Reflections

Web driver script

2012-02-01T22:34:00.001-08:00

Hasan from Trainline shared with us Selenium WebDriver script.

I was using Selenium before Web Driver came into the picture. Need to try this out.

using System;

using NUnit.Framework;

using OpenQA.Selenium;

using OpenQA.Selenium.IE;

using OpenQA.Selenium.Remote;

using OpenQA.Selenium.Support.UI;

namespace WebDriver

{

[TestFixture]

class TrainlineTest

{

[Test]

public void webDriverTest()

{

var ieCapabilities = DesiredCapabilities.InternetExplorer();

ieCapabilities.SetCapability(InternetExplorerDriver.IntroduceInstabilityByIgnoringProtectedModeSettings, true);

var driver = new InternetExplorerDriver(ieCapabilities);

driver.Manage().Timeouts().ImplicitlyWait(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10));

driver.Navigate().GoToUrl("http://buytickets.thetrainline.tw.testttl.com");

driver.FindElement(By.Id("OriginStation")).SendKeys("London");

driver.FindElement(By.Id("DestinationStation")).SendKeys("Manchester");

driver.FindElement(By.Id("SingleJourneyCheckBox")).Click();

new SelectElement(driver.FindElement(By.Id("AdultsTravelling"))).SelectByText("2");

IWebElement query = driver.FindElement(By.Id("outwardDate"));

query.SendKeys(Keys.Control + "a");

query.SendKeys("23/02/2012");

driver.FindElement(By.Name("extendedSearch")).Click();

Assert.IsTrue(driver.FindElement(By.Id("showTicketsIdButton")).Displayed, "Show Prices Button Not Present");

}

The best file search utility–fast and free

2012-01-10T23:31:00.001-08:00

I have come across Agent Ransack and it was really fast. Works well if you want to search for text inside a particular file.

Initial screen

Searching for the text “sync tool is run”.

Visual Studio 2008 Load Test Gotchas!

2012-01-10T23:20:00.001-08:00

I really like this link: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/testing/VS2008LoadTestGotchas.aspx

This was shared by our NFT SME.

Wi-fi connection for Ipad?

2011-12-13T04:46:00.001-08:00

After getting my Ipad2 (Thanks to Thoughtworks!), I wanted a Wi-Fi connection since the Ipad2 had Wi-Fi but no 3G. Wi-Fi routers cost anything from Rs.1500 to Rs.10,000.

Question was: How do I convert my laptop to a Wi-Fi router?

Connectify is the answer.

Link: http://www.connectify.me/

The basic (lite) version is free and can easily used for providing Wi-Fi connection to the Ipad2.

Looking at IPhone 4s, IPod Touch and Galaxy 2–Part 1

2011-12-04T10:29:00.001-08:00

Reviews I liked were

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-20115364-233/iphone-4s-first-take/ – More or less, the official version copied from Apple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP-SSg_zZ1M – Watch for the question (joke) at the end.

IPhone has good

Processing power
Camera and HD video
Siri (Voice recognition)

Can I use Ipod Touch instead of an IPhone. If you are thinking of calling somebody, IPod can be used for that as well. ( http://lifehacker.com/378511/turn-your-ipod-touch-into-an-iphone)

Are there other differences between Ipod Touch and I Phone? Well, both have identical features except… IPod touch does not have

Email
Maps
In built Camera
Microphone
Blue tooth

External link : http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10115117-233.html

http://www.themobileindian.com/news/1307_iPhone-or-Samsung-Galaxy-S2 - Comparison between Iphone 4 with Samsung Galaxy 2.

NFT Improvements

2011-11-24T22:39:00.001-08:00

Found out we are losing time due to aborted runs. People are looking at different ways to avoid the run getting aborted. I feel it is mostly due to environment failures. Having a good environment should provent 70% of the failures. On another note, I would like to have an email sent to all of us in NFT whenever a run is triggered or when it is completed/aborted.

I have two solutions for that which depends on following info (ie whenever a run is triggered or completed/aborted, VSTS writes into the loadtest database).

1. A trigger on the database . Basically fired on “insert or update”. And this sends an email to us.

2. Wrote a script in Auto It which queries the database and finds out if a new run was introduced or not. This would require the script to know about the latest run id (which will be fed as input parameter)

Had a discussion with our architect and he felt the first option was better. I felt the same too.

Collecting IIS Paths from the server.- Part 2

2011-11-24T02:41:00.000-08:00

The last time I had mentioned about the pipeline which made sure the IIS paths are correct. Now we will go to the next step and look at the stages for this particular pipeline.

The pipeline has 4 stages.

TOC_Copy_JasCasStubFile
TOC_Compare_JasCasStubSize
TOC_Copy_Physical_Path_of_Stubs
TOC_Compare_Physical_Path_of_Stubs

We will look at each stage in detail in part 3 of this blog series.

What can I improve in performance testing

2011-11-21T22:20:00.001-08:00

I was just wondering if we could combine all our soak tests into one. One ground rule we can follow during performance testing is “how it is done in production”?. In this particular project, all the streams are deployed and used simultaneously in production.

Well, I have raised the question to our client. Once I propose the solution (how to implement it), hoping the client would accept it. This would bring in huge savings in testing time.

To the reader: Did you also have a good idea and ask the client to accept it? If so, what is the approach u followed?

Changing the blog layout

2011-11-17T21:24:00.001-08:00

I have seen so many cool blogs that I thought my blog needed an overhaul. The templates provided by Google were not cool enough.

I googled for best blogger templates and I found the following links.

http://besttheme.net/

In this, I liked the Faith Blogger template.

Let me apply it and see what happens!

Collecting IIS Paths from the server.- Part 1

2011-11-14T06:03:00.001-08:00

Context: One of the steps before we run our performance test involved going to stub server and make sure that the physical path of all the important services are pointing to, is correct.

It was taking too much time because we had to remote login to the server and look at the IIS for the physical path and compare it with actual path provided in the wiki.

So what was done?

I have created the following pipeline called “CheckJasCasStubSize”. And all you have to do is click on the play button.

This pipeline also checks the size of the file and does a file comparison as well.

How can i get numbers out of a screenshot?

2011-11-03T06:41:00.001-07:00

Sometimes people have a screenshot and they painstakingly go over the numbers. Manually reading the numbers and typing it out in notepad. Then use the calculator in windows to find the sum, average etc.

I found this recently in my team, where some of us were actually looking at the VSTS tables while the run was going on, typing out the numbers (eg: cpu, memory etc) into notepad and finding the average using excel.

Well, not anymore! Here is the solution using image recognition software.

Solution: Use an image recognition software like "JOCR" (thanks to Sreedhar D) uploaded to "\\nftparing box\D\SOFT\ImageRecognition.exe". When the software is run, it asks for the area to capture. Drag a screen area around the table (or the screenshot) u want to capture. The output would be a set of numbers. Copy paste into Excel and click on the "Average" button in Excel. And you are done!

The pesky scrollbars on Remote desktop - Finally fixed!!

2011-11-02T22:12:00.001-07:00

The problem

We always had scrollbars (vertical as well as horizontal) when we connect to remote desktop (eg: nftRunbox01). This meant we had to scroll up and down many times to work on rotheram environments.

Full screen was an option, but we wanted to see the taskbar as well as the messages from skype (Paul). I remember my colleagues would not allow pairing unless the scroll bar issue was fixed. :)

We ended up editing rdp files and what we tried to do was...

desktopwidth:i:1437

desktopheight:i:865

session bpp:i:24

winposstr:s:0,1,0,20,1437,865

We changed the winposstr values so that horizontal and vertical scroll bars disappear. This was a trial and error method and consumed a lot of time (10 to 15 mts).

