Hey all,

I wrote a little while ago that I was working on a hot key program similar to TableNinja and the AHK scripts for Mac users. I'm happy to announce that the program I've been working on, which I'm calling BlazingStars, is almost complete.

I had originally planned to make this a for-pay program, but my life has intervened (I'm a graduate student writing this in my "free time" - hah - and what little of that I had has recently been gobbled up by the terminal illness of a close family member), and so I've decided to make BlazingStars free. What does that mean?

The good: Well, duh, it's free.
The bad: Because it's free, I won't be supporting it as diligently as I would if I were getting paid. Also, the feature list for the initial release is a lot shorter than I wanted it to be.

However, I'd still like to release a reasonably good program, so I'm now calling for beta testers. The first ten people who respond to this thread will be put on the list, and I'll PM you when beta testing begins. That won't be until the 20th of August at the earliest, because I have to leave the country tomorrow for a trip, but when I get back I'll be doing the final builds and sending out the betas as soon as possible.

(I decided to post this thread today because I know that some people were wondering if I was ever going to finish what I promised, and I didn't want to leave everyone hanging until I got back. )

Although BlazingStars will be free, I'll also be accepting donations to spur the development, support, and general improvement of the program. When the program is ready for public release, I'll announce it here as well as on my site for Fully Functional Software. You can also follow updates on Twitter: http://twitter.com/fullyfunc.

Thanks, guys! I welcome comments and feedback, through Twitter, on the blog or the forums I set up at the site, or here in this thread.

ty!
I would love to beta test.
I only play 9man sngs on stars...if that matters.

I would love to beta test your software.

A bit disappointed that this is going to be free (simply because I know that = way less support). I'd have loved to see an FTP version.

Third. I play 30-50 SnGs a week. Usually 2-table, hoping I can 4-table with this. Thanks!

I'd like to be a beta tester for this.

I'm disappointed too, to be honest, but in the end I just felt that with the way my life is going right now, charging for the program would have been making a promise that I couldn't keep. I *will* be actively working on the program, though; free != abandoned. And you can always donate to spur me on. :-)

sign me up for testing

I would love to help test.

I will help let me know

Well, that's 5 so far: Corbin13, SiQ, mofreek, bleeper, and lsaw2. 5 more slots for the first beta! I'm getting on a plane soon, so I won't be checking this thread too much until the 19th/20th, but I'll be sending PMs within a day or two of my return. Thanks guys!

Update: Oops - that's six including Fast_Prophet.

My sn is Lsaw2 but w/e

Cant wait.

Ya count me in too! I send you a PM.

I'm in. PM sent.

Gah, one thing I forgot to mention in the original post:

Important: BlazingStars will be require OS X Leopard (10.5) or greater. It is *not* compatible with earlier versions of OS X.

My apologies for the omission in the first post. If any of the previous respondents are stuck on Tiger or earlier, please reply to this thread to let me know, and I'll remove you from the list.

Thanks, GoldnEagl. For anyone looking to fill the last two slots, feel free to just reply to this thread. No PM is necessary; I'll PM you when I'm ready to ship the beta.

Am I signed up or? You kind of skipped me there.. ;-)

Oops, you're right, just one spot left! That's what I get for trying to run my life off of an iPhone while sitting in an airport...

The "10 spots" thing is just to keep the private beta mangeable for me while I iron out the showstoppers; I'm hoping to open it up to the public fairly quickly once you guys in the private beta help me work out the kinks.

Winawer, my roommate (2p2 SN: The F Do) would like to sign up. He's too lazy to login and post though.
He's a cash player, I'm a SnG player fwiw.

Okay, then that makes 10! I'll PM everyone a download link when I get back from my trip. Hopefully I can crank it into shape fairly quickly, and then I'll release the first version as soon as I can. After that, I'll start working on all the features I couldn't implement for this first release.

So I am just damn late. If you don't mind stretching to 11, I'd really love to try.

As it might convince you to do so, let me introduce myself: I have 11 years of experience in software development and development management and I'm so familiar with software testing.
That means you can expect valuable reports from me with all the information that developer needs to identify and reproduce a problem. I'm also keen with usability issues and I might help in that area too. Thanks!

:O i cant believe i missed this after my failure of a thread/attempt to get this going late last year.

i applaud you, sir, count on a donation if it works out well.

*raises hand for beta testing*
I did testing for poker copilot , I like these opportunities to get the software 1st!
ty if I can get in

I´m waiting for such a software for months...i would like to test it too.
I play up to 30 SNGs at the same time...

I got lots of requests for me to develop such software, but I have my hands full with Poker Copilot.

It seems to me that if you do it right, lots of people will want this software.

Regards,

Steve from Poker Copilot

Just saw this thread, saw you have 10 already.

Thank you for doing this. If you need anymore help, feel free to PM me I would love to help out.