Month: March 2007

I can’t think of a nicer shrieking head that this could have happened to:

[Via Michelle Malkin is An Idiot, by way of Wonkette]

(This posting also appears on the Tucows Blog.)

Quality assurance and performance testers are the unsung heroes of the tech world. Without their nitpicking, we programmer types would be unleashing far more havoc upon the world, whether in the form of errors and crashing apps or software that runs like molasses. As much as they can sometimes annoy me as a programmer — after all, part of their job is to poke my creations until they break — I have to salute them for their work with a filet mignon on a flaming sword.

The Job Description

Here at Tucows, we’ve got a job opening for a QA/Performance Testing person. Here’s the “Main purpose” from the official job description:

Develops and applies customized performance testing strategy that include load, stress and scalability testing. Involve in testing software to ensure that developed products meet design specifications and are within total quality management limits and standards. Communicates with product developers on product issues. Operates under general supervision.

Simply put: our services don’t go out the door until you say they’re ready to go out the door.

Here are the key responsibilities for the job:

• You are expected to apply your solid QA performance testing: load, stress and scalability
• You will be required to do code development to support test automation and other testing tools
• Plan and perform required testing activities, and develop testing documents to verify Tucows services and applications
• Provide technical guidance to other team members

Here’s the ideal candidate profile:

• Solid understanding of test methodology and testing lifecycle
• 2+ years Test Planning experience
• 2+ years Test Development experience
• 2+ years Web Application Test Execution experience
• 2+ years in Java, JavaScript, Perl and/or PHP code development experience
• Familiar with Unix and/or Linux environment and commands
• Experienced in automated testing
• Experienced in API testing
• 2+ years Performance testing, familiar with Web performance testing tools
• Fluent in one of the web testing tools
• College or University degree in information technology or equivalent
• QA or Test Certification
• Courses in Oracle (asset)
• Courses in Java, JavaScript, Perl and/or PHP development languages
• Courses in Unix Admin (asset)
• Time management skills
• Quick learner, analytical and attention to details
• Comfortable working to tight deadlines
• Easy to work with, a true team player
• Sense of job commitment
• Good communication skills

QA analyst/performance testing people take part in a once-a-month Friday night or Saturday morning code testing session for code promotion.

A Little Bit About Tucows

What We Do

You know what ISPs and hosting services do — the fact that you’re reading this online suggests that one way or another, you’re making use of the services of an internet service provider or hosting company. We’re next up on the supply chain: just as they provide services to get you online, we provide services that get them to get you online.

Take domain names, for instance. Not just anyone can become a registrar (that’s a person or organization with the ability to register domain names). You need to fork out a hefty amount of cash, have a relationship with ICANN, participate in the governance of the domain name system and a perform a whole bunch of other administrivial tasks. As a wholesaler of domain name registrations, we do all that unpleasant work and give you, the service provider, access to our capability to register domain names, either through our APIs or our web-based management interface. The end result: service providers can register domain names for their customers without the hassles that registrars go through.

Same thing with email. You could provide your customers with email service by setting up a computer to be an email server, maintaining it and guarding it against attacks of all kinds. Our hosted email and email defense customers prefer to let us handle the task of providing email and anti-spam service so that they can concentrate on provisioning these services and providing support to their customers.

Other services we provide include managed DNS, digital certificates and web page building and blogging tools, all of which our partners then resell to their customers. By using our services, our partners can worry less about maintaining machinery and software and can concentrate on their true differentiator, which is customer service.

What Working Here is Like

We’re located in Liberty Village, the warehouse district of Toronto that is south of King Street, bounded by Dufferin on the west, Strachan on the east, and the Canadian National Exhibition to the south. It’s a great neighbourhood in which to work, as it’s home to a lot of people doing high-tech and creative work, as well as a number of independent restaurants and cafes and a 24-hour grocery. We’re also a short walk away from the new “it” part of Queen Street West, with its night spots such as the Gladstone Hotel, Drake Hotel, “The Social”, Cadillac Lounge and others. It’s a far cry from a dreary office park in the suburbs!