I looked at a few open source projects and found a project on sourceforge which solved the problem. I was still looking for a way (easier) to solve the scroll bar issue.

Solution

Just add the following line to your .rdp file.

smart sizing:i:1

Old RDP File

desktopwidth:i:1437

desktopheight:i:865

session bpp:i:24

winposstr:s:0,1,0,20,1437,865

compression:i:1

keyboardhook:i:1

audiocapturemode:i:0

New RDP File

desktopwidth:i:1437

desktopheight:i:865

session bpp:i:24

winposstr:s:0,1,0,20,1437,865

compression:i:1

keyboardhook:i:1

smart sizing:i:1

audiocapturemode:i:0

Voila, the remote desktop does not have scroll bars any more!!

PFA screenshot of the same.

You can connect to different remote servers from different pairing monitors and u dont have to save seperate rdp files (pairing monitor -> remote desktop combination) as well.

You just need one rdp file to connect to them all. One ring to rule the world, and one line to rule all the rdp's.

THANKS TO: http://llemarie.wordpress.com/2007/11/01/tip-scaling-your-remote-desktop-session/

Do you fix bugs before writing new code?

2011-05-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

The very first version of Microsoft Word for Windows was considered a "death march" project. It took forever. It kept slipping. The whole team was working ridiculous hours, the project was delayed again, and again, and again, and the stress was incredible.When the dang thing finally shipped, years late, Microsoft sent the whole team off to Cancun for a vacation, then sat down for some serious soul-searching.

What did they find?
Read all about it from the link given below...
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html

Random issues

2010-12-21T22:31:00.001-08:00

Have u faced random issues during testing? Testers look at the exceptions logged and try to find out the root cause of the issue. If they cannot find the root cause, they call in the developers. What if the devs are not able to find the root cause of the issue from the exception logs?

Here is the typical flow for such scenarios

Testers log the bug mentioning that the bug is random.
Two or three days down the line, a Dev team picks up the defect.Since he is not able to find the root cause from the logs, he marks the bug as not reproducible and moves it into QA plate.

QA tests it for two consecutive builds. Since he cannot reproduce the issue, he is forced to close the issue.

After a few months, the build is delivered to production, where the bug is reproduced.

Major showdown happens with client.

Few points

1. Neither the Dev or the QA is able to escape from this vicious cycle. Each is doing his best, but in the end - when bug occurs in production - its the proverbial mess -

2. No QA is able to stand up and say that since x number of bugs are critical + random, and since no code has been checked in to fix the issue, we should not ship the product.

So taking mass consensus before shipping the product ( a key characteristic I have seen in several agile projects ) is not useful here.

Is the question stupid?

2010-07-21T23:03:00.001-07:00

Questions which dont make sense.

Question 1. Which of the following columns is greater?

Column A   The number of integersthat are less than -10
Column B   The number of integers that are greater than 9


The answer they provide goes something like this.

First, you'll need to know that there are as many negative integers as there are positive integers, because for every positive integer,

there is an equivalent negative integer. However, the set of numbers in Column B is greater than the set of numbers in Column A because

Column B also includes positive 10, while Column A does not include negative 10.

I have a counter argument for this.

For the time being, lets map -11 to +10.
Now I would have to map -12 to +11.
-13 to +12 etc.
If I represent -11 as x and +10 as y (x and y being constants), the mapping becomes like this.

X -> Y
x-1 -> y+1
x-2 -> Y+2.

Now I denote the numbers added to x and y as z (z is a variable which increases by one always).

X-Z -> Y+Z . Note that Z is the same for both L.H.S and R.H.S.

The mapping holds true irrespective of the value of Z, even when  z-> infinity ( basically we say that Z tends to infinity). . For any value of Z from 1 to infinity, there is a number X-Z which can map to X+Z.

Hence by the law of induction, both are equal.

Column A is infinity and column B is infinity. This is the reason we cannot compare one infinity to another.

Do let me know your views. :)

Similarity between bug report and a case on trial before the court!

2010-07-21T00:20:00.000-07:00

Sometimes logging a bug is like putting a case before the court.
In court, we talk about "air tight" cases. Similar is the case with bugs. In cases put on trial before the court, if there is any ambiguity in the facts, the case is summarily rejected. Similarly, we cannot log defects bases on "hunches". Hunches can be the "basis" of bugs. That is when we need to do our homework and make the case (the bug report) as tight as possible.

If I say that, in a particular scenario, the application is not working, then I should do my homework and find out what other scenarios it works and what all scenarios it wont work. This helps devs ( in fixing the issue) also .
The major advantage is that all the manifestations of the bug are fixed in one shot and no more time is spent by devs in fixing the same bug.

I have seen time and again, when a bug is logged, it is fixed for a particular scenario.Later on, the same bug is reopened or a new bug logged for another manifestation of the same issue in another scenario.

Selenium architecture

2010-06-10T03:58:00.000-07:00

Today somebody asked me about Selenium architecture and I had only a vague idea about it. One year back ( after I joined thoughtworks), I read about it and now i have forgotten it completely. :)

Looking for documents on selenium

Problem with nant and .net 3.5

2010-04-30T05:01:00.000-07:00

Today when i ran nant, i faced the following problem.

[loadtasks] Scanning assembly "NAntCollections" for extensions.
[loadtasks] Scanning assembly "NantTasks" for extensions.
[loadtasks] Scanning assembly "Newtonsoft.Json" for extensions.

BUILD FAILED

C:\ServicesTests\tests\ServicesTests.build(9,4):
Could not include build file 'C:\ServicesTests\tests\env.build'.
Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

The reason is a bug in the older nant.
It has been fixed in 0.90-alpha1 (April 1, 2010)

From the release notes

.NET Framework 3.5
•Modified version (as returned by framework::get-version()) to "3.5".

Using selenium with weird id's

2010-04-14T06:05:00.000-07:00

One problem i faced today was with weird id's.

A button had the id "Seat_Outward_558694241". Each time, the number "558694241" would change. Using xpath with complete dom could create brittle tests. Since xpath is basically relative position, if the button is moved outside the table ( in which it was currently residing), the test would have failed.

Solution

//input[@type='button' and @value='Seat Plan']

This is also xpath, but it would not fail as long as there is a button with caption "Seat plan".

Software testing adequacy

2010-04-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

In 1972, Dijkstra claimed that “program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never their absence”

Has software testing evolved after this?

Terms which are related to software testing adequacy

Statement coverage.

Branch coverage.

Path coverage.

Mutation adequacy.

Selenium Rc

2009-01-23T03:57:00.001-08:00

I was using selenium rc and ruby a few months back.
Today when I tried using it, there are a lot of changes and there is no documentation.

Let me go through the differences between old and new.

Old

Download selenium remote control. It is a zip file. Unzip the file.
Now you will find the selenium server ( a jar file which u have to run from the command prompt) and the selenium client for ruby ( a driver file in the respective language, ie for ruby, u may expect selenium.rb)

Just copy selenium.rb to the project . In Netbeans IDE, u have to right click project, select properties, add to project ( jar or folder) and select the appropriate client driver.

New
In the ruby client folder, no selenium.rb exists. A doc folder is present which asks us to install the selenium gem.

Great, now it is a gem, but what am i supposed to do after that. I installed the gem.
When i run the ruby tests, a lot of errors come up. When i google for these errors, no help comes up.

Dot net to the rescue

I created a "test project" in visual studio 2008. Added the references, (by right clicking references and selecting browse -> selecting all the dlls inside the dot net client driver folder (inside remote control) ) and then copy pasted the code from selenium ide. Wonder of wonders! it works!!

