mistake
Latest
Player vs. Everything: The importance of morale
We've all been there. Any little thing can start it. Maybe the tank messes up and pulls two groups when he meant to pull one. Maybe the healer was distracted by his cat and some people die. Maybe the mage doesn't watch her aggro and the mobs take out the DPS. Something happens, and the group wipes. The seed of doubt is planted: Can this group really pull this dungeon off? Am I grouped with a bunch of idiots? How big is my repair bill going to be tonight? It's like watching a chain of dominoes. Sometimes, the group can laugh off a wipe or two. But if a simple mistake turns into a pattern of someone screwing up, or if luck goes against you and you have a few simple mistakes in a row, people start losing their morale. Suddenly, people aren't using their consumables (why bother when you're just going to die again?). The tanks and healers get frustrated and start getting sloppy. The DPS gets angry and starts getting cocky. Everyone thinks everyone else is a moron, and each pull is a little less likely to succeed than the last. Each wipe spirals you further down. Finally, people start having mysterious "emergencies" and have to leave the group (do a /who check to see them farming somewhere in 30 minutes). You might not realize it, but your group's morale is hugely important to your success.
New Season 4 items sneak out on live realms
Yes, that pic above is the priest's robe, direct from Arena season 4 (you can click on it to see a bigger version), and here is the priest's helm from season 4. As the story goes over at World of Raids, a player on EU Arathor accidentally deleted some season 1 items, and a GM then accidentally gave him season 4 items in replacement instead. The items were taken right back (duh), but their IDs were activated on that realm, so anyone with a little item ID knowledge could pull up the stats.For comparison, these have boosts almost all around from the season 3 items, which is pretty much to be expected. And while the Stamina is clearly much higher than anything we've seen at the higher levels, the actual damage doesn't compare much to even the Tier 6 stuff. PvP gear in season 4 is all about staying alive -- we've seen a few other items leak out already, and it's the same deal on those.Which is probably as it should be. We should note, also, that this stuff may not actually be done -- although the fact that it's spawnable on the live realms might mean that Blizzard is ready for season 4. I still don't think we'll see it until after the arena tourney, but who knows?
Edgar Bronfman admits to "inadvertently" going to war with music consumers
By now, we're pretty certain you know how Warner Music's head honcho feels about DRM and its necessity in the digital download space, but apparently, the man behind not one, but two CE-Oh Noes has experienced some form of epiphany. MacUser has it that Edgar Bronfman admitted that the music industry "used to fool itself" by thinking that its content was "perfect just exactly as it was" while speaking at the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress in Macau. He went on to say that it was widely believed that the business would "remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding." He also noted that it essentially went to war "inadvertently" with consumers by "denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find." The conversation was used in part to urge mobile operators to not make the same mistakes again, and while we applaud such a figure for coming forward with a bit of hard truth, it remains to be seen if these sentiments will reverberate further or simply fall on deaf ears.[Via mocoNews]
Whoops! Tesco sells Xbox 360s for 33.24
Apparently someone over at UK retailer Tesco slipped up on the company's online store, because an Xbox 360 bundle normally priced at £340 GBP was selling for just a hair over 33 pounds sterling, long enough for a number of customers to gleefully order the next-gen system at the no-gen price.Sky News reports that once the payment is accepted, Trading Standards rules in the UK state that the retailer must comply and deliver the product. Numerous payments were accepted for the drastically-reduced Xbox 360 bundle, which also includes Forza Motorsport 2 and Viva Piñata. One crafty consumer successfully ordered 39 consoles, although no orders have yet been delivered. Despite the rules set forth by Trading Standards, Tesco's site maintains that they do not have to conform to erroneously-marked prices unless they fail to notice before shipment. We'll wait and see if any lucky gamers get their cheapo 360s in the mail. Think anyone sprung for overnight shipping?[Thanks, Jurie]
Nobody's perfect
If you play WoW long enough, you're bound to make mistakes. Whether it's accidentally picking up the wrong piece of loot off of a boss or pulling a bunch of elites before your group is ready, everyone messes up once in awhile. While I normally make a habit of doing research in order to avoid such things, the other day I made a mistake that only affected myself, but it was pretty annoying nonetheless.I had been spending a lot of money power-leveling professions for a few of my alts when I got lucky and picked up a couple upgrades for my main character. I was low on funds and needed to grab some enchants and gems quickly so that I'd be prepared for an upcoming raid. With little time to farm, I hit the auction house and looked for some deals. When I noticed the low price of Nexus Crystals, I was reminded that my enchanter alt could transform those into Small Prismatic Shards and then again into Large Prismatic Shards. After double-checking the prices for the various materials, I concluded that I would not only save a good deal of money, but I'd make a bundle by selling extra shards. I bought all of the Nexus Crystals on the auction house and shipped them off to my enchanter. Gleefully imagining the piles of money I'd soon be raking into my coffers, I switched characters and converted the first crystal into a shard. My schemes where short-lived, sadly, when the realization that the conversion of Nexus Crystals has a cooldown, much like an alchemist's transmutes. Oh well, at least I'll have a nice stockpile of shards after about a month or so.What are the biggest mistakes you've made?
