Good testers are hard to find, and impossible to maintain. The reason is very simple – people who are technically good enough to be testers, tend not to become testers but end up as developers instead. And in an amazingly idiotic twist, people who are not technically good enough to do development work, often end up as testers. Sigh.
Testers have to be good developers. In fact, I would say that they need to be the best. In order to find a hole/bugs in a software is not that easy unless you have a bunch of monkeys doing development. Otherwise, you really need to twist and turn things around to purposefully foul things up.
Therefore, I will not have any testing department in my future company. Instead, I will swap roles between teams. One team develops and another team tests. There will not be any dedicated testers and every team that develops code will also need to break code by other teams. I will pit the teams against each other. The objective of the team that tests is to find as many bugs as possible in the other teams’ project while keeping the bugs down in their own project. It’s all about scoring brownie points – which is something that all good developers care about.
Let us take gaming as an example. I used to tell friends that I can beat any computer game – not because I was particularly good at gaming, nor because I spent a lot of time at it. I am confident of beating the game because I am a developer and I know how games are written, what they can and cannot do.
So, when I beat a game, I don’t actually try to beat the game but I am trying to hack the code instead. There are lots of techniques that I have used in the past but I will not go into the technical details here.
Testers should not be conscripted from the bottom of the pile – they should be selected from the top.
PS: It usually takes me under a minute to find a problem with an apprentice’s code. The only reason that I can find it so quickly even without looking at her code is because I already know what to look for – because I was once a noob coder too! We all make mistakes and that is the best way to learn.
I’d just realised that I cannot call myself a chip-architect or microprocessor guru until I actually built one myself – from scratch! It’s not that I have not built a microprocessor before – I have and it is used in real-world products. However, I have not actually designed one of the most fundamental components of a microprocessor before – the instruction set!
A microprocessor’s instruction set is a set of predefined ones and zeros that have certain fixed patterns. These patterns are the most fundamental language that a microprocessor understands. You can consider them the basic vocabulary of a microprocessor. So, I think that until I have designed one myself, I cannot call myself a microprocessor guru.
Although AMD started off by making chips that use the Intel X86 instruction set, they eventually came up with their own extensions and finally designed their own AMD64 instruction set, that Intel was forced to copy instead. That’s demonstrating technical superiority right there – forcing your competition to imitate you.
So, I think that I will sit down one of these days and design an instruction set for my new processor – that I am keeping a little secret for now.
Sigh. I sometimes wonder whether the fault is with the system, or the students, or a bit of both.
I remember speaking up at a JPA forum organised by DAP last year and reminding everyone that JPA scholarships should be the last resort and not the first one. Every other Malaysian is applying for it and everyone seems to want to do medicine in the UK. There are just not that many places available.
I think that school counselors need to do a better job of advising students. Obviously, I don’t think that these students would be best placed as factory workers but I also do not think that everyone should end up as a doctor. There are plenty of other fields in which to excel in and I suspect that some of these students may end up doing better elsewhere.
As for the case of scholarships, while I do not think that these students have actually gotten very excellent results because there are 8,500 others better than them, I do think that there are flaws in the existing system. Some scholarships should be merit based while others should be needs based. Some of these kids come from pretty poor families and should be given a chance to get out of the poverty trap.
Personally, I think that there are faults with both the government policies and the students themselves. One thing that think should be revamped is our scholarship system. It is in need of a serious re-think. There are already so many ideas thrown about by so many parties that I won’t even bother to go into it but there is definitely a lot of room for improvement.
That said, the students, parents and families should also consider alternative career paths. Also, one set-back is not the end of their lives. There are plenty of other opportunities out there besides being a factory worker. I think that I will consider some other alternatives here instead.
STPM
It seems like a poor four-letter word but seriously, it is a well recognised examination unlike the SPM. It is a very viable alternative. There is nothing wrong with taking it – especially if you plan on doing medicine. It will open new windows to you while closing previous doors. While you may not get a JPA scholarship after STPM, there are other ones available – both inside and outside the country.
The STPM is also well recognised as a pre-university qualification for most universities around the world. Do not just limit yourself to applying for local IPTA/IPTS. Broaden your options and consider applying for overseas universities. I have several friends from Cambridge who have gone there using their STPM results instead of A-Levels/IB.
Employment
For those who are a bit cash-strapped, there are opportunities for gainful employment if you have some usable skills. While the options are limited when all you have is an SPM, you would still be able to make a decent income in many places – just stay away from the chinaman companies. Do not think of it as a dead-end though but take it as a stepping stone.
Take some time out to gain some real-world experience and save up some cash. You might even be able to fund your own further education at a later time. Keep in mind that most universities are willing to accept mature students into their degree programmes. In fact, in some countries, taking some time off after high-school is a very regular thing. It’s only us Asians who are rushing for time.
In fact, it may be a positive factor because you may not want to become a doctor once your eyes are opened to all the opportunities in the world. For people considering a career in medicine, maybe you can work as a clinic assistant for a while to learn. For people considering a career in accounting, maybe some work as an administrative assistant will work. You get the basic idea.
Entrepreneurship
To those risk takers, there are plenty of government grants available – even for young people – as long as you have a good idea and a sound business plan. Check out the guys from Cradle – they are happy to part with RM150k to fund great ideas from anyone above the age of 18. What is more important than the money is actually the experiences that you will gain, while trying to do a start-up. I can personally attest that you will not learn it anywhere else.
I think that the ultimate problem with our students is apathy. There are things that we can all do to succeed and scholarships, matriculation is just one way to achieve it. There are many others. So, please do not limit your options but go out and explore all the different paths that life has to offer you.
I am sometimes thankful that our problems, no matter how dire, are no where in comparison with that of others and I am constantly reminded of the fact that things can always get worse.
This is such a great idea and it doesn’t do any harm when you’ve got a sweet face to go along with it.
One of our youngest MPs has launched her own little newsletter – KANTA! It is a fantastic idea because of a couple of reasons: it by-passes any of the restrictions imposed licensed printers through the PPA; and it gives valuable feedback and information to the constituents with emphasis on the latter rather than the former.
So you see, I think that it is a good idea and that all our MPs should adopt it as soon as they can. Anyone can do DTP these days. There are just so many tools to use that can generate a PDF output at the end. Then, just upload it onto one of the many free file servers and off you go!
According to TheStar, our dearest PM and our so-called First Lady, would be at the Buddhist Maha Vihara this Wesak Day. On top of that, a celebrity chef would be cooking up a special dish for the honoured couple as well. What this tells me is that I would need to avoid going to temple early.
You see, I normally do my thing on Wesak Day in the morning. I would normally go to Brickfields, and perform some dana on that day – donating blood and some cash. I don’t go for the prayer or blessing sessions since I’m just there to do my own thing. I may bump into people I know and say a few words but little more. My parents would normally be volunteering and helping out with things there.
Now that our PM is going to be there at 9.30am, I would need to avoid the crowd. This means that I should really get there either well before that or well after. I guess that it is a good idea to get there real early in the morning so that I can get things over and done with. Then, I can have the rest of the day to myself.
I could feasibly cram a few chapters of FF13 into the rest of the day.
Sybreon Ones Nought 