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raelity bytes - the author of blosxom
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Mon, 22 Jun 2009
EuSpRIG 2009 : Spreadsheet Gurus Meet in Paris
Experts From Europe and North America meet to discuss the role of spreadsheets in organisational excellence at the 10th annual spreadsheet risks conference on July 2-3 in Paris, France.
Cardiff, UK, June 16, 2009 -- The European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group (EuSpRIG), is holding its 2009 conference "The Role of Spreadsheets in Organisational Excellence" on the 2nd – 3rd July 2009 at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan, Paris, France.
The keynote speakers are Dr Louise Pryor, Director of Actuarial Standards for the UK Financial Reporting Council’s Board for Actuarial Standards, and Dr Martin Erwig, Associate Professor of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Oregon State University, USA.
Grenville Croll, EuSpRIG chair commented “We welcome our delegates and presenters to Paris and to the 10th Annual EuSpRIG Conference. It is a considerable achievement for any organisation, especially a non-profit and voluntary organisation such as EuSpRIG, to be able to celebrate this important anniversary with such an interesting, expansive and international programme”. Croll cautioned that “Most people do not appreciate the important role that spreadsheets play in our modern society. Nor do they appreciate the risks that we are running with this out of control but ubiquitous technology”. On a happier note, he concluded: “Here at EuSpRIG we offer thought leadership and guidance on the technical and human aspects of examining, containing and controlling spreadsheet technology”.
Speakers include: Susan Allen of HBOS who will be discussing Excel Modelling, Transparency, Auditing and Business use; Grenville Croll of Spreadsheet Engineering Ltd who will be introducing his paper on Spreadsheets and the Financial Collapse; Angela Collins of BDO Stoy Hayward who will describe her work as an Embedded Spreadsheet Modeller and Drs Sriram Iyengar and John Svirbely of www.medal.org and the University of Texas, who will describe their monumental Medical Algorithms project.
Bill Bekenn & Ray Hooper from Fairway Associates will present their curiously, but very appropriately entitled paper “Some Spreadsheet Poka-Yoke”. Professor Tom Grossman and colleagues will be travelling from the University of California, San Francisco to present their work on using the Lookup Technique to Replace Nested-if formulas. The host team of Françoise Tort, François-Marie Blondel and Éric Bruillard will discuss their findings regarding the relationship between errors detection and behaviour observation. They will be joined by their Belgian colleague Étienne Vandeput from the Université de Liège who will look at some milestones involved in teaching spreadsheet programs. A team of five students from the Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland, led by Dr Kevin McDaid will present research on Bayesian error estimation, the impact of named ranges on debugging, and a natural language approach to spreadsheet information.
Matthew Dinmore from the University of Maryland Baltimore and a number of individual consultants including Patrick O’Beirne, Angus Dunn, Sebastian Dewhurst and John Hunt complete the line-up of seventeen papers in total.
About EuSpRIG
EuSpRIG (www.eusprig.org) offers Risk Managers the world's only independent, authoritative & comprehensive web based information describing the current state of the art in Spreadsheet Risk Management. We run a well-established annual conference which provides a forum for researchers, practitioners, trainers, vendors, consultants and auditors. EuSpRIG's entire peer reviewed proceedings are published on the publicly accessible Cornell University moderated scientific repository www.arxiv.org. EuSpRIG provide speakers and content for professional societies, associations, conferences and journals. EuSpRIG is a not-for-profit organisation governed by an elected committee operating under the terms of a written constitution. Committee members include senior managers and directors of leading accounting firms and senior academics from European Universities.
EuSpRIG 2009 Conference Co-Sponsors The following organizations are pleased to support the EuSpRIG 2009 Conference: Baker Tilly, Spreadsheet Engineering Ltd, AuditNet, Systems Modelling, Information Systems Audit and Control Association - Northern UK Chapter, University of Wales Institute Cardiff, University of Greenwich and STEF ENS Cachan. There is an opportunity available for a main conference sponsor.
EuSpRIG Contacts
Grenville Croll, EuSpRIG Chair, Spreadsheet Engineering Ltd, +44 (0) 7935 323499
Pat Cleary, EuSpRIG Secretary, UWIC, Cardiff, +44 (0)2920 416070
PraxIS June 2009
sysmod.com/praxis/prax0906.htm
1) Risk
ISSA Ireland open event on Microsoft Security 10th June
Google Books Settlement Class Action
2) Quality
Softtest Ireland : Professionalism
CSE / ICS free event on Agile
SoftTest free events June 16-18
3) Spreadsheets
Eusprig 2009 registration open
Excel 2007 unpredictably losing defined names
4) Off Topic
Double-take exteriors of buildings by a trompe l'oeil artist
15 Web links in this newsletter
PraxIS May 2009
http://www.sysmod.com/praxis/prax0905.htm
1) IT
Java upskilling in Dublin for only 45 euro
The end of the e-Voting Saga
2) Research
Online Meeting Rooms
DropBox
3) Spreadsheets
Eusprig 2009 Conference
Framework Development Project
Can you describe a financial model as a city?