NewEgg mistakenly ships out five Eee PCs for the price of one
Apparently, Asus' Eee PC is so small, even NewEgg's atypically quick fulfillment crew couldn't believe that five of these things could fit into a single cardboard shipping box, so they just decided to slap labels on entire cases and let 'em rip. Truth be told, there's no telling how nor why a number of users on the EeeUser.com forums were initially sent five machines for the price of one, but judging by a list of reports and even an accompanying picture, 'tis true. Supposedly, NewEgg caught on to what was happening and began turning shipments around before they were delivered, but rather than getting an apologetic call, credit towards a future purchase and a single overnighted laptop, some customers actually received all five. Granted, we're hearing that those in the latter camp were kind enough to let honesty prevail, but who knows how many lurkers are quietly slipping their newfound Eee PCs onto eBay as we speak. So, the question beckons: did any of you receive a whole lot of unexpected Eee PCs? Do tell.[Via DailyTech]
Community goes extremely overboard on iPhone Extreme
Tom from iPhonebuglist.com was poking around in Apple's online feedback form, and as you can see above, he found something interesting hidden in the HTML code. There was a product tag on the form not for the iPhone, but for the "iPhone Extreme." The page has since been fixed, and there's no trace of it ever appearing.We completely agree with Apple Insider on this one: it's a stretch to say this is anything more than a coder mixup. Still, there it is, right there (in a Windows window! Tom, how dare you!). Could it be a "sport" version of the iPhone? Or a home device designed to serve as a standalone, Mac-less dock for your iPhone on your Airport Extreme network?Probably neither. I'm pretty sure a comment over at 9-to-5 Mac has it right (although the site themselves went way overboard, calling a February release on what is really an imaginary product): whoever coded the page just used the Airport Extreme template, and did a mass cut-and-paste with "iPhone" and "Airport." Amazing that the Mac community can get so worked up over what almost surely is simply a coder's mistake.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
$1.4 million IBM server falls off forklift, finger pointing ensues
Yeah, we've seen our fair share of pricey accidents, but this one is just brimming with ridiculousness. Reportedly, a mysterious IBM server that was headed to the US Patent and Trademark Office managed to fall off of a forklift managed by federal contractor T.R. Systems. The firm claims that the mishap occurred after the forklift "hit the raised surface at the entry door of the warehouse," but rather than taking the fall for the incident, it's seeking damages in excess of $1.4 million from IBM for Big Blue's shoddy packaging. Not surprisingly, IBM has stated that it will "defend itself vigorously" in the case, but there's no word on whether the traditional shipping cartons will be replaced with armored iterations in the future.
