As awareness spreads that lithium is an ingredient for hybrid cars, a hunt is under way for sources of the metal.

The company?s network pushes the limits of translation technology and has become a favored source for millions.

The Sensecam measures movement and takes digital pictures.Researchers have tested the Sensecam, which contains a digital camera and an accelerometer, as an aid to people with Alzheimer?s disease and other memory disorders.

France Télécom has already stopped several practices identified as being particularly disruptive, like forcing employees to change jobs and closing work sites.

Google unveiled a marketplace of business software to help to spur the adoption of its own suite of productivity applications.

Our daily roundup of Web gems includes a deeper look at Barbie the engineer, Carly Fiorina's tenure at Hewlett-Packard, Jonathan Schwartz's battles with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and a pricing glitch at Amazon.com.

Two of the world's computing powerhouses have started a war of words around their forthcoming tablet computers.

Charles Thacker, the lead designer on the Alto, the Xerox PARC prototype of the modern personal computer, won the Turing Award.

A national commitment to solar power transformed one community but big subsidies led to unsustainable growth.

An alarm goes out online, and a messenger is soon reunited with his stolen bike.

After a decade of near-death experiences, the Internet music service is attracting attention from investment bankers who think it could go public.

EBay, recovering from unprofitable quarters and falling market share, has recast its site to make it more attractive to new kinds of shoppers, like the carbon conscious.

As Microsoft complies with new European rules to offer a choice of browsers to Windows users, smaller browsers are getting a boost.

The Treasury Department will issue a general license for the export of free personal Internet services and software geared toward Iran, Cuba and Sudan.

Major League Baseball Advanced Media will handle the technology infrastructure and customer support for the nearly 3,500 live events that ESPN streams each year.

An attempt by a public television stalwart to bring the young into the fold with punchy takes on social issues.

ChatRoulette, a nascent Internet phenomenon, is providing Web researchers with a social networking case study into the nature of online togetherness.

Though girls still have more cellphones than boys, the gap is about half as large as it was in 2005.

Even the most prolific users say Twitter has become more useful as a way to tap in to the discussions of the day than to broadcast their own thoughts.

Allrecipes Dinner Spinner Pro adds 40,000 dishes you don't get with the free version plus new features like recipe sharing over Bluetooth.

Google adds biking directions to its digital maps for 150 American cities, to the acclaim of cycling activists.

Panasonic has added two new Micro Four Thirds cameras to its line-up, including a model with a touch-screen and one that is the smallest interchangeable lens camera with a viewfinder.

Palm has added new features in its Web OS 1.4 upgrade. Here's how to get it.

Five years after announcing its development, and following a month-long online campaign trailing the launch, Pentax has finally unveiled its much anticipated 645D medium format digital camera. The first digital version of the company's 645 medium format camera system, it features a 40MP, 44 x 33 CCD sensor, 921k dot 3.0" LCD and is compatible with the existing 645 system lenses. The camera will initially be available only in the Japanese market at a suggested retail price of ¥850,000 (~ US $9,400) from May 2010.

In conjunction with its announcement of the 645D medium format camera, Pentax has announced the smc D FA 645 55mm F2.8 AL[IF] SDM AW lens. First in the D FA 645 lens series, this weather-resistant prime lens features a Supersonic Direct-drive Motor (SDM) autofocus drive and Quick-Shift for instant AF/MF switching. It is also the company's first 645 system lens to incorporates a rounded diaphragm.The 55mm lens will be available alongside the 645D camera at a suggested retail price of ¥100,000 (~ US $1,100).

Tamron has announced the development of a 70-300mm f/4-5.6 zoom lens featuring image stabilization and an ultrasonic auto-focus drive. The SP 70-300mm F4-5.6 Di VC USD is the company's first lens to feature its latest Ultrasonic Silent Drive (USD) autofocus motor, with full-time manual focus override. The optical design includes an element made from Extra-Low Dispersion (XLD) glass, said to have optical properties similar to fluorite. Designed for both full-frame and APS-C digital SLRs, the lens will be initially available in Nikon mount followed by Canon and Sony versions.

Mamiya has announced the price and availability of its new DM40 medium format camera and a digital back of the same name. Priced at $21,990 for the camera and 80mm f/2.8 lens D series lens, and $19,990 for the digital back, they will start shipping from this month onwards. Both incorporate 40MP, 44 x 33 mm sensors and feature true 16 bit/channel RAW capture, ISO range of 80-800 and capture images at 0.8 seconds per frame. The DM40 digital back can be used with compatible medium or large format cameras via an adapter.

