< Back to the Main Site

Author Topic: Beta Testers wanted for new training product  (Read 2418 times)

Offline wallace11bravo

  • NFOA Full Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Apr 2010
  • Location: Lincoln, NE
  • Posts: 1056
  • Don't rush to failure.
    • Midwest Tactical Solutions
Beta Testers wanted for new training product
« on: December 07, 2012, 05:15:08 PM »
MWTS(TM) and Centrolutions(TM) are currently seeking beta testers for a software product currently in development. This product is designed to enhance your dry fire training.

Requirements:
-Regularly use laser training devices for dry fire practice (SIRT items, laserlyte chamber inserts, etc)
-Windows computer (Or mac with windows emulator software)
-Webcam (Higher quality is better)

We are seeking shooters of all disciplines, as well as a wide variety of hardware.

The initial program is a beta version, so it is not extremely user friendly. A working knowledge of computers is a plus.

What we will need from the tester:
1. Documentation of hardware used
2. Records of dates and hours that the program was used
3. Documented "bug" reports (how the system failed, if it does)
4. Honest product review, to include improves and sustains, any commentary, etc

The product feedback may be provided in person, over the phone, or by email. There will likely be more than one beta test of this product, so we are looking for people willing to do a few cycles.

If you are interested in being a tester, please pm me here, or email me at:
midwest.tactical.solutions@googlemail.com

Please include what hardware you will be using and what your shooting discipline and goals are.
« Last Edit: December 07, 2012, 05:25:10 PM by wallace11bravo »

Offline GreyGeek

  • NFOA Full Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Dec 2012
  • Posts: 1687
Re: Beta Testers wanted for new training product
« Reply #1 on: December 08, 2012, 02:39:21 PM »
Your requirements might be too restrictive.

Microsoft has released Windows 8 and has forced PC OEMs to include UEFI/Secure Boot technology.  The basic problem is that Win8 is not being well received, and for good reason.  It is a dramatic departure from the Win95 through Win7 desktop environment, and Win8 has considerable problems running legacy peripherals.

The market is moving to smartphones,  and the one with  the  lions  marketshare is certainly not Win8, or even  Apple iPhones or tablets.  It is the Linux based Android.   Recently, for the first time, the number of smartphones,  primarily Androids, have  exceeded the number of PCs (desktops, laptops  or notebooks), and that market is turning toward Linux.   So are the software houses writing games, etc.

Allow me to suggest that you add Linux to your list of acceptable operating systems, specifically those that are based on Debian and use repositories featuring deb packages.   Excellent examples are Linux Mint  and Kubuntu, which feature the KDE desktop.    KDE is written with Qt, the open source, cross platform API.    You can write your source code ONCE using Qt4 or the latest  version, Qt5, and compile  it for all three platforms: WinXX, Mac, and Linux.   I  know from experience.  I have written software since grad school in 1968, and for most of my last decade programming I used Qt in a cross platform  situation,  where I developed client-server apps  on Linux, because it was 2-5X faster than MS VS C++ 6..0 on Windows  XP, and deployed on a LAN using NetWare, Linux and Windows servers.

Offline whatsit

  • Powder Benefactor
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2012
  • Location: Lincoln
  • Posts: 387
Re: Beta Testers wanted for new training product
« Reply #2 on: December 08, 2012, 05:09:13 PM »
I'm the software dev for this project and I'm excited to get it in front of a few helpful people that are willing to help us make it more useful and stable.

Not to side track the thread, GreyGeek, but have you experienced any of these problems with legacy peripherals? I have run Windows 8 on old and new hardware. It runs better than Windows 7 and I haven't found a single Windows 7 driver that doesn't work with Windows 8. UEFI is a suggestion, but not required to run Windows. Its most visible advantage is to speed up boot time and eliminate the "ancient" BIOS technology. On top of this, we do not require Windows 8 for our software. Any recent edition of the Windows operating system will work.

Linux is, by no means, a mainstream desktop operating system. When looking at selling a piece of software to consumers, it is far behind Windows and OSX. Also, at this time, we are not targeting mobile / tablets. If the amount of processing power is appropriate, we may look at this, but not until after version 1.

Anyway, back on track... the application we want to test needs to be tested on a variety of hardware, so even if you think your setup isn't what we're looking for, please leave a post here. I'm hoping to have the beta version ready to test, next week.

