Words to a new software QA

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Quantum Tea

We're not after the developers. We're after their code. It's not personal.

If they didn't want us to find the bug, they shouldn't have written it in the first place.

QA starts with the requirements, if those are vague, the result will not be what the customer wants.

Not finding a bug does not prove there are no bugs. It proves you didn't find one right there, at that particular planetary alignment with that precise set of system and environment and time of day and test data.

There is always a bug somewhere.

Learn how to program in the language your developers use. Also learn SQL (Structured Query Language), HTML, CSS, and any other acronyms you hear often.

Your developers are an amazing resource and are usually very helpful when presented with a "Can you please help me..." request.

Keep learning. There is always a new language, or tool, or technique, or platform, or environment, or program.

Get up and walk around often. Drinking large amounts of water will help this. Give your eyes a rest from the screen and go talk to your team.

Posted in Geek/Tech, Humour, Writing | 2 Comments

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Quantum Tea

I'm working my way through Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards, and one of the early exercises is to copy an upside-down line drawing. Right-side up, this is what I got:

Upside down drawing.

There's a few lines out of place or missing, and the hands went badly for me, possibly because I was thinking of them as hands and not just lines. But I'm pleasantly shocked at how well this came out and I'm ploughing through the rest of the book. It's rather word-heavy, especially for a book saying that the problem is the left side word-centric brain is the part that can't draw, but there's useful information there.

I'm also looking at The Natural Way To Draw by Kimon Nicolaides as a possible follow-on book.

Posted in Craft | 1 Comment

A Flock of Hats

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Quantum Tea

I'm not sure what the correct collective noun is for hats, but I seem to knit them in batches. Three of these four were destashing hats, made from yarn that I had before the start of the year.

Seaworthy Gansey hat.

Pattern: Seaworthy Gansey hat from Churchmouse Yarns and Tea
Yarn: String Theory Merino DK (I love this yarn)
Needles: US2 (2.75mm)
Duration: 6th March to 16th March

Second time using this yarn, and I still love it. The hat has an unusual pillbox construction and it's knit on needles several sizes smaller than you would normally use for this weight of yarn, so the resulting hat is dense and windproof. And cute, did I mention cute? You can get the pattern free with a yarn purchase from Churchmouse, or just get the pattern like I did. I love the purl welts at the bottom and top of this, and the clever spiralling pattern on the sides.

Lapwing hat.

Pattern: Lapwing by Melissa Schaschwary
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Lightweight in Jade
Needles: US5 (3.75mm)
Duration: 25th February to 17th March

I don't know how long I've had this yarn, but it must be several years. Lapwing is an interesting pattern, but this felt like it was moving so slowly I had to break off and do the Seaworthy Gansey hat to take the edge off. The hat has three layers at the brim, one of them ribbed, and it is purl-side out. I like the result, but I doubt I'd knit this one again.

Zumthor hat.

Pattern: Zumthor by Kirsten Johnstone
Yarn: Imperial Yarn Columbia in Black Cherry
Needles: US7 (4.5mm) and US8 (5mm)
Duration:19th March to 20th March

Zumthor is a reversible hat if you're careful when you weave the ends in. This was my second project with Imperial Columbia yarn, and I still deeply dislike the yarn while loving how it turns out. There were 2 knots in the yarn early on where one ply had broken and was knotted back together, and a lot of vegetable matter in the yarn. Colour is gorgeous, the end result is great, but I just do not like working with the yarn. The top of the hat is nicely box-shaped.

Scalliwag hat.

Pattern: Scalliwag by Fiddle Knits
Yarn: madelinetosh tosh dk in Amber Trinket
Needles: US5 (3.75mm) and US7 (4.5mm)
Duration: 22nd March to 24th March

This hat is supposed to have a cabled brim, but several projects made that way mentioned it stretched out, so I did 1x1 ribbing instead. It's an ingenious pattern, you make a hat slouch by cutting out the excess fabric at the back using short rows, and it fits really well. The decreases make a bold X on the back of the hat and I'm making another (with a hemmed rib brim) using some of my handspun.

One of the collective nouns for ducks or geese in flight is "a skein of ducks", but it's a mess of iguanas, a whoop of gorillas, and a mischief of mice. And a scourge of mosquitoes, of course.

Posted in Knitting | 1 Comment

Drawing class

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Quantum Tea

I've been taking a weekly class at the St Louis Artist's Guild (acronym SLAG, which makes me giggle) and the teacher, David Zamudio, has been gently working us towards drawing an actual human. Prior lessons focussed on spheres and cubes, working on shading and accuracy, this one was drawn freehand over about 20 minutes:

Drawing class - Lesson 4.

This week's lesson had us drawing a model of a skull, homework is five self-portraits. We do a lot of timed rough sketches, these ones took three minutes each:

Skull roughs.