You’ll work with a lot of smart people in a converted warehouse with high ceilings, a decent-sized kitchen area, a rooftop deck with two gas barbecues (I’m known in the company as the guy who barbecues year-round, even in the dead of winter) and a stone’s throw from public transit. The work atmosphere and dress code is casual, and the tendency here is to let people make their own decisions, do their own thinking and shine at their jobs.

I’ve been working here for the past three and a half years and would gladly recommend it. We’re going through some changes to address the new world of “Web 2.0” and have got some interesting projects that we’re working on. If you’re looking for challenging tech work at a company with a good reputation in a great location, you should check us out.

Interested?

If you’re interested in this job, please email your resume and cover letter to hrdept@tucows.com, and make sure you include QA Analyst/Performance Testing in the subject line.

In response to the Headline of the Day, which was Head, Liver Mistakenly Mailed to Horrified Michigan Couple, “Nancy G.” replied in a comment:

Hm, shipping company was DHL, eh?

This doesn’t surprise me at all.

Heh.

In honour of this story, here’s one of my favourite lines from The Simpsons: Apu saying “Ooh! A head bag! Those are chock full of…heady goodness.” (from the Rosebud episode).

A couple of people have asked me if there are any rock bands with accordion players worth listening to. I usually point them to the darlings of the Montreal indie rock scene (although really, how “indie” can you be after an appearance not only as the musical guest, but also in a skit on Saturday Night Live?), the Arcade Fire. Their new album, Neon Bible, comes out tomorrow, and from their SNL performance and from listening to (ahem, cough) an advance copy, I can tell you that it sounds great.

In honour of the album’s release tomorrow, this week’s Song of the Week is one of their signature tunes, the catchy, stick-in-your-head, yell-“Hey!”-along-with-the-band tune No Cars Go. It first appeared on their eponymous debut EP and re-appears in a more lush, more heavily-produced version on Neon Bible. If the first version reminds you of Joy Division (with some wheezy pawn-shop accordion backup), the new version should remind you of its descendant band, New Order.

I’m definitely buying this album.

As with other songs of the week, these will evaporate after a week. Enjoy!

Some articles on Global Nerdy the tech news blog I share with my good buddy George (now featuring new and improved design!)…

• DST is the New Y2K. In which I make my feelings on daylight saving time clear: we need to go back in time and pimp-slap Ben Franklin!
• 5 Principles to Design By. Keep these in mind when designing applications.
• 12 Tips for Using Google Like an Expert. Some of these tricks may be old hat, but there might be one or two you’ve missed.
• O’Reilly on Programming Language Book Sales. Judging by programming language book sales, the things developers want to know most about are…

Head, Liver Mistakenly Mailed to Horrified Michigan Couple.

[This post also appears on the Tucows Blog.]

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The First Video: Web 2.0

First, let me show you a video titled Web 2.0, a reading that distills countless “Web 2.0” articles over a montage of associated images. It runs for 5 minutes, 17 seconds, but watching more than a minute of it is a waste of your time:

The Second Video: The Machine is Us/ing Us

In response to the video above, Michael Wesch, an associate professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, made the following video titled The Machine is Us/ing Us. Go ahead and watch it, it’ll be 4 minutes and 31 seconds of well-spent time:

Two Approaches

Both videos cover the same topic and make use of the same “video on the web” format, but they’re worlds apart.

If the way Web 2.0 presented its information seemed old and moldy yet oddly familiar, that’s because it’s simply yet another one those old educational films you saw back in high school, but dressed up in online video clothes. It’s rich in information, but it might as well be every other bad PowerPoint presentation you’ve ever had to endure. New technology, old thinking.

The Machine is Us/ing Us is a different creature. It says more with less. Although it has background music like Web 2.0, it skips the narration entirely, using the structures, forms, features and conventions of its subject matter. It uses the web to explain the web. It was made using the same technologies as those used to make Web 2.0, but it makes much better use of the medium and the technology and conveys its message more effectively.

A Better Approach

Over the past little while, there’s been a noticeable change here at the Tucows office. There a sense of “we need to take a better approach” around here. It’s in the reports I’ve read and the meetings I’ve attended. As the tech evangelist, I deal with almost every department in the building and I can see people all over working on better processes, better ways to build things and better ways to work with our customers, trying out new things and new ideas. Although you can’t see the end result of all this internal change just yet, from where I sit, the difference looks like the difference between the two videos above.