Waterfall versus Agile Development Methodologies from a Test Perspective

I think this is the best summary of the difference in the methodologies i've encountered so far:
"A man dies, and is sent to Purgatory for a period of soul cleansing to last thirty days. He's given two options. The first- a daemon will take a huge hammer and drive a huge nail into his ass every day for thirty days. The second- he'll have twenty-nine days of contemplation, but on the thirtieth day, the same daemon with the huge maul will drive all thirty nails into his ass."
Agile is the first. Waterfall is the second.
Personally, i'll take the latter. I'd rather be able to prepare and brace for coming crunch times, and know that they're coming from time to time and tough it out when they happen; rather than deal with mini-crunches every week.

Looking at our new tracking software, i seem to have finished all the 28 hours of testing which was blocked last week with the exception of two follow-up tests after certain time periods expire, and have waded through 42.5 hours worth of work so far this week, and appear to still have almost 60 hours left to do. Oh- and my builds are broken again. I hate this.

Thought for the day

"Copulation is spiritual in essence - or it is merely friendly exercise. On second thought, strike out 'merely.' Copulation is not 'merely' - even when it is just a happy pastime for two strangers. But copulation at its spiritual best is so much more than physical coupling that it is different in kind as well as in degree. - Robert Anson Heinlein"

There's a mouthful spoken here. I think it extends beyond this, though. I think that one of the problems with contemporary society is that we get lost in hedonism while missing the spiritual elements which underlie. We live in a fast-food, instant gratification, society which is too often sybaritic and selfish- if not also soulless- and misses the inner beauty of connecting at deeper levels with the people we choose to share our lives.