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3476

Developer's Corner / Website or Service for organizing and managing beta testers?

« Last post by Deozaan on July 22, 2014, 03:59 PM »

Hi folks,

Sometime in the last year or so, I came across a link to a website that provided a service for managing beta testers. One of the problems with beta testing is that you get people to "volunteer" and then you never hear anything from them. Are they just using it as a free copy? Did they even download the software? Have they tried it? Is it working for them? You may never know because there's no real accountability.

But this website made it easy to plan staggered releases (so you have fresh eyes on your software throughout the development process), get feedback from your testers, and know who has or has not given any feedback on the test.

Sadly, I can't find the link anymore nor can I even recall the slightest thing related to the name of the website. And all my searches are proving fruitless.

Does anyone here know what I'm talking about, or can anyone here point me toward a website with similar features/services?

Thanks!

3477

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Sublime Text Giveaway

« Last post by Deozaan on July 22, 2014, 01:07 PM »

So it was just an email harvesting tactic?

3478

Living Room / Re: The real problem with unlimited data collection and retention

« Last post by Deozaan on July 19, 2014, 02:54 PM »

Also darkly relevant. That should terrify anyone, even if they are not paying attention.

-Renegade (July 19, 2014, 10:17 AM)

This is a really poor choice in the structuring of this sentence:

In fiscal 2009, which ended Sept. 30, 2009, 227,932 names were nominated to the database.

3479

Living Room / Re: The Rant Thread!

« Last post by Deozaan on July 18, 2014, 02:33 PM »

Where are you reading it?  On Tor.com?

-wraith808 (July 11, 2014, 03:49 PM)

Yeah.

I have ignored most of the pics, only occasionally nuking a couple that really seemed annoying.

-TaoPhoenix (July 11, 2014, 10:33 PM)

Not sure... I have adblock plus and ghostery running... and didnt see any of what you were talking about.

-wraith808 (July 12, 2014, 02:23 PM)

Adblock certainly doesn't do anything, and it's fair to say they're same site ads, so arguably among the legit ads possible. My rant was just about them being big pictures which always beat out text. I just put back Ghostery, and it didn't seem to do anything.

Try this page:

http://www.tor.com/b...t-generation-qq-whoq

Then see if you see this image in the post:
http://www.tor.com/i...t-many-splendors.jpg

If you do, that's my point. If you don't, then we have a new topic because if we're both running Adblock (which one? I'm running edge) and Ghostery and I see it and you don't, that's a technical thing to discuss.
Keith D has written a lot of books, and I'm sure some of them are pretty good. It was just a bit much of selling as I clanged through his entire series. Title dropping in text would have been fine, maybe ten years ago I might have bought a couple of them. It was just the pic thing that annoyed me a little.

-TaoPhoenix (July 12, 2014, 03:15 PM)

The text of the article is talking about the book (series) where that image is shown. It seems to be a part of the article (along with all the other images) and not an ad.



Though that section of the article could very well be "product placement" or whatever. The point is that it's not an ad network or ad banner. It's an image that corresponds to the text. I don't see anything wrong with that.

3480

Living Room / Re: YaCy - Decentralised Search

« Last post by Deozaan on July 18, 2014, 02:24 PM »

It sounds interesting, but I guess I don't really get how it works. And can't you get in trouble for crawling sites? I recall reading about a guy who crawled the (entire?) internet and later got in trouble for it. I can't remember the details though. . .

3481

Living Room / Re: Replicant developers find and close Samsung Galaxy backdoor

« Last post by Deozaan on July 18, 2014, 02:06 PM »

That's disturbing. )c:

3482

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Sublime Text Giveaway

« Last post by Deozaan on July 18, 2014, 01:53 PM »

ha14: I didn't mean to imply it was wrong to include your referral in the link. I just know that, as mentioned by 40hz, people here generally like to be informed of personal interest ahead of time, so I was making sure people had the chance to know beforehand and "opt out" of giving referral bonuses if they chose.

Good luck!

3483

Living Room / Re: Google, designing the font of the future

« Last post by Deozaan on July 18, 2014, 10:16 AM »

Wha? What does Stephen Elop, Microsoft, or Nokia have to do with Google or the Roboto font?

-Deozaan (July 17, 2014, 11:32 AM)

Absolutely nothing. It's obviously a bad link I had that is now corrected. Thx.

-40hz (July 17, 2014, 12:10 PM)

Sorry if that came across as overly critical. In retrospect I see it would have been better to simply inform you of the bad link.

Just for the record, the download links given so far (v1.1 and v1.2) appear to be for versions of Roboto before the re-design mentioned in the article (check the R K and 1 glyphs for instance).

There seems to be a v2.0 available for download here:

http://www.droid-lif...and-material-design/

-Jibz (July 18, 2014, 03:15 AM)

Thanks! I didn't realize the link I gave was for an older edition of the font.

