Mirek Długosz

Create, Curate, or Spectate? In 2024 I wrote a post, An AI Red Light , about a creative project I did with my daughter using both AI and "traditional" tooling. This was ...

How much agency do you want in your work? How much are you prepared to outsource to an LLM?

Blogged: Create, Curate, or Spectate? qahiccupps.blogspot.com/2026/03/high...

Thank YOU for creating Commoncog and publishing a lot of thought-provoking and inspiring articles 🙂

Found on web: Commoncog Commoncog by Cedric Chin is probably the most influential resource I’ve discovered on the Internet in the last couple of years. It’s deep. It’s grounded. It’s deliberate. It’s insightful. It’s judicio...

@commoncog.com.web.brid.gy by @cedricchin.bsky.social is probably the most influential resource I’ve discovered on the Internet in the last couple of years.

mirekdlugosz.com/blog/2025/fo...

#testing #thinking #mentalmodels #blog #software

Introduce mechanism to recreate virtualenvs on pyenv Python version u… · mirekdlugosz/ansible-dotfiles@cb57c9a …pdate

I use pyenv for Python version mgmt and sometimes existing venvs are broken after patch update.

This weekend I spent some time improving Ansible playbooks to recreate venvs I work on every time new version is installed through pyenv. I'm pretty happy how it turned out!

github.com/mirekdlugosz...

Experience report: Implementing High Volume Automated Testing system I first heard about High Volume Automated Testing in 2017, and I’ve wanted to try it ever since. The opportunity came in 2022, when I was working on revamping a UI testing framework for software calle...

High Volume Automated Testing is not discussed often, but I wanted to try one ever since I learned about them. I go through design decision points in the latest article on my blog:

mirekdlugosz.com/blog/2025/ex...

#blog #testing #SoftwareDevelopment

Real vs Clear I'm been working on an application that will orchestrate data from multiple services. As the developers add clients for those services, th...

Is your test data getting in the way of your testing?

Blogged: Real vs Clear qahiccupps.blogspot.com/2025/07/real...

In US, license like Apache 2 can be applied to work that you have copyrighted. Meanwhile, machine-generated work, like LLM output, can’t be copyrighted.

Don't be that Mug I've spoken to a couple of friends recently about testers they know who continually express a desire to "learn automation" and continually f...

Learning a little is usually better than learning nothing.

Blogged: Don't be that Mug qahiccupps.blogspot.com/2025/06/dont...

Interesting bugs: Artifact building failure caused by GitHub API rate limits This is a story of a memorable bug I encountered at work. As with every story of that kind, there are a few ways to look at it: it might save you some time if you encounter a similar issue; it surface...

Over the years I have encountered my share of memorable problems. They were remarkably complex, hard to debug, completely obvious in retrospect, or plain funny. Read the story of one of them on my blog:

mirekdlugosz.com/blog/2025/in...

#testing #bugs #linux #blog #software #softwaredevelopment

Users of Unit Tests We are generally not the target users of the software products we work on.  That's not to say we never use our applications or that we have ...

We might not be the end users of our product, but we are the end users of our tests.

Blogged: Users of Unit Tests qahiccupps.blogspot.com/2025/05/user...

Understanding Python web deployment Trying to deploy server-side Python web application may be overwhelming. Many tutorials will gladly tell you how to run it inside gunicorn, and how to put nginx in front of it, but they usually skim o...

Trying to deploy server-side Python web application may be overwhelming. You can find answers to some of questions you might have in my article:
mirekdlugosz.com/blog/2025/un...

#python #web #programming #blog #software #softwaredevelopment #ruby #java #rust

Where Bash Fits for Me My friend Mirek wrote an interesting post recently: Where Rust fits for me . In it, he made a hierarchy of the programming languages he re...

I try to be intentional about my use of tools and it turns out that includes using unfashionable and arcane utilities if they suit my needs.

Blogged: Where Bash Fits for Me qahiccupps.blogspot.com/2025/05/wher...

Where Rust fits for me I started eyeing Rust around mid-2023. My first program taught me it’s not a language you can just learn on the job - you have to spend some time on fundamentals or you are going to have a really bad ...

I was thinking about reasons to keep learning Rust, and I ended up with a mapping between main programming languages I use and problems they are good at solving

mirekdlugosz.com/blog/2025/wh...

#python #rust #linux #programming #blog #software #softwaredevelopment

pytest: running multiple tests with names that might contain spaces You most certainly know that you can run a single test in entire suite by passing the full path: PRODUCT_ENV='stage' pytest -v --critical tests/test_mod.py::test_func[x1] This gets old when you want t...

A quick tip on running multiple hand-picked pytest tests all at once, even if they contain spaces in names:

mirekdlugosz.com/blog/2025/py...

