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TestingGeek has mentioned it
many times about its
philosophy of Learn,
Share and Keep Learning.
We feel that it is very
important to learn from the
people who are expert in the
field, interact with them
and think about how they
approach a given problem,
question or suggestion.
Fortunately, with so many
usenet and e-groups around,
you can get in touch with
most of the experts in the
field. You will be surprised
with the level of discussion
and interaction happens on
some of the e-groups.
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Some time conversation on
some of the seemingly
trivial questions bring you
very good insight on the
subject that you feel, Aha
glad I came to know that.
Best part of these
conversations are different
point of views that you get
to know and different skills
you acquired.
TestingGeek has learnt
tremendously from these
discussions, some time as a
participant, and some time
as an observer of the
different type of problems,
different types of questions
and solutions offered or
suggestions given by various
experts. On this page, you
will find interesting
conversations which can give
us some new insight, on the
topics we think we know and
understand well. If you have
some interesting question or
came across some interesting
conversation, share with us.
Questions
Following example will give
you hint on what you can
expect in these pages. Happy
Learning.
This example was
given in response to the
question that what should we
do if it is not possible to
test the system we are
building.
There
is the known story of Dr.
Parnas, who refused to build
a defense system software
against nuclear missiles,
stating that "The inability
to test a strategic defense
system under field
conditions before we
actually need it will mean
that no knowledgeable person
would have much faith in the
system.". He was right, the
developers/testers would be
able to test and simulate
some parts of the system,
but the final system as a
whole would be impossible to
test until a real war was in
course and you had nuclear
ogives being shot at you.
(You can not even test in at
a desert location with
test-intended-
nuclear-bombs, because the
Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty
prohibits.)
While
Parnas is right about the
ability to test the system,
I think he kind of missed
the point. IOW, a variant of
Pascal's Wager applies. If
somebody is going to be
throwing nukes at me I would
rather have a defense system
up that will work with 0.0 <
P < 1.0 than have no system
up that will work with P =
0.0.
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