Scooby Snacks Volume #5 (Wiki, Growing Pains, Tied Games, and Informationals)
“Test This” Wiki
I’ve been setting up an internal Wiki for storage of best practice community participation information and thought of an external Wiki I’d like to start. I still get asked if I’m interested in working on a testing book, but I think it would be interesting to setup a book on testing practices as a wiki. Then anyone could add to the outline and add their best testing blog entries to the appropriate chapters. I almost think it would make a cool book a collection of “short stories” on testing software where each chapter might offer the views of 5-6 different bloggers. Thoughts? If you are a tester who blogs would you contribute your best entries?
Google Growing Pains
Dare highlights some of the things he sees as obstacles to Googles long term success. I’d have to agree with his assertions. Remember when you wouldn’t use anything but AltaVista for searching the web? Can google successfully link its mail, groups, news, and blog offerings as yahoo has done recently? I was shocked when I created a personal calendar on yahoo and it automatically imported dates from the Yahoo group calendars I was a member of. That’s good stuff. Yeah, I signed up for a gmail account, but within days my hotmail account had been upgraded. That is poor timing on googles part. But hey, if they can do all these things and then tie in smart client software at the same time with their online offerings they could emerge victorious.
Baseball Challenge Ends in a Tie
I know, I know, it was for charity so everyone wins right? Usually I would have suggested “There is no crying or tying allowed in baseball”. Well, apparently tying is allowed. The 1st Microsoft Baseball Challenge ended in a tie and so have 4 games for my PSSBL team this year. I ended up raising $550 dollars, was the starting pitcher for one of the teams, and caught the final inning. It was a lot of fun and I hope to have pictures up soon. Overall the baseball challenge netted over $20k for the RMH charities. Thanks to everyone who contributed and helped make this a success.
Doing Informationals
My boss has been OOF this week so I’ve been doing the “informationals” for people interested in the open positions on my team. Before, I’ve only seen the batch of people that managed to make it past this stage into my office for an actual interview. I shouldn’t say much, except that there is a wide range of people interested in these positions. I’m surprised at the number of applicants we’ve had in just this past week I’ve had to talk to. I feel like I’m being interviewed in this situation with a lot of questions like “What is a typical day like for you?” Perhaps if I’d prepared more I could have had better conversations than this:
(Canidate) Bob Slydell : You see, what we're trying to do is get a feeling for how people spend their time at work so if you would, would you walk us through a typical day, for you?
(Me) Peter Gibbons :Yeah.
(Canidate) Bob Slydell : Great.
(Me) Peter Gibbons : Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way Lumbergh can't see me, heh - after that I sorta space out for an hour.
(Canidate) Bob Porter : Da-uh? Space out?
(Me) Peter Gibbons : Yeah, I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too, I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.
In all seriousness, it’s been a lot of fun meeting all of these people and I can’t wait to get these two positions filled on my team so we can get to all the really cool community stuff we’d like to be doing. If you are interested in working on my team feel free to submit your resume and drop me a line. (Position 1, Position 2)