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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Database Testing: Is It Significant?


With the number of applications increasing day by day, there is a need to test its various parameters so as to make it reliable and user friendly.  Apart from testing the various codes and attributes, testers would need to test one of the most vital part in a system-the database.


There are basically four operations that are facilitated by Database Tools like MS- Access2010, Oracle 10g and others. They are
•    Create: - Users will create information and save it.
•    Retrieve: - Information that is stored can be retrieved by the user.
•    Update: - Users can either edit or modify the information that has been saved previously.
•    Delete: - If any information that was saved becomes outdated, users can delete the information.


How to test Database?
1. Create Query
For an accurate Database test, the tester should possess a profound knowledge of the Structured Query Language (SQL) and Data Manipulation Language (DML) apart from a good understanding of internal database structure of the Application under Test (AUT). This will in turn help him verify the results using the SQL query.

2. Verify the result using the table
Apart from using the SQL, the tester can also view the tables of database to verify the results. However, this will be a tedious job especially if the amount of data is large and spread in different tables.

3. Obtain Query from the Developer
The tester can perform any of the operations that are facilitated by the database tools and confirm the impacts by verifying the SQL query from the developer. This method is the simplest but it has some drawbacks especially when the query obtained from the developer doesn’t match the users’ requirement.

Importance of Database Testing
The importance of database testing in software testing should not be ignored as it is the data which is visible to the user.

1. Quality Assurance
Before the software is made available to the user, testers should ensure that it meets the quality standards as required by the user. The database management system should be able to retrieve any information as requested by the user from time to time.

2. Feasibility
If the amount of data is less, then manual counting is feasible. However, it can be a hectic task for anyone to count data with many attributes. The main objective of database testing is to ensure the usefulness of the data and that subsequently facilitate the systems functionality.

3. Identifying the problem
Database testing will help the tester identify the root cause of the problem apart from detecting the hidden bugs in the database.

Database is the most critical and the backbone of any software applications. Without a proper database, the system will not be able to function as required by the user. A software application can be re-written over and over and old applications are thrown away. However, the database is carefully migrated when changing the applications.

5 Common Online Marketing Spelling and Grammar Mistakes


Grammar and spelling mistakes are very common, and with the rise in shortened ‘text speak’, becoming even more so. The English language is made up of a lot of words that are really difficult to spell, but a lot of mistakes are simple to fix once you know what you did wrong.
The same can be said of grammar. Common grammar issues like “you’re” and “your” are easy to learn, it just takes a little time.
That’s not the only mistake you’ll see when reading, or maybe make when writing yourself. You could be writing for the web, either for a blog or as part of an online marketing strategy. You might be writing a novel or reviewing a product. Regardless, good grammar not only makes you appear more intelligent but it flows better when read back too.
In an effort to reduce these annoying little slip ups, here are five commonspelling and grammar mistakes you need to stop making now:

1# Recurrent misspellings

Even those who think they know all the tricks of grammar can get fooled by this one. A lot of people tend to write it as “alot” which isn’t a word.

2# There, Their and They’re

They all sound the same when read out loud, but have a separate meaning. It looks confusing at first, but it’s simple to learn the difference.
“Their” signifies possession. It’d work in a sentence like “It’s their house.”
“They’re” means “They are”. If “are” wouldn’t fit behind “They” in your sentence, “They’re” isn’t the one you’re looking for.
Finally, “There” is best used when talking about a position. “I’m going there” or “It’s over there”.

3# You’re and Your

This one is equally as common as the one above. “You’re” and “your” are often seen mixed up, but it’s easy to work out which is which once you know the difference.
“You’re” works the same as “They’re”; it stands for “You are”. “You’re getting better at grammar” works, because you could easily swap out “You’re” with “You are”.
“Your” is for possession. “Your book” means that you own the book, so “Your” is the correct word.

4# Using an apostrophe

An apostrophe is great when it’s used right. Often, when people want to put an “s” on the end of a word then they’ll put an apostrophe before it. This is sometimes right, but often not.
You should use an apostrophe in two cases only.
It shows possession of something; “Company’s employees” shows that the employees belong to the company.
The other use is for contractions, and you can see it in the points above. You can use an apostrophe on “You are” to make it “You’re”, just like you can on “They’re.”
Often, you’ll see “it’s” written where it shouldn’t be. “It’s” is contracted from “it is” or “it has” and can be used in place of them. “Its” should be used all other times.

