picnic
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Barrens Chat: You're pulling my fin
I have these questions about some of the random things I find in World of Warcraft. One the one hand, I'm intensely curious as to the answer to these questions. On the other hand, I'm really not sure I want to know.One of the most enjoyable aspects of playing the game sometimes is imagining what it is that is really going on behind the scenes. With an imagination like mine, this can sometimes lead to really interesting ideas as to just how things work. %Gallery-22361%
Gotta pack lunches for 'em all
Banpresto and pretty much every other Japanese toy company knows the importance of releasing a steady stream of Pokéstuff lest any of us fall out of the series' thrall and stop buying for a while. To keep us thinking about Pokémon all day, they've made a duo of new items designed to keep Pokémon mastery on your mind all day.First is a cute picnic set made up of two square containers, with a stylized Pokémon graphic on the lid. Hey, if every plant and animal in the Pokémon universe is a Pokémon, does that mean that, when Ash and company eat lunch ...Uh, on to the next item! It's totally cute and leads to no horrific revelations! The Pokémon Diamond & Pearl Super DX Onemuri Makura is just a cute pillow in the shape of either a sleepy Piplup or a sleepy Pikachu, wrapped up in a blanket thing.
Death Knights not welcome at town picnic
It's a problem: here you are, a master of your very own runed blade, a summoner of an army of undead, an immensely powerful tank and damage-dealer -- and yet no one will let you into the lore party over at Starshine Shadowstrider's house! "Yuckie!" they say. "He got his powers from the Lich King! ...Eww!""But I turned against him!" you proclaim in your defense. "I wised up and came back to the Light, sorta. Okay not really but I'm still not completely bad! It's like... fighting..." your voice gradually gets quieter as party-goers stop listening, "... fighting fire with ... fire. Dammit. I'm gonna go kill Onyxia by myself! That'll show 'em."Yes indeed. It's looking like the future's going to be pretty rough for Death Knights. As Nethaera explained, "It's most likely that Death Knights aren't going to find themselves being popular guests at the town picnic."But Death Knights aren't alone in dealing with this sort of thing. "Keep in mind," Nethaera points out, "that Warlocks aren't generally welcomed with open arms either (depending on the culture of the race in question)." Here we have a good role model for plucky summoners of the undead: Warlocks are magic users who use the powers of the Burning Legion against the Burning Legion itself! Have not the Alliance and the Horde not gradually come to accept that just because some people happen to summon demons, cause agony, corruption and ruin, as well as steal people's souls -- that doesn't make them inherently evil, right? So it is with Death Knights. So what if you betrayed all the peoples of Azeroth to go and serve the Lich King for a little while? So what if his taint of undeathiness is still flowing through you while you draw those unholy runes and create zombies? You can now go to Shattrath to have your picture taken with a Naaru! Your reputation should be squeaky clean.While Blizzard may yet find a plausible reason for Death Knights to be fighting against the Lich King rather than with him, keep in mind that even if that doesn't work out, you've got one magic word that will make everything okay. Whenever people won't trust you or play with you just because it would seem that you might possibly be technically evil (on the outside)... Just say: "Lore, lol."
Picnic file synchronizer released
We last mentioned Picnic when the beta was released in June; now Objectpark software is shipping version 1. Picnic is a utility designed to allow you to synchronize folders you specify between two Macs on the same local network. By using Bonjour it requires little or no setup. Unfortunately, I see two major downsides to Picnic. First, it seems rather expensive. Each machine/user requires a license which are $29.95 each (though there are discounts when ordering multiple licenses, e.g. $55 for two). Compare this to the similar Martian Slingshot at $29.99 for use on all your personal computers. Second, it only works over a local network and not the Internet (though I suspect you could hack it together with Hamachi or another VPN solution).A demo of Picnic is available for download.[via MacNN]
Picnic offers Bonjour shared folders
Picnic appears to be an interesting tool for small Mac networks where users need to share files. It allows you to "create shared folders of files which are automatically synced between all user's accounts using Bonjour." This could really make it easier for small businesses or workgroups to share files between users (such as was requested by Stephen in a comment to the Ask TUAW post from last week). Since the files are synchronized across multiple computers it essentially gives you a kind of live backup. Mobile users retain a copy of the files when they disconnect from the network and changes are synced back when they reconnect (conflicts are apparently marked). In a lot of ways Picnic looks like the two Mac syncing tool Martian SlingShot, but with support for multiple Macs.Picnic is now in beta and available for download from Objectpark software.[via uneasysilence]
