Monday 31 August 2009

Why Did The Tester Cross The Road ?

Currently working in London, I walk from the mainline train station rather than cram into the hot stuffy sardine tins called The Tube. Only problem with this is the pavements are crammed with tourists taking pictures, studying maps and buying tacky souvenirs.

The way round them is to walk in the road, hopping back onto the pavement when I see a homicidal black taxi steering towards me.

Works fine apart from at the main pedestrian crossing points. The road has big white LOOK RIGHT instructions so the pedestrians dutidully do that - and dont notice the commuter barelling down from the left wanting to get home.

Well, some pedestrians do notice - they are the ones with the tester mentality who know to expect the unexpected and not to blindly follow the manual.

I didn't come up with a punchline to the title of this post - any good suggestions then let me know.

What I did find and I dont know whether to be amused or scared by it is that the TSA ask and answer the question about chickens crossing roads and come up with the answer "because it's a terrorist plot"...

Monday 10 August 2009

Thar Be Dragons



Waiting for a gate on the runway at Heathrow gave me a chance to look through the American Airlines Sky Mall catalogue.

Is there really a market for people who want a replica of King Tutankhamen's Egyptian Throne Chair ???

The Bacon Genie did get my attention - but sadly I think it would only work with American style bacon and not British back bacon

It was the garden sculptures section that got my real interest

The Zombie of Montclaire Moors is pictured at the top of this post - suitable for garden, office or family room...

The Big Foot Garden Sculpture is somewhat disappointing as it is only 2 feet high - how big a foot can something that size have ? It's the same size as the The Meerkat Gang


Then I got to the Dragon of Falkenburg Castle Moat Lawn Statue

Your neighbors will steer clear when they see this intricately sculpted, more than two-foot-long dragon stretched out in your flower bed. This lifelike sculpture is complete with scales, wings and a treacherous tail.

As testers, we don't just test the programs, we should also make sure that claims made in marketing and advertising can be substantiated.

Anyone seen a real dragon so that they can test that this sculpture is truly 'lifelike' ?

Tuesday 4 August 2009

Another Visa Problem

Writing this blog entry from the Webb University Center of Old Dominion University in Virginia but I nearly didn't make it here...

The recent problems of VISA charging people 23 quadrillion dollars have been well documented

I had a problem with a different sort of visa - the one you have to fill in to enter the good old US of A.
The form has been updated and has caught up with the 21st century and there is now an entry for your email address

Except there is only room for 19 characters
I have 3 different email addresses - all of them more than that

So I put as much as I could on the form and hoped it wasn't checked too thoroughly and of course it wasn't.

But how many millions of people have to fill in that form and find the same problem

Now back to my vacation....