Crater riding - Puncture or Massage?

(Apr 1, 2014 - Lunch time commute to home)

Decided to ride home for lunch. The typically busy Old Airport Road is quite empty.  A rider on moped zips past me making full use of the empty stretch. But this road is moon-like, filled with craters! He is about 10’ away and I see him dipping into one. Ouch. Lucky he did not fall. As I cross him, he stops to check. Tyre punctured. So much for the careless bravado. And I ride mindfully, palms light on the handlebars, the craters massage me.  Ah I love cycling!

Sketching by running

(Mar 30, 2014 - Headache recovery run  - 5.59km/33mins)

A bad headache on Sunday meant indoors most part of the day. The pain subsided when the sun set. And a good run was what I needed to clear up the head. A casual run criss-crossing the locality. Warm weather, sweaty run. Felt great. 5-Tibetians at the end. 

And don't you think that the run map picture looks like a (scary)runner in motion?

Motorcycle Suryanamaskar

(Apr 1, 2014: Morning commute to office by bicycle)

As I turned east into Old Airport Road, the sun right in the front, the ride to office slowed down considerably. Pedalled slowly, wondering as to the reason for the jam. And I could see it , a big dark wet patch possibly gooey. Hopped on to the pavement and cycled slowly. And the real reason emerged. A motorcyclist on the side with dirty wet patch on his full shirt, rubbing his hands. And a second one does a slow skid, falls and gets up. No injury. Motorcyclists are doing "Suryanamaskar". Possibly wet slippery mud mixed with oil. Glad no injuries.

Back on to the clear road and a peaceful ride to office. Everyday is interesting. Enjoy it.

“Catch me if you can”

(Mar 31, 2014 : 10.06 km run in 1:06 hrs at 06:33 pace)

Being Ugadi festival today the roads were empty. Nice cycle ride to Cubbon Park! 8AM . A big German Shepherd chasing a small dog and the little guy was fast - it was "Catch me if you can". Well, the big guy could not manage to catch him. Delight to watch.

Along the road into the trail. Sunlight filtering through the trees, golden tubes drawing circles. Quiet cool wind. Run across a small metal bridge, it shudders. Fallen dry leaves. Just you and your fluid motion. Peace.Trail ends into the road. Circle the library, suck up the sun and then back onto the trail. Broken fluorescent tubes on the side. A stray plastic bottle. Bamboo arch welcomes you to a mini bamboo grove. Two more small bridges, no shudder though. Back on the road and into the park, two circles on cemented pavement, 10km done. Time to head home. A relaxed cycle ride back.

Do you see a dog sniffing in the run map picture?  (Tilt your head anti-clockwise)

"Oh whatta ride"

(Mar 29, 2014 - A non-stop Sat morning ride 103 km in 4:15hrs at 24.2 kmph avg)

After quite a few weeks, an excellent non-stop century ride this Saturday. An early dog walk and on the saddle at 6AM. Cool weather. A big crowd at the beginning of the KR Puram bridge. Aah, they are going back home to celebrate Ugadi,a 3-day weekend.

Over the bridge, pass KR Puram signal, and as I near the lake, a beautiful sight unfolds. Mist slowly rising from the lake on left, from the green hyacinth that covers the entire lake, while the right side is clear water, shimmering golden from the early morning rising sun. The sun is hiding behind the apartments in the horizon. A murder of crows (yes that is what a group of crows are called!) glides lazily. Wish I could do that!

As I continue eastward, the giant ball rises from the apartments and engulfs me. Turn north into Siva's road, and the Sun is on my right and becomes my ride companion. As I cross a tea shop at Budigere, I lose it. Guess the Sun needs a morning cup too! After a few minutes, it is back on the right side. Enjoying the expansive road with fields on both sides, I am doing good pace. A dog comes out of nowhere, races to me with a snarl and I halt quickly. Balance lost, kiss the ground. Goal achieved, the dog walks away. He must have a bad experience with a vehicle in the past, feel sad.

