BTW, Bookwurm...

On Tue, 07 Dec 2004 15:32:31 -0500, Tristaan <tristaanus RemoveThis @yahoo.com>
wrote:

 >BTW, brief article found here:
 >
 >http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/202646_nwbriefs07.html
 >
 >On Tue, 07 Dec 2004 15:31:56 -0500, Tristaan stomped through my
 >brain with:
 >
  >>You know the article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer today
  >>titled "New electronic fare system for ferries"?
  >>
  >>Well...

  >>I'm doing the QA on that software right now...
  >>
  >>
  >>Tristaan (be afraid...)

Have you tried the child test?

Crumple ticket in pocket with dirty handkerchief, drop in mud puddle,
put in bar code reader.

--
John Oliver
aussiejohn67 RemoveThis @yahoo.com.au
AIM or MSN jdoliver98<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: BTW, Bookwurm... 

vj found this in alt.books.m-lackey, from John Oliver
<aussiejohn67.RemoveThis@yahoo.com.au> :

]Have you tried the child test?
]
]Crumple ticket in pocket with dirty handkerchief, drop in mud puddle,
]put in bar code reader.

of course they haven't!
JOHNNY was the master of those kinds of tests.

it wasn't one of the specifications!


--
@vicki [SnuggleWench]
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newest creations: http://www.vickijean.com/new.html
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-----------
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On Wed, 08 Dec 2004 07:50:14 +1100, John Oliver stomped through
my brain with:

   >>>I'm doing the QA on that software right now...
   >>>
   >>>
   >>>Tristaan (be afraid...)
 >
 >Have you tried the child test?
 >
 >Crumple ticket in pocket with dirty handkerchief, drop in mud puddle,
 >put in bar code reader.

Yes.

1) Barcode readers are encased in weatherproofing to prevent
moisture and other dirt to go in to the electronics.
Weatherproofing provided by third party, hence, outside of my
purview

2) Alternative manual keystroke entry of barcode data is
provided. Turnstiles are typically attended (most industries
have experimented with unattended scanning with results leaning
towards at least 1 person monitering per four scanning stations).
So, barcode medium is backed up by manual key entry

3) In the case of ticket being completely unreadable (both
electronically and manually), guest services functions built into
the system which can research transactions based upon sale
location, date, and time (all printed on the transaction receipt)
to find the ticket data and, optionally, reprint the medium.



Tristaan (trust me, we LOVE to break things... and then find new
and better ways of making them unbreakable)

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vj found this in alt.books.m-lackey, from Tristaan
<tristaanus RemoveThis @yahoo.com> :

]Yes.
]
]1) Barcode readers are encased in weatherproofing to prevent
]moisture and other dirt to go in to the electronics.
]Weatherproofing provided by third party, hence, outside of my
]purview
]
]2) Alternative manual keystroke entry of barcode data is
]provided. Turnstiles are typically attended (most industries
]have experimented with unattended scanning with results leaning
]towards at least 1 person monitering per four scanning stations).
]So, barcode medium is backed up by manual key entry
]
]3) In the case of ticket being completely unreadable (both
]electronically and manually), guest services functions built into
]the system which can research transactions based upon sale
]location, date, and time (all printed on the transaction receipt)
]to find the ticket data and, optionally, reprint the medium.

I'M IMPRESSED!!!!!


--
@vicki [SnuggleWench]
(Books) http://www.booksnbytes.com
newest creations: http://www.vickijean.com/new.html
yahooID: vjean95967
-----------
Need dope? Grow your own - plant a man!
 >> Stay informed about: BTW, Bookwurm... 

On Tue, 07 Dec 2004 16:12:12 -0500, Tristaan <tristaanus.DeleteThis@yahoo.com>
wrote:

 >On Wed, 08 Dec 2004 07:50:14 +1100, John Oliver stomped through
 >my brain with:
 >
   >>>>I'm doing the QA on that software right now...
   >>>>
   >>>>
   >>>>Tristaan (be afraid...)
  >>
  >>Have you tried the child test?
  >>
  >>Crumple ticket in pocket with dirty handkerchief, drop in mud puddle,
  >>put in bar code reader.
 >
 >Yes.
 >
[snip]
 >
 >Tristaan (trust me, we LOVE to break things... and then find new
 >and better ways of making them unbreakable)

I've always loved that too. I was an occasionally employed
program-breaker for a friend's company for a while. Anytime they had
extra work they'd call me in and I'd spend a chunk of time in front of
their programs trying to find all of the ways to make them fail to
work properly. I'm pretty good at it too. Considering how often I
can manage to make technology break without trying, it's not too
surprising. That's one of the reasons I got a computer science
degree. I figured if I was going to break it all the time, I may as
well learn how to fix it afterwards...