I've been pleasantly surprised how not-impossible it is to draw a halfway decent thing given the right tools and some tricks on how to get the layout right. After that page of rough sketches, I really want to take the one at the top left and turn it into a proper robot head...

Posted in Craft, Personal | 3 Comments

Accomplished

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Quantum Tea

Four years, two months, and one day, that's how long it took me to get my third degree brown belt in Chinese Kenpo from Tracy's Karate. My first lesson was on Monday 17th November 2008, I got my brown belt on Friday 18th January 2013.

That day I also got a calf strain, which I've been resting this week. Should be back in action soon.

Posted in Personal | 3 Comments

A parade of finished objects

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Quantum Tea

It's been a busy January so far. I've released a pattern for small drawstring bags, burned my hand with boiling water (making proper tea is a hazardous business) and I'm training for my third degree brown belt in Chinese Kenpo. And I've been knitting, there are some finished objects to show off.

Treacle Hedgerow socks.

Pattern: Hedgerow socks
Yarn: Dragonfly Fibers Djinni Sock in Sunshine Daydream
Needles: US1 (2.25mm)
Duration: 31st October 2012 to 18th November 2012

These were a surprise gift for Bella, who has never had handknit socks before. Hemmed top, Hedgerow pattern, and a fabulous colour on the yarn. It's a merino cashmere nylon blend, and I can't say it's softer than a straight merino yarn, but I do appreciate the nylon in there. I love the look of hemmed-top socks and Hedgerow is a good pattern for non-solid yarn.

Tiled In Topper hat.

Pattern: Tiled In Topper
Yarn: Knit Picks Feleici and Palette
Needles: US2 (2.75mm) and US3 (3.25mm)
Duration: 28th October 2012 to 1st December 2012

I'm attempting to add stranded colourwork to my skillset and this was the first attempt in several years. And it worked! I was pleasantly surprised. Picked up a polystyrene head in a beauty supply store for $4 to block this and I've been wearing it on cold days. I made the hem longer and added a purl row at the turn point

Modified Boudica socks.

Pattern: Boudica socks
Yarn: Wool Candy Lollipop BFL Sock in Tikka Masala
Needles: US0 (2.25mm) and US1 (2.25mm)
Duration: 17th December 2012 to 9th January 2013

I've knit this pattern before and loved it, but this time I had to skip the cables up the side because they made my hand hurt. I replaced it with some 2x2 ribbing and went up a needle size for the horizontal braid because that part was too tight on the original sock, and it worked well. This was the pattern that introduced me to the rolled-top for socks, and I use that for all my BFL socks.

Posted in Knitting | 2 Comments

New Year’s Resolution Reading Challenge

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Quantum Tea

I don't normally make extensive New Year's resolutions, beyond my annual "I will not stab anyone in [insert year here]." I borrowed that one from Rachel Herron in 2010 and it is a worthy goal worth re-committing to each year (I never resolve not to punch or kick anyone, because that would take all the fun out of sparring class). It's a little odd to be thinking of resolutions before Christmas but I have a reason.

A friend is hosting a New Year’s Resolution Reading Challenge, from 26th December to 31st January, and also a read-a-long of Charles Duhigg's book The Power of Habit, starting 2nd January. That sounds like a good book to read, because I want to install a regular exercise habit outside the karate studio, and my creative writing is greatly helped by having a deadline to work towards.

New Year’s Resolution Reading Challenge.

So many New Year’s Resolutions falter within days of January 1. Readers know that one way to sustain resolve and focus is to read a book on the topic. The goal of this challenge is to build a community around reading books to support our New Year’s Resolutions so that we can share book ideas and encourage each other in our pursuits.

Joy Weese Moll

My 2013 resolutions are:

  1. I will not stab anyone in 2013 (note this says nothing about 2014, I only have to be restrained for a year. I can do that).
  2. I will get my 3rd degree brown belt in Chinese Kenpo karate (I'm in reviews, so this should be doable fairly quickly).
  3. I will lose 10 pounds and keep it off.
  4. I will knit primarily from stashed (already bought) yarn.
  5. I will finish book #2 and write book #3 of my trilogy.

Books that support those resolutions might include:

On the weight resolution, I lost 20 pounds and two dress-sizes in 2012, and the last 10 is proving problematic. Spark People has been a great help in tracking what I eat and setting calorie allowances based on my level of activity. Three and a half hours of karate a week didn't fix my weight, but tracking what I ate did.

I resolved to knit primarily from the stash in 2012, and I've completed 16 projects from stashed yarn so far, making it a pretty successful resolution. The yarn I've bought this year has been mainly for projects made soon after purchase, and I've queued up a few stranded colour-work projects that will stretch my abilities. Colour-work has long been my nemesis, but I will prevail.

We'll see how this goes.