40+ kms, Devanahalli bus stand. The Sun after riding with me for 23 kms is in the front. Onto Bellary road. As I descend a flyover touching 50kmph, a guy sitting at the back of a empty tempo smiles & beckons me to join him! ~50 done and U-turn. Now Sun is behind me and it is warm. A nice zippy ride on the Bellary road over multiple flyovers, and on the elevated road. Then then I feel the road. Stop and figure out that the front tyre is losing air slowly. Pump it up and continue. Repeat this once again near home. Reach home. 103 kms done in 4:15, a nice non-stop ride.
"Oh whatta ride".

Brownian motion.

(Mar 28 - Morning commute to office by bicycle)

Delayed start to office.
Car from the opposite direction takes a U-Turn. Car in front veers left. The motorcyclist wants to overtake me and rushes past me. Broken down bus on the side blocking the road. Pedestrian crosses the road, with his outstretched hand - STOP sign. I meander though.

A typical day at Bangalore. The scene at Marathahalli. Brownian motion on road. Cycling is fun. Driving a car though this - you need to be in state of Zen.

"Ma can we go to the park and play?"

(Mar 28, 2014: 10.39 km run in 56 mins at 05:21 pace)

Crescent moon today too. But the star has moved to the centre of the crescent. I am late for the dog-walk. Moon goes home. As I step out for the run, see two young teens, in conversation. The boy holding a small teddy bear with a red heart. Enjoying the togetherness after the school exams, I presume. As I jog and turn, a young frisky puppy (my friend) with his master sees me and jumps. An energetic and happy 'Good Morning'. Love that. Smile, nuzzle him, and continue to run. Boys playing cricket in the ground. As I speed up, the batsman lofts the ball, it is a SIX and the ball lands near me.

Three circles around the park and then onto a longer stretch on the main road. And then the Sun spots me. He is there in full glory. As I near the turn on the main road, he rushes in through the trees on the road-side, making a beautiful golden arch and embraces me. Energised. 3KMS done.

Criss-cross into side streets, over rough jelly stones spread on the road under work. Cross the main road and run on the pavement. 300m of dancing on the uneven granite slab pavement soothes the legs. Greet a cyclist who is racing. Into the tech park and yet another date with the Sun. 7KMS done. U-turn with Sun warming my back. Long shadow in front, really long legs. If I could stride with those long legs, I will faster that a cyclist - That would be great!

Two young girls playing badminton on the street. Five dogs sprawled on the street basking in the warm sun. Two young puppies jumping up and down to their mother's head possibly asking her "Ma can we go to the park and play?", and the mother screws her head up- Sweet. Two ducks bobbing quietly in the lake. NikePlus announces 10KMS done.

Another KM and today's run comes to an end. My fourth consecutive 10KM.
Nice. 5-Tibetians is soothing. Off to office by bicycle.

Another nice morning. Have a great day!

"Run for the joy of running"

(Auroville Marathon : Feb 8, 2014. My first trail HM)

Auroville Marathon tag line is "Run for the joy of running". And this is what I did today. And naturally achieved my new personal best today - HM in 1:51 @5:15 pace.

Wave start for HM. I started with the first wave at 6:15. The Sun was peeking lazily, countdown started and we were off at the exact time. Sea of runners on a cement path initially and I slowly and steadily moved to the front. Then the trail showed up. Weather was nice and chilly, with a mist hanging to the trees. Around the 3km mark was a beautiful sight with the mist wafting and crossing just in front of me as if lovingly saying - "Please go ahead". A wonderful feeling and it showed in my pace being 5:05 at that time.

Amazing variety - uneven trails, muddy, sandy, stony, narrow trails, sharp turns, sun in the front and sometimes in the back, cold draft wind and suddenly warm draft, running over cow-gates, jumping over little walls designed to keep animals out, running on cement slabs, sharp u-turns. Legs constantly adjusting and nimble, eyes constantly scanning the trail not out of anxiety but out of curiosity and fascination and the body agile and dancing through the bushes, a lovely feeling of aliveness. "The joy of running".

Suddenly I find a lot of runners and was wondering where they heck they came from. And it dawned that they are the 10k runners who were routed through a shorter trail that joined with the HM later.