From the code window, here is a sample test which verifies some basic test on the application ui.

using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using System.Threading;
using NUnit.Framework;
using Selenium;

namespace SeleniumTests
{
[TestFixture]
public class NewTest
{
private ISelenium selenium;
private StringBuilder verificationErrorsa;

[SetUp]
public void SetupTest()
{
selenium = new DefaultSelenium("localhost", 4444, "*chrome", "http://buytickets.thetrainline.com/");
selenium.Start();
verificationErrors = new StringBuilder();
}

[TearDown]
public void TeardownTest()
{
try
{
selenium.Stop();
}
catch (Exception)
{
// Ignore errors if unable to close the browser
}
Assert.AreEqual("", verificationErrors.ToString());
}

[Test]
public void TheNewTest()
{
selenium.Open("/");
try
{
Assert.IsTrue(selenium.IsTextPresent("Buy train tickets"));
}
catch (AssertionException e)
{
verificationErrors.Append(e.Message);
}
selenium.Click("dnn_ctr24339_TissipGenericForm_LoginStatusAndRedirector.LoginStatus");
selenium.WaitForPageToLoad("30000");
try
{
Assert.IsTrue(selenium.IsTextPresent("Log in"));
}
catch (AssertionException e)
{
verificationErrors.Append(e.Message);
}
selenium.Click("//a[@id='dnn_ctr24339_TissipGenericForm_LoginStatusAndRedirector.Home']/span");
selenium.WaitForPageToLoad("30000");
try
{
Assert.IsTrue(selenium.IsTextPresent("Buy train tickets"));
}
catch (AssertionException e)
{
verificationErrors.Append(e.Message);
}
}//end of new test

}
}

Trying to run selenium with ruby

2009-01-20T22:15:00.000-08:00

I had run with selenium.rb
Now they have converted it into a gem. Have to figure out how to use gem (if possible) with netbeans.

The selenium remote control download contains different folders for each language. Previously the ruby folder contained selenium.rb

Now the ruby folder contains only documentation. No ruby files. The documentations says to install selenium gem.

I wil give it a try and update this blog

Installed today in linux - ubuntu

2008-11-18T08:57:00.001-08:00

Successfully installed the following.

1. Adobe acrobat reader - it should be a ".deb" package. Not an "rpm. I made that mistake here.
If you are using Open Suse, then rpm would be fine.

2. Installed Virtual box - Then installed Window XP in it. - > Windows XP is working fine.

3. Installed JDK - > and net beans on top of that.

Scribefire - easy blogging for everybody

2008-11-18T08:40:00.001-08:00

I installed scribe fire. This is one tool I like best.
Easy to blog, with no hassles.

You can expect a lot more blogs in my site - with this tool! :)

I wanna run ALL windows programs on Linux!!

2008-11-15T19:38:00.000-08:00
The solution seems to be "virtualization". Let me install vmware players and I will let you know the results.

Tristan Rhodes tells us about the five possible alternatives here-> http://useopensource.blogspot.com/2007/02/five-ways-to-use-windows-apps-in-linux.html

1. Use an open source alternative instead. And he gives the website (http://www.osalt.com/) which can provide open-source alternatives to any windows program u want.

2. Buy a commercial product that was designed for Linux

3. Use Wine to run the application in Linux -> The drawback is that all applications cannot be ported to linux.

4. Run Windows in a Virtual Machine -> Virtual box seems to be promising. I will let you know the results.

5. Run the application on a remote Windows system --> This is when you already have a windows server running for you. :)

Playing Quake 3 Arena in Linux

2008-10-29T06:54:00.000-07:00

Successfully installed Quake 3 Arena with Wine.

Started playing.. and enjoying a lot!!

Type wine /pathtocdrom/setup.exe to install the game.
Type wine quake3.exe in the installation directory to run the game.

Screenshot is attached.

Wine : Running windows programs on Linux

2008-10-28T23:10:00.000-07:00
http://www.go2linux.org/run-windows-software-on-linux-with-wine

I followed this great tutorial.
I could run putty.exe on Windows!!

The wine version I have used is : wine-1.1.7-2.1.i586.rpm

Other than this wine rpm, I have not installed anything!!

Installing nvidia driver on Opensuse 10.2

2008-10-27T00:01:00.000-07:00
openSUSE 10.2

It is very easy, most of the time.
WARNING: The NVIDIA driver RPMs for openSUSE 10.2 are built against the default kernel on the DVD and they should work after kernel updates provided trough YaST Online Update (YOU), but sometimes they don't, because the kernel update, forced by security reasons, broke compatibility with previous version. In this case you should follow instructions in the section The Hard Way to restore 3D.

1. Import the NVIDIA GnuPG key. Login in console as root user and type, or simply copy and paste using mouse:

rpm --import ftp://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/10.2/repodata/repomd.xml.key

2. Add the NVIDIA rpm-md repository: ftp://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/10.2/ to the package manager.

* To do this in YaST, go to Software -> Installation Source. Now hit Add and then select Specify URL. In there, enter the above URL and then hit Next, and then Finish.
* Or, to do this in Zypper execute:

zypper sa ftp://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/10.2/ nvidia

3. Identify which 'nvidia' driver packages you need. This depends on the exact model of your card. For a newer card you'll probably need x11-video-nvidiaG01 and nvidia-gfxG01-kmp-default packages. If your card is part of the NVIDIA Legacy then you'll need x11-video-nvidia and nvidia-gfx-kmp-default. (The list is taken from http://www.suse.de/~sndirsch/nvidia-installer-HOWTO.html)

If you are running on a non-default kernel flavour, you may need nvidia-gfxG0-kmp-bigsmp instead of nvidia-gfxG0-kmp-default (or nvidia-gfx-kmp-bigsmp instead of nvidia-gfx-kmp-default). "bigsmp" here is a your kernel flavor. You can find out your kernel flavor by running uname -r.

4. Install the identified packages, e.g. x11-video-nvidiaG0 and nvidia-gfxG0-kmp-default.

* To do this with Zypper. for example, execute:

zypper install x11-video-nvidiaG0 nvidia-gfxG0-kmp-default

5. Restart X (Logout and press --).

6. Enjoy!

6. The kernel update will trigger installation of new NVIDIA kernel drivers. This addition will leave the old versions present, they need to be removed manually. Run:

rpm -qa '*nvidia-gfx*'

If you have a new "nvidia-gfxG01-..." package in this list, you can remove the left over nvidia-gfx-... package(s).
[edit]
SUSE Linux 10.1 and SLED 10

*
o Add the YUM repository ftp://download.nvidia.com/novell/sle10sp1 to the package manager (YAST or ZEN).

Xine FAQ

2008-10-04T21:04:00.000-07:00
Step by step guide to run xine

You need to download the xine engine (libxine). Get the libxine rpm which more closely matches yourCPU:
libxine1-(version)-xxxxxx.i586.rpm for Pentium/Pentium MMX
libxine1-(version)-xxxxxx.i686.rpm for Pentium II/III/IV
libxine1-(version)-xxxxxx.k6.rpm for AMD K6
libxine1-(version)-xxxxxx.k7.rpm for AMD Athlon/Duron

If you don't know your CPU just get the i586 package.
Download xine-ui:
xine-ui-(version)-xxxxxx.i586.rpm for any CPU.

Install the packages (you need to be root):
# rpm -U libxine1* xine-ui*

If you want full DVD support download and install libdvdcss:
libdvdcss-1.2.8-1.network.i386.rpm

By default, xine expects to find your DVD-ROM at /dev/dvd. Creating a symbolic link to your device is recommended (for example, /dev/hdc or /dev/scd0). The command below should work for most users:
# ln -s /dev/cdrom /dev/dvd

Make sure the DMA is enabled for your DVD-ROM, otherwise playback will be 'jumpy'.
# hdparm -d1 /dev/cdrom

If you want full Windows Media Video and Quicktime support download and install:
w32codec-0.52-1.i386.rpm

If you want full Real Media support download and install:
RealPlayer9-9.0.7.151-4.i386.rpm newest version
(alternative rpm for fedora core: RealPlayer9-9.0.7.151-6.fdr.0.i386.rpm), or
RealPlayer8-8.0.3.412-5.i386.rpm older version (if you have problems instaling RealPlayer9)
obs: Depending on your distro, you might need /usr/sbin/update-alternatives or libXm.so.2
Type 'xine' at your console window and enjoy...

