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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 3
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 3 |
i got the opportunity to beta test a new Sandlot game this morning, and it got me to wondering why 'beta'. the obvious would be that alpha testing is done in-house and the beta is second stage, but surely there's more to it. anyone know the first usage?
oh... and last time i posted (under another name, and i can't remember what it was, but) i got some great responses, but then the thread was hijacked* by someone (whose name i can't recall either) who launched a multi-post soliloquey. seriously... there were probably seven posts in a row all from the same guy and he was debating with himself... kinda creepy. so be a dear, whoever you were, and let some other folks answer, k? ;-)
~cd
*it should be noted that i do NOT have a problem with hijacking a thread, as most of us are wont to do more often than not. after all, the new course is almost always more interesting (if not more spurious) than the original, but i'm just requesting that in the event of a hijack, there be multiple hijackers.
peace out...
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Get rid of the moving avatar and I'll be happy to talk to you.    We've only had three nasty sock thangs in the past -- what -- almost 6 years? and the most recent one we hope is on their [sic] way out, as well. So good to see you again, xoxo! Meanwhile, I don't know the answer to your question, of course, but surely one of the tech guys will be along shortly. 
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veteran
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veteran
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Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jul 2005
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Car, welcome
What's a sandlot game
dalehileman
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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> The next test, the beta test, is done by a limited number of outsiders. yeah, limited like this betap.s. - shirley you're not suprised you couldn't recall posting "under another name".
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
betaThe Jargon File suggests: "More formally, to beta-test is to test a pre-release (potentially unreliable) version of a piece of software by making it available to selected (or self-selected) customers and users. This term derives from early 1960s terminology for product cycle checkpoints, first used at IBM but later standard throughout the industry. Alpha Test was the unit, module, or component test phase; Beta Test was initial system test. These themselves came from earlier A- and B-tests for hardware. The A-test was a feasibility and manufacturability evaluation done before any commitment to design and development. The B-test was a demonstration that the engineering model functioned as specified. The C-test (corresponding to today's beta) was the B-test performed on early samples of the production design, and the D test was the C test repeated after the model had been in production a while."
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
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Kubla Khan Enterprises Inc
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A brand-new software game decree,
Where Alph, the coding river, ran
Through kludges measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests, ancient as the hills,
Paid for by the punters’ naiveté.
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart the cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her software fixer!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if the graphics processors were failing,
A spew of error messages was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
The image flickered and grew very pale,
The sound card screamed that it, too, soon would fail:
And 'mid this scrunching code, at once and ever
It flung up momently the Beta version.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through game after game the coding river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
The punters’ voices prophesying war!
The shame of vanish’d coders’ pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Now is heard the mingled measure
From marketing department knaves.
It was “a miracle of rare device,
A piece of software redefining nice!”
A damsel with a computer
In a vision once I saw:
It was a Californian maid,
And on her computer she played,
Sandlot, by her aura.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with coding strong and long,
I would build that software true,
That perfect launch! those sessions nice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
(with apologies to Sam)
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Oh, mav. I am spellbound.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
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gave me a Rush, too.
awesome.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 3
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 3 |
love it, ant. you're the bestest.
now, would you please explain the use of "punters"? the only use i'm family with on this side of the pond is when one chooses to 'punt' on a goal or project, meaning to toss it aside as being unattainable or not reasonably worth attempting, or even if one simply changes his mind.
you mentioned that it means "customer"...in a very general way? is it marketing jargon or in popular use? elaborate, please. and etymology is worth extra points ;-)
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