It was nice to see a distance marker every km, it was always a mystery as to where the next one would be , how many turns later.

Went through forest, living quarters area, city centre, pony centre, gardens, so many variations. A nice game of hide and seek with the sun, it came left, right, behind and in front. The wonderful variations of trail, scenery, sun kept me alive and in the moment while the legs rhythmically danced the way through.

Fantastic volunteers, cheering, smiling at every aid station that was every 3km. Was wonderful to see waste cups only in the dustbin, and not messing up the environment.

And the sea of humanity showed up and were cheering and I sprinted into the finish line with the HM clock showing 1:51. Surge of joy. My new PB! Also my fastest 10k in 52:01 and my fastest km at 4:55 today.

Stretched well and then had a tummy breakfast of Pongal/Vada with lovely tea. Two helpings and multiple cups of tea- heavenly.

"Run for the joy of running" - Thank you Auroville.

Happy photo after the run!

Auroville Picture Moment!

Catch the shadow run - Attempt #2

(Mar 26, 2014: 10.39 km run in 56 mins at 05:21 pace)

Squiggles in the neighbourhood around the park for 3 km and then an easterly straight run towards the fresh warm sun. Eyes on the sun, arms outstretched, deep breaths, sucking up cosmic energy - Feels great. Love the Sun in front. Sweat drops sliding slowly, glistening in the warm radiance, caressing the face. Simple pleasures.

As I turn back, the shadow teases me from the front. "Catch me it says". And I continue to chase. Armin van Buuren music fills me, arms and legs in a flowing rhythm with the music and 10km happens. Time runs out, I stop in the park. Shoes off, barefoot walk, stretches and back home with shoes in hand.

A lovely morning! Have a great day, my dear friends.

Trying to catch my shadow.

(Mar 25, 2014 : 11.02km run in 59mins at 5:22 pace)

A pacy run after resting on Monday - Great way to start the week! Love the morning Sun in front, the warm sun rays give me energy and my fastest km happened then - 4:54.
"I am fast when I can catch my shadow" - My new goal!

Smiley moon & the welcoming Sun

(Mar 27, 2014 : Morning run of 12.21kms in 1:08 at 5:33 pace)

A beautiful crescent smiley moon today with a lone bright star just below said "Good morning". My dog ack'ed with a big woof and off we went on a morning walk. Walk done, stretches and then commenced the run. Do not know why, right leg was slightly wooden. Steady pace for the first 5 kms (5:22-5:26 pace) scrawling the neighbourhood and then turned east to my morning date with the Sun. And there he was, waiting for me as I crossed the road. Bright & yellow, fiery yet soft, filling me. And he hid as I turned ran along the lake. Another fleeting glimpse as I entered the tech park area and 400 metres later, right in front. Bathing me fully in a radiant glow, warming me and softening my stiff leg.

A young kid of 3 years playing ball with his mom. Another tiny fellow in school dress running fast pulling the reel tape from a broken cassette. A dog basking in the sun. Two young girls playing badminton on the road. A young couple returning back after a jog. 8 km done. U-turn and sun warms my back. Soothing. Hide and seek with the sun for another one km. And then back to the park for a walk and cool down.

12+kms done, my third 10 in a row. Consistent pace between 5:22-5:32, perhaps due to a slightly stiff leg? My first 5-Tibetians today. Felt nice after doing it. Have a great day!

Fourteen Poets 400km brevet (actually 414kms)

"What is more interesting than a brevet with a hill climb? Obviously, a brevet with two climbs." Trust IISc Randonneurs to spice up the ride!

Karthikeyan, Vijay and Sandeep at the start. And 13 cyclists. A nice clear cool FRI night. 10pm start from IISc Gymkhana. Bone rattling start. Smooth and easy ride via Sankey, Infantry,Cubbon and Brigade. Onto Hosur road, busy at 11pm!  Karnataka border arch shows up - Yey, off we go!

We all go in a big group - Parag, Sunil, Deepak, Srinivas, Vignesh, Ananth, Sohan and Abhilash. Wonderful to ride in a large group. Chatty ride with each one at different times - Nice!

