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About the Bloggers: Daniel Whitcomb
Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers. What do you do for WoW Insider? I'm just your everyday regular normal blogger. I post on whatever looks cool in the World of Warcraft, and I try to keep on top of breaking news as much as I can. I tend to be biased a bit toward Hunter and Druid issues, I think, since I play both classes pretty religiously. I'm also a pretty hardcore Roleplayer, so I make sure RP issues get some play on the site when I can too. What's your main right now? Funny you should mention that, since I pontificated on that just this morning. Right now I'd say I still consider my Feral Druid my main, although I probably play my Hunter more, and either she or my new Death Knight will probably end up being my main come WoTLK. I play on the Cenarion Circle server, by the by.
ScreenSteps gets blog-friendly
We do love our ScreenSteps here at TUAW. Following up on some great features introduced in version 2, bluemango is releasing version 2.0.3 today with a brand new post-to-blog feature. The feature makes use of a Screensteps Live account to host images, then provides the HTML markup to paste into a blog entry. If you're not familiar with it, ScreenSteps 2 is an application that makes the process of documenting software and on-screen tasks simple and elegant. ScreenSteps Live is bluemango's online complement to their desktop software, allowing users to publish lessons on the web after creating them in ScreenSteps 2. The post-to-blog feature is documented at the developer's own Live account, with instructions for Wordpress that are easily translated to other platforms. The concept is very cool and will aid a lot of people in sharing tutorials and software documentation. The blog templates are also customizable to fit your stylistic needs. I would love to see some closer blog integration and automatic uploading via XMLRPC, ala TUAW favorite MarsEdit. Taking into account that ScreenSteps is not aspiring to be a blog editor, though, and the fact that they're seeking integration with ScreenSteps Live, I think the simplistic cut-and-paste approach fits the bill and provides the flexibility to post the exported output in a broader variety of places. In addition to our own Macworld show floor coverage of ScreenSteps, there are screencasts done by ScreenCastsOnline covering ScreenSteps 2 and ScreenSteps Live. There are free accounts available to try out ScreenSteps Live, and plans start at $12/month. ScreenSteps 2 Standard is $39.95 (pro version which allows the creation of full pdf and online manuals is $59.95) with a free demo and academic discounts. And it's available for Windows, too, for those with cross-platform needs.
WoW Insider is taking over the world
Reader Andy wrote in this morning to tell us about what he read while having his morning cup of joe. From the The Guardian's article on The world's 50 most powerful blogs: "46. WoW Insider"Ummm... really? Cool!While I consider us to be a major source of news, information, and QQness about World of Warcraft related things, I never really thought that we'd ever be included on a list like this. It's kind of nice. So who did we beat? And who beat us?
Blanc interviews Gruber
Shawn Blanc has wrapped up his series of great software reviews, and now dives into the scariest of waters: those of the major minds in Mac journalism. And he goes first after the biggest shark in the ocean (or at least the one with the sharpest teeth), everyone's favorite Daring Fireball, John Gruber.The interview is first about interviews, and then goes on to cover Gruber's past (he worked with Bare Bones and Joyent before going on to write the blog full time). Gruber also gives out some great tips for writers, from things as practical as setting a goal the night before to guide your workday and always drinking coffee black, to ephemeral tips like how to become a better writer without actually writing anything (save about a dozen books' worth of message boards and blog posts).Gruber also talks specifically about Daring Fireball, his favorite stuff on the site, and where he wants to take it, and how far. Definitely a great read -- as always, Shawn makes sure to hit on all the important notes and leave no stone unturned, and Gruber reveals lots of insight on what it's like to put his posts and the Linked List together every day.
New faces at WoW Insider
Last December we put out a call for new writers. Breaking news bloggers, weekend bloggers and a Mage columnist were all on our list of positions to fill. After reading the hundreds of excellent applications (and a few very strange ones), we've made our final decision.The new WoW Insider staffers include Adam Holisky and Alex Ziebart who have both already hit the ground running to boost our weekend coverage. Daniel Whitcomb, Amanda Dean and Heath Milo will be starting this week to cover breaking news throughout the week and Allison Robert will be following soon after.The decision to choose which applicant would be our new Mage columnist was a tough one. The applications for this position were very, very good. However, one not only informed, but entertained in such a manner that we couldn't say no. Very soon Arcane Brilliance will be returning under Christian Belt. Trust me, there's no one quite like him.Finally, one applicant who applied as a general writer turned out to be a specialist. We liked him so much that we are in the process of hiring him to write news, tips and guides specifically for AddOns, UIs and macros. Look out for his work to start in the next month or so.If you weren't chosen, there will always be a chance in the future to apply again. Until then, our sister site Massively, covering news for all MMOs, just put out their own call for bloggers today. Applications will be accepted until February 15th.
