I was testing the ‘churn’ sample from the book. The actual issue was I had one ruby file which contained the code base called ‘churn.rb’ and then there was another file to unit-test the code called ‘churn-tests.rb’. Both these files were under a custom folder under ‘D:\blah\blah\code\’

‘Churn-tests.rb’ includes ‘churn.rb’ file to be able to test it. The command used to include is: “require ‘churn’”.
Initially in previous versions, since both files were in the same folder, Ruby would simply load the code file – ‘churn’. But as of Ruby v1.9.2, as part of the default installation, the code directory: “.” has been removed from the $LOAD_PATH.

As a result my code (unit-test) just wouldn’t work. I tried various options but no luck.

Finally, I came across few ways of fixing it, and those are:

1 – Provide the relative path:

require ‘./churn’

2 – Get current file’s path and reuse it:

require File.expand_path(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), ‘filename‘))

3 – Same as above but bit more readable:

require Pathname.new(__FILE__).dirname + ‘filename’

4 – Spell out the complete path, but obviously that’s not ideal

Hope that comes handy to someone.

Happy Coding… oops… Testing!

The original list is not available any more. Dazzlepod has though made the list available without the passwords so people could check if any of their email addresses have been compromised. The list is available here: http://dazzlepod.com/lulzsec/?page=1

Requirement:
There are almost 62,000 email addresses and Dazzlepod has divided the list in to 120 pages.
I would like to go through the list and check if any of mine or my family member’s email has been compromised. Going through 120 pages and searching for almost 10 aliases on each page is a daunting task.

Solution:
So I went ahead and automated the process, that is scripted a spider (kind of). The spider goes though all 120 pages and reports if any of the aliases I know of have been compromised.

This script is created using iMacros plug-in for Firefox.

Instructions:

• Download and install Firefox (if you don’t have it already).
• Download and install iMacros for Firefox
• Click here to download my iMacros script and copy it to iMacros folder. It is mostly (C:\Users\<username>\Documents\iMacros\Macros) in Windows-7 environment.
• Open the script in editor and update the values in var mynames = new Array(“alias1“,”alias2“) with your aliases. Do not include domain name and suffix.
• Now run the script and you should get the response in 5-10 minutes. Depending on number of aliases and website speed.

If your browser blocks the download of a ‘javascript’ file then here is the script for your reference:


var i, j, retcode;
var report;
var ret;
var macro;
var jsLF = "\n";
var iPages = 120;
/*NOTE: Change the list in next line to include all the email aliases you'd like to check.
E.g.: ("alias1","alias2","alias3","alias4")
*/
var mynames = new Array("alias1","alias2")

alert ( report );


UPDATE:
1 - There is a longer list now on Dazzlepod with almost 260,000 emails: http://dazzlepod.com/lulzsec/final/
2 - They now also have a search box, so that makes this script redundant

Everything from writing a job description, to the job ad and various other interview tools are equally important in the recruitment process.

Here are some of the recruitment tools that one should try and use, like the job-application form, theory test, practical test, interview, team-fit interview, reference checks, etc.

I was reading the following white paper: Why Stupid People Get Hired and came across some interesting points.

Be Wary of the “Best Applicants”
The goal is to hire the best employees, but too often what we hire are the “best applicants.”

Some Common Myths

1. “I can tell when somebody’s lying.” The truth is, you can’t tell.
2. “You can’t get references anymore.” Well, you can get references.
3. “If you make it too hard to get the job, the good applicants will drop out.”
   The truth is, you should be making it hard to get the job.
4. “I have to see at least three to five people to make sure I’m hiring the best.”
   Those words simply mean you haven’t identified in advance what makes a job applicant a winner.
5. “I can just tell if someone is going to be good or bad.” Your gut feel is important. If it says,
   “Don’t hire them,” then don’t hire them. But at the same time, if your gut says “hire them,”
   you should doubt it.

I kind of connected with all the five points mentioned above. Quite often we make the recruitment process so easy that often not-so-good applicants make it through to the interview stage. I believe there should be enough filters before the interview stage that should allow you to get rid of such applicants. Your time is precious – why waste your time in interviewing someone not so great?

I have interviewed and hired quite a few testers by now. Many a times I have gone with my gut feel and not hired someone – and I cannot say if that was a correct decision as I didn’t work with them; but I must say at least once I went with my gut feel to hire someone and it turned out to be not a great decision.