3484

Non-Windows Software / Re: Android: Looking for true app data backup solution

« Last post by Deozaan on July 18, 2014, 12:23 AM »

"Nandroid"
Nandroid, is like a noun/verb (very confusing) that basically means an image of your phone.  You can only do a Nandroid outside of the OS (like in twrp or cwm).  THis is definitely my preferred restoring method.  When I restore my system (all apps, settings, anything) using a Nandroid, everything restores perfectly.  If I try to restore within android using titanium or ROM toolbox doesn't work nearly as well.

So how do you make a nandroid?  From ROM toolbox, you backup your ROM.  It will reboot and do it automatically.

-superboyac (July 14, 2014, 05:41 PM)

Nandroid is a portmanteau^w of NAND^w which is the internal flash memory of the device and Android which is the OS, of course. As far as I know, any custom recovery can make a Nandroid backup.

Titanium Backup Pro is really nice, and worth it. It's what I would recommend, for when a Nandroid backup doesn't suit the situation. I also like that it can sync your backups to Dropbox, or Box, or Google Drive.

But also, if you combine Titanium Backup with BitTorrent Sync, you can just automatically sync your backup directory to your PC (with the BT Sync client installed/running) so you're not limited by cloud storage space.

3485

DC Gamer Club / Re: Defense Grid 2 available for pre-purchase

« Last post by Deozaan on July 18, 2014, 12:16 AM »

there is a story behind how DG2 came to be, quite a long read but interesting if you're into insight looks on video game industry.

• When a successful game is a failure - http://www.polygon.c...-grid-2-console-port

-lanux128 (July 17, 2014, 11:43 PM)

It's pretty sad how Defense Grid 1 was kind of a financial failure. I expected Hidden Path to be ultra-millionaires (or at least financially stable) by now because of how awesome Defense Grid is. I really hope DG2 gives them the financial success they need to keep making awesome games.

3486

DC Gamer Club / Re: Extra Credits: Propaganda Games & Why Games Do Cthulhu Wrong

« Last post by Deozaan on July 17, 2014, 09:58 PM »

I think it should be titled "How Games Do Cthulhu Wrong" because it doesn't really explain why they keep doing Cthulhu wrong by embodying him/it into something you can attack and defeat. It just explains that they do keep doing that.

But yeah, Extra Credits is great. Lots of useful insight into game design and similar things.

3487

Living Room / Re: Google, designing the font of the future

« Last post by Deozaan on July 17, 2014, 11:32 AM »

You can download it here.

-40hz (July 17, 2014, 11:08 AM)

Wha? What does Stephen Elop, Microsoft, or Nokia have to do with Google or the Roboto font?

I thought this thread was about Roboto, which can be downloaded here. (Click the down arrow in the top right corner for download options.)

EDIT: You can also get access to all the Google Web Fonts (and sources) here: https://code.google....googlefontdirectory/

3488

Living Room / Re: Google “Project Zero” hopes to find zero-day vulnerabilities before the NSA

« Last post by Deozaan on July 16, 2014, 07:37 PM »

Sounds cool... Until the NSA force Google to share all the vulnerabilities Project Zero finds, and serves them with a gag order so they can't tell anybody else about them.

3489

Living Room / Re: Oh god...It's him!

« Last post by Deozaan on July 16, 2014, 07:30 PM »

I believe mouser said all three of you needed to be smiling in the photo! But none of you really are. Even Munch looks a little confused about the whole thing. Try again!

(And welcome back! )

3490

Living Room / Re: Micro-Fundraiser for the Official DonationCoder CodyMobile!

« Last post by Deozaan on July 16, 2014, 04:12 PM »

I'm jealous. I want Cody + Cody's Uncle for my windows! 
I like the decals a lot!

3491

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Sublime Text Giveaway

« Last post by Deozaan on July 10, 2014, 11:47 AM »

Thanks for this!

Just FYI to any future readers of this thread, the link in ha14's message is a referral link that gives him 3 more entries for every person he refers.

Use this link if you don't want to give him the referral:

http://sublimetextti...blime-text-giveaway/

3492

General Software Discussion / Re: Android call recording software

« Last post by Deozaan on July 10, 2014, 11:42 AM »

Even with your description, I'm not sure what a callback message is.

But if you use Google Voice (available in USA only, AFAIK) you can easily start or stop recording a call by pressing 4 during a call. When you press 4, a voice will announce "This call is being recorded" or "This call is no longer being recorded" or something similar (I haven't used this feature for a few years so I can't remember it verbatim). You cannot start recording while the phone is ringing (thus making the other person miss the message that they're being recorded).

3493

Living Room / Re: Micro Reviews of Board Games From a Non-Competetive Perspective

« Last post by Deozaan on July 10, 2014, 03:33 AM »

Another party board game mini-review, this time for a game called "Telestrations".

[...]

The normal edition supports up to 8 players; there is a "party pack" that goes up to 11 or 12.

-mouser (July 09, 2014, 08:08 AM)

I've played this one before. I've never heard of this game being called "Telestrations" and I think that the idea that the board game is limited to 8 players or having to buy a party pack for extra players seems ludicrous to me. This game can be played with as many players as want to play. No game board necessary. No timer necessary. No "secret word" from a list or deck necessary.

