Learning Japanese? Web testing in Japanese? These might help
in Everything, Miscellaneous, Software Testing
as Japanese, learning japanese, Testing, testing in japanese
For those of you (us) whose Japanese reading skills aren’t comprehensive, you might find some valuable assistance with a firefox plugin called pera-pera kun. It is an extension of the also excellent rikai-chan.
It allows you to hover over Japanese words and phrase fragments and get a popup with dictionary / grammatical meanings. I couldn’t do without it.
You can find the plug-in here
and the required Japanese dictionary here
I believe there is also a Chinese dictionary out there, don’t think they do hangul (sorry Jared 
)
For those that are studying Japanese (or anything where flashcards are useful, really), check out Anki.
I am creating my own study deck, but if you want to dive right in, there are a bunch of pre-made decks available and plugins if you like that sort of thing.
I wish I’d found both of these years ago. Seriously. Hopefully they’re handy for some of you.
So I’m in Japan now
in Everything, Miscellaneous
as Japan, Kendo, Testing
and shall be for the forseeable future.
I’m working with an insurance group, putting together a new software testing team. Can’t really say too much more than that. There’s a lot to do, but I have good people with me and I’m up for the challenge. I’m also a lot closer to the bottom of the kendo food chain than I’ve been in a long while – I’m enjoying that too.
That’s not to say it’s all beer and skittles. The Japanese language is kicking my arse at the moment. When I speak, I get the sorts of look people reserve for a particularly slow child. That’s okay. I’m weathering this punishment much like a caged animal endures a beating, knowing full well that one day the lock will fail, or someone will get careless and then I shall make the Japanese language my whimpering bitch. Oh my, yes.
I may even torture you all with attempts at translating local testing literature. I will probably learn Japanese testing terminology. You will probably just learn to hate me. More. That’s okay, you can tell me all about it at the next conference I get to. Buggered if I know when that will be, though. I’m hoping CAST later in 09, but travel is all a bit up in the air at the moment. Should have a better idea toward the end of Feb.
In the meantime, the intermittent drivel and Vogon poetry shall continue forthwith. Enjoy.
aaaand we’re back – sort of
Things have been (and remain) a little crazy right now. A slight misunderstanding with my site host has added some further unrequested fun (they misunderstood how to bill my credit card apparently, despite having done so before – and shut down my site). I’m in the middle of a move to another country, so unfortunately [...]
You can make stats say pretty much anything.
in Everything, Miscellaneous, Software Testing
Jared Quinert pointed out to me that I missed an opportunity to work in a good point about testing in my entry supporting the WGA. I’ve recently been struggling with the task of coming up with meaningful stats to report to my handlers to help justify the existence of my team and anyone with a [...]
It’s not the writers.
in Everything, Miscellaneous, Software Testing
Another non-software testing / non kendo post, but for what it is worth, I want to lend my support to some people that deserve it. If you watch t.v. or see movies, you probably know there’s a strike on at the moment. I have a few friends who are participating. Your favourite television series might [...]
Discussions around AI
in Everything, Miscellaneous, Software Testing
I recently read James Bach’s blog entry on Artificial Intelligence and the concept of the Singularity. I have very limited exposure to the limitations and abilities of AI research as it stands, but I did have a couple of counter-questions to some that James posed. ‘What are the features of AI?‘ I don’t know. My [...]
I tried that once. Didn’t like it.
I was having lunch with a friend of mine several weeks ago and mentioned that I was attending a scotch whiskey convention. He turned up his nose and said ‘yeah, I’m not a fan of scotch’. ‘Fair enough’ I said, and thought no more of it. Now, upfront I must admit to being a whisky [...]
The Outside Context Problem
in Everything, Miscellaneous, Software Testing
My regular reader might have noticed that I (re)read a book called ‘Excession‘ recently. Penned by a gent called Iain Banks, who in my opinion, can excrete pure gold. It is a great read. For those of you already familiar with his work, it probably needs no introduction. For those yet to experience it – [...]
Wiiality bites
in Everything, Miscellaneous, Software Testing
Sorry about the heading, I’m just not feeling particularly clever today. A friend recently lent me his Nintendo Wii. I wanted to test-drive one to see if ‘wii sports’ would be helpful as a tool for keeping fit or warming up before I get into some real exercise. I was initially hopeful. The boxing game [...]