Month: March 2007

It’s by George and it’s titled Microsoft shyster harshes on Google book search. He’s writing about Microsoft’s General Counsel for Copyright, Trademark and Trade Secrets, Thomas C. Rubin, and his speech to the Association of American Publishers. In the speech, Rubin tried to put The Fear, especially about into his audience by telling them: “Google doesn’t respect copyright, and Google’s actions are designed to aid their own business at the cost of publishers.” The speech is an interesting new wrinkle on a classic Microsoft tactic — Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, or as we in the industry call it, “FUD” — and George does a pretty good job at exposing all its flaws.

I’m disappointed with Microsoft’s use of this forum. They’re a world-class technology company. Surely they have some concrete solutions to offer the members of the AAP? This was an ideal opportunity for Microsoft to get in front of a multi-billion-dollar industry and demonstrate how they could help grow that business. After all, Google’s having a hard time making its case with these people, but the publishing industry recognizes that they can’t stand still in the face of increasing digitization. Unfortunately, Microsoft sent a lawyer to do a man’s job. Save for a few warmed-over nods to Microsoft’s book search project, there was nothing besides anti-Google FUD on the menu today. Publishers didn’t get anything they could use to reinvigorate their industry online, and Microsoft gets a swarm of blog posts like mine.

Although it might get me in the bad books of a number of relatives including an aunt who’s done so much for our family, my “brother from another mother” and the only other person in my life worthy of the name “Dad”, I’ve got to say that I can help smirking at the crack about “sending a lawyer to do a man’s job”. Go ahead, read the article.

A little background information: here’s how the jury ruled on the Scooter Libby case (courtesy of this Washington Post article)…

Chart taken from the Washington Post.

And here’s the FOX News take…

Screen capture courtesy of Boing Boing.

I have to give them props for out-and-out chutzpah, if nothing else.

[This has been cross-posted to the Tucows Blog.]

We’ve got another job opening here at Tucows: QA Analyst!

Wait…didn’t you already announce this job opening?

You’re probably thinking of this position: QA Analyst/Performance Testing. That’s a position that calls for a little more experience and has a little more responsibility. This one is just plain old “QA Analyst”, minus the “Performance Testing” part. That position called for 2+ years experience with test panning, test development and web application test execution; this one calls for 1+ years. If you didn’t have the experience for that job, you might want to consider this one!

The Job Description

Here it is, straight from HR’s mouth:

Main Purpose

Tests software to ensure that developed products meet design specifications and are within total quality management limits and standards. Communicates with product developers. Operates under some supervision.

Key Responsibilities

• You will be required to do code development to support test automation and other testing tools
• Plan and perform required testing activities
• Develop testing documents to verify Tucows’ services and applications

Ideal Candidate Profile

Related experience / Unique skill set:

• Solid understanding of test methodology and testing lifecycle
• 1+ years Test Planning experience
• 1+ years Test Development experience
• 1+ years Web Application Test Execution experience
• Comfortable in testing application in Unix and/or Linux environment

3 or more of the following:

• Automated testing
• API testing
• GUI/Functional/Installation testing
• Performance testing
• Security testing

Special consideration for:

• QA or Test Certification
• Fluent in one of the web testing tools
• Courses in Oracle (asset)
• Participated in test tool evaluation and deployment process

Education:

• College or University degree in information technology or equivalent

Interpersonal skills:

• Strong organizational and analytical skills
• Comfortable working to tight deadlines; strong team player
• Sense of job commitment
• Good communication skills

Other things you should know about:

• Once a month Friday night/Saturday morning code promotion testing

So What’s It Like at Tucows?

Since I wrote about it so recently, I’ll simply point you to this entry; just scroll down to the section titled A Little Bit About Tucows. The short answer is: “It’s pretty cool.”

Want to Apply for the Job?

Email your resume and cover letter to hrdept@tucows.com, making sure that you include QA Analyst in the subject.

