Nim’s Island – the movie – I enjoyed the movie but I did not like that it downplayed Nim’s bravery a bit. And of course, like any other book to movie adaptation, there are other differences too but the storyline is faithful to the book. The animal cast is amazing, as are the human cast. The location is beautiful, idyllic, just the sort of remote island anyone would like to get themselves stranded on and protect from trespassers. 

Oh well, the answer is obvious again here – though the book was short, it so much sweeter(and better) than the movie (in spite of Gerard Butler)

Take the poll below to vote your choice:

[yop_poll id="14"]

“Peace begins with a greeting of Namaste.”
― Debasish Mridha

Poetry Corner

N is Nifty: N is for Nonet:

What is the Nonet poetic form and how to write it?

Nonet – noun: a combination of nine instruments or voices, or a group of nine people or things, especially musicians. Also : a musical composition for such a combination. From the Italian nonetto, from nono meaning ninth, from Latin nonus. 

The history/origins of this poetic form are unclear but based on its structure and the meaning of the word above, it most likely was another of the many poetic forms inspired by music.

Simply put, the nonet is a nine-line poem that starts with a 9 syllable line and ends with a one syllable line, with each line in between counting down the number of syllables by one. It can be written on any subject and rhyming is optional.

So, the Nonet:

• is a nine-line stanzaic poem, i.e. can have one or more stanzas of nine lines each
• is syllabic, with 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 syllables per line from 1 to 9.
• does not need to rhyme

My example Nonet:

So here is my example, one that can use some updates still but for now….

Wintering Spring 

Spring loves playing hide and seek, it seems
Winter wear stored in, out again
Bright sun in sky; via streams
Nay, cool curtains of rain
Buds wait in sweet dreams
Of birds and bees,
Summer breeze
Shade trees
peace

h/t: Writer’s Digest, PoetryMagnumOpus, Merriam-Webster

Don’t tell your friends about your indigestion.
“How are you” is a greeting, not a question.
– Arthur Guiterman (for namaste – greeting)

QA Corner

N is Nifty: N is for Negative Testing

What is Negative Testing?

Break it to make it. That is kind of the theme of Negative Testing. It ensures the stability of the application in all scenarios; and that the application can gracefully handle invalid inputs or unexpected user behavior. Negative testing is also called ‘dirty testing’ and when done right, it helps identify any weaknesses in the application and ensures that the application either exits gracefully or throws a valid message to the user in error/failure scenarios.

Some examples of negative testing include:

• entering numeric values in text fields and vice versa
• entering more (or less) characters in a field than allowed (required) – for example, if a field has a set length of only 10, enter more than 10 in it; or if a field has a minimum required length of say, 8 (like password fields), enter a lesser number of characters
• entering a value lesser/greater than allowed in a numeric field – for example, if a numeric field has a requirement of values between 1 and 10, then enter values lesser than 1 or greater than 10 to check
• and so on….

The expectation is that invalid inputs, unexpected clicks/user behavior do not cause the application to crash or hang or do any other unexpected application behavior (like allow the invalid inputs/behavior).

Further reading resources (and h/t):

• What is Negative Testing?
• What/How – Negative Testing?

Wrapping up the N post

namaste