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'QA' must not mean what I thought it means.
Quit Asking?
Quite Abysmal?
Quality Abyss?
Qatastrophe Achieved? 
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Kent Sharkey wrote: Another day, another Win10 issue
So true... 
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Developer Experience is a term with a self-declaring meaning — the experience of developers — but it eludes definition in the sense that people invoke it at different times for different reasons referring to different things. I don't know, but if I get another 100xp, I make it to 6th level!
And then I can get Fireball!
It is still at 6th, isn't it? They didn't change that from AD&D? I'm a few editions out of touch.
First time I think I've seen a desktop web page designed for only viewing on a phone in portrait mode. Mobile First(tm), I guess.
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Pah!
To this day (i.e. D&D 5e) One can cast level 3 spell at level 5th since AD&D 1e!!!
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/shrug I always thought it was 6th. I guess that’s why I always played a thief.
TTFN - Kent
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That's OK!
I like Chaosium games more now (like Call of Cthulhu!  )
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Ah, many great times with CoC (and Runequest, blessed Runequest). 
TTFN - Kent
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Kent Sharkey wrote: What is Developer Experience (DX)?
I suppose that it is what is missing at many QA Departments out there...
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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You might be an expert in software testing techniques. But often, QA professionals require industry domain knowledge in order to respond to unique specifications, workflows, or technology adoption. Because sometimes you want to know why it breaks?
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Why is it that Linux never made it to the desktop, and so many Linux apps failed in the competition with sometimes quite expensive commercial applications?
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Talk about stating the obvious.
What is not obvious is that the more you learn about the "domain", the more you realize the customer, who should know about their domain, doesn't. This is particularly true when you're writing software that integrates between different departments (the left hand doesn't have a clue what the right hand is doing) or you have to integrate with third party software, with the sad realization that the third party API's are crap and that the customer doesn't even understand their own data which is necessary in order to integrate with some third party API.
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To lots of coders, it is not obvious that they must understand the customer/user's problem. They must understand it the way the customer/user understands it, and in the customer/user's context.
Often, the customer has a less formalized view of the problem (and desired solution), and the developer's first task often is to add some formalism. But we do wrong if we take the customer/user's lack of formalism as a lack of understanding. Our task is to bring his understanding into a formal framework, rather than to push his deep knowledge aside and push onto him some formal description based on our understanding, which is often quite limited and very often without an understanding of the context. Unfortunately, that happpens far too often.
You just can't go to a customer and say "I know better!" - in particular when your software relates to two different user groups.
An example: I was in a project like that, for developing an integrated maintenance framework covering both mechanical and electronic parts. The old system of the mechanical guys identified components in a hierarchical structure by function, while the electronics guys identfied components by their location: Rack, shelf, board, X/Y position on a board. This is also a hierarchy, but a quite different one. You cannot just declare that "The best alternative is x; we'll build the software that way". Rather, you must come in as a negotiator, fully understanding why the one camp has ended up doing it this way, the other camp doing it that way. You must be able to argue for both alternatives, and to develop a compromise that takes care of all the needs of both camps, not the way you as a developer see it, but as they see it, in both camps.
As computer guys, we cold much more relate to components on boards than to shafts and gears. The negotiations were not that successful. Not until we employed a guy who had a Master in mechanical engineering (with lots of emphasis on CAD/CAM - but as a user, not as a programmer). He spoke the language of the mechanical guys, didn't need to have terms and work patterns and tools explained to him. He had deep knowledge in that domain. Quite quickly, the project went from semi-disaster to a great success project.
One essential reason for the great success of IBM in the 1970s and 1980s, and of Microsoft in the 1990s and later, is their communication with the customers. The many thousand hours of video they make of users to see how they utilize various functions, logs of how many errors they make, timings of various operations. When Win95 arrived, lots of people cried out about the GUI changes; MS responded with statistics from 18,000 hours of video and gigabytes of logs of both a number of alternatives that were rejects, and those who were found to improve the user satisfaction and productivity. (As far as I understand, they do similar observations to evaluate all major changes, but in the Win95 case, this was discussed a lot in media.)
The reason why Linux tools have such a great success in software development environments is that software develpers have deep domain knowledge of software development. Now that's in the "obvious" class.
On the other hand, developers of freeware office tools do not have similar deep knowledge of an office context. Tech/Metafont developers had quite limited knowlege of typography work. Developers of free sound editors and CD athoring systems have rarely worked much in a recording studio. Developers of free photo editors have not been eating that dogfood. The list of functions offered may be complete, yet it isn't put together "the right way" for a professional in the field!
Sometimes when you encounter a new piece of software, you feel that it is "just right". Made by people who know what the software is for. That's a great feeling. I got that "Wow!" feeling when I started using audio sorftware from Steinberg, after having fought with free alternatives for a while. Steinberg is certainly not free, but worth every penny. Same with office tools: The LibreOffice (and its relatives) makes attempts, but fails miserably. It shines bright of "freeware", made by freeware developers, but "untouched by user hands". I guess MS Office is not the only commercial alternative, and it isn't perfect, yet I willingly pay for a tool made by people who know the needs, not just the coding aspects.
Lack of domain knowledge is the greatest obstacle to the success of Linux and other freeware outside the software development domain. It is a significant problem, that you can't just brush away saying that "The professionals in the field have a poorer understandig of their problems, tasks, work patterns and solutions than I - a software developer - have!" Sorry to burst the bubble, but it simply isn't true.
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With the current 3rd-party integrations I'm working on, this hit me right in the feels. If you ever start thinking some of your software is crap, just try integrating with a 3rd party. You'll feel a little better, yet somehow also worse.
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I am excited to introduce our next feature update, Windows 10, version 20H2, which is targeted for release later in the second half of this year, and provide an overview of our plans for this next release. "Gloom, despair, and agony on me"
OK, I use that one a bit too often. Perhaps.
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Kent Sharkey wrote: OK, I use that one a bit too often. Perhaps.
Because it's true.
BSODs galore on my work machine since two updates were installed - I now have to try and persuade the corporate IT department to uninstall those updates
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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he service helps unify search across the company’s offerings (web and local), especially for Microsoft 365 customers. How could they improve on the fabulous built-in search?
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And yet Bing still sucks donkey ****
(As a simple example: google, bing)
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That's the best example I've ever seen, period! 
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I have seen people swear by Bing. I can't understand why they don't swear AT Bing! I certainly did when I tried it!
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Yeah, me too.
The last time I tried it I was looking for a Final Fantasy boss.
Typed in the name of the boss, got nothing that actually related to the boss.
Did the same in Google in the first page was all about that boss.
It's ridiculous.
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Unfortunately, DuckDuckGo isn't any better from my limited uses. Google with Verbatim search is the only thing I can stand. Too much crap any other way.
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Amazon has announced the introduction of Distance Assistant, an artificial intelligence tool, that will enforce social distancing at its premises. In case you need an AI to tell you to stay away from people
I'm good. Thanks.
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As a techie, that's pretty cool 
As a person, hell to the no! 
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Is it configurable, as in can you load the hosts file with people you are happy being around?
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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The European Commission has formally opened two separate antitrust investigations of Apple, for its App Store and electronic payment system. The announcement comes one year after the regulatory body opened preliminary investigations of the tech giant. iMonopoly?
In what is entirely unrelated news (I'm certain), Apple says they collected USD500 billion from their app store (OK, only 30% of that is theirs)
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