Learning ruby

2008-07-06T22:53:00.000-07:00
The next few posts would be related to learning ruby.
My project was on "ruby on rails".

But to understand rails, I believe, I should know ruby first.

I have joined an online course "http://rubylearning.org/class/".
I will be posting reviews about the same here.

The course is for two/three months.

The following online book "http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/" seems interesting.

Automation using selenium

2008-06-20T23:56:00.000-07:00

I will provide the steps for automation testing as a series of tutorials.

The automation is going to be done using the selenium tool (free) and Netbeans IDE (free again)!

Steps

1. Download firefox browser, if you already don't have one.

2. Start firefox and go to the selenium website. Selenium is available as a plugin for firefox.

http://selenium.openqa.org/

We need the "selenium ide" plugin. So we go here : http://release.openqa.org/selenium-ide/1.0-beta-2/selenium-ide-1.0-beta-2.xpi

3. When the browser prompts you, say "open the file" and the plugin will get installed in your browser.

4. Alternatively, you could save the file to your desktop. Now drag and drop the file into the browser window. This will install the plugin into Firefox.

Result
You should be able to access the plugin from the tools menu.

See the screenshot below.

Learning python - python411

2008-06-15T23:51:00.001-07:00

The best site (free) that I have come across to learn python is "http://www.awaretek.com/tutorials.html#begin".

Justin (my brother) suggested this. It has many useful podcasts.
I like podcasts because they help me to easily retain the information I learned .

Learning becomes fun!!

I am going to learn python using this site.

The first tutorial I am going to try is

http://uselesspython.com/JoeUselessWritesAProgram.html

It is supposed to be very simple..
Will keep you posted on the same!!

Technorati Tags: python411, learn python, python programming, beginners

Free icons!!

2008-06-15T23:05:00.001-07:00

Get your free (as in freedom) icons here.

http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/

I have checked them and they look really great!!

Trying to add Adsense to my blog

2008-06-14T23:13:00.001-07:00
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=50288

Nvidia drivers for OpenSuse

2008-06-14T22:54:00.000-07:00
How To
How to install latest Nvidia driver for Suse 10.2

Don'ts
Dont search in google.
Dont follow the instructions in any google search result

Do's
Head over to "http://en.opensuse.org/Nvidia"
Also read "http://en.opensuse.org/Nvidia"

Speeding up video playback on xine

2008-06-14T22:12:00.000-07:00
To speedup videoplayback, you should enable DMA.

> hdparm -d /dev/dvd
bash: hdparm: command not found

Googled it. First result, you have to be logged in as root.
Here goes.

guest@linux-7vgo:~> su
Password:
linux-7vgo:/home/guest #
linux-7vgo:/home/guest # bash: hdparm: command not found
bash: bash:: command not found

Now second result in google says " you have to login as root as -1".
Here goes..

linux-7vgo:/home/guest # su -l
linux-7vgo:~ # hdparm -d /dev/dvd

/dev/dvd:
using_dma = 1 (on)

Success!!

If it is off (0), we have to enable it.
sudo hdparm -d 1 $DVD_DEVICE

More links for developing firefox extensions

2008-06-14T21:38:00.001-07:00

http://digg.com/programming/How_to_create_a_Firefox_extension_step_by_step_tutorial

http://www.businesslogs.com/technology/firefox_extension_tutorial.php

http://www.borngeek.com/firefox/toolbar-tutorial/

http://digg.com/programming/How_To_Your_First_Firefox_Extension_Say_XUL

how to create firefox plugin

2008-06-14T20:51:00.001-07:00

I use fire fox plugins and I like them very much.

eg:

1. selenium ide (Test automation tool)
2. Scribe (For posting blogs..this blog is being posted to blogger by scribe)
3. Gspace (converting your gmail to virtual hard disk...storing all your files online)
4. Down them all etc

So how to write one for myself.
Googled it.

Hey, I have coined a new word..googled (like countless millions already found out)

Here is the link I am reading now...
http://www.businesslogs.com/technology/firefox_extension_tutorial.php

Netbeans installed successfully

2008-06-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

Netbeans was installed successfully!
Here is a screenshot.

Failures

First I installed netbeans by changing to root.
And this failed.
Steps
Suppose you are currently logged in as user1.
> su
> Now type the password.
manojtesting

You are "root".
Now if you run the Netbeans installer , it fails.

But if you dont do "su", then Netbeans gets installed successfully!!

Downloading of jdk complete..what next?

2008-06-14T02:36:00.001-07:00

The jdk was downloaded as .bin
Running it as ./filename did not work.
Nor did just typing the filename.

Google gave the answer like this..
sh filename.bin

It worked!!

First the license agreement...

Pressed "Enter" a zillion times...:)

Now i type "yes" and press "Enter".

It worked!!

JDK was installed.
Output

Java(TM) SE Development Kit 6 successfully installed.

JDK never asks the user where to install the Jdk.
It installs itself in the same directory where the jdk installer was run..
Just remember that!!!

Aim -> To install Netbeans 6.1 on Linux

2008-06-14T00:44:00.001-07:00

Downloaded Netbeand 6.1 Linux version. My linux box is OpenSuse, by the way.

Installing it gave me the message.. It cannot find the jdk.

Checking that ..found it to be true.. the machine did not have jdk, only java runtime.

Going to the sun site

Ya, here it is.

Linux self-extracting file
jdk-6u6-linux-i586.bin 67.25 MB

Will take one hour approximately...
See you in one hour...

Extreme sports

2008-06-13T04:56:00.000-07:00

I like doing these kinds of stuff ;)
Here is the photo...!!

Free CSS?

2008-06-12T04:19:00.001-07:00

Need to check on this site!!

http://www.freecsstemplates.org/

Learning ruby - Baby steps

2008-06-10T22:18:00.001-07:00

Baby Steps...

First you must have an editor.
For practical reasons, I suggest Netbeans IDE 6.1
Go ahead and download it. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux!

First program -Hello world

puts displays output to the screen.

To print hello world: puts "Hellow world"
(Bold letters are source code).

The opposite of puts is gets.
eg:
value =gets()
It returns whatever the user has typed on the screen.

you can embed a variable inside a string like this.

Syntax:
print( 'What is your name: ' )
name = gets()
puts( "Hello #{name}" )

By the way, I tried "SciTE" - the default editor which comes with Ruby.
Good, but not great.
Then I tried Netbeans 6.1. It was amazing!!
1. Intelli sense -> you type a method, all methods are there in the pop-up, with descriptions and usage! A great tool to learn the language and get good at it!!
2. Auto completion -> You say "def" and type the function name and "end" is automatically typed and aligned for you by Netbeans. Three kisses to Netbeans!!

Technorati Tags: baisc Netbeans 6.1 ruby SciTE

New login created for irctc

2008-06-10T02:22:00.001-07:00

New login "manoj????" was created.
each question mark is related to my Persistent office equipment.

The password is as usual.

IRCTC Railway ticket booking

2008-06-10T02:20:00.001-07:00

http://www.irctc.co.in

This is a great site for booking your railway tickets.
Just create a login and book your tickets upto three months in advance.

You can book "tatkal" tickets as well.
Credit card is mandatory. Debit problems give some problems with this site.

