group
Latest
A Shaman Primer for new players
The following document was created to help Shaman, specifically Draenei Shaman, as they find themselves as the new class in the Alliance. It's also useful for those who are about to group with a Shaman (or two or three), to understand what role a shammy will play in your group or raid. Finally, it's definitely a good read for anyone who's just picking up the Shaman class, to give you a bit of a jump on your fellow players in knowing your place in groups and raids. As with most of my shaman info, the credit here definitely goes to Skew, my leveling buddy who is now on his 3rd level 60 Shaman. He swore that if Shaman were ever given to the Alliance, he'd play one, and he has. His knowledge and support and love of the class have been instrumental in encouraging the same in me. The bulk of the primer is posted after the break, so be sure to read and chime in with your thoughts on the role of a shaman.
QinetiQ demos a simulated squadron of self-organizing UAVs
British security and military contractor QinetiQ has just come out with what it's calling the first system of self-organizing UAVs. In a recent demo, an autonomous BAC1-11 twin-jet plane (pictured) controlled a separate group of simulated UAVs to carry out a simulated ground attack on a moving target. During the trial run, a human crew was inside the lead plane, making sure that there wasn't any disasters, simulated or otherwise. When combined with the company's previous inventions that include the Millimeter Wave scanning device and that tiny GPS tracking unit (we're guessing that could be put into some sort of projectile), all outfitted onto a whole UAV squadron -- we're pretty sure that'd make for one heck of a recon unit. [Via The Inquirer]
Desktops of the week for 10/15/06
Here we go with another edition of TUAW Desktops ladies and gents. You readers are submitting some great stuff to our desktops Flickr group, and since our last edition was a nice overall roundup, I decided to pick a theme for this week: function. I'm a big fan of making the most out of my available desktop real estate, and the desktops I've chosen each exhibit an interesting perspective on this practice. In this edition we have desktops ranging from über-minimal yet uniquely-functional to a full-on Exposé overload, and even a pseudo-multi-dock environment. But without further adieu, let's get down to business:First up is shorts by pacificbro. By his own admission this isn't so much a clever, intricate desktop setup, though it's more of a functional use of the wallpaper space with many common (and some not-so) keyboard shortcuts he needs to get around his daily business. Too bad I didn't see this before the My Dream App stuff started - I just got inspired to submit an app idea that swaps out shortcuts like this on the desktop space depending on what app you're currently working in. A simple F11 Exposé keystroke would reveal all (or most) of the shortcuts you need to work. *Sigh* - maybe I can get in on round two. But speaking of Exposé, let's keep moving.
How to quit a group
We've talked quite a few times here about how to play the game well and how to get into good groups and guilds. But (and this is inspired by personal experience, trust me), sometimes things don't go so well. Sometimes, your warrior leaves halfway through the instance, or it's clear that your priest isn't interested in doing her job when she lets the tank die and says "srry watchn grays anatmy." Sometimes, you just want out. So here's five ways to do just that, ranked in order from "nicest and most helpful" to "harshest and least likely to get you invited back again".5. Be honest. Sometimes people just have bad days. One way to gracefully exit a group after a wipe is to just make it clear: "one more wipe, and we're going to call the group off." That might be just what the players need to get their acts together. Be honest, share your concerns, answer questions or clarify things if necessary, and then when the hunter pulls aggro off the tank again, thank them for the group and move on.4. Find a replacement. This one actually runs neck and neck with #5, but it's still a little harsher because you're leaving instead of sticking around and helping. Still, finding a replacement is an easy and fairly pain-free way to get out of a group that just isn't working out. Throw a few tells in LFG until you've nabbed someone, tell the group you're tagging out, and exit stage left.3. Just disconnect. It happens. People lose their connections. If you're ever stuck in a bad group, pull the plug on your network cord for a few minutes, then log back on and play an alt for a while. For extra believability, combine with #2: jump back on the character after you notice your group is out of the instance and apologize for the freak thunderstorm that just rolled through.2. Lie. Am I the only one that's done this? Just throw a quick "sry gtg mom's makin dinner" in the party channel (never mind that I'm a long way from living with my mother and that she doesn't make me dinner anymore), and boom you're out of the group without any questions. Do it too many times (or to someone you've spoken normally with before), and people on the server might start getting suspicious, but every once in a while it works like a charm. "Whoops guild is calling me, later" does wonders, as well.1. Tell them off. Strangely enough, the harshest way to ditch a group looks very much like the nicest way, but with a lot more yelling, maybe a little cursing, and even some angry tells afterwards. If you've had enough and finally decided that yes, this might be the worst PUG you've ever been in, feel free to scream at the warrior to L2P NOOB, and tell the healer that you can't make water because you're a warlock, then "leave group" with gleeful abandon. Ok, it might get you put on some ignore lists, and do it enough and you'll get a reputation on the server, but trust me, after an hour and half wiping in a terrible PUG, a little yelling will make you feel much better.