4) Off Topic
H1N1
19 links in this newsletter
PraxIS Apr.2009
http://www.sysmod.com/praxis/prax0904.htm
1) IT Risk
EuroCACS 2009 Frankfurt
2) European research
EuroAfriCa ICT Forum
The Informatics Development and Social Research Institute
3) Spreadsheets
Plus Prefix entry weirdness
Plus wait, there's more...
XLTest 1.06 beta version available
4) Off Topic
April Fool stories
PraxIS March 2009
http://www.sysmod.com/praxis/prax0903.htm
1) IT Risk
Survey on risk and rationality
2) Quality
SQC Conference Report
3) Spreadsheets
Ray Butler and Patrick O'Beirne at EuroCACS Frankfurt 15 March 2009
4) Off Topic
Graphing website structure
8 Web links in this newsletter
PraxIS Feb: Modelling Manifesto, Conferences, 30 years of spreadsheets
http://www.sysmod.com/praxis/prax0902.htm
IN THIS ISSUE
1) IT Risk
The Financial Modeler's manifesto
2) Quality
20% Discount on Software Testing Conference Dublin 4 March
3) Spreadsheets
Thirty Years of spreadsheets
Ray Butler and Patrick O'Beirne at EuroCACS Frankfurt 15 March 2009
VBA + Excel Performance: MS asks for your Feedback
4) Off Topic
Michigan man freezes to death after electric company cuts power
10 Web links in this newsletter
PraxIS Jan. 2009
09-01 Contents: EuroCACS, SSQC, Euro news,Spreadsheet cleanup
http://www.sysmod.com/praxis/prax0901.htm
1) IT Risk
Presenting at EuroCACS 15-18 March
Software & Systems Quality Conference Dublin 3-4 March
A lesson in application acceptance testing
2) European news
Slovakia Enters Euro Zone
European art and culture archives online
Unfair commercial practices: advice to consumers
3) Spreadsheets
Cleaning up sloppy spreadsheets
4) Off Topic
Christmas 2008 souvenir
15 links in this newsletter
Fri, 05 Dec 2008
PraxIS Dec 2008
Dec. 2008
1) IT Risk
Redaction Redux
Irish Reporting and Information Security Service
2) Euro debates
In or out?
3) Spreadsheets
The Daily WTF on the Uncertainty Principle of Spreadsheets
4) Off Topic
Office Offline web comic
14 Web links in this newsletter
ScanXLS helps UK companies find VAT rates in spreadsheets
http://www.sysmod.com/scanxls.htm
Companies in the UK and Ireland face the staggering task of changing price lists in spreadsheets because of the VAT rate reduction from 17.5% to 15% in Chancellor Darling's stimulus to the British economy, and the increase from 21% to 21.5% in Ireland
SCANXLS from Systems Modelling lets you scan your entire hard disk or network for spreadsheets that contain 17.5% or 21%
or combinations that result in gross or net calculations such as 1.175, and 40/47.
Systems Modelling can also scan spreadsheet files sent to us. This spreadsheet scanning service suits those who don't wish to install third party software on their servers, or who want an outsourced solution.
Scanxls also reports on other data or formula integrity issues that may exist in the spreadsheet, alerting businesses to problems that they did not know they had.
Contact: Patrick O'Beirne (+353) 5394 22294
Wed, 05 Nov 2008 IT Risk
Barclays plead lawyers' mistake in Lehman purchase
Spreadsheet Safety course
Software to help keep your spreadsheets safe
Spreadsheet Safe Company Reaches Dublin Finals of Business Competition
http://www.prlog.org/10136555-novaucds-validus-reaches-dublin-finals-of-prestigious-business-competition.html
NovaUCD’s Q-Validus Reaches Dublin Finals of Prestigious Business Competition
Q-Validus the NovaUCD-based international certification solutions provider has been selected as a Dublin regional finalist in the InterTradeIreland All-Island Seedcorn Business Competition 2008.
Q-Validus, which is based at NovaUCD the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at UCD, is developing and delivering innovative assessment and certification programmes designed to improve collaboration, productivity and competitiveness in the modern workplace.
Earlier this year Q-Validus launched Spreadsheet Safe™ an innovative training and certification programme designed to assist businesses in reducing the risks associated with poor spreadsheet design, usage and control.
