Owner: I ask questions URL:http://iaskquestions.com Join Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:59:51 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: I ask questions - to tell stories (about testing) Site statistics:Click here
Did you read already the Birbal tales ? 2007-07-29 12:58:14 I agree fully to Pradeep’s comment about the Birbal stories. They are so smart, funny, addictive, …
So, if you didn’t buy the book yet, you missed a chance.
If you want to buy it also for your team here are some arguments to convince people who do not believe it is a book for/about testing.
You could e.g. tell them: “See how often the term test is mentioned” haha
some quotes:
- a chapter called “The Test”: “I might agree with you entirely,” smiled Akbar, “if you would agree to put them (the questions) to the test…”
- “Shall we put it to the test ?” asked Birbal
- Akbar resolved to test the shoemaker’s resilience.
- But Birbal intervened: “Jahanpanah, I think it is a fairer test if somebody is in the armor - I’ll volunteer.”
- “Can we test this ?” smiled the king.
- So Akbar had the court scholars test the stranger in every tongue.
- “… How can this b
8-year-olds should test my code 2007-07-28 20:29:35 Another example for the category playing and asking questions:
I had played with … for two weeks and hadn’t made it crash once. Brian brought the whole thing down in three commands.
…
If only I could get a room filled with 8-year-olds to test my code.
Read Michael’s whole story here.
BTW Michael: if the mountain will not come to the prophet …
Grab your laptop with the test software and go to the next playground. I am sure any child - no matter what age - will be interested (not only because after eating ice cream typing with clammy/dirty fingers on someone elses keyboard is fun ). While doing this I would also involve mothers, grandparents and babysitters.
Erkan Yilmaz
Are you a fairy? 2007-07-22 16:43:53 … Ofelia - a little girl - asks this to a creature.
Her mother in contrast does not believe in the mystical world:
“Fairy tales - you are a bit too old to fill your head with such nonsense” she tells Ofelia.
Well, I (Erkan) can tell: NO and I recommend you all to watch this movie.
The movie Pan’s Labyrinth (el laberinto del Fauno) starts with Faunus telling:
A long time ago, in the underground realm, where there are no lies or pain, there lived a Princess who dreamed of the human world. She dreamed of blue skies, soft breeze, and sunshine. One day, eluding her keepers, the Princess escaped. Once outside, the brightness blinded her and erased every trace of the past from her memory. She forgot who she was and where she came from. Her body suffered cold, sickness, and pain. Eventually, she died. However, her father, the King, always knew that the Princess’ soul would return, perhaps in another body, in another place, at another time. And he would wait for Read more:fairy
What kind of sweets do you share with your team ? 2007-07-15 07:23:19 So, this week I will surprise my team with …
… some other sweets than usual (this time I bought a 1 kg package). I hope this lasts longer and I am also curious if they like them.
People might now perhaps talk on the effects for the quality of work or other issues, but it is just nice to see their happy faces when getting some sweets.
Everybody wants sweets in some kind of way. Awake the child in others (and yourself).
What about you ?
Erkan YILMAZ
edit 17.07.2007: also get yourself one or two dices and let people dice how many sweets they will get. So you have some element of surprise. Watch how happy people get, when they see the dice numbers.
And all gets even nicer, if the person getting 12 sweets shares them with others
Helping open source software - what is your progress ? 2007-07-12 16:47:33 I asked exactly 2 months ago this question:
When was the last time you helped to make open source software better ?
So, what did you do since then ?
I have decided to e.g. help these projects primarily in my free time:
ClamWin -
a free antivirus tool (with support from ClamAV)
Pardus -
a Linux distribution (includes many things, also KlamAV)
here the story how it came to this
Tell me, did you also help somewhere ? If not, why don’t you start finally ?
See you perhaps in one of the above or the other projects,
Erkan YILMAZ
Read more:Helping
, progress
Why don’t you use Pardus ? 2007-07-08 09:34:14 My brother is a great fan of the Linux distribution Pardus (Pardus-Kurulan-2007.2-RC.iso) and I am a great fan of any sorts of cats (see picture at end of posting and my about page point 7).
