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Who’s to Blame?

A couple of people, both SDETs at Microsoft, have responded either to Joel Spolsky’s post on SDET culture at Microsoft or to my excerpt of it in a recent blog post of usefulness in software. Those people deserve a response. The first issue is that they’ve taken Joel to task for promulgating rumours. But these are rumours in the same sense that the cell theory and the theory of natural … Read more

Joel Nails It

I’ve just had to buy a new computer, and am now becoming intimate with Windows Vista. “Becoming intimate” is a euphemism that people sometimes use when they mean “being screwed”. The biggest problem I’ve encountered so far is with Vista’s User Interface Feature Concealment module, which took the few remaining things that were reasonably intuitive and accessible in Windows XP and hid them. Joel Spolsky, he of Joel on Software, … Read more

EuroSTAR: The Good Stuff

Much of what I’ve reported about EuroSTAR has been on the topic that had the most energy around it–the very gratifying response to my keynote presentation. I’d be remiss in not mentioning some other highlights. A tip of the hat to Tracy O’Connell and the friendly, helpful, and capable staff of EuroSTAR 2007. The entire conference went off splendidly. Henrik Andersson, a member of the context-driven community and a real … Read more

Certification and Its Discontents I

EuroSTAR has been a wonderful conference for me. Alas, I’ve been unable to attend many of the track presentations because I’ve been, well, conferring. I’ve had some very engaging and interesting chats, and it’s been great to connect familiar names with their faces. I look forward to many more visits to Europe. Today’s activities included a conversation, sometimes quite animated, with Stuart Reid. I’ve been surprised at the strength of … Read more

Why I Am Not Yet Certified — EuroSTAR Presentation

Today, December 4 2007, I gave a presentation at EuroSTAR on “Why I Am Not (Yet) Certified“. James Bach was originally slated to give a different presentation with the same title, but I got the nod due to the untimely illness of James’ wife Lenore, which caused him to cancel his fall schedule (she’s much better now). Stuart Reid, the chair of the conference, strongly supports the notion of certifications … Read more