Annoyed, hospitalized teen unplugs neighbor's life support
It should probably go without saying that anything connected to a power source within the confines of a hospital has a fair shot at being pertinent to the livelihood of at least one individual, but obviously a 17-year old teenager in Germany needed the memo. After the perpetual noise of what would prove to be his neighbor's life support machine "got on his nerves," he proceeded to simply unplug the device without precaution in order to ensure that "he got his peace and quiet." Of course, we can only assume that the sirens and squeals that were emitted due to his misreckoning were immensely louder than the prior hum, but some folks just love to learn the hard way. Thankfully, medical personnel stepped in and saved the man from perishing, but the teen at fault lost a lot more sleep after that whilst being questioned by police.[Via El Reg, image courtesy of NAIAD]
Fuh Yuan retracts $299 Wal-Mart HD DVD statement
That sound you're hearing is your hopes of a $299 HD DVD player anytime in the immediate future deflating, that is, is Fuh Yuan is to be believed this time around. Unfortunately, it seems that the firm pulled the trigger a bit too soon on a hopeful order, as a recent retraction on the company's website insinuates that Wal-Mart simply inquired about their ability to "provide a schedule" along with "cost and quantity" details for Wally World to evaluate. Currently, it seems that the "capacity is still under consideration," but it did leave the door open to believe that this idea may still be churning in the background by cordially inviting anyone with an up-to-snuff manufacturing facility to ping them for more details. The good news is that a sub-$300 HD DVD player isn't a matter of "if," it's just a matter of "when," and as long as Wal-Mart keeps burning down price barriers, we're sure it'll surface (arguably) soon.[Thanks, Jimmy]Update: Wal-mart concurs, stating today that "The article... was full of inaccuracies and we had no participation in it," and "Most of the facts, including the purchase, were untrue."
Ill-fated Mars Global Surveyor has human error to blame
While we've no idea how much the Mars Global Surveyor actually cost to construct, launch, and manage whilst hovering around in space, it's entirely likely that a single human error wiped out even more than was initially lost by the Alaska Department of Revenue earlier this year. Sad to say, galaxy geeks everywhere now have a scapegoat to direct their wrath at, as a review board of the mishap found that "a single command (root@mars-surveyor: rm -rf /) that oriented the spacecraft's main communications antenna was sent to the wrong address," subsequently leading to a cataclysmic series of events that finally dismantled its communication system. Interestingly, the command caused the befuddled craft to think that one of its solar panels was "stuck," which eventually led to an autonomous decision to enter "safe mode," followed by a complete shutdown of the unit's onboard batteries. Intelligently, the LA Times report neglected to mention any specific culprit, and hey, living with the guilt of destroying the machine that showed us so much of the Red Planet is probably punishment enough.[Via Slashdot]
Amateur pilot demolishes homebrew plane, dubs attempt "partly successful"
C'mon folks, it shouldn't take an aeronautical engineer to figure out that flying an aircraft isn't exactly a cakewalk, and as we've seen time and time again, "amateur pilots" just aren't likely to land in a safe fashion. China's Li Xianfeng has become the latest daredevil to risk life and limb to satisfy his "lifelong dream" of flying, but he wasn't fortunate enough to complete "perfect landing" addendum. His self-built aluminum-framed plane was demolished after he spent a whopping 120-seconds "hovering about 50-feet above the ground," as his pilot instruction manuals clearly didn't provide the kind of in-depth training one would expect at, say, flight school. Amazingly, Li somehow felt that his hospitalizing crash was "partly successful," and he even spoke of his desire to try it once more when his current wounds healed. We'd respectfully advise a virtual flight next time, Mr. Xianfeng.[Via Fark]
Alaska Department of Revenue vaporizes $38 billion account
The Last Frontier is no stranger to computer failure on a noteworthy scale, but the latest mishap far exceeds the severity of yet another e-voting failure. A quick-fingered technician at the Alaska Department of Revenue reformatted a hard drive while handling "routine maintenance work" that contained an account worth $38 billion -- yeah, with a B. To make matters exponentially worse, he / she also deleted the backup drive for reasons unbeknownst to mere men, and we can probably assume that at least a few individuals in the department suffered a near-heart attack when they found the backup tapes completely unreadable. The only remaining proof of the oil-funded account was in 300 boxes of paperwork, which had to be digitized yet again by staff members working incredibly long hours completing work that had just been done a few months earlier. Incredibly, no one was reportedly punished for the incident, and while the recovery efforts were actually finished in just six painstaking weeks, the damage inflicted by a few careless keystrokes totaled $220,700 in excess labor costs. Ouch.[Via Fark]