-Sapphire.

Goddess of Unfinished Projects
High Priestess of Mess
Co-Founder (with Victoreia and Shaunesay) of the Sisterhood of Mess
Lead guitar for the abml out-of-practice musicians' band
Officially licensed pedant (Thanks Bookwurm!)
Co-President (with Shaunesay) of the Voice Club<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: BTW, Bookwurm... 

 >I'm doing the QA on that software right now...
 >
 >
 >Tristaan (be afraid...)

Does this mean you'll be attending my LotR party Dec. 18th?

<g>
The Bookwurm (who doesn't ride the ferries if she can possibly help
it)
--
Goddess of Libraries ™,
Pedant in Chief
Keeper of the BotRoM
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<spam trapped - remove the fish from address><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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vj found this in alt.books.m-lackey, from Rhino 7
<laney2.DeleteThis@comfishcast.net> :

]Does this mean you'll be attending my LotR party Dec. 18th?
]
]<g>
]The Bookwurm (who doesn't ride the ferries if she can possibly help
]it)


good grief!
you're both in the same area with Jamie!
i'll try to remember to post if/when i get back up there to see her!


--
@vicki [SnuggleWench]
(Books) http://www.booksnbytes.com
newest creations: http://www.vickijean.com/new.html
yahooID: vjean95967
-----------
Need dope? Grow your own - plant a man!
 >> Stay informed about: BTW, Bookwurm... 

Sapphire <Tiyanath.TakeThisOut@yahoo.SPAMTRAP.com> writes:

 >I've always loved that too. I was an occasionally employed
 >program-breaker for a friend's company for a while. Anytime they had
 >extra work they'd call me in and I'd spend a chunk of time in front of
 >their programs trying to find all of the ways to make them fail to
 >work properly. I'm pretty good at it too. Considering how often I
 >can manage to make technology break without trying, it's not too
 >surprising. That's one of the reasons I got a computer science
 >degree. I figured if I was going to break it all the time, I may as
 >well learn how to fix it afterwards...

On a related issue: one of the best sanity-check tools I've been using
for many years to test documentation is the non-technical secretarial
staff. I don't use the secretaries who are really techies in disguise
(at my PPOE the group secretary became one of our really good systems
programmers) or the really dense ones, but the others are valuable
as testers because they don't "know" what they're supposed to do, and
follow the procedures as written.

Joe Morris<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: BTW, Bookwurm... 

On Tue, 07 Dec 2004 17:22:28 -0500, Sapphire stomped through my
brain with:

  >>Tristaan (trust me, we LOVE to break things... and then find new
  >>and better ways of making them unbreakable)
 >
 >I've always loved that too. I was an occasionally employed
 >program-breaker for a friend's company for a while. Anytime they had
 >extra work they'd call me in and I'd spend a chunk of time in front of
 >their programs trying to find all of the ways to make them fail to
 >work properly. I'm pretty good at it too. Considering how often I
 >can manage to make technology break without trying, it's not too
 >surprising. That's one of the reasons I got a computer science
 >degree. I figured if I was going to break it all the time, I may as
 >well learn how to fix it afterwards...

Fortunately, my job isn't to fix the problems. I just look at
the Emperor and shout, "Look! He has no clothes." And it's up
to the engineers to determine whether or not this is WAD[1].

Tristaan ([1] Worn As Designed)
--
Beware Spam Trap!: "us" is an "ogre"
*******************************************************
Ogre-Monk, ICQ# 14668166, AIM TristaanOgre
God of Grilled-SPAM™ and Summer, Disciple of Babble
Assistant Librarian/Orangutan, Pedant Target,
Chief Brute, Husband of Amethyst, Father of Charis and Talia
Co-Owner of The Ogre, the Elf, The Imp, and The Urchin
Violinist for the ABML out-of-practice-musicians band
Keyboard Martyr, Keeper of the ABML Cookbook
PGP Public Key available
*******************************************************
"I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a
mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from
here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be
impossible for you." - Matthew 17:20, NIV
Want to know more?
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.smallseeds.org/forums/" target="_blank">http://www.smallseeds.org/forums/</a>
*******************************************************<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: BTW, Bookwurm... 

On Tue, 07 Dec 2004 15:42:22 -0800, vj stomped through my brain
with:

 >vj found this in alt.books.m-lackey, from Tristaan
 ><tristaanus RemoveThis @yahoo.com> :
 >
 >]Yes.

 >I'M IMPRESSED!!!!!

Unfortunately, I can't take the credit for the actual work done.
I'm just a lowly QA Analyst who is reviled by the programmers
because I keep telling them their baby is ugly.

