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Instagram eventually pulls a troll's post praising pipe bombs
Remember Milo Yiannapolous? The self-described provocateur who now lacks a job at Breitbart, a book deal with Simon & Schuster and a Twitter account can add one more deletion to the list: an Instagram post. Unlike Alex Jones, Yiannapolous has maintained a presence on Facebook's properties, and The Daily Beast reported that today -- after a number of prominent Democratic politicians, public figures and media organizations received threatening packages -- he posted a message that included "Disgusting and sad (that they didn't go off, and the daily beast didn't get one)."
Former EVE CSM member Vile Rat killed in attack on Libyan consulate [Updated]
All too often, we read news of conflict in other countries with an impersonal detachment, as if it's so far away that it will never touch our lives in any significant way. Mainstream media twists each event into a political message with the same detachment, forgetting the reality of the lives that are destroyed every day. This morning that fact was brought home as we read news of a US official killed in an attack on the Libyan consulate in Benghazi. Just a few hours ago, EVE Online alliance GoonSwarm released a statement that the US official killed was apparently GoonSwarm director and former Council of Stellar Management member Sean "Vile Rat" Smith. Players, CCP developers, and GMs have begun leaving their condolences on the official EVE forums. According to those who knew him, Vile Rat was a well-loved player and a respected leader whose actions indirectly touched the lives of every EVE player. Massively extends its own condolences to his family and friends. [Update: In the time since this story was published overnight, the BBC has updated its coverage, noting that a total of four Americans were killed in the attack, the US Ambassador to Libya and Sean Smith among them.]
WoW Moviewatch: Serenity Now and the funeral
Caution: There is some offensive language in this video.This weekend was the third anniversary of WoW Insider, and when I was putting together the big list of our top ten stories ever, I noticed there was one missing. Even though it happened in April of 2006 (we started posting in December of 2005), we never really covered the Serenity Now funeral attack. But it is one of the biggest stories in World of Warcraft, whether you think it's atrocious or hilarious or whatever, so during today's Moviewatch, we'll give it its due.A woman who played WoW passed away in real life, and her guildies decided to hold an ingame funeral for her -- in the contested zone of Wintergrasp Winterspring (of course -- too much Wrath lately, sorry) On a PvP server. And though now, four years into the game, we know exactly what would happen, back then, it came as a surprise -- as you've probably seen in the video (set to some amazing music), the guild Serenity Now crashed the funeral and pretty much decimated everyone who showed up.
India cracks down on open WiFi to stem terrorism, chain letters
Just when you thought you were doing your buddy next door a favor, turns out leaving your WiFi router open to the public is the first step in staging a terrorist bombing -- who knew? The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) reckons the country just isn't ready for that kind of responsibility, seeing as how email over WiFi is all the rage for transmitting instructions to fellow terror-ees these days. The aim is now to limit WiFi net access to authorized persons only. Man, just imagine what they'll do with WiMAX. In other news, the pencil sitting next to you could be used to poke your eye out if you're not careful.[Via The Economic Times]
Safari 'carpet bombing' exploit could be serious
A zero-day vulnerability in Safari that could litter a user's desktop (or downloads folder) with arbitrary files is a serious security flaw, argues ZDNet, and not a mere "annoyance" as Apple claims. In theory, a user must click a link to visit a malicious website that can begin downloading arbitrary files (including applications) to the user's computer without their permission. The problem affects both the Windows and Mac versions of Safari. Researcher Nitesh Dhanjani reported the flaw to Apple, which promised to patch it in a future release of Safari. ZDNet and StopBadware.org contend, however, that a patch should be released immediately. It's old advice, but it bears repeating: be careful of the links you click, and know where they go before you click them.
Breakfast Topic: Most hated daily quests
In light of the recent inquests against our least favorite races, mobs, mob abilities, or tankadin writers, it seems only fitting to ask; what is your least favorite daily quest?Now that the cap has been raised to twenty-five, and a slew of dailies has been added as of patch 2.4, many players are finding themselves spending a few hours on daily quests each day. Personally, there are a few that I enjoy doing most days, including the bombing runs, and some that I'd rather avoid if I didn't need the gold to fuel my rather Outlandish habits.I'm not sure if I could pinpoint a single culprit though. The longer quests bother me up front, because I get bored spending half an hour each day mowing through the same exercise. As such, the Shadowmoon Valley quests might be my least favorite, because aside from the competition, they take forever.Which daily quests are giving you a daily headache, and why?
Bombing run nerfed
Yesterday, after the realms finally came back from the small 2.4.1 patch, I logged on for my usual round of dailies. The first thing I did was to group up with another player for Distraction at the Dead Scar, hoping to get it done in one try. And we succeded -- in fact, we got it done by about halfway through the first run! I've never finished that quest that soon, even in a full group of five. So I grew suspicious that perhaps the difficulty of this daily was reduced in the patch.And indeed, MMO-Champion is reporting that the following changes were made to the quest: Eredar Sorcerers now die in one hit instead of two Pit Overlords now die in two hits instead of three Welcome modifications indeed. The number of times I finished the run one Sorcerer short was starting to get annoying, and the flight time to and from the Dead Scar is irritatingly high if you have to go for repeat runs. This should be much more easily soloable now. Has it been made too easy? Maybe a bit, but bombing is fun regardless, and most of the dailies are of a similar level of difficulty.
Top 7 reasons I am looking forward to 2.4
So with patch 2.4 coming on us soon, I was thinking about it, and I have to say that I can't remember the last time I was filled with this much anticipation over a patch. Aside from 1.8, which made Feral Druids viable, this might be my favorite patch. But why do I love it? Why can't I wait until the servers come up on patch day and we're allowed in? Let me count the ways! Here's 7 relatively simple reasons that I am watching my computer like a hawk, waiting for 2.4 to make it live.
Breakfast Topic: What's your favorite quest?
Yesterday's forum post of the day discussed everyone's least favorite quests. The ones that seemed to come up most frequently were Courser Antlers, Zeth'Gor Must Burn, Mok'thardin's Enchantment, and most escort quests. WoW quests seem to be pretty formulaic. "Bring me some number of this item or kill that number of mobs." I guess there only so many types of quests that the developers can make. In order to ensure that you get enough experience from some quests, they assign a ridiculously low drop rate. Sometimes I think there are sensors in the keyboard that measure one's level of the frustration by how hard you hit the keys. Once you reach a certain threshold, the item drops. I'm probably wrong about that.
Holla for Halaa
Blizzard has posted a helpful page of tips on how to run, in my opinion, the best setup of organized World PvP so far: Halaa, the conquerable city in Nagrand.The tips are pretty straightforward: stick together (team-- where's my CS homies at?), do as much bombing as you can before heading into the town, and make sure, once you've liberated Halaa from its evil oppressors, that you stick around to keep control and defend against any counterattacks. One thing I like about Halaa is that the Wyverns make it super easy for even lower geared players to join the fight and make a real difference. Plus, the layout is done well, and I like, as we heard at BlizzCon, that Blizzard went with a pretty persistent reward-- it's no fun to conquer something just to lose it again in 5 minutes.And Halaa, surely, will serve as a model for the next big noninstanced PvP zone coming in Wrath of the Lich King, Lake Wintergrasp. Blizzard hasn't actually designed the zone yet, but they did share their goals with us-- multiple targets and rewards, a persistent effect, and of course while Halaa doesn't have them, siege weapons will make an appearance as well.So if you haven't tried Halaa yet, definitely check it out. From everything we've heard, this kind of thing is the future of where World PvP is headed.