Thanks for looking!

Offline GreyGeek

  • NFOA Full Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Dec 2012
  • Posts: 1687
Re: Beta Testers wanted for new training product
« Reply #3 on: December 09, 2012, 09:19:24 AM »
Whatsit, I've used Windows since Windows 287 and Linux since 1998.   My first  "programming" class was at the Barnes School of Business in 1959, where I learned how to "program" an IBM 402  Tabulator using banana cables on its patch board.   Ten years later,  in grad school, I took Fortran 4, and I have been programming every since.   In 1980 I stopped teaching after nearly twenty years (10 in HS, 8 in college- Physics, Calc, Chem, Microbio, Anat Phys, and others) , and started my own computer consulting (and criminal forensics) business.   My  last client gave me an offer my wife wouldn't let me refuse because it brought me home in the evenings and on weekends, instead of being gone on programming jobs for 4 to 6 weeks at a time.   During the last 5 years of my programming career I used the Qt API on Linux to write client-server software for deployment on LANs using NetWare, Linux and Windows servers.    Prior to using Qt I was using MS VS C++ 6.0 for several years.  Linux was 2-5X faster on the same source code.

After I retired I became a global administrator for KubuntuForums.net for the last three years and retired from it this spring.  I recruited my replacement, Steve Riley.  He worked at Microsoft for 9 years and was their network security expert,  having co-authored a book about the subject which you might have heard about or read.   He started the UEFI section of the KubuntuForums after we started getting lots of problems with people attempting to use a Kubuntu LiveCD to replace or dual boot with Win8.  Basically, you cannot disable UEFI. The firmware in a PC is either BIOS or UEFI, not both. Your UEFI configuration should expose a BIOS compatibility option, which makes the UEFI emulate a BIOS.  IF the PC OEM has not supplied a software or hardware switch to enable BIOS compatibility then you are out of luck.

As far as Windows peripheral  problems it is and  easy task to Google "windows 8 peripheral problems" and see for yourself.   As for as your assertion that Linux is "not mainstream" you'll have to explain why all of Hollywood, the banking industry, stock markets, most governments and militarys have switched to Linux.    In 2009 Steve Ballmer himself gave a talk and presented a slide on which he showed the Desktop market share.  His graph showed that as of 2009 Linux has 12% and Apple had 10%.   Since VISTA the Linux market share has only risen.    This is evidenced by the fact that most major game software houses are ramping up  development and production of games for Linux.   In the last 6 months I have purchased almost a dozen myself.     As PC sales decline due to smartphone uptakes,  Android has dominated the smartphone market share and reached 75% marketshare in 2012 (http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/02/idc-android-market-share-reached-75-worldwide-in-q3-2012/)

Android is built on  top of Linux.

As far as it being "far behind" Windows and Mac I wager that you haven't kept up with Linux, or you wouldn't be making a statement like that.   I can to more, more easily, with no DRM or other arbitrarily imposed restrictions than I can with Windows.   I OWN my hardware and software.   You only lease Win8 and it will allow you to do only what Microsoft will allow you to do on hardware you supposedly own.   So you don't really own your own hardware.   IF you've ever installed Kubuntu from a LiveCD, and have experience doing the same on Win7, then you will notice that Win7's install panels and questions appear to be direct copies from the KDE install panels, and KDE has been around long before Win7 or even VISTA.    Windows had security added as an after thought, Linux is a Unix type  system from the ground up, including the Unix security model.    IF Linux were as susceptible as Windows then one would expect to see at least 200,000 viruses or more per year, compared to the 2,000,000 for Windows, but one doesn't.  Windows has the 10, 20 and 30 million zombie bot farms, Linux does not.

Dell, who toyed with Linux deployment in the past only to tweak lower unit prices from Microsoft, has now entered the Linux community big time, offering Linux boxes http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/11/dell-releases-powerful-well-supported-linux-ultrabook/    Since Microsoft has entered the PC OEM arena and begun competing with OEMs on which they had a monopolistic strangle hold, the OEMs have grown some gonads and begun branching out, away from Microsoft.

But, this is a forum for firearm owners, not OS debates,  and its obvious  you have no intentions of serving the Linux market, or I would volunteer.


