spreadsheets
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Rawr updated to 2.2.25 [Update: 2.2.27]
Rawr is a great third-party app (it's open source, and doesn't interface with the game at all) that's designed to help you figure out everything you need to know about your character, including how to best buff, enchant, and gem up your gear and set up your stats for whatever you'd like to do. It started out as an app strictly for tanking druids, but recently, it's grown to include pretty much all classes and stats. Our good friends at sister site Download Squad just recently found out about it, and they've got a nice basic writeup posted that serves as a good overview if you've never used the app before. They also mention that the app just got another update, to version 2.2.25, and all of the release notes are posted over on their site. They're also looking for help -- if you're a C# developer, or know one who can work on their rogue and hunter models, be sure to let them know. Since the program is open source, anybody who knows the code can jump in and add their own features, or fine-tune the class choices, which then helps out everyone who uses the software. Rawr is definitely an excellent resource for anyone looking to get their gear perfected -- it's a free download for Windows on their site right now. Update: Since this post was written, the app has been updated to 2.2.27. That was fast!
Ask Mr. Robot
Simulators for WoW are nothing new -- Rawr, for instance, has been around for years, and is steadily snowballing into a one-stop shop for simulating all classes (it's not there yet, but I still love it). In case you're scratching your head at this point, a simulator is like a spreadsheet, but much smarter -- instead of using some general approximations to calculate how your gear is going to change your DPS, it basically goes ahead and plays a model version of the game for you. Edit: apparently Rawr is not a simulator -- it uses formulas that come up with the same answer every time, much like spreadsheets. We still love it anyway. What is new about the simulator I want to talk about today, which seems to be entitled "Mr. Robot," is that it runs on the web, in Microsoft's Silverlight framework (Silverlight seems to have come about because someone at MS saw Flash and decided they wanted one too). This means it's cross-platform and there's nothing to install (well, except Silverlight, but you may have that already). They're only doing sims for Death Knights right now, but the team says more classes are coming (I hear Warlock is next, but don't quote me).
Scattered Shots: Where to find Hunter information
WoW.com decided it was time to bring back some Hunter luvin'. It was that or they just needed a new Dwarf to pick on. So now you got me Eddie "Brigwyn" Carrington from The Hunting Lodge. Make sure to drop by here every Thursday as we explore what it takes to play a Hunter. Have you ever caught yourself wondering, "Hmm... where I should go for my next upgrade?" Or how about "I wonder what pet I should get for raiding?" Another favorite of mine is "What spec should I use for raiding?" (This is always a trap. Even if you give a solid spec, someone will always find a something wrong with it.) For these types of questions, I feel it's always better to follow the maxim "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." What's my point? Well, it seems that many Hunters don't know that there is a wealth of information out there. I would bet that there is probably a resource that can help answer all of your questions. You just need to know where to look. For solid information, we all know about Elitist Jerks. But sometimes finding you can't help but say to yourself, "There has to be an easier way." Believe it or not, there is. There are many other resources and sites out there.
Googaby brings hard fought freedom to your Google contacts
Friends! Gmail users! Countrymen! Lend me your ears! For too long our Google contacts have slaved away under their Gmail masters, confined to the tyranny of the browser, and chained to their own accounts. For too long, we have stood idly by while our contacts toil away in slavery, constantly having to copy-and-paste (or worse, retype) if they must be moved anywhere (unless you have an iPhone and can leverage the built-in contact sync from Address Book).But our savior, at long last, is here! Googaby is an app that will liberate your Google contacts, pull them out of the oppression of however many Gmail accounts you have, and let you drag and drop them off between accounts and onto spreadsheets and other external sources. It'll also backup your contacts, and you can even drag and drop contact pictures -- no more must we undergo the deadly toil of updating contacts by hand! No more must we suffer the toils of servitude!The price of freedom? Only $24.95, and that includes the already-spilt blood of your contact brethren. If you spend an inordinate amount of time challenging the filthy, greedy overlords of your Gmail accounts, who refuse to let you share or edit your contacts easily, now is the time to rise up! Now is the time for a revolution! Freedom for us all!Thanks Laurie
PTR Notes: How much extra quest XP?
One of the features of patch 2.3 that I'm very much anticipating is the hastened leveling curve for characters between level 20 and 60. In addition to the XP required per level being reduced by 20%, loot from leveling dungeons improving, and "many" outdoor elites being made non-elite (not including Hogger, thankfully), the patch notes list that "the amount of experience granted by quests has been increased between levels 30 and 60". Which is nice, but the math lover in me wants (nay, demands) to know precisely how much the increase is.Fortunately, Tekkub is on it. He's compiling a spreadsheet with quest XP changes over at Google Docs, and he needs your help to collect more data. If you want to help, you'll need a character on the PTR in the affected level range (30–60), and you'll need to go do some quests and note down how much XP you get from them. Then just email Tekkub (his email address is on the spreadsheet) with your data, and the collective information base of the WoW population will be increased! Ah, science. Personally I'm not seeing much of a pattern on the spreadsheet yet, but I'm sure there is one, and we will figure it eventually.
Google takes Docs mobile
How does the prospect of viewing your Google spreadsheets one glorious column at a time sound? Google's introduced a version of its Docs word processing and spreadsheet app for handsets -- and about all we can say is that we hope they're already well on their way to version 2. The system's currently view-only, which we guess is all well and good, but seeing how you can only peep a single column of your spreadsheets on screen, it sounds darned near useless. As Unwired View points out, plain text document viewing works best at the moment -- as if we don't already have plenty of ways to view plain text on our phones. Come on, Google, we know you can do better.[Via Unwired View]
Wiimote meets enterprise, unproductivity ensues
Oh the suits, how we love 'em. Spreadsheets, meetings, PowerPoint -- doesn't get much more exciting than that. Or does it? A few enterprise types at Colgate-Palmolive gathered after-hours and managed to get a Wiimote up and running with a custom Ruby on Rails / Script.aculo.us / database-thingy, allowing for much more immersive data manipulation. Unfortunately, all that's really going on is the Wiimote is interfacing with the computer as a substitute mouse, pushing around some oversized buttons. Not quite the beautiful melding of gaming and office work we had envisioned, but we congratulate these guys for trying -- now back to work, we need new cover sheets on those TPS reports!
.Mac's dramatic resurrection
Yesterday, we outlined just a few of the reasons we've become disenchanted with .Mac, focusing on mail, storage space, calendaring and synchronization. Today, we're going to look at what could be .Mac's dramatic resurrection. Like a Phoenix from the ashes, we all know that .Mac will rise again, better than ever before (because Steve and Co. just can't let it stagnate forever, right?). We're going to avoid the usual and more obvious .Mac wish-list items in this post, like increased storage space, a speedier iDisk, reliable synchronization and so on, and focus on all new, would-be features that could really knock our geeky socks off. Read on, after the jump.
