Category: WebXPRT

Women develop new perspectives for the XPRTs

on March 18, 2016

Last weekend, we had the great privilege of co-hosting the first XPRT Women Code-a-Thon with the Seattle chapter of ChickTech. We couldn’t be happier with the results!

Our goal was to bring together a group of women and invite them to develop ideas for new device workloads—workloads that we might include in future versions of MobileXPRT and WebXPRT. The 20 participants—some working individually, and others working as teams—not only met that goal, they did a great deal more.

On the coding front, the participants achieved an impressive amount of work in a very short time. Though we awarded only three prizes, everyone generated interesting and useful ideas. Our prizes went to the following people:

1st place: Viveret Steele, for a 3D-modeling workload

2nd place: Annmarie Aidoo, for a geolocation workload

3rd place: Molly Fallen and Alex Trimble, for an audio-enhancement workload

These four people went home with checks, but winning wasn’t what motivated anyone to participate. Everyone was excited about developing software and working with others. The social side of the event proved to be as meaningful as the technical. People talked, formed friendships and mentoring relationships, and discussed seeking other events like this one. Two people said the event changed their lives.

In the weeks ahead, we’ll be sharing some more information about the event. In the meantime, we’re proud to have been part of it.

Jennie Faries

Last week in the XPRTs

We published the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight on the Microsoft Surface 3.
We added two new CrXPRT ’15 results.
We added two new MobileXPRT ’13 results.
We added six new WebXPRT ’15 results.

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, ChickTech Seattle, Collaborative benchmark development, Future of performance evaluation, MobileXPRT, WebXPRT, What makes a good benchmark?, XPRT Women Code-a-Thon |

The big weekend is almost here!

By Eric Hale

on March 10, 2016

A few weeks ago, I talked about the XPRT Women Code-a-Thon. Well, all the work that we and our friends at ChickTech Seattle have done is about to pay off! On Saturday, March 12, dozens of women will go to the Sole Repair Shop in Seattle for two days of coding, good food, and networking opportunities.

The goal of each team at the code-a-thon is to create a new workload that might be included in a future version of WebXPRT or MobileXPRT. Judges will award prizes to the top three workloads: $2,500 for first place, $1,500 for second place, and $1,000 for third place. I can’t wait to see the winning workloads!

We’re very fortunate to have Kristin Toth Smith as the keynote speaker. She is an avid supporter of women in tech, current COO of Dolly, and former CEO of Code Fellows.

It should be a great time for all. If you or anyone you know can get to Seattle this weekend, registration is still open.

Eric

Last week in the XPRTs
We published the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight on the ASUS ZenFone 2.
We added one new BatteryXPRT ’14 result.
We added five new WebXPRT ’15 results.

Posted in ChickTech Seattle, Collaborative benchmark development, MobileXPRT 2015, WebXPRT 2015, XPRT Women Code-a-Thon |

XPRT Women Code-a-Thon: Make your voice heard and win a cash prize

By Eric Hale

on March 1, 2016

DURHAM, NC –(Marketwired – March 01, 2016) – The BenchmarkXPRT Development Community and ChickTech are co-hosting the XPRT Women Code-a-Thon on March 12-13 in Seattle. The code-a-thon encourages Seattle software programmers to create small apps, or “workloads,” that mimic actions they take on their devices every day.

The top three participants or teams will receive cash prizes of up to $2,500, and all participants’ workloads will be considered for inclusion in future versions of the BenchmarkXPRT tools, or XPRTs. Any programmer familiar with Web development or Android development is encouraged to participate.

The XPRTs are apps that empower people all over the world to test how well devices handle everyday activities. They do this by running workloads that simulate common tasks – just like the workloads code-a-thon participants will be building.

“We want the XPRTs to reflect how people actually use their technology every day,” said Jennie Faries. Faries is one of the code-a-thon’s judges and a developer at Principled Technologies, which administers the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community. “By gaining the perspectives of this group of women, we’re making the tools stronger and more realistic. And when the tools we use to measure technology get better, the technology itself gets better too.”

All participants will receive a t-shirt and locally sourced breakfast and lunch on both days of the code-a-thon. The event will include time for networking and conclude with a talk from a special keynote speaker.

Add your voice to the tools that measure today’s hottest tech. Register today at facts.pt/XPRTcodeathon2016_registration, learn more at facts.pt/XPRT codeathon2016, and get all the details at facts.pt/XPRTcodeathon2016_FAQ.

About ChickTech

ChickTech envisions a safe, inclusive, and innovative technology future that includes equal pay, participation, and treatment of women. It is dedicated to retaining women in the technology workforce and increasing the number of women and girls pursuing technology-based careers. For more information, please visit http://chicktech.org

About the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community

The BenchmarkXPRT Development Community is a forum where registered members can contribute to the process of creating and improving the XPRTs. For more information, please visit http://www.principledtechnologies.com/benchmarkxprt

About Principled Technologies, Inc.

