Qantas joke applied to bug reports

Far too often, I see bug reports or issues opened without enough information to solve the problem. It always reminds me of this old Qantas joke about pilot and engineer exchanges around problems with air craft. It always pays to think about bug reports from the reader as well as the author's point of view. When you are filling out the report, the bug seems as plain as day. You can see it right there in front of you and apart from pointing, you probably don't see the value in writing anything. However, the problem with this, is that the engineer is not sitting there with you and so will only have what you write to reproduce the problem.

• Pilots: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
  Engineers: Almost replaced left inside main tire.
• Pilots: Something loose in cockpit.
  Engineers: Something tightened in cockpit.
• Pilots: Dead bugs on windshield.
  Engineers: Live bugs on back-order.
• Pilots: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
  Engineers: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.
• Pilots: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
  Engineers: Evidence removed.
• Pilots: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
  Engineers: That's what they're for.
• Pilots: Suspected crack in windshield.
  Engineers: Suspect you're right.

In these exchanges, you can see how both the pilot and engineers are 100% correct but are clearly missing each other.
When you write a bug report, please take the time to see if you can give clear steps to reproduce the problem. If you can back out of the screen or page you are on, and see if you can follow the steps to see the problem (screenshots can really help here also), this is even better.
If an engineer has taken the time to write software, they want people to use it and hate if it has bugs. I really like users that want to complain - they are the best type of users because they care and want the software to work.
If you take this extra time to explain and show the steps to reproduce the problem, it really helps the engineer who gets assigned the problem. Also, if the bug cannot be reproduced, there is no way an engineer can fix the problem. At best, you will get a polite response that will sound a lot like one of these Qantas jokes.

My technical tips have moved

I am moving the odd technical tips that I post over to the Pubget Tech blog.

My first is about installing the MySQL gem on the latest OSX software and hardware.

So please check it out and add it to your RSS feeds. It will be worth it - thanks.

New journal available at Pubget

The April 1st inaugural issue of the Journal of Human Curiosity is available at Pubget.


UPDATE: Thanks all who enjoyed this April fools joke. You can see this still at http://pubget.com/search?q=ncbirofl%3Apapers.

Enjoying skiing

Taking a little vacation in Telluride, CO - it is a really nice place if you plan to visit.

Jackcards vs. Hallmark

I received my holiday reminder from Jackcards and Hallmark today. It is amazing the difference between the emails. Jackcards.com does it so much better!



Jack Cards - your doing it right!

Pubget team in Horse Shoe Bay, Peel Island

We took a trip out to Peel Island this weekend. The trip to Australia is going very well and everyone is having a great time.

DeepDyve - Charging $0.99 for Free Content?

From: DeepDyve - Charging $0.99 for Free Content?

...it seems like a lot of DeepDyve's content is free, yet it charges for access to some of it. Take for example an article from the Journal of Leukocyte Biology...

Patient BMI was associated with lower physician respect

I guess staying within the normal BMI helps get respect as well: Physician Respect for Patients with Obesity. J Gen Intern Med : (2009)

Our office mate's startup

Added search Pubget directly from my blog

If you want to try a search on Pubget, you can right from here now. Also, if you want to add the code to your blog or libguide, please feel free!


<!-- Search Pubget -->
<center>
<form action="http://pubget.com/search" method="GET">
<input value="UTF-8" name="ie" type="hidden">
<input value="UTF-8" name="oe" type="hidden">
<table bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><tr><td>
<a href="http://pubget.com/">
<img alt="Pubget" src="http://assets0.pubget.com/images/powered_by_pubget.gif"
border="0" align="absmiddle"/ /></a>
<input maxlength="255" value="" name="q" size="25" type="text">
<input value="Pubget Search" name="btnG" type="submit">
</td></tr></table>
</form>
</center>
<!-- Search Pubget -->


New Wet Lab Wiki up at MIT

There is a new science focused wiki available here:

OpenWetWare

It is a place for Wet Lab researchers to host and share information. It also provides some easy linking methods to Papers through Pubget.

I like coffee

Caffeine Reverses Cognitive Impairment and Decreases Brain Amyloid-beta Levels in Aged Alzheimer's Disease Mice. From a new paper published: J Alzheimers Dis 17(3):661-80 (2009)
...We have recently shown that Alzheimer's disease (AD) transgenic mice given a moderate level of caffeine intake (the human equivalent of 5 cups of coffee per day) are protected from development of otherwise certain cognitive impairment and have decreased hippocampal amyloid-beta (Abeta) levels due to suppression of both beta-secretase (BACE1) and presenilin 1 (PS1)/gamma-secretase expression.

Setup of MySql on OSX for Rails

You would think this would be as easy as "sudo gem install mysql" but it is not. After installing the MySql community server, you need to install via this command:

sudo gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-config=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config

After that, you will be in business.

Real Companies Have Espresso Machines

Pubget just installed its first espresso machines. Matt, Chris, Ryan, Ramy and I will now have an endless supply of high quality espresso to keep us going.

Pubget is a Featured Resource at UCSF

Pubget is now a "Featured Resource" on the UCSF Library Page.
Thanks to all that have sat in on the meetings and worked with us at UCSF.

The only way to search domains

I have been using Bust A Name to search domains for a while.
It allows you to play with meaningful words to your business to try and put them into a .com or other domain.

Download all papers from Firefox within Pubget

We have just put up a new Firefox extension to allow downloading all PDFs for offline use.

http://pubget.com/pubget.xpi



To use this you need:

1. Pubget account (which is free);
2. Firefox (we have tested both OSX and Windows); and optionally
3. University or Hospital Library Access support by Pubget to get access to Journals.

Pubget via Google Reader

This is a quick way to subscribe to a number of journals and keep updated on all the latest research in your area.

Not only are you kept up to date, but also connected directly to the full text paper through your university library.

Double the Difference minus labor cost

We just booked a hotel in Miami through Hotwire for $209 per night.

However, once we found out who the booking was through, we decided to double check the price. As it turned out, booking directly through the hotel, was cheaper:


So, after researching their "double the difference" guarantee, we filled out their form to a link with the booking.
The next day, we got an email back rejecting the claim because it was an employee price.

Am I too cynical, do I think Hotwire is just trying fob us off hoping we will give up and not bother with the claim? After a quick google search for "hotwire double rate guarantee", the 4th link seems to indicate this is not the case:
Hotel "Best rate guarantee" programs, My experiences..... (2nd comment)

Time will tell - is this going to be another small claims experience?

Added The New Friend Connect Bar

I just added the friend connect bar down the bottom of my blog! Enjoy all the social network goodness that it displays!