Focus on Imaging 2010: Eighteen months after unveiling the worlds first Micro Four Thirds camera, Panasonic has introduced its successor- the Lumix DMC-G2, with touch control shooting. Built around the same body design as the G1, it records 720p HD videos in AVCHD Lite format and features a touch sensitive 460K dot 3.0" LCD. Its advanced touch features allows shooting by just tapping the subject on the LCD. Other features include AF tracking, a dedicated movie mode and a faster Venus Engine HD II processor. We've had a pre-production example in the office and have put together a hands-on preview.

Focus on Imaging 2010: Panasonic has released what it calls 'the world's lightest interchangeable lens camera with a viewfinder' in the shape of Lumix DMC-G10. It features the same 12.1MP Live MOS sensor and Venus Engine HD II as the DMC-G2, also announced today. It also comes with a 460K dot 3" LCD but without the tilt/swivel and touch options of the G2 and gets a lower resolution viewfinder. The G10 can record 720p HD movie in Motion JPEG format. Both cameras can accept the high-capacity SDXC format cards and are offered with a new 14-42mm kit lens.

Focus on Imaging 2010: Alongside the Lumix DMC-G2 and G10 Micro Four Thirds cameras, Panasonic has also released the Lumix G Vario 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 ASPH Mega O.I.S. image stabilized lens. Offering an equivalent zoom range of 28-84mm, the lens is a new optical design but offers a similar specification to the original 14-45mm G System zoom. The new lens, known as the H-FS014042, loses the image stabilization on/off switch and metal mount of its predecessor and comes in a slightly larger body.

The UK has embraced the Micro Four Thirds camera format, making up over 10% of interchangeable lens camera sales (by volume) in December 2009. According to figures from market research company GfK Retail and Technology, around 6,600 Micro Four Thirds cameras were sold in the UK, accounting for more than half of the system's sales volumes in 11 major Western European countries.

Olympus has released a firmware update for its E-P1 Micro Four Thirds camera. Version 1.3 resolves the issue where the camera's Level Gauge display did not move when focusing manually. The firmware update can be downloaded via the Olympus Master or Studio software.

Just posted! Our in-depth review of the Ricoh GXR with the A12 50mm F2.5 lens module. The GXR's concept of interchangeable lens modules is unique in today's digital camera world and generated a lot of interest when it was first announced four months ago. This review covers the GXR with the A12 50mm f2.5 equiv (12MP APS-C sensor) module (the S10 24-70mm module will follow soon). Find out how Ricoh's new flagship performed in our comprehensive review after the link...

Wacom has released the Cintiq 21UX, an interactive pen display that combines with the company's pressure sensitive Grip Pen to offer 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. The 21UX comes with a tilting, rotating stand that lets users to view it from varied angles and features customizable menu options. It comes along with basic image editing software and also supports advanced programs such as Adobe Photoshop. Priced at $1999 USD, the Cintiq 21UX will start shipping from late March 2010.

Canon has announced that the long awaited, video-related firmware for its EOS 5D Mark II will be available from mid-March. Firmware version 2.0.3 enables full 1080p HD video recording at 24, 25 and 29.97fps to match the PAL and NTSC broadcast standards. It also adds a new histogram display while shooting movies and allows users to manually control sound recording levels. Audio sampling frequency has also been increased to match broadcast material standards.

Software maker Topaz Labs has released version 4 of its color management plug-in for Adobe Photoshop. The latest version features a redesigned interface, new presets and upgraded image processing algorithms. It is available as a free upgrade for existing users or $49.99 for first-time buyers.

Sony Semiconductor's latest online newsletter gives an in-depth explanation of its 10.34MP 1/2.3" type back-illuminated Exmor R CMOS sensor. The IMX050CQK is designed for low-light photography and has been incorporated in many of the company's recent CMOS sensor equipped cameras including the Cyber-shot TX5, HX5 and the Ricoh CX3 compacts. Another paper in the issue talks about how its supporting processor can offer high speed videos, full HD video recording and decreased power consumption.

