Economy-x-Talk has released a new version of the low-cost color conversion tool Color Converter. This little utility converts color codes. Available formats are RGB, CMYK, HSV, HEX (HTML colors) and RAL. This is very useful, if you are into WEB design, coding or design in general. Color Converter calculates color values from a selected color space into a number of other color spaces. Included are CMYK, HEX/HTML, HSV, RAL, RGB and XYZ. Color Converter displays an RGB-based brightness value, along with the color encodings. Color Converter also has a color picker, which allows you to get the color value of any pixel and any window of any program on your screen. The software is available for MS Windows XP and Vista, Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X 10.3 and higher, and Linux.
Make sure to check it out!
Montag, 17. November 2008
The reason why I was so quiet.
Hi,
it has been a while since I was posting on this blog. The reason is that our office has been burgled. Someone just broke in and took all our machines. This threw us back for a while. Really. The main problem is that they did not only take our machines, but also our backup HDs with them and I can tell you that sucks big heap! We lost about 3 months of work. Our backup strategy only covered breaking machines and we wouldn´t have imagined someone breaking in and stealing external HDs that you can buy for 50 €s each. What do they expect to recieve for them? 1€? Anyways. We´ll get over it and already started working on recovering stuff from older backups and will be introducing new stuff soon. I´ll keep you posted.
it has been a while since I was posting on this blog. The reason is that our office has been burgled. Someone just broke in and took all our machines. This threw us back for a while. Really. The main problem is that they did not only take our machines, but also our backup HDs with them and I can tell you that sucks big heap! We lost about 3 months of work. Our backup strategy only covered breaking machines and we wouldn´t have imagined someone breaking in and stealing external HDs that you can buy for 50 €s each. What do they expect to recieve for them? 1€? Anyways. We´ll get over it and already started working on recovering stuff from older backups and will be introducing new stuff soon. I´ll keep you posted.
Montag, 1. September 2008
Betatesting is it for you?
A few days back I wrote about how a test cycle for a computer program works. This might leave you thinking if beta testing is for you. There are a few questions you should ask yourself before signing up to a beta test program.
1) Am I willing to invest time into testing somebody elses software?
2) Am I willing to accept unexpected results in the test phase that might bring down my computer or result in data loss?
3) Am I able to describe what I did to make a program crash or behave unexpectedly?
4) Am I willing to give feedback on the things I encounter?
If the answer to these questions is yes, you might be a good beta testing candidate. as you can see, one of the main issues in a beta testing cycle is investing time to actually try the software and the ability to put the things you encounter into words. If you are thinking about participating in a beta test for the first time here are a few keypoints you should put in a good report:
- Which version did you use when the problem occured?
- What happened?
- How did you make it happen?
- Did it happen only once or is it reproduceable?
- Is it a severe problem or a minor glitch?
An example of a useful report could look like this:
Bugreport for yourFancyProgram 0.8 beta 1
yourFancyProgramm 0.8 beta 1 crashes when clicking the impressMe button
After entering some text in the second field from the top without filling in the first and clicking the impressMe button afterwards yourFancyProgram unexpectely quits. This happens everytime I tried this. This is a real showstopper.
Writing something along the lines of
"The program I am testing does not work" surely is well meant, however it does not help narrowing down the cause of the problem.
So what is in for you if you are betatesting stuff?
- You get the chance to give feedback on arising problems early
- You get a shipping product that is reliable and stable
- You get to see the program early and are able to judge if it is for you or not
That´s it for today.
Cya,
Malte
1) Am I willing to invest time into testing somebody elses software?
2) Am I willing to accept unexpected results in the test phase that might bring down my computer or result in data loss?
3) Am I able to describe what I did to make a program crash or behave unexpectedly?
4) Am I willing to give feedback on the things I encounter?
If the answer to these questions is yes, you might be a good beta testing candidate. as you can see, one of the main issues in a beta testing cycle is investing time to actually try the software and the ability to put the things you encounter into words. If you are thinking about participating in a beta test for the first time here are a few keypoints you should put in a good report:
- Which version did you use when the problem occured?
- What happened?
- How did you make it happen?
- Did it happen only once or is it reproduceable?
- Is it a severe problem or a minor glitch?
An example of a useful report could look like this:
Bugreport for yourFancyProgram 0.8 beta 1
yourFancyProgramm 0.8 beta 1 crashes when clicking the impressMe button
After entering some text in the second field from the top without filling in the first and clicking the impressMe button afterwards yourFancyProgram unexpectely quits. This happens everytime I tried this. This is a real showstopper.
Writing something along the lines of
"The program I am testing does not work" surely is well meant, however it does not help narrowing down the cause of the problem.
So what is in for you if you are betatesting stuff?
- You get the chance to give feedback on arising problems early
- You get a shipping product that is reliable and stable
- You get to see the program early and are able to judge if it is for you or not
That´s it for today.
Cya,
Malte
Dienstag, 26. August 2008
How to enforce copyright?
So, there is a kid on youTube that used one of our logos as a backgroundimage for his profile site. No big deal, however we would like to have been asked. BUT what the kid did shows he is a tad bit unexperienced about good manners. Not did he only use our logo without asking, but he linked it from our server and generated quite a bit of useless traffic, without even providing a link to us. So what I did is change the image to another one promoting the sequel to the game whose logo he 'borrowed'. Lesson learned Zack?
Samstag, 23. August 2008
Beta testing - how it works
When developing a computer program, the people creating the software try their best, to keep annoyances as far away from their users as possible. At least if they have a good user experience in mind. There are huge companies that manage well, however my experience is that you find the biggest enthusiast among the independent software developers. Usually these people write solutions for common problems that are not, or have been not available from the shelf. But regardless if it is a major company or the one man home based tinkerer. They all rely on user feedback. And here is how it works.