Multiple Gmail ID's in gmail

2008-06-09T22:30:00.001-07:00

How can you get multiple email id's from one gmail account?

Here is the scenario.

The product I test requires multiple users. Each user has to sign up first and the password is sent to his email account.
I have one gmail account. And I dont want to create 20 gmail accounts.
What should I do?

The solution was provided by Saurabh Seth ( and his brother).
Send the mail to "<username> +<junk value>@gmail.com

So example email addresses would be.. (assuming my email address is manoj@gmail.com)

1. manoj+user1@gmail.com
2. manoj+user2@gmail.com
3. manoj+user3@gmail.com etc....

Python for beginners

2008-06-09T20:03:00.001-07:00

Hey, I have decided to study Python.

I will be continuing this as a series...

Typing in what I study each day. So watch the topics posted!

Python was created BY Guido van Rossum.

It is a general purpose lanague, very fast ( but not as much as C) and we can program it at a higher level of abstraction.
Python is easy to learn, easy to use and at the same time highly powerful.
founded
Python is implemented in three flavours.

1. CPython (this is the "Standard" Python. It was developed first and is more stable than any other implementation).

2.JPython ( Python for java language - all functions of Python _+ all functions of Java is available. Requires the JVM)

3. Iron Python ( Python implementation for dot net developers. Supports .net functionality).

Mustard functions - Hypothetical interpreter for GUI Testing

2008-06-09T05:28:00.001-07:00

Here are the functions of the hypothetical interpreter "Mustard'.

MUSTARD FUNCTIONS

Login CLICK TAB SPACE ENTER TYPE CHECK EXEC
DELAY END BEGIN TYPEFILE

1. Login: Used for logging into a web page. The url of the web page should be stored in Url.txt. The X and Y co-ordinates of “username” text box should be stored after that.

An ideal url file (url.txt) would look as given below.

https://ps2332/S3Control/index.jsp

488 321

Work flow

Web page is opened with address https://ps2332/S3Control/index.jsp. In the login page, the point 488, 321 is clicked. This brings the cursor inside the “username” text box.

Now the username “A” is typed. TAB is pressed to go to “password” text box. Password “B” is typed. TAB is pressed to bring focus to “Login” button. The “Enter” key is pressed to login to the page.

Usage: Login A B

A= username

B= password

2. CLICK: The function is used for simulating mouse click on any point on the screen.

Usage: CLICK X Y

X= x co-ordinate of point to be clicked.

Y= y co-ordinate of point to be clicked.

3. TAB = Simulates pressing of TAB key.

4. SPACE = Simulates pressing of SPACE key.
5. ENTER = Simulates pressing of ENTER key.

6. TYPE = The function is used for simulating keystrokes from the keyboard.

Usage: TYPE ABC

The text “ABC” would be entered (say into a text box).

7. CHECK = Check if a window with specified caption contains the specified text

Usage: CHECK A B

Checks if a window with the caption “A” and text “B” exists. If the window exists, the test case is shown as passed (the name of the test case would be the test case in which the CHECK function is present) along with the date and time.

If the specified window does not exist, the test case is considered failed.

If a test case passes, an appropriate line is entered into “success.txt”.

If a test case fails, similar line is appended to “failure.txt”.

Note: Users of Winrunner may consider this similar to CHECKPOINT.

8. EXEC = Used for running an external program.

Usage: EXEC notepad.exe

This would run the notepad program.

9. DELAY= Used to make the automator wait for some time (in milliseconds)

Usage: DELAY X

X= Time in milliseconds.

10. TYPEFILE = Used to input multiple data items. This is used in conjunction with looping (BEGIN…END).

Type all data into a single text file. Each data entry should be separated by a new line.

Usage: TYPEFILE Users.txt

11. BEGIN= BEGIN is used along with END to simulate a loop.

Usage:

BEGIN 4 --------------------------------------> Begin the loop here.

CLICK 85 264//ADD NEW USER

DELAY 500

TAB //BRINGS CONTROL TO USERNAME

TYPEFILE Users.txt

TAB //FIRST NAME

TYPE MANOJ

TAB //LAST NAME

TYPE THARAYIL

TAB //EMAIL

TYPE manoj_tharayil@yahoo.com

TAB //ANALYTITIC PASSWORD

TYPE changeme

CLICK 51 489 //click on save.

DELAY 500

CHECK Add/Edit User

CLICK 455 442 // //TO CLOSE THE CONFIRMATION MESSAGE

END ----------------------------------> End the loop here.

Tool for capturing and tracking requirements

2008-06-08T21:58:00.001-07:00

I am looking for a free tool - good if it is opensource - great if it in python or java - the two languages i like best.

The tool should be able to capture requirements.
We should be able to track it as well.

I am imagining three checkboxes - 1) completed 2) Not done 3) In progress
and a text box called "Comments" against each of these requirements.

Unit Testing Ruby on Netbeans IDE

2008-06-01T23:48:00.001-07:00

For ruby unit testing, we need to extend from the class "Test::Unit::TestCase?".

Suppose the following "Demo" class exists. It has only one method ie “return_two”.
class Demo

def return_two
2
end
end

The method "return_two" returns the value 2. We could have written "return 2" or just "2" since ruby returns the value of the last line in the method.

Now let us write the class to test the "Demo" class. I have used Netbeans IDE.

By convention, we have to name test classes as "Test+ClassName?". So we have "TestDemo?" as the classname. Here is the ruby code.
$:.unshift File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__),'..','lib')

require 'test/unit'
require 'demo'

class TestDemo < Test::Unit::TestCase

def test_foo
d= Demo.new
assert_equal 2, d. return_two

# assert_equal("foo", bar)
end
def test_fail
d= Demo.new
assert_equal 3, d. return_two
end

end

Now the method "test_foo" tests the method "return_two" of "Demo" class.

In detail:

1. First the class “Demo” is instantiated using “Demo.new”

2. Next, the variable “d” is used to store the reference to the newly instantiated “Demo” object.

3. The method “assert_equal” checks whether the expected value (2) matches with the actual value (d. return_two). Since this matches, the test case will pass.

4. There is another method called “test_fail”. This checks whether the expected value (3) is equal to the actual value (d. return_two). Of course, this method will fail.

When we run the “TestDemo?” program, following output is obtained.
Loaded suite C:\Documents and Settings\manoj_tharayil\My Documents\NetBeansProjects\RubyTesting\lib\test_demo
Started
F.
Finished in 0.131 seconds.

1) Failure:
test_fail(TestDemo) [C:\Documents and Settings\manoj_tharayil\My Documents\NetBeansProjects\RubyTesting\lib\test_demo.rb:14]:
<3> expected but was
<2>.

2 tests, 2 assertions, 1 failures, 0 errors

Running multiple tests – Testsuite ¶

Suppose we have another class “example”.

Here is the code.
class Example
def return_five
5
end
end

The method “return_five” returns 5.

So here is the class “TestExample?” to test the above class.
$:.unshift File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__),'..','lib')

require 'test/unit'
require 'example'

class TestExample < Test::Unit::TestCase

def test_foo
k=Example.new
assert_equal 5, k.return_five,"Success"

end

def test_fail
k=Example.new
assert_equal 6, k.return_five,"Success"

end
end

The sample method “test_foo” would always pass.

The method “test_fail” would always fail.

Here is the output when the “TestExample?” class is run.
Loaded suite C:\Documents and Settings\manoj_tharayil\My Documents\NetBeansProjects\RubyTesting\lib\test_example
Started
F.
Finished in 0.195 seconds.

1) Failure:
test_fail(TestExample) [C:\Documents and Settings\manoj_tharayil\My Documents\NetBeansProjects\RubyTesting\lib\test_example.rb:21]:
Success.
<6> expected but was
<5>.

