Gaming/Software Engineering : The State of Testing

I'm going to have to be a crusty old bloke for this one... But bare with me... When I was a lad you had a 3.5" disk delivering your game to the customer (I was that customer), when I was a kid you had that audio data cassette delivering your game... If you had a bug, you had a problem, because that game never worked for your customers.

This trend, this ethos that you had to test your stuff was necessary, critical even, and I think rightly it was a corner stone of my computing education.

Yes, when I started to program I would just throw a few lines of code together, but as soon as that became a formal skill, with formal training, I had to start to test my code, I had to start to make sure things worked and not just in the normal everyday ways, but obscure, off spec and all possible ways.

This has become a core skill, and I'm sure I annoy some of my younger colleagues when they have a problem; which they have done their due diligence on but they have no idea what their bug or problem is; and I walk along listen, look at it, and come up with the answer, and if not the answer at least a plausible set of leads for investigation.

Its understandable, after all these years, I do know what I'm doing, I have dealt with systems, and hardware, and people and things going wrong so many times, in so many ways sometimes you can just feel what's going to be wrong.

The trouble today I find is it is very hard to express this skill onto others, you can't just impart all your experience to them, and when you sit and write down some of the more off the wall, but important examples, people don't believe you.  Or they believe that you're exaggerated, or they simply don't want to listen.

And so I'm seeing a generation of developers whom don't look to test, I've seen them release, to customers, some horrible, terrible code, which was buggy, broken and even tantamount to criminal.

What do these developers expect to happen?... Well, unfortunately, the half dozen or so I have been dealing with, their 20-24 age group mantra, seems to be "it's Alpha" or "it's Beta" and then the death nell for their credibility from me is "the customers will find it".

The customers will find it... Not the volunteer testers... Not the testing department... Not themselves... the Customer, someone whom has paid for, or bought into, their ideas.

Too many times, too often, and too readily, developers are passing the testing phase from themselves to others.

This was a good thing, about five or ten years ago when this trend began, programs and systems went through some form of testing and then went to open testing, to volunteers, to start that feedback cycle.  But all too often today, it's written and thrown back out there.

I hate it, I really hate it, I really wish some of those developers could stop, look at their projects; and they're good, if not potentially great projects; and then fix their shit.

21 Degrees: The Office Nirvana

There's drama in the office... And to be honest, I'm on the loosing end of it...

We've recently had lots of work done in our office, we've had new double glazed windows, which no longer allow fresh air, so then they added a new air system, which supposedly brings in ten cubic meters of fresh filtered outside air per person, but it's never on, you can really tell when it is, and it's great, but it's never on.  Then they added a very expensive set of air conditioners.

Now, I know, and you all probably know and office is not meant to be warm and cozy, if you want a place to sit and read or code which is very warm and comforting, try the local library; if it's not already shut through budget cuts.

No, your office is meant to be slightly cool to the feel, around 21 degree's I've always been lead to believe.  High ceilings are best, and if not, air condition to that temperature.

How do I know this?... Well, I used to be an office manager, and I managed the air conditioning, and I managed the people, all shapes, sizes, ages and sexes... The consensus was too warm and most people drop off late afternoon.

So, what's my problem here?  Well, I'm the latest arriving person on the flex, I always arrive around 9:30-10:00, which means I'm always the latest to leave, around 18:30-19:00.  The problem?  Everyone else in this area want the air conditioning warmer, the reason is they're all cold in the morning, they all wonder in around 7am, and disappear, leaving their phones ringing and desks empty around 15:30... This is a problem.

It's a dichotomy, because right now they're all moaning it's too cold, according to my desk thermometer (a hang over from being an office manager and worker for many years) says 21 (this is centigrade before anyone complains), and it's perfect.

The other folks around me are complaining they're cold, they're wearing jumpers, and cardigans and one chap has the biggest fleece on... They're all a lot older than me, yes at nearing forty I'm the young one, and I can't help but believe it's their age.

And, don't get me wrong, I understand they're cold, but they might need to get up and get moving, have a warm porridge breakfast, something, other than disturb the cool air situation.

Because when they've all gone home, and the sun is around this side of the building, through the un-opening double glazing, it's boiling at my desk, literally boiling.  And in this ridiculous circus I end up needing a desk fan on, because the temperature goes way up to 26+.

