Salon.com > Patricia Ensworth http://www.salon.com Wed, 30 May 2012 06:12:34 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Are we bug-free yet? http://www.salon.com/1999/04/08/y2k_testers/ http://www.salon.com/1999/04/08/y2k_testers/#comments Thu, 08 Apr 1999 12:18:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/technology/feature/1999/04/08/y2k_testers Software testers are professional pessimists. We get paid to indulge our most apocalyptic fantasies -- imagining how systems could fail, where connections could break, what catastrophic mistakes people could make.

For us, the Millennium Bug is like a field of truffles to a French pig.

Certainly the Y2K issue has changed the way ordinary people view us. It used to be that when cocktail-party talk turned to careers, "software tester" got the same blank-stare-then-yawn reaction as, say, "tax auditor." The average citizen took very little interest in our work, and we labored in obscurity.

Nowadays, of course, it's another story. As the clock counts down and the media spotlight shines brighter, we find ourselves the center of quite a bit more attention than we're used to. On January 1, 2000, will the populace be left incommunicado in the cold and dark? Will the nuclear bombs detonate? Governments, investors, our friends and family want to know. We are presumed to have Inside Knowledge. We are the planet's stalwart defenders against the Forces of Chaos.

Would now be a good time to ask for a raise?

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/1999/04/08/y2k_testers/feed/ 0