The Dublin regional finals take place on the 12 November during which Q-Validus will make its investment pitch to a panel of judges followed by a questions and answers session. The winning company in the emerging company category will receive a cheque for €20,000 and a place in the All-Island finals which take place in Belfast on 27 November.
PraxIS Sep 2008: SoftTest, Appalling Vista, XLTest, Holidays
http://www.sysmod.com/praxis/prax0809.htm
1) Software Testing
SoftTest Ireland events with Lee Copeland 15-17 Sept.
2) An appalling Vista
Vista gets my back up
The cult of statistical significance
3) Spreadsheets
XLTest nears release
4) Off Topic
Holiday snaps
12 Web links in this newsletter
Thu, 18 Sep 2008
SQC London Free entry to first 50 respondents
Sep 29-Oct 1
Only six working days left until the SQC - The first 50 people who contact SQC will get a free place to one day of the conference! Call Sam on 020 7448 4682 to book now.
S QC UK conference - 29th to 30th September
QEII Conference Centre, Westminster
Free entry for one day of the conference to the first 50 people who contact us.
Contact Sam via email or call her on 020 7448 4682 to let her know on which day you would like to attend and quote SQC50.
Industry speakers:
We have a great range of speakers from companies such as Carphone Warehouse, UNUM, Allen & Overy, O2, Lloyds TSB, Microsoft and many more - all of whom will be sharing their experience of testing in the real world.
Topics include:
Running a centralised performance testing service in an Ecommerce world
Testing during the development phase using open source tools
Agile Testing methods in a real world testing environment
The politics of testing: Role plays from the coal face
These are delivered in a variety of formats at SQC which include interactive discussions and workshops so you have much more opportunity to get involved and really understand the topics.
http://www.sqs-conferences.com/uk/
Our eco-study holiday
In August Megan and I went on a course with
Archipelagos Aigaiou
about Mediterranean flora on the Greek island of
Ikaria and followed up by a few days holiday.
The course was a fascinating insight into the nature of the island and the science of botany and dendrology.
As well as conventional classroom lectures and laboratory examination of specimens that we collected, we went on guided field trips to the Rhanti forest and the Halaris River gorge. Our professor was the botanist Halil Cakan of Cukurova University in Turkey. (On a social note, this illustrates how young scientists can set up normal relations between Greece and Turkey, where there is a long and troubled past, even within living memory.)
Ikaria is an amazing island, unusually green for a Greek island, even in the dry month of August. There are still lakes and reservoirs, and an abundance of pipes strung across the landscape carrying water to the farms.
The Rhanti (Radi) forest is the largest forest of Quercus Ilex holm oak or hollyoak left in the Mediterranean, with some trees 500 years old.
Free-roaming goats eat young tree shoots, so the forest is not being renewed as much as it could be.
It appears that unlike the tethered and cared-for goats that we saw elsewhere on the island, these are simply owned to claim EU grants, and left to fend for themselves. Archipelagos have prepared a video on the consequences of goat breeding on natural environment of Radi forest
We also saw evidence of bark beetle infestation giving the "metro-map" tracks in the cambium (the growing layer of cells just under the bark) similar to those that we saw in the
Banff national park in Canada.
We also walked on one of the hiking trails in Ikaria and I hope to upload some of our photographs later. Because Ikaria has few beaches, it is not spoiled by drunk tourists, so it is mainly favoured by Greek holidaymakers escaping the heat of Athens.
We finished by visiting our friends in Athens who looked after us with true Greek hospitality. As well as the usual museums, we joined thousands of visitors going to see the full harvest moon rise over the Acropolis.
http://www.archipelago.gr/en/FieldCourses/MediterraneanDendrology/tabid/76/Default.aspx
Archipelagos, Institute of Marine & Environmental of the Aegean Sea, is a Greek non-profit, non-governmental, environmental organization. It has been active since 1998 in several parts of the Greek Seas (Ionian Sea, Sporades, Central Aegean, Lybian Sea, Eastern Aegean). Since 2000, Archipelagos' field of action has focused on the eastern Aegean, having its main research base on the island of Ikaria but with activity covering the whole of the Aegean Sea. Archipelagos action combines scientific research into the biodiversity of the marine and terrestrial environment of the Aegean Sea and islands, with efficient conservation work, in which the local communities have an active part.
Wed, 30 Jul 2008 1) Risk & SecuritySecurity flaws plague majority of e-banking sites
The risks of marketing your marketing
The $100,000 keying error
The risks of hacking
2) ICT for Development
IEEE Computer Journal on Computing in Developing
Economies
Eusprig 2008 conference report
More spreadsheet error stories in the news
4)
Off Topic
Ecological Holidays
PraxIS Newsletter July 2008
www.sysmod.com/praxis/prax0807.htm
1) Risk & Security
What to do if you suspect or discover fraud
2) Quality
Presentations available on Software Testing
3) Spreadsheets
Eusprig 2008
XLTest: A New Addin for Spreadsheet Checking
4) Off Topic
Don't blame me, I voted ...
