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  • Blizzard puts a few limits on the costume contest

    by 
    Mike Schramm
    Mike Schramm
    07.23.2009

    This is interesting -- the costumes at BlizzCon have gotten more and more complicated every year, as people try to one-up each other by bringing the wackiest and biggest costumes to wear, both for the official contest and around the show floor (you can see some of last year's appearances below). The big winner last year was this turtle mount, complete with wheels and a moving head, and so we wonder: what'll happen this year?Not so fast, says Blizzard. When a player asks just how far costumers might go (a live mount?), Bashiok says that there are some tweaks to the rules this year: costumes can't go over 10' in any direction, include "liquids or messy substances," or be judged on items that can't be worn or held. That would seem to disqualify the turtle mount, from official judging anyway -- they want the contest to revolve around costumes, not vehicles.Which doesn't mean that we won't see some crazy costumes on the show floor (and obviously you'll see them here on the site, even if you're not in Anaheim). But the contest itself might be a little more low key than last year -- seems like the Sea Turtle/ATV was enough to make Blizzard dial it back a notch.%Gallery-34205%

  • What to do if you spill liquid on your laptop

    by 
    Conrad Quilty-Harper
    Conrad Quilty-Harper
    03.20.2007

    Losing a laptop to a spilt glass of wine can be a very frustrating experience, particularly when said wine is of the cheap Rosé variant, as was the embarrasing case with this writer's late laptop. Well, one group of kindly DIY technology authors have assigned their noggins to the problem, and have created a post with an accompanying video which shows exactly what to do if you accidentally spill some red on your keyboard. Apparently, the best policy is to act fast -- just like the pretty, pretty, pretty good salt and club soda solution for carpet and upholstery spills -- by pouring off the excess liquid onto a towel, opening up the laptop, washing it under tap water, rinsing it under distilled water, and then leaving it out to dry. A quick reassemble later and the laptop should be back in working condition: but for how long? Also, if you do watch the video after the break, bear in mind that the music track is a loud variant of "Kung Fu Fighting," which seems to have been chosen purely for the line "and they did it with expert timing." Sigh.