So I thought, let my other Linux have another companion …
Truth is … I didn’t come so far initially. At the begin of the installation my screen went black. I tried then also the different offered install options, but none of them worked
Google revealed, that some users also had this problem (more info at the end of the article). The installation could go on anyway, when adding the boot option xorg=safe.
Well, in comparison to such an error an unhandled exception might appear less dramatic:
After installation, my problem was now to set up the graphics card with a good frequency (e.g. in Windows, Mandriva to set up 75 Hz with 1152×864 is possible from start, but in Pardus I have so far only 60 Hz ). Downloading new ATI drivers could not fix this problem and the ATI Cataly
Should I go 64 bit? 2007-07-05 12:47:39 … yes, I bought a 64 bit system. You want to know why ? Read here some of the arguments.
Imagine … this is cockaigne for any tester (so many training possibilities to discover bugs).
When do you want to buy one ? Well, the whole thing makes more fun with a 64 bit operating system (don’t forget: there is also 64 bit Linux and others).
Erkan YILMAZ
How do you spend your precious time ? Me… 2007-05-24 14:12:30 …I am reading at the moment a foreign-language book.
This is challenging - both: the content and non-standard linguistical expressions.
And now you know, why I am at the moment not so much participating online (see here).
How long has it been since you were busy with a really challenging book ? (please do not reply here, just answer this question for yourself truly)
Erkan YILMAZ
Read more:precious
waiting for the battle to come and then making during that new friends… 2007-05-20 16:15:53 Today we 4 (Andre, Erkan, Martin, Widodo) went to the park to play some table tennis. Well, since there were some already playing table tennis, we explored the playing machines nearby.
Here are some pictures:
I am boarding the carrousel:
ok, let’s make some speed to have fun:
hm, perhaps this was a little too much speed
ok, after that shock, let’s go for slow speed:
After it was our turn to play table tennis, we fought some hard battles against two brothers. Both are well known local heroes and aspirants for the title “table tennis professionals from Karlsruhe“: Salvatore and Giuseppe. Both are cool kids and I think we have made some new friends today.
BTW: here you see Salvatore giving Widodo a hard time
After that game: what might Widodo think?
Perhaps: “What did go wrong in that game?”
(btw: Martin and Andre also did not look well against the two - but unfortunately I have no pictures of that. In return for that I did let both brothers sw Read more:making
audio podcast: Indian testers and fake experience 2007-05-14 14:24:29 Don’t miss Pradeep Soundararajan’s first audio podcast about: “Indian testers and fake experience
”
I tell only the title, the rest Pradeep will tell you with his own voice: click here to listen (6:38 mins)
Please mail your comments to him
Erkan YILMAZ
Which children’s book did you like most as child ? 2007-05-13 19:16:18 After reading Christian’s article addicted about his book-buying-adventure, I feel the need to also post about this topic. For my books-to-buy-list I am still searching for some child
ren’s books. And the kid in me needs your help !
I have recently read Peter Pan and I am thinking about the next to be:
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
- The Book of One Thousand and One Nights
- Akbar and Birbal Stories
But I would use this opportunity to also get some advise by you too. Which children’s book did you like most as child ? Or which book should you read over and over again to your child ?
Erkan Yilmaz
A day in the park 2007-05-13 18:23:38 When I looked in the morning outside I saw already Christian how he was learning (he has an exam on Tuesday).
(btw: you see also the place where I play table tennis - so, if you once drop by, let’s have a game)
Well, I could not let Chris learn all alone and learned with him:
Later - while interrogating him - also some other creatures showed interest in the topics: soil science, irrigation and erosion
In Germany we had a week of bad weather. And now with sun coming out - also children and animals did so. There was so much life going on: cries of children, animals of different sizes everywhere, also some nice looking ladies
I think I will relocate my learning place - then I am also away from distraction on the pc - there is nothing better than a book in the warm sun. And letting your thoughts wander while watching children play.
P.S. I hope everyone had a happy Mother’s Day.
Erkan YILMAZ
If the original software does not work, try ALWAYS the free alternatives 2007-05-13 07:13:08 What you should know, before you read the article:
Why I am writing on this issue ?