I am sure no one has ever had a 100% success rate in recruiting people, but I believe having a good recruitment process guarantees a very low failure rate.

Happy Recruiting!!

1. Don’t Automate Your Status Updates
2. Don’t Be Afraid to Show You’re Human
3. Do Post More Photos and Videos
4. Do Put Your Fans in Charge Every Now and Then
5. Do Target Your Status Updates
6. Do Ask Questions and Involve Your Fans
7. Do Watch Your Post Frequency and Timing
8. Do Have a Unique Voice
9. Do Diversify Your Content
10. Do Track the Performance of Your Posts

Here is the link to original posts:

• 10 Tips for Posting on Your Brand’s Facebook Page
• 21 Ways to get more followers on Twitter
• Should You Outsource Your Social Media Efforts?

Earlier the website was hosted as a sub-domain on my business website – http://logicx.co.nz. Now I have moved it to an independent domain.

The theme (design) used earlier was a free theme from WordPress called NeoEase. The current theme is a paid one from http://themeforest.net/.

Blog engine is still WordPress. My hosting provider is Openhost.

I have also added some new AdSense ad units from Google. Hopefully people will click on those ads and help me recover some of my costs

Thanks…

Happy Clicking!

I first came across this term through the following video on TED by Rachel Botsman:

And since then this idea of ‘collaborative consumption’ has stuck in my head.

I’ve managed to do some research on it and it turns out that it is not much different from what some of us are already used to. I have seen people sharing or passing on university books, kids’ clothes, toys, etc. already.

The only difference is:

1. It is a much required cultural shift due to tough economic times and required more often
2. and not only limited to a small community of people but the whole wide world, due to the growth in social media and online tools

TIME magazine has marked it as one of the ‘10 ideas that will change the world‘

Here is a graphical representation of what will the ‘Sharing Economy’ look like in near future:

Collaborative Consumption Infographic By Promotional Codes

A quick link to the Collaborative Consumption blog that was just released while I was typing this blog. A great practical example already implemented in Australia about renting University books: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/insider-blog/archives/knowledge_for_hire.php

Happy Sharing!

One lesson I brought home from it was – What is *Your* Elevator Pitch?

Elevator pitch is normally used by entrepreneurs (of start-ups mostly) to present their idea to potential investors; and the pitch needs to be short enough to be completed while you’re in an ‘elevator’.

The presenter recommended that every individual should have their personal elevator pitch – as in what is their vision in life, where they see their self in next 2 years, 5 years or 10 years.

Elevator pitch is also applicable when you introduce yourself. I’ve done this in past while introducing myself - “I’m a tester < period >”. And the person at other end has to guess rest of it. Instead you can make it easier on them by describing a bit more about yourself or profession - depending on the situation. I may say “I’m a software tester… specializing in process improvements… with a keen interest in technical testing…”

So – What is *Your* Elevator Pitch?

I’m sure most of you out there have one. If not – may be it’s time to prepare one

All The Best!!

Update: A video on what is an Elevator Pitch – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq0tan49rmc

We all do ET. Sometimes the deadlines are so tight that we have to go to the extent that we do all the testing but have no documentation available to prove what or how much was tested. SBTM helps to fix that problem.

In my earlier post I mentioned that we are trying to integrate SBTM (Session Based Test Management) with our existing infrastructure.

Well finally we’ve done it and also managed to get a sign-off from our PM (project manager) and other team leads on fully implementing on a high-profile 9 month project.

To give an idea here is how we have done it:

• Tester creates his/her session reports on enterprise wiki – so that it is viewable by any and everyone.
• We have a linux web server where we ported all the SBTM scripts provided by James Bach – made some mods to it to read wiki pages
• Call the main script which creates all the reports and voila they’re ready to view and analyse further

Screenshots for the above are also viewable here.

Thanks to James Bach for SBTM scripts and Brian Osman for further instigating the thought of implementing ET and SBTM.

[Image Source]

Here is a simple example where clicking anywhere on the screen (except header and footer) takes the user to another website. http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1928558

Prevention

Currently it seems like there is only one way of protecting against such attacks and that is by using the ‘NoScript‘ add-on for Firefox.

As per the tip in my previous post: checkout the domain name.

It is actually replaced by an IP address