ReadWriteWeb

Have you ever been using Facebook and randomly found that you were suddenly unable to do some very basic thing, like update your status? Or comment on and "like" your friends' statuses? Maybe the design suddenly changed slightly and you were the only one seeing it?

Don't worry, Facebook is a website and websites aren't haunted, so there's nothing supernatural at play. Rather, it could be that someone at Facebook is intentionally messing with you to see how you react...but in the end, it's all for a better user experience.

Whether you're a tester reporting bugs or a developer who's trying to clarify a bug report, isolating bugs can be something of an art.

Some bugs are really obvious, such as if you go to a site and every page is down with a server error. Other bugs are much harder to report, as they only occur in certain circumstances. Here are some tips for isolating bugs and getting them fixed.

As a developer, you probably understand the need to fix bugs and the joy that comes with that commit. You know the one. The commit that says "did it in a minute". Why not have a little fun when you commit? When there's a team, the fun keeps everyone from being "out of touch".

Let's take a look at how the Hunch software engineers keep "one on one" fun.

Mozilla, the organization behind the popular Firefox browser, just announced a major refresh of its security bounty program. When Mozilla instituted this program in 2004, the organization paid security researchers $500 for discovering eligible security bugs. For new bugs, Mozilla will now pay $3,000. The organization cites the fact that "the security environment has changed tremendously" as the main reason for the increase. In addition, Mozilla also clarified that the bounty program includes Firefox, as well as the Thunderbird email client and Mozilla's mobile products like the newly released Firefox Home tool for the iPhone.

Earlier in the week, we profiled Concept Feedback, a community that helps site designers and developers get quick constructive criticism on their various projects, and in the article we stressed the importance for young companies to collect and analyze user feedback. Another part of this type of site analysis is tracking bugs, and TechStars graduate SnapABug provides an innovative way to do this via live instant message sessions. Early next week, however, SnapABug will take this feature one step further by adding a pro-active chat feature which will allow companies to both help wayward visitors and capitalize on possible sales opportunities.

In addition to confusion over charging that we covered yesterday, a number of other issues have come to light to mar the iPad's debut.

The most common, according to Apple's iPad support forums, are weak and intermittent Wi-Fi signals and overheating.

The heat issue might make the beach bums ReadWriteWeb mentioned earlier as early adopters default to other devices - or make the long move to Peter's Sink, Utah.

Today's online communities give people any number of venues to discuss the products they use. From trivial gripes to critical bugs, users are more than happy to let the general public know about their satisfaction with every application they use. Sometimes, they even share these issues directly with the people responsible for solving them.

Larger software companies possess complex bug and issue tracking systems to help them capture, triage, and respond to this type of feedback, but smaller companies often still struggle to find a way of managing this information. Sifter hopes to change that with a simple and straightforward bug and issue tracking app.