Things have been a bit quite here at QAInsight for the last few months wouldn't you agree? As always the days and nights are never quite long enough to get all those things I want done.

I have one excuse though.

Actually I have more than one but I'm only going to share one with you:

I've been working undercover with the FBI and Viacom to help parse Google/YouTube logs to obtain logons which relate to IPs, which point to people who are uploading copyrighted content. A mass effort to prepare for the largest bust in digital history.

No... Just kidding.

Really, I'm kidding don't start with that death threat stuff. I've already had three this week.

Apparently the insightful QA advice found on said Software QA blog has increased defect finding and input by QA Engineers across the globe  and developers are angry. Go figure, they want to eliminate me because apparently I'm the ring-leader that has slowed down their development process and release to production.

It's just a blog. I set forth ideas, I didn't do the defect finding. Please spare my life. Please? I have kids.

In fear of my life I'm going to lie low a while.

In the meantime, take some more QA advice from me and go check out Go Daddy's new QA blog BugCrushers.com. They have a QA army of 50 talented individuals. I expect to see some good stuff come from these peeps.

Oh... By the way, if you're a developer and you see posts on BugCrushers.com where the author is "Brent Strange"...

IT'S NOT ME. It's another Brent Strange. Ironically this one does QA too. Go figure.

Another year has come and gone for QAInsight.net. To highlight the year, here are 15 popular posts you may have missed in 2007:

Testing Thoughts
Selling quality to the project team
Agile for 30 minutes: Agile defect reporting
Is QA Better at Writing Product Specifications?
Emotional Attachment to Robots, Focus on the Tests Not the Robot
Death By 1000 Cuts, Bad Software Due to Many Low Severity Defects
Keep it Small With a software testing club
Proper use of the sleep method in automation

Testing How To
How to test for database schema differences
How to detect Web service changes between builds
Find installer defects quickly by reviewing key MSI database tables

Testing Tools
Report on dirs, files, and file properties with File Property Reporter
MSI installer testing tool: MSI Database Reader & Reporter
Brent's Web testing toolbox

Fun
How much is an ass-load?
The wonders of caffeinated soap

Comments are working again. I narrowed it down to the search form I had on this page. For some reason the plain and simple <form></form> tag, using Internet Explorer, and .NET 2.0 causes the following error:

System.ArgumentException: Invalid postback or callback argument. Event validation is enabled using in configuration or <%@ Page EnableEventValidation="true" %> in a page. For security purposes, this feature verifies that arguments to postback or callback events originate from the server control that originally rendered them. If the data is valid and expected, use the ClientScriptManager.RegisterForEventValidation method in order to register the postback or callback data for validation.
at System.Web.UI.ClientScriptManager.ValidateEvent (String uniqueId, String argument)
at System.Web.UI.Control.ValidateEvent (String uniqueID, String eventArgument)
at System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox.LoadPostData (String postDataKey, NameValueCollection postCollection)
at System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox.System. Web.UI.IPostBackDataHandler.LoadPostData(String postDataKey, NameValueCollection postCollection)
at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessPostData(NameValueCollection postData, Boolean fBeforeLoad)
at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)
while processing http://www1.qainsight.net:8080/login.aspx.

So, for now, no searching from the site. But at least you can comment! You can always search the site using Google though: http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aqainsight.net+

I've been avoiding blogging for a while now due to being so frustrated with the comment issue (I probably spent 4 hours, here and there, debugging this thing).  I have a few posts in the queue that will be coming your way soon.

Comments are broken on QAInsight.net when using Internet Explorer, so technically it's not a BLOG anymore (according to the blogging "experts"). As I work to make comments work, use FireFox to leave comments or as always, feel free to email me. Email information is on the right.

For about 2 1/2 years now my wife and I have been keeping a blog for our son Jace. Over at JaceDaniel.com  (notice how all the post images are broken when you go there)  we document the life of Jace and post pictures for 2 reasons:

1. So we can easily share with family
2. Now, 20 years from now, and hopefully forever Jace will have an online "baby book"

In my mind, number 2 being the most important. Why number 2 is such a big deal to me is because my Mom put together and kept 5 baby books for me, from birth to about 13 years old, and those baby books mean a lot when you get older and want to reflect on your past. I want to do the same for my son.

In pursuit of the same but a little more cutting edge than the modern day scrap-booking, I figured the online blog format was the best way to go but needed an image sharing solution. I chose DasBlog for the blog and nGallery for the image sharing solution. Both open source.

DasBlog rocks, it's a great piece of software with truly dedicated and talented people. nGallery on the other hand... Well it was a great piece of software, it did exactly what I needed but then it was taken over by Community Server and now it is NOT part of the open source/free world.

