Cloud
With AWS Lambda you pay for execution duration, which means that sleeping or waiting during execution has a direct impact on your bill! This blog post takes a look at how to make AWS Lambda functions sleep, without incurring costs, via AWS Step Functions.
Tech
Managing state in an application can be tricky, even more so with many moving parts like in typical forms. In this article I consider when it is appropriate to use Redux and Redux Form to manage the state of a form in a webapplication
Testing
During this post, I will offer you, the unfortunate reader, the unsolicited and equally unneeded, benefit of my advice as an "expert" (*cough*) veteran of 1 public speaking engagement. Look out for my top tips, they are sure to be about as much use as the 'open here' arrow on a miniature sachet of tomato sauce.
Tech
The F# language has many features which can lead to expressing complex domains in a terse and typesafe way. To show this we can codify the world of Dogshorts, the private school for young witches and wizards.
Tech
Nobody looks forward to conflicts when collaborating on code. There are things we can do however to minimise unwanted ones, promote useful ones, and make them easier to solve correctly.
Tech
The WebAssembly specification is evolving, with many new features on the way. This blog post makes one of these future features available today, multi value returns, using the Babel approach of transpiling.
People
The four most helpful tips for getting a job offer from a careers fair based on my successful experience at the SiliconMilkRoundabout event last year.
Delivery
Scaled Agile Frameworks can be used to upscale agile practices for multiple development teams. Here I consider when it can go right, when it can wrong and some pitfalls to watch out for.
Testing
A bad beginning... A testing bedtime story that even Crackanory would reject for transmission on the basis it was too crackpot and twisted to be credible. Gather closer my precious readers, sitting comfortably? Good, then I can begin. Abide me carefully because I am going to tell you the secrets of how to have a magic unicorn, hen’s teeth, Harry Potter, automate-the-lot, works every time, end-to-end automated checking solution..... Alas, no chickens, I am not, because there is no such thing. The End. Sleep well all.
Testing
This is the second post in the series on adding security testing into your workflow - how to actively scan a website for security vulnerabilities using OWASP ZAP
Tech
It seems that everyone is trying to build a microservices based system these days. Some of those attempts succeed when others fail miserably. In this article, I will look at one thing that often connects the winners- the use of DevOps practices and culture.
Tech
WebAssembly is a new language for the web, although unlike JavaScript it's not a language you are expected to use directly. However, it is actually possible to write WebAssembly directly by hand and it turns out this is an educational and enjoyable process, which I will explore in this blog post.
Resources
WebAssembly is a new runtime for the web; a fast and efficient compilation target for a wide range of languages that could have a far-reaching impact on the web as we know it. This paper looks at at the performance limits of JavaScript and how WebAssembly was designed to tackle them.
Testing
"Testing is dead". I hear this particular chestnut a lot. From those who earnestly believe it, from those who don't understand the role, from content writers generating clickbait. Are testers really all etemmu now?
People
I will consider behaviours and characteristics that are sometimes under appreciated when defining what a good, or even great tester looks like.
Delivery
It negatively affects all of us mentally and physiologically, yet we seem unable to stop. But are we really doomed to increasingly crumble under the weight of our workload, or can we change our ways to fit the agile world?
Data Engineering
Distributed log technologies have matured in the last few years. In this article, I review the attributes of distributed log technologies, compare four of the most popular and suggest how to choose the one that's right for you.
People
The BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium is an annual one day event for students of Computing and related subjects, students have the chance to talk to companies offering career opportunities.
Testing
Thinking of applying to work with us as a tester? This is a post to help you work out if we are a good fit for you. We'll do this by telling you how we work out if you are a good fit for us. Hopefully this will be of interest to anyone trying to evaluate if the benefits we offer are in line with the environment they want.
Testing
"Lets hand it over to QA”. This phrase is seen and heard a lot, more so when chucking stuff over the development waterfall edge but even now, this is an oft used term as a synonym for testing.
Terminology, naming, what we call something or someone can have a powerful impact on how something is viewed.
Even worse when terminology becomes interchangeable, even though what each represents is actually something very different.