Squash that bug!!!
Squash that bug!!!

Most of the members here know what I do for a living. I am a Quality Engineer, also known as a software tester. That means I get to play the part of a customer. I get to be the good customer, the kind and understanding one, who is willing to put up with a few rough edges on something as long as the program's basic functionality is there. This is sort of like buying a loaf of sesame bread, bringing it home, and finding out that someone has left out the sesames! Well, it's still good bread so they use it anyway. Maybe it's even very tasty bread, and you know they don't miss the sesames all that much.

I also get to be the fussy, complaining customer who grumps at every little thing they don't like. You know the type. You could give them gold bars unexpectedly, and they would still complain that the gold isn't shiny enough. They can't see anything but the faults. Some people just aren't ever 100% satisfied, and I get to represent them, too!

I also get to be the customer that is hurried, harassed by management, under pressure of time limits, under the gun with limited resources, distracted ny things from outside work, and overall desperately looking for something, for once, to just plain work as expected. I can relate to this customer, so I tend to lean this way the most. Software not obvious in how it operates? I complain to developers. Software keeps me from doing the wrong thing, but doesn't tell me even a hint of what the RIGHT thing is to do? I complain to the developers. What I do, the most, is make sure that someone, somewhere is looking out for that downtrodden, harried, stressed out customer. Software is never perfect, but that doesn't mean it can't be good!

A defect in software is called a bug. This goes back to the Mark II computer, in the days when computers took up entire floors of buildings, not just a corner of your desk. The Mark II had miles and miles of wires running this way and that. As you would expect, critters managed to get into the works. One day the computer was not behaving as it should have, and the engineers had to trace out why. They found a bug, a moth to be exact, had gotten electrocuted between two wires. It was still hanging there lifeless, causing a short. The engineers entered the incident as "The Mark II was debugged today" and taped the moth into the log book as a joke. The terminology stuck.

Now, let's suppose you were in a dark room, and you had a flashlight. You shine the light around, and spot a nasty icky bug on the floor. What do you do? Well, you could yell and scream for help. You could run in terror. You could just step on it. But how about this - you turn off the light and hope it's not there anymore. (Reminds me of a goofy joke from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, involving a towel.)

Does that make sense to you? At work last week, we discovered a new bug had appeared in our software, and our tests were clearly detecting it. Some people on my team wanted us to stop running those tests, and hope it would go away!!! Sounds crazy, doesn't it?

The bible is a light. Sometimes when we read it, we illuminate some pretty ugly, scary things in our lives that we may not have realized were there. What should we do? Yell and scream for help? (Yes!) Run in terror! (Maybe!) Or just turn off the light and hope it's not there anymore?

Well, you do what you want. Me, I've noticed my bible is sufficient to squash any bug!

Randy

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John 3:16-21 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

John 12:35 Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. [36] While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.

I Corinthians 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

I John 2:8-11 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.