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It’s Time or Never

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Hi All, My friend on gtalk asked me to find the name for image verification, which is normally seen in web blogs, website registration, etc. This led me to CAPTCHA: Telling Humans and Computers Apart Automatically. I being a black box tester, who believe testing is dependent on human skills of a tester rather than magical formulas that make human independent, this was a good discovery. Now, there are applications/programs which want to differentiate human from a machine. In the age where people around feel automating all are the solution, CAPTCHA emphasizes on the human skills. It posses a (1)hard AI problem – is a problem which is solvable by humans but not readily solvable by computers. Off late we see CAPTCHA used in most blogs, web registrations, etc to protect the online polls results, email addresses by spammers, website registrations by bots, spamming of blogs. The recent addition in the ICICI bank website is a virtual keyboard and they quote on their page that (2)The Virtual Ke...

I cleared the AST BBST Foundation Class :-)

Hi All, I was overjoyed on clearing the AST BBST foundation class, shared the information with few of my friends and colleges the immediate response was “What is AST BBST foundation course?” Was it surprising? “NO” definitely not. BBST is no match to testing certifications like CSTE, ISTQB in terms of popularity. Why? Well, you might know by the end of the blog, but I do not guarantee. Let’s start with some basic fundamental questions. I recommend you all to write the answers for the below questions before you proceed, if you can’t well, continue reading. - Why are you testing? What are you trying to learn? - How should you organize your work to achieve your mission? - How will you know whether the program passed or failed the test? - What would it take to do a complete testing job? - How much testing is enough? Were you able to answer all the above questions, if “yes” that’s great but How do you know your answer is correct? How do you arrive at the objective? How do you...

Is Tester|||Doctor?

I met with an accident one and a half week back, my shoulder was in pain. Guzzled some pain killers, applied Pain relievers on my right shoulder went to sleep, next day I could not move my shoulder. Next day... I called my Dad, to enquire if he knew a good orthopaedician. Got the details went to the hospital took an appointment and waited for 1.5 hrs to finally meet the doctor. The doctor started testing Doctor started with a set of questions How did you meet with the accident? Did you fall on the ground? Previous troubles with the right shoulder? Did you do some self medication? And so on... Later he examined the shoulder, confirmed where exactly the pain was. But asked me to get the x-ray, and handed a prescription for the X-ray. After getting the x-ray, doctor looked at the x-ray confirmed that there is no fracture but a ligament tear and required at least 2 weeks of rest. No it’s not the end it just got interesting 2 weeks no way doc is there a way I could start using my right shou...

How many bugs in the software?

Hi All, How many bugs in the software? Let's read a story of Birbal ( Birbal was an advisor in the court of Akbar and is very popular for his sharp intellect and sense of humour ) One day Akbar was strolling in his palace gardens with his dear minister Birbal. Many crows were flying around. The King enjoyed their flying. Just then he thought, that how many crows could be in his kingdom and immediately posed this question to Birbal. Birbal thought a moment, then said, "They are ninety-five thousand, four hundred and sixty three (95, 463) crows in your kingdom, Huzoor." "How do you know that for sure?" the King asked. "You can get them counted, Huzoor." Birbal said. The king again said, "If there will be less than that, then?" Birbal replied immediately, "That means that the rest of them have gone on vacation to some neighboring kingdoms." "Or if there were more than that, then?" "Then it means that other crows are vis...

Welcome, the Specialists

Hi All, Read this astounding article The Surprising Right Fit for Software Testing to know about people with Asperger syndrome or some form of ASD, who are now considered best in class testers. I thank my college Vinod K for sharing this fantastic information. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Autism spectrum : The autism spectrum, also called autism spectrum disorders (ASD) or autism spectrum conditions (ASC), with the word autistic sometimes replacing autism, is a spectrum of psychological conditions characterized by widespread abnormalities of social interactions and communication, as well as severely restricted interests and highly repetitive behavior. Behaviorally, certain characteristics identify the autism spectrum. The type, severity and/or number of autistic traits present determines the severity of autism in the individual. These autistic traits may be beneficial for some disciplines like science, mathematics, engineering and computer programming. Some autistic individu...

Black box test puzzles

Hi All, Are you free? Are you ready to exercise your brain? Are you ready to learn? Are you ready to test? Then join me in exploring the Test Machines by James Lyndsay. Here is an arrangement, testers interested in solving these, which include me as well:-), shall share personal email id’s(send a test mail to sharu.b@gmail.com or post it in the comment), once we have a pool of testers, could be even 2, never particular about the numbers, shall start investigating these interesting puzzles. Warning - these machines may change the way you test! – James Lyndsay Disclaimer: All the blogs shared by me are my ideas, my thought, my understanding of the subject and does not represent any of my employer’s ideas, thought, plans or strategies.

Testers punished for testing...or are they???

Hi All, This came up from an interesting discussion I was having with a friend (tester). He was happy because he was able to get the software working so that he could run tests on it the next day. I felt a little awkward with the happiness expressed and so delved into his happiness to find out that • He was happy because he would not go to work in shifts (night) for testing, because he was able to get it started by EOD. • He was happy because he shall be able to run the tests as per the schedule defined. • He was happy because he could start testing. • He was happy because he could send a report to his manager about the test status as scheduled. • He was happy because he could find bugs faster, since other members of his team have not got the software to work yet. Well, there’s more to it and then came an interesting story. Two testers were asked to test 2 different features of a printer. During upgrade of the software, one of the testers removed the n/w cable connected and this crashe...