Well, it's 10.30pm my time, and I can't login to Second Life. According to the Grid Status report on the SL website, they've 'closed logins to allow the database to recover'. Sounds fabulous. Actually, it sounds silly. If the damn database is that fragile, it needs help.
In RL, I've worked in IT (amongst other things, LOL) for over 25 years. My speciality, if one could call it that, is Breaking Things. I'm pretty good at it. I used to get to break things for real, now I tell other people how to break stuff. Some of my ex-staff Break Things for some of the biggest companies in the world. And boy, can they break stuff <grin>.
My current role is reviewing, designing and rebuilding all of the testing standards, guidelines and processes for a Really Large Company (unfortunately, one that is still stuck in the Dark Ages but, baby steps, baby steps, we'll get them there.)
I was reasonably incensed to find that I couldn't login to SL, and that coincidentally this just happened to be about ten minutes after I'd downloaded the latest Release Candidate upgrade. Now, working in software quality assurance, or as the rest of the world calls it, Testing, for so long, I don't believe in coincidences.
I do believe in testing. So, in one of those moments, you know, when fantasy and reality actually collide, I had a vision of working for Linden Labs (from home in my pjs, forget getting dressed up in heels and makeup if I'm in MY office at home) and heading up a Rescue Mission to sort out their testing. Because my view on it, to be honest, is that it's pretty crappy, and I"ve been watching for a while now. Sadly, I can't take off the Testing Hat when playing games, which is tragic and probably indicates I need to either get a life or a real job.
So I headed on over to the Linden Labs employment pages - well, what else is a girl to do when she can't log in and buy shoes - and looked at all the jobs they've got vacant. Imagine my utter fascination to learn that they don't have a single job, for Testers. I'm beginning to think this may well explain why the thing is crashing ten minutes after a new release. (No, really? Really.) They've got something called a Quality Assurance Engineer, and I got a bit excited about that til I read the job spec. Which is full of techie terms and engineering references and reinforced my viewpoint that, in all seriousness, someone needs to grab a few senior Lindens by the ears and go 'USER ACCEPTANCE TESTING', (well, along with automated test harnesses, no, not the ones you've got, some really sexy ones and boy do I have a framework for you), some SERIOUS SVP (for the technically minded amongst you, that means the S,the V, AND the P, not just bits thereof) and probably a major overhaul of the integration and infrastructure testing as well, not to mention a spot of SERIOUS configuration management. Oh, and I really think they way they're developing code could do with a look-see (I've got suspicions about branching that are probably well founded.) Maybe some decent gateway testing? Hmmm, we could probably... I need to stop, or I'll have redesigned their entire development and testing process (the one I'm not sure actually exists) for free, LOL.
But what would I know? I'm just an avatar that hangs out in SL and writes about fashion.
Hey, Philip? If you're listening, talk to me. You guys need a grumpy old av who's been testing for 25 years and has seen it all - not to mention tested most of it! Catch me inworld. LOL.
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