Saturday, June 27, 2009

Longest twitter with no space, appears like it has no contents in it!


Below are the images of twitter messages by Pradeep Soundararajan. And I have subscribed the RSS feeds of @testertested and I read them in Google Reader.


picture-1

picture-2
picture-1 and picture-2: twitter message that looked like it had nothing in it.


picture-3
picture-3: twitter message with no spaces between the words

picture-4picture-4: twitter message with no spaces between the words and has 140 characters.


While looking at the twitters of @testertested in my Google Reader account, I was surprised to see the empty twitter message. But I knew there is something here and said my self, "Pradeep Soundararajan would have explored something here too.".

I could not wait with my curiosity. Clicking on the so appeared empty twitter message area, showed the twittered message which had 140 characters with no spaces between the words.

The button 'Update' used to update our twitter message in twitter, will not be enabled to submit our twittering once our twitter message exceeds 140 characters, irrespective whether it has spaces or not.

Question that I have is, "Why I am not able to see the twittered message in the Google Reader, though it had message in it?"

What more can I see here? Is there a problem here? Is it a bug? Is it a feature? What should a subscribed reader for the feeds should think and infer in a scenario's context -- when she or he gets an illusion of no message though it has a message which is not displayed as in picture-1 and picture-2 , when looking at it for the first time?

What ever it might be, I am finding information from this behavior. Investigation report of this behavior is here.



Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Unthinkable happening to the anonymous.


Can you think of an unthinkable for few seconds? If you can think of an unthinkable -- how it looks at present or how it would (not) be in future or how it had (not) been in past or earlier, then is it called the unthinkable? The next question to be investigated is "What is an 'unthinkable'? What can be unthinkable? When it looks like an unthinkable? Does it just appear as the unthinkable? When it is not an unthinkable? For whom it is an unthinkable -- when, why and how? For whom it is not an unthinkable -- when, why and how?"

Tried to look what is inferred in general for word "unthinkable". Asked few of my friends, "what do you understand for word 'unthinkable' and when you say it is an unthinkable?" Most of the *replies I got was and relates literally to, "when I cannot think beyond a level, I think it is unthinkable.". I was curious to know and asked "how did (or do) you know that you cannot think beyond a level, when you know that was so seemed as an optimum level (boundary)."

Later I tried to collect information about what they say about "thinkable". The
*replies that I got was and relates literally to, "when I can say it precisely or when I can understand it or when I can relate it or when it is agreeable or when it is possible."
*This replies does not mean that what I heard are unanimously universal truth. I may have different opinions in the various contexts -- how I perceive the information by relating it from my thinking.

This triggered a heuristic within me to ask a question and requested to infer what I heard for unthinkable and thinkable. Unthinkable -- cannot think beyond a level, which is known by thinking, means it is thinkable to that extent and did looked like uncertain beyond that and seemed like thinkable as an unthinkable after that? When I identified a boundary, why did not I try to put question mark for what is beyond and after that boundary? This helped me to identify a heuristic -- exploratory is in the dynamics of thinking. The question what I got from my friends was, "what difference you find between words 'the unthinkable' and 'the thinkable'?" I was able to find the difference here and it was in the spellings of the two words.
With all this I looked out for printed meanings of words "unthinkable" and "thinkable" and below is what I saw and read on the web:

>> Unthinkable

adjective:
inconceivable; unimaginable; not to be considered; out of question;
noun:
something that cannot be conceived or imagined, as something too unusual, vague, or disagreeable.

Here I read a sentence -- "Today's unthinkables are tomorrow's realities.". Then I asked myself, "then how can it be termed as unthinkable?". I said myself, "I did not have a verb meaning here for unthinkable". The verb (action of thinking and reinvention of questions) makes unthinkable to thinkable by a question with intent to know what the question(s) shows and gives back.

>> Thinkable

adjective:
capable of being thought; conceivable; that may be considered as possible or likely.

*Note: Here it says three results for thinkable, but it seems like only two results are being shown to readers.

With all these questions and information I had a thought and inferred -- there is nothing unthinkable; if at all said, it is unthinkable then it is the ambiguities in thinkable, thinking, what I have, what I have inferred, what I have understood, what I am seeing, which I am not seeing and what I have missed to write here. Questioning and investigations helps in identifying and knowing what is ambiguous.