Shawn Blanc on MarsEdit 2.1
Even though we can't use a tool like MarsEdit to post here at TUAW, some of us are still big fans of the program and use it when creating content for our other, more personal sites. Like Ecto, another very good tool for this type of content creation, Mars Edit allows you to compose blog entries, complete with text, links, photos or whatever, on your own computer and once finished, post them directly to your blog.Of course, we're not the only fans of MarsEdit using it to put up content around the internets. Shawn Blanc, writer, Mac guy, drummer, Tae-Qwon-Do blackbelt and enthusiastic Mars Edit user has posted a very in-depth review of the application at his site. Among the program's many virtues, Blanc praises it for having a "perfect preview" of draft content, that it functions very well as a text editor and the "blatant absence of a WYSIWYG feature" which makes him "extremely impressed with how well it serves the writer." MarsEdit 2 may not be the right choice for your blogging needs, but if you've never considered it before, this review might just make you want to give it a try. It's $29.95 for a new license, and $9.95 for an upgrade from ME1.
MarsEdit 2.1 with saving drafts to server
Daniel Jalkut announced the release of MarsEdit 2.1, the great blogging client from Red Sweater Software. The big changes involve a nice search features that allows you to easily find drafts and recent posts, a new tag editor (and support for MT tags), a better preview function as well as my favorite: the ability to save drafts to the server. Needless to say there are also a variety of other tweaks and bugfixes, etc. If you're using MarsEdit you'll want to grab the update.MarsEdit 2.1 is a free update to registered users and $29.95 to purchase. A demo is available.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Blog Azeroth
While reading my favorite WoW blogs yesterday, I saw a common theme. Everyone was talking about Blog Azeroth. No, it's not another blog about our favorite gaming universe. Rather it's a place where WoW bloggers of every class and race can get together to share tips, ideas, and just generally talk shop. So I did the free sign-up, posted my introduction, and cruised around, looking at the content. I found some really great articles about how to track down who links to your site, some advice on how to get more readers, and even how to make a cool FavIcon. As soon as I can figure out what I can squeeze into a 16px by 16px space, I'm all over that. I also found out that there were other people from my server writing about all kinds of things. It's been a great experience so far. You don't need to be a blogger to visit, either. Anyone can access their Introductions forum and not only get a long list of blogs ripe for the reading, you can also find out a bit more about some of your favorite WoW players. And if you're thinking about starting to write up your game experiences, they have good info for all the common blogging systems. May your blog be long and fruitful!
Blogger application deadline extended
As some of you have noticed, we're experiencing technical difficulties with regards to our mailing address for blogger/columnist applications, causing some messages to bounce back. You may receive a message like the following:This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification THIS IS A WARNING MESSAGE ONLY.YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE.Delivery to the following recipient has been delayed:apply@wow.comAs the warning says -- you do not need to resend your message. Delivery may be delayed, but e-mails are getting through. However, due to this issue, we are asking anyone sending in applications from this point forward to direct them to wowinsiderapply@gmail.com (if you have sent in an application already, you do not need to resend it) and extending the deadline for applications until Monday at 11:59pm ET. Note that due to the volume of applications we receive, I'm afraid we cannot reply to them individually.For those still interested, check out our call for bloggers post and our how to apply page.[Update: Clarified technical details, changed e-mail address]
WoW Insider is looking for new blood
As World of Warcraft only gets more and more popular, we have more and more news to cover. We're looking for new bloggers to add to our site as well one new columnist. If you want to get paid to write about the game, read on!For bloggers, we want at least one who can write a minimum of 25 posts a month on the weekends. We're also looking for bloggers that can post all through the week at least 50 times a month (2-3 posts/day). Preference will be given to those who can post heavily on Saturday/Sunday.For the columnist position, we are looking for a high level Mage to contribute to our weekly class feature Arcane Brilliance. You don't have to be a hard core raider, but some raid experience would be an advantage.For all open positions, we are looking for people who are passionate about the game and can write articles that are both informative and entertaining. See our application page for instructions on how to apply. The deadline for this round of applications is this extended to Monday, December 17 at 11:59pm PST.EDIT: Deadline extended to Monday due to current mail delivery issues.