After a brief online campaign, US-based company Noktor has announced its first product: the HyperPrime 50mm f/0.95 lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras. This ultra-fast manual focus lens with manual aperture control bears an uncanny resemblance to the Senko 50mm f/0.95 C-mount CCTV lens and shares almost all of its vital specifications. The company, that appears to be registered to a residential property in Canton, Georgia will start shipping the lens from April 15, 2010 at a retail price of $750.

Canon has posted updates for several camera software programs including the 'Digital Photo Professional' Raw conversion software. The latest version of DPP extends support to the recently released EOS T2i/550D DSLR and comes with a new image rotation tool. The updated versions of the other pieces of software including EOS Utility and Picture Style Editor also extend support to the EOS 550D DSLR. The updates can be downloaded from the DSLR support pages of individual cameras from Canon's website.

Sigma US has revamped its website with new interactive features. It now includes a Lens Finder section that is aimed at guiding users to select the right lens according to their camera system, price and skill level. Other features include a photo share gallery, blog and social media tools.

Storage device manufacturer Sanho has announced the HyperDrive Album, a portable backup device that can preview RAW files from digital cameras. It's claimed to offer UDMA transfer speeds of 40MB/s, backing up 2GB of data in a minute. Featuring a 4.8" WVGA preview LCD and CF/SD memory card slots, it also includes built-in data recovery tools and a longer-lasting battery that promises up to 200GB of backups per battery charge. The HyperDrive Album is available in 640GB, 500GB, 320GB, 250GB and 160 GB storage capacities - or you can buy the device on its own and install your own hard disk.

Just posted! Our lens review featuring Nikon's re-mastered version of its professional workhorse fast telezoom, the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8 G ED VR II. When we reviewed its predecessor a couple of years ago we were mightily impressed by its performance on DX cameras, but rather less so on the then-new FX format. On its release Nikon claimed the new version was designed to address such concerns, and give 'excellent edge to corner quality on today’s FX format cameras' - so does the lens live up to its billing?

The UK government funded Science: [So what? So everything] campaign has announced a photo competition with a chance to win a Canon EOS 500D digital SLR and lenses worth £1150. To enter the Living Science competition, UK residents above 18 years of age are required to submit a photograph accompanied by a brief description to illustrate the 'life-changing impact of medical science'. The competition will run until March 11, 2010.

Two weeks after releasing Aperture 3, Apple has released an update to its raw-conversion and photo management software. Version 3.0.1 improves overall stability and fixes a number of bugs. The update can be accessed via the Software Update feature or is available for immediate download from Apple's website. The company has also posted a Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update v3.1, extending RAW support to additional cameras including the Panasonic DMC-GF1 and Olympus E-P2.

Pentax has released the Optio W90 rugged compact sporting a tougher body than its predecessor, the W80. It is designed to be dustproof, waterproof up to 6 meters, coldproof down to -10°C (14°F) and shock-resistant for drops of up to 1.2 meters. An interesting Digital Microscope mode claims to deliver magnified images of tiny objects aided by three LED lights in front of the lens barrel. The camera features 12MP sensor, 28-140mm equivalent lens, 2.7" LCD and includes HD video recording and pet detection that apparently 'makes it simple and effortless to capture the delightful faces of active pets.'

Pentax has released the X90 superzoom with 26x optical zoom lens. Featuring the same 12MP image stabilized sensor inherited from the previously released X70, it offers a slightly longer zoom range at 26-676mm equivalent, an electronic viewfinder with dioptre adjustment and a longer lasting battery. Rest of the features mirror the X70 including the 2.7 inch LCD, P/A/S/M exposure modes and HD video recording.

Samsung Electronics has confirmed its planned merger with Samsung Digital Imaging, which will bring the Korean conglomerate's camera division under the same roof as its other consumer electronics businesses such as mobile phones and printers. From April 1, 2010, the camera business will become part of Samsung Electronics with an objective 'to increase management efficiency of the digital camera business and to maximize synergy between businesses'. A year ago the imaging division spun-out from the company's affiliated machinery division, Samsung Techwin, to form an independent camera and optical devices company. Since then it's released a series of ambitious new products, including the mirrorless interchangeable-lens NX system and the enthusiast-orientated TL500/EX1 recently unveiled at PMA.

