Don't Let The Bad Bugs Bite

Software testers are in the unique position of enjoying bugs, and are actively hoping to find them. That is why this blog is called Blue Screen Joy - to celebrate the rush you get when you find that truly nasty bug. I'm talking about those wonderful Severity 1, crash your system, lose your data, smoke coming out of the box kind of bugs.

Those are good bugs. I love those bugs . At least I do when I find them in something I am testing. Not so much when they happen to me outside of work.

For example, last week, when I smelled that smell that electronics make when they are burning, it did not make me excited. Unsuccessful at finding the source, I wrote the smell off as a fluke. I'll tend to do the same thing when I am testing and see a really good bug that I can't reproduce. That is what I consider a bad bug. I don't love those.

Just like with software testing, writing off non-reproducible bugs as flukes can come back to bite you. Last night, the upstairs of my house was a tropic 87 degrees Fahrenheit, despite the fact that the air-conditioner was running. The downstairs was only slightly cooler. I'm no Bob Vila, but after some investigation I discovered:

- The furnace filter was long past due for being changed
- A good portion of the air-conditioning system was frozen

Not only had I thought I had found the bug, but I also thought I had an easy (and free) solution. All I needed to do was change the filter and let the air conditioner thaw, and everything would be fine, right? Wrong. Remember that burning smell that I could not track down? The friendly neighborhood ARS man found out that the source of this smell was some high voltage wiring that led to a capacitor in the blower assembly, which is what makes air conditioning possible.



With the wires charred and the capacitor destroyed not only would my house get really hot, but I would also be unable to travel through time. Good news is that for a sum of money that made me question my career choice, the ARS man was able to fix everything and make me cool again.

The lesson here is that whether it is a bad bug you can't reproduce or a nasty smell you can't track down, you need to be careful when you write something off as a fluke. Instead, look at other seemingly unrelated problems you are seeing and try to imagine any possible connection. Failing that, come up with a Plan B. Cold beer works nicely in both situations.