Principled Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of technology marketing and learning & development services. It administers the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community.

Principled Technologies, Inc. is located in Durham, North Carolina, in NC’s Research Triangle Park region. For more information, please visit www.PrincipledTechnologies.com.

Company Contact
Jennie Faries
Principled Technologies, Inc.
1007 Slater Road, Suite #300
Durham, NC 27703

Posted in Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, BenchmarkXPRT Press Releases, Collaborative benchmark development, Future of performance evaluation, MobileXPRT, Performance benchmarking, Press Releases, Principled Technologies, WebXPRT, XPRT Women Code-a-Thon |

The XPRT Women Code-a-Thon

By Eric Hale

on January 28, 2016

As Justin explained last week, we’ve resolved the issue we found with the TouchXPRT CP. I’m happy to say that the testing went well and that we released CP3 this week.

It’s been only three weeks since we announced the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight, and we already have another big announcement! Principled Technologies has joined with ChickTech Seattle to host the first ever XPRT Women Code-a-Thon! In this two-day event, participants will compete to create the best new candidate workload for WebXPRT or MobileXPRT. The workloads can’t duplicate existing workloads, so we are looking forward to seeing the new ideas.

Judges will study all the workloads and award prizes to the top three: $2,500 for first place, $1,500 for second place, and $1,000 for third place. Anyone interested can register here.

PT and the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community are committed to promoting the advancement of women in STEM, but we also win by doing good. As with the NCSU senior project, the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community will get some fresh perspectives and some new experimental test tools. Everyone wins!

So much has happened in 2016 and January isn’t even over yet. The year is off to a great start!

Eric

Posted in Benchmark metrics, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Collaborative benchmark development, Future of performance evaluation, MobileXPRT, Performance benchmarking, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT 2016, WebXPRT, What makes a good benchmark?, XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight, XPRT Women Code-a-Thon |

Auf Deutsche

By Eric Hale

on December 17, 2015

Early next week, we will update WebXPRT by adding a German UI. This brings the number of available languages to three. WebXPRT has had a Simplified Chinese UI for a while, but you had to click a link on the WebXPRT page to get it. The new version removes that limitation, and lets you select Simplified Chinese, English, or German from the UI.

We’re working on getting WebXPRT to automatically detect the language of your device, but for now, the UI defaults to English.

We would like to expand the range of languages the XPRTs support over time. This is an area where you can help. If you’d like to see your language represented and are willing to help with translation, please let us know.

I know it’s the holiday season, but remember that CES will be here before we know it. I’m really looking forward to seeing the show, and I may have some big news to talk about while I’m there! If you’re planning to be at CES, send a message and let’s find a time to meet!

We will not have a blog post next week. Happy holidays!

Eric

Last week in the XPRTs
We published the December 2015 BenchmarkXPRT Development Community newsletter.
We added one new BatteryXPRT ’14 result.
We added nine new MobileXPRT ’13 results.
We added one new MobileXPRT ’15 result.
We added four new WebXPRT ’15 results.

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT development community, CES, Collaborative benchmark development, German, Simplified Chinese, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 2015, What makes a good benchmark? |

Please let us know

By Eric Hale

on November 19, 2015

Todd Reifsteck from the Web Platform Team at Microsoft was kind enough to let me share a conversation we had last week:

Todd reported he was having problems running WebXPRT on the Edge browser. This was a surprise to us, as we’d already released a WebXPRT update to resolve Edge browser issues.

We were not seeing this problem, and as we talked with Todd we verified there was no issue in WebXPRT itself. The fix we released was working; however, we found a path through the web site that launched the previous version of WebXPRT. Once we fixed that URL to point to the latest version of WebXPRT, Todd reported that WebXPRT was working with Edge, just as we expected.

This problem would not have affected results on other browsers. The results from the previous version of WebXPRT are comparable to the current version. Compatibility with the Edge browser is the only difference between the versions.

Thanks to Todd for his help. As always, we encourage you to contact us if you have any issues or questions. We’ll do our best to resolve them as quickly as possible.

Eric

Posted in Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Collaborative benchmark development, Let us know your thoughts, Microsoft Edge, WebXPRT, WebXPRT 2015 |

Category: WebXPRT

Women develop new perspectives for the XPRTs

The big weekend is almost here!

XPRT Women Code-a-Thon: Make your voice heard and win a cash prize

The XPRT Women Code-a-Thon

Auf Deutsche

Please let us know

Check out the other XPRTs: