Can a Similar One Exist?

Green land, nice weather, smiling faces, everyone works hard, kids playing here and there and all look happy and satisfied. The old classic image of a happy town.

 The other, more contemporary image, can be on a form of a self governed, stable city, where aspiring to be ideal and perfect is the major aim and the extreme hope in all of the minds.

It guides us directly to a type of incredible and legendary thought of a virtuous city. Each of us dreams of the image of an upright city full of what we're eager to achieve - and spread all over the world - such as reasonableness, enthusiasm, tolerance and innovativeness.

Have you ever thought of your own individual role in all of that?

What if this all starts from your own life? A quality life that starts by the well being, health, mind, and spirit?

What if you look at each and every part, work, or relationship in your life under the big umbrella of having a role in building that virtuous city? To extend quality to the real level of professionalism, and services you give and get?

Would a collection of quality lives build a bigger image, where the old classic perception of having everyone contented and satisfied really show?

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Can even go funny

He was going back home after a long hectic day, when Adam, who had promised his little son to get him that marvelous toy, realized he ran out of cash. Without thinking much, Adam took his ATM card, and ran to the nearest machine.

Oops…When you hurry you're more apt to make mistakes. But you have to be quick. If you're not quick you can't get things done. Seems that the ATM machine is not behaving today! He tried again and again, but the same error message would display each time.

Ok, that's alright he thinks, will be paying using his credit card. Joyfully he turns back and heads to the toys shop.

Would that be possible? Even the credit card machine would not work in the shop, and the customer support rep. explains it was a problem with the central bank system. The problem was due to the big load, and huge transactions being placed.

"Oh, oh…Did not they try to stress it as much before, to make sure it can handle it when it becomes real?", thinks Adam. With no further word, Adam decides to go back home, hoping his son will be already sleeping.

Hungry, and tired, Adam tries to heat pizza in his old microwave.

They say…"When trouble comes they come not in single spies but in battalion", but this time Adam decides to investigate the whole thing, test his microwave, and do the corrective action to get it function again.

Would you be able to help Adam? What suggestions you may have for him to investigate why the Pizza would not heat?

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It was a blue one

  They say: "Never let your computer know you are on a hurry", "Computers have lots of memory but no imagination". They also say: "Don't anthropomorphism computers - they hate it", and "It's not computer literacy that we should be working on, but sort of human-literacy.  Computers have to become human-literate."

Many of us may have had a sudden crash while doing a presentation, show, or a seminar. But, was that all because our computers misbehave then? And what was our reaction? Were we prepared for a good justification? Laughed? Did we really expect it? Have we thought about what errors we could have also got?

This reminds us of the old blue death screen, back in 1995, of Bill Gates, who was presenting a pre-launch version of Windows 98 live on national       

TV.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW7Rqwwth84

As his colleague plugged in a scanner - showing how Windows could automatically install the drivers for the device - the computer suddenly collapsed, revealing the dreaded 'Blue Screen of Death' to the world.

Any error, bug, misbehavior may be perceived as a death blue screen if seen by a client. Play it right, test it, and make sure nothing from here or there may cause you such a situation.

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What could we see more?

Just few years ago, our cell phones would just make phone calls, and send sms. 

Fancy ones would take nice photos, record voices, or have real voice ring tones.

You would use your desktop, or laptop to finish a typing work, surf the internet and chat with family and friends. An error or a malfunction on IE, or on a website, would not have a big impact on what you were really doing. But now your laptop and smart phone no longer mean the same.

Almost all of us are found most of the time, tapping their smart phones, iPads, or plunged into monitors and laptops. Checking emails, reading news, watching movies, searching, e-shopping, doing financial stuff, e-banking, signing governmental papers, paying bills, taxes, doing job interviews, viewing health test results, reserving tickets, and hotels.

Just as if you were enjoying your yummy hotdog sandwich and a bug pops out from the inside, an error "also called a bug in the software language" may also pop up while doing all the stuff just mentioned.