2 tests, 2 assertions, 1 failures, 0 errors

Now we have two classes

1. TestExample?

2. TestDemo?

We need to run the tests in both the classes. Test suite comes into the picture.

TestSuite? code ¶

Create a test suite class, say “ts_suite”
require 'test/unit'

# Add your testcases here

require 'test_example'
require 'test_demo'
#require 'tc_3'

The above test suite says

1. First run the test case "test_example".

2. Then run the test case "test_demo".

3. It will not run "tc_3" since it is commented out.

We can go on adding test cases to the test suite as above. Here is the output from the test suite when it is run.
Loaded suite C:\Documents and Settings\manoj_tharayil\My Documents\NetBeansProjects\RubyTesting\lib\ts_suite
Started
F.F.
Finished in 0.17500000000000002 seconds.

1) Failure:
test_fail(TestDemo) [C:/Documents and Settings/manoj_tharayil/My Documents/NetBeansProjects/RubyTesting/lib/../lib/test_demo.rb:14]:
<3> expected but was
<2>.

2) Failure:
test_fail(TestExample) [C:/Documents and Settings/manoj_tharayil/My Documents/NetBeansProjects/RubyTesting/lib/test_example.rb:21]:
Success.
<6> expected but was
<5>.

4 tests, 4 assertions, 2 failures, 0 errors

You can see that there are 2 failures – one in each class.

The failures are “hyperlinks” – when clicked would take us to the exact line in the method of the class which failed.

Happy Testing!!

Interesting website for books

2008-05-31T23:23:00.001-07:00

Just joined goodreads.com

Configuring thunderbird with gmail

2008-05-31T22:38:00.001-07:00

Not able to send email from my desktop.

sending a picture from Gwenview opened up "KMail composer" asking me to configure the pop3 account.

Searching in google - for "gmail pop3".

Google supports only following mail clients. ( http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=12103 )
Apple Mail 3.0
Outlook Express
Outlook 2002
Outlook 2003 (see our animated demo)
Outlook 2007
Thunderbird 2.0
Windows Mail
Other

So "Thunderbird 2.0" it was.

Configuring thunderbird with gmai is given in detail here.

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=38343

So fired up Yast and entered thunderbird. Downloading the latest version (around 25 MB).

QT4 - developing application on opensuse linux

2008-05-31T22:03:00.001-07:00

There is a cool feature introduced in Windows xp.

If your computer is going to hang, just pull out "task bar" and "End task" the application.

Why don't we have something similar in linux?

I decided to create one.

Which is the language and the IDE we can use here.

My brother Justin suggested QT4.
I researched. He was right.

The remaining blogs would be dedicated to QT4.

Fedora core 9 crashed on amd64 bit.

2008-05-31T20:34:00.001-07:00

I spent four days downloading Fedora core 9. It was a whopping 4.5 GB.
Yesterday I tried installing it and it crashed.
The computer just went off. Phit!!!

Reason: Fedora core 9 is using the latest bleeding edge technologies.
Currently Nvidia is not supporting drivers for KDE 4.
Guess what? Fedora core 9 is using KDE 4.

Well, bad luck for the users!!
All you can see is the crash of Fedora core 9.
Dont bother to read the release notes if you are using Nvidia drivers.
See the crash, reboot your machine and install another Linux.

My favourite Linux is Open Suse 10
I love the way these people do everything.
Right from the time, the installer begins to the end - where you install additional software using Yast, everythng is a breeze!!

Do remember NOT to install ZEN Virtualization. It is a real pain in the ass!!

For suse 10.3, they have recongnized the mistake and removed the software from the official release.

Advantages of blogging

2008-05-31T20:25:00.003-07:00

We face a lot of issues in our day to day life.

As software engineers, most of them are related to software testing.
We find answers to these problems after much research.

Why not share it in the blog?
People all over the world who face similar problems could benefit from it.

Blogging from Firefox using scribe fire

2008-05-31T20:25:00.001-07:00

We could use scribe fire to blog from firefox.

Scribe is available as a plugin from the firefox website.

After installation, you can configure scribe to connect to blogspot.com easily.

Testing with scribe fire

2008-05-31T19:20:00.001-07:00

This is a test.

How to install a ruby build - dependent on mysql

2008-05-28T23:44:00.001-07:00
Download the build from SVN .

Pre-requisite

Tortoise svn is setup and is working properly.
Ruby and rake are installed.

Steps

1. In any directory, create a new folder. Rename it to something like "Test build version 0.5 build 1".
2. Right click on the folder and select "SVN checkout" from the menu.
3. In the pop-up "Checkout", make sure the "URL of repository" field has the correct data.
4. Now in the "Revision" heading, select the "Revision" check box and enter the revision number (say "333").
5. Click on "ok".

Result:
The build gets downloaded to the new directory you created in step 1.

Configuring the build.

1. Now go to the directory "Test build version 0.5 build 1". Navigate to config->database.yml
2. Edit the file "database.yml".
3. Under the heading "development", change the database field to something like "Testdatabase_05_2".
4. Change the password to current password of "mysql database".
5. Save the file.

Creating the above database in mysql.

1. Open a command prompt and type the following command.

>mysql -uroot -proot123

Root is the user name.
root123 is the password.

Note that there is no space between -u and the username.

Here is the output from the command prompt.

Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 18
Server version: 5.0.51b-community-nt MySQL Community Edition (GPL)

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.

Now type the following command "create database Testdatabase_05_2".

mysql> create database Testdatabase_05_2
-> ;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql>

Now we have created the database "Testdatabase_05_2".

Populating the database with data (using rake)

1. open a command prompt.
2. Go to the directory where the build is downloaded. ie "Test build version 0.5 build 1".
3. Run the rake command to populate the database "rake db:schema:load ".
4. You will get some output which denotes that the database is populated.

Running the server.

1. Navigate to the directory where build is downloaded.
2. Run the ruby command to start the server.
eg:

E:
cd E:\ParasharBuilds\Parashar version 0.5 build 2
ruby script/server --port=3005

Eccentricities of xampp

2008-05-26T01:02:00.001-07:00
Xampp asks you to secure the password.

After securing the password, what is the username to login to xampp website?

During securing of xampp, it only asks for the password

Solution:

The default user is "lampp"

If you used xampp to change the passwords, the user should still be "lampp"

Website: http://www.apachefriends.org/f/viewtopic.php?t=22869

Installing ruby on rails in linux - the easy way

2008-05-25T19:32:00.000-07:00
Ruby was already present in the system.

To install rails, we have to install gems first.

Download gems, go to that directory, login as root

> su
Password:
and type as below.

ruby setup.rb

Now to install rails, we have to install a lot of gems first.
All this can be done automatically if you type

gem install rails --include-dependencies

Result is given below.

# gem install rails --include-dependencies
INFO: `gem install -y` is now default and will be removed
INFO: use --ignore-dependencies to install only the gems you list
Bulk updating Gem source index for: http://gems.rubyforge.org/
Bulk updating Gem source index for: http://gems.rubyforge.org/
Successfully installed rake-0.8.1
Successfully installed activesupport-2.0.2
Successfully installed activerecord-2.0.2
Successfully installed actionpack-2.0.2
Successfully installed actionmailer-2.0.2
Successfully installed activeresource-2.0.2
Successfully installed rails-2.0.2
7 gems installed
Installing ri documentation for rake-0.8.1...
Installing ri documentation for activesupport-2.0.2...
Installing ri documentation for activerecord-2.0.2...
Installing ri documentation for actionpack-2.0.2...
Installing ri documentation for actionmailer-2.0.2...
Installing ri documentation for activeresource-2.0.2...
Installing RDoc documentation for rake-0.8.1...
Installing RDoc documentation for activesupport-2.0.2...
Installing RDoc documentation for activerecord-2.0.2...
Installing RDoc documentation for actionpack-2.0.2...
Installing RDoc documentation for actionmailer-2.0.2...
Installing RDoc documentation for activeresource-2.0.2...
linux-edp6:/home/manoj/Documents/downlload movies/Ruby on rails/rubygems-1.1.1/rubygems-1.1.1 #

How to create screencast

2008-05-23T06:11:00.001-07:00
VNC to swf

http://www.unixuser.org/~euske/vnc2swf/howto-vnc2swf-windows.html

Photoshop effects

2008-05-22T21:40:00.001-07:00
I really love these photoshop effects.

