In traditional test marketing, a game designer might test different versions of, say, a polka-dot cow with a focus group.

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The designer herself test drove pieces of her fall collection before she sent them down the catwalk.

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When a designer is ready to test part of a new chip layout, his workstation uses NetBatch to find all the other machines on the network that are idle, whether they are in Ireland or China or the U.S., and feed the job to them.

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The other test cases concern actor Jude Law, sports agent Sky Andrew, interior designer Kelly Hoppen and MP Chris Bryant.

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Scaled Composites, founded by renowned aircraft designer Burt Rutan, historically has kept the timing of important test flights under wraps partly to prevent crowds from gathering at the Mojave airport, and partly to avoid putting undue pressure on project managers to launch or take off.

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