I think I will start with the German WP articles first and read then the English ones - I guess with this I can help also WP: optimize both articles perhaps, at least get more info, …

Continue reading here !

you can find the 1st post here.

I am taking a break (again). At the moment I am fullfilling an old dream of mine: I am reading a book (see here) together with secondary literature.

And this demands a lot of time (looking up facts, making notes, thinking on what you just read,…)
and I must add: it makes very much fun to also read aloud during this.

From time to time - like today - I get an edgy feeling and visit some friends also online on their blogs. But for the moment I am addicted to another drug (if it is urgent call me and let’s talk about it while playing table tennis).

Erkan YILMAZ
You certainly have also an old dream or not ? Take the time and pursue the dream again. If not now, when ?

And thanks to Merlyn Albery-Speyer, Mark Anderson and Martin Clarke I know now more about Erlang (for German readers: it is not related to the German town Erlangen :-)), stapler testing and stolen blog posts. And I am sure Pradeep Soundararajan you know already from my other posts.

Erkan YILMAZ

Why am I doing this now (again) ?
Perhaps to get more of my senses activated ? Could also be because of the topic of the book - it is about ancient times. And as you know: stories sound better, when they are told.

I noticed that this slows me down (when comparing to “normal” silent reading). Could be because:
- now I read REALLY the complete text instead having read some parts (quickly)
- sometimes also the pronounciation/accentuation seems not correct to me and I stop and think how it would be correct
- perhaps I see more with my mind’s eye ?

The book has >500 pages - I wish all my neighbors fun listening

Erkan YILMAZ

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 be tested ?”
- “I know”, smiled Akbar. “It was the last test - so you would come out.”
- And the Emperor led everyone into the garden for the test.
- A week later in durbar, Akbar decided to test Birbal’s memory.
- “Put him to the test”, said the Begum/princess proudly.
- “You seem unconvinced”, he said to Birbal. “Very well, we shall have a test.”

Did you notice how often his majesty Akbar smiles, when he mentions test ?

book:
“A Caravan from Hindustan - the complete Birbal tales from India” by James Moseley

Erkan YILMAZ

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

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 her, until he drew his last breath, until the world stopped turning… (from IMDB)

another quote:
person 1: You could have obeyed me!
person 2: But … to obey - just like that - for obedience’s sake… without questioning… That’s something only people like you do.

Erkan YILMAZ

… 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

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

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 Catalyst Control Center (amdccle) does not want to start at all (it loads and loads and then it decides to not show). Well, I just use for the moment 1024×768 with 85 Hz

But I will definitely investigate here more. I like this distribution and… my brother has some convincing arguments for Pardus. Perhaps I switch with him the hardware

Erkan YILMAZ

edit 2007-07-11: higher resolution: I have now 75 Hz with 1152×864 and the developers have some bug reports in Bugzilla
edit 2007-07-14: unhandled exception: is fixed now in Pardus 2007.2
edit 2007-07-18: black screen: one developer told this seems to be a driver bug. Zorg had identifed the videocard
and configured xorg.conf correctly. Either the driver can not identify the output device or it does not init correctly.

Erkan YILMAZ

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

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 sweat a little.)

Erkan YILMAZ

Please mail your comments to him

Erkan YILMAZ

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

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

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 knows perhaps it is because of something weird in UAC.”
Unfortunately when I start the installer as admin, I get the same msg.

So, I assume what they really want to tell me is: that I should not use this software on Longhorn Server.

BTW:
the Freeware Real Alternative 1.52 can install on Longhorn and also plays the rm file

Unfortunately I did not find a public forum where I can look up for similar errors. Also googling did not help much.
Perhaps someone has similar experience with Vista too ? (btw: this site shows me Vista or Longhorn server is not in the supported OS list.)

Let me ask the REAL support about this. (BTW: I want to help also Real with this posting - so other users have not the same problem. Please see this all as positive feedback.)

Actually about the dialog:
1. the first sentence of the message is quite dazzling:
As user with restricted rights in the windows OS you are not allowed to use this program for installing software. (”Als Benutzer mit eingeschränkten Rechten im Windows-Betriebssystem dürfen Sie dieses Programms zur Installation von Software nicht verwenden.”)

Does it appear only for me as bad German ? I would expect such a message: As user with restricted rights in the windows OS you are not allowed to install this program. (”Als Benutzer mit eingeschränkten Rechten im Windows-Betriebssystem dürfen Sie dieses Programm nicht installieren.”)

2. there is a spelling error

My Basic System Information:
Microsoft® Windows® Server™ Code Name “Longhorn” Datacenter
6.0.6001 Service Pack 1, v.126 Build 6001
AMD Athlon Xp 1800+, 1,25 GB RAM
(more info available on request with a msinfo32 file)

Erkan YILMAZ

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

I will catch up with you !
Erkan

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.

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
- I am curious and might gain some interesting info (e.g. do some services use the same database: Beolingus and ergo4u; Google Translator and Babelfish ?)
- you never know where and when you can see a bug. E.g. is the behaviour of Google translator and Babelfish wrong ?
a. From my point of view: yes.
BUT: “A bug is anything about the product that threatens its value. And: Quality is value to some person (who matters).” (James Bach and Michael Bolton, Rapid Software Testing, slide 12, slide version 2.1.3)
And I am not sure, if I matter at Google
So far, I am not quite sure, if there exists really such an English term “spiesser”. So let me ask someone, because I do not know (also: cost value factor of asking a native English speaking person is better than me now doing a search - well: it is also a little late - I hope you excuse me for that). Let’s see what I can investigate afterwards.
b. From your point of view: ?

edit 2007 May 04:
I got a ping and “square” seems the best translation (when used to refer to a person)
and this would make LEO the winner of the day

edit 2007 August 21:
there is an updated graphic available - which includes also dict.cc and woerterbuch.info - see here

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 personalities.”
7. “Try it in a gentle way.”
8. “It was never so valuable as in these times.”
9. “If it makes you beautiful…”
10. “Well, is today already christmas ?”

