We've been reading some hype over the date being 8/8/08. Many consider 8 to be a lucky number. The Olympics stated today on 08/08/08 at 08:08:08 PM.

I am a skeptic when it comes to numbers. When I am presented with numbers and another's conclusion about them, I like to apply Darrell Huff's 5 (not a lucky 7 or 8) questions to talk back to a statistic. These questions help me test the numbers and better understand what they do and do not mean.

• Who says so?
• How do they know?
• What's missing?
• Did somebody change the subject?
• Does it make sense?

So, now that you are armed with a testing checklist in the form of these 5 questions, here are some numbers about the upcoming FROSST conference.

FROSST starts in 63 days, on 10/10 at 6pm, on 121st Avenue.

FROSST currently has 2 Champion Sponsors (ProtoTest and Current Consulting) and 1 Friend Sponsor: Connected Testing. FROSST is also supported by 2 software tester organizations: SQuAD and AST. There are 2 Champion Sponsor slots remaining. FROSST is organized by ThinkTalkTest, Ltd., a partnership of 2 testers.

FROSST currently has 98 participants registered from 68 companies in 21 Colorado cities, plus locations in 3 other states. Colorado plus 3 make 4; the number of duplicate registrations we had to remove from the rolls. Colorado was the 38th state admitted to the Union; 0n 08/01/1876. Only 7 days later, Thomas Edison received patent 180857 for his autographic printing machine.

The sum of attendee work phone numbers is 84728864327. Colorado has 4 telephone area codes and 557 5-digit ZIP codes. The minimum cost for mailing a letter between these zip codes is 42 cents. I read that the answer is 42. I just haven't figured out the question.

Slightly higher than 42: I'm surprised to learn that 43.97755% of registered participants are Professional Engineers or drive trains. 55.81395 percent of these engineers expressed interest in automation. I would have expected these engineers to be interested in bridges, not test automation. Although they do seem to care more about test automation than approximately 45.918367346938775510204081632653% of registered attendees that are interested in automation.

Exactly 26% of participants care about Agile testing. The Agile Manifesto contains 4 elements. There are 7 Basic Principles of the Context-Driven Testing School. School crossing signs have 5 sides. Colorado children leave elementary school after the 5th grade.

3 registered FROSST participants are named David. In 1906, the name David was the 31st most popular name given to baby boys in the United States. In 2006, the numbers transposed and David was number 13. The Antlers Hilton, site of CAST 2009, has 13 floors. I think the movie The 13th Floor is really about software testing.

Add up all these numbers and what do we get ...

• FROSST is going to be a great conference
• We still need sponsors
• Refer your friends and colleagues