Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:If Boeing believed in software QA.... (Score 1) 250

You have no idea what you are talking about.

Then you have never looked for a software tester / QA position at Boeing.

For example you search Boeing jobs for QA on 5/2/2015 you will see 15 jobs -- none are software specific QA, two of them are software fields ... including Cloud Architect 4 and a Software Release Engineer

If you search for test you will see 97 (Adjusted search for only IT); and a typical job posting (most of the "Software Engineer" postings) will have something like:
Other duties may include:
-- Develops software verification plans, test procedures and test environments, executing the test procedures and documenting test results to ensure software system requirements are met;


They may "conform to the DO-178B / DO-178C standard" ... but my point is the person performing the test is NOT a software QA professional, rather is the developer of the software.

Full disclosure: There currently are a few QA/test positions open -- including one that is a subsidiary of Boeing.

Comment If Boeing believed in software QA.... (Score 2) 250

For all of the QA at Boing; they don't believe in software QA. Take a look at their job openings some time: In years of searching, I've seen only one software QA position, and it wasn't dealing with aircraft. Any such search results will return developers that are to write their own tests against the spec. Developers are not Testers.... and I'll ask: How many more such bugs are out there?

I know of two other software "bugs" ... that can be attributed to a lack of QA. How many people will die due to a bad management decision on the part of Boeing?
Disclosure: Yes, I'm a software QA / Test professional.

Submission + - Scientists have paper on gender bias rejected because they're both women (dailylife.com.au)

ferrisoxide.com writes: A paper co-authored by researcher fellow Dr. Fiona Ingleby and evolutionary biologist Dr. Megan Head — on how gender differences affect the experiences that PhD students have when moving into post-doctoral work — was rejected by peer-reviewed PLoS One journal because they didn’t ask a man for help.

A (male) peer reviewer for the journal suggested that the scientists find male co-authors, to prevent “ideologically biased assumptions.” The same reviewer also provided his own ironically biased advice, when explaining that women may have fewer articles published because men's papers "are indeed of a better quality, on average", "just as, on average, male doctoral students can probably run a mile race a bit faster".

Submission + - White House Outsources K-12 CS Education to Infosys Charity 1

theodp writes: In December, the White House praised the leadership of Code.org for their efforts to get more computer science into K-12 schools, which were bankrolled by $20 million in philanthropic contributions from the likes of Google, Microsoft, Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Mark Zuckerberg. On Monday, it was announced that Infosys Foundation USA will be partnering with Code.org to bring CS education to millions of U.S. students. Infosys Foundation USA Chair Vandana Sikk, who joins execs from Microsoft, Google, and Amazon execs on Code.org's Board, is the spouse of Infosys CEO Vishal Sikk. The announcement from the tax-deductible charity comes as India-based Infosys finds itself scrutinized by U.S. Senators over allegations of H-1B visa program abuses.

Submission + - Verizon Tells Customer He Needs 75Mbps For Smoother Netflix Video (arstechnica.com) 1

An anonymous reader writes: Verizon recently told a customer that upgrading his 50Mbps service to 75 Mbps would result in smoother streaming of Netflix video. Of course, that's not true — Netflix streams at a rate of about 3.5 Mbps on average for Verizon's fiber service, so there's more than enough headroom either way. But this customer was an analyst for the online video industry, so he did some testing and snapped some screenshots for evidence. He fired up 10 concurrent streams of a Game of Thrones episode and found only 29Mbps of connection being used. This guy was savvy enough to see through Verizon's BS, but I'm sure there are millions of customers who wouldn't bat an eye at the statements they were making. The analyst "believes that the sales pitch he received is not just an isolated incident, since he got the same pitch from three sales reps over the phone and one online."