So here is my issue. This last week I upgraded JaceDaniel.com to DasBlog 2.0  which uses .Net 2.0 but my open source nGallery uses .Net 1.1. I am unable to get both the .Net 2.0 and .Net 1.1 applications  to play nicely in the same sandbox. Even with their own vdirs and application pools. So, now I have a blog/baby book with broken references to a .Net 1.1 nGallery picture gallery. Trying to keep up with the latest in technology hosed me. Suck. So much for a baby book to last decades.

The reality of it is that when I started the blog I didn't put much thought into how to make an online application/baby book last forever. I am now...I need a solution. Something that will be there when my son is old enough to care. Even if I found a way to fix the problem at hand I am still worried about the future.  What if DasBlog sells out and 10 years from now I'm forced into .Net 8.0 with no backwards compatibility? Screwed again.

What do I do?

Pay for a service? How do I know if they'll be there in 20 years?

Build and manage my own applications? I don't have the time.

Am I stupid to put our precious memories on the Internet?

Amit Agarwal, analyst, geek and professional blogger has created for us an Adsense Sandbox. This Google Adsense Preview Tool allows you to type in keywords and see 25 contextual and geo-targeted Google Adsense ads.

I can see this to be helpful if you're trying to target a specific ad, or trying to get a specific ad off your page. I'm not too Adsense savvy, so I suppose there are other good uses too.

I've always admired fellow coworker and QA engineer Phillip Forteza for his enthusiastic and positive attitude. Sitting in my cube 10 feet away, I could hear Phillip interact with coworkers and customers; his interaction always upbeat, caring, and real. I really admire that. I wish we could always ooze positive emotion like Phillip, especially myself.

Perusing my blog logs I encountered that Phillip had started a blog. Excited to see another fellow coworker's musings, I found my way to his site and read all of his posts. I LOVE IT. It's Phillip to the T (Phillip to the P?). So far Phillip's musings are life lessons and each post a positive, uplifting addition to your day. Go check him out at A Day in the Life of PF3.

Today the Portland area was blessed with a fairly decent coating of snow and under that a thin base of ice. With all things coated in white, clean and pretty looking, a defect loomed...

This morning I braved the weather and set out to the streets armed with a 2007 Ford Fusion (front wheel drive with traction control), ice and snow driving skills (which a large amount of Portland motorists don't have), and defensive driving skills taken to the next level (from riding a street motorcycle).

Danger after danger I went around, turned around from & back-tracked, and chuckled at due to the foolishness. My snow-driven cheery mood could not be swayed by danger and foolishness! Two blocks from work I pulled up to the last light that I would encounter on my harrowing journey. With the destination in sight, my mind was at ease and I patiently waited for that green go light. and waited. and waited. AND WAITED.

About 2 minutes into it the lady in the turn lane next to me had enough and started to renegotiate her car's position trying to trip the traffic light's magnetic induction loop inside the road. Watching her, I started to second guess my position since everything was buried in snow. Looked good to me, it all lined up in my mind. Even if we didn't trip the magnetic induction loop, the signal would default to a standard set amount of time per light/direction right? Right!? Wrong. We were screwed. No green for us. Denied by ODOT. Denied by a defect. I can't believe this is the case everywhere, but it sure was at this stoplight.

Three minutes later I looked both ways and went for it. Unscathed I am. Don't try this at home.

I've been tagged by Greg and now I've been held accountable to post Five things you (seriously) didn't know about me. I usually ignore this stuff when it comes around in email, but I think my readers deserve to know a little more about me. I suppose it could make me more personable? I'll put a little twist on it by giving you 5 astonishing deep, dark, juicy, closet like facts and 5 light, ho-hum, boring facts about me (minus the gory details). Ten little snippets in all. If you want details, then let's talk!

Dark and Juicy 5

1. I search for and watch youTube videos with keywords "fist fighting". Some caveman-like part of me finds guys beating each other up intriguing.
2. I like danger. I own a Yamaha YZF R1 Sport Bike and it currently fulfills my danger desire (when it accidentally goes over 110 MPH in few seconds).
3. I had a son that was born at 26 weeks and lived for 2 days. It changed my life in so many ways, and lessons were learned by OHSU that helped to improve neo-natal care.
4. I live in and hate the city. However, I have a hard time swallowing change when it impacts my family; so I can't get out.
5. I'd rather manage cattle, mend fences, and ride a horse all day than be in high-tech.
    

Ho-Hum 5

1. I was construction worker and construction business owner for 6 years. Trades of tile, painting, and finish carpentry.
2. I owned my own small, mall bizness named "Twisted Pretzel". It failed because the location was crappy. The product was like a bagel in pretzel form. Tasty...
3. I have 4 kids. I love 'em like crazy, even though they drive me crazy!
4. In high school I graduated in the top 10. There were only 26 in my class... Shut up! Top 10 is the important thing.
5. I drive an oxidized 1993 Isuzu Rodeo with 160k miles and balding tires because I want to. I wash it only once a year because its so ugly you can't really tell when it's clean.