5# Literally

“Literally” is a great word used wrongly far too often. It’s often misunderstood and people use it where it doesn’t make sense.
“Literally” means exactly to the point. Using “literally” in a sentence describing an event means that event happened exactly as you explained with no exaggeration.
When someone says “I literally died because I was laughing so hard” then they’re implying that they’re dead.

Google Penguin Update Recovery Tips & Advice


Struggling to know what to do in the wake of Google’s Penguin Update? Judging from all the comments and forum discussions we’ve seen, plenty are. We’ve got a little initial advice from Google on the topic, mixed with our own.

What Was Penguin?

The Penguin Update launched on April 24. It was a change to Google’s search results that was designed to punish pages that have been spamming Google. If you’re not familiar with spam, it’s when people do things like “keyword stuffing” or “cloaking” that violate Google’s guidelines.

Is Penguin Fully Live?

Sometimes it can take a few days for an update to fully rollout across all Google’s various data centers, which in turn means impacting all its search results. In this case, the rollout is complete. Google confirms that Penguin is fully live.

Was I Hit?

It’s easy to run some search, see that your site has gone and assume the worst. While Google does report some spamming offenses through Google Webmaster Central, it tells me there’s no way currently to log-in and know if the Penguin Update hit you.

My advice to people worried has been this. The update launched on April 24. Look at your search-related traffic from Google immediately after that date. Do you see a major drop compared with a day or two before? If so, you were probably hit by Penguin. See a rise in traffic? You probably benefited from Penguin. See no change? Then it really had no impact on you.

I ran this advice past Google; I was told it was good advice. It’s also exactly the same advice we and others have given people trying to understand if they were hit by the various Panda Updates over time.

How Do I Recover?

Since this was targeting spam, you need to remove any spam you might have. In some cases, Google may have sent messages to you about spam activity in the past. Messages may even be waiting for you in Google Webmaster Central, if you’ve never verified your account.

Obviously, correct anything that Google has flagged as spam with your site. If nothing’s been flagged — and you’re sure it was Penguin that hit you — then correct whatever you can think of that might be spam-like.

Within Google Webmaster Central, there’s the ability to file a reconsideration request. However, Google says this is an algorithmic change — IE, it’s a penalty that’s applied automatically, rather than a human at Google spotting some spam and applying what’s called a manual penality.

Because of that, Google said that reconsideration requests won’t help with Penguin.

There is, however, a new form that you can use to report errors, if you think you were caught by mistake. See our separate story, Penguin Update Peck Your Site By Mistake? Google’s Got A Form For That, for more details about using this.

What If Google’s Wrong!

Feel like Penguin has nabbed you for spamming incorrectly? As explained above, you can use the new Penguin Feedback form. As Google’s statement above also explains, you can post feedback through Google’s webmaster forum.

If you do this, my advice is not to go in with the attitude that Google has wronged your site. Maybe it did, but Google’s more interested in whether its search results that are doing wrong by searchers.

Give an example of a search where maybe you were previously listed. Explain the quality of your site. Explain what remains, especially if what remains seems to be benefiting from spam or is of low quality.

Of course, giving examples like this is also seen by some as “outing,” and there’s a belief among some SEOs that it should never be done. Others disagree. If this bothers you, then at least explain the quality behind your site and what’s being missed by searchers, not an emphasis on things like how much traffic or business you’re losing.

What About The Over-Optimization Penalty?

Google had initially warned that an “over-optimization” penalty was coming. This is the penalty it was talking about, but it has clarified that it’s not meant to target some hard-to-pin down “over-optimization” but rather outright spam.

What About Panda 3.5?

Yesterday, Google confirmed that it also released an update to its Panda algorithm, Panda 3.5, on April 19. Unlike Penguin, which is meant to target spam, Panda is designed to target pages that aren’t spam but aren’t great quality.

What About That Parked Domains Mistake?

Around April 17, a number of sites reported lost traffic. That turned out to be a problem with how Google was incorrectly classifying them as being parked domains.

If your traffic dropped around April 17, it’s probably related to that, especially if you recovered by April 18. It shouldn’t be responsible for any drop you might see after April 18. Rather, Panda and Penguin are more likely culprits.

What About All Those Link Warnings?

