This is a list of websites I am currently watching –

Software Testing

• ServiceVirtualization.com – A Virtual Software Environment – the global community for virtual software development and test environments. – Reliable testing oracles require data inputs that are rock solid predictable. If you are doing a lot of SOA work you really should look at this closely and carefully. It is worth every penny. To truly decouple your dev teams from relying on real service endpoints for testing you just can’t stub or mock web services. You need this. Get over it, you need this!
• netem | The Linux Foundation. – the last time I wanted my team to test with WAN conditions we used NIST, but that’s depreciated now and this was referenced as the go-to tool. If your apps need to be reached by folks way off in the hinterlands of garbage internet quality (like anywhere in the rural USA for example) then you need to do some performance testing by running traffic through this. You will be surprised.
• Zephyr | Flexible Test Management Software. – probably a good idea and worth the $96 per user per month if you don’t have any other case management tools and use Atlassian’s Jira tracker. If you are one of these shops I’ll bet you’ve tried using Jira’s native test tracker. You have my sympathy. Now go use this.

• TestLink. – Then again, if you are small and just need test case tracking right now, I’d advise using something like this. It’s lightweight, sits on LAMP as well as Microsoft stacks and even I was able to set it up, dress it up and make it workable for an enterprise. If I can do it, you can too.
• Software Testing Concepts. – A remarkably good starting place for anyone who wants to begin learning about software testing and doesn’t mind drinking from a fire hose. There is no “About” page on this site. It is registered to a gentleman in Bangalore, and I hope they keep this site alive.
• Google Testing Blog. – Are you setting up automated testing? Do not pass Go, do not collect a hundred dollars until you have bookmarked this site and read articles for a day or two.
• Testing Curator Blog | Where Testers find what they’re searching for! – A nicely plugged i Blog that supplies links to recent online articles about software testing, all flavors. The owner Matt Hutchinson, is also setting up a more thorough testing website at http://www.testingcurator.com/ including an email newsletter which should go live pretty soon.

Leadership and Professional Ethics

• The Ethics Guy | Official Website of Bruce Weinstein, Ph.D.. – I just found this site. The title hits me right where I live. Our industry is being severely tested. This site could be interesting!

Human Dynamics At Work

• What if Age Is Nothing but a Mind-Set? – NYTimes.com. – This is more than an article about aging or reversing it. It is also about how the context and surroundings affect your behaviors and capabilities. Think of the place you work. Is it making you sick or inspired?

Various Tech Trends

• Home » OpenStack Open Source Cloud Computing Software. – This is it folks. Our best hope for business agility with complex relationships and changing environments.
• SecurityFocus. – This is Symantec’s. It’s just off the top of my bookmarks. Security should be everywhere now.

• Boxes and Arrows. – Information Design was one of my personal hot topics back in the 1980’s & 90’s when I worked at Landmark Graphics. Now I hire Info Architects when I really need good stuff, but I still follow along with their commentary by going here.

Coding

• Git. – YAY! Even college students are learning version control!!!! Yay!!!
• Regular-Expressions.info – Regex Tutorial, Examples and Reference – Regexp Patterns. – Somebody in the 70’s had a comedy routine about preferring to push knitting needles into his eyes rather than do certain things. Without sites like this I would also have that preference.
• java – What is a JavaBean exactly? – Stack Overflow. – Actually not just this thread but ALL of Stack Overflow. I may be only an occasional and crappy coder but this site makes it possible for me to code at all these days.

Hosting

• 1 & 1 Hosting – These guys rock. This site is hosted on their shared hosting servers. Much better than my previous hosting provider.