iAlertU: A closer evaluation

Have you recently bought a new MacBook? If you have, of course one of the last things you would want to have happen is for it to get stolen. That is where iAlertU comes in! iAlertU is an open software program that has the functionality of an alarm system, relying on built in motion detection sensors  to trigger an alarm and the iSight to capture the image of a thief and sending the photo of the thief automatically. But when evaluating it against the three prime directives, how does it hold up?

• Prime Directive #1: The system successfully accomplishes a useful task.

                 This application was fairly easy to install and run. After downloading it and extracting the application to my applications folder on my MacBook, I launched it and tested it by having it send me a dummy email, providing me with a response similar to what would be sent if it were an attempt by an actual thief stealing my computer. After getting the email, and verifying that sends pictures of both the desktop at the time and of the thief (played by me), I can say that this system does indeed accomplish a useful task.

• Prime Directive #2: An external user can successfully install and use the system.    
  

                Starting with downloading the application, I would say a total time of five minutes elapsed in order for me to extract the application from the zip file to my applications folder and configure the application to send me the test email, demonstrating its functionality. As I mentioned above in the first prime directive, it is fairly easy to install and launch; It's just a matter of a small number of clicks ofthe mouse!

Prime Directive #3: An external developer can successfully understand and enhance the system.             
      Since documentation for support was supplied, I think this system can be successfully understood by any developer looking to fix bugs or seek feature requests. However, from a source code perspective I think there is an imbalance in the number of source code files where a developer can understand the code simply by reading the comments. For some of the files it was easy for me to follow along, but for others I really had to stare at the code and wonder what is was doing. I was grateful that documentation was supplied!


  Links:
  sf.net/tracker/?func=add&group_id=198330&atid=965045 (Support)
  ialertu.sf.net (Project home)
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/ialertu/files/  (Downloads)