XP Days Review

Some talks and their describtion

XP Days is a 2 days conference being held in Kyiv, Ukraine for 6 years now. This conference is mainly devoted to style of leading IT projects and is pretty much unique in its kind. I’ve visited it recently, so here is my overview of the talks and speakers.

There were almost no similar talks at the conference; here is the schedule, and generally that’s what I’ll be using to guide you.

The time each speaker had was 50 minutes per slot. Yan Drugalya talked for around 25 minutes, and next 20 minutes or so he was answering the questions. He works at a project with many platforms, huge number of users and deployments. Obviously, they have enormous quantity of tests with varying settings and peculiarities. Here are some tests managing solutions that he proposed:

- Use Perl for setting running tests

- Unified Test Runner (UTR): a single entry point for running all tests

- Hoarder Web Service, which integrates test execution data, both from local and Build Farm test runs.

The proposals are not for everyone, moreover I didn’t see the tools on the market. Still, it was interesting to find out about something really big. Here you can read more.

Viktor Farcic talked about scaling your services. He proposed to compose and decompose them using Docker, which allows creation and sharing software through Docker images that can be ran on any platform. He also suggested using immutable deployment rather than mutable one. The main idea is that you divide your software into stable blocks, and with every deploy one creates new instance of the software not destroying the old version. He also proposed to use tools that determine, on which server to deploy the container depending on its resources. Such tools are Kubernetes, Swarm, and Mesos DCOS. Docker + Kubernetes were better described in Carlos Sanchez talk.

For me, never having experienced Ruby myself, it was pretty interesting to attend Boris Tveritnev talk. He was explaining purely technical material through communication with public which as for me is one of the most working methods.  Here is what I’ve learnt:

- Duck Typing is when it doesn’t matter which type of an object is used. What  really matters are methods or actions that can be performed with an object. In Ruby it’s possible to try to apply the method to the parent object if one of its children has its implementation. The instance of the child will be determined during the runtime.

- DDD is domain driven design, which helps separate static and dynamic parts of the code.

- DCI, or data, context, integration, is about making what has to be done having domain data by applying roles to it. It also allows to mock parts easily.

Here you can look through the slides of the presentation, even though they’d look much better with audio.

Don't create what you can buy

Many people attended talks of Venkat Subramaniam; he was talking during 4 slots! The subjects were Towards an Evolutionary Architecture and TDD. Probably, the main thing I should say is that it doesn’t matter, which particular subject he’s talking about. He’d always lead you to some simple verity which you’ll memorize like a rule.

Don't split functionality between sprints, evaluate the priority by value and architectural changes

Wait to pay until you're sure

Andrey Dzynia gave a great talk about (automation) testing. Those who’re thinking over this job should see the talk. One of his points is that programmers and testers think in different ways, and programmer might never look on something tester would do during ad hoс testing. He’s also proposed to read Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. That’s what I’m interested in recently. There are people who are super fast and efficient, but sometimes they don’t notice some stuff on the way. Others are slow, and such kind of problems are generally eliminated.

Finally, I’ll tell about the talk, which was one of my favorites at the conference. It was about pair programming by Jon Jagger. The thing is that I’ve heard a lot about it before, even tried it myself and liked it. So I wasn’t sure if I should pick another slot. Nevertheless, some thoughts I’ve heard during the talk changed my view on project organization. For example, the project is well organized when enrolled employees have some spare time. Sounds easy and pretty rational if you’re not the customer who pays for this spare time I believe. Still if to take the statistics, on all my projects except for one, I either had almost no spare time or I had to overtime. So these words made me think why so, how it can be changed, and how much real work on the project is left when all the formalities that support bureaucracy are eliminated. He also proposed to give some time off (possibly, a week) to every employee every once in a while when he’s minimally enrolled in the project but studies something new. After this small vacation he might share the knowledge with all the team members, and as a result everyone learns something new and potentially useful for the project. This will lead to constant upgrading and bringing better job quality into life.