5 Web links in this newsletter
At Eusprig 2008 I'll be announcing my new XLTest add-in for auditing spreadsheets and looking for beta testers.
Fri, 13 Jun 2008
Spreadsheet Hell!
A breakfast briefing for all Chartered Accountants and
colleagues
Date: Thursday, 26th June 2008.
Time: Full Irish breakfast, 7.30am. Presentations 8am sharp, followed by Q&A. Ends 9.30 approx.
Venue: Hilton Hotel, Charlemont Place, Dublin 2.
Cost: €50 per person
CPD: 1.5 hours
The Chartered Accountants IT Services Committee is pleased to host this morning session. Regulatory
pressure for compliance and risk management has created a dependence on spreadsheets which is
increasingly seen as a weakness that needs to be controlled. However, the sheer scale of their use raises
considerable practical challenges in discovery, risk assessment, evaluation, and the control of their
development, maintenance, and use.
These presentations present research and experience into the causes of expensive mistakes from
uncontrolled spreadsheets and describes evolving good practice in both end-user training and management
action to reduce risk.
Contents: Risk and spreadsheet hell : The Spreadsheet control problem : End User Computing (EUC)
issues : Publicly reported problems and what caused them : Real data from those who actually checked :
Evolving good practice recommendations and skills certification : Good practice in detecting and preventing
errors : The appropriate level of review and testing : Software tools, product screenshots : Summary
Patrick O’Beirne, B.Sc. (NUI) MA (Lancs) FICS, is Managing Director of Systems Modelling Ltd. His
current engagements include consulting on spreadsheet compliance methods, best practices in model
development, in-depth training in model audit and review, as well as IT consultancy. He is current chair of
the European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group (EuSpRIG) and of SoftTest Ireland, and a Fellow of the Irish
Computer Society. He has advised two certification bodies on the content of a syllabus for a new certification
in good spreadsheet practices. His latest book is Spreadsheet Check and Control (Systems Publishing,
ISBN 190540400X)
Dave Carpenter BBS, FCA, is Chief Executive of Q-Validus, a leading provider of international certification
and management services, offering a customized mix of consulting, item and test development, data
management, training, research and software tools to meet the unique needs of its clients. He previously
held the position of Chief Executive of the ECDL-Foundation, the worldwide governing body for the
European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL), and its international counterpart the International Computer
Driving Licence (ICDL), certification programme.
Booking Form
Eusprig 2008 Programme
www.eusprig.org
An Overview of Spreadsheet Analytics; Tom Grossman
Automating Spreadsheet Discovery & Risk Assessment; E. Perry
Controlling End User Computing Applications- a case study; Jamie Chambers
End User Computing in AIB Capital Markets: A Management Summary; Andrew McGeady
End-User Behaviour Analysis: Supporting Debugging Tool Design and Evaluation; Bishop, McDaid
EuSpRIG and Education and Training; D. Chadwick
Evaluation of an Intelligent Assistive Technology for Voice Navigation of Spreadsheets; Derek Flood, Kevin McDaid, Brian Bishop
Excel and the Accounting and Finance Professional; P Brown, P Alliy
Information and Data Quality in Spreadsheets; Patrick O'Beirne
In Pursuit of Spreadsheet Excellence; G. Croll
Metrics-Based Spreadsheet Visualization; Karen Hodnigg
Overview and Results of DidaTab project; Francois-Marie Blondel, Eric Bruillard
Reducing Spreadsheet Risk with FormulaDataSleuth; Bill Bekenn and Ray Hooper
Revisiting the Panko-Halverson Taxonomy of Spreadsheet Errors; Ray Panko
Self-checks in spreadsheets: a survey of current practice; D. Colver
Spreadsheet Applications - Rules of Engagement; Dick Moffat
Spreadsheet Components For All; J. Paine
Spreadsheet modeling for solving combinatorial problems: The vendor selection problem; Pandelis G. Ipsilandis
1) Risk & Security
E-Voting Banned by Dutch Government
Medical IT risks
June SoftTest Ireland events
3) Spreadsheets
Eusprig 2008 programme announced
Another Excel problem solved
ICAI Spreadsheet Risk briefing
Quotes
8 Web links in this newsletter
25 Aug, 2007: BH200 Vista not working
Dell Bluetooth headset woes
I have a Inspiron E1405/640M with Vista Business Dell Truemobile 355 Bluetooth + EDR Driver date 21/06/2006 version 6.0.6000.16398 Bluetooth headset BH200
I've read various forums such as
http://www.notebookforums.com/thread178221.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=137370
and the Dell support troubleshooter:
"Problems With the Dell BH200 Bluetooth 2.0 EDR Stereo Headset"
I posted that method to the Dellcommunity.com forum but my question is:
Why do I have to go through this rigmarole EVERY TIME I turn on the laptop? Surely once installed it should recognise the headset the next time I turn it on? Bluetooth was supposed to make interfacing easier. With the old plug-in mike+earpieces all I had to do was plug them in and they worked. Maybe I should go back to them.
