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Linux Community Halloween Challenge
LuMinoR writes "In a cool contest with a Halloween theme, BitDefender is inviting Linux enthusiasts to crash test their upcoming antivirus solution for Linux e-mail servers. The most thorough beta tester will receive 1,000 German beers and a trip to BitDefender's corporate headquarters in Romania, where they will attend meetings with Count Dracula, the BitDefender development team and other local luminaries."
These contests are stupid. It's just a way for companies to get cheap labor and free advertising. Many people test, one arbitrary person gets paid (and not even paid cash). Game companies love doing this. The company will make millions and one lucky bastard gets some door prizes. Gee, thanks.
Of course if you seek fame and have nothing better to do then more power to you.
Anyone worth their salt isn't going to bother with silly stuff like this so the end product usually isn't top notch quality. In other words, any testing they get out of this will be realtively poor quality. It would be cheaper and produce better results to just farm the work out to India for $2/hr. That is if it weren't for the free advertising.
Ugh... So gimmicky.
Just give me the $8k for two weeks testing and I guarantee that I will find so many problems that you'll be busy for months.
... I do all the work and someone else gets paid... right. I imagine everyone else with actual skill is thinking the same thing.
Otherwise, why would I bother participating in this just for the possibility of being paid?
The ratio of people to cake is too big
I mean... you don't have to drink them all on your trip, do you?
http://www.coderoshi.com/