Posted in Personal, Writing | 2 Comments

Ink sampling

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Quantum Tea

I've been sampling various combinations of ink and fountain pens. It's a huge surpise how different pens with the same ink give wildly different results. Using my TWSBI 540 pen with Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses ink gives a nice even burgundy line. Put the same ink in my Noodler's Ahab pen and you get a gorgeously shaded line from black to burgundy, but it's so wet it takes a while to dry on the paper. I picked up some blotting paper to use with the Ahab, and it helps, though some of that gorgeous shading disappears. The Ahab gets most used in work on a Rhodia pad where the paper is thick enough that the ink doesn't show through.

My ink sampling notebook has a few lines in it from each pen and ink combination. The Noodler's Ahab tends to be dark because it's an ink hog. The Shaeffer Prelude writes light, so it's not the best for colour sampling. The TWSBI 540 would be a good sample pen, but it's a piston-fill and not great for getting into the tiny sample vials. So my sample pen might be the Ohto Dude, a pen that takes only cartridges. I have a blunt syringe that I can use to fill empty cartridges from the sample vials, and a bulb syringe I can use to rinse out the pen afterwards.

Another interesting pen is the J. Herbin Refillable rollerball, which takes cartridges and might be a good sampling tool. I love the idea of a rollerball but with cartridges, and with the syringe, I can put any ink I chose into the cartridge.

Handwriting with an ink pen forces me to slow down and pay more attention to how I'm writing. I've made a few changes in how I write because of these pens: my capital "H" is more stylised, I'm trying to form the lowercase "s" by always coming off the paper before I start it, my lowercase "i" has a little extra line at the top so it doesn't disappear, and the lowercase "b" is formed as a stick and a separately-drawn curve instead of one malformed stroke.

Posted in Personal, Writing | Comments Off

Projects in progress and stalled

Posted on November 3, 2012 by Quantum Tea

If ever there was a year where I don't complete NaNoWriMo it's this one. Too much going on to have brain real-estate tied up with a novel. I may stage a dramatic comeback mid-month but it's not looking very likely today. I'm sad because I have an eight year streak of NaNoWriMo wins. I'm still keeping my regional stats page though.

I have three knitting projects on my needles, which is more than I usually like:

Deco cardigan
Working my way up the single piece that makes up fronts and back, adding Deco pattern repeats as I go. The increase in needle size and pattern size seems to be working and I'm confident this will fit over a shirt comfortably. I also made it a bit longer and omitted the decrease/increase shaping. I'm not up to where I was before the Great Ripping Out of 2012, but I'm over halfway there and I still have five 200yd skeins of yarn to knit. The fabric feels good, the stitch definition is nice, I like this a lot. Planning to do the button band before the arms so I can get a better idea of fit. Might be done by year end but I'm not betting on it.

Tiled-In Topper hat
This is a simple stranded colourwork hat. Stranded knitting is something I'm not good at and it makes me very nervous. I've tried to make colourwork mittens before and they came out horribly loose, a different attempt came out so dense it had its own gravitational field. For the hat I'm using a self-striping red/purple sock yarn with cream for the accent colour. Stalled after the hem because I need a nice uninterrupted stretch to work on it and I'm not going to get that for a while.

Treacle Hedgerows socks
I've only finished one pair of socks this year and that was back in April, which is odd for me. The yarn has been sitting in my stash box since 2010 and it's past time it earned its keep. Dragonfly Fibers Djinni sock is a thin merino cashmere nylon blend and the colour of this makes me think of looking into a tin of golden syrup. I've made the Hedgerow pattern before and liked it, but those socks were gifted. I deviated from the pattern early by putting a hemmed top on because it gets around my difficulties in making the cast-on edge loose enough to get over my heel. This is mostly mindless knitting to keep me occupied.

Posted in Knitting, NaNoWriMo | 1 Comment

NaNoWriMo – T minus 10 days

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Quantum Tea

Ten days. Keyboards on standby, tea ready to be brewed, notebooks filled with plot debris, friends and fiends recruited, donor halo firmly in place. We're doing this.

I have a stack of index cards in three different colours, with events on relating to the group of characters in that plot thread. Each is numbered twice, once for its position in its own colour stack, the second time for its position in the overall story. That stack then gets transcribed to Scrivener and forms an overall skeleton for the story. I'm sure other things will happen that are not on the index cards, and the handwritten stack gets increasingly out of step with the story as time goes on.

Since we'll be spending a lot of time sat down and typing, this article from the Telegraph shows how to exercise while sitting at your desk. Bodies are built to move, so get them moving.

My NaNoWriMo 2012 folder lives in my Dropbox directory. This means it is copied onto two computers, accessible through the Dropbox website, and can also be copied onto my cell phone. Another copy will live on my USB thumb drive, another will be on my laptop's backup external hard drive. There is no such thing as being too paranoid about important coomputer files. What's your NaNoWriMo backup strategy?

Posted in NaNoWriMo | 1 Comment