« Last Edit: December 09, 2012, 09:28:22 AM by GreyGeek »

Offline whatsit

  • Powder Benefactor
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2012
  • Location: Lincoln
  • Posts: 387
Re: Beta Testers wanted for new training product
« Reply #4 on: December 13, 2012, 12:59:51 AM »
All righty then....

Here's a video demonstration of the beta version we're looking to test out. Crank up the volume if you want to hear me explain things as it goes along. My microphone was turned down. I'm bad at youtube.  :'( We have a few beta testers lined up already, but if you're interested, please let us know. Thanks!



Offline Husker_Fan

  • NFOA Full Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Apr 2010
  • Location: Omaha
  • Posts: 717
Re: Beta Testers wanted for new training product
« Reply #5 on: December 13, 2012, 01:38:23 PM »
Very cool. I could also see this as an Android/iOS product.

Offline whatsit

  • Powder Benefactor
  • *
  • Join Date: May 2012
  • Location: Lincoln
  • Posts: 387
Re: Beta Testers wanted for new training product
« Reply #6 on: December 13, 2012, 02:04:07 PM »
Very cool. I could also see this as an Android/iOS product.

That's certainly something to look at in the future. The processing power is getting better on the tablet devices and some of them have kickstands you can prop them up with, so it would certainly be plausible. We'll see what demand is like.

Thanks for looking!

Offline wallace11bravo

  • NFOA Full Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Apr 2010
  • Location: Lincoln, NE
  • Posts: 1056
  • Don't rush to failure.
    • Midwest Tactical Solutions
Re: Beta Testers wanted for new training product
« Reply #7 on: December 14, 2012, 01:12:19 AM »
I've started sending out the Beta version to our testers. Still waiting to get an email from certain someone to confirm their participation in our testing... ;)

We will continue to post updates here, but I also put a page on my website:
http://www.mwts-training.com/target-tracker



Offline stutzcattle

  • NFOA Full Member
  • **
  • Join Date: May 2009
  • Posts: 88
Re: Beta Testers wanted for new training product
« Reply #8 on: December 21, 2012, 05:33:05 PM »
I'm looking to get my wife and I into the dry-fire training methods.  Let me know what we'd need equipment wise and I'd be more than willing to help you guys out.

Offline wallace11bravo

  • NFOA Full Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Apr 2010
  • Location: Lincoln, NE
  • Posts: 1056
  • Don't rush to failure.
    • Midwest Tactical Solutions
Re: Beta Testers wanted for new training product
« Reply #9 on: December 21, 2012, 07:48:27 PM »
Jim,

Any webcam will do, but higher quality=better results. Any windows computer. Our idea is an at-home system for individuals, that would be able to work with a wide range of hardware.

Several options available for inserts or dedicated dry fire laser training systems:

SIRT Pistols: (Excellent, but pricey)
http://nextleveltraining.com/content/nlt%E2%80%99s-dry-fire-training-pistol-overview

SIRT AR bolt: (My favorite and by far most used)
http://www.nextleveltraining.com/story/pre-order-sirt-ar-bolt

Laserlyte chamber inserts: (weapon must be charged between shots)

http://www.laserlyte.com/products/lt-9-training-cartridge

http://www.laserlyte.com/products/lts-training-cartridge-223

Laserlyte muzzle inserts: (weapon must be charged between shots)

http://www.laserlyte.com/products/lts-pro
« Last Edit: December 21, 2012, 07:51:31 PM by wallace11bravo »

Offline wallace11bravo

  • NFOA Full Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Apr 2010
  • Location: Lincoln, NE
  • Posts: 1056
  • Don't rush to failure.
    • Midwest Tactical Solutions
Re: Beta Testers wanted for new training product
« Reply #10 on: December 23, 2012, 02:48:11 AM »
New video:

« Last Edit: December 23, 2012, 02:54:49 AM by wallace11bravo »

Offline wallace11bravo

  • NFOA Full Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Apr 2010
  • Location: Lincoln, NE
  • Posts: 1056
  • Don't rush to failure.
    • Midwest Tactical Solutions
Re: Beta Testers wanted for new training product
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2013, 09:55:06 PM »
I don't want to give a specific date, but we are getting very close to releasing the Basic version within a few weeks. The basic version will be followed by a pro version in a few months. 

I have updated the website to give some more details, including pricing, features, system requirements, how to make compatible targets, etc.

http://www.mwts-training.com/target-tracker