About the other talks I didn't attend (but have an opinion) 

Peter Goodliffe has a great last name, and I’ve got a feeling he also has a great life! I didn’t attend his talk, but I met him in person and chatted a bit. Not sure if this information is relevant, but he walks barefoot or in flip-flops, no matter how cold it is outside. He also prefers green nail polish. Sounds strange? Yes, same to me. When it comes to talking, he seems to be an interesting person, so I plan to watch his Becoming a Better Programmer talk when available.

Some speakers are always good. I didn’t attend the talks but I know who to watch in spare time. Mikalai Alimenkou and Viktor Polischuk are on my mind when I’m writing this. Also, Eduards Sizovs is an adorable guy. He talks a lot and pretty fast, so in one speech he gets an opportunity to cover even half related subjects, e.g. solving conflicts having beer in a bar. Not surprisingly, he also gets many questions after the talk. Eugene Krivosheyev is an Agile trainer and is the one who always gives lots of advice on how to make work more efficient.

Hope the conference videos will come soon, and I wish you nice watching time!

P. S. And certainly there were great presents from IntroPRO, Playtika, and Luxoft.

First impression about iPhone and iOS

Thinking of a new phone?

In this article I'll explain the challenges I've faced when started using an iPhone after having used an Android phone. I hope it'll help you to make your choice and to broaden your vision if you've never experienced the "i" company.

If you're an extreme person or just prefer to count every possibility, then first of all you'd better find out the physical reliability tests results of the compared phones. Here are several videos to compare Samsung and iPhone

• drop test
• water resistance test
• heating or simply fire burning test (I guess this one is obvious but still)

To sum it up the Samsung S6 looks to be more durable than the iPhone 6. Maybe the situation will change with the next versions, but I don't believe that it will happen rapidly. Why? Apple company reminds me a cat who in his youth was catching mice but later because of being very pretty and sweet was taken by some very nice and rich lady to home. He was fed with great food and started getting very fat so loose his ability to catch his food on his own. Really, why should you need to work on something way better if you already have everything you ever dreamed of?

About the operating system

1) The main purpose to have a phone is to call and to text. The call quality is pretty good, but what about messaging?
My first typed letter went great. But starting from the second I had a question: are the keyboard letters always capital? Why doesn't Shift change it?
Probably Apple users can't write "little" thoughts. By default all their thoughts and so characters should be printed big (uppercase)! One comes back on Earth when one starts typing. Uppercase characters turn out to be absolutely simple average lowercase characters, similar to those typed on an Android device when shift is not pressed.

Did I miss something or the logo of Apple was officially changed?

turns into -> 

While installing apps, I memorized my password very well. I had to input it really lots of times. Counting that it's "strong" and that the keyboard doesn't comprise special symbols it took me around 15 clicks more than it'd take on a standard computer. On my old Android phone it'd take only about 7 clicks more.

2) Battery longlasting wishes to be longer.
My WIFI, GPS and mobile network were pretty much the only consumers of the battery, if not to take into account the phone by itself. Initial charge in the beginning of the day was around 75%. During the day WIFI was on around 2 hours: I've downloaded several apps. I've made 6 pics and spent around 5 minutes in calls. Battery died. I guess the facts told you enough, no extra comments are needed.

3) Usability of iPhone losses in the next points:

-  Where is the handy turn on/off board? Like where do I turn on/off my mobile Internet, GPS and similar? Oh, probably you might go to settings, find them there and set them the way you need! Yes, there is some menu which flies out of the bottom in you pressNew WIFI network? Any chance you'll be proposed  the list of all when you just pick WIFI option on a footer menu like you may do in Android? Life is not that easy, buddy. Go to Settings!

 - You won't see the percentage of your accumulator life unless you set it in settings. Note that they change the structure of settings pretty often. Like in iOS8 version it was not like in iOS9. Similar story with GPS setting and probably many more. iOS developers and testers might have big fights because of that. Maybe you remember but when Windows decided to change the structure of the Control Panel there was a big discussion over it. Like how could they have it same in all versions before Windows XP and make in absolutely different in Windows 7? Microsoft guys simply made a comfortable search so that those who're used to the old look could still find what they searched for without actually searching.

- My iPhone doesn't always display horizontal picture when I turn it.

