Z Trek: The Alan Zeichick Weblog
One Hat, Two Hat, Red Hat, Green Hat
Yesterday, we learned that Solstice Software, a well-regarded maker of automated software testing tools, was purchased by a London-based SOA testing company, Green Hat Consulting. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.I'd never heard of…
Brian Livingston reports problems with Win XP SP 3
According to today's edition of Windows Secrets, the well-regarded newsletter from Brian Livingston, there are issues with Windows XP Service Pack 3.In particular, his Patch Watch columnist, Susan Bradley, cites registry fixes needed to make…
Let’s get serious about the cloud
This week’s Google I/O developer conference was medium interesting. There were solid technical classes on AppEngine, and neat demonstrations of the Android mobile-phone software stack. There were lots of discussions about social networks,…
Domain scammers: At least they’re up front about money
Here's the latest in the flood of domain scams (see my comments from earlier this month here and here). Unlike the earlier ones I've posted, these guys admit that there will be "relevant costs."I post these, by the way, so that if people get…
Say Hello to Playstation 3!
Yesterday, our new Sony Playstation 3 arrived. Our son took about 0.7 minutes to unpack the box, disconnect the old upconverting DVD player from our television and hook in the Playstation, sync up the Bluetooth controller and Blu-ray disc remote,…
Thank you, United Nations, for the diplomatic passport
One never fails to get a laugh from incoming phishing attempts. Here's one that came to one of our info@ email addresses today. It looks like they forgot to ask for my bank routing and account numbers, but surely that will come along soon, along…
My five-year-old Apple digital picture frame
An obsolescent Apple iBook G3 notebook makes a wonderful digital picture frame.Here's the story: I started out shopping for digital picture frames, but became disheartened after reading reviews that said that the units are hard to use and have…
The defibrillator and the cigarette vending machine
My son just returned from two weeks in southern Japan, and brought home hundreds of beautiful photos. We're enjoying looking at them and sharing his trip memories.However, we got the biggest laugh out of this unlikely juxtaposition on the shrine…
If you haven’t read "The Ancestor’s Tale," you should
My feelings about Richard Dawkins are mixed. On one hand, the British evolutionary biologist is a brilliant scientist, and is credited with popularizing all sorts of concepts from selfish genes to memes. His books on science rank right up there…
The old “I left my money in a taxi” ploy
Oh, this poor person! It's a good thing that he/she didn't lose his/her mobile phone or laptop as well. Otherwise, how could he/she send me this heart-rending cry for help?
Fortunately, I know that Adobe's HR department will take this as…
Here comes Karl Fischer, in the latest version of the domain scam
In the domain scam, someone claims to be a domain registrar, warning you that someone is trying to register one of your trademarks overseas, and giving you the "opportunity" to contest it.If you respond, the scammer will either register the…
The most creative class titles at STPCon
Alan's informal Most Creative Class Titles award goes to ... drum roll please ... Robin Goldsmith!Robin is a very creative thinker, as well as a top test/QA expert. He's teaching a full-day tutorial at STPCon (Sept. 24-26 in Boston), as well…
It’s not just United: American gets into the fee-based game
Earlier this week, I wrote that United is experimenting with credit-card-only services on their flights between San Francisco and New York.My colleague Andrew Binstock commented that American Airlines plays that game too. "American Airlines…
Parasoft offers ‘amnesty’ to Agitar customers
The feeding frenzy is in progress, as Parasoft joins Instantiations in offering a migration plan for Agitar users. Two is a crowd, so this will be the last of these marketing programs I'll blog about.Last week, we discussed Instantiations' offer…
Agitar: The market’s not big enough
Yesterday afternoon, we received word from Agitar's Jerry Rudisin. Although he's still listed on the company's management-team page as CEO and president, he identified himself as the former CEO. He told us,The management team decided in March…
"Angling in Troubled Waters" is a wonderful map
One of the best historical references is Colin McEvedy's "Atlas of Recent History (Europe since 1815)." The current 2003 edition has a boring cover, but my 1982 first edition edition has a cover showing part of a fascinating historical map.The…
A bit about United branding: It’s time to fly
A few posts ago, I commented that United stopped using the slogan, "Fly the friendly skies," which first appeared in 1965.The new slogan, "It's time to fly," was introduced in 2004. According to the company, it "alludes to the obstacles business…
Why do I keep flying United Airlines?
Why do stick with United? Good question. It's clear that I'm not happy with the airline, as you can see from my recent posts about their credit-card-only flights, changed frequent flier rules and new baggage limitations. Why do I stay there?It's…
How to remove hard drives from your Mac desktop
I was asked, "How can I get the Time Machine volume off my Leopard desktop?" Since it's recommended to dedicate that external hard drive to Time Machine, there's no good reason to keep it on your desktop. It's a distraction.I don't know of any…
Credit cards, no cash, on United flights to/from New York
I'm sitting here at San Francisco International, getting ready to catch this morning's United Airline non-stop to New York's John F. Kennedy airport.There was just an announcement:From May 15 to June 15, on flights between San Francisco and…
Too many choices drive us nuts
A story came from WebMD explains that "Too many choices exhaust the brain." According to the story,Study author Kathleen D. Vohs, PhD, of the University of Minnesota's marketing department, and researchers from several other universities have…
Too many junk-mail false positives
Chances are that more than one-sixth of all the e-mail that you want to receive is being captured by anti-spam filters, whether by the ISP, at the server, or the desktop client.That's according to Lyris, the company behind ListManager, a popular…
New York throws a spanner into Internet commerce
The state of New York now says that if an Internet retailer has an affiliate in New York, the Internet retailer must pay New York sales tax on all its sales in that state.By "affiliate," New York means having anyone who is able to sell products…
Yahooing with Dunkin’ Donuts
I am a huge fan of Dunkin' Donuts. The worst thing about moving from the East Coast to the Bay Area is losing access to my favorite coffee chain. Starbucks and Peets don't measure up, imho, to Dunkin' Donuts. (Thanks to mail-order beans, we…
What the heck is Virtualization 3.0?
The special report in the May 15, 2008, issue of SD Times is entitled "Virtualization 3.0: Forget server consolidation; virtualization has the buzz and new benefits for developers and QA teams."Virtualization 3.0 is a brand-new buzzword that…
ST&P Testers Choice awards — it’s time for nominations!
Nominations are open for the fifth annual Testers Choice Awards, given out by Software Test & Performance Magazine.The award comprises categories encompassing the range of tools designed to improve software quality.The arbiters of excellence…
Instantiations offers migration strategy for Agitar customers
As reported on Monday, it appears like Agitar is winding down their business. At least, that's what their message to creditors states.One company's misfortune is another's opportunity. Instantiations is the first test-tool maker I've seen to…
Need a job? Need developers? Check our job board!
I'm delighted to unveil the SD Times Job Board, the newest feature of SDTimes.com.• It’s difficult for companies to locate the right software developers and development managers.• It's hard for job-seekers to find the best opportunity…
Foreign domains and spammer squatters
For the past year, I've been inundated by emails from people claiming to be foreign domain-name registrars. They've been working me, in increasingly dire language, that my brand is in danger. To quote from one of them:We are Asia Domain Name…
Killing Word 2004’s "Optimizing Font Menu Performance"
We still have some users on Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac. From time to time — generally after a restart or a fresh login — there's a huge delay when launching Word.The message that Word displays, in the splash graphic, is "Optimizing…