How To Fix a NullPointerException?

Here's one of those memonts when my lips and my mind say/think differently.

QA Guy runs web application and hollers: Hey, Ann! There's a NullPointerException.

Gaaah! I hate it when people call me Ann*. But now that I'm a small fish (tropical, that is) in a big pond of US Citizens and immigrants, I have given in. Why? I guess I just got tired and lazy to exacerbate the triviality of this annoyance. And oh, since he had to shout out loud "NullPointerException"... I might as well call the ambulance! Boohoo!

ME: Okay... In which screen? Have you logged it as a Defect?

We have a cool tool you know. You sign in, open a few screens, describe your findings, and I'll get back to you with a solution. That's HOW it works, ya know!

QA Guy: No. Looook.

Fine. Now he wants me to walk over and read the logfile. Okay. He might make sense this time, who knows? He might be a wonderful professional afterall.

ME: What did you do to find that error?

QA Guy: I don't know. You think you can fix it?

Sure. I can fix anything. I've been involved in this project for barely a week. Sure. I can fix anything. And yes, a NullPointerException explains EVERYTHING. A NullPointerException can be caused by an OCEAN of possibilities! I need specific details, phhleeeazzzzz! I don't have to explain that to you. You must have been in the IT industry when I was still watching Sesame Street or Ghostbusters!

ME: I can try.


Fast forward one month. He got moved to another floor. Yippiyayey!!! Here's a bonus, my Project Manager wanted me back to join my former team. Goodbye lazy, pretentious QA Guy! You're a shame to the real QA people I know (back home) who know what they do and are good at it.

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* Ann sounds too girly for me. Too common. And, guess what I prefer to be called with? Marie. Hahaha! Someone once reacted, "And you think "Marie" isn't common? Duh!" Yeah. I'm wonderfully weird sometimes. Thank God for friends who can say such things in my face. Really.