PMA 2010: Novoflex has unveiled a series of mount adapters for Samsung's NX mirrorless cameras. The German manufacturer is showing nine adapters to various lens mounts, including Sony Alpha, Pentax K, Olympus OM and Leica R. There is also a Nikon F mount adapter featuring the aperture control ring the company includes on its Micro Four Thirds to Nikon F adapter. So far there are no details on price or availability.

Samsung wants to 'own' the mirrorless camera sector, according to Seung Soo Park, Samsung’s Vice President, Strategy Marketing and Digital Media. This will include enhanced communication with customers and firmware updates for its cameras based on their requests, he said, in an exclusive interview with dpreview.com.

Future Nikon models will provide a better balance between resolution and high ISO image quality than in the recently launched D3S, according to Nobuaki Sasagaki, General Manager of the Marketing Department of Nikons Imaging Division, speaking in an exclusive interview with dpreview.com.

Olympus is still committed to the Four Thirds DSLR standard and will continue to develop it in tandem with its Micro Four Thirds mirrorless cameras, says the company's US DSLR product manager. In response to press speculation, John Knaur told dpreview.com: 'We still plan to develop full size DSLRs and both, side-by-side.'

PMA 2010: Ricoh has announced the development of two more lens modules for its GXR interchangeable unit camera system. First comes the image-stabilized P10 28-300mm equivalent F3.5-5.6 VC zoom unit, with a back-illuminated CMOS sensor and features such as RAW capture and 120 fps high-speed continuous shooting. The company has also said it will create the A12 28 mm equivalent F2.5 prime lens unit, with 12MP APS-C CMOS sensor, a faster 'GR Engine III' processor and manual focus ring.

Canon has posted a firmware update for its Rebel T1i / EOS 500D digital SLR. Version 1.1.0 brings improvements to live view shooting and fixes bugs in the English, Arabic and Swedish language menus. The firmware is available for immediate download from Canon's website.

You?ve probably heard that Apple recently released the iPad. The absence of Flash Player on the device seems to have awakened the HTML5 vs. Flash debate. Apparently, it?s the final nail in the coffin for Flash. Either that, or the HTML5 community is overhyping its still nascent markup language update. The arguments run wide, strong, and legitimate on both sides. Yet both sides might also be wrong. Designer/developer Dan Mall is equally adept at web standards and Flash; what matters, he says, isn't technology, but people.

E-books aren?t going to replace books. E-books are books, merely with a different form. More and more often, that form is ePub, a format powered by standard XHTML. As such, ePub can benefit from our nearly ten years? experience building standards-compliant websites. That's great news for publishers and standards-aware web designers. Great news for readers, too. Our favorite genius, Joe Clark, explains the simple why and how.

Another generation of technology has passed and Unicode support is almost everywhere. The next step is to write software that is not just ?internationalized? but truly multilingual. In this article we will skip through a bit of history and theory, then illustrate a neat hack called accent-folding. Accent-folding has its limitations but it can help make some important yet overlooked user interactions work better.

Whether it?s in front of a huge audience or a handful of executives, smooth public speaking is essential to a successful web design career. Yet most of us are more afraid of speaking in public than we are of death. In a lively give-and-take, Liz Danzico interviews Scott Berkun, author of Confessions of a Public Speaker, for tips on how to prepare for public speaking, how to perfect your timing, and what to do when bad things happen.

When someone consults a website, there is a precious opportunity not only to provide useful information but also to influence their decision. To make the most of this opportune moment, we must ensure that the site says or does precisely the right thing at precisely the right time. Understanding the rhetorical concept of kairos can help us craft a context for the opportune moment and hit the mark with appropriately zingy text.

Abandoning password masking as Jakob Nielsen suggests could present serious problems, including undermining a user?s trust by failing to meet a basic expectation. But with design patterns gleaned from offline applications, plus a dash of JavaScript, we can provide feedback and reduce password errors without compromising the basic user experience or losing our visitors? trust.

In Part II, dig deeper into the technology behind using SVG for your site design. Explore how to incorporate SVG in a cross-browser friendly manner, including using SVGWeb to ensure that the SVG shows in Internet Explorer. And discover the unique characteristic that makes SVG ideal for page backgrounds: scalability.

Many of us think of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) as an also-ran: fine for charts and tables, but not much else. Yet SVG can actually enhance a site?s overall design, and can be made to work in even the most stubborn browser. In Part I of a two-part series, Shelley Powers covers important basics of working with SVG, including browser support and accessibility.

For the third year in a row, good citizens of the web, we ask that you take a few minutes to tell us about your professional skills, educational background, career prospects, job benefits, and more.

Because clients expect everything to be faster, better, and simpler, web professionals must take an instant, foolproof, paperless, modern approach to how clients approve proposals and sign contracts. Implementing an instantaneous contract agreement helps to get projects off the ground, attract clients on tight timelines, and prevent potential delays. All it takes is a little PHP and some PDF magic.

New StackOverflow developer Kevin Montrose (6,878 reputation) added a neat feature to the career site that makes it a zillion times easier to file a CV if you?ve already put in your job and education history on LinkedIn or FaceBook. Try it out.

Need to hire a really great programmer? Want a job that doesn't drive you crazy? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.

A few people heard me on This Week in Startups (starting at 15:45) asking Jason if we should take money from the first VC who fell into our laps, or spend time doing the Sand Hill Road rounds, meeting more VCs, and doing a road show for the other firms that might be interested in investing.

Jason (and his guest James Segil) both agree that we should take more time picking the right partner. We?re going to be in bed with these guys for years, they say, and we have to approach this like picking a spouse.

Anyway, people emailed me in shock and surprise that we would even consider VC, considering the things I?ve written.

Why are we seeking venture capital for StackOverflow?

Almost ten years ago, I wrote about two kinds of companies, the Ben and Jerry?s type of company, which grows carefully and organically, and the Amazon type, which uses huge amounts of investment capital to get big quickly.

At the time, I had no doubt that I wanted Fog Creek to be a Ben and Jerry?s type of company, and that model has served us well. By staying profitable and growing carefully, we?ve managed to survive two big downturns and we?ve grown into a stable, 34-person company that?s a great place to work and is likely to remain stable, and a great place to work, for a long time.

StackOverflow, though, is a bit of a different story.

There are a few indicators for the type of company that I believe can benefit from, and should take, VC.

1. There?s a land grab going on. The business is in a new field with no competition, but the field has proven itself, and is obviously going to get very crowded very soon, so the faster you can grab territory, the better.
2. There is a provable concept that?s repeatable. I always point to the example of the Starbucks IPO, which was brilliant because it was so simple. Every new Starbucks store that opened in Seattle became profitable in a matter of months. They tried a couple of stores in Chicago and Washington just to make sure it wasn?t a Seattle thing, and those worked even better. Thus, the formula of opening as many stores as possible was as close to a sure-thing as possible, so raising money was a no-brainer.
3. The business itself could benefit from the publicity of getting an investment from someone who is thought of as being a savvy investor.
4. The investor will add substantial value to the business in advice, connections, and introductions.
5. The business can potentially have a big exit or become a large, publically traded company.
6. The founders are not in it for their own personal aggrandizement and are happy to give up some control to make the business more successful.

There are counter-indicators, of course: signs that you shouldn?t consider VC. Here are just a few off the top of my head:

1. If the founders are risk-averse and are willing to trade a much smaller payout for lower risk.
2. If the founders are technical without substantial business experience and wish to maintain absolute control forever.
3. If the investor is mostly ?dumb money,? i.e., someone who doesn?t know about the field. The proverbial dentist, who is happy to give you a half million bucks, but doesn?t know the first thing about CPMs and CPCs and CTOs, so you might as well not bother.
4. If you?re going into an established field with a lot of competition, there?s no benefit to speed; you?re better off slowly building a niche business and growing from there, quietly taking one customer at a time away from the competitors.
5. If the product is immature and unproven, in which case, expensive marketing efforts will be wasted proving to the world how bad your product is.
6. If the founders don?t have enough of the right kinds of industry connections, or the idea is not compelling enough, so that raising VC would take months or years
7. If there is any other way to raise the kind of money you need, for example, by selling actual products to customers.

When I put all these things together the conclusion is that StackOverflow is one of those rare companies for which VC can really work. Jeff and I started out with a goal for StackOverflow of changing the way programmers and system administrators get answers to their questions on the Internet, which was deeply broken. In 18 months we?ve accomplish that: we?ve got 6 million unique visitors every month. Now we?re biting off the bigger goal of changing the way everyone gets answers to their questions on the Internet, and that?s something we can?t do alone.

So, off I go, on a StackOverflow road show. I?ll be in Silicon Valley Feb 24-Mar 3; drop me a line if you want to get together.