Nokia and Reuters develop an N95-based "Mobile Journalism Toolkit"
The rise of the cameraphone has certainly changed the face of journalism, and old-guard wire service Reuters isn't about to get passed by -- the company has entered into a long-term partnership with Nokia to develop new mobile reporting technologies, and the two companies have recently completed trials of an N95-based "Mobile Journalism Tookit" that takes moblogging to a whole new level. Reporters were given a hardware bundle that consisted of an N95, a Nokia SU-8W portable keyboard, a Sony condenser mic with special N95 adapter, a tripod, and two Power Monkey power stations, including the solar-capable Explorer, all of which linked into a custom mobile CMS that allows stories to be posted almost instantly. Reuters also partnered with Comvu for GPS-linked video streaming, and the N95 also provides a host of other metadata about each piece of content as it's filed. Although the trial is now over, both Reuters and Nokia plan on using the kits to teach journalism students and to promote the cause of citizen journalism. Let's hope that means they start teaching people how to take non-blurry cameraphone spy shots, eh?Read -- Mobile Journalism Toolkit press releaseRead -- Posts from the Reuters mobile journalism trialRead -- Toolkit contents
Penny Arcade on Bloggergate
Today's Penny Arcade comic covers a subject that is near and dear to us: the poor Nintendo employee who was fired for inappropriate statements made on her blog. Even though her blog was really mean to her coworkers, we feel a certain solidarity as Nintendo bloggers. Whether or not she deserved dismissal for statements made while off-duty is a little bit more of a complex issue than we want to get into right now (though we lean heavily toward "no"), but we have no problem pointing you at a funny comic so you can laugh.Luckily for us, whenever we're mean on our blog, it's towards the Imagine games and not people. If Imagine Babyz were our boss, well, we'd probably be in jail by now.
Don't post where you eat: Nintendo fires employee for blogging
Anyone still convinced of the anonymity of the internet should maybe think twice before complaining about their coworkers. Jessica Zenner recently lost her job at Nintendo of America over some slanderous remarks made on her blog. This, despite the fact that Zenner wrote under a pseudonym, and used no company or employee names when talking about her work.Zenner -- who is 23-year-old and "good looking" according to The Seattle Stranger -- was contracted as a technical recruiter for Nintendo. Her blog, aptly titled Inexcusable Behavior, featured several posts in which she discusses co-workers and superiors, though never by name and without ever mentioning that she worked for Nintendo.One post in particular focused on a female boss, referring to her as a "frumpy" and "hormonal" woman with "facial hair," and who gives Zenner "a new excuse to drink heavily." This post, among others, appear to have since been removed from her blog. VP of marketing Perrin Kaplan has stated that Nintendo does not forbid employees to keep blogs, but does discourage the practice. This echoes the "officially unofficial" policies of other large tech companies, like Microsoft.[Via Game Politics]
Nintendo employee blogs, gets the axe
Your employer might not like your personal blog, as the latest instance of a personal blog affecting someone's life in a negative way can be seen in the story of Jessica Zenner. She was canned by Nintendo for posting things in her personal blog, which never actually mentioned Nintendo (and she wrote under a pen name). Still, Nintendo found it and gave her the boot.Commenting on the situation, Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan says she "was expressly discouraged from doing what she did. I've seen everything that she's written and it's really not work appropriate." Of course, the situation has arguments for both sides, so we'll leave it up to you to claim who was in the wrong. Jessica or Nintendo?[Via Kotaku]
MarsEdit 2.0.2 fixes bugs
Scott's favorite blogging software has gotten another update, hot on the heels of the big 2.0 release. MarsEdit 2.0.2 patches up the big release with a few "slightly urgent" fixes involving using external editors and Evaluation mode (including a bug that caused you to be nagged a little more often than expected). There are also a few other typo and bug fixes (including a small fix to 2.0.1, which was only up for a little bit, so you didn't miss anything).The update is available over on Red Sweater's site, and if you haven't started editing on Mars yet, the full program is available for $29.95.
MarsEdit 2.0
I've been blogging for a little over seven years now (I am as shocked as you are, believe me. You would think after all this time I would be better at this!) and many things have changed. Used to be the only way you could write a post for your blog was in a browser window. You would fire up Blogger (or Diaryland, as the case may be) and plunk your entry into a very simple form (no categories, no trackbacks, no Markdown. It was a simpler time, my friends), hit a button and there it would be for all the world to see. That is as long as your browser didn't crash, which tends to happen at the most inopportune times.Luckily, those dark days are over and we have fantastic apps like MarsEdit to compose our posts in. Oddly enough, MarsEdit 2 was just released by Red Sweater Software (wacky, huh?). Version 2.0 ushers in a completely revamped user interface that follows the UI trends of a mature OS X (the number of floating palettes are sharply down, and the use of drawers is non-existent). This version also brings integration with Flickr, which was one of my biggest requests (thanks, Daniel!). Printing has also been added, because sometimes your posts are so good they should be on paper.MarsEdit 2 costs $29.95, though if you bought a copy on or after July 1, 2007 the upgrade is free, while it'll cost us long time MarEditers $9.95 to get the snazzy new features. MarsEdit 2 requires OS X 10.4 and there is a free 30 day trial available.