DO NOT CONTINUE - STOP - THINK ABOUT THE SLOGANS !

the history to this post:
I read here some slogans from USA. From that there awoke the idea to collect some slogans from German speaking countries and present them to non-German people.

BTW:
- here you can find info that helps you (but for the sake of learning, click it later - if ever).
- since the target group is non German people, I will not translate this post yet into German

Erkan YILMAZ

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 morning probably some would need a picker-upper.

So, the winner THIS TIME is dictionary.com

BTW: let me provide some associations for “picker-upper”:
coffee; a hit into your face; red bull; a kid being tortured; a pretty woman; a joke; …

Erkan YILMAZ

(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 harden this by results from a research team).

They give a checklist for creating a successful idea - this is a
Simple Unexpected Concrete Credentialed Emotional Story

But:
of course there is a problem to this - the Curse of Knowledge (page 20: “Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has “cursed” us“).
They demonstrate this with a simple game (I will not tell you what it is - buy the book or ask me in private).

But they say there are two ways to handle this Curse of Knowledge:
- not to learn anything or
- to transform your ideas (see the checklist above)

1. SIMPLICITY:
In the first chapter they talk about Simplicity (simple = core + compact) and demonstrate this with stories/examples (buy the book and read them ).
I liked the part where they gave examples from the Army - Commander’s intent (CI), “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” (page 25). Does this awake in you old testing memories ?

For compactness they advise to pack a lot of meaning into the sentences: proverbs, schema, concepts, categories, analogies, metaphors, associations, …
this is a clever substitution and will help transmitting info faster.

As they tell the book is a complement to Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (guess which book is on my buy list now ?).
Here you can also listen to two audio files:
interview (runtime: 40:55 mins, 18.7 MB, recorded 2007-01-09),
speech (runtime: 37:07 mins, 17 MB, recorded 2006-09-09)

I really can recommend this book !
What I personally like besides the content is, that I get to know background info on urban legends, proverbs (eventually soon also wartime rumors, conspiracy theories and jokes).

Erkan YILMAZ

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 all tests from that period.
When I think back, the first thing I remember is:
I played a doctor game with a girl in kindergarten. We were in a tent in the outside. Weather was fine. And when I wanted to approach my test object (yes, I mean the girl), our governess looked into the tent. So, I can not tell you, how this test session would have evolved.
The next one I remember is: one kid and I wanted to throw stones at each other (of course I do not know the exact reason anymore for this game You know certainly how children are.) And guess what: the other kid hit me with the stone so hard at my head, that I had to get sewed in the hospital.
And the next one: it was summer and there was planned an open air bath. Well, while the other kids wore their drawers or mini bikinis, Erkan wanted to test, how this experience would be when being naked. Here again the governess interrupted me in my tests

2. What would you like to highlight as an important thing of testing - from your personal experiences ?
You could read in books what kind of goals testing has, how you perhaps could approach to testing and various things more. Of course everybody himself/herself must decide, if reading alone is really sufficient to do good testing.

I would like to point out, that for me testing means playing with things. Do not misunderstand me - this does not mean I do not take testing for sincere. On the contrary: I truly identify myself as a tester. 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.
(The text is copied form here.)

3. Why is testing not trivial ?
There could be shown examples like …

the triangle example
Check, how many tests you can design for this simple program:

…but well, my simple argument is: try testing yourself and you will see.

4. What do you do after testing at work ?
Well, for me it does not mean I test only at work and then I stop. This is nothing that you just can stop and turn on again. A friend once told: I should not test everything and I should also enjoy things for just what they are. I am working on this bug
I will keep you informed about what I do after work here on the blog.

5. How do you think testing will evolve in the next 13 years ?
It is in our own hands how it evolves.
What I really hope is, that people do respect testing as what it is - a creative, challenging, thrilling task which makes fun. It should not be seen as a stupid task.
And we should not wait 13 years to make this happen.

6. Did you hear my voice ?
Weird, there should have been only 5 questions, ain’t ? Well, as you know, during testing there are always surprises.
So, back to the question: Did you listen to my voice on this page (you can listen really to it by clicking somewhere on this page) ?
- If not, check this page more thoroughly ! If you listened then to my audio files: why didn’t you notice this earlier ? Well, bugs or features do not tell you always, that they exist, or do they ?
- If you (of course) noticed it at beginning and listened to the audio files then: congratulations
- If you noticed it at beginning, but did not investigate more: why ? Surely there is an explanation for this.

So, it is getting late now and I throw this baton first to these German speaking blogs: Frank Westphal, Christian Günzl, Christoph, Eddie, Tom, Hans Martin Kern, Der Tester and Nico Rühlemann

Erkan YILMAZ

Erkan YILMAZ

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

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 message. Or better: don’t let even such errors happen.

Erkan YILMAZ

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

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 this post)

Erkan YILMAZ

edit:
I emailed developer Chris and wanted to leave also a message on his blog. And found something else: swift does not offer to switch with the tabulator key to the second field. From usability point of view not nice.

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 situations different type of words? Do I use the word xyz while speaking more? (I just analyzed only our chats and I used the word xyz only 34 times over a long period.) Do I use it much more with a certain person ? I can tell you certainly more about that in the future.

So, if you observe that I am repeating something too often, please tell me. Make me happy ! I also will try to make you happy with diversifying my usage of words and telling you what I observe from you.

Erkan YILMAZ