Around mid-March, Google began taking action against some blog networks that seemed chiefly designed just to generate links to those participating, in hopes of boosting rankings. Then around the end of March, Google also sent warnings about “artificial or unnatural links” to a variety of sites.

If you saw your traffic drop in mid-March, it could be for one of two reasons. First, Google might no longer be letting the traffic from the link networks you were in carry weight. You’re not penalized. You’re just not benefiting any longer. Second, Google might have actively attached a penalty to your site.

It’s really not clear which has happened to people. Getting a warning doesn’t necessarily mean you got a penalty, it seems. But we’ll try to confirm this more from Google in the coming days.

What About Negative SEO?

Especially in the past week, there’s been a huge rise in forum discussions that “negative SEO” is now a serious problem. The idea is that if being in a blog network or having paid links could hurt you, then anyone could point bad links to harm another site.

This fear has existed for years. It’s not new. It’s even something Google acknowledges can happen in some limited cases. The fact that we’ve not had many sites over the years complaining that negative SEO has hit them should be reassuring.

For most sites, it’s not a problem because good sites have enough good signals in their favor that bad ones stand out as an oddity. It’s more a liability for smaller sites that haven’t built my authority, in my view.

I’ll be following up in more depth on the current round of worries, and I’ll try to get Google to weigh in more on the fresh concerns.

Is Penguin Bad For Searchers, Small Businesses….

If you read forum discussions, the Penguin Update has ruined Google’s search results. The reality is difficult to tell.

Make no mistake, it’s easy to find plenty of weirdness in Google’s results, as I covered in yesterday’s post, Did Penguin Make Google’s Search Results Better Or Worse?

However, these still remain anecdotal reports. It’s always been possible to find oddities like this.

There’s been no mass outcry from ordinary Google searchers that it’s suddenly gotten worse. There’s also typically outcry mostly from publishers who have been harmed by updates and not from publishers who have gained. Those who’ve gained have no reason to speak up.

As a result, after any update, it’s always possible to come away with a skewed view that the sky is falling in terms of relevancy. The reactions I’ve seen to the Penguin Update? They could have all been drawn directly out of reactions from the Florida Update of 2003. This presentation I did for concerned publishers at the time are equally applicable today.

After that update, Google was accused of trying to do everything from put small businesses out-of-business to trying to get more AdWords cash out of big brands. And SEO was dead yet again.

If SEO is dead, it sure has been taking its time dying, as I’ve written in the past. If Google really does have a grand master plan to wipe out small businesses, then it’s going on 10 years now that it hasn’t managed to do it.

The reality is that I’d say the vast majority of small businesses are getting plenty of traffic from Google, real small businesses that make real things or provide real services.
Of course, if the definition of small business is someone who writes hundreds of articles for a blog, to carry Google’s or someone else’s ads alongside, then “spins” those articles using software into slightly different versions for three other blogs to carry more ads, then yes, those types of businesses are in danger. They were from the beginning, actually, and it’s surprising they’ve lasted so long.

None of that is meant to take away from anyone with a quality site who has been harmed by latest update. If Google’s screwing up on listing relevant sites, we want to know, and we sure want that corrected. But as someone who has witnessed Google updates for as far back as we’ve had Google — who can remember panic over updates with Excite that existed before Google — this seems fairly normal.

Search didn’t suddenly stop sending everyone traffic. Google didn’t just stop sending sites tons of traffic. A bunch of people were definitely hit, some of whom probably should have been hit. A bunch of people were rewarded, some of whom should have been rewarded. Most people probably noticed no change at all. Here’s hoping the people who were hit mistakenly, or who weren’t rewarded as they should have been, get corrected in future updates.


News from - http://searchengineland.com/penguin-update-recovery-tips-advice-119650

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Facebook buys Lightbox, an Android photo sharing app


Lightbox could have been considered the Instagram of Android, that is, before Instagram came to Android. The app allowed Android users to take pictures, add filters, share them with their friends as well as geolocate their photos, providing, in essence, a similar service that Instagram offers. Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion almost immediately after Instagram launched an app for the Android platform. The aim behind the acquisition seemed to be to improve Facebook's mobile presence. Furthermore, Facebook recently updated its mobile apps to contain larger photos and its Every Phone app to add filters to the photo uploader. Now, Lightbox has announced in a blog post that the social networking giant has bought the Android photo sharing application.
Lightbox gets the thumbs up from Facebook
Lightbox gets the thumbs up from Facebook



Lightbox made it clear that Facebook only bought the development team behind the app, not the company and the photos. They said, "In the coming weeks, we will be open sourcing portions of the code we’ve written for Lightbox and posting them to our Github repository." Lightbox has also provided a download link for users who want to move their photos if they want to. Lightbox.com will only be in function till the 15th of June and the service is not accepting any new signups. Lightbox only runs in Android and in HTML5 so Facebook might utilize the new acquired development team to work on their Android app. 

