I was trying to find out how I could import this blogs MySQL database into a local copy and found that I didn’t need to FTP to the server as I can get to it via phpMyAdmin on the hosting sites server, perfect.

I exported the data to a CSV file and that worked OK but after I had finished messing around getting that file onto the XP PC, where I am attempting to possibly home host this blog, I tried importing that file into my XAMPP installed version of phpMyAdmin and that didn’t go anywhere. I then tried exporting the data to an SQL file from the server and tried importing that into my local version of phpMyAdmin and that worked fine.

I then applied a password to the root user for MySQL and created another dummy user to see how that worked and then created a 3 line PHP script to see if the user could connect to the database and, eventually, it could. It also proved again that PHP was running OK. So what’s next? Can I get my users, via some very noddy PHP scripts, to read and display some of the data from the database. Then? Just the little job of copying the whole of the downloaded version of this blog to somewhere where XAMPP knows about and seeing if index.php actually displays.

Meanwhile back to the real world. An agent rang about a position that I was just about perfect for and everything appeared to be OK. He did mention the V-model and I quickly explained that to him, though I thought at the time that maybe he checking to see whether I really did know what the V-model was. He sent my resume to the client and about 20 minutes later, after he’d obviously read my resume in a bit more depth, he phoned back and asked where the V-model was mentioned on my resume. It isn’t mentioned at all. In an attempt to get the resume down to 3 pages I removed a whole load of stuff including any reference to the V-model as I figured that it is such an intrinsic part of the test process and that just about anyone worth their salt would know it that it would be taken as read that I knew about the V-model. How could I have avoided the V-model, I’ve been testing software for nearly 20 years ferchrissakes.

I’m not sure the agent was convinced and he did sound a bit worried that reference to the V-model wasn’t on the resume. No doubt the client company have requested someone with V-model experience and not seeing it on my resume will probably cause them some concern, though I feel that may say more about them than me. This could turn into a waste of time as my resume may intimidate them as I have way too much testing experience. They might call me in for an interview and hammer away at V-model questions till they finally trip me up and get their ‘gotcha’ moment. Give me strength.