And this is one of the reasons why:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hisownwords

The above is a speech he gave recently addressing the racial tensions rising against his campaign, as well as addressing those same racial tensions he sees as still existent in America. I would encourage you to watch it.

I often try to keep from blogging about things that are mildly controversial, possibly offensive, or otherwise frowned upon by my view of the general population, leaving simple outbursts like these to a group of friends on Facebook who I feel more comfortable sharing with. However, being on the tail end of a demographic that doesn’t vote — being in the group of 18 to 24 year olds who don’t pay attention to our nation’s politics and don’t seem to care what happens in our government — I will say this: If Obama were to become president, and were to give state of the union addresses that even mildly resembled this speech, I would, without hesitation, make an effort to go see them. For the record, I have not seen one state of the union address made by our current president over all eight years of his presidency. And, for whatever reason — I’m not placing any blame, and I don’t intend to — I don’t find current state of the union addresses a productive use of my time.

Going meta: Maybe I’m just breaking out of the mold, ignoring my demographic, only paying attention to my party-line or simply latching on to a candidate I relate with. Whatever the reason, I’ve never felt so inclined to “go vote” as I have with this set of presidential candidates.

Nor have I felt inclined to tell others about a candidate I support.

I decided to take some vacation time next week to go home as well as visit Vegas and some of San Diego. I had originally planned to take a red-eye out Friday night and take advantage of the weekend, but — a few days after I had booked my ticket — a coworker reminded me that Friday was Good Friday. In an attempt to try to get yet another day at home — a free day, one that wasn’t my vacation time — I went to jetblue.com to see if I could bump up my flight.

To my dismay, the total cost of changing my flight would have been slightly over $150. Although that’s more than I wanted to pay for an extra day home, I was able to find a few bugs simply by being a normal user.

Info button gives me the wrong information.
After logging into JetBlue’s site and telling them you’d like to change your flight details, you are presented with this screen. This screen shows you your current flight details, and gives you the ability to specify anything you want to change:

Notice that in my departing flight, I had checked a box saying that I wanted to change my departing flight. Being the inquisitive customer that I am, I wanted to know just what it meant to change my flight — and if I could. I decided to click on the question mark icon next to the “Change” check box in order to get more information. After doing that, I was presented with this message:

There’s a few important things to note in this message. First, it tells me that I’m changing the flight going from Portland to New York. Second, it tells me that this flight is on March 30th. Neither of those are what I wanted to change, and that information doesn’t seem to match up with the information next to it. In fact, it seemed to be the information about my returning flight. After looking into it further, clicking question mark icon within the Returning Flights section — the one next to “Change” — gave me the same information that the previous message gave me. Oops.

Okay, so the first one’s a bit superficial. Yes, it may confuse users, but it’s not horrible. The next one, however, could possibly be damaging.

I can change my flight to the exact same flight I’m currently on, at the hefty cost of $150+
After clicking through the site and looking at my options, it didn’t seem cheap enough for me to change my flight one day earlier. Instead though, I thought it may be cheaper is I just change my flight to earlier in the day. (I was going to take a red-eye; an earlier flight would be a bit nicer). I decided to click through their site and search for flights available the same day I was leaving. This is what I was presented with:

If you look closely, the only option that it gives me for changing my flight is the exact same flight I’m currently on! Apparently, the only flight that’s leaving Friday, that’s also available, is my current flight. If I wanted to, I could pay Jet Blue $150+ for no increase in service. Great.

I decided not to test any further because of the effect it might have on my bank account, so this may only be in the user interface. Being optimistic, I would hope that JetBlue would prevent you from simply throwing you’re money at them (JetBlue’s a good company right?). Being a tester though, I can’t be sure until I try it.

Go Portland! Here’s a list of videos that show why Portland is “the most liveable city America.” My favorite is the first one on the list.

These videos are brought to you by StreetFilms, part of the LivableStreets Movement (coming soon) and The Open Planning Project.

A friend pointed me to a cool website that “grades” the readability of your blog. Mine was Junior High.

http://www.criticsrant.com/bb/reading_level.aspx

I think this is the perfect time to test this. From here:

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
tetramethyldiaminobenzhydrylphosphinous acid
hepaticocholangiocholecystenterostomies
formaldehydetetramethylamidofluorimum
dimethylamidophenyldimethylpyrazolone
supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane
pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism
floccinaucinihilipilification
trinitrophenylmethylnitramine
antidisestablishmentarianism
paradimethylaminobenzaldehyde
honorificabilitudinitatibus
internationalization
electroencephalographically
ethylenediaminetetraacetate
hydroxydesoxycorticosterone
octamethylpyrophosphoramide
methylchloroisothiazolinone
antitransubstantiationalist
ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid
anhydrohydroxyprogesterone
cystoureteropyelonephritis
disproportionableness
incomprehensibilities
levator labii superioris alaeque nasi