UPDATE: The method I described in my last post does not work any more. I downloaded what seems to be the latest patch, R140135, but when I run setup I get
--------------------------- Bluetooth Software --------------------------- This installer be run on Windows Vista only. ---------------------------If that message had 'Aaarrr' in front of it that would be talk-like-a-pirate software, but I presume the word 'must' is missing. Which is useless as I *am* running Vista Business.
I have an email into tech support, got the automated answer, still waiting for a specific answer.
Still waiting, 2 weeks later....
Sep 27,2007: Excel 2007 float bug at 65535
microsoft.public.excel is discussing this problem:
multiply 850 by 77.1 and Excel displays the result to be 100000
David Gainer's Excel blog says:
The Problem
This issue was introduced when we were making changes to the Excel calculation logic in the Office 2007 time frame. Specifically, Excel incorrectly displays the result of a calculation in 12 very specific cases (outlined below). The key here is that the issue is actually not in the calculation itself (the result of the calculation stored in Excel's memory is correct), but only in the result that is shown in the sheet. Said another way, =850*77.1 will display an incorrect value, but if you then multiply the result by 2, you will get the correct answer (i.e. if A1 contains "=850*77.1", and A2 contains "=A1*2", A2 will return the correct answer of 131,070).
So what, specifically, are the values that cause this display problem? Of the 9.214*10^18 different floating point numbers (floating point on wikipedia) that Excel 2007 can store, there are 6 floating point numbers (using binary representation) between 65534.99999999995 and 65535, and 6 between 65535.99999999995 and 65536 that cause this problem. You can't actually enter these numbers into Excel directly (since Excel will round to 15 digits on entry), but any calculation returning one of those results will display this issue if the results of the calculation are displayed in a cell. All other calculation results are not affected.
Other posts on that blog show how the value of 100000 can be propagated rather than just be a display problem.
Joel Spolsky gives his explanation at
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/09/26b.html
PraxIS Feb 2008
http://www.sysmod.com/praxis/prax0802.htm
1) Risk & Security
Societe Generale
2) Bank Direct Debit fraud
Jeremy Clarkson's challenge taken up
3) Spreadsheets
New certification on safe spreadsheeting being tested
4) Off Topic
Schadenfreude
15 Web links in this newsletter
Thu, 22 May 2008
Praxis March 2008 newsletter
http://www.sysmod.com/praxis/prax0803.htm
1) Risk & Security
171,324 Irish blood donor records stolen
Followup to l'affaire Kerviel
2) Quality
Software & Systems Quality Conferences Dublin, 5th March 2008
SoftTest Ireland events April 1,2,3
3) Spreadsheets
Jim Kaplan's AuditNet newsletter features spreadsheet tools
OSU Spinoff RedRover launches its Excel audit product
4) Off Topic
Interesting Photos of the day
13 Web links in this newsletter
ISSA Ireland Friday, May 23rd at 12:30
The topic for Friday's meeting is "Meeting Compliance and Audit
Requirements while Minimising Effort" and our 3 speakers are as follows:
Sean Carey is Head of Internal Audit at Postbank, Ireland's newest bank recently launched by An Post and Fortis Bank. Sean has a keen interest in information security and on May 23rd will give an auditors perspective on information security, explaining how best to demonstrate compliance internally.
Mike Harris is Director of Risk Advisory Services for Ernst & Young and has worked in information security for over 10 years. At this event Mike will speak on the topic "Achieving Compliance by Improving Security", looking at how to develop overall security framework based on a standard such as ISO 27001 and how this can both improve security and demonstrate compliance.
Eoin Fleming leads the financial services security practice for HP Services and was formerly Chief Security Architect for HP Ireland. Eoin has recently worked with a number of customers to automate compliance checks and on Friday he will outline the possibilities and limits of automated compliance.
For more details or to register for this event please see http://www.issaireland.org/meetings. This is an open meeting, free of charge and anyone with an interest in the topic is welcome to attend.
Tue, 13 May 2008
IIA Congress Social Networking Free Ticket Draw May 15
Barry from IrishDev.com has a prize to give away!
