Counter Measure

The last few days were about putting some pressure to finish the effort of testing the new software release by my colleagues and me on the project. This hectic situation made me think over some of the theory I studied just a few weeks ago at university, on the course called “Software Quality Engineering”. The course offered several methods and approaches to the matter of making sure the produced software is as good the quality as it can/ should be.
I know the theory behind this, but having to meet daily targets such as a daily amount of test cases executed (e.g. the amount of actions done by me using the application) felt like a wrong way to set the goal. Same goes for finding flaws in the software- the team leaders have some kind of a competition going on, trying to keep track of reported errors in the product per worker. The more errors you detect, the higher your chances are to win an iPod or some other prize. I am quite sure I am not anyway close to winning my self the desired gadget. My focus at work is totally different. I try to see the product, understand the functionality tested, and then test it and see if it makes sense. Sometimes this takes a long time, sometimes it doesn’t. Same thing with the errors- some cases will raise the error, some pass by them.

I am not sure I have a better idea for measuring the work of system testers, but I feel the current way encourages superficial work. If I try to do more in amount terms, I am likely to get results lower in quality. I usually work fast on my tasks, but being fast here means missing out the details, or just checking tasks as done to make the sheet look better by the end of the day. I would like my supervisors to measure the quality of my work, not the quantity. Again, I am not sure how this can be done in a company dealing with software products. I do know a thing or two about organizational culture, and I think quality is achieved by setting a personal example- be excellent as an organization, and all will follow. Being sloppy and lazy is usually done by an employee interpreting the unspoken messages from the firm.

So, all these targets make me feel I am the one measuring the company, oddly enough, and not the other way around.

Come-On knowledge

“Oh, this is so embarrassing. I am the Techno-Geek, how did I not know this?”. If these words come out of your mouth more often than you would like them to, you are probably suffering from over self esteem when it comes to computing, but I know you- you don’t know all the tricks. not even close.

This is the ultimate “I should have known that by now” list. feel free to add some more of these come-on knowledge items.

1. ctrl+shift : I knew that this switches the language typed, but I didn’t know that the two sets of keys on two sides of the keyboard do different stuff! logically, the left set will set your default language to English, and the right one, well, to Hebrew. This was the one discovery that made me write this down, especially after my previous post, where I stated out mistakenly that language settings cannot be set by the user…(-embarrassed-).
2. Power Point keys: b- makes the screen black, w- makes the screen white. this is so cool, I got to the habit to state this during presentations (other people’s, that is). I just can’t resist the joy of seeing someone using the same product for years, discovering a whole new feature.
3. Speaking of amazement, this is not a technological feature in the modern sense, but this is definitely the greatest “this cannot be true” of them all. I did not know this piece of information up to a few of years ago, and it took me months to get over the resentment to all those people knowing and not telling me about it, the lost years of unknowing…
   The double teabag! that everyday simple item, one teabag, is actually TWO teabags! I cannot say more, you must see for yourself.
   

   how to split a teabag- a do it your self manual

I think I made my point here- about how those everyday life things*, the ones we are sure to master and control, reveal a new hidden side, that make us go “wow”. not because of the new ability we find in them, but more for the surprise, for being wrong about them for so long. so wrong, it makes me say “come on”…

Late edit- More of these-

• My car has a couple of neat features I wasn’t aware of: the trunk locks when driving over a certain speed and can be released by opening the driver’s door, and the gas tank’s lid has the coolest place to hang it on the tank’s door while refueling.
• Microsoft Excel allows you to add text in the same cell but in different lines, using alt+enter. most of my teammates at work where astonished as I was to discover this, and we are all over the average users.

* Obviously, mentioning everyday things cannot go by without mentioning Don Norman, who made me feel sane for even having these thoughts.

Bilateral

My Hebrew blog is my native platform for expressing my non-academic ideas and thoughts. However, I cannot avoid the need to address English readers too. Although speaking English at home when growing up, writing and demonstrating abstract ideas in English is a whole new ball game for me. Just to emphasize this difficulty, my latest post in my Hebrew blog published earlier today tries to give a sarcastic road map for the latest events in Israel, relating political issues over the Goldston Report and the turmoil over Israeli Organizations involved in it. I cannot imagine being able to put in English these ideas, though I would like to be fluent enough to do so in the future. If you do read Hebrew, feel free to comment there.

Another aspect of my improving language skills is the challenging global environment of the company I work for (see more on that in the Work page). All publications and communications there are done in English, making it somehow intimidating in the first few days, but not as hard as expected later on. Something small but important on that- the default setting on the corporate Instant Messaging application is English, what makes it much faster to IM in English rather than switching to Hebrew every time over again (press alt+shift after each message!), so I end up chatting with Israeli colleagues in English.
So if this post sounds, well, not quite right, being bilingual gives me the right to argue it sounds better in Hebrew.

Are Shahids Rational?

I found a few hours earlier today between exams to attend the lecture of the Nobel prize winner Prof. Robert John (Israel) Aumann on campus, as part of the Dean of Engineering’s open stage events. The theme of the lecture was “War and Peace in the Middle East”, and was based on his Nobel lecture. I am a big fan of game theory, and prior to my decision to study engineering, I had considered studying economics. I was pleased to find this theory present in my current route of studies, and was exited from the opportunity to attend such a lecture on campus. Sadly, the lecture didn’t live up to my expectations. it had a strong political scent, and I did not found that academic at all. Prof. Aumann demonstrated his objection to Israeli decisions such as the 2005 disengagement of the Gazza strip while referring to it with the controversial term that could be translated as “deportation” rather than “evacuation”. By using that terminology, the Professor stated his political views, and made the rest of the lecture sound more like a campaign than an academic lecture. That’s a shame, because I did expect for more. The Dean had a hard time making people stop asking questions regarding those issues, but that wasn’t them to blame.
However, Prof. Aumann did raise some interesting questions, such as the one I cited in the header: just because we don’t agree with an other person’s action, does not make it irrational. Furthermore- rationality isn’t morality. My conclusion is that the respected Prof. Aumann gave the lecture he rationally thought he should give…
I do hope to get a chance in the future to hear other Nobel prize winners speak in person, that was defenetly something out of the ordinary.

Tough-L

My TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language) was scheduled to last week. Ironically, when trying to apply to one of the most technologically leading institutes in the world, I experienced awful technical problems.
It started with the amazingly un-usable online registration process, leading me to call Nederland to ask for the Israeli test center address. That was the minor bump on the road to the exam- me and four more candidates wasted the whole day at the test center, unable to log on to the system, or some other odd problem. Rescheduling it was another painful issue, driving me again to call overseas and practice my English speaking skills. At some point, I really got the impression this is all part of a test, and I will be scored highly just for the effort I was making to get to it.
Finally, I took the test yesterday. Let’s hope me and the TOEFL aren’t going to meet again, but that depends on my score. Fingers Crossed!

Welcome to my personal home page.

On the About page you can find some more about me and my interests.
The Media Page has links to articles in which I am mentionned. At this time the information is mainly in Hebrew.
The Work Page contains information about work and projects in which I took part.

I hope you find this site informative and interesting, enjoy.