[Hmmm... Didn't bump me up to genius. Let'ts try this:]

Sometimes, when I have pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, I decide to drink some tetramethyldiaminobenzhydrylphosphinous acid mixed with hepaticocholangiocholecystenterostomies as a short term cure. Eventually, formaldehydetetramethylamidofluorimum starts forming on my dimethylamidophenyldimethylpyrazolone — which, I knew would happen — but sometimes, it’s like: SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS! And POOF! It’s gone. Some friends have told me that dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane would work as a valid substitute, but I’ve heard that pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism may result. As well, there is a slight risk of floccinaucinihilipilification on your trinitrophenylmethylnitramine; if you don’t believe in antidisestablishmentarianism, then this may be a problem. Changing gears: Is it wrong if my cereal contains paradimethylaminobenzaldehyde, and may cause honorificabilitudinitatibus? I have to give it to Cheerios though, on their internationalization: The warning message was also in Spanish! I wonder if the cereal box was electroencephalographically produced, and I wonder if they used ethylenediaminetetraacetate or hydroxydesoxycorticosterone during the process. I’ve heard that some box companies use octamethylpyrophosphoramide, which worries me especially if this is a box that food comes in. On the same token, though, my Scope mouthwash has methylchloroisothiazolinone, which may mean that my anxiety is self-induced, which, in itself, is a worry. I saw an Inside Edition episode today that talked about antitransubstantiationalists and their hatred for substance, using ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid to rid themselves of anything substantive (like this paragraph). Instead of using ethyl-whatever, though, anhydrohydroxyprogesterone can be mixed with cystoureteropyelonephritis and be used as an alternative substance-reducer. Tangentially, I think the disproportionableness and incomprehensibilities of this paragraph lead to its eventual levator labii superioris alaeque nasi, and I’ll leave it as an exercise for reader to assess its true meaning.

[Hmmm... Still didn't work. I have three hunches which, if I was going all out, would explore further:

1. Is my blog's readability cached at all on the grader's system?
2. Does the algorithm even look at the text it finds? and,
3. Are there other variables that I am not thinking about?

My guesstimate answers are Probably, Maybe Not, and Likely, and if I was really testing this, I'd try and answer these questions.]

[It may be important to note that my spellchecker only recognizes antidisestablishmentarianism, internationalization, incomprehensibilities.]

UPDATE: I decided to give the grader a link to this post only. That bumped me up to a High School reading level!!! I wonder if that’s because the dictionary it uses — if it even uses one — doesn’t recognize any of the words. [Awww, but don't I sound smart??? ]

I can’t say it’s been a horribly eventful week; that, coupled with the loss of over half of week three, I’ve lost a bit of motivation for being very detailed. Instead, I’m going to write this one a little differently.

Some highlights of last week:

• I was sick — not sure why — for the third time since I’ve been to NY. People told me this is a dirty place; I’m inclined to agree with them.
• Rebecca Sanders, a graduate assistant of Rob Sabourin, started a task analysis of how we do our testing with a series of phone interviews. It’s really exciting actually, and I can’t wait to see how we stack up to Rob’s other case studies.
• Using one of my managers terms, it seems as though I’m “divining test ideas,” rather than getting them directly from stakeholders (or, divining them more than getting them directly, as I think some divining is requisite to the position…). Although I’ve been told I’ve been doing a fairly good job at it, an increase in communication will only make things easier on everyone.
• I’ve started a formal way of reporting the most important findings of the testing group. See here.
• We’re falling into a good groove, I think. I’ve lost my second tester again due to development concerns, though I feel my other tester is doing an amazing job with there only being one of her. She’s really hit some vague charters with research and attention to detail, and she’s found out some important information about the system. I have no doubt this will continue in light of other vague charters I decide to throw at her.
• There’s been talk that a team of temps may be added onto the testing group that could multiply the size of the group by eight (that means eight people total). I haven’t had the real conversation with stakeholders yet, so my numbers may be off, but my impression is promising.
• I’ve been approved to be a TOPP ambassador to a few conferences and peer workshops, including CAST 2008. Thank you, TOPP.
• Speaking of CAST, I got an email that said papers are coming in. I’m on the paper review committee, and am excited to review my first conference paper, ever.

Even though being sick colored my feelings (and productivity) during the week, in hindsight, I think it was a great week with some great variety.

This one’s a long one folks. Click the “Read More” link below to view the full play-by-play.

Read more »