Pacy ride all the way, we cut through the little hills and Shoolagiri shows up. All of us except JP veer into the McDonalds/CCD and have a quick bite.  Fifteen minutes, we are back on the highway. The moon, a little shy of being full, shines brightly. A pacy chatty ride with Major Srinivas, Deepak, Parag and the Krishnagiri turnoff comes on. ~90kms done.  
It is a chilly night with nice tail winds. We rack up a good pace and stop at a brightly lit coffee shop around 4AM. Two cups of tea and biscuits and a water refill. Aah, heavenly to sip the hot liquid on a cold early morning after an exhilarating ride.

Back to the pace, we reach the first control point (160kms) at 5:40. We need to take of picture of the hotel board. Tis funny that a bunch of lycra clad adults jostle to take pics in front a ill-lit hotel board! 

U-turn and and in few kms we see the signboard "Elagiri -22kms", at the turnoff to Yelagiri. Road is so-so, bone rattling, a physical alarm clock that wakes every part of your body, and the buses honking and threatening to come on to you. 

Around 7AM we are the base of Yelagiri. Deepak and Srinivas commence climbing while Parag,Sunil and me stop to have a quick drink. 

On to the climb now. Fantastic weather. There for 14 hairpin bends each named after a Tamil poet Pavendar, Bharathiar, Thiruvalluvar, Ilango,Avvaiyar, Kambar, Kapilar, Kari, Pari,Ori,Aaye, Aadhiyaman (oops! forgot the last one). Parag races ahead and Vignesh who is relaxing just after bend 6 joins me. Chatting about religion, philosophy we enjoy the climb and reach the second control (ATM) at the top. The time is 8:06. Hungry!

Time for well-deserved breakfast now. Close to the ATM is  Hotel Lakeview where Deepak, Srinivas and Anantha are busy hogging! Parag,Vignesh and me join and shortly Sunil joins. Idli, vada and tea - Yum! When you are real hungry food tastes wonderful. Thank you Sunil for sponsoring the wonderful breakfast! After we all finish, Sohan and Abhilash come in, delayed due to puncture.

The downhill ride is done quickly and we go into Vaniyambadi and then onto a wonderful tree-lined road towards Pernambut. Sun is up, though not very hot. Third control point at Pernambut at 11:13 and we stop for a ice-cream at Arun parlour. Two ice-creams down and we are ready for the second climb. A long climb with the afternoon sun right on top and no tree cover, it is interesting. 

Post the climb, it is a rolling terrain and we reach Venkatgiri Kota. Stomach is growling, we search for hotels and to our surprise, no hotels! See a simple eatery, Sunil, Vignesh and me have Anna/Sambhar/Majjige while Parag is on fruit diet, loading up Potassium and NaCl -  Banana dipped in Salt . A few meters ahead we stop and have a drink and we are ready for a long ride to Mulbagal. 

A ~30km ride on a testy road leads to Mulbagal the third and final control point. One more ATM slip and cold drink, and few minutes later we are back on the 6-laned Kolar highway. Aah, after a testy ride, this is fantastic and we zip… One more short tea break and we speed up. The setting sun is beautiful. The whispery cloud paints a kannada word on the Orange globe and the word moves as if in an animated presentation. We enjoy the moment and capture it in our hearts. 

The twilight ride is brilliant and it slowly turns dark. Riding on Kolar road in the dark does not excite me. We form two groups Parag/Sunil, Vignesh/me and take turns to pull each other all the way and man we are doing good! A stretch break near Hoskote and we zip through. Hanging bridge at KR Puram looms ahead and after the climb, chaotic traffic smiles and says "Welcome to Bangalore". We are in the flow, it feels great and we (Vignesh & me) zoom into IISc Gymkhana at 9:49. Deepak and Srinivas who vanished in the Pernambut climb have reached earlier at 9:06. Karthikeyan and Srinivas welcome us -Thank you! 414kms done in 23:49 @17.4kmph including breaks.

