Sunday, January 27, 2008

Frog in the House

When we came home from session tonight Sharon discovered a frog on the landing leading down to the garage. I was surprised that Marilyn didn't attack and eat it.

After taking a picture I put it out back under the oak. That is where we have been hearing the frogs singing of late.

Grilling Papers

We went out of a walk just as it started raining so went shopping instead. I have been looking for a silicon basting brush for the BBQ but the store didn't have them.

Sharon found this product called Cedar Grilling Papers; soad, heat, smoke, eat! The recipe for Lime Ginger Salmon sounds great. Unfortunately the nice salmon stakes I saw on Friday were gone when I went shopping after class on Saturday.

These papers are made out of processed wood fiber, soak them for 10 minutes then warp the food and tie with a string. It steams the food and infuses a cedar flavor.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Pain Medication Consultation

I had a consult with Dr. Daniel Sewell here in Auburn yesterday. One of the things we talked about my use of ibuprofen and Tylenol PM for pain control.

Tylenol PM is acetaminophen and diphenhydramine together in one easy to swallow pill. It is like taking straight Tylenol for the pain and Benadryl as a sleep aid. I like the fact that I get a full nights sleep after taking one Tylenol PM two hours before bed but don't care for the grogginess the following morning. Dr. Sewell suggested simply taking Tylenol at night and skipping the sleeping pill part, see how that works for me. He also suggested trying Alleve (Naproxin, another NSAID like ibuprofen) as a Tylenol replacement evenings.

Reminded me to always eat something when taking ibuprofen. The frequency and dosage I am using is nothing to worry about, it is very low (3 or 4 200 mg pills per week).

The reason to use a couple of different pain relief medications is to give the body a break/rest buy using different mechanism (not over doing one metabolic process).

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Soap Opera Testing Example

A soap opera test, as I (Michael Bolton) understands Hans' definition, is an elaborate, rich and very implausible but /possible/ scenario. To me, a soap opera would be more like:
A man (Chris Patterson) and his wife (Chris Patterson) want to take their kids (from previous marriages, Chris Patterson, a boy, and Chris Patterson, a girl) on a flight from San Francisco to Glasgow to San Jose (Costa Rica) to San Jose (California) back to San Francisco. He searches for flights by schedule. He's a Super-Elite-Premium frequent flyer, but he doesn't want the upgrade that the system automatically grants him so that he can sit with his wife and kids in economy class. He requires a kosher meal, his wife is halal, the boy is a vegetarian, and the girl is allergic to wheat. He has four pieces of luggage per person (including two pairs of skis, three sets of golf clubs, two 120 lb. dogs, and three overweight suitcases), where his frequent flyer plan allows him (but only him) to take up to four checked items, but the others can only take two each. He gets to the last step on the payment page before he realizes that he has confused San Jose (California) for San Jose (Costa Rica), so the order of the itinerary is wrong. The airline cancels the flight after it has accepted his bags, and reroutes him on a partner. The partner cancels the flight (after it has accepted the bags) to San Jose (California) so it reroutes him to another competitor, who cancels the flight (after accepting the bags) to San Jose (Costa Rica) and reroutes him to another partner, who goes bankrupt after it has accepted the bags for the San Francisco flight.
---Michael B.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Hot Cocoa

In The Simpsons Movie Ned Flanders makes Bart the world's best hot cocoa that made my mouth water and my tummy warm. Just thinking about it warms my gut. I fully intend to make myself some as soon as I get the DVD of the movie and transcribe the recipe.

In the mean time, ATK sent this recipe via email. Best-Ever Hot Cocoa Mix

This hot cocoa mix can be stored in an airtight container for three months. It uses two unusual ingredients: White chocolate chips give the cocoa a soft, creamy texture and escalate the chocolate flavor; and the cornstarch in the confectioners' sugar (an ingredient manufacturers add to prevent clumping) helps thicken the cocoa.

Makes about 20 servings

3 cups nonfat dry milk
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 cups Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine ingredients in large bowl. Working in two batches, pulse ingredients in food processor until chocolate is finely ground. To make hot cocoa, stir 1/3 cup mix into 1 cup hot milk. Top with whipped cream or mini marshmallows.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Time to clean the grill

Yesterday I cooked up a batch of chicken theighs marinated on Chaka's sauce. Just like ATK predicted, there were significant flare-ups and even some burning chicken.

After a few uses

First useI really should clean the grill before cooking anything else. I know the above picture looks pretty normal for a manly grill but looking at the pictures of the virgin grate Sharon said,

You'll have to clean that awful thing before I'll eat any more of your most delicious cooking.

Sharon order a China Grill Brush and replacement pads for GrillWizard.com this morning. It should be here in a day or two.

E-mail instructions included with the order confirmation follow. China Grill Brush Here's my recommended cleaning method:

  1. Heat grate (Lid closed, vents wide open) 3-5 min.
  2. Scour - LITTLE OR NO PRESSURE is needed (just back and forth is what cleans).
  3. I use a paper napkin between the scrubs and the grate to remove any remaining oily residue.
If scrubs get a little dirty, just rinse them (installed) under Hot tap water, bounce head on paper towel to catch any debris.

Best regards, Roy (Gessert)

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Removing a URL from Google

There is a nice 12 minute video on keeping URLs out of Google and other search engines.

Recommend .htaccess for keeping pages out of search engines. This is the method I have used for years.

Google has a URL removal tool. It is now part of the Webmaster Webmaster Tools.

Some weaker methods are NOINDEX and NOFOLLOW meta tags, and robots.txt.

Interaction Based Testing Terminology

What we use to call "stubs and drivers" is seeing new life in the agile community.

Isolation based design is a better name for this metholology.

  • dummy - an object that you pass just because you have to pass something, required but nothing is actually done with it
  • fake - an object that just doesn't do a good enough job to be the real thing
  • stub - fake that returns a set of canned data designed to interact with your test case
  • spy - stub that keeps track of the data that is passed to it
  • mock - spy that takes a set of expectation ahead of time
From Google presentation, GTAC 2007: Heusser & McMillan - Interaction Based Testing.

Interaction testing is not the only thing, it is not a golden hammer. It needs to be balanced with all the other types of appropriate test methodologies (unit, load, functional, acceptance, system, etc.). Careful when you champion a test technology, be balanced.

mockobjects.com