Need to hire a really great programmer? Want a job that doesn't drive you crazy? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.

In the early days of a technology startup, you tend to have a lot of software developers, and you feel like you could never have enough. If you hire sales and marketing staff too early, they don?t really get much traction, and you may start to think that sales and marketing are a waste of time. This led me, in the early years, to believe that a healthy software company should have a lot of real software developers and maybe no sales and marketing.

At one point I entertained the quixotic and, retrospectively, stupid idea of requiring every employee at Fog Creek to be a programmer... even the receptionist would have to have done some BASIC programming in high school to qualify. In the US Marines everyone, even the cooks, is a rifleman. Of course that?s because the cooks are in friggin Afghanistan getting shot at so they better be riflemen, whereas our receptionist almost never has to drop into the source code and bang out a class. Almost never.

Over time, though, as your product gets better and better, the more sales and marketing people you hire, the more you sell.

That?s because programmers multiply salespeople, and vice-versa.

I?m a nerd, so I?ll be real math-y about this. Define the quality of your code on a scale from 0 to 1.

0 means your product solves absolutely no problems for anybody so nobody in their right mind would ever buy it. Microsoft Bob.

1 means that every single person on Earth, if they bought your software, would be net happier, even after paying your fee.

Your software starts at 0 and slowly climbs up the hill.

If everybody in the world knew about your software and was encouraged to evaluate it, the number that would buy it would be (Earth population) x Quality.

Sales and marketing functions exist to encourage earthlings to find out about your software and evaluate it. These functions will have no effect on sales if your quality is extremely low. But as the quality gets higher, the value of sales and marketing goes up, commensurately. Double the quality, and the same sales effort yields double the revenue.

The population of the planet is so large, and the effect of sales and marketing so hard to scale, that by the time your product is really great, the optimal ratio might be very heavily tilted in favor of sales and marketing. Large software companies might have 5 or 10 or 20 people in the sales organization for every developer.

This explains, among other things, why US software companies can?t expect to get sustainable advantage by offshoring software development to cheaper countries. If a developer in Russia, India, or China costs 50% as much as a developer in Seattle, San Francisco, or Boston, but software development is only 10% of your costs, you can only get a 5% advantage from offshoring development. The offshoring that does happen is strongly biased to custom software development which, by design, can only solve one person?s problem, so more developers than marketers are needed.

It is not the case (as commonly believed by nerds) that marketing is a substitute for code quality. The best marketing in the world cannot force people to pay for a useless product.

Need to hire a really great programmer? Want a job that doesn't drive you crazy? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.

My sister got her kids a little puppy, and they?ve been trying to train it. To live with a dog in the house, you need to teach it not to jump on people, not to poop in the house, to sit on command, and to never, ever, ever chew on the iPad. Never. Good girl.

With dogs the main trick to training is that feedback has to be immediate. If you come home to discover that, hours before, the dog tipped over the garbage can in the kitchen, it?s too late for training. You can yell at her but she just won?t get what you?re going on about. Dogs are just not that smart.

For programmers, getting better at what you do requires quick feedback, positive and negative, on what you?ve just done. The faster you get the feedback, the faster you?ll learn. With long-cycle shrinkwrap software, it can take a year or more to hear feedback from customers.

That?s one of the reasons we have testers. A great tester gives programmers immediate feedback on what they did right and what they did wrong. Believe it or not, one of the most valuable features of a tester is providing positive reinforcement. There is no better way to improve a programmer?s morale, happiness, and subjective sense of well-being than a La Marzocco Linea espresso machine to have dedicated testers who get frequent releases from the developers, try them out, and give negative and positive feedback. Otherwise it?s depressing to be a programmer. Here I am, typing away, writing all this awesome code, and nobody cares. Boo hoo.

Who should be a tester? That?s tricky! Software testing is one of those careers that isn?t that well known, so a lot of people who would be great at testing and would probably enjoy it a lot never consider applying for jobs as testers.