This Thursday, the Irish Internet Association have their annual one day congress in Croke Park.
http://www.iia.ie/events/event/155/iia-congress-2008/
Entitled Beyond Websites: Business Uses of Social Networking and New Media, the event will explore of the explosion of social networking sites into our lives, and the impact it's had on business, successful integration of social networking into organisations' business models and why it takes its rightful place as part of any company's business tools.
Sponsors include teen network Bebo, and IGOpeople.com, Ireland's newest business network which is launching beta at the event.
Members Competition
So, exclusive to IrishDev.com, we have three tickets (worth 345euro) to give away!
To win, go to the IIA website where you will find the answer to the following question - Who is the CEO of IGOpeople.com? Then simply email your answer to Barry at IrishDev period com
We'll pull the three winners submitted by 9am tomorrow.
IOTC 2008
Lastly, don't forget about our next tech event of 2008, the Irish Open Source Technology Conference on June 18 - 20th. The blog is live and the website, where people will be able to watch the event live goes up with full schedule on June 1st - don't forget to register for IOTC event alerts for chances of complimentary passes etc.
http://iotc.firstport.ie/
Supported by leading open source companies SugarCRM ,and OpenApp, I can tell you is that we have some very special people coming to share knowledge over the three days including Ireland's Youngest ever Tech Millionaire!
Barry Alistair
Commercial Director
Be my Friend on Facebook
T: LoCall 1890 812 100 / International +353 1 775 1700
Skype: beeps66
IrishDev.com
http://www.sysmod.com/praxis/prax0805.htm
1) Risk & SecurityAer Lingus 5-euro flights to the US from test data leaked to web
Data Protection Commissioner Unprotected
Irish Computer Society Privacy Forum Launch
ICS Security Professionals Network presents ISO27001
2) Software Industry
SoftTest Ireland for software testers
Accounting for nothing
3) Spreadsheets
Eusprig 2008
Safety in Numbers
The bigger picture
4) Off Topic
$5/hr for Excel skills?!
17 links in this newsletter
Mon, 07 Apr 2008 1) IT news
Heathrow Terminal 5
Irish Microsoft Technology Conference
2) Software Testing
SQC Dublin conference
SoftTest Ireland events
Presentation
4) Off
Topic
The Voice of the Tube
Thu, 21 Feb 2008
171,324 Irish blood donor records stolen
There has been plenty of coverage of this data loss, but most have focused on the claims of strong encryption.
Only a few professionals have asked why data to be used for software testing was not anonymised.
Daragh O'Brien of the IAIDQ comments on his blog:
http://obriend.info/2008/02/21/more-thoughts-on-the-ibts-data-breach/
"Your unencrypted, non-anonymised data could have been on the laptop when it was stolen."
How timely: http://www.issaireland.org/meetings Irish Chapter of the Information Systems Security Association Next meeting will be held on Friday Feburary 22nd and all are welcome to attend: Security Breach Reporting and Impact February 22nd, Ballsbridge Court (formerly the Berkeley Court), 12 noon
Software & Systems Quality Conferences Dublin, 5th March 2008
http://www.sqs-conferences.com/ire/program/programme.htm
9.00 - 9.45 Conference opening by: Tom Kitt TD Government Chief Whip and Information Society Minister
9.45 - 10.30 KEYNOTE The Quality Ecosystem Colm Butler Department of AnTaoiseach, Information Policy Unit
11.15 - 12.00 Testing During The Development Phase Using OpenSource Tools Richard Thompson Liberty IT
The Quality Challenge for joined up Government - A Criminal Justice Case Study Mary Scullion Northern Ireland Civil Service
Performance Testing - From Best Efforts to Best Practice Patricia Costelloe AIB
From The Trenches: A Microsoft Testing Perspective Martha Rotter Microsoft Share DSI's Experience of Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Test Edition Peter Buckley DeCare Systems Ireland
12.00 - 12.45 Panel Discussion "Software Testers: Perceptions and Professionalism" Mary Cleary Irish Computer Society iCS
Test-Driven Development: Ensuring Quality From a Developer Perspective Jedidja Bourgeois Microsoft
Performance Stress Testing: Activity Profiling Fergal Downey/ Emer McVeigh HBOS
An intensive case study of test offshoring Paul Cronin SQS
12.45 - 1.45 LUNCH
Automation strategies for different lifecycle approaches Ken Brennock Insight
The Practitioner's View of Test Automation Jiri Machala QASight/Moravia IT
1.45 - 2.30 KEYNOTE Formula One is a Sport which Revolves around Testing and Quality Mark Gallagher Eddie Jordan's Formula One Team
2.30 - 3.00 COFFEE BREAK
The Application Performance Lifecycle Elma Cusack Hewlett-Packard
3.00 - 3.45 Testing in a Service Oriented Architecture Dave Rigler SQS
Making Sure Information Quality Matches Software Quality Daragh O'Brien International Association for Information & Data Quality (IAIDQ)
End-User Computing: Risks in Spreadsheets Patrick O'Beirne SoftTest Ireland
(repeats) From The Trenches: Share DSI's Experience of Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Test Edition
3.45 - 4.30 The Truth about Outsourcing Looking Forward to Outsourcing 2.0 Arpit Kaushik Crystals Design Limited
Green Testing: The Race Against Waste Joan Jordan o2
Virtualisation of Test Environments Mark Scully/ Sean O'Sullivan Irish Stock Exchange
Caught In The Middle Testing - the 'No Mans Land' between Systems Test and UAT on Vendor-supplied software Adrienne Reddan Delphi Technologies
4.30 - 5.15 Successful Fusion of Tailored Process Improvement and Capability Building Oliver Lawrence British Energy
Running a centralised Performance testing service in an Ecommerce World Peter Pinto Friends Provident
SQuaRE standard Michael O'Duffy The Centre for Software Engineering
Requirements-Driven Testing: The Clear Solution for Improving Application Quality Fergal McGovern Compuware
Wed, 13 Feb 2008
New Yahoogroup subscription hijack
I'm a moderator for a few Yahoogroups and I've noticed on one particular group that a new pattern has emerged.
