One of the tenets of automation is that while you can produce stuff faster, your mistakes will happen at the same speed. You might replace manually updating 100 files with a process that updates them all in the blink of an eye… but what if it updates more files than you intended. In developer terms,Continue reading “The Ethics of Scale”
Category Archives: Automation
Remove Blank Lines From a File with PowerShell
When importing a file full of data into a test system, I discovered that the CSV library I was using to do all the work was stopping when it reached a blank line. That makes sense, it thinks the data has ended. On inspection, I found quite a lot of blank lines, so there wasContinue reading “Remove Blank Lines From a File with PowerShell”
Use PowerShell to Send All Regex Matches to a New File
Yesterday I had to look at a list of stuff on a third-party website and match it up to a list of stuff we control. It took quite a bit of time and some Excel shenanigans to complete the task and as I know it’s going to crop up again, I decided to employ PowerShellContinue reading “Use PowerShell to Send All Regex Matches to a New File”
Little Scripts: Checking Web Page Images
This is a note-to-future-self as I just threw together a little script to test images on a web page. Specifically, it highlights: Images that are not lazy loaded Images that are much bigger than their display size As images sizes aren’t reliable until the image is displayed, you will need to run it if yourContinue reading “Little Scripts: Checking Web Page Images”
Manipulating Variables in JMeter
There are many reasons for manipulating variables in JMeter, especially when you are loading data from a CSV data set config element. You might want to trim a JMeter variable, or grab just a substring. In all of these cases, your existing knowledge of JavaScript can come to the rescue. Wherever you were about toContinue reading “Manipulating Variables in JMeter”
Meet the Trello Butler
Most of my time is spent in technical-land, where we use tools such as Azure DevOps to manage the flow of work. There is, though, another side to our business and they love Trello. For at least part of my day, I’m looking at colourful lists of stuff that the business are pushing around inContinue reading “Meet the Trello Butler”
Humans vs Machines: Augmented AI
I recently attended an event in Manchester, organised by BJSS and Microsoft, on the subject of AI and ML. The schedule was jam packed with interesting insights and useful case studies that got my head buzzing. Having had some time to reflect on everything I absorbed on the day, I have realised that we areContinue reading “Humans vs Machines: Augmented AI”
Datadog Notes
When you think about Datadog, you are very often thinking about charts. Which visualisations will bring forth insights from your metrics. What actionable information can you present on your wallboards. What you might not be thinking about is the humble subject of Datadog notes. You can add notes to your dashboard using the Edit DashboardContinue reading “Datadog Notes”
Log to Datadog From .NET Using Hound’s LogHound Class
If you are using Datadog, you know you can log to Datadog using the Windows event log, or by calling the DogStatsD interface on your local agent. When you are running in a non-machine context, such as an Azure App Service, it is likely you won’t be running an agent; so how do you logContinue reading “Log to Datadog From .NET Using Hound’s LogHound Class”
Test and Learn with Google Optimize Multivariate Testing
I started writing this article and realised it was going to be epic, so I’ve tried to break it into sections to make it easier to read. You can skip past sections that you feel you are already comfortable with. I’m not going to cover the nuts-and-bolts process of adding the scripts to your websiteContinue reading “Test and Learn with Google Optimize Multivariate Testing”