This goes out to all software vendors: I am a potential customer who is not allowed to use the software and has to search for other ways to achieve his goal. If you want me to use your software in the future, please change some things. E.g. make a basic installer (like the REAL Alternative), so I can still succeed.
Well, it is interesting that with free software you can do what the company itself is not able to But if someting does not work then at least give me a proper dialog: in a good translated version. Read also later: “Does your customer smile when (s)he is confronted with an error? No - why not?“
I just wanted to install the Real Player 10.5 GOLD de to view a rm file. But I can not use it on Longhorn server:
I am told that users with restricted rights are not allowed to use it - and I should contact my sysadmin.
Well, Erkan then thinks: “OK, let me login as admin - who know
When was the last time you helped to make open source software better ? 2007-05-12 17:20:36 Are you a person who uses open source software ?
Do you like it ?
Did you spend until now time to make it better
?
For the first question your answer might be: yes
If the answer for the second is also yes, I would be interested in the third answer.
With this posting I do not want to tell you about the many advantages as a tester to use open source software (practicing your skills; getting to know other, public, collaborative projects; …). No, I ONLY want to invite you to help (if I think about how many people out there could help, my head is swimming).
I am sure, if you give the open source community feedback, they will appreciate this, because:
1. it will be feedback
2. it will be (hopefully) good communicated feedback about a bug or feature
Would it cost so much for you to help ?
Don`t be a parasite - pay back ! Start here ! You can do this right now on your pc !
Use your skills for something good !
Erkan YILMAZ
Sorry, I was busy with longhorn 2007-05-09 18:51:59 Unfortunately I did not have much time lately to do my “normal” online tasks. I was busy with: Microsoft Windows Server (TM) Code Name “Longhorn” beta 3
I will catch up with you !
Erkan
A tester’s screen saver 2007-05-07 01:43:01 Pradeep created some time ago this screen
saver “Heuristics and Testing” (download here).
I like the idea very much and here is now the opportunity to judge yourself.
BTW: it “… has been officially installed on all testers machines in 2 organizations in India so far.” (Pradeep Soundararajan)
needed OS: Win2K or XP
Here you can find the PPS version.
What do you find out if you search for a translation of a German word ? 2007-05-03 16:59:45 After Ben asked here if “square” and “Spießer” have the same meaning, I asked some online translation services. The translation of the German
term “Spießer” revealed following:
I present the not-winners of the day for this specific term (I do not use term loser with purpose):
IATE (result)
Google Translator (result) and
Babelfish (result)
(or could be said following ? IATE was so honest to tell nothing, instead telling something wrong or something which does not make sense - or does there exist a term “spiesser” in English ?)
From the results one could infer perhaps “Spießer” should be translated with “bourgeois” or “babbitt” ? But I will ask better a native English speaking person to help me out here. Perhaps someone who knows the context of the term since our recent slogan game
Erkan YILMAZ
btw: why do I post about such things ?
- to help Michael and others to assess the quality of online translation services
Can you guess a product - only with the text slogan - without additional picture/sound ? 2007-05-02 17:26:39 Below you will find some German slogan
s.
And ? Where is the relevance to testing ?
Well, do you agree, that during testing we arrive at situations where we do not have always every info ? Why is this ?
One explanation could be:
Information transmits faster, if there is included pictures/sound or it is packed meaning into the sentences (e.g. by using proverbs, schema, concepts, categories, analogies, metaphors, associations, …).
But the problem may be, that recipients do not have access to this additional info (e.g. slogans from other countries).
So, read these slogans please. And find out if you can guess the products they advertise for (and eventually the companies) !
1. “Hey Dad, when I grow up, I also want to be square.”
2. “We wake up earlier.”
3. “We can do everything but speak Standard German.”
4. “With the second eye you see better.”
5. “Firm as a rock in the surge.”
6. “We demand and bring forward personaliti
Mirror, mirror on the wall: who can tell me what is a picker-upper ? 2007-05-01 06:03:16 I was reading Ben’s article “Slogans are models“. And there appeared the term “picker-upper”, which I did not know.
