Status Update

Well, it has been a while since my last blog post. So here goes with another round of quick updates of what has been going on in the last couple weeks.

First off, we have all been working hard on getting 2.0.0.5 ready. Many of us have been long hours into the night and many weekend hours. It seems that once we had one problem solved and builds ready, another ugly problem would rear it's head. Fortunately, we have persevered and testing continues. Priority right now is getting this release out to the public as soon as it is ready. The sooner we can get it ready and signed off, the sooner we can get this build out the door and patch that IE/Firefox security bug that most of us have heard so much about.

Secondly, I have been working a lot with Jay Patel trying to get a decent pool of ideas from members of the community for how we can both promote and expand community involvement with QA. The main target of this project is focussed but not limited to post-secondary schools. For more information, and to provide feedback, please click here. The following is a quick excerpt from the post:

I think the first priority for us to get more people involved in QA at Mozilla is to get key people on the ground (students and professors) interested in supporting a local community. QA or otherwise. The majority of students are ignorant as to the many avenues available to them in the software industry. I know I was! Getting the word out is key. Also,I think that all the lessons learned by Dave and everything that he has accomplished can be mirrored to many other schools across the globe.

Please do not be shy and do not hesitate to post any comments, feedback or ideas. The larger pool we have to draw from the better.

On the lighter side of life, I have two trips to tell you about.

The first was a trip I took down to the Santa Cruz area a couple weekends ago. The whole idea of going down to Santa Cruz was born out of boredom. Every weekend, the interns sit around wanting to do something (other than the communal pancake feast that inevitably ensues every saturday) but remain largely unmotivated to do anything. Having put up with this behaviour for far too long, I took it upon myself to plan a day trip to Santa Cruz. The message went out, "All those who want to come are welcome. I leave at 11am!" Initially, I received quite a lot of enthusiasm toward the idea. However, as the departure time approached, the level of motivation that I have grown accustomed to started to show itself. In the end, there were just three of us that went. I would like to think that we had a blast. The drive down CA-17 was interesting, especially in the intern van. The route down to Santa Cruz is a narrow, winding road that snakes through the mountains and the van isn't exactly the most nimble of vehicles at the best of times. The day involved some baking in the sun at the beach, a couple dips in the ocean, some more baking in the sun, a walk around the boardwalk, and an adventure to downtown Santa Cruz. For pictures of the entire event, please go here. To give you a taste of how Santa Cruz was, here is a shot of my new best friend:


The second trip I took was just this past Saturday. Preed, Cesar and I took a day long trip down to San Luis Obispo by plane. It was a nice flight down, taking about 90 minutes, through the valley. I enjoyed it a lot. San Luis was a nice town too. With Preed as our guide, we walked around downtown, got some eats (tri-tip beef is mouthwatering protein goodness), saw the Mission, bought some wine and even had a brief tour of Preed's alma mater. The pinnacle of the whole trip didn't appear until the trip back. Watching the sun set from 8500 feet is truly an amazing experience. You can see pictures of my trip to San Luis here. For a taste of the sunset, check this out:


I have one final event to tell you about that happened this Sunday, but I am still waiting on the photos to be ready. Once they are, I will make a post.

Until then,

Cheers.