How to create it is given here.

http://9tutorials.com/2008/05/22/amazing-photoshop-light-effect-in-steps.html

http://psdtuts.com/tutorials-effects/create-a-glowing-light-painting-effect/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcoarment/2058577742/

XAMPP on OpenSuse 10.2

2008-05-21T23:22:00.001-07:00
Another choice is installing MySQL Database Server from a complete bundled from XAMPP. XAMPP bundled MySQL Database Server with Apache webserver, PHP and Perl Engine.

Installing XAMPP on Linux box is very easy. This step was taken from apachefriends.org.

1. Download XAMPP for Linux from Apachefriends.org
2. Go to a Linux shell and login as the system administrator root:
su
3. Extract the downloaded archive file to /opt :
tar xvfz xampp-linux-1.6.tar.gz -C /opt

Warning: Please use only this command to install XAMPP. DON'T use any Microsoft Windows tools to extract the archive, it won't work.

Warning 2: already installed XAMPP versions get overwritten by this command.

That's all. XAMPP is now installed below the /opt/lampp directory.

4. Start

To start XAMPP simply call this command:

/opt/lampp/lampp start

You should now see something like this on your screen:

Starting XAMPP 1.6...
LAMPP: Starting Apache...
LAMPP: Starting MySQL...
LAMPP started.

Ready. Apache and MySQL are running.

5. Test
OK, that was easy but how can you check that everything really works? Just type in the following URL at your favourite web browser:

http://localhost

Now you should see the start page of XAMPP containing some links to check the status of the installed software and some small programming examples.

I have tested this with OpenSuse 10.2 and it works like a breeze!!

Increasing selnium functionality

2008-05-21T05:23:00.001-07:00
A good place to increase functionality of selenium

http://wiki.openqa.org/pages/viewpageattachments.action?pageId=369

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Untitled

2008-05-21T05:16:00.001-07:00
The best snacks ann likes is pav bhaji

Simple Linux commands

2008-05-19T02:02:00.001-07:00
What is the command in linux to find the version of the operating system. is Red hat or Suse etc.

# uname -a

and

# cat /etc/issue

Monday, May 19 2008

2008-05-18T22:10:00.001-07:00
Taking part in the Google Puzzle contest!!

E book readers

2007-06-21T20:33:00.001-07:00

Mobi reader - Does not display images in pdf files.

BookDB2 -- Cannot figure out how to read a pdf book. It supports "*.txt and *.csv".

After a long time...

2007-05-13T20:01:00.001-07:00

After a long time, I am back to blogging. So many things happened.. interesting things..!

My brother Justin finished his B.Sc computer Science course. Another event is his sudden interest in kung fu. He has joined kung fu classes.

I am trying to create a new scripting language- Mustart (Name was suggested by justin). Mustard is "Multi Utility ScripT for Advanced and Rapid Development".

Mustard

2007-04-29T21:54:00.001-07:00
Justin has suggested the name "Mustard" (Multi Utility ScripT for Rapid Advanced Developemnt) for the automation tool I am developing. It is a nice name , and I like it very much. I was supposed to give this tool today. But due to technical hiccups, I will be delaying it for one day. Since anyways, tomorrow is a holiday, I can give it on wednesday.

Learning MS Project

2007-02-26T03:58:00.001-08:00
MS Project 2000 Tutorial: Introduction

I am going to learn MS Project.

Feeling bored?- Online blog/game/newsgroup is here!

2007-02-23T01:56:00.001-08:00

Which are best

Online blogs

Games

Newsgroups

Analytics downloader

2007-02-22T00:36:00.001-08:00

Created a dot net program to find out if our build (Analytics) was successfully downloaded or not.

It sends email when i "test" it, but not when an actual event occurs.

It is the same code. I wonder , why it is not working?

It is one of those "things" for a programmer, when you are so near project completion, and there is this one bug which topples you!

Any free tool for blogging?

2007-02-20T01:34:00.001-08:00
W.bloggar 3.03 = it sucks

Desire to communicate

2007-02-20T00:52:00.001-08:00

The desire to communicate ---is strong in every person.

More so is the desire to get help from others. and to give help/service.

Analytics downloader does not work

2007-02-19T02:07:00.001-08:00

I could not make Analytics downloader work. And it makes me unhappy.

I wonder why it is not working on my office machine, while it works perfectly fine at home.

Using google reader

2007-02-19T01:58:00.001-08:00

I like google reader a lot. It gives so many interesting stories/facts on a lot of subjects. I hear yahoo mail has implemented the same functionality using "feeds".

Somehow I like to stick with "Google".

Linux for celeron

2007-02-16T01:43:00.001-08:00
Is knoppix the answer?

free adventure game

2007-02-15T00:39:00.001-08:00

Enjoy this Adventure game! Fight all the strange animal, Orcs while collecting as much treasure as you can. It comes with carefully crafted story and beautifully designed scenary
Freeware Maple Story at DirFile - Games > Action

Eight Steps to Implementing a Web Site

2007-02-14T22:18:00.001-08:00

In my previous articles for Unleash.com, I've explored the process of getting graphics from CorelDRAW into a Web site. Foster suggested that it might be a good time to step back and look at the bigger picture: what does it take to actually get a Web site online? In this article, I'll outline the process in broad strokes (with a few detailed tips). In future articles, we can zero in on different aspects of the process of implementing your site.
Eight Steps to Implementing a Web Site

The best gaming site

2007-02-14T01:29:00.001-08:00

WelcomeHere you can read some tutorials about making tile based games with Macromedia Flash.These tutorial are heavily based on OutsideOfSociety tutorials by Klas Kroon. Go and read them anyway, those are one of best you can find.
Tile based games

Sucker!!

2007-02-14T01:26:00.001-08:00

http://www.gametutorials.com/

is the worst f***king site!! It comes first in the google seaarch. But it sucks!

All they want you to do is buy their cd (on which all the tutorials are present).

All that can be said about this-- it is at best a code snippet library, not a tutorial for someone keenly interested in learning game programming - not for me!!

http://www.tonypa.pri.ee/tbw/flas.html is the best site.

Disadvantages

The tutorials are for "FLASH".

You have to have Flash 5 ( an older version of flash).

Advantages

The tutorials are written by one person- hence there is a flow in the tutorial.

It is narrative - you always have the feeling somebody is guiding you.

Free- They are absolutely free!

Format - The complete tutorial is available as pdf! All the source files are available in zip format.

***************

I RECOMMEND THIS SITE FOR ANYBODY INTERESTED IN GAME PROGRAMMING.

******************

Sucker!!

2007-02-14T01:25:00.001-08:00

http://www.gametutorials.com/

is the worst f***king site!! It comes first in the google seaarch. But it sucks!

All they want you to do is buy their cd (on which all the tutorials are present).

All that can be said about this-- it is at best a code snippet library, not a tutorial for someone keenly interested in learning game programming - not for me!!

http://www.tonypa.pri.ee/tbw/flas.html is the best site.

Disadvantages

The tutorials are for "FLASH".

You have to have Flash 5 ( an older version of flash).

Advantages

The tutorials are written by one person- hence there is a flow in the tutorial.

