Ad Hoc

I recently saw a posting on one of the cracker/jailbreak forums that really got my goat.

The poster was asking for help cracking an application that was given to him by a developer. He was taking part in beta testing the developer's application so it was signed with an Ad Hoc provisioning profile.

I guess the application was so good in its beta testing phase that the tester wanted to release it as soon as possible. I didn't realize teenage beta testers qualified as project management and acted on behalf of development.

Ridiculous!

I didn't followup with the thread as I was too busy fuming at the moral ineptitude of this kid. Where the hell are his parents? They should be teaching him right from wrong.. with their fists!

Anyway the moral of the story is this: giving away Ad Hoc copies to people you don't know on the Internet is FOOLISH.

It's like setting up a hot date with a loose 14 year old girl you met on MySpace. You drive 200 miles to meet her only to find Chris Hansen and the crew of NBC's Dateline asking you if your intentions are honourable.

Seriously. If you need more than one tester on a mobile application then either your code sucks or you're in over your head. Find someone you can trust.

If you can't find someone you can trust and have to resort to Internet Ad Hoc testing, then PLEASE use the strategies outlined in my previous articles.

Love,

Your Dad