Me, rebranded.
Kurt Schrader, otherwise known as “The Shrade”, “Shradester”, and my boss, recently wrote a post about how we roll at Intent Media. And by how we roll, I mean how we use Cucumber to power automated functional tests of a large scale ad platform. Oh ya, that.
When I first mentioned Cucumber to a close member of the context-driven testing community, the reaction was “Oh, so you’re just entering manual scripted tests into a computer.” She’s South African, so it was more like, “You’re ent-ring scripted tastes into the computah!” (Ya, she knows who she is.) Though I felt her pings of discontent quickly, the answer was — “Well ya, I guess…”
In the tools world, Cucumber is the blood relative of both your normal manually-scripted tests and, say, FIT or FitNesse, with a bent toward integration tests (if that’s what you use it for). It’s manual scripted testing because you type your manual scripts into the computer; it’s automated testing because you also define pieces of code that match up with each line of each test. All Cucumber does is find the right match — and then happily goes chug, chug, chug.
It’s been a fun ride so far, and I don’t have many complaints. There is a question about whether to write imperative or declarative steps throughout your tests, as well as where to put your implicit state (we leave it in the browser). But as Kurt mentioned, we’ve been highly successful so far. I’d be interested to see if we have the same troubles that plague manual scripted tests over the long term, or if automating them keeps them in the public eye (i.e., continuous integration = continuous test fixing). We shall see.
In any case, it should be noted that Cucumber isn’t our only line of defense, and part of the reason Cucumber works is because of everything else going on around it. We have PMs doing acceptance testing, devs doing TDD and unit testing, I’m leading exploratory testing (which arguably the PMs are doing as well), and Cucumber is backing us up with integration tests that both the devs and I write. And that’s only functional: We have performance testing, user testing, smoke testing, and the whole nine-yards going on elsewhere throughout the company.
So ya, I’m proud to say that’s how we roll. If you’re interested, I’d encourage you to follow Kurt’s blog for more updates about the technical aspects of Intent Media, and to see how we’re building “the next great online advertising startup” (TM).
I’ve been meaning to write this post for a month now. Or maybe two months. Well, let’s make it a month and a half. And what it centers around is a topic that most normal, average “any-collars” (i.e., blue or white, if you have a collar at all) wouldn’t care too much about. In fact, I’m finding that I don’t care too much about it either. And for those who know me… well, that’s a big deal.
The catch, the trick, the surprise — the all important lady behind the curtain and the thing behind door number three — is that recently I made a simple switch. I switched — are you ready for it? From Ubuntu to Windows 7.
Now I know there was a gasp in the back of the crowd, and a kind mother who covered the ears of her darling three-year-old. But I will say this: I’m impressed with the changes they’ve made, and I have no intention of switching back.
The main motivation for switching was simply because A) my new computer came with it, and B) Windows is simply an easier platform for consuming media. Two years ago it would have been a religious war: Freedom, hope, and such and such, and an attack against a corporate conglomerate. Now I’m simply switching to what works better for me on my home computer.
But I can’t write this post without hitting on that religiosity I once had, where, for a while… maybe a week… I was a bit torn. I mean, how do you define freedom? Freedom for the programmers, or freedom for the user? At home I want to be a user. I made that decision. So I’ll take the freedom that lets me more easily do what I want even though, theoretically, that means there’s a Schwarzschild radius. (I learned that from a YouTube video!)
So.
I didn’t want to make this long. I didn’t want to compare two different operating systems. And I didn’t want to conquer or ridicule a religion. That’s unimportant. Instead, I wanted to focus on the value, and that something I once called “bad,” (Microsoft, Windows, etc., etc.) is now the foundation of my home computing experience. Pretty cool huh? 
Alright. I’m done with this post. It’s time to get up and go do more important things, like eat cereal.
Update: As I was editing this post, my computer had a hard crash. I mean, a REALLY hard crash. Not even a blue screen. I didn’t like it at first, but then I thought for a second: maybe that proves the point. Maybe you take your good with the bad, and the freedom is just choosing which ones you want. Hmm. Good to know.
I admit to playing a video game or two when the time is right. My favorite type, for better or for worse, are those where I kill nasty goblins and amass magical items in a quest to save the world with a band of hearty adventurers. Hey — we’ve all got our vices.
I was enjoying one such game recently when I stumbled upon a bug trying to sell those magical items. I hovered over a set of lightning arrows to check their selling price (970 gold), and I noticed a little oddity: there was a small tick mark where there shouldn’t be. Hoping for a rendering error, I eagerly pressed “sell” and awaited my bounty. To my surprise, instead of money I received a message saying, “You cannot sell items worth less than one gold piece.” And when I looked closer at that tick mark, it turned out to be what I feared. A negative.
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The bug, enlarged.
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Original Screen.
My good friend Kevin Erickson sent a snapshot of his recent Google Maps session, complete with helpful highlights about where a bug lies. I hardly remember the positions of states aside from the biggies on the West coast, so I might’ve missed it. But upon further inspection it appears as if Google’s data even disagrees with itself.
Take a look.
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Kevin’s Snapshot.
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Further inspection.
But we don’t know where it is! Good thing we don’t manage your money.
This appears to be a catchall for multiple problems.
I’m sitting at the PDX airport sucking up free wifi and sucking down cheap coffee (because that’s what you do in Portland, the town of micro brewers and caffeine aficionados). And I realized I’ve just had an amazing week.
My original trek here was to support my family through a rough time. Though I didn’t come on happy news — and what happened happened, as expected — I left feeling absolutely refreshed, all due to the great people that made Portland amazing. I’d like to thank a few of them here.
- Chris Blaine, Douglas Hoffman, and all of the members at PNSQC who allowed me to participate on such short notice.
- Karen Johnson, Scott Barber, Dawn Haynes, and others who continue to give me professional advice when I have questions.
- Grandma and Grandpa, for the room and board.
- Jaqui and Charlie Graham for the good time, free food, and moral support.
- Nick McWilliams for his house, his stuff, and his food, and allowing me to use either at a moments notice.
- Jesse Espinoza, my brother, for allowing me to sing in the car without prejudice.
- Pamela Butler and Brittany Smith. For Halloween. (Brittany, it was nice to meet you.)
- And everyone else I haven’t mentioned.
Believe me, this week was just what I needed. Thank you, all.
Uncertainty: Not a pleasing feeling for those less confident crossing a New York street.
To display the ads near the 34th st. and 7th Ave. subway station:
Search for “gmail.” Overcome depression.
(Image courtesy of Megan Schroder.)
That’s right. I was rummaging through old schoolwork my grandparents sent to me last week, and I found this gem about my childhood cat Dude. Apparently this was my submission to the 1994 Oregon Statewide Assessment Program given to me when I was in the third grade. And I NAILED it! Well, I got 3′s and 4′s on a five point scale, and one reader had the gall to give me a 2… If I knew who that was!
But here it is for your enjoyment. Also attached is the cat in question. (Best cat in the world, that’s right.)
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The submission.
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The cat.