TUAW Desktops of the week for 9/10/06
Being that this is the first official TUAW Desktops series roundup post, we couldn't force ourselves to chose just one. You readers have found some pretty creative uses for your desktops, and our new TUAW Desktops Flickr group is shining proof. As a result, we decided that in order to get this party started, we should round up a few desktops from different ends of the spectrum; some busy, some minimal, and some in a class of their own. First up is quite possibly the busiest Dashboard we've ever seen from Flickr user Z6p6tist6, pictured above. We're sure Apple would be proud of the little bit of business mixed with a little bit of play that's happening on this desktop.Read on for a few more desktops that made this week's roundup, and be sure to submit your own unique take on the desktop to our TUAW Desktops Flickr pool, as we'll round them up in this new series each weekend.
Announcing the new TUAW Desktops Flickr group and series
Fire up your screen capture software and keyboard shortcuts TUAW readers, as we are announcing a new Flickr group and post series titled simply: TUAW Desktops. That's right ladies and gentlemen, in addition to immortalizing you in our archives with the Rig of the Day series, we want to dive a little deeper into just what makes your Mac, your Mac. Are you a wallpaper connoisseur, or perhaps you have the busiest Dock this side of Cupertino? Is your workspace decked out with utilities like iPulse, Konfabulator widgets and ShapeShifter themes, or do you want to share you mastery of clutter-free desktop feng shui? Join our new TUAW Desktops group on Flickr and upload your screenshots. On Saturdays, we'll pick out and round up the best of the desktops to share here on TUAW, complete with credit attribution and a link to your site, if you have one.Speaking of credit, we should probably lay down some rules here: First rule about TUAW Desktops: you do not talk... If you can (or would like), please attribute any work like wallpapers or icons to their original authors, and we'll do our best to include those attributions in our posts. It's fine if you don't know who that is when you post your shots - trust us, we have hundreds of wallpapers and we don't remember where we found every single one - but at the very least, don't take credit for someone else's work. This is the internets, and the readers *will* call out stunts like that. On the other hand - if something *is* your original work, by all means - let us know, and we'll be sure your creativity gets a mention in the spotlight. Try not to overload the pool with submissions that are too similar to your previous submission(s). We're looking for fresh desktop shots; that little 'extra something' that really makes them leap off the display. Desktops that have that element which is difficult to describe, yet impossible to miss. Keep it clean. This is a family blog, and we like to keep our Flickr groups and other community endeavors family-friendly as well. Last rule (for now): Unless you went all-out using products like Stardock's to make your Windows desktop look and act like Mac OS X (it's do-able - I used to, before I actually got my first Mac), we'd like to stick with Mac desktops only. After all, you are reading The Unofficial Apple Weblog. With that said, get on to showing off your desktops and let the submissions begin!
OmniPlan
Well, the cat's out of the bag folks. OmniPlan is the name of that now not-so-super-secret new piece of software from Omni Group. As the name oh-so-subtly suggests, OmniPlan does project planning, complete with Gant charts and whatever else you project planning people do. I'm not quite sure what all of the features do, as I have zero background in project planning, but it's sure pretty!OmniPlan has been in private beta for about a week, and a public beta will be released on Wednesday.
Script to bookmark all of Safari's tabs
I know there are various plugins, addons, widgets and thingamabobs that will allow Safari to bookmark a group of tabs you have open. If you haven't installed any of these extras or you're just an applescript fan at heart, I found a one-trick script over at ScriptBuilders that should pull this trick off just fine. However, I haven't tested this yet, and the script's page doesn't state whether its compatible with Tiger and/or Panther, so if you try it out, please post your thoughts.