This made me to remember the words of James Bach, which I had read -- "Testing is infinite process of comparing the invisible to the ambiguous so as to avoid the unthinkable happening to the anonymous."


My own context where I witnessed "unthinkable happening to the anonymous":

I have the habit of testing what ever I see by asking myself "What more can I see here? When, why and how it does not do for what it is believed, it will do?" I tested my mobile phone from the day I have it. But this context I witnessed was unthinkable and annoyed me. The service provider of the SIM card I use will advertise for the ring tones, caller tunes and many more (might be you too would know this). And these advertisements sometimes come as an incoming call and play the automated recorded voice. Automated voice why? I believe humans cannot do that always by dialing to a number then sing a song and tell to press the key if you want this or not. But, program instructions written by human can do them. Something to think consciously -- programming instructions are changing day-by-day in wink of an eye, but am I changing with my thoughts?

I received one such call which was for caller tunes and it started playing the recorded voice which was more or less a automated on receiving the call; pressing the numerical key on the keypad will be the input for the being played advertisement. Meanwhile I started looking at the contact number of my friend in my Nokia 1100 handset.

Below are the ways I explored to search contacts while a call is received and in conversation, when I brought my mobile phone - Nokia 1100:

Contact search exploration-1:

When a call is being received or dialed, connected and in conversation -- pressing the numerical key which also denotes the alphabets will show 'Options' which was showing 'End' in the display area. Then pressing the key used for selection will display 'Call options' which has options for Hold, New Call, End Call, Send DTMF, Send, Contacts, Menu, Mute, Flashlight on. Selecting 'Search' will help in looking for the contact numbers that are stored in the mobile phone (SIM + phone) memory.

Contact search exploration-2:

The other way for looking for the contact while being on conversation in a call is, pressing key 'C' which symbolize for cancel. On pressing key 'C' in keypad will
show 'Options' and the 'End' will be taken off from display area. Selecting the 'Options' will show the list above said options under 'Call options'. Should navigate and select 'Search' for looking into the contact number I have stored in my mobile phone (SIM + phone) memory.

The above are two procedures I know to search for contact during a call conversation. In the above said instant i.e., when the call of advertisement for caller tune was received, I used contact search exploration-1 to find the contact number of my friend and pressed a key '5' on keypad which also had alphabets 'jkl'.

Doing this, a song was selected as my caller tune and the recorded voice said (the words written here are not exact of what I heard)-- "the caller tune service has been activated for your number, subscription charge will be deducted and monthly rental will be deducted from next month." This shocked me I did not want the caller tune, but now it has been activated for my contact number. I did not even think about -- if I do the contact search while such call is received, money will be deducted from my prepaid account and which I don't want to happen. Later I deactivated the caller tune for my contact number, but money was deducted for choosing it. This annoyed and bugged me. Because I don't like to loose money as I cannot spend it this way.

One more instance is pressing key '9' on keypad while such caller tune advertisement is being played, will play the recorded voice again from the beginning. One day I pressed key '9' to listen what the recorded and automated voice tells. Unfortunately this time, pressing key '9' it activated a caller tune instead of starting the recorded voice from beginning. Again the money was deducted for this. Here the same key '9' played two different roles i.e., for repeating what I heard in one scenario and to select a song in another scenario.

Later I got a question to mind. There are people who use mobile phone in my country who are literate and illiterate. If a key is pressed for some other purpose while such call of caller tune advertisement is received, they will loose their money. If they wished not to have the caller tune and if they feel not to spend the money for this, will they be annoyed and bugged when unthinkable happens to them and their money gets deducted? If they are bugged and annoyed, should I call this as a bug in this context scenario?

The words "
Testing is infinite process of comparing the invisible to the ambiguous so as to avoid the unthinkable happening to the anonymous." demonstrates what testing means here in this context -- for the caller tune getting activated which the user did not expect or thought while using key in keypads to search contact, it might be unthinkable for her or him or anonymous who witnessed it.

To whom should a annoyed and bugged user (anonymous) tell, "this kind of option of selecting the caller tune can make unthinkable to happen and takes the money which I don't want to spend this way while searching for a contact in mobile phone using numerical keys in keypad." Should it be said to the mobile phone manufacturers or communication service providers?