Phurnace Blog tagged 'Tips'

Allow me to introduce my STAF

Pete Pickerill — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:00:00 +0100

In my last post I talked about how virtualization changed test lab creation and management. I’m sure the first thing you did after reading the post was download your very own copy of VMWare Server and replace all your hardware with super flexible virtual machines. You’re now basking in the glow of your long term cost savings, marveling at how easy your lab is to maintain, and using some of that extra time and money to bid on my exclusive line of “VMWare Saved My Marriage” [...]

Dull and Boring == Errors and Omissions

Robert Reeves — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:00:00 +0100

BBC has a news report on how boring tasks can lead to errors and omissions. Evidently, your brain will go into 'autopilot' mode when performing redundant, boring tasks. Apparently, there is a specific bit of brain activity that can occur right before you are about to make a mistake.

Until they can make a portable MRI for data ce [...]

SDLC's Dirty Little Secret

Daniel Nelson — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:00:00 +0100

If you have never been in the datacenter in the wee hours of the morning, trying to figure out what's wrong with a server, stop reading this. If you have never been in an all-hands-on-deck meeting where everyone is trying to figure out what went wrong with a deployment, then stop right now and go do something more useful with your time. Because if you haven't lived through that, then the rest of this post won't mean much to you.

I've been through plenty of thos [...]