I get a subscription to approve, and the email address looks genuine. But it is accompanied by an automatic reply email from the address with an "I'm out of the office" message.
Obviously spammers have realised that these addresses are genuine and can be used for a week or two, until the person returns, to attempt to get access to other lists of email addresses such as Yahoogroups.
On the other hand, unless they also have access to that email address to pick up the confirmation from YG, I don't see how they can access the group or retrieve any challenge email from the moderator - unless there's a way to sign in on the web using just an email address.
Mon, 07 Jan 20081) IT Risk & Quality
Bad Health Informatics can Kill
HMRC manual on data protection was protected data
Frequently Avoided Questions about IT auditing
15th EuroSPI Conference, Dublin, Sep 2008
2) Euro Changeover
Cyprus and Malta switch to euro cash
3) Spreadsheets
Office 2003 update quietly zaps older file formats
Seattle Accountant offers free book on Excel for MBA
Dave Hawley's Golden Rules for Excel Development
4) Off Topic
My 2008 photo calendar
13 Web links in this newsletter
Mon, 24 Dec 2007Have a peaceful Christmas season and success in 2008!
1) Risk & Security
The biggest data loss in history ... so
far
and more...
Software Test Process Improvement
3) Spreadsheets
Excel User Conference
Excel tips & tricks
Manager and Auditor perspectives
A friend passes away
14 Web links in this newsletter
Mon, 05 Nov 2007
Irish Java Technology Conference
There are now only two days remaining to IJTC day and lots of exciting news!
First you can avail of discount booking (189 instead of 245), offer by logging on to
http://IJTC.FirstPort.ie/Book.aspx or calling +353 01 775 1700
Second, we are offering a late-student offer. Attend one or both conference days (Thu/Fri) for only 50 Euro - student ID required.
You probably already know about our competition to win a private, champagne audience with Joel Spolsky on Wednesday night at 30,000 feet over the Irish Sea.
Everyone that registers is in with a chance to win.
Joel Spolsky is presenting the Keynote address.
That's followed by a Panel Discussion on the "Future of Java", chaired by ENN's Ralph Averbuch and featuring James Strachan, CTO of IONA.
Over 18 guest speakers, including Java stars from IONA, SUN, Apache, Red Hat, Interface21 and Microsoft will lecture on subjects ranging from Enterprise, Web, Desktop and Mobile Application Development to iPhone, SUN Spots and Robotics.
A full list of speakers and lectures is available at the IJTC web site
http://IJTC.FirstPort.ie
THE IJTC TEAM
IrishDev.com & DubJUG.org
PraxIS Nov. 2007
www.sysmod.com/praxis/prax0711.htm
1) Risk & Security
Standard of Good Practice for Information Security download
Cyber Security Awareness Resource Center downloads
Pirate copies of books
Audit Technology Conference, London 20-21 Nov
2) Irish news
Ireland Corporate Enforcer impatience with compliance
ICS Security Professionals' Network Seminar, 5 Nov
SoftTest Ireland Presentation by O2 and AGM, 8 Nov
3) Spreadsheets
Excel User Conference Cambridge, Nov 29 - Dec 1
SPRIG sleepless at INFORMS, Seattle, 5 & 7 Nov
Did you spot a spreadsheet error from a mile away?