21 Degrees people, please, and you deal with it, I'm not the only one to know this.

From Programmer to TV Repair man

The in-laws are currently calling me... Well they're not calling me, I'm hearing second or even third hand from the wife, or my niece, or from not so subtle hints... Their TV and Cable/Internet package is playing them up.

Now, I'm not a TV repair guy, I barely know how my own TV works beyond plugging it in and turning it on, there is no compiler inside a TV, I don't know what hardware is in them and I don't have any interest, so long as they come on and go off when I want, and I can change the channel I'm pretty happy.

So, why do the in-laws call me?... Because "I'm into that stuff"... I'm not, I hate TV, I hate all the shit you watch on it, I don't really want to ever watch the TV the wife and I sit down to watch, I do it so I avoid having to pay for a divorce!

But, I've become the goto repair guy, not because I'm overly skilled, but because I have logic and common sense... "No Signal?".... Plug in the wire which gives it a signal.... "It says no viewing card?"... Have you got the card inserted all the way?....  "It just won't come on?".... Is the plug fully inserted and switched on?

You know, the basics... I admit once, just once, in all the call outs, it was something I could fix, the father-in-law had been to look at porn, yes, porn, and he'd done this by googling porn and clicking away merrily, until the machine was dead... Yes he blue screen, FBI warning wiped it.  So I recovered their files and reinstalled windows fresh.  That was the only time I've been able to see what they did, and then I couldn't help but giggle to myself.

But as if as punishment, ever since I've had this tirade of requests for repair.

The latest one, well the latest one, I could throttle someone over, they went away on holiday and left a decorator painting their house, I know my father-in-law gives this guy a hard time, he basically picks on the fellow and they make demands of him like... "put our dustbin out on Wednesday"... The guy doesn't need this shit, so when it came to moving their tele forward and painting behind he, he clearly got his revenge by simply wrenching the wires out the back and dragging it... these wires were screw capped coaxial, so they sheered straight off.

Ever since, if you so much as breath on these two wires, the tele has no signal... The difficulty is my father-in-law is about as gentle with things as using cement for make-up foundation, he just stuffs and pushes and thinks the more pressure he applies the better.  He's also incredibly long sighted, so can't see the things in front of his nose.

All in all, this leaves me with near weekly call outs...

WarThunder - Earning Crew Skill Points

Earning crew experience points in WarThunder, this has been a pet peeve of mine with the title, as it really seems to be the biggest grind fest in the game, but the one most easily remedied with a cash injection... Now, I have subbed to WarThunder, I have spent money on Golden Eagles, but I've no disposable income, I just moved, I have to decorate, I have issues at work which means we need to keep as much money aside as possible, plus it's Christmas and so we've had to buy gifts for folks.  So Golden eagles are right down there on the priority list.

Now, crew skills are essential in Full Real Battles as I want to play, strangely the vision skills apply differently in FRB & Historical battles.  It seems a tad complex to me, but essentially you still see the enemy dot... right out to infinity, but it has no text/information written around it until the range of your view point perspective... Specifically they call this mechanic "Sighted", and I'm not sure whether the skill applies more importantly in FRB & HB than in Arcade, and arcade just has "Sighted" set to a fixed distance?

Anyway, getting crew skills...

I tried to get skill points in my other planes, I've followed tips by Krebs and others... But I can't play like them, I'm not that good... I mean recommendations like "Get 6-8 kills and then fly out your other planes" is pretty... well unrealistic, in a game where the average player gets between 3 and 5 kills per game, and ground kills still don't count for much - even if you're in a bomber - its so annoying.

For example, I flew out in my reserve and rank 1 Russian planes, got a win, 5 air kills from 3 planes (twice myself being shot down)... plus 9 ground kills... I got 1 crew skill point on one plane, and 2 skill points on the other.... Dismal, for a not bad result.

Next Japanese... I got one skill point on one crew, for a five plane fly out, 8 air kills, 3 ground kills (including a destroyer) in a match we lost... So loosing the match, despite getting a decent result... Indeed in the Japanese match I got Battle Trophies for being in the top 3 on my side, so an extra 1000xp... But no crew skill points.

I just wished I had some idea how/why they were applied/awarded, I might have to read the forums - and their inevitable speculation on the subject - but having a variety of crews only with 30-50 skill points is not cutting it above rank 5...

At least I have one well trained crew on the British - over 250 skill points - so they can access training/expert on the planes and I use them for FRB... but I really want other nations in my FRB, but I can't spare the cash!