Headworx

More and more processes are now handled by all-interconnected digital services. But despite doing this for many years now, the process failures resulting from infrastructure errors happen all too often. Or maybe this is just me and my bad luck. As it seems I would be one of the most valuable manual testers, as I tend to uncover all sorts of errors almost every day.  What is interesting though is how companies react to these errors. There are three most common behaviors here: We have not seen this error. An error is not an error unless a frustrated customer files a support ticket. So let's make the ticketing process difficult and we reduce the number of tickets even more. Ah we are sorry this happened to you. Let's try once more. We don't really grasp all that I stuff and do not know how to avoid or fix the errors, but maybe if we retry the process it will work this time or the customer will not complain anymore. We have zero error policy and we do go after any trace of an e...

Stadia, the revolutionary online gaming system launched by Google in 2019 is the last victim of the product axing policy. It joins the Google Graveyard, the resting place for wonderful applications like Google Reader, Google Inbox, Google Travel, Google Music and many more. What is even worse, when Stadia hits the graveyard next year, it will create an environmental problem by bricking thousands of game controllers people bought to use with the service. Some time ago I was nagged by a Google representative to switch our cloud operations from AWS to Google. My answer was simple - "never". No matter how good the offer was, there was always the risk they would kill the product forcing us to invest in porting it to another cloud platform. I simply do not trust Google when it comes to their product strategy. One day a product exists and the next day it may be axed, like it happened with many. This is why we use the Atlassian suite for tracking software issues and documentation d...

The recent global increase of energy prices has redefined our perspective. Suddenly many people started paying attention to what they do, how to conserve, and in general what energy means to our lives. It turns out everything depends on energy. Which of course is not that surprising, but we simply were not paying attention to this fact when energy was cheap. Of course there is a lot of lament in the media, but that is not relevant. Media needs crisis and lament to thrive. So just ignore it. The good news is the expensive energy will undoubtedly result in overall reduced consumption which will lead to reduced manufacturing and reduced energy use. The media will call this a recession, which of course has a negative bias. But does not have to be that negative at all. We cannot continue growing the economies infinitely based on the finite resources (the planet Earth). It is just not possible. So are we at the end of growth? Maybe. Or maybe not there yet. But definitely there has been some ...

Wow it has been 16 years since I proposed the Universal Supply Bus (USB) to be the common charging standard and then of course to be upgraded by USB-C . This seems to be super obvious to everyone now. But not everyone remembers how it was "before" - basically every accessory unit had its own power brick. Seems unthinkable and stupid now. But you still have the recollection what it was in the form of Apple devices, stupidly pushing their own "lightning" agenda (but only for iPhones, as iPads and laptops have been USB-C for 5 years now). The EU USB-C mandate is official this week. By the end of 2024, all mobile phones, tablets and cameras sold in the EU will have to be equipped with a USB Type-C charging port. From spring 2026, the obligation will extend to laptops. The new law, adopted by plenary on Tuesday with 602 votes in favor, 13 against and 8 abstentions, is part of a broader EU effort to reduce e-waste and to empower consumers to make more sustainable choice...

PC monitor vendors have been slow to recognize the opportunities provided by fairly established technologies, namely USB-C (considered here as a set of technologies) and the leading operating systems. I don't have hard numbers, but it is safe to say majority of users today have laptops, and desktop computers niche is supported by the ever shrinking audience of elite gamers.  So if the assumption of proliferation of laptops is correct, computer monitors are just add-ons for work or home working environments. One problem with using an external monitor in the past was the ugly reality of the number of cables and power supplies needed. Monitors used to have their own power bricks and then when setting up a desktop environment, you needed to connect a keyboard, a mouse, a set of speakers, a microphone, a web camera. And probably on the same desk you had a phone/watch/tablet charger. That resulted in adding a power strip and an external USB hub (with its own power supply). All this has c...