Part of the tagging game is that I need to tag 5 others. I choose Dror, Rosie, John, Antony, and Brian. Tag, you're it; please give us "Five things you (seriously) didn't know about me"
 

Its been a little over a year since I rolled out QAInsight.net with my just starting, blogging beginner, writer wanna-be Hello world post. If you're a recent subscriber or just happened to stumble upon the site you most likely missed my top 18 Quality Assurance & Testing related posts in 2006. Why 18? Why not? Why do you find defects when a developer says "only a tiny change was made, you don't need to test it"? Because that's just the way it is. None the less, here's the 18:

A wonderful year it has been, I've learned a ton about blogs, blogging, testing, QA and QAInsight visitors.

How do I feel about blogging after 1 year of doing so?

First off, I haven't lost that initial thought the day I started dreaming about blogging: I really don't care to write about "Quality Assurance" process or methodology, I prefer to talk about "Testing". I feel "Quality Assurance" has been driven into the ground and I'm just plain tired of hearing about it. Don't get me wrong, process and methodology is important but it just gets old when you hear the same thing over and over, each with a little, unique twist to it. I'll leave that to the other guys, testing is my love.

Second, writing about testing doesn't drive hoards of people to your site. Duh... it's boring unless you are in QA and are sincerely interested in improving your testing.

Third, when writing about testing it often requires technical details with detailed steps. It is REALLY REALLY hard to show personality and humor when doing this (at least for me).

Fourth, I enjoy creative writing far more than writing technical posts. Writing a testing post requires note taking, procedural step documentation, and just plain TIME. Creative writing I can spit out in 20 minutes with little thought or fret. For example, my post Death toll rises due to FireFox got a TON of hits and I wrote it on the fly without having to think like a robot. People gobble this stuff up! I love writing like this, and will be doing more of it in the years to come.

Fifth, leaving comments on other blogs or sites and those comments just happen to point to your site will help drive traffic. For example: Six reasons why Robert Scoble is Mini-Microsoft. Granted, calling somebody out on something helps too.

Sixth, Google Adsense drives traffic. When you write a post, Google notices, your content is indexed quickly, and can be found through Google search.

And last but not least, the blog software Dasblog is the way to go. It works and it works well. If you're thinking about about starting a blog, do yourself a favor and set yourself up with Dasblog.

I got my first check from Google Adsense today. After nearly one year of blogging, I am $118.08 richer! Thanks for helping pay the bills my loyal and unloyal readers.

I know this is old but I like to run it against my sites every once in a while to have myself a little chuckle. View QAInsight in Jive here. Translate your site into Jive here.

About a month ago I posted about how NUnit fails with SystemIOFileNotFoundException. This month Noah left a comment stating "A malformed xml file screwed me up too. You saved me hours of my life."

Hell yeah! My blogging did somebody some good! I love it! This is what I want to see... This is what I want to hear.

As far as I figure you peeps think I'm in it for the Google Adsense revenue but... REALLY I'm not. Yes, the revenue is nice and has paid for my car, bike, house, dog, and the wife's boob job (super-duper thanks for that by the way), but I'm not materialistic like that. I'm doing this for you peeps...

Google Adsens Revenue for 10 months of blogging: $108.71 (Have you seen my car? Not gonna touch the boob thing). 

Helping somebody via a blog post: priceless 

Thanks for the comment Noah.

SQG (Solo QA Guy) seeking readers. QAInsight.net is so lonely...

I guess it would help if I blogged about QA a bit more...

I pay a lot of attention to what brings people into QAInsight.net and I have to say I'm surprised, disappointed, and flabbergasted by what people are interested in...

I want people to be interested in QAInsight.net due to it's Quality Assurance and testing tool posts, and I've done my best to market it that way by doing things such as allowing my content to be blog farmed at TestingReflections.com so that the posts sit next to other popular QA peoples in the industry (Bret Pettichord, James Bach, etc). Doing this has helped bring in readers and traffic (which is great)! But what bugs me is that my shocklog entries are the traffic drivers for QAInsight.net!?

Check out how my post Six reasons why Robert Scoble is Mini-Microsoft caused a surge:

And how Death toll rises due to FireFox made a mountain out of a mole hill.

I don't get it... People would rather read my gossip and fiction over a QA related post? Hey now, I know, I know. Yes, QA can be boring. Yes, QA doesn't apply to everybody but gossip and fiction sure does.

I like to write both (fact and fiction) but the fiction is hard to swallow because I didn't create the site for that. What are your thoughts? Do you want more "Enquirer" type posts? Should I move those type of entries to a separate category? Should I not change a thing?