jessenoller.com

Evernote invites.

Just a quick note - I've got 10 Evernote invites - if you don't know what Evernote is, check out the Ars review here. Post in the comments if you'd like to test drive it. I'm going to need an email address.

So far, I'm loving it - but I'm also someone with about 500+ bookmarks in Safari, a ton of "to read" stuff saved on my hard drive, and over 100 RSS feeds in NetNewsWire. So something to help me archive/save/search everything is key.

Now I just want PDF indexing support.

Ok, I have 10 more left!

Switched to feedburner

Took a break from yardwork to cut over to feed burner so I can track some stats on the rss feed - let me know if anything breaks.

Finding Python people is hard.

...and finding Quality Assurance people with Python experience (especially advanced Test Engineering skills) is even harder.

The white oak guys at pycon talked about how they used python experience as a measure of skill/intent. Personally, having spent the better half of the last five years looking for people with good Python skill sets, and now looking to build out a serious team - I'm almost always in the position of hiring on people who know "just enough" and teaching them Python.

Teaching python is easy - but not always what you want to end up doing when you're going fast in a startup (although, I've lost track of how many times I've done this).

Excuse me while I go grumble - either you teach QA people automation/test engineering, or you try to find a programmer who wants to learn/do test engineering and teaching them python. No - I don't want programmers to "do QA" - I want them to write code which proves the product.

It's a hard sell to both parties. You also don't want QA people who view QA as subservient to Development, and Developers who don't see QA as subservient to the same. I technically view QA as one discipline, Development as another, but Test Engineering as the Hybrid of the two - and you need a strong background in both. You are writing complex code to test and prove the product - code which can sometimes be as complex as the product itself.

I'm willing to teach anyone anything I know to help them - doing so helps me in the long term build a strong team. Just finding the right people is not-so-easy.

I said in an interview recently - when asked if I wanted to be a Software Engineer or a Software Test Engineer - that if I am writing code in either one of the roles, I don't see the difference. You're writing tools/code and trying to develop new/interesting things in both roles. If you are writing product code: you still have to write test code. If you write tools for testing: you're writing "product code" (that needs testing code). The same pattern of write-test-write-test applies no matter what code you're writing.

There's nothing "less" about writing code that tests a product, just as there is nothing "unique" about writing the product code itself. Both must be tested, both are code. Would I like to write more product code? Sure - but I have to also write the tests that prove it anyway.

Just as an addendum - Corey made a post, and Terry made a post too both discussing this issue. There's also an awesome comment from another test engineer on the reddit discussion here.

Breaking up is hard to do (because I got a new job)

Earlier this week - I made the rather difficult decision and resigned from my current job. Yes - I have a new one in the bag.

The job I resigned from has been one of the best, most rewarding jobs in my career. I've had the luxury of working with some of the best engineers I have ever met, on a problem/solution that is, by far, the best in it's class.

I've been working with what I count as my second family for close to five years. You don't walk away from something like that lightly, or without good reason.

My reason was simple: I enjoy startups. I love blazing trails, exploring technology. I love pushing boundaries and making something tangible and new where there was nothing before. It's why I love software.

Some people would say that software is not a painting - and to an extent, they are right. But the pride you feel when you see your software come alive, get adopted and grow day after day is much the same feeling of accomplishment and pride you get when you do finish a work of art.

Personally, I feel that startups engender the wild west - all ideas are open and ready to be explored, much of the territory is uncharted, and you remain (in many cases) unencumbered by processes, bureaucracy and history.

That all being said - it's not without an aching heart that I say good bye to my friends, colleagues and the product I helped usher into the world. Both the product, and the people remain best-in-class, and I wish both the company, and the people the best in the future.

The great (and sometimes bad) thing about startups though, is the fact that if you live in a place where startups are always coming and going (i.e: Boston) then sooner or later, you're going to end up working with many of the same people again. Due to this, I'm ultimately OK with saying good bye to many of the coworkers I have today, because I will see them again in due time.

That all being said - I have a new job (obviously). Later this month I will begin working for an Acton, MA startup called Blackwave. I've had the pleasure of meeting the people there and exploring the technology, and I have to say I got that old spark back in my head. The spark that keeps you up at night thinking about how to solve The Problem and how to test The Problem. The one that makes you get up early to write notes down to yourself like "if we simply change x here and here, then in theory we can cut our testing to y..." and so on. It's the spark of inspiration.

In speaking with them - I wanted to solidify something that's been chewing at me for a little bit - and that's having some amount of freedom to contribute to open source - in my case, Python-Core and python-related projects. I'm happy to say, Blackwave was more than willing to express their support and openness to contributing to the community. I can't go into details - but with any luck, I should be able to be a lot more open with much of my work, and also give a lot back.

Again - with that all being said - I will take this one opportunity to say - yes, Blackwave is hiring. If you're a python/java/c/c++ person, or you just love doing QA and testing and are looking for a small, fast moving team - and live in the Boston/Metrowest area (southern New Hampshire is OK) - go ahead and drop me an email. I'm definitely putting feelers out for any Pythonistas in the area who are looking around. I'm doubly interested in Pythonistas with a QA background to help focus on test engineering/automation.

Send your resumes to me (jnoller at gmail dot com)!

I'm looking forward to the upcoming months with excitement.