How To Stop Being Driven To Drink

One year into my move to Michigan and I'm still exploring my new neighbourhood. I was invited out for a drink and meal at The Honey Creek Inn which is in an area I'd not been to before so I was excited to go out and see new places and areas - and it says it's an English pub so I had to put that claim to the test.

Google maps told me it was about a 30 minute drive from where I live.
Seemed OK.

Got home after work, changed and then got the GPS ready - it seemed a straightforward drive but nice to have backup in case there were diversions or I missed a turnoff.

And this is where the problems began...

The GPS asked me to input a city name - but the pub was in a small village, Cannonsburg.
Entering this did not give any matches, the one offered was Cannon.
I tried using this but then trying to enter the road name gave no matches.

Damn.
OK, it's on the outskirts of Grand Rapids, try using that as a city name.
Nope, no match when I entered the road name

OK, back to Google.
Enter 8025 Cannonsburg Road and voila, there's a nice pic of the road with the Inn on it and it says it's Belmont, MI
Super
Enter Belmont as the city in the GPS, then enter the number and road name
Whooo, it finds it.
Except it cant find the number and offers me options of 7845 or 7923
Might be close enough to get me there but I dont want to end up at the wrong place

One last try.
Enter 8025 Cannonsburg Road NE in Google maps and this time it says it's in Rockford
Plug Rockford into the GPS then the number and road name...
SUCCESS

So what lessons can I take from this?

If you have a website for your business to attract visitors then should you be testing that the address you provide will work in a GPS system?

Is it a bug in Google Maps that 8025 Cannonsburg Road  and 8025 Cannonsburg Road NE give a different city in the results? If you're testing maps are you trying out different variations on an address?

as for the Honey Creek Inn - wonderful drive out there, good food and a good beer selection.

- and the English Painters van was parked there when we arrived so it must be a good place.
( in joke for GR people )

Cocknium - a revolution in vesting

Oi!

Yes, you, geezer - the one with the mince pies looking at this web page.

You have a problem. You have a full suite of tests but they are written in plain English.
So what's the problem?
The problem, my old china, is that your testers are all Cockneys and dont understand a bleedin' word of them.

So it's my great pleasure to announce a new tool - Cocknium - that will take your tests and automatically make them into Cockney Rhyming Slang tests

No coding experience necessary:

Example 1

Oi, as a geezer
When I use this pony
I dont want to see a sausage

pony = pony and trap = app
sausage = sausage and mash = crash

Example 2
Your app automatically orders an extra hot curry when the user returns from a heavy drinking session at the pub

When I'm Oliver Twist
And use the pony on my dog n bone to order a Ruby
After a trip to the rub-a-dub-dub
Then I should get a vindaloo
Without having to cocoa


What brought this nonsense on?
Pretty regularly someone comes along and decides that they are going to revolutionise the world of testing. They find out that running tests manually takes time so hey presto, the magic of automation to the rescue. But not just automation, automation that means that anyone from the CEO to the tea lady can write and run tests and have it fully tested and shipping before you can say Cor Blimey Mary Poppins.

I came across two new ventures this week basically promising the above.
Best of luck to them before reality hits them in their boat race.