- If you have a relatively large iPhone yet the one which fits nicely in a hand (e. g. iPhone 6 with 4,7 inches diagonal), it's not that trivial to press "back" button. Android phone has it in the bottom (near thumb) while iPhone in the top left corner. I can reach this place comfortably only when I hod the phone in the left hand and my other fingers are under the middle of the device. Still I prefer the right hand and to hold the expensive gadget in the bottom to prevent any chance to let it go. My thumb should be completely over it always be ready to firmly cover the phone.


- Maybe I lack some marks in settings, but it would be nice to be proposed to complete the word and input the next which fits when it’s typed. I'd prefer as well my login name to be memorized and picked after several letters are typed. The phone managed to memorize my first name for 2 inputs, then it disappeared and I can't get it back.  After several attempts at my last name, it started remembering it but I don't know how long it'll last. iPhone has dictionaries for some languages like English and Russian, but not for Ukrainian. It’s still better on phone than on computer. OSX corrects Ukrainian words thinking some of them are Russian even though the Ukrainian language is on. I'm grateful that iPhone doesn't do it.

- It is also important to mention that it's not that trivial to set up a song from an iPhone as a ringtone. Just look how many actions have to be performed for something ordinary on Android.

- The last but not least is that putting the cursor in the middle of the word while typing generally takes you longer than in Android at least when the phone is in vertical position. The reason for that is it takes time to turn on the magnifier and for the last one to look at the text and the cursor position.

That was lots of critics and I still have some. I bet I'll have even more. Still I'm happy to have a chance to use the iPhone and feel how cozy it is to read something from it, use pictures filters and just enjoy those nice visual effects.

Now, you're to decide if you're ready to pay several hundreds dollars more to get something that let's say cute but easily rottens inside, crashes and with not great usability. By the way, here is the link to compare how much better iPhones get with every new edition. When you look on the new coming iPhone 7 just remember who was the first to go beyond the edge and when it happened.

Что делать, если сломалась очередная рулетка-поводок?

Некоторое время назад мне сказали, что надо не только слушать, а и выступать на конференциях, писать блог и просто общаться с тем, с кем я хочу. Совет-то дельный, но в первую очередь информация, которой ты делишься, должна быть интересна собеседнику. Вот наконец я решила, что умею делать что-то полезное, мое умение в некотором роде нестандартно и мои знания могут пригодится другим, кто сталкивается с аналогичной проблемой, поэтому читайте на здоровье :)

Первый, щенячий - зеленый Topsi, дальше против часовой стрелки.
Последний - голубой, нового поколения.

За 2 года владения моим драгоценным псом я сменила не один поводок, а именно 5 рулеток и 2 обычных поводка, если не брать во внимание подручные средства типа сетевого кабеля, когда поводок был окончательно перегрызен.


Вы не подумайте что моя собака волкодав или я изверг. Скорее, наш случай противоположный. Моя собака невелика ростом, с виду что-то между американским водяным спаниелем и маленьким ирландским сеттером; некоторые утверждают, что это пудель, а я просто называю его кучерявым коккер-спаниелем.

Мой пёс Джек (Потрошитель, Воробей, Лондон и много другого в одном).

Это милейшая, добрейшая и ласковейшая собака, если вы не пьяница или бомж, конечно. Он души не чает в охоте... нет, не на уток, и даже не на палки. Он преследует свой поводок. Эта затея приводит к веселой игре. Я держу, он забирает, тянет, рычит, и не долго сопротивляясь обычная ленточка от дорогого немецкого поводка рвется. Другой результат - пружина в рулетке перестает работать и поводок больше не скручивается, превращаясь в обычную веревку на пластмассовой держалке. В этой статье я расскажу, как не идти в магазин и трать еще одну кучу денег на новый поводок, а починить старый.

1) Проблема только в порванном поводке:

Старая модель поводка с узкой дырочкой, куда нож или
щипчики не просунуть.

Решение состоит всего лишь в вытягивании конца поводка из рулетки и прикреплении (пришить или привязать) его к концу поводка с карабином. Звучит легко, но порой дырочка достаточно узкая и инструмент для захвата веревки туда не пролезет. Что делать? Разбирать коробку поводка.

