Thursday, April 5, 2007

Calling all Beta Testers!

Beta testing has always held a strange fascination with me. It kind of feels like being invited into a top secret club, with a special V.I.P. pass reserved for the elite. It's not the easiest thing to get invited to. I managed to a chance to beta test Microsoft Office and Vista long before they both launched. It was a lot of fun to see the changing stages of development as each new beta was released for testing. I also recently beta tested Norton Security's latest venture called Norton 360. I found the software very buggy (which has to be expected), and the early betas were not that compatible with my system. I uninstalled it and started trying it again, just before it was released. As a thank you, Norton gave a select few, (I was a lucky one as well) access to the RTM version as a free download.
I'm currently beta testing Adaware 2007. If you've always wanted to be a beta tester, then here is the link at Lavasoft, to register to be a beta tester. Not sure how long this link will be active:
Adaware 2007 beta
Adaware is a great program for scanning your system for spyware. If you've never tried it, then head over to the Lavasoft site and download the free version.
Just keep in mind that beta software can sometimes play havoc with systems and could end up screwing up your OS forcing you to do a complete reinstall. So don't blame me if something goes wonky with your PC. That's part of the fun of beta testing!
It would be even more fun to be a beta tester for console games. Anyone have any idea how to participate in that kind of testing?

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