I used my favorite service LEO first. But this did not help much (I could have worked me up from the verbs, but …). Then I used dictionary.com and I got an explanation (I hope it is the right one ):
picker-upper: something that restores one’s depleted energy or depressed spirits
I take this now as an opportunity to search the term in some of the English to German services (see also Michael’s article):
Google Translator
Babelfish
LEO
Beolingus
ego4u
PONSline
IATE
Merriam-Webster
Unfortunately all have failed in providing me a (good) translation (I searched for “picker upper” and “picker-upper” ). Also my paper dictionary from PONS with 170000 terms could not help me.
It could appear from this, the term is not so much used. Actually I can not believe this. Imagine: after a long night in the mornin
made to stick (why some ideas survive and others die) 2007-04-30 17:08:01 At the moment I am reading Made to Stick (why some ideassurvive
and others die) from the two brothers Chip and Dan Heath (I got this input from Frank).
(this is not the books cover - I am to blame for this selection)
So, you might now think: “What has this to do with testing ?” A lot - e.g. you should always write a good bug story (to convince the developer and/or others to care especially for that important bug); mentoring new testers and increasing the learn effect; perhaps just for the fun of telling (remember how it was back then - when you lay in your bed and you listened to a story by your mother - hey, open your eyes again ) …
0. INTRODUCTION: WHAT STICKS ?
The two authors give examples of successful stories and start to analyze them. As they tell on page 15:
“There is no “formula” for a sticky idea … But sticky ideas do draw from a common set of traits, which make them more likely to succeed” (on page 21-24 they try to harde
testing baton 2007-04-26 18:45:33 I send this baton to blogs which cover the topic testing.
(this picture is by Mullenkedheim and is licenced under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License, source: Flickr)
Testing in my view is not limited to software testing - for me testing involves asking questions. And everybody can ask questions (not only software testers).
Here are now 5 questions, which you can answer in any length and with any statement you like. The only aim is: to get to know you more personally.
“Let the games begin…”
1. Could you tell something about your first tests ?
2. What would you like to highlight as an important thing of testing - from your personal experiences ?
3. Why is testing not trivial ?
4. What do you do after testing at work ?
5. How do you think testing will evolve in the next 13 years ?
1. Can you tell something about your first tests ?
(Please tell more than just a simple yes or no )
The best testing period was as a baby / child - unfortunately I do not remember
You want to know more about Erkan ? 2007-04-25 01:32:01 Start with reading the blog and the questionnaire with my answers.
BTW: if this is not sufficient for you (e.g. for me this would not be sufficient), the most important thing - just ask.
Erkan YILMAZ
introducing the new category: “playing and asking questions” 2007-04-22 14:51:27 Today I created a new category: playing and askingquestions
Here you will find my test reports - actually more correct - my game reports. Now you are certainly going to ask, why I then don’t call it “test reports” ?
Well, I want to show with this, that testing for me involves the aspect of exploring and playing respectively. There are so many unknown things in software (and much more in life). And my opinion is, that the best way to tease more info out, is to play with it.
Like a child would do - a child plays and asks so unbelievably many questions.
(this picture is by Pamela Adam and is licenced under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License, source: Flickr)
Testing is really fun - not only my profession.
I hope, you see it the same way (or you will see it like this one day hopefully).
Erkan YILMAZ
Does your customer smile when (s)he is confronted with an error? No - why not? 2007-04-22 13:15:18 I am not so happy with my web provider.
Seems, always when I want to post something, there happen problems - hm, or are there always problems? .
I just had this error
500 message:
“In case you have the opinion this is a failure due to the server, contact the webmaster.”
Of course they are right - there can be different reasons for this error, but still: at that moment I just want my task to be done.
If I email the webmaster, this will eventually take even longer. So I retry. And thank God: it works.
But how about, if you place yourself for one moment into your customer ?
E.g. Orkut seems having done this.
When there appears an error, it is told:
Bad, bad server. Today there are no sweets for you.
…
We apologize for the trouble and for the “ruthless” behaviour of our server
I liked this - I even smiled.
But the standard message from my provider is so sh.t.
The request I have to you: make me as customer happy. Even if it is only with an inventive error
a few questions for the great firewall of China 2007-04-22 10:27:12 Yesterday I asked the ‘great firewall of China
’ a few questions
. And the answers were interesting. Have a look HERE !