It is narrative - you always have the feeling somebody is guiding you.

Free- They are absolutely free!

Format - The complete tutorial is available as pdf! All the source files are available in zip format.

***************

I RECOMMEND THIS SITE FOR ANYBODY INTERESTED IN GAME PROGRAMMING.

******************

Creating my own game

2007-02-14T00:08:00.001-08:00

Game TutorialsGameTutorials brings you the best programming tutorials from beginner (NO experience) to advanced topics AND keeps you in touch with all the latest game ...www.gametutorials.com/ - 5k - Cached - Similar pagesTile based gamesBefore entering the "Tile based games" tutorials website, you must read the ... You can not sell the tutorials or source files or games based directly on ...www.tonypa.pri.ee/tbw/ - 3k - Cached - Similar pagesNeHe Productions: Main PageOpenGL programming. Many tutorials, sample programs/games, and source code. A CD is available for order containing all of the site.nehe.gamedev.net/ - 46k - Cached - Similar pages
game tutorial - Google Search

I want to create my own game. Maybe learn some programming in the process....

Free Desktop screen recorder!

2007-02-13T22:06:00.001-08:00

CamStudio - Desktop Screen Recorder
SourceForge.net: Files

At last, I found what I was looking for- A free desktop recorder!

CamStudio records activity from your screen and audio from a microphone into AVI video files and can also convert the AVIs into Streaming Flash videos (SWFs) using its built-in SWF Producer.

Project Admins: nickthegeek, windycity
Operating System: 32-bit MS Windows (NT/2000/XP)
License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
Category: Video Capture

Search for desktop recorder

2007-02-13T21:02:00.001-08:00

I want a free software that can record everything on my desktop. means I want to create movies through which I can teach others how to use the computer.

My search has begun...and these are some of the interesting things I found.

Mp3 My MP3 Recorder 2.0 by Digital Liquid Type: Freeware Released: 2005-05-25 Record internet radio, save to mp3 or wav.100% Spyware/Adware FREE. Record streaming audio from the internet, microphone or any other source for that matter, works directly with your system sound card sooooo... If you can HEAR IT...you can RECORD it! This program is meant to be extremely intuitive to use, with enough features to get the job done quickly and easily. Also able to scan your computer for audio file and list by filetyp

Software for desktop record free. Record your PC desktop activity, Records Your Desktop and Creates Demos Easily, allow you direct record audio streaming into mp3,wma or wav files from any so..

Linux for my home computer (celeron)

2007-02-13T01:40:00.001-08:00

After failing to install linux on my home pc, I was on the look out for a compatible linux. I found a friend in "Travis North". Read to find out more....

http://www.linuxforums.org/desktop/a_linux_distribution_for_an_old_laptop.html
I am an avid Linux user. Ever since I was introduced to the alternative operating system over a decade ago, it has grown from a small curiosity to a near obsession. Due to certain hobbies, I haven't entirely given up the Windows OS, but Linux has become my preferred operating system for every day tasks.I currently have three functional computers: My server (which runs Gentoo Linux), the game and MIDI desktop computer (running Windows XP) and a laptop which currently runs Windows XP. My goal is to find a Linux distribution that is appropriate for my laptop without having to remove Windows XP.My laptop has, as of late, become my primary machine for daily use. I use it for e-mail, web browsing, music and web development. To date, almost all of my web page designs have been created using a text editor in my Unix or Linux shell. So even with Windows on my laptop, I was easily able to shell into my server to do my web development. Over the past several months, my use of PHP has increased and my projects are growing more and more complicated. A simple console text editor is no longer sufficient to manage these larger projects. I experimented with several programming interfaces, and I settled on one that best suits my needs: Bluefish. The major drawback about this is the fact that it does not run within Windows. It is designed for the world of Linux and my desire to have Linux on my laptop has overwhelmed me. The problem, however, is that the laptop is also my wife's primary machine. Even though I have tried countless times, I have been unsuccessful in converting her to the world of Linux. As such, Windows XP must stay. Fortunately, the wonders of partitioning and boot managers will allow me to install Linux along side my Windows installation. The only problem is that my laptop isn't what you would call "state of the art".I am faced with a challenge: I need to find a Linux distribution that is both small enough, efficient enough and easy enough to maintain for my laptop. Realizing that all Linux distributions are not created equal, I did my research and was able to narrow my list to a handful of distributions that may be suitable for my needs and my laptop. Throughout the course of this article, I am going to test each of these distributions on my laptop and discuss my experiences. I will attempt to install and evaluate each distribution for a period of a couple of days. Based on my findings, I will select the distribution that best suits my needs.
A Linux Distribution for an Old Laptop - Linux Forums

http://www.linuxforums.org/desktop/a_linux_distribution_for_an_old_laptop.html

Offline blogging

2007-02-13T00:10:00.001-08:00

I am in search of a tool that can do offline blogging for me! I dont want to sit in office typing into blogger.

An offline blogger would be great. I can type my thoughts into a word like document and the offline blogger would store a copy of it in my hard disk according to date. Then later on I can publish all the files for a certain range of dates to blogger.com

Python, Creating program for event viewing

2007-02-01T22:32:00.000-08:00
I am testing the product solidcore. During testing, we look at the logs to see what exactly happened in the application.
The log we observe is tomcat.log since the produce is using tomcat. The log can become huge (around 80 to 100 Mb).
I want an application which can display me this log file and refresh it every few seconds (since the log file may change every second).
The app should be really fast.
My brother and friend Justin suggested Python. So did a good office colleague of mine. I am going to read something more about Python and see what it can do.
From the experts
PyDev is a free Eclipse plug-in that transforms Eclipse into a powerful Python and Jython development environment.
http://showmedo.com/videos/series?name=PyDevEclipseList

Complete Install:

There is a 'complete install guide' at http://www.fabioz.com/pydev/manual_101_root.html so, if you have any problems in the install, that's the place you should check (it also guides you through configuring pydev correctly).

2007-02-01T22:02:00.000-08:00
http://www.solidcore.com/learn/s3_change_explorer.html

This is the product I am working on (testing and QA).

It is a cool product!! about change configuration management.

Found John Carmack's blog

2007-01-31T23:15:00.000-08:00
http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/johnc/recent%20updates/archive?news_id=290

For those of you who dont know John Carmack, he is one of the greatest computer game programmers. He is also a great advocate of open source.

Joined second life

2007-01-31T23:05:00.001-08:00
Congratulations, ManojTharayil Tammas!
Your Basic Account has been created!

2007-01-31T02:18:00.000-08:00
http://sqlzoo.net (interesting site for various SQL queries for various DBs)
is there any tool/application/method by which we can download an entire website?
I am trying website puller from "http://www.safe-install.com/programs/website-puller.html".

The test would be : What tool could copy the website "http://sqlzoo.net/" for me without charging me a dime?

Etiquetted in office

2007-01-30T23:55:00.000-08:00
Random thoughts:
Etiquittes in office? Doesn't all offices have et's of their own?
Can i send my documents (important) to blogger?
How do i get back my blogs once it is published? How can I make a single document (sort of book) from my blogs?

Studying Auto It

2007-01-17T22:27:00.000-08:00
Today I am studying Auto It for automated testing.

Real player

2006-10-31T22:11:00.000-08:00

Real player is powered by an underlying open source media engine called Helix. And this is the helix site.

To install the source, you must use Cygwin SSH . http://www.cygwin.com/setup.exe.

2006-10-19T02:56:00.000-07:00
Two days back, Justin told me about his blogger site "Justinlinux". I went to the site, got motivated and started this site "manojtesting".

Right now, I am looking for automated testing of our project. I want to get some testing framework in which i can test our current web application.

It should be easy to use, and do the gui validations of the html pages in a breeze.