Excel oddities, annoyances, quirks
ScanXLS continues to be enhanced
VBA Code Quality - Project Analyser
4) Off Topic
Giveaway of the day freeware
13 Web links in this newsletter
Wed, 31 Oct 2007
ISACA Ireland Conference 2007 Fri Nov 2, 2007
The ISACA Ireland Conference 2007 will be address the theme "Focus on Data Privacy: Threats, Enforcement and Opportunities"
Mon, 29 Oct 2007
Excel oddities
Some annoyances I came across in Excel and VBA:
- Maximum application.statusbar message length is 255 characters. Setting it to a string of 256 or more characters long gives error 1004.
- A Text formatted cell displays # characters to fill the cell (eg ##########) when the length of the text is between 256 and 1024 characters.
- Excel 2007 with European regional Windows date settings cannot import dBase dbf file dates correctly. Although the data is stored in the record unambigously as YYYYMMDD, Excel 12 imports it as mm/dd/yyyy so dates with days above 12 appear as text. It imports correctly when the regional date format is mm/dd/yyyy.
- Excel VBA once gave an error with a Double variable appearing as -1.#IND. In Microsoft C, that is an uninitialised variable, or Not a Number (NaN). I could not reproduce the error.
1) Risk & Security
Nedap voting machines de-certified in The Netherlands
Phishy education
Holistic Test Analysis and Design
Software & Systems Quality Conferences in London and Dublin
3)
Spreadsheets
65535 calculation bug in Excel 2007 cell display
Mnemonics and pangrams
21 Web links in this newsletter
Mon, 10 Sep 2007www.sysmod.com/praxis/prax0709.htm
1) Irish Computer Society 50 years awardsYour vote is wanted!
2) prax0709.htm#Quality
Free Software Testing Seminars in Ireland
Apple Numbers introduced
4) Off Topic
Tech Gripes
Wed, 05 Sep 2007
Final days of August 2007 vacation in Alberta
Banff Centre for the Arts
We went to a couple of the concerts of the Banff International String Quartet Competition. Megan liked the Tin Alley quartet from Australia and indeed they were the winners on Sept 2nd. I find Bartok rather severe for my tastes, but John Largess, violist with the Miró Quartet (winners of BISQC 1998), provided a very good background to the music. You can listen to the performances on the CBC Concerts on Demand archive.There were some fun events, such as an informal evening gig by the participants in the Richard Armstrong vocal workshop. We tried out some experiments at Look Again, a collaboration between the artists and the Science Communications people. I didn't enjoy the TV production which was a panel discussion. The chair did not pursue any points in depth, for example the comment by the sociologist - that calling for public debate about nanotechnology is little help because ordinary people are not up to speed with science - could have been taken up by the scientist on the panel, and the audience. A dancer described how a scientist helped her team incorporate dolphin movements into their repertoire; but the host then put her on the spot by asking her to do a dance about nanotechnology for the audience. She got the audience to make movements from large to small, which to my eyes looked like something from kindergarten. I suppose I was being too serious in expecting some audience interaction at a more cerebral level, such as taking part in the debate.
Calgary visit
The name 'Calgary' is said to mean 'clear running water' in Gaelic. In fact, according to a post to the Gaelic-L Archives :
However the correct Gaelic translation for the phrase would be *t-suthain shoilleir* or *uisge shoilleir*. Long before the formation of the NWMP, James Macleod had visited Calgary Bay on the Isle of Mull, Scotland, where his sister's relatives through marriage owned a small castle named Calgary House. The original name in Gaelic was *Cala-ghearridh*, with the first part *Cala*, meaning "harbour" or "bay", and the second part, *ghearridh*, meaning "preserved piece of pasture", "enclosed pature", or "farm".Stayed in 5 Calgary Downtown Suites, very happy with them. Enjoyed a lunch with Guinness at the James Joyce Pub. The Calgary Tower is $12 each just to go 500 feet up. The vertigo-inducing glass floor is the only real attraction there, other office buildings must have similar views. Sundog Tours airport shuttle charges $15 each and takes 1 hour because they call to every hotel. A taxi costs $34 and takes 15 mins so is better for two people.
The Glenbow Museum had a good exhibition of Native Indian life, Niitsitapiisinni: Our Way of Life in the Blackfoot Gallery. The exhibition Mavericks shows the life and times of famous Calgarians, almost all white. The original inhabitants had a panel on some walls saying how it looked from the their point of view.
Drumheller trip
We took a Hammerhead tour to the Badlands - Horshoe Canyon, the Hoodoos, Drumheller, the ferry, and the prairies. Very enjoyable.Tyrrell Museum - a wonderful show of archaeology from the formation of life through to the dinosaurs and stopping just before humans appeared, very well curated, we took two hours to visit and didn't have time to walk in the badlands.
My Photos: Flickr.com/probeirne
My Videos: YouTube.com/probeirne