Signs of a good tester:

• Scientific
• Loves a good puzzle, even the kind that takes days to solve
• Likes to think about things methodically
• Generally likes working with software and computers

You don?t have to be a programmer to be a tester. A lot of companies want testers to be programmers who write automated test suites. It seems more efficient that way. This reflects a misunderstanding of what testers are supposed to do, which is evaluate new code, find the good things, find the bad things, and give positive and negative reinforcement to the developers. Sure, automated test suites are a time saver, but testing software covers so much more than that. If you put too much emphasis on those scripts, you won?t notice misaligned text, hostile user interfaces, bad color choices, and inconsistency. Worse, you?ll have a culture of testers frantically working to get their own code working, which crowds out what you need them to do: evaluate someone else?s code.

A particularly terrible idea is to offer testing jobs to the programmers who apply for jobs at your company and aren?t good enough to be programmers. Testers don?t have to be programmers, but if you spend long enough acting like a tester is just an incompetent programmer, eventually you?re building a team of incompetent programmers, not a team of competent testers. Since testing can be taught on the job, but general intelligence can?t, you really need very smart people as testers, even if they don?t have relevant experience. Many of the best testers I?ve worked with didn?t even realize they wanted to be testers until someone offered them the job.

If you:

• Love software and computers
• Want to work on a software team, and
• Don?t particularly like programming

you should consider being a tester. (We?re hiring! What a coincidence!)

Need to hire a really great programmer? Want a job that doesn't drive you crazy? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.

Steve Krug has written a follow up to his usability classic Don?t Make Me Think. The sequel, Rocket Surgery Made Easy, is a terrific, short, concise, fun guide to running simple ?hallway? usability tests to improve the usability of your software and websites. Highly recommended.

 

Need to hire a really great programmer? Want a job that doesn't drive you crazy? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.

?As companies expand, the people within them start to specialize. At such a point, some managers will conclude that they have a ?keep everyone on the same page? problem. But often what they actually have is a ?stop people from meddling when there are already enough smart people working on something? problem.?

From my latest Inc. column: A Little Less Conversation

 

Need to hire a really great programmer? Want a job that doesn't drive you crazy? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.

Microsoft Careers: ?If you?re looking for a new role where you?ll focus on one of the biggest issues that is top of mind for KT and Steve B in ?Compete?, build a complete left to right understanding of the subsidiary, have a large amount of executive exposure, build and manage the activities of a v-team of 13 district Linux& Open Office Compete Leads, and develop a broad set of marketing skills and report to a management team committed to development and recognized for high WHI this is the position for you!?

This is ironic, to use the Alanis Morissette meaning of the word [NSFW video].

The whole reason Microsoft even needs a v-team of 13, um, ?V DASHES? to compete against Open Office is that they?ve become so insular that their job postings are full of incomprehensible jargon and acronyms which nobody outside the company can understand. With 93,000 employees, nobody ever talks to anyone outside the company, so it's no surprise they've become a bizarre borg of "KT", "Steve B", "v-team", "high WHI," CSI, GM, BG, BMO (bowel movements?) and whatnot.

When I worked at Microsoft almost two decades ago we made fun of IBM for having a different word for everything. Everybody said, "Hard Drive," IBM said "Fixed Disk." Everybody said, "PC," IBM said "Workstation." IBM must have had whole departments of people just to FACT CHECK the pages in their manuals which said, "This page intentionally left blank."

Now when you talk to anyone who has been at Microsoft for more than a week you can?t understand a word they?re saying. Which is OK, you can never understand geeks. But at Microsoft you can?t even understand the marketing people, and, what?s worse, they don?t seem to know that they?re speaking in their own special language, understood only to them.

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Verizon has reported that the field testing of its 4G Long-Term Evolution wireless broadband network in Boston and Seattle have demonstrated encouraging throughput levels.

Ciena fell on a weak earnings report yesterday, but that wasn't enough to keep down the heavily shorted tech stock. OptionMonster's tracking programs detected unusual activity in the July 15 calls...

Alcatel-Lucent falls short.

Force10 Networks Inc., a company that provides equipment for computer networks, plans to raise $143.8 million in an initial public offering, according to a Tuesday regulatory filing.

Alcatel-Lucent today announced that it has once again outperformed its rivals as the only major IP router vendor to report revenue growth and gain worldwide market share, according to full year 2009 data from the Dell'Oro Group.

Alcatel-Lucent today announced that Pannon GSM Tavkozlesi Zrt , a leading Hungarian mobile operator and member of the Telenor Group, has selected an all-IP solution from Alcatel-Lucent to unify its mobile core network and its existing IP/MPLS-based mobile backhaul infrastructure.