Retro MacOS Wordpress Theme
We don't usually cover Wordpress theme on TUAW, but I think we can make an exception for the Retro MacOS Wordpress Theme. Wordpress, in case you aren't familiar with it, is a very successful blogging engine which allows users to apply various themes to change the look of their blogs. Stuart Brown decided to try his hand at creating one, and he used System 6 as his inspiration. The result is a Wordpress theme that'll bring a smile to any Mac user's Finder (Ha! See what I did there?).You can see the theme in action here.
WoW Insider is looking for a few good bloggers!
That's right! We're looking to expand our staff here at WoW Insider by adding a few talented bloggers and an additional columnist. Getting paid to play isn't just a daydream -- though we will expect you to be able to alt-tab out for long enough to write for us. For bloggers, we're looking for people with a passion for the game and solid writing ability. We're accepting applications from all types of players, but right now we're particularly interested in adding writers with PvP experience or who play on the European realms. For columnists, we're wanting someone who can commit to writing articles weekly or bi-weekly on a specific topic. In the past, we've asked potential writers to pitch topics to us, but this time we're only interested in one column subject: PvP. If this sounds like a good time to you, head over to our application page to get the full scoop on how to apply. We'll be accepting applications between now and Wednesday, August 22nd, at 11:59 PM EST. This isn't a lot of time, so if you're interested, get on it!
ecto3 alpha released
Adriaan Tijsseling has been tweeting about the development progress of ecto3, his powerful Mac blogging app, for some time now. After a sneak peek and more teaser screenshots, Adriaan has generously offered an alpha version for us to play with. In other words: it's pre-beta, which means stuff is very, very likely to go wrong; play with this at your own risk. Speaking of risk, however, there is certainly an upside to testing out this ecto3 alpha: it uses a completely different set of data and storage from the current ecto2, so you don't have to worry about blowing away your old settings or accounts.That said, let's get on to the good stuff: what's new. First of all, ecto3 is apparently a complete rewrite from the bottom up. It has a new rich text editor based on Apple's own Editable WebKit, which offers a number of handy new writing abilities (such as the slick nested list in the ecto3 alpha announcement post). Another major new development which we had previously heard of is a new plug-in architecture for ecto3, allowing anyone to add support for more blogging systems, integrate media and even text formatting such as Markdown. It's a great step towards allowing ecto3 to become a blogging hub that can do just about anything for anyone.Speaking of media, I also noticed that there is a new media browser that has access to all the typical stuff, such as iPhoto and Aperture photos, and even your movies. There are all sorts of new goodies in ecto3, so definitely poke around to see all the hard work Adriaan has put into this so far.If you download the alpha, be sure to read through Adriaan's ecto3 alpha announcement post for a few tips and gotchas with getting the ball rolling. There are a few minor things he hasn't gotten to yet, such as adding all the sites to ping when you publish a post, but a simple 'add defaults' button will get you squared away easily. Once it's finished, ecto3 will surprisingly be a free upgrade for existing registered users (a single license is a mere $17.95). Until then, however, be sure to swing by the support forums to post bugs and discuss ecto3.
Xfire has chats up from BlizzCon
Yes, even though we've been extremely busy here at BlizzCon, the guys from Xfire (who stopped by our party on Thursday, as did a few folks from Upper Deck and Blizzard), haven't been slacking off, either. They've posted quite a few live chats over the weekend, and here's a roundup for you to browse through. Their biggest event was probably a chat with Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan-- I actually was standing right next to him when they did this one. If you're an Engineer, check it out for sure-- he says they'll be able to craft flying machines! They also chatted it up with a few high profile players: The1Crow and Beraa from MYM (and here's part 2), The Hukhukhukhukhuks from Team EG (parts 1 and 2), and even Jonas from Nihilum. And we have no idea why they wanted to do this, but before the Con, they even sat down to chat with us-- here's part 1, part 2, and the Lightning Round! (guess which is my favorite part) Amanda, Elizabeth and I all made predictions about what would happen, and we got a lot of stuff right (and, ok, some stuff wrong). Plus, Xfire has lots more from the floor, including pictures, updates, stories, news, and tons of other stuff. Thanks to them for all their help this weekend, and go check out their coverage!
