Field User Group: testing and bug finding for free

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BULLETIN
Apple has just been sued for hearing loss. This just occuring after
several articles with hearing experts talking about the dangers of
the device related to hearing.

I wonder it it's too late to file my case against Sony for their Walkman
and Discman music players?
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Well, many people flooded the IE (Internet Exploder) web site this week hungry for the newest beta release of IE 7. Being the biggest update to the browser in what seems like forever and the first update that really changes the usability of the app, many IE advocates were starving for this latest serving. Already the blogosphere has erupted with praise, complaints, and bugs. So MS (Microsoft) gets to use the frenzy of the general public as free labor for finishing their app.

Don't get me wrong, I understand this is the test platform for many apps, and it occurs abundantly in the open source arena. Now MS is getting in on the action. But really this isn't even new for them. If you look back over the years at major MS releases you will see the same thing, although this time they actually released under the beta label. Is this a turn for the better? This time they're at least being honest with the public, maybe they're finally learning from Windows 98 (Windows 98se anyone?).

I haven't given the browser a test run yet, but that isn't saying I don't want to. I'm just too busy to work for free testing an app that I know is incomplete to begin with.

Until next time,
Les Martin