However, I _do_ make frequent suggestions to the programmers on
ways of improving the features. After all, "quality" isn't just
making sure it works according to spec but making sure the spec
itself covers all necessary areas.

Tristaan




--
Beware Spam Trap!: "us" is an "ogre"
*******************************************************
Ogre-Monk, ICQ# 14668166, AIM TristaanOgre
God of Grilled-SPAM™ and Summer, Disciple of Babble
Assistant Librarian/Orangutan, Pedant Target,
Chief Brute, Husband of Amethyst, Father of Charis and Talia
Co-Owner of The Ogre, the Elf, The Imp, and The Urchin
Violinist for the ABML out-of-practice-musicians band
Keyboard Martyr, Keeper of the ABML Cookbook
PGP Public Key available
*******************************************************
"I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a
mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from
here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be
impossible for you." - Matthew 17:20, NIV
Want to know more?
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.smallseeds.org/forums/" target="_blank">http://www.smallseeds.org/forums/</a>
*******************************************************<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: BTW, Bookwurm... 

On Tue, 07 Dec 2004 15:41:33 -0800, vj stomped through my brain
with:

 >vj found this in alt.books.m-lackey, from John Oliver
 ><aussiejohn67 DeleteThis @yahoo.com.au> :
 >
 >]Have you tried the child test?
 >]
 >]Crumple ticket in pocket with dirty handkerchief, drop in mud puddle,
 >]put in bar code reader.
 >
 >of course they haven't!
 >JOHNNY was the master of those kinds of tests.
 >
 >it wasn't one of the specifications!

Actually....


....you'd be surprised what some of our specs include. It's kinda
funny, really. A sample feature to add to our software usually
takes 20-30 man hours to program (this includes design time). On
average, it will then take 40-60 hours to QA, most of which is
attempting to find all those little gaps... After all:

Murphy's First Law of Software QA - If the software works
perfectly as long as the user doesn't do something incredibly
stupid and out of spec for the software, the user will do
something incredibly stupid and out of spec for the software.

addendum: ...within 10 minutes of receiving the software...

Tristaan

--
Beware Spam Trap!: "us" is an "ogre"
*******************************************************
Ogre-Monk, ICQ# 14668166, AIM TristaanOgre
God of Grilled-SPAM™ and Summer, Disciple of Babble
Assistant Librarian/Orangutan, Pedant Target,
Chief Brute, Husband of Amethyst, Father of Charis and Talia
Co-Owner of The Ogre, the Elf, The Imp, and The Urchin
Violinist for the ABML out-of-practice-musicians band
Keyboard Martyr, Keeper of the ABML Cookbook
PGP Public Key available
*******************************************************
"I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a
mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from
here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be
impossible for you." - Matthew 17:20, NIV
Want to know more?
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.smallseeds.org/forums/" target="_blank">http://www.smallseeds.org/forums/</a>
*******************************************************<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: BTW, Bookwurm... 

On Tue, 07 Dec 2004 17:45:19 -0800, Rhino 7 stomped through my
brain with:

  >>I'm doing the QA on that software right now...
  >>
  >>
  >>Tristaan (be afraid...)
 >
 >Does this mean you'll be attending my LotR party Dec. 18th?

<sigh> Unfortunately no... QA Analysts don't get to go on
site...

<sigh>

 ><g>
 >The Bookwurm (who doesn't ride the ferries if she can possibly help
 >it)

Guess you've worked with too many ships to be comfortable with
the concept, eh?

Tristaan

--
Beware Spam Trap!: "us" is an "ogre"
*******************************************************
Ogre-Monk, ICQ# 14668166, AIM TristaanOgre
God of Grilled-SPAM™ and Summer, Disciple of Babble
Assistant Librarian/Orangutan, Pedant Target,
Chief Brute, Husband of Amethyst, Father of Charis and Talia
Co-Owner of The Ogre, the Elf, The Imp, and The Urchin
Violinist for the ABML out-of-practice-musicians band
Keyboard Martyr, Keeper of the ABML Cookbook
PGP Public Key available
*******************************************************
"I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a
mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from
here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be
impossible for you." - Matthew 17:20, NIV
Want to know more?
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.smallseeds.org/forums/" target="_blank">http://www.smallseeds.org/forums/</a>
*******************************************************<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: BTW, Bookwurm... 

  >>The Bookwurm (who doesn't ride the ferries if she can possibly help
  >>it)
 >
 > Guess you've worked with too many ships to be comfortable with
 > the concept, eh?
 >
 > Tristaan

Or she has seen too many ferries smash into the pier,
capsize, hit by other boats...

--

I'm glad my Mom named me Aaron,
That's what everybody calls me.

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