The program is written and run through inhouse tests. These test are human tests and ideally so called unit tests, which are highly automated. Basically the program uses itself and writes error messages to a log file if it encounters any. In good software design these test are handled by some Quality Assurance guy. It really is a good idea to have the program tested by someone who has not written it, because intuitively a programmer will avoid behaviour the causes the program to bitch one him. If it does, he fixes what he sees. However there are ways a program can be used that the programmer has not thought of before. (Hand a bunch of impatient school kids a game and see what happens), so if a programmer has the chance to let other people test his stuff, it is a wise idea to use that help.
After the inhouse tests have been passed, the so called beta test phase starts. Usually copies of the program are handed out to people the creators know and trust. People that have provided valuable feedback before. In the case of the independent software developer it usually starts out with fellow developers, friends and family.
If the developer is lucky, he has a loyal userbase of other programs he has done. Phase 2 of a successful beta test lets these people access the test versions. Larger companies usually set up a bug database where registred users can post messages describing the problem through a web interface.
Phase 3 (even though it is often skipped due to time pressure) is running a completely open beta test. Once the obvious quirks are ironed out it is a good idea to have the program tested by a wide audience. This step is important to polish the shipping version and usually reveals one or two major flaws that have been overlooked beforehand. It makes sense to have a program tested on as many different computers running as many operating systems as possible, or support only a subset of the machines and OS that are on the market.
All 3 phases have something in common. They all rely on the testers giving feedback. So le me take the chance to thank all the people that helped us through the phases where coders run around like headless chickens, QAs are banging heads on desks and marketing would love to rush it all. You people really help us to do a better job!
Thanks.
The program is written and run through inhouse tests. These test are human tests and ideally so called unit tests, which are highly automated. Basically the program uses itself and writes error messages to a log file if it encounters any. In good software design these test are handled by some Quality Assurance guy. It really is a good idea to have the program tested by someone who has not written it, because intuitively a programmer will avoid behaviour the causes the program to bitch one him. If it does, he fixes what he sees. However there are ways a program can be used that the programmer has not thought of before. (Hand a bunch of impatient school kids a game and see what happens), so if a programmer has the chance to let other people test his stuff, it is a wise idea to use that help.
After the inhouse tests have been passed, the so called beta test phase starts. Usually copies of the program are handed out to people the creators know and trust. People that have provided valuable feedback before. In the case of the independent software developer it usually starts out with fellow developers, friends and family.
If the developer is lucky, he has a loyal userbase of other programs he has done. Phase 2 of a successful beta test lets these people access the test versions. Larger companies usually set up a bug database where registred users can post messages describing the problem through a web interface.
Phase 3 (even though it is often skipped due to time pressure) is running a completely open beta test. Once the obvious quirks are ironed out it is a good idea to have the program tested by a wide audience. This step is important to polish the shipping version and usually reveals one or two major flaws that have been overlooked beforehand. It makes sense to have a program tested on as many different computers running as many operating systems as possible, or support only a subset of the machines and OS that are on the market.
All 3 phases have something in common. They all rely on the testers giving feedback. So le me take the chance to thank all the people that helped us through the phases where coders run around like headless chickens, QAs are banging heads on desks and marketing would love to rush it all. You people really help us to do a better job!
Thanks.
Freitag, 22. August 2008
What I am up to today
Hi,
time to finally get started for today. :o)
Been drinking coffee and running my head around ideas for the upcoming stuff. I just did not translate them into code yet. These are the parts of my job as an independent software developer where my spousal unit tells me I would not work too much for the money I earn. Grmbl.
Well, I DO like drinking coffee and I am a bit lazy sometimes. But I try to stay productive *g*
Seriously. At the moment I am going through a phase that requires a lot of thought. We are currently *drumroll* finishing Zacharias stone. However finishing does not mean we will be shipping too soon. Finishing means we are ready to give the game to our quality assurance guy. After he gives his thumb up we start doing a so called beta test. I will tell you a bit more about how that works in a later post. Now I need to write an email to the artist that draws the graphics for the game after zacharias stone. That will be a nice one and a good opportunity to blog about the way we build a new game from scratch.
Bye!
Malte
time to finally get started for today. :o)
Been drinking coffee and running my head around ideas for the upcoming stuff. I just did not translate them into code yet. These are the parts of my job as an independent software developer where my spousal unit tells me I would not work too much for the money I earn. Grmbl.
Well, I DO like drinking coffee and I am a bit lazy sometimes. But I try to stay productive *g*
Seriously. At the moment I am going through a phase that requires a lot of thought. We are currently *drumroll* finishing Zacharias stone. However finishing does not mean we will be shipping too soon. Finishing means we are ready to give the game to our quality assurance guy. After he gives his thumb up we start doing a so called beta test. I will tell you a bit more about how that works in a later post. Now I need to write an email to the artist that draws the graphics for the game after zacharias stone. That will be a nice one and a good opportunity to blog about the way we build a new game from scratch.
Bye!
Malte
Donnerstag, 21. August 2008
Deciding on music is sooooo tough
Ok, Zacharias Stone is making progress. I just finished a basic AI that plays the game in demo mode. It places the tiles in a way that is almost logical. I will need to fix the mechanics a bit though, as it loses all the time. *sigh* Shall discuss this with the rest of the team. However, it is time to decie on the kind of music that will be featured in the game. I have 3 tracks, but none of them seems to be the right fit as yet. I´ve uploaded the tracks to our myspace page. Maybe I will try to make another track and upload it tonight.
Abonnieren
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