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-James

There is no "should" in "testing"

Posted by james on Oct. 4, 2012

When testing, there is no "should" or "should not". For example, "This should work".

There is only "it did work" or "it did not work". Should implies some type of assumption, which is the opposite of testing. Testing is the result; what actually happened?

Obviously this has to be compromised a bit in the real world. We cannot test something under the exact real world conditions that they'll be used in. If the conditions were exact, that's no longer a test; that's just actually using the thing. So we have to choose specific situations & circumstances as a test environment.

But the terminology should remain consistent. A specific task or item has not been tested if we have to say something like "It *should* work in this situation". We should be able to say "During testing, this item *did* work in this situation".

The Tourist

Posted by james on Feb. 17, 2012

There are spoilers here, but I don't think they matter. A mysterious lady needs to lead police away from her criminal husband, so she picks a man at random. She leads him on, which in turn leads the police to believe he is her husband, and this innocent tourist gets in the middle of gangsters, police, interpol, etc.

Sounds very intriguing, and it probably should have been. But it wasn't. for some reason even with decent actors (Angelina Jolie & Johnny Depp), and with some action sequences, the whole thing feels... flat. There's not much excitement or investment.

And in the end, the big question is whether or not Johnny Depp (as the mild mannered innocent tourist) is actually the criminal husband or not. He's not until the last 2 minutes of the film. And then... surprise! He *is* the husband! Except that it's not really a twist if everyone's expecting it all along. So no real surprise there.

So in the end, I feel like the premise could have turned into a much better movie than this.

I fear the impending zombie apocalypse

Posted by james on Jan. 15, 2012

Lauren and I were discussing whether the impending apocalypse would be zombie- or robot- based. I vote robots, because they're already here, they're everywhere, and I may possibly be unknowingly helping them bring about their eventual rule. She votes zombies, because they're very popular in movies right now.

I'm not a very worrisome person anymore, but it actually does give me a bit of anxiety to think about a zombie apocalypse. It feels like despair. Where would we go? What weapons would I have access to? How can I physically carry my entire family if there were no vehicles?

I guess it comes down to faith. Do I have more faith in my hacking skills to bring down a robot tyranny, or my crowbar-wielding talents to bludgeon any attacking zombies? I'm not sure yet. I feel like I really need to answer this question so I'm ready. I may be watching too many (or not enough) movies.