Author Archives: csblogbyg

Reflection Week 1

The first week was basically just forming our teams and recognizing what we are going to be doing this semester. We were told told make slack channels for our teams and to study Open MRS, AMPATH, and angular2. We continued to share information on a joint document to help each other catch anything we might have missed. I am also trying to learn angular 2 using online tutorials. The way we ended up picking teams was kind of odd but it all ended up working out, I currently reside with Team ZOLINQ. We will be using SCRUM throughout the semester to try to keep on top of everything and I’m sure all will go well because we will follow its framework and keep communication as our priority.

From the blog CS@worcester – CS Blog by Gautam by csblogbyg and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

CS 448 Intro

Hi it is Gautam again, these blogs will be based on either my class experience or my professional readings over the semester for my capstone. Can’t wait to share it all with you because blogs are so much fun!

From the blog CS@worcester – CS Blog by Gautam by csblogbyg and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Bug Hunting

There is many ways to go about looking for bugs, defects present in the software,  obstructing the program from its desired performance.  The presence of the bug decreases the quality of the software. While we build test cases to catch these bugs, you need to make sure you are exploring beyond just what the rules are. Since it is impossible to be 100% bug free, a good tester would know to not always stick with the test strategy and blindly follow it, it might make you unintentionally blind to the real problems. Another thing to do is to keep monitoring the bug catching mechanism, with old tests even helping out. Unless you have prior knowledge of the software, you will not be good at testing it, or be able to gather requirements which is a must for test cases. So instead of waiting for requirements, you could test wrong and inappropriate things to see if the software is producing the right output or not. And even after you have thought that you might have fixed a bug successfully, don’t be happy just yet, note it down because it could become a problem in your code once again, just to come back to bother you again. And testing these bugs more deeply can even reveal more harmful bugs that you didn’t know about before. Most of all, always bug hunt with someone else so they can catch the flaws that you overlook in your own code.

From the blog CS@worcester – CS Blog by Gautam by csblogbyg and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Video Game Testing

For any game, game testing is one of the most important steps. No matter how well a game, a game cannot be good without being thoroughly tested. Expert-level testing is of the highest importance. So while testing, watch out for game authentication challenges (bugs in their authentication modules). This could cause game breaking issues like the game forgetting what data you last saved and having everything vanish in front of your eyes. More problems could be made better by picking the right game engine. With so many engines available pretty much everywhere, it is hard for people to decide, but the best option will be the one that you feel most comfortable working on, the one you are most trained and ready to test. One of the major thoughts going into game testing would be knowing if your game can withstand a heavy, concurrent load or not. Load testing is important before the product’s launch. Your game should be tested to withstand real-time concurrent load, it should be done to achieve consistent performance across all the hardware and software on the platform.

From the blog CS@worcester – CS Blog by Gautam by csblogbyg and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Testing Traps

A blog I read about some software testing traps was pretty interesting. It talked about some common testing traps and how you might be able to overcome them. One of these problems could just end up being tester’s block syndrome, when you just run out of ideas for things to test, making you unable to find bugs. One good way to overcome this is by testing with someone else so they can bounce ideas off of you, when you don’t have any left. Another problem you can run into is when you are so deeply invested in the testing checklist, you fail to notice the small, obvious bugs. Stop following the test cases blindly and try to explore related areas even though they aren’t mentioned and keep your eye open for whatever is happening during test execution. And lastly, sometimes you might come across some issues that you don’t report as bugs or defects because it might not actually be a bug, just something you did wrong, and now it is a problem. The way to overcome this is by letting a pair of fresh eyes look at it. Take a short break and come back to the code, reset and look at it again, to make sure if it is really a bug or not.

From the blog CS@worcester – CS Blog by Gautam by csblogbyg and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

All Music No Ears

An article I read about the iPhone 7 and how its changing showed me a new level of depth of their thoughts. Why would a company as such as APPLE take out the auxiliary port of the new model of the iPhone? A very controversial decision that was despised by almost all of its user base,  alienating everyone who uses their iPhones to play music at parties or in the car, which is mainly how the popularity of the iPhone even first came to be. Now taking this as a huge risk, I’ve realized that soon enough, it had to be taken. Big companies such as Apple, who are trying to trump all other businesses in their lane to cause a monopoly and want/need to show their power and their hardware being unique to their products. For innovation to move forward, users need to be put in a place of discomfort. Apple is choosing to take itself away from other companies by making hardware changes that are most easily accessible to its own products. Doing what no one else is, a brand’s success can come from its differentiation from all the other brands. As their faithful fan base chooses to stay with them, a jackless iphone will eventually become the new normal for the iphone, making its design stand out and lead innovations over other hardware that fades away into its design which is very similar to everything else. Because this transition can be bumpy, to optimize the pain and help people make the process faster rather than be painful over time, they did it in one swift model change because you can’t slowly get rid of a headphone jack.

From the blog CS@worcester – CS Blog by Gautam by csblogbyg and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Expensive Come Up

This article I read about outsourcing talked about our world evolving. As our society gets more developed, and more and more engulfed in technology, programmers are becoming more expensive. As you try to get your company off the ground, you might not even be able to afford it because your developers are commanding such high salaries. So one of the large ways to help your situation would be to outsource your developers. Since affording a whole team of project managers to maintain a high quality would be too much, hiring remote developers in a different place in the world is not only cheaper but better for your company because you can hire a lot better software developers. The only downside is that you can’t directly talk to your developers and clearly talk about what you would like your product to be like. Hiring a good project manager is key to help you get your vision right to convey to the rest of the programmers and make sure they are using their time wisely.

From the blog CS@worcester – CS Blog by Gautam by csblogbyg and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Protect yourself

This article I read talks about how much different everything in our society is now. Instead of work being done in a work environment, can now easily be done from pretty much anywhere, in a Wendy’s with your laptop, or even literally anywhere, right on your phone. With this thought in mind, just as we pass technological barriers and discover new boundaries, we are also growing more and more vulnerable to having our systems breached by others. With all our privately stored and personal information being available to whoever can grab it has made us a very vulnerable creature. Sometimes we need to take precautions to try to help ourselves from cyber crime. Some of the ways we could do that were also mentioned in this article. They talk about many software based solutions that they think all business leaders and entrepreneurs should be using today. Because using wifi at cafes and coffee shops can be a security risk, people should not be making payments using their phone at a random coffee shop, especially without a VPN or Virtual Card Numbers. That way, even if they have stolen your information, they can’t make any further purchases.

From the blog CS@worcester – CS Blog by Gautam by csblogbyg and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Intro Post

Hi my name is Gautam and I am a Computer Science Major.

From the blog CS@worcester – CS Blog by Gautam by csblogbyg and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.