tribal Instincts
· We are all tribes
· The creative tribe dresses distinctly; uses symbols; have rituals; rely on instincts; respect their elders
· We are all creative

August de los Reyes, Artefact – The Myth of Design Education

· Teaching is not necessary for learning
· Challenge this assumption.  Different models over time:

o   Master / Apprentice

o   Teacher / Student

o   Environment – constraints and freedom – failure is acceptable

· Personal aspects

o   Lone designer

o   Community Based – vertical, hierarchical, status driven

o   Collective – horizontal, flat, democratic

(It is this collective experience peer to peer learning)

· Technical aspects

o   Handmade to machine made

o   Machine to digital

o   “Handmade Digital” to “Machine made digital”

Andrew Otwell, Amazon – Five Deadly Venoms: Punch! Kick! Hire!

5 styles of designers:
· Lots of ideas for each problem
· Crisp, precise, focused
· Secret weapon outside of their design skills
· Multiple perspectives
· Thick skinned / able to take criticism

Tyesha Snow, Consultant – Contract vs. In House

3 misconceptions:
· Experienced design role not as important as other roles
· Little bit of design experience is sufficient
· You only have two choices: Full time designer or temporary consultant

It is possible to have the benefit of a full time designer in a contractor role. Bring them into the team for the long term but not full time.

Robbie Ingebretsen, PixelLab – Developer/Designer Workflow for Non-Zombies

· Cultivate passion / fight apathy
· Educated respect
· Chemistry not characters

Scott Berkun, Wordpress.com – Feedback Without Frustration: How to Run and Effective Design Critique

Great design requires great feedback.

3 common (tragic) kinds of critiques:
· Bloodlet – lots of conflicting agendas
· Water Torture – Single persons work criticized by a large group
· Dog & Pony Show – All pretense, no conversation in the meeting

5 things to do:
· If it’s your work, own the critique
· Have a designated facilitator
· Have critique goals
· Separate like/hate from good/bad
· Avoid too many cooks

Jon Bell, Windows Phone – Make it Relevant

Art is a thing well done

Quality is relevant

Not a great design until it is relevant to the user

Matt Brown, Facebook – Stop Filling Buckets: Better Design Through Content

Design and content are not on equal footing.

How to fix?
· Start with copy
· Edit that copy

o   Edit that copy

· Mobile view before web
· Design a screenful
· Test with users

Christen Coomer, Valve – How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Engineers

Unique work environment at Valve:
· No titles, no managers
· Work together on a project basis
· Everyone is responsible for the customer experience
· Work with candidates as the interview

Kevin Moore, PixelLab – The Art of Engineering

I had no notes for this lightning talk

Jeff Weir, Microsoft – The Proof is in the Prototype

Designers – learn to code

Developers – Join us

Michelle Goldberg, Ignition Partners – Why VCs Care About Design

Mint – used legacy backend and added a new design.  The design was the product.

Michelle Broderick, Uber – Marketers Love Designers

I had no notes for this lightning talk

Braden Kowitz & Jake Knapp, Google – How CEOs can Lead to Great Design

Make design a recruiting priority and start right away.

4 things that a CEO can do:
· Hire a design lead
· Determine what skills are missing
· Run studies every month
· Prototype then decide

Kelly Smith, Curious Office – Mobile Design: The Next Wave of Opportunity

What they have learned:
· Embrace constraint
· Change how you think
· Designers need to get more technical
· Plan for faults
· Prioritize

Lessons:
· Read the human interface guideline books for each target platform
· Learn about all of the components available on the target platform
· Tap, pinch, flick, slide (no click)
· Consider screen size / density, orientation, resolution
· Appreciate what the vendors are supplied
· Over-design at your own risk
· Pay attention to transitions and other animations

Mistakes:
· Failure to edit down features to the essentials
· Failure to understand the differences between the mobile operating systems
· Think mobile OS components are the same as web page elements
· Lack of attention to details (such as not making buttons for each resolution)
· No graphic production work flow for the myriad of files needed for each target platform, resolution, etc.

Enrique Allen, 500 Startups – The Future of Designer Founders in Tech

I had to leave at the beginning of this (final) talk

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Call for Speakers for the 2012 International Conference on Software Quality (ICSQ)

September 19, 2011 by mensming.

The Call for Speakers for the 2012 International Conference on Software Quality (ICSQ) has just opened. The conference will be held October 29 - 31, 2012 in Indianapolis. The theme is "Preparing for Tomorrow’s Software Challenges". The calendar for the call is:

• January 31, 2012 - Technical presentation submission form due via email to douglas.b.hamilton@accenture.com
• April 30, 2012 - Notification of acceptance
• July 31, 2012 - Draft papers due
• October 29, 2012 - Full and Half Day Tutorials
• October 30 - 31, 2012 - Technical Presentations

 

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Interfaces Links from March 2011 Software Engineering Notes

September 14, 2011 by mensming.

The following links were published in the March 2011 ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes in the "Surfing the Net for Software Engineering Notes" by Mark Doernhoefer. This issues topic was interfaces.

• Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA)
• CORBA Tutorial
• SOAP
• SOAP Tutorial
• Web Services Description Language (WSDL)
• Representational State Transfer (REST)
• REST Tutorial
• IBM WebSphere MQ
• Java Message Service (JMS)
• Java Message Service (JMS)
• Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP)
• Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)
• Java Database Connectivity (JDBC)
• Enterprise Service Bus
• Mule ESB
• soapUI
• RISE to Bloome
• Altova
• RESTx

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August 2011 mensming Twitter Posts

September 3, 2011 by mensming.

