18 Nov 2004 (updated 19 Nov 2004 at 06:13 UTC)
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Adware, Spyware, Viruses: Hate 'em. My brother brought his notebook to work, and out of curiousity I checked to see if it (OS, anti-virus, etc) was up to date. It wasn't, as noted from the following uglies: ttuh.exe, midADdle, sdexe.exe, gAdDEK.exe, Bxxu3v4, mmview_101.dll (trojan downloader). I think I've cleaned it all up...but my sister-in-law and I couldn't resist giving him a hard time about having PurityScan installed. ;)
I was intrigued by the October issue of "Quality Progress". Of particular note, "The Metamorphosis of the Quality Practitioner", which argues that the roles of quality professionals will "nearly disappear or be subsumed into other processes within the next 10 years". This is the first time I've seen competency defined as consisting of five factors:
- Knowledge
- Experience
- Skills
- Aptitude, and
- Attitude.
"Stoplight Charts (With SPC Inside)" presented a novel charting approach for defect tracking and continual improvement. Instead of arbitrary thresholds (i.e., number of defects), the author uses a control chart. And instead of colour levels (based on the aforementioned thresholds) where each colour represents a band/range, colour indicates either levels (e.g., an unacceptable level is outside the control limit) or significant trends (i.e., improvement vs mounting problems).
"Computer Careers for Quality Professionals" claims a growing market for skills in testing and configuration management (based on feedback from two recruiters for a technical services firm in DC).