We recently spoke to Director of Outreach at Lightbox, Stephen Morse on a trip he made to Mumbai; check out the interview here. Lightbox seemed to have been doing well enough for itself and Facebook lapped up their talent before they even came out with an iOS app. There are some Lightbox users, however, who are not too happy with the Facebook acquisition. One user,razorsharpe said, "I love FACEBOOK.  It’s fun.  Still, I like to keep a lot of things off of FB.  One of my favorite non-FB apps was LIGHTBOX.  In my opinion, many of its filters (esp. “Ansel”) were way better than Instagram’s.  Here’s to hoping that someone at FB is listening or that someone will use the open source code to bring Lightbox back." Do you use Lightbox? Are you upset with the acquisition? Let it out in the comments below.

10 of the Most Inspiring Travel Books


10 best and most Inspiring Travel Books

Has a book ever inspired you to hop on a bus to the next town, book a plane ticket or plan the expedition of a lifetime?

Sometimes it’s an epic recounting of a classic trip. In other cases, it’s simply a book with such a strong sense of place that you can’t wait to see that land, taste that food and hear that language for yourself.

I’ve lost count of the number of books that have spurred me to travel, but here are some of my favourites. Many are books I read as an impressionable kid that have resonated for decades—literary merit (or lack thereof) notwithstanding.

The list is utterly unscientific and personal—among other things, it reflects interests as diverse as Buddhism, chick lit and the Second World War—so please chime in with suggestions of your own in the comments section. In particular, thrillers and horror novels scare the heck out of me, so I’m woefully uninformed about the charms of Stieg Larsson’s Stockholm or Stephen King’s Maine. And I’m eager to expand my knowledge of foreign authors in translation. I’d love it if you’d fill me in.

1 - The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

What teenager growing up in the Toronto suburbs in the early 1980s wouldn’t be captivated by Holden Caulfield’s sophisticated travels in late-1940s Manhattan?

2 - The Last House of Ulster, A Family in Belfast, by Charles Foran

An utterly engrossing non-fiction account of one family and their struggles to maintain some sort of normal life amid “The Troubles” in Ireland.

3 - The Watch That Ends the Night, by Hugh MacLennan

A quiet schoolmaster, a fiery radical and the ill woman they both adore. Against the odds, it makes Montreal seem even more romantic than normal.

4 - Heidi, by Johanna Spyri

This sentimental tale about a Swiss orphan and her crusty grandfather has been lodged in my brain since I was very, very young. It would be over three decades before I finally saw the Swiss Alps for myself.

5 - Gone to Soldiers, by Marge Piercy

Okay, it’s Paris during the Nazi occupation, so the joie de vivre is seriously dimmed. But it’s still Paris, and Piercy brings it to vivid life.

6 - The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga

An ambitious New Delhi servant becomes a successful Bangalore entrepreneur through violent means in this Man Booker Prize-winning novel.

7 - The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough

Say what you like about the literary merits of this 1977 potboiler, it made a sheep station in the Australian outback sound like paradise when I devoured it in high school.

8 - Radio Shangri-La, by Lisa Napoli

An utterly absorbing story of an American journalist’s journey to Bhutan to help start the country’s first private radio station. In the process, she witnesses the country’s eagerness to enter the 21st century.

9 - Tales of a Female Nomad, by Rita Golden Gelman

Forget Eat, Pray, Love. This memoir of a fearless solo world traveller—she thinks nothing of breezing into an isolated Mexican village and asking a stranger to rent her a room—is candid and charming.

10 - Among the Cities, by Jan Morris

I could have picked any Jan Morris book. Honestly, I’d read her grocery list and probably enjoy it—her writing is that crisp, evocative and delightful. I chose this collection because it covers dozens of the world’s most intriguing cities.

News from -  http://www.always10list.com/2012/05/10-of-most-inspiring-travel-books.html