With no doubt, our reactions towards this bug would vary, from being extremely discontented with the "hotdog" service that we have received, to unhappy seeing this bug, to indifferent. This reaction would be based on many factors, like for example the restaurant brand, big names would never compromise reputation, the price we paid, and to what extent we were hungry at that moment.

Quality life people and Quality service brands are those who may not afford such bugs. Can you?

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Oh, Could it be that dangerous?

Whether a house appliance, a surgical device, a hospital fire alarm, an e-commerce website, or just a simple app on your iPhone, although they may seem so much different to you, but eventually they all share a common part, so called: Software.

That piece of software, the intangible part that we don’t usually see, is what holds the whole secret! This secret part should be functioning perfectly, in order for you to get the service you seek out of it.

Before a microwave, for example, heats a plate of mashed potato for 30 seconds, a plate of meat for 2 minutes, and a cup of milk for 1.30 minutes, that piece of software had passed through a major phase called "Testing".

The purpose of this major phase is to ensure you get the application or the tool, in the best shape, with no errors, no dangers, and no malfunctioning.

Software errors may range from, for instance, not heating a dish of food as desired and thus having to adjust or heat again, to hacking an ecommerce website, placing wrong orders, or whipping your whole visa card account.  

Still, what would you think may happen if the ventilator connected to a patient who has just survived a severe heart attack, was not properly set? What may also happen, if a laboratory blood test machine assigned the cancer diagnosis to the wrong patient name?

Here comes the role of the unknown soldiers, the Quality Testers and Engineers, who know, what, when, how, and why to test…. 

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They Think Differently, Don’t They?

  They say: "A programmer once died in the shower, he read the shampoo bottle instructions: Lather. Rinse. Repeat.".

  It is also said that an implementer, once explained: "My wife is like "Terms & Conditions" of a website, I never understand what she says, but I always accept ...."; his son was also wondering: "Do kids usually take 9 months to download…?"

  You may have heard the famous saying in its updated version: "To an optimist, the glass is half full, to a pessimist, the glass is half empty, but to a good software tester, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.."

  These were some of the phrases, heard among programmers, quality and software people. So; if you happen to be or to have a "Computer- worker" family member, friend, or relative, you would be familiar with the way they think, speak, and deal with things.

  Software people usually share a lot of common thoughts, and ways in seeing and considering life incidents. Working with computer programs and applications, whether as a programmer, a designer, a quality engineer does have a clear impact. For some people working with a device, numbers, and code, and staying in front of a monitor or a laptop for a while seems to cause a negative effect, in that a human loses the soft skills of human interaction. For instance, a quality engineer husband might be causing sort of a headache to his spouse whenever his eyes move away from the screen to glimpse the microwave timer not properly set. For others, however, the impact is far different. 
  
  When submitting error free, high standard computer products, fully tested programs becomes a habit, this may highly help you think systematically and try to be as perfectionist as possible even in the simple daily details.

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What Difference Does It Really Make?

Connect, check, reply, download, forward, share.. What other words could have the same trigger on a person who was in her or his adolescence during the last  couple of years of the 20^th century? Comment, like, publish..app…?

  We can all agree that we've seen technology leap beyond our wildest dreams, innovations that have revolutionized the way we go about our daily lives, and devices that we have never dremt of before.

  Have you ever thought before about the "Behind the Scene"? Has it ever happened that, before you simply clicked the "Like" icon, shared your birthday picture, chatted to a friend, or enjoyed a funny video on your smart phone that something glimpsed? That you thought about the people who have put all their efforts to give such so-called luxury?

  A successful theater production could never happen without all the behind-the-scenes efforts that occur beforehand. Before the lights dim and the curtain opens for the first time, someone wrote the script, composed the music and auditioned the cast. People work to create the set, the backdrops and props, and artists created the perfect stage makeup and costumes. Only after these aspects are taken care of can the actual stage production take place and, if any of these components are lacking, it directly affects the show. 

  All the new technologies, facilities, and comfort, are just theater productions, with engineering actors, programming scripters, designers, and composers…but with a worldwide audience, and a whole generation shows..!

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