Благо, что она не спаяна или склеена и ее можно разнять. В зависимости от модели может понадобится развинтить один или несколько винтиков снаружи, ну а внутренние закрутки придется разнять силой.
Когда все винтики вынуты, просовываем нож между половинками, поддеваем, как выходит. Корпус и ручка отдельно сложены, поэтому распаковав одно, второе надо разнять отдельно.

Раскрыли спереди и сзади.

Начинаем открывать. Женской крепкой руки достаточно для реализации задуманного :)

Вот они, внутренности! Пыль можно протереть бумажечкой, но идеальную чистоту тут наводить не предлагаю. Обратите внимание, что на левой половине одна тонкая полоска по ободку, а на правой две. При сборке агрегата вам понадобится попасть в пазики. Такде есть несколько дырочек справа и штыречков слева. Перед тем, как собирать силой, убедитесь, что пазл сошелся. 

Вот он, торжественный момент, когда мы вытащили то, за чем лазили! 

Ну и собрали поводок назад. Осталось только пришить оторванный конец :)

2) У вас перестал скручиваться ваш поводок.

Вот вам буквально несколько раз "одёваный" поводок.

Тут дело чуть сложнее, но не то, чтоб хрупкая девушка не могла с этим справиться!

Этот поводок пострадал в двух местах. Порвалась лента через 3 дня после
начала пользования (не я с собакой гуляла, не знаю, что они делали, но им
явно помогли подручные предметы судя по оборванным концам). Также слетела пружина и в результате
лента не закручивается.

Обратите внимание, это новая модель поводка и тут дырочка для ленты достаточно просторна что дает возможность собрать части ленты не раскрывая корпуса.

Я поддела ножом правую часть и корпус разошелся. 

Тут не было ни одного наружного винтика. Всю работу выполнил нож и сила рук для растягивания частей.

Достаем бобину из середины и нажимаем на пимпочки, чтоб ее открыть. На картинке та самая закрытая пимпочка. В вашем варианте может быть что-то аналогичное, если не тоже самое.

Это открытая писпочка.

Крышка вот так вот открывается и мы ее снимаем, нам нужна пружина!

А вот и сердце поводка, которое отвечает за скручивание! Железяка - это пружина. Проблема в том, что ее конец (по середине), соскочил с резьбы на поводке и для того, чтоб нам его прицепить, надо зафиксировать конец по середине, чтоб он был виден сквозь дырочку. Для этого сгибаем пружину до нужного нам положения и делаем это предельно аккуратно, придерживая основную пружину пальцем.

Иначе вы увидите "разозлившуюся" пружину, которая вышла из своей лампы-заточения. Поверьте на слово, это не хороший джин! Скрутить и загнать это дело на место у меня вышло с 3его раза. После моих слов можно прикинуть, сколько раз она мне дала по рукам. С этого момента начинается реально мужская работа. 

Спустя пару часиков (шучу, в действительности прошло около полутора ;) ), я загнала эту заразу в ее будку и согнула так, что кончик виднеется в дырке. 

Далее вставляем этот самый кончик в дырочку на поводке и таким образом закрепляем точку отсчета для скручивания поводка. Лента должна быть закручена по максимуму или до момента с узелками, если таковые имеются.

И так, бобина вставлена, поводок торчит из положенной дырки, механизм для остановки раскрутки ленты на месте. Нож тоже присутствует на картинке, поскольку он помог попасть концом пружины в ту самую дырочку на коробке поводка. Проверьте на всякий случай, что вы все вставили той стороной и что когда вы дергаете ленту, то она скручивается, как раньше. Если нет - самое время паниковать! Иначе все готово. 

Собираем поводок назад и радуемся! :) Мы молодцы!

Опять таки, обратите внимание, что это новая модель поводка и в ней отдельно расположены карабин и основная часть ленты. Когда у вас рвется лента, вы можете не создавать узелок, как я, и не сшивать его посередине, на месте разрыва. Вы можете достать сшитый кончик ленты из той маленькой пластиковой коробочки, на которой держится карабин, его срезать и вставить туда новый конец, зашив его там, чтоб ваш поводок был красивый и ничем кроме пошарпаности не отличался от нового.

Успехов, удачи и новых достижений!
P. S.  Буду рада вопросам и комментариям :)