Thieves jack 14 GPS devices, forget to turn them off
Yeah, we've seen quite a bit of mishaps happen in conjunction with operating a GPS device, and the list of brainless criminals is (fortunately) seeming to get longer each day, but this heist made the cops' jobs so easy it's almost implausible. A few crooks with a potentially bright idea set out to swipe a dozen or so cellphones from the Town of Babylon Public Works garage in Lindenhurst, NY, but unfortunately for them, the 14 units they swiped turned out to be GPS devices. As expected, Suffolk County police didn't have any qualms tracking the bandits down, and actually found the head criminal holding one of their prizes when they entered his home, as he was presumably trying to call his mother (or partners in crime) and explain all he'd accomplished. Nevertheless, the father and his 13-year old son, along with another 20-year old culprit, were all taken in on charges of grand larceny and stupidity, but at least justice prevailed, eh?[Via Fark]
UK retailer sells "thousands" of Sharp LCD HDTVs for 150, refuses to ship
Any deal seekers (or as Best Buy would say, "devils") out there know all too well that a blatant price mistake typically leads to a furious frenzy of orders, only to patiently await the arrival of the package, or worse, the dreaded cancellation notice. While folks were presumably amped up about all these Black Friday deals and the downward trend in prices of HDTVs, "more than 24,000" UK e-shoppers pounced on Woolworths' incredulous deals, which showcased 37- and 42-inch Sharp LCD HDTVs for around £150 ($294). Of course, managers were quick to point out the typographical error and explain that orders would not be filled, as any price advertisements were an "invitation to treat," but not legally binding. Sure, we didn't really expect Woolies to ship out its entire stock of Sharp panels at sub-production cost, but we can certainly sympathize for the hopeful few that labeled the store "Scrooge."
I Was Wrong. So Very, Very, Wrong.
After the heated reaction by some readers to my previous post about selling accounts, I was confused so I decided to talk to Blizzard directly to get final clarification on the subject. They responded to my email suprisingly rapidly, and were very helpful in clearing up any confusion that I had.I was wrong when I stated that it was within the player's rights to sell their account. The EULA, which I drew my conclusions from, only applies to the actual physical game manuals and disks. Useless though it might be, anyone can attempt to sell those items to their heart's content.The Terms Of Use governs WoW accounts and everything associated with them, such as gold and items. The TOS states that accounts cannot be bought or sold.My confusion stemmed from the EULA's repeated reference to "the Game", "the Game Client", and "Service". "The Game" doesn't include the account, merely the physical items in the box, but I didn't make that connection.Anyhow, I made a mistake, but I hope that my continued research into the topic and succesful attempt to get a definitive answer will atone for my offense.
Beware Microsoft's domain squatting faux pas
If you're an Xbox Live subscriber interested in getting your hands on a Diamond Card, beware. It seems that a typo on the website, www.xboxlivediamond.com, encourages users to email a non-Microsoft address if they believe their gamertag has been signed up to the site by someone else. From Joystiq, which has the scoop: Step 3: Notice the error message that says: "We're Sorry!!! That GamerTag has already been registered" Notice the following instructions: "If you believe that someone else has registered with your GamerTag, please send an email to support@xboxdiamond.com." Step 4: Notice that xboxdiamond.com is registered with domain squatters. Oops! Hope nobody sent their Xbox Live account information (password, credit card information) to that email address! We further hope that whoever's receiving the deluge of emails isn't impersonating Microsoft and soliciting this information from Xbox Live customers. Since the domain was recently listed on eBay, who knows what the squatters are going to do with the deluge of mis-registered gamertag emails. We hope Microsoft fix this blunder quickly--it doesn't exactly instil faith in the Diamond Card service.