Hungry again as we are yet to have dinner! Chappati, Fried rice, Mutter and Aloo Panner and Lemon juice at the IISc canteen. Parag/Sunil steam in. They have a quick bite, leave quickly and after a few minutes we leave too. It is about 11:30pm and we see the Anantha/JP on Nandidurg road and Parag/Abhilash near the Ulsoor lake. We wave and reach home around midnight.

Am happy that I completed the ride in sub-24 hours knocking nearly 2 hours from the last year ride. Of course the road was much worser last year, but it did not have the second climb. 
Running seems to have helped me, now I want to climb faster - the next goal! In a few days the 1000km brevet to Belgaum beckons and I am hoping that this serves as a good practice workout for the 1000! And a 600 to go for SR this year.

Thank you guys. First time with a large company. Lovely!

At the finish point

At the Tea joint before the first control 4:30AM

At the Tea joint before the first control 4:30AM

At the top of Yelagiri - mid way  point

Enjoying Ice cream at Arun parlour - Pernambut

Tea break on Kolar road enroute to BLR

Testing & Doctors - An interesting story

There is an interesting similarity between Testers and Doctors.
Both focus on "defects that affect the quality of experience". Testers focus on the health of software/system, while doctors focus on the health of living beings. As testers we can a learn quite a few things from a doctor. 


Here is one illustrated as a light-hearted story of "Joe the tester" in the "The tale of two doctors". This was published in the eZine "Tea Time with Testers". 


A snippet to get you started..


In a big city lived Joe, a typical urban yuppie. He  was always focused on a great tomorrow. He worked very hard, partied furiously and lived a fast life.

Life was a blast, until his body decided to act up. On this Sunday morning, he woke up panting, unable to breathe, body drenched in sweat, with a dull pain in his chest. The previous evening was a blast, a celebration party thrown for his best buddy getting engaged. After an evening spent at bowling, they hit the pubs, closing each one, until they could not find one open.

Click here to continue the interesting story...

Would love to hear your comments - Tweet @ash_thiru
Have a great day.

Aesthetics in Software Testing

Beauty in Software Testing - Blimey! Beauty is probably the last thing we  keep in mind when it comes to testing. As we mature, we seem to want self-actualization, doing things simply for the love of doing things. As an individual, I see myself as a a craftsman, about creating works of art.

I wrote a column on "Aesthetics in Software Testing" in the  Tea Time with Testers Feb 2011 eZine.

A small excerpt from this..

Software testing is typically seen as yet another job to be done in the software development lifecycle. It is typically seen as a clichéd activity consisting of planning, design/update of test cases, scripting and execution. Is there an element of beauty in software testing? Can we see outputs of this activity as works of art?

Any activity that we do can be seen from the viewpoints of science, engineering and art. An engineering activity typically produces utilitarian artifacts, whereas an activity done with passion and creativity produces works of art, this goes beyond the utility value.  it takes a craftsman to produce objects-de-art,   while he takes a good engineer to  produce  objects with high utility value.

An object of beauty satisfies the five senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste)  and touches the heart whereas an object of utility satisfies the rational mind. So what are the elements of software testing that touch our heart? 

Click here to read the full article.

Would  love to hear your comments on this..

Fractional distillation and software testing...

Fractional distillation is a technique that separates the various constituents in a mixture utilizing the differential boiling points(BP) of the individual constituents. As the mixture is heated, low BP constituent  is removed from the top of the distillation column while the high BP constituent  is removed from the bottom. 

Very similarly, the software under development has  a “mixture of various types of defects”. Our job is remove the each specific instance of the various defect types from the software. Akin to how we see a fractional distillation column consisting of multiple filtration levels, visualize test cases as a column segregated into various quality levels, where each quality level denotes a point where certain types of defects(aka constituents) are removed. Quality levels are like milestone markers in the final destination of software-under-development to the "good-enough quality" destination.

A clear organization of test cases by specific quality level allows us be purposeful and enables us to see the quality growth of the system under test. It allows to optimize test effort by ensuring that we minimize back-tracking. 

have a great day!

Ashok

Normal and Special occasion - A matter of time.

