Today I needed to generate random names for test data.  I found this free random name generator. See: http://www.neoprogrammics.com/randomisers/random_names_generator/

I typically use BB TestAssistant or iShowU for screen capture, but I sometimes recommend CamStudio for those looking for an open source solution to screen capture. CamStudio records screen and audio activity on your computer and creates AVI/SWF files. Software like this is great for exploratory testing, recreating bugs, or building training.

Found a new free fuzzing tool by Microsoft called MiniFuzz. From the site:

MiniFuzz is a very simple fuzzer designed to ease adoption of fuzz testing by non-security people who are unfamiliar with file fuzzing tools or have never used them in their current software development processes.

While it's focused specifically on file-handling, it's relatively easy to get setup and use. I don't use Visual Studio, but apparently, you can also use it as a VS add-on.

If you're new to Ruby and want a fun way to learn more about the language, try out RRobots. RRobots is a simulation environment for robots that have a scanner and a gun, can move forward and backwards and are entirely controlled by ruby scripts. You create your own robot to do battle with others.

It's fun, but more important than that, it challenges you to take advantage of some of Ruby's language features. It also gets you comfortable with a lot of things you'll be doing it you're writing custom automation code (like nested looping, variable management, etc...).

I'm again stealing a tip from David Christiansen (he's on a roll lately). Checkout his post on using cross-site scripting to get out of a testing rut. From the post:

<script>alert("f")</script>

Paste it in every field.

If an alert pops up OR the field gets saved and then gets rendered without the script tags, you’ve found a cross-site scripting vulnerability.

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As a side note, in a very funny turn of events, when I originally wrote this blog post I was rewarded with the following...