And today I wanted to check for a long domain name, but could not input it, because there is a limit of 75 characters in the input field
Well, I shortened it then to 71 characters: www.thelongestdomainnameintheworldandthensomeandthensomemoreandmore.com
but I got: Can’t start the test. Can’t open URL.
Erkan YILMAZ
very short use of swift browser and … 2007-04-22 07:55:17 I read about the safari browser
for mac. Since I do not have a mac, I am trying now Swift (which uses Apples Rendering Engine WebKit).
First experience: I could not download swift
from the swift site:
Ok, the web is big and I found version 0.2 somewhere else.
I installed swift and then wanted to mail developers about the broken download link.
I went in swift to Help > About swift,
then I thought: click on www.getswift.org
and I am forwarded to a site where I am told:
“The domain getswift.com is for sale. To purchase, call…”
Probably I am not the only one, who has such problems with the websites, or?
Well, I closed this tab then and my about-tab is not presented correct:
Nevertheless I will use swift a little more and see what else will happen.
But as you know the first impressions are the important ones.
I will email now the developers and tell them about this (my good deed for today). And if wanted, I can provide then a bug report (this is not the intention of
Do you realize what comes out of your mouth? 2007-04-18 18:01:20 A friend told me that I use one certain word (let’s call it xyz) very often. This would generate a certain kind of feeling for him. Since the communication is not face to face, I had no chance to see his mimic in these situations. Of course people perceive things different and pay attention to different things, which are important (only) for them. So, I am wondering, is he right with the frequency or does he perceive it different ?
I decided to start an experiment: I want to see, which words I use more frequently. And which words cause which reactions in the people. With this I learn something about me and also about others.
But since it is not easy to observe yourself objectively, I will use for this experiment as much help as I can get:
ask my friends and tell them to observe such behaviour more;
I will use tools (e.g. if you have text in written form you can use the freeware program AntConc)
I am curious about, what the experiment will show. Perhaps that I am using in different Read more:comes
, mouth
I want to excel in testing - so I do not read “classic” software testing books anymore 2007-04-14 13:36:52 I have returned all of my software testing books to the library. Since I am not reading them any longer. Please don’t confuse this now that I am not interested anymore in software testing – on the contrary: TESTING MEANS A LOT TO ME.
With the benefit of hindsight now – I would associate reading these software testing books with watching a black and white slide show about animals. But now I feel like I am visiting a zoo. I can see the animals now in colour, with their natural sounds, their own special smell, can touch them to get a much better experience.
Well, this is of course only my subjective opinion.
I believe that these “other” books have a much better impact on me than the books which I read before. I will just list a few things and perhaps – from your perspective - not necessarily important ones:
e.g. Bach’s advice: when you need help for a decision: to open any book and ask that page. Feynman and Weinberg show me, how to approach different topics. Heat
try to draw a cat 2007-04-07 06:13:13 I wanted to draw a cat. But when trying this caused a problem. So, here is the picture, so you can judge for yourself:
As I see the problem is: I know what a cat is, but I could not imagine a cat. Could be because normally I do not have contacts to cats.
So, I see two choices now:
- find a cat nearby in real life and get some detailed view on it or (since cats do not want to stand still when I want this)
- perhaps easier: search in Google for some cat pictures and study these and draw after this (but the danger could be that it will be more copying than imagination).
This brings me to the subject, that people have to observe more details from their environment.
In that way that you can imagine objects really when closing the eyes. OK, you could now say: “I do not have the time to have a close look on everything so detailed.” - true. But why not try first with one object?
E.g. while walking stand still and watch your environment. You will see much more, when you hold on f
translation of some greetings and proverbs 2007-04-07 03:20:14 At the moment the Languages of Europe group is collecting some greetings and proverbs in different (European) languages: see here.
So far the list contains 15 languages (sorted alphabetically) - 3 languages with sounds (marked with green color):
Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish Chilean, Turkish.
If you would like to help, please drop a message (e.g. with another translation; providing some sound files - you can also give some links to other already existing online files; finding errors; …).
The web is so monotone without sounds, give it some taste with your voice.
Erkan YILMAZ
BTW:
here is a great page for getting much more languages for some greetings.
BBC offers essential holiday phrases - with mp3 sound files.
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