LoggingOff

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  • Why you shut down OS X as you do

    by 
    Scott McNulty
    Scott McNulty
    11.29.2006

    There has been a spate of interest in Windows Vista's convoluted shutdown process started by this Joel on Software post. Fuel was added to the fire when Moishe Lettvin blogged about the design process that was involved with the 'shutdown feature.' The short version: lots of people, lots of meetings, and very little actual code was involved.We can compare Microsoft's process with Apple's thanks to this post by Arno Gourdol, formerly lead of the Mac OS X Finder team. Not too surprising Apple's process was much more straightforward and involved less people. However, lest you think that all is roses and candy corn in Cupertino, one Apple exec insisted that the 'Log Out' function should have a keyboard shortcut. Not a horrible idea, right? How about if I told you the key combo that exec wanted to use was Cmd + Q? I can imagine many people trying to quit an app and logging out instead. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed and Shift + Cmd + Q was the chosen one.

  • Breakfast Topic: Home is where your hearthstone is

    by 
    Jennie Lees
    Jennie Lees
    04.19.2006

    Travelling in WoW can be helped or hindered by the casual application of a hearthstone. Hearthing can be a quick way to get out of an instance or cave, a shortcut across continents or even a handy thing to do before logging off.Sometimes, though, it's annoying rather than useful. I've acted hastily and hearthed from Un'Goro Crater to Stormwind a couple of times -- the repeat journey isn't something to be casually undertaken. Fortunately, several classes -- as well as engineers -- have tricks to help with travel, from the Shaman's Astral Recall to the Druid's Teleport: Moonglade.Where is your hearthstone set? Have you found an efficient way of getting around that relies on these travel tricks to work? My druid is parked in Stormwind, as Moonglade gives her access to Kalimdor, although the flight from Moonglade to Gadgetzan or Silithus is still a long one. On some of my lower characters, I've forgotten to set the hearthstone at all -- I managed to run a level 10 dwarf to Darkshore, but left the hearthstone near Anvilmar. Oops!