5 ms·

Well it is a beta test after all. This is when the design gets a real life shakedown.

HarryHirsch 5y ago
Bananaware. Reaches customer's premises in an unusable state.
dividedbyzero 5y ago
It's a bit weird though to not test these at different temperatures beforehand, given that's probably pretty easy to do. Maybe it's more like an alpha test than a beta in practice.
- infogulch 5y ago
  You would think that people working in software would understand the idea that your assumptions about the environment your product is in are very often invalidated during real world testing, but this thread doesn't seem to bear that out. Perhaps the mountain of abstractions, automated retries, fault tolerance, and error correction that makes technology as reliable as it is, has made us complacently unaware of just how hard it is to build something new.
  - Grimm1 5y ago
    With how often large swaths of the internet are down or having issues I don't think most people in software have anything more than a cursory understanding of some of the terms you have in there, hard to be complacent about reliability when a lot of software is equally held together by tape and gum.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
reaperducer 5y ago
Forget beta. Apple's production iPhones go into thermal shutdown several times a year for me where I live. Most recently, yesterday. You can tell it's getting close because the screen will dim. The tech bubble has never understood that the rest of the planet doesn't have the same weather as San Francisco.
- toss1 5y ago
  Yup, it's always incredible to see how myopic tge tech bubble is - starting with software that couldn't handle East Coast US 5-digit ZIP (postal) codes that begin with "0". Google Maps never shows the highway exit # until you're nearly there, but that's all we use on the East Coast, since there are many old roads that run parallel to the highways for many miles, so telling me to "get off at Rt110" is hopelessly ambiguous with a dozen exits for that road. I could go on...
  - kelnos 5y ago
    I have the opposite issue; Google will tell me the exit number on highways that don't have exit numbers posted.
    - 6gvONxR4sf7o 5y ago
      Same. I want it to tell me "take Rengstorff Ave exit" and it just tells me "take exit 53b." I have no idea what 53b is and the big signs don't say it either.
      - bombcar 5y ago
        Look for the highway mile markers - the exit number is based on them. Should get you closer at least.
        ipython 5y ago
        Not all highways work like this. Take I-87 in New York for example. Thankfully most of those roads are slowly changing exit numbers so they follow the sane convention you describe!
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - sixothree 5y ago
    Does google maps still not know where subway entrances are?
gamblor956 5y ago
For a product intended to be used by people in remote locations, temperature range is an alpha test feature, not a beta test feature, because there's a very good chance they will need to completely redesign the dish internals to operate at higher temperature ranges, especially if they expect to weatherproof the dishes in future designs. the design process is different for hardware because you can't just fix everything with a patch after-the-fact. You have to actually anticipate problems and account for them in your design, especially when you are charging people money for the product and marketing it as a remote solution.
southerntofu 5y ago
I agree with you in general, but despite my not being a rocket scientist, i know for sure 50°C is not an OK limit for outdoor stuff on many parts of the planet. It's like Outdoors Electronics 101 so not exactly something to test for in a beta.

Bananaware. Reaches customer's premises in an unusable state.

It's a bit weird though to not test these at different temperatures beforehand, given that's probably pretty easy to do. Maybe it's more like an alpha test than a beta in practice.

infogulch 5y ago
You would think that people working in software would understand the idea that your assumptions about the environment your product is in are very often invalidated during real world testing, but this thread doesn't seem to bear that out. Perhaps the mountain of abstractions, automated retries, fault tolerance, and error correction that makes technology as reliable as it is, has made us complacently unaware of just how hard it is to build something new.
- Grimm1 5y ago
  With how often large swaths of the internet are down or having issues I don't think most people in software have anything more than a cursory understanding of some of the terms you have in there, hard to be complacent about reliability when a lot of software is equally held together by tape and gum.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

reaperducer 5y ago

Forget beta. Apple's production iPhones go into thermal shutdown several times a year for me where I live. Most recently, yesterday. You can tell it's getting close because the screen will dim. The tech bubble has never understood that the rest of the planet doesn't have the same weather as San Francisco.

toss1 5y ago
Yup, it's always incredible to see how myopic tge tech bubble is - starting with software that couldn't handle East Coast US 5-digit ZIP (postal) codes that begin with "0". Google Maps never shows the highway exit # until you're nearly there, but that's all we use on the East Coast, since there are many old roads that run parallel to the highways for many miles, so telling me to "get off at Rt110" is hopelessly ambiguous with a dozen exits for that road. I could go on...
- kelnos 5y ago
  I have the opposite issue; Google will tell me the exit number on highways that don't have exit numbers posted.
  - 6gvONxR4sf7o 5y ago
    Same. I want it to tell me "take Rengstorff Ave exit" and it just tells me "take exit 53b." I have no idea what 53b is and the big signs don't say it either.
    - bombcar 5y ago
      Look for the highway mile markers - the exit number is based on them. Should get you closer at least.
      - ipython 5y ago
        Not all highways work like this. Take I-87 in New York for example. Thankfully most of those roads are slowly changing exit numbers so they follow the sane convention you describe!
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- sixothree 5y ago
  Does google maps still not know where subway entrances are?

gamblor956 5y ago

For a product intended to be used by people in remote locations, temperature range is an alpha test feature, not a beta test feature, because there's a very good chance they will need to completely redesign the dish internals to operate at higher temperature ranges, especially if they expect to weatherproof the dishes in future designs. the design process is different for hardware because you can't just fix everything with a patch after-the-fact. You have to actually anticipate problems and account for them in your design, especially when you are charging people money for the product and marketing it as a remote solution.

southerntofu 5y ago

I agree with you in general, but despite my not being a rocket scientist, i know for sure 50°C is not an OK limit for outdoor stuff on many parts of the planet. It's like Outdoors Electronics 101 so not exactly something to test for in a beta.