Yesterday my younger son who is attending a summer camp had an overnight stay at the campsite. The organizers organized a pot-luck dinner and the parents too were invited for the dinner. The children were having a blast, and it was wonderful to see the energy in each child late in the evening! The children sang songs, danced and then finally sat around in a big circle to have dinner. Each child took turn to go around the circle sharing his/her food with each one seated in the great big circle -  it was indeed a beautiful sight. For the parents, it was a wonderful dinner, with a variety of dishes from all over India.

All the children were enjoying the dinner, it looked like an extended family. A friend of mine keenly observing the proceedings commented:

 "When we were young, we  went back to our hometown for holidays and occasions like these were a pretty normal affair as all relatives landed up at the hometown too. In the urban setting, eating with a large group of friends is a special occasion. On the contrary, what is normal for the today's child was indeed special for us! Buying new clothes, going to a movie, getting new toys,  were tied to special occasions in the past."

An interesting observation! As we urbanize/modernize, simple things that we used to take for granted in the earlier days are becoming special, and what was special then is becoming normal. As we complicate things now (though we like to believe that we are making things better with new technology!), the most simple things fade way and become memories to cherish. Alas, the newer generation never encounters some of the simple pleasures!

In a conference in US that I attended last year, the conference person after outlining the agenda for the day, said they have designed special breakout sessions to enable the participants to network. He said "Do not use SMS, Email, Facebook, Twitter...", the audience had a perplexed look on their faces. He sensed that,  and keeping a straight-face, said slowly & loudly "Walk up to a person and say H-E-L-L-O. It is called talking".  Everybody had a hearty laugh!

Enjoy the simple things of life.
Have a great day.
Ashok

New technology, open platforms and mediocrity.

I had an interesting discussion with a good friend of mine on the state of programming and programmers yesterday. The discussion started with him showing me his new Android phone, and then the applications on Android. This friend of mine is a seasoned software engineer, he develops code for communication systems (stuff that is expected to run correctly always), he believes in thinking deeply first and then coding. He started by lamenting on the code quality being churned out now, by stating that quite a few applications on his Android phone shutdown midway. He was critical, that now anyone is able to write applications and able to deploy this on open platforms like Android, fostering mediocrity. 

The last decade has seen a sea change in technology, languages and application development platforms. The languages and technology allows us to do more and powerful things now, and the development platforms seems to make this easier. This is allowing more people to develop applications individually. The flip side is that the rigor of good code is being lost, as we have anybody with a smattering knowledge of programming, churning out an application. My friend was wondering what would happen if these kind of people get to program large scale non-stop programs like telecom switches. My comment was "Intent of good technology is to make stuff simple i.e. allow ordinary people to do more". This is happening. Now the question is "Where is the boundary - How far can this 'ordinary' person be allowed to go?' . My take is that we need to careful here.

Think about this: Long ago, long distance transportation was by ships and required skilled sea-farers to steer the ship. Then came the personal transportation - automobiles. This allowed anybody to go anywhere (on land!). Also, air planes allowed us to get a distant place quickly, but this requires skillful pilots. What am I hinting? As transportation technology evolved, it allowed ordinary people to drive and transport themselves, but they cannot "drive" the airplanes or ships.

We understand philosophically that scale and quality are more often inversely related i.e with scale, quality degrades. Of course, one can argue otherwise. What is important to note is that our expectations on quality of a product has changed over the years. If a product is cheap, we do not expect much them and therefore are tolerant to crap. In the past however, quality was a "intrinsic" notion and not necessarily linked to the price of the product. Guess the producers had pride in producing the product, which I believe now is not very common. 

"Pride of work", "Passion for excellence" are key ingredients for producing good stuff. No technology can compensate for this. We live interesting times, new stuff happens everyday. Our expectations are shifting  from  "intrinsic goodness" to "economically acceptable good-enough" . This scares me, will we accept mediocrity as a way of life? - More features and stuff, it is OK if some do not work!

Have a great day.