Submission + - LinkedIN Reference Search is legal, but it shouldn't be. (google.com)

ciscoguy01 writes: LinkedIN has a paid product "Reference Search" which allows subscribers to search to find someone who worked at a company at the same time as another person, with the idea that you might be able to get a reference from someone it finds.
Tracee Sweet applied for a job, got an offer, then when the employer used the Reference Search to check her out with previous co-workers rescinded the offer.
She sued LinkedIN saying that the LinkedIN product should fall under the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) and she should have had the right to review and challenge information there as if it were a credit report. She lost in court last week.
The issue here is this: Anyone can create any number of LinkedIN accounts, can put any employment history in that account, this is not verified by anyone.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act protects consumers from information that may affect credit decisions, employment decisions and more when compiled by a credit reporting agency. Which today LinkedIN is not. But should they be?
Nothing would stop anyone from creating as many accounts on LinkedIN as they want with completely fabricated information in it, for the purpose of having the references there returned by the LinkedIN paid subscriber "Reference Search" Tool.
At the moment LinkedIn Reference Search is legal. But since it can easily contain wholly unverified and possibly forged or otherwise fake information, should it be? Shouldn't someone be responsible for information about *YOU* contained in a database and then being sold for profit?

Comment What to label this story as "BS" comes to mind... (Score 0) 1

Went to Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) web site graphical data; and it clearly shows a "up" (rising) trend with temperature. I would not trust University of Alabama (agenda with a political party / business).

This ''article'' lists no sources supporting their opinion; no information about why they have a differing opinion; no source info other than generic "trust me, they said this". "Not the best" would be an understatement.

Submission + - Hubble finds something astronomers can't explain

schwit1 writes: The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted the explosion of a star that does not fit into any theory for stellar evolution.

The exploding star, which was seen in the constellation Eridanus, faded over two weeks — much too rapidly to qualify as a supernova. The outburst was also about ten times fainter than most supernovae, explosions that destroy some or all of a star. But it was about 100 times brighter than an ordinary nova, which is a type of surface explosion that leaves a star intact. "The combination of properties is puzzling," says Mario Livio, an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. "I thought about a number of possibilities, but each of them fails" to account for all characteristics of the outburst, he adds.

We can put this discovery on the bottom of a very long list of similar discoveries by Hubble, which this week is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its launch.

Submission + - German Court Rules Adblock Plus Is Legal

An anonymous reader writes: Following a four-month trial, a German court in Hamburg has ruled that the practice of blocking advertising is perfectly legitimate. Germany-based Eyeo, the company that owns Adblock Plus, has won a case against German publishers Zeit Online and Handelsblatt. These companies operate Zeit.de, Handelsblatt.com, and Wiwo.de. Their lawsuit, filed on December3, charged that Adblock Plus should not be allowed to block ads on their websites. While the decision is undoubtedly a big win for users today, it could also set a precedent for future lawsuits against Adblock Plus and any other tool that offers similar functions. The German court has essentially declared that users are legally allowed to control what happens on their screens and on their computers while they browse the Web.

Comment "Quality control" (Score 1) 150

Given my knowledge of Boeing, the problem isn't with "quality"; the problem is with bad management -- and a culture of failure to admit that management can do no wrong. This can be easily exposed: Take a look at the jobs at Boeing. Look for a software tester / QA position. You will be lucky to find ONE. The jobs you do find are not test/qa; but rather development that can test their own code to the specifications written. And here is where QA comes in: what it there is a problem with the spec? And there is testing: How much testing should be done.

I remember / know of at least two (somewhat recent) incidents with Boeing aircraft that (for anyone that knows software) resulted in a crash of the aircraft -- that can be directly traced to this culture of management can do no wrong and developers test their own code.

Submission + - Aussie ISP talks of NetFlix shakedown (theage.com.au)

An anonymous reader writes: Australian ISP Optus today was talking up the idea that Net Neutrality is there to prevent: demanding extra cash from suppliers of content to ensure that their product gets delivered well to consumers. In the same article, it talks of iiNet upgrading its infrastructure to meet the new demand (presumably this cost is already part of customer monthly payments.) One ISP gets it and is doing what we all expect whilst the other is giving us a classic example of why we need Net Neutrality: to ensure that the ISP can't play favourites and extort money out of websites and content providers.

Slashdot Top Deals

Saliva causes cancer, but only if swallowed in small amounts over a long period of time. -- George Carlin

Working...