Chris Struble Writes

Today, May 25, 2021, marks one year since George Floyd was murdered while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers. My prayers go out today to Mr. Floyd's family and to all those who were affected by his murder. The conviction of the former officer who killed Mr. Floyd is a step forward. But it is only one of many steps that need to be taken. A year later, I am forced to admit that I can do more to demand justice. I watched the trial of Floyd's killer as much as I was able. But the violence continues. I cannot keep track of all the police killings. I try to remember all the names. But I notice them when they are reported, and I try to stop and take a moment to feel it, and to imagine what that family is going through. I do the same when police officers are killed doing their lawful duty the protect the public from violent citizens. My church had a guest minister this past Sunday, a black man who grew up in a poor Detroit neighborhood. An amazing poet, musician and activist...

Two days ago President Biden gave a speech marking one year since the Coronavirus national emergency was declared. I consider the national vaccination program to be a huge success so far, in that it has just delivered on its promise of administering "100 million doses in 100 days" far ahead of schedule. As of this morning, the CDC COVID data tracker website shows that 101 million doses have been administered. My wife just got her first vaccination shot yesterday, at a pharmacy about 30 minutes away from our home. She is feeling good. I have an appointment to get my first shot next week. I am excited.  Getting those appointments did have its minor frustrations. In Washington State, there is a state web site called Find Your Phase that poses a series of questions to determine if you are eligible for a vaccine. Here is one of them. "Are you over 50 years and living with and caring for someone who is not your child (i.e. a grandchild, niece or nephew)?" The web site o...

Today I created my first YouTube channel. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UComOCbEAJDTG6YjCeiRvFnw The first video I posted was my presentation from the PNSQC 2020 conference last year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94qac15kU7w In the future I hope to upload more videos about my music and fiction writing efforts. .

Today I took the big step today of creating a Patreon page to get support for writing my novel. Check it out. https://www.patreon.com/chrisstrublewrites I don't need financial support for my writing right now, but who knows what the future will bring. This is laying one brick in a foundation I may need if I become a full time writer. UPDATE: I am no longer using the Patreon platform. Please check out my Ko-fi page at: https://ko-fi.com/chrisstrublewrites

Yesterday I released Ruby Test Generator, a model-based testing (MBT) tool written in Ruby, to open source. It is available here: https://github.com/testdruid/ruby-test-generator This is the tool I mentioned in the  paper I presented at the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference last October. I am grateful my employer, Meteorcomm LLC, for giving me permission to release this tool to open source. I created this tool last year when I could not find another MBT tool for Ruby. So I wrote my own. It uses an open source MBT tool called GraphWalker  to generate tests, and can execute code in a Ruby class to drive test inputs to software.

The collapse of the 305-meter Arecibo radio telescope this week was a great loss to science and to the world. The telescope was built the year after I was born. I first learned about it when I was a boy.  The telescope made many great discoveries. One of its first was to prove that Mercury rotated one every 59 Earth days, when scientists at the time thought it rotated once every 88 days. It made the first maps of Venus, detected the first binary pulsar, and the first extrasolar planet. It was used multiple times in the ongoing  Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence . I remember reading that it could have detected a signal sent from a radio telescope of equal size and power to itself transmitting from clear across the galaxy. It sent the first powerful signal into deep space. I will never forget the scenes in the movie Contact that were filmed there.  The Arecibo telescope was a wonder of American science and an inspiration to millions. I sincerely hope that is re...

My paper and presentation from the PNSQC 2020 conference are now available for download from my author page at the conference web site. Links follow. Author Page Paper Presentation The video isn't posted yet. I will post a link to that when it is available.