ie8 fix

testing

Microsoft: Better testing can speed development

One of the reasons that software development takes so darn long is the amount of testing it takes.

A new feature has to be tested to make sure it is better than the old way of doing things and that it doesn't mess anything else up.

Microsoft is hoping a new tool can help make the testing process more methodical and, by doing so, speed things up. The company calls it the Experimentation Platform.

Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet had the scoop on this. Essentially, it is based on the longtime premise of A/B testing, that is giving … Read more

Gadgettes 84: The Li'l Critters Episode

Molly must say "nubbins" at some point, because this episode is pretty much dedicated to the cute li'l critters of the world. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 84

The Duck Show http://duckshow.com/

Meet Tengu the Next American Idol http://chipchick.com/2008/04/meet_tengu_the_next_american_idol.html

Pool-cleaning robot powered by the sun http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9910173-1.html

USB Home Pregnancy Test Kit http://www.everythingusb.com/pteq-usb-pregnancy-test-14515.html

KickTrak pregnancy monitor http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2008/04/review_kicktrak.html

Itch Cat Scratch Pad http://www.popgadget.net/2008/03/itch_cat_scratc.php

Stop Motion … Read more

OSBC Report: Kaplan CTO declares "Open source is the software of choice in a connected world"

I've known Jon Williams, chief technology officer of Kaplan Test, for a few years, and have always been impressed by his active involvement in the technology world. He blogs. He helps to run a New York CTO breakfast club. He keeps involved with various open-source communities. He's an ideal CTO.

Given Jon's background, one statement that he made in his opening remarks particularly impressed me:

I don't use open source because it's free....I use open source because it works.

Jon then offered up several key benefits derived from open source at Kaplan Test:… Read more

Independent antivirus test labs join forces

Corrected at 6:50 a.m. PDT March 26: The last paragraph has been revised to correctly describe a second antivirus partnership.

The Anti-Malware Test Lab and AV-Comparatives.org announced on Tuesday an alliance designed to create one of the most respected sources of objective, independent information about antivirus products.

Together, the pair said, they intend by year's end to create a unique system of integrated tests for determining the effectiveness of commercial antivirus software.

Andrea Clementi, founder of AV-Comparatives, said in a statement that "the partnership with Anti-Malware Test Lab will allow us to evaluate more aspects … Read more

How do you find a quiet laptop?--Ask the Editors

CNET reader Georg Frausing asks:

It is difficult to find some of the tested laptops with the lowest noise level. Any suggesting how to find them?

The noisiest parts of a laptop are likely to be its internal fans, the hard disk drive, and the optical drive. The hotter a laptop's internals get, the louder the fans are likely to be. (Note: not all laptops have internal fans.) You can actually play around with this on a MacBook using the freeware utility, smfFanControl. Depending on how good a job the laptop manufacturer did designing the laptop, sometimes a spinning … Read more

Rivet Logic earns the JBoss Innovator of the Year Award with Kaplan Test

Sometimes the good guys win.

I was really happy to see Red Hat announce that Rivet Logic won the JBoss Innovator of the Year Award for 2008. I'm biased in this one (see below), but it's an exceptional award for an exceptional piece of work by (you guessed it) an exceptional group of people.

What was the winning application?

...a next-generation platform for the www.kaptest.com site that can deliver personalized applications and dynamic, targeted content. The results include a 26x performance improvement over the legacy content authoring/delivery system, much faster page load times and a "fresher" web presence for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions.

100% open source. I know the Kaplan team well, as well as the Rivet Logic team. This award couldn't have happened to a better group of people. Congratulations!… Read more

High school students stand up for privacy, refuse to take military test

Teens may have a better understanding of privacy issues than the adults around them. Unfortunately, when you are a high school student, your personal judgment can still be challenged by an unsympathetic principal.

The Raleigh News & Observer reports that at Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough North Carolina, more than 300 juniors were given the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). The military provides and administers the tests without charge, and in return the scores and students' contact information are sent to military branch recruiters and the school.

Cedar Ridge Principal Gary Thornburg was willing to sign on to this deal to get access to what he views as a valuable career assessment tool. There is supposed to be an opt-out procedure, but three students who refused to take the test were sent to the in-school suspension room to take it--not as discipline, according to Thornburg, but because the in-school suspension teacher was available to supervise them while other students were taking the test. Sounds like a blatantly disingenuous answer to me. In my experience as a student and teacher, when you send students to in-school suspension, it is going to feel like a punishment and be perceived that way by others. Surely their well-equipped media center could have handled three students for independent study.… Read more

Don't dump the moisturizer just yet

These days just about any piece of health advice seems to involve hydration. Dermatologists in particular have a field day with this, pretty much telling patients to stay permanently lathered in creams, oils, and ointments to lock moisture in the skin. But unless your epidermis is perennially greased, how do you know if your skin cells are flush or parched?

U.K.-based iLift--which is already peddling a somewhat-dubious anti-cellulite device--says its handheld Hydro Test gauges hydration levels with a sensor head that's meant to be held against the skin and then render a numeric estimate on its … Read more

Webby typing tester Keybr improves your finger dexterity sans software

This blog was created to cover cool Web apps, and one of the more interesting trends to follow is that of desktop software that has transitioned to the Web. Keybr, which surfaced a couple of days ago, is a typing tester, the same kind you might have suffered through in school. The goal of these apps (Keybr included) is to give you a scored typing test that rates you on your typing speed and accuracy.

The entire time you're typing, the app will keep track of your speed and accuracy with a live chart of your efforts. Things progress … Read more

Day one at CES 2008

The 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show hasn't officially started, but CNET editors are already gathering the latest. Hot topics so far have been Warner Bros. dropping HD DVD; the new all-in-one budget home theater systems from Panasonic; a waterproof, dustproof, and shockproof camcorder; and Samsung's Touch of Color LCDs that depart from the typical glossy-black finish.

Also new for this year, the CNET Car Tech Testing Lab lets manufacturers stop by our lab and show off their goods by installing the latest systems in our test car, a 2008 Scion xD.

Of course, there are loads of other … Read more