scheduling
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Mac mini and Dropbox: Getting it done
Yesterday I wrote about my love of the Mac mini. So dependable and unobtrusive, it's the Honda Civic of computers. In the post, I briefly described how we use Dropbox to send routinely-updated Keynote files to the mini. A few of you wrote to ask for details, so I decided to share that information here on the blog. We use two pieces of software: Dropbox and iCal.DropboxHere's the setup. First, the Mac mini is connected to the projector in the Projection Room above the theater via DVI. Every day, it runs a slideshow before the orientation film. That slideshow contains sponsorship information, museum news, etc. It's updated once a week or so by someone in the art department (we'll call her "Janie"). Janie's desk is a couple hundred yards and two buildings away from the Projection Room. The Keynote file lives in a Dropbox folder that both Janie's PC and the mini can access. Of course, we don't want Janie editing the slideshow while it's running before a room full of guests. That's where iCal comes in.iCalWe stop showing the film at 4:00 PM and Janie arrives for the day at 9:00 AM, so we set up two repeating iCal events. The first event launches the slideshow in the morning. Every weekday at 8:45 AM (doors open at 9:00), there's a repeating iCal event with an alarm set to open the slideshow where it lives in Dropbox. Note that the show has been set to run at launch and loop indefinitely in Keynote.What about updating? Easy. We stop running the slideshow at 4:00 PM and Janie leaves for the day at 5:00 PM. A second repeating iCal event has an alarm that runs the following super-simple Applescript:Tell application "Keynote"quitEnd tellThe script does just what you expect -- it kills Keynote. This runs at 4:05 PM each weekday, and frees Janie to spend 10 or 15 minutes updating the file from her PC just before she goes home. The next morning, the first iCal event re-launches the slideshow and the cycle repeats.That's how two free pieces of software (iCal and Dropbox) combine with an inexpensive, consumer level one to create a simple and effective solution to a problem. Best of all, it doesn't require a computer science degree or even a week with a giant manual. The iCal events and script are invisible to Janie. All she knows is, "I open the folder on my PC, change the slideshow, hit Save and I'm done." Sure, we could have dumped it on a central server, set up some sort of FTP voodoo that would have given Janie a headache, etc. But why? If the simple solution works, use it.If you try something similar, let me know how it goes. Thanks to everyone who asked about this.
Officers' Quarters: Patch 3.2 -- An officer's perspective
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.The last time I did an officers' patch perspective, the numbers were reversed (2.3). In that column, I talked about mage tables, spell damage being added to healing gear, and the Horde finally getting Fear Ward. It was October of 2007. Yep, a lot has changed in the past two years of WoW!Patch 3.2 isn't yet up on the PTRs, but it's never too early to anticipate issues or plan for future success. Here are a few interesting changes to the game that might have an impact on guilds as we head into the late summer.1 Raid, 4 Lockout Timers: That's right, the Crusaders' Coliseum will have four different versions with four different lockouts. The kneejerk reaction to this bit of news on the official forums (is there any other kind?) was generally not one of celebration. The most common complaint was, "Great. Now I have to farm the same five bosses four times a week." Many players would balk at the thought of "have to" in this context. After all, just because you can, doesn't mean it's mandatory. But in hardcore guilds, the drive to be competitive (and keep your raid slot) can lead you down some strange roads. In some guilds, it is expected that you attend every scheduled raid you can. Some players are getting burned out just at the idea of running the same content four times in a single week.
Officers' Quarters: Surviving summer
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.My guild's members mostly reside in the northeastern U.S. and Canada. As such, the summer is a great season for us: barbecues, outdoor sports, beaches and lakes, hikes and bike rides -- it's a lot of fun! However, it's also the season where my guild's raiding schedule seems to hang by a thread. And this year is no different.People aren't online as much. Their free time shifts around completely. Some members hardly play at all. It starts to become difficult to fill raid slots. Sometimes it becomes impossible, and we have to cancel raids for a little while. On top of everything else, we've been plagued by a string of technical problems this year. It started out with with one of our healers getting all laggy on us for no apparent reason. Then someone's PC was attacked by an undetected virus. Then another one of our healers had their PC die mid-raid. Then a tank's motherboard exploded.
Officers' Quarters: A scheduling headache
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.One of the big annoyances of raiding is finding the right schedule. This time of year is particularly bad for many guilds, as last week's Officers' Quarters column proved. Students of all ages have finals. Working adults are traveling more often or spending more time away from the PC. When you have a small crew, the loss of even one person for a few weeks can mean all your raids are put on hold. This week, one officer wants to know how to figure out a raiding schedule despite some uncooperative individuals. Dear Scott, I am the co-leader of a casual 10-man raiding guild on Lightning Hoof. Despite only raiding once a week, we've managed to down ten of the bosses in Ulduar and we're proud of that accomplishment. Lately though, it has been almost impossible to get everyone together on the same night to work on progression. Quite a few of our raiders have school or work requirements, and it is very difficult to time every one's lives around raiding. We try our hardest, and for a good while it was working out perfectly. Lately though, I feel that our raiders are beginning to demand the raid schedule be built around them, rather than trying to make time in their own week to come. Since we are such a small guild, it happens quite often that when one person can't/doesn't show, we are not able to raid. This then wastes the entire night, and it becomes almost impossible to re-schedule.
DirecTV's DVR Scheduler service schedules one millionth recording
Not even six full months after DirecTV rolled out its DVR Scheduler service, users have logged on via their mobile phones or online in order to schedule one million shows. For those unfamiliar, said service enables customers to tell their DVR to record a program without actually being near the DVR; so long as you've got a handset with data access or an outright internet connection, you're golden. Unsurprisingly, the most commonly recorded program via the service was SportsCenter, but we won't spoil the rest of the top 15 for you. So, how many times did you contribute to this number?[Image courtesy of MyDigitalLife]
Timing virtual world launches
When's the perfect time to launch your brand new virtual world? The one that will send kids hunting through their parent's wallets for money for new outfits for their virtual puppy. The one that will have people busily importing their five thousand-strong MySpace friends list into your Scooby-Doo-themed social networking site, The Haunted Amusement Park. Your Shiny Whiter Teeth virtual world that will launch aside your new toothpaste. It all depends on your target audience, says Electric Sheep's Giff Constable.If you're going after the coveted pre-teen dollar, best to launch it just as the kids are getting out of school. Their parents will likely have their guard down and be more permissive. Though that won't work with college kids. Get them just after exams, but before the new semester. They'll be playing and getting their friends to play so when the new semester starts, your foot is in the door. Adults aren't likely to play during the Summer (when their kids are hogging the computer, no doubt) -- grab them in the Spring or the Fall when the pressure of summer or the holiday season aren't on their minds. But if you're tying your virtual world to a toy or other consumer item, then the holiday season is your strong season, and you should launch in the Fall in order to make a big splash.You can spend all the time you need on your virtual world, polish it to a high sheen, but if your intended audience is off doing something else ... you won't have the launch you want.
Is Blizzard prepared?
The tagline for The Burning Crusade is "You Are Not Prepared." Based on what I saw tonight, Blizzard is not prepared for the expansion either. It took me awhile to grab a good screenshot, I started out at 583 in queue, 57 minutes. Post after post on the General forums complaining about long queue times. With the number of people coming back to the game for the expansion pack, what kind of queue times and problems can we expect? Oh well, it gave me time to get a few new raids scheduled. Hopefully people can get logged in when I want to start.
