Recently I conducted a mini-audit of some of our less used servers and virtual machines, mainly hunting for some candidates to participate in load testing (hosts for Test Agents). Upon one server I was *amazed* to find a virtual server which had been running for 1,862 days! We’re talking over […]
Musings
77 posts
Recently I was referred to Roger Clarke’s blog for a very interesting and compelling breakdown of popular social media website LinkedIn.com’s terms and conditions. In this age of social media dominance (be it LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or another SNS) it does seem like consumer rights take a modest back seat […]
Right now, for various reasons, I’m “between projects” after relocating to China for a business venture which ultimately didn’t work out. The timing couldn’t have been worse, right on December with virtually no prospect of finding alterative employment – especially whilst being located deep in China. It is now mid […]
Well, as you read this entry, you find me at a career crossroads. I’m going to apologise in advance if I’m sounding a tad bit melancholy, but at this very moment I really can’t define what I’m looking for. One of the greatest deficiencies in the IT industry, in my […]
Today I was having an off-topic discussion with my wife who is not amused at the number of potential employers who don’t really seem to understand the QA/Test Lead role (duties and responsibilities) and the number of job ads posted which significantly maim it into other roles. It made me […]
Recently, I’ve been mulling a concept very close to Test Driven Development (TDD) but with a surprising twist. As those of you who are familiar with the concept of TDD might be aware, TDD does not strictly advocate (in all cases) a test-first methodology, but rather speaks to the testing […]
Thursday morning started pretty well the same as every weekday. I’m sure you know how it goes; you go through the motions to get yourself prepared for the day, shower, dress, eat breakfast and so on. On my way out the door I get an SMS – “Janet (not her […]
Well, it is about that time of the year when TechEd Australia kicks off; this year it is being held on the Gold Coast in Queensland. As usual the location doesn’t vary much, TechEd has alternated between Sydney and the Gold Coast over the past half decade, which leaves me […]
Last night I had a good night out with some former colleagues in Canberra. It was thoroughly enjoyable to talk on a technical level whilst also engaging in the usual developer-consuming-alcohol banter (surely you know what I mean, yes?). It brought to mind some thoughts I had been contemplating some […]
Welcome to the year if the geek! Yes, that is right, this year is the Chinese year of the geek*, mostly due to the number of dates we will witness which are perfect binary dates (using the short date format), such as 01/01/10 (010110). In fact, here is a complete […]
Driving in Queensland (in Australia) is an experience like no other. For Americans, this is a bit like driving in Los Angeles without the same volume of cars. Every time I get behind the wheel in Queensland, I get angry. Thus, I’ve composed “ten tell-tale signs that you’re driving in […]
It’s come that time for me to start waxing lyrically about the nature of change. For those of you who don’t know, the house my wife and I are renting has been recently sold, completing yet another unsettlingly frequent cycle in our lives – the dreaded house-sold-while-you’re-a-tenant. This is the […]
Well, I realise that I’ve been posting a lot of non-technical entries lately, but as we get closer to Christmas, I tend to get both nostalgic and sentimental, so it is kind of apt. Today I was musing about toys of the 1980s era (Transformers in particular) and I wondered […]
With the amount of travelling I’ve done this year, it’s no wonder I’ve started (or resumed) reading so many books. Typically, the normal book for me would be something technical (e.g. a Training Kit for SQL Server, for example) and for a long while I actually banned myself from reading […]
Hi all.. Sorry about the relative silence, last week was my first week since I finished my last project (which ran from December 08 to July 09). You might say I’m getting accustomed to the quiet (not to mention the free time). The lead up to “tools down” has left […]