A multi-page drawing pad for each player is useful and simplifies the process, but it is not necessary. The instructions below will get you playing if you can scrounge up enough paper (take regular sheets of paper and fold them up and tear them into smaller sheets) for everyone.

Just get some pieces of paper, enough so that each person has as many as there are people playing (so if 26 people are playing, each player needs 26 sheets of paper). Then you just start by writing a word or sentence, then pass the paper to the left. Everyone plays simultaneously. When you get a drawing, you try to write the sentence that the drawing was of (on a blank paper) then you pass it to the left. When you get a sentence, you try to illustrate it with a drawing (on a blank paper) then you pass it to the left.

When everyone is out of blank paper, they pass their entire stack to the right. The person to the right takes the paper from the bottom of the pile (assuming oldest drawings/sentences are on bottom) and passes the remaining stack to the right. This process is repeated until all the stacks are gone. Now everybody should have all the papers for their original sentence, in order (or reverse order, depending on which way the stack was facing). Then you go around one at a time, reading the original sentence, then showing the drawing, then reading the sentence of the drawing, then showing the drawing of the sentence of the drawing, etc. until everybody has had a chance to be the center of attention and laugh at all the silly drawings and twists of the original sentence/word.

If you use pads of paper, it simplifies the process of getting the story back in order, since you can just flip back toward the front of the pad. But other than that there's not much difference and no need to limit the number of players or the possible "secret words" since you're limited only by the number of people who want to play and their imagination. Even people who use the same starting word/sentence could result in very different stories by the end of it.

3494

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: free galileo board from MS

« Last post by Deozaan on July 10, 2014, 03:08 AM »

It's sufficiently vague in what it says that I suspect no hardware is forthcoming, ie.

Pre-submit:

We’ll provide samples and documentation and we’ll show you how to create your own fun projects ...

This is in reference to the SDK/software.

Post-submit, the wording was along the lines of, (IIRC): "... we'll let you know when your kit has shipped ..."

Still sufficiently vague as it could be just a CD/DVD with requisite documentation/software.

Be that as it may, since I can't get the followup email maybe I'm just skeptical.  

-4wd (July 09, 2014, 03:32 AM)

The post-submit email said essentially the same thing:

Thank you for signing up for the Windows Developer Program for IoT.  We’ll let you know when your kit has shipped.
 
Thank you,

Microsoft IoT Team

Also, the Internet of Things (IoT)? Is that in any way related to this?



Is Microsoft just trolling us all?

3495

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: free galileo board from MS

« Last post by Deozaan on July 08, 2014, 03:36 PM »

Are they actually sending a board? All I see mentioned is an SDK. Is it just software for the board?

-Deozaan (July 08, 2014, 01:44 AM)

Also questioned in the OzB comments, nowhere did/does it say you receive any hardware.

-4wd (July 08, 2014, 04:54 AM)

It does say something about sending a kit and software, but I still couldn't tell if the kit was the board or something else.

3496

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: free galileo board from MS

« Last post by Deozaan on July 08, 2014, 01:44 AM »

Are they actually sending a board? All I see mentioned is an SDK. Is it just software for the board?

So, what's the catch?

-Edvard (July 08, 2014, 01:18 AM)

https://www.windowso...evices.com/EULA.aspx

3497

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release: Blasteroids

« Last post by Deozaan on July 07, 2014, 08:04 PM »

Another release:

v1.140707.6
- Fixed game title showing twice at once in some situations.
- Consolation prize slightly easier to obtain.
- Firing bullets is now limited only by rate of fire.
- Rate of fire increases as you progress in the game.
- New sound effects improve the audio experience.
- [Android] No more submitting to Google Play leaderboards if score is 0.
- Various performance improvements.
- No more tweeting about game overs if no points were scored.
- No more tweeting high scores if no name entered.

-http://blog.deozaan.com/2014/07/07/blasteroids-1-140707-6-released/

3498

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Deozaan on July 05, 2014, 10:51 AM »

Scented Candles for Life’s Disappointments

http://theflickingca....com/collections/all

-mouser (July 04, 2014, 06:06 PM)

Nice. I suppose it's no accident that they named their company "flicking" candles and write it in all caps so that the L and the I in flick looks like a U.

3499

Living Room / Re: Linux User Are Evil TERRORISTS! Shame on you all! :P

« Last post by Deozaan on July 05, 2014, 10:48 AM »

What would be really cool is for massive numbers of web sites to include an iframe of the Linux Journal (and others) to spam the NSA and create massively larger data storage requirements for them - just drown them in data!

-Renegade (July 04, 2014, 11:16 PM)

Wouldn't that effectively DDOS the Linux Journal?

3500

Non-Windows Software / Re: Android malware

« Last post by Deozaan on July 05, 2014, 01:22 AM »

Well, it can't be totally from fake pron sites if it's also sometimes from SMS spam.