#python #pytest #bash #shell #linux #testing #blog #software #softwaredevelopment

Thanks for your comment. My impression is that it's mostly uncertain, with people waiting to see how things evolve. But I'm not watching this particularly close.

Is there a community consensus around Wordpress state today? Did we move to something else (fork or not)? Did we say everything's fine? Is it still brewing?
Happy to take links to longer summaries. @collinsworth.dev had a good coverage of early drama back in November.

#Wordpress #web #WebDev #help

Did you know that when doing interactive git rebase, you can pick any commit from any branch? It’s obvious when you think about it, but you would be excused for doubting it.

#git #softwaredevelopment

Interesting bugs: peculiar intermittent failure in testing pipeline Over the years I have encountered my share of memorable problems. They were remarkably complex, hard to debug, completely obvious in retrospect, or plain funny. This is the story of one of them. At th...

Over the years I have encountered my share of memorable problems. They were remarkably complex, hard to debug, completely obvious in retrospect, or plain funny. Read the story of one of them on my blog:

mirekdlugosz.com/blog/2025/in...

#testing #bugs #exploration #tools #linux #blog #software

Django: data modified in pre_save signal is not saved When I was working on my first Django project, I encountered a problem where modifications done inside pre_save signal were not stored in the database. Back then it took me a couple of hours to figure...

When I was working on my first Django project, I encountered a problem where modifications done inside pre_save signal were not stored in the database. More on my blog:

mirekdlugosz.com/blog/2025/dj...

#python #django #programming #bugs #blog #software #softwaredevelopment

CRAIC SOURCERERS: How to Test Like a Tester - Cassandra HL Yes, you read that right.  CRAIC SOURCERERS.  As in, “what’s the craic”?  It’s a mnemonic I came up with while trying to think of ways to help people test like a tester – like this tester, at least.  ...

Have you every wondered how your colleagues find such interesting #bugs, or how you can do the same? Let me introduce you to CRAIC SOURCERERS - a mnemonic for how to test like a #tester. It's not extensive, but hopefully helpful.

www.cassandrahl.com/blog/craic-s...

#SoftwareTesting #Testing #QA

GitHub - mirekdlugosz/font-feature-tester Contribute to mirekdlugosz/font-feature-tester development by creating an account on GitHub.

I wrote a little Rust program that shows how font with specific OpenType features will look. Helps to decide if I should switch my terminal to another font or not.

github.com/mirekdlugosz...

Longer story at my blog: mirekdlugosz.com/blog/2025/cu...

#programming #neovim #VSCode #shell #Linux #rust

Love My Work In a recent episode of the Vernon Richard show , testing's dynamic duo were inspired by Valentine's Day to talk about their love for our cra...

Simultaneously embarrassing and flattering to have my work called out on a podcast, but I *do* love making just enough tooling to answer the questions I have.

qahiccupps.blogspot.com/2025/02/love...

Thanks for your reply, that’s interesting!

(I have a note with questions that I feel the book should have answers for. Things that seem like obvious weak points if you think for 15 minutes. I don’t have high hopes these are addressed.)

Like, communists drew from Marx. And Marx was top intellectual of his times. Say what you want about him, but he was not a moron.

Nazis tried to attach themselves to Nietzsche. And again, Nietzsche was not a moron.

I don’t know enough about China, Cambodia and plenty other places.

I’ve read first chapter so far and I don’t know if I have strength for more. This is absolutely moronic stuff.

I wonder if it’s usual for authoritarian states to draw intellectual backing from morons, or is USA right now somewhat special? /cont

It looks like I'm officially looking for new job opportunities.

If you're in need of an experienced senior developer, with an equal amount test experience), let me know!

I didn't have this on today's bingo card... 😵‍💫

Testing a new feature - should you start with automation or by inspecting it yourself? A fellow engineer submitted a question to internal mailing list. The gist is: a new feature is supposed to be released in a few months and there is no automation coverage for it. What should a person ...

A fellow engineer was uncertain how they should spend their limited time - should they test the new thing and work on automation later, possibly after the release? My answer is on the blog:

mirekdlugosz.com/blog/2025/te...

#Testing #Automation #automatedtesting #blog #softwaredevelopment

I think one of reasons is schizophrenic relationship that average citizen has with a state. Government is slow, incompetent and worthless, but also force to be reckoned with that is just one step away from taking all your rights and destroying your life. And that thinking has deep, deep roots.

context for working in quality, consultancy vs product company, test teams vs dev team

I’ve recently been exploring the differences, between the role of a Quality Engineer, and other roles in Software Quality.

In this post I will discuss a few key points that have mattered to me, and setting my context, in different companies and teams.

www.dowen.me.uk/posts/contex...

Once again, Jeff Nyman proves why he is among most insightful testing people today. Well worth a read:
testerstories.com/2025/01/test...

#testing