Not the Ann Coulter one (which is a couple of days old, anyway), but this one:

Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

From CNN:

Former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby has been found guilty on four of five counts in his perjury and obstruction of justice trial. Libby faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and a fine of $1 million. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was accused of lying and obstructing the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity to reporters.

Or, as a wag on Wikipedia put it in a soon-to-be-edited-out part of the entry on Libby: “This treasonous dogfucker is going to jail.”

Today’s stories on Global Nerdy, the tech blog for which I write:

• Free Barenaked Ladies on the internet? Won’t somebody please think of the children? “The good news: a major band has released their latest album, in its entirety, as DRM-free MP3 files. The bad news? It’s the Barenaked Ladies.”
• I see dead presidents! George writes about the social network/geneaology site Geni: “I’ve used it (only to build a family tree so far, I haven’t spammed my family and in-laws with invitations yet), and it’s very straightforward as family tree builders go. My hat’s off to the Geni team.”
• Dear Mobile Phone: Please Quit Showing Off and Just Do Your Damn Job. Why are mobile phones packed with useless and annoying “features”, instead of truly useful ones?
• A Former Verizon Sales Rep’s 8 Tips for Buying a Verizon Phone. 8 useful tips for getting the best deal from Verizon. Anyone from Bell Mobility want to share some tips on how to get the best deal from them?

Brett Lamb writes:

I really want to, but wasn’t able to do the poster for Manufacturing Dissent, a new documentary about Michael Moore, so I passed the project on to Robot Johnny who did the smashing artwork above. The film will be at Hot Docs in April.

Robot Johnny writes a little bit about the poster in his blog.

I have a problem with Moore: there are good messages and ideas in his documentary films and TV shows (on the other hand, his attempt at non-doc work, Canadian Bacon was downright terrible) and a certain earnestness in his work, but in his eagerness to get his message across, he’s more than happy to mistreat people — remember the scene in Bowling for Columbine where he ambushes a semi-coherent Charlton Heston in his own home? — and ignore annoying little concepts like “truth” and “journalistic integrity”. He and his fans are merely the other side of the Bill O’Reilly/Sean Hannity/FOX News coin.

Apparently I’m not the only non-right-winger who feels that way about Moore. Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine, two documentary filmmakers based here in Accordion City and the creators of Manufacturing Dissent (they also made the documentary Citizen Black, about former-media-magnate-soon-to-be-jailbird Conrad Black), share my opinion. They didn’t start out that way, however. Here’s a snippet from an article about the film in the International Herald Tribune:

…during the course of making an unauthorized film about Moore, they wound up somewhere in between. In the process, their experience has added a twist to the long-running story of an abrasive social critic who has frequently been criticized from the right, but far less often, as is the case with Melnyk and Caine, from his own end of the political spectrum.

“What he’s done for documentaries is amazing,” said Melnyk, 48, a native of Toronto and a freelance TV producer, who even now expounds on the good she says Moore has done. “People go to see documentaries now and, as documentary makers, we’re grateful.”

But according to Caine, 46, an Ohio-born journalist and cameraman, the freewheeling persona cultivated by Moore, and the free-thinking rhetoric expounded by his friends and associates were not quite what they encountered when they decided to examine his work. “As investigative documentarists we always thought we could look at anything we wanted,” Caine said. “But when we turned the cameras on one of the leading figures in our own industry, the people we wanted to talk to were like: ‘What are you doing? Why are you throwing stones at the parade leader?'”

Melnyk added, “We were very lonely.”

Their film “Manufacturing Dissent” will have its premiere on March 10 at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. To say it sheds an unflattering light on Moore — whose work includes the hit “Fahrenheit 9/11” and the Oscar-winning “Bowling for Columbine” — would be an understatement.

For the curious, here’s Manufacturing Dissent’s trailer:

I’m looking forward to catching this film at Hot Docs. And well done with the poster, Robot Johnny!