Ashok

Seven consecutive errors = A Catastrophe.. (Improving testing)

"A typical accident takes seven consecutive errors" quoted Malcolm Gladwell in his book "The Outliers". As always Malcolm's books are a fascinating read. In the chapter on "The theory of plane crashes" , he analyses the airplane disasters and states that it is a series of small errors that results in a catastrophe. " Plane crashes are much more likely to be a result of an accumulation of minor difficulties and seemingly trivial malfunctions" says Gladwell. The other example he quotes is the famous accident - "Three Mile Island" (nuclear station disaster in 1979).  It came near meltdown, the result of seven consecutive errors - (1) blockage in a giant water filter causes (2)moisture to leak into plant's air system (3) inadvertently trips two valves (4) shuts down flow of cold water into generator (5) backup system's cooling valves are closed - a human mistake (6) indicator in the control room showing that they are closed is blocked by a repair tag (7) another backup system, a relief valve was not working.

This notion is reflected in the book "Ubiquity" by Mark Buchanan too. He states that systems have a natural tendency to organize themselves into what is called the "critical state" in what Buchanan states as the "knife-edge of stability". When the system reaches the "critical state", all it takes is a small nudge to create a catastrophe.

Now as a person interested in breaking software and uncovering defects, I am curious to understand how I can test better. When we test a software/system, we look forward to uncovering "critical" defects. When an error is injected to system and it propagates all the way, it results in a failure. All failures are not critical, some are irritating deviations, while some can be catastrophic. If a  simple error injected results in a critical failure, we are lucky! How the heck do we know that similar catastrophes will not surface over time. Should we not think using the above reasoning? i.e. occurrence of consecutive errors each resulting in a minor failure, ultimately culminating in a critical failure. Should we not have a variant strategy for uncovering such "potential catastrophes" ? Do we outline the strategy that is indeed different for simple failures versus potential critical failures? When can we apply it? Not necessarily only when testing... This thought process can be applied in the earlier stage of design/code... Using the notion of sequence of errors and understanding what can happen.. 

If your drive in India you know what I mean ... the potential accident due to a dog chasing a cow, which is charging into the guy driving the motorbike, who is talking on the cell phone, driving on the wrong side of road, encounters a "speed bump" , and screech *@^%... You avoid him if you are a defensive driver. Alas we do not always apply the same defensive logic to other disciplines like software engineering commonly enough...

Happy weekend. Be safe.

Ashok

Structure, order, discipline - How it aids to creativity

Structure, order, discipline -- Grr... People hate it.. Claims it restricts them.  

General belief  - Freedom encourages creativity, discipline restricts it.

My view - order allows us to see the non-order better!

When information is presented in a neat/disciplined way, it allows the receiver to assimilate the information quickly, aid better analysis and see the gaps i.e the "non-order" i.e rough edges.

I get upset when information is presented in a unstructured way, as I need more energy to sift them and assimilate leaving me with less energy to see the gaps. It is easier to see the "jumble" when anything is presented in "orderly" fashion. "Jumble" is the creative part!

Enjoy

Ashok 

Common sense – Is it really common?

A few years ago I met a CIO of a large manufacturing company in US who had outsourced work of application development to a company in India. When releases were made, he would discover that there were errors in “apparently simple things”. In the course of conversation he said “these errors should not be there, all this required was application of common sense and not great software knowledge – wonder why people don’t have them?”- I am sure that you must encountered many situations like these too.

Let us think now… what is common sense? We say it is “common sense” when we feel that that knowledge is supposedly self-evident; knowledge that does seem to require special training/coaching, knowledge that is expected to be known by all.

When does anything become self-evident? When does it become common knowledge? Only when it is applied many times, mistakes made, reasons understood, solutions implemented and learning gained. When it happens multiple times, we become very aware of the problem, have done deep analysis, and applied the solution so many times that we know it “by heart”. That is when it becomes common sense!

So common sense is not something superficial, but really deep knowledge. So only when the knowledge gained is deep enough, does it become “common sense”. When knowledge is imbibed well that it seems to present in the whole body that it radiates from the fingers, it is called common sense. Understand that common sense cannot be common, in the sense that we understand it. That everybody should know it. It is really deep knowledge and reflects the highest maturity.

So the next time you say “this requires common sense” – think!

Have a good day!
T Ashok