Protecting a Laptop from Simple and Sophisticated Attacks | Mike Cardwell, Online bit.ly/nKtLdO
31 Aug

Posted to testingpodcast.com - TWiST #56 - With Matt Kallman bit.ly/mUmXWa
30 Aug

Posted to testingpodcast.com (a little late…) - Twist #55 - With Dave Haeffner bit.ly/nk2OT2
30 Aug

Twitter turns on SSL encryption for some users - Computerworld bit.ly/ppddm6
30 Aug

Posted to testingpodcast.com (a little late…) - TestCast Show #5 Pass Cakes and Fail Cakes - bit.ly/piXiEi
29 Aug

Finished Reading _Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas_ - amzn.to/nY909L
29 Aug

Posted to testingpodcast.com (a little late…) - Twist #54 -With Tim Ottinger - bit.ly/p262ZQ
28 Aug

Posted - My Video Notes - Tools for Continuous Integration at Google Scale (GTAC2010) bit.ly/qVeURD
28 Aug

Report: Google Uses About 900,000 Servers « Data Center Knowledge bit.ly/qkSRkc
26 Aug

Google highlights trouble in detecting web-based malware - Computerworld bit.ly/oPSXjc
25 Aug

20 years of Linux [Infographic] - bit.ly/nY2Pn9
24 Aug

RT @TonyAudino Great article from HR Magazine about companies staying connected to alums and gaining access to key talent network bit.ly/qReOMV.
23 Aug

11 hard truths about HTML5 bit.ly/p0u7Xc
23 Aug

The Five Levels of ISP Evil - bit.ly/qNjySV
22 Aug

Twitter by the numbers [Infographic] - bit.ly/pxjVUT
19 Aug

The Seven Phases of Introducing Continuous Integration into Your Organization | Java.net bit.ly/nn4r3v
18 Aug

Computer scientist predicts your next Facebook friends - bit.ly/p7XXRG
17 Aug

Fake Names On Social Networks: A Fake Problem - bit.ly/qMLrYW
16 Aug

LinkedIn hurries to address privacy spat - bit.ly/pFEqPX
15 Aug

Lost programming skills bit.ly/q74WSZ
12 Aug

A Guide to Google+ Privacy and Information Control lifehac.kr/qSXHQQ
11 Aug

Why Your Passion for Work Could Ruin Your Career - Scott Barry Kaufman - Harvard Business Review bit.ly/pzxVxY
10 Aug

Build Your Own Productivity Style by Remixing the Best lifehac.kr/npZePJ
9 Aug

Reliable tests with selenium web driver slidesha.re/qtja0e
8 Aug

FORA.tv - Elevation Partners Director and Co-Founder Roger McNamee bit.ly/qe2Mi4
5 Aug

On the PageObject Pattern | Markus Gärtner - bit.ly/qNrFEq
4 Aug

Malware is a disease; the government should treat it that way | ITworld bit.ly/nNoqUI
3 Aug

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Video Notes - Tools for Continuous Integration at Google Scale (GTAC2010)

August 27, 2011 by mensming.

Tools for Continuous Integration at Google Scale (GTAC2010)
Nathan York
29 min, 55 sec
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b52aXZ2yi08

Slide Notes:

• Software Engineering Gap - lots of work on platforms and compilers, lots of work on apps. Middle (build systems, etc.) is often ignored (reach good enough and then move on)
• Common Build System Issues - Incorrect, Slow, Cumbersome, Under-maintained
• Why Build Systems Matter - Engineer Productivity, All about feedback
• The Challenge At Google - 6000 engineers and one code base, everything built from source, development on mainline, extensive automated testing
• Rough Developer Workflow (flow chart)
• Better Build System Needed - optimized and tuned build languages, dependency analysis and scheduling, leverage infrastructure. Must be correct AND fast.
• Inputs, Outputs and Actions - Content addressable storage (by digest of content), use relative paths, eliminate global state
• Scaling Source Code Access - FUSE based file system. Most code needed for read only, on-demand syncing and caching, all source in the cloud, content digests as metadata
• Making Builds Fast - Distributed builds in the cloud - built in arbitrary location
• Scalable Distributed Builds - Caching key to scalable build. If inputs (from digest) and actions are same as previous, return prior result.
• Scaling Build Outputs - FUSE based file systems, all output in the cloud, shared across builds and users
• System View - builds appear local but are in the cloud
• Platform for Automated Testing - Executing a test is just another build action.
• Results - 20+ code changes per minute, 65K builds per day, 10000 CPUs, 50 TB memory, ~1PB output every 7 days, 94% cache hit rate.
• Estimating build tool savings 2008 to 2009: Saving ~600 person years
• Conclusion: build system is a core component of software engineering
• Questions

 

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29th Annual PNSQC Registration Now Open

August 23, 2011 by mensming.

I have written before about one of my favorite conferences - Pacific Nortwest Software Quality Conference. This year’s conference will be held October 10 - 12, 2011. The theme this year is "Delivering Quality" and the keynote speakers are Goranka Bjedov and Rob Sabourin. As usual the conference will be held at the World Trade Center Portland in Portland, OR.

Registration information can be found at http://www.pnsqc.org/2011-conference/registration-information.

 

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