Testing
A bad beginning... A testing bedtime story that even Crackanory would reject for transmission on the basis it was too crackpot and twisted to be credible. Gather closer my precious readers, sitting comfortably? Good, then I can begin. Abide me carefully because I am going to tell you the secrets of how to have a magic unicorn, hen’s teeth, Harry Potter, automate-the-lot, works every time, end-to-end automated checking solution..... Alas, no chickens, I am not, because there is no such thing. The End. Sleep well all.
Testing
This is the second post in the series on adding security testing into your workflow - how to actively scan a website for security vulnerabilities using OWASP ZAP
Tech
It seems that everyone is trying to build a microservices based system these days. Some of those attempts succeed when others fail miserably. In this article, I will look at one thing that often connects the winners- the use of DevOps practices and culture.
Tech
WebAssembly is a new language for the web, although unlike JavaScript it's not a language you are expected to use directly. However, it is actually possible to write WebAssembly directly by hand and it turns out this is an educational and enjoyable process, which I will explore in this blog post.
Resources
WebAssembly is a new runtime for the web; a fast and efficient compilation target for a wide range of languages that could have a far-reaching impact on the web as we know it. This paper looks at at the performance limits of JavaScript and how WebAssembly was designed to tackle them.
Testing
"Testing is dead". I hear this particular chestnut a lot. From those who earnestly believe it, from those who don't understand the role, from content writers generating clickbait. Are testers really all etemmu now?
People
I will consider behaviours and characteristics that are sometimes under appreciated when defining what a good, or even great tester looks like.
Delivery
It negatively affects all of us mentally and physiologically, yet we seem unable to stop. But are we really doomed to increasingly crumble under the weight of our workload, or can we change our ways to fit the agile world?
Data Engineering
Distributed log technologies have matured in the last few years. In this article, I review the attributes of distributed log technologies, compare four of the most popular and suggest how to choose the one that's right for you.
People
The BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium is an annual one day event for students of Computing and related subjects, students have the chance to talk to companies offering career opportunities.
Testing
Thinking of applying to work with us as a tester? This is a post to help you work out if we are a good fit for you. We'll do this by telling you how we work out if you are a good fit for us. Hopefully this will be of interest to anyone trying to evaluate if the benefits we offer are in line with the environment they want.
Testing
"Lets hand it over to QA”. This phrase is seen and heard a lot, more so when chucking stuff over the development waterfall edge but even now, this is an oft used term as a synonym for testing.
Terminology, naming, what we call something or someone can have a powerful impact on how something is viewed.
Even worse when terminology becomes interchangeable, even though what each represents is actually something very different.
Tech
What is npx? How is it useful and why should you care? Find out how you can use npx to run global npm packages without having them installed.
Tech
Key lessons I took from Eric Evans' book "Domain Driven Design". A brief summary of the book's concepts and why you should read it.
Testing
Test Bash Brighton is one of the biggest testing conferences in the UK. I was given the privilege of attending and was so taken in by it all I felt compelled to write up my thoughts, feelings and experiences in detail!
Tech
A short tour of different museums and exhibitions that have used technology to support their displays.
Data Engineering
Apache Spark is the major talking point in Big Data pipelines, boasting performance 10-100x faster than comparable tools. But how achievable are these speeds and what can you do to avoid memory errors?
In this blog I will use a real example to introduce two mechanisms of data movement within Spark and demonstrate how they form the cornerstone of performance.
Tech
Mock the back-end of your web application, using Node.js, to make developing and testing the front-end easier.
Delivery
This Halloween, coming to a project near you... What horrors lurk on Agile projects when they go wrong? And how do we slay these beasts?
Data Engineering
Spark is well known in Big Data for its incredible performance and expressive API. However, it just takes one small misstep to transform a massively parallel powerhouse into a pathetically poor performer. This post presents an example and the steps that can be taken to indentify the problem.