Organization rules your beta test! The last two parts tought us that, in case you missed them, find them here:
The Art of beta testing-Completely outsourcing tests is dangerous
The Art of beta testing-Random testing is useless-structured testing rules
Today, we will cover a topic that could easily have been taken from Murphy’s law: the amount of beta testers active is high at two points over time: Registration and Code giveaways!
Zombietesters and other troubles
Beta testers are like a can of worms. Once opened, the only way to recan them is to use a bigger can. The very same thing happens to many developers. You have an excellent team for version x, and three to six months later, you start betaing version y. An email goes out to the old gang-and you get one reply at best. Where did the beta testers go to?
People tend to forget stuff after some time. Thus, you need to do only one thing to keep them active-keep releasing new betas.
Alternatively, you could also follow the approach of the bazaar-users want updates. So, you could dismiss your beta team after initial release-and use registered customers as voluntary testers! This approach pays out, because registered customers usually are interested in the development of the program as they paid for it. As an additional bonus, you can save the licences that you need to give the testers!
Any ideas here? Did you ever do a registered user test?
AI for Game Developers review
Back in July 2005, O’Reilly Publishing published a new kind of AI book. This time, the authors David M Bourg and Glenn Seemann focused on game developers needs. Thus, AI for Game Developers is pretty free of useless academic discussion stuff-and focuses on things that one can use more-less immediately:
The book starts off with diverse primitive chase/evade algorithms. Full C++ sample programs are available on the books web site-the book is all in C++, but I had no mayor problems understanding the code with my mediocre C skills. Bresenham’s line algorithm, line-of-sight-chasing and intercepting are all explained in a pretty simple way that doesn’t require calculus-single-stepping the algorithms in your mind usually is enough.
Once the concept of chasing becomes clear, the book moves on to flocking and path finding. These chapters cover enough to let you directly implement the techniques to a game. A+ path finding is covered in an own chapter…
Scripted systems and rule based AI come next. There is nothing negative to say here either. However, the presentation of Bayesian Systems/probability was a bit too short for my taste. Finally, genetic algorithms and neural networks are covered-these chapters continue the general good style of the text. Each of the methods comes with a few optimization hints and other information about performance,… bottlenecks. This is especially helpful for Palm OS programmers-400MhZ isn’t all that much…
The book itself is manufactured in a sturdy fashion. It survived a month in my bag without mayor dents or pages tearing out-people who know me understand what a feat this is. A Parker 45 X was used for underlining words-the paper didn’t leak out too much to the other side.
Overall, this makes a good read. If you are new to game programming, you will get a quick start. If you are interested in a look at the broad fields of AI, this will show you a bit of everything. The text is clear and doesn’t need any higher understanding of mathematics (although you need some basic trig once to understand an optional note). Of course, none of the chapters is covered to a full extent-but if you know that something is there, it is easy to find out more. A good read-available for 27$ on Amazon!
The proporta roll-up cable for the Tungsten T3
Proporta.com recently provided TamsPalm with a few samples of their products. Today, we will finish my part of the proporta reviewing marathon by looking at the roll-up cable for universal connector. People with other handhelds are strongly advised to check the homepage for a version that works with their box. The shipping envelope with all the stuff was pretty stuffed:
Some of the packages were slightly dented, but the contents all were in good state. This is the cable’s shipping package-note that this product actually is manufactured by Proporta:
This cable essentially replaces an USB docking station without the power cord. Thus, the main advantage is the smaller size and lighter weight. This can come in handy when you need Card Export/Softick PPP on the go.
My T3 charges pretty fast via USB. It even keeps on charging when powered on-a feat the docking station can only acheive with the external power supply.
The mechanics work well. You extend the cable by pulling simultaneously on both ends-failure to do so will distroy the device according to a “manual”. Expansion can be locked in 5 positions:
| Position | Length in cm |
|---|---|
| 1 | 32 cm |
| 2 | 49.5 cm |
| 3 | 66 cm |
| 4 | 81 cm |
| 5 | 95.2 cm |
Compacting the cable is a little tricky. You need to pull both ends out a bit, and then leave the cable alone. It will compact itself while the momentum is big enough. This may sound strange, but works extremely well!
Of course, when I first saw a T3 charging over USB, I feared that it drew more than the specified 500mA(a T3 is rated 1000mA). Lisa Fletcher from Proporta emailed me the following text:
All USB cables have a limitation, allowing them not to draw as much power as a charger that connects via AC power. Therefore the cable will provide charge slightly slower to comply with the standards that are set. This is the same for all USB cables and not just our product. This will not damage the PDA in any way, as the cable is designed to charge the PDA without problems. The only difference you will notice is that it will take slightly longer and will allow you to charge the PDA off of your computer wherever you are.
So, Proporta says that its cable abides to the USB standard. I tested it on a few boxen with two or more ports and had no problems with fuses burning. However, some “compliant” portable hard disks blow the fuses on subnotebooks according to the c’t-so users of these small notebooks could maybe be at risk.
Last but not least, the connection between handheld and cable is extremely strong and the peripheral identifies itself properly(alert via AutoSync)-just look at this and you’ll understand what I mean:
Overall, this cable is interesting for people who use their handhelds as external drives and are low on space in their pockets. The mechanics are study and the cable works well. Charging a T3 works faster than with a regular usb-only cradle, but a docking station powered by its mains adaptor is faster AND pemits charging independant of PC’s. You need to decide about its suitability on a per-case-basis, but one can say that it can be extremely useful as an accecoire to the existing charge/sync infrastructure!