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The Queue: Uber Epic DPS
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today. Let's jump right into The Queue today. Lots of questions answered after the break.Valdorin asked... "What DPS is expected before you start heroics, 10-mans, 25-mans?"
Keepin' it real fake, part CXCVIII: TAG Heuer Meridiist gets way-too-low MSRP
You know how we know this here TAG Heuer Meridiist isn't the real deal? Not because it isn't sexy, and not because we don't really, really want to believe. No -- it's because the authentic handset can't be found for under five or six grand, while this little impostor can be had for the unfathomably low price of just $290. So yeah, you'll miss out on the fancy box and veritable bragging rights, but you will get twin SIM slots and a choice of black or red "leather." You know, come to think of it, maybe we would be willing to deal with a fake in order to save a few mortgage payments...[Via Tehnozona]
Wandering through the hedge maze of Lord of the Rings Online's spring festival
Festivals come and festivals go, but how many games feature something as neat as a hedge maze for their spring festival event? A hedge maze with quests even!Tony over at MMeOw has put together a pretty nice overview of what the hedge maze in Lord of the Rings Online is all about. He goes over exactly why you want to chase chickens through the bushes, how to get through the maze in the fastest time possible, and the enjoyable parts of putting up signs of misdirection throughout the maze.Even if none of this sounds like it interests you, one of the possible prizes you can get is the fish slap emote, /fishslap. We are 100% confident on our side of the fence that none of you out there can turn down getting access to /fishslap.The maze isn't the only part of the spring festival, as all of the original trappings of last year have returned. The quests for the Inn-League, the eating contest in the festival grounds, and the other events are still making their yearly appearance. But if you're looking for a nice write-up of the hedge maze, look no further than MMeOw.
Forum post of the day: Friends in low places
How much can you determine about someone from their guild tag? Andrys of Arathor believes that she should be able to rely on someone's performance based on the guild they're in. She's disappointed that she invited a low DPS player because of a guild tag. She then checked the armory profile to see that the player was ranked 8 in the guild, presumably a friends and family rank. The post finished with "Boot your friends."I've been watching this thread for a couple of days, and am surprised it hasn't gotten more attention. Klepsacovic of Zul'jin pointed out that guild ranks are listed on the armory, and the OP should have checked there. Some people are in the habit of checking the armory for any potential groupmates? I am not, then again, I don't check guild tag either when PUGging. To me bad players can come in many flavors, tanks that don't pay attention to mana, low DPS that are not interested in constructive feedback, loot ninjas, unpleasant people, and anyone who refuses to follow directions or kill order.
Twitterers remember their first Mac
Reader Sam K. (thanks!) noticed the fun on Twitter -- lots of folks are sharing their memories of the first Mac they bought/used with the #firstmac hash tag, and boy is it fun reading through them. The responses are all over the place, from the old ][e (technically my first computer ever at school, though the first one I actually owned at home was a Tandy Color Computer my Dad bought from one of his coworkers) and //c up to the old iMacs and even a few people who can only claim iPod as the first Apple product they used. The first Mac I actually owned was much later than my first steps into BASIC -- when I needed a laptop a few years ago, I picked up a 12" Powerbook G4 and have been straight OS X ever since. It's great to read this stuff, because you can see just how Apple has shaped people's lives. I was amazed to hear all of the emotion in the calls to Steve on our talkcast last week, but looking at something like this Twitter feed (to put your own memories in, just mark a tweet with the #firstmac tag somewhere in there) really shows you how dedicated Apple's products have made the company's customers. These people have all bought a Mac, whether it was a Mac SE (errrr, a Mac Classic?) or a MacBook Air, and never looked back since. Very cool. And while we're at it, is it possible that you're on Twitter and haven't yet started following us? If not, jump in and do so now!
Microsoft co-opts QR codes, Pet Shop Boys 'not stoked'
Microsoft has announced that they're jumping onto the mobile tagging thing, having developed a system of High Capacity Color Barcodes that encode information in tags smaller than those allowed by QRCode and Datamatrix formats. Additionally, the specification has been designed to work with out-of-focus and fixed-focus cameras, making the thing more feasible for cellphone use. Although the "humanities" angle is kind of cute -- the company is rightfully stoked over the fact that HCCBs were on exhibit at MoMA in New York -- this is clearly aimed at organizations looking to sell more people even more useless junk. Hooray for conspicuous consumption!
Breakfast Topic: How do you tag necropolis mobs?
It was an interesting time in Azeroth yesterday. Thousands of people on each server showed up to fight against the scourge invasion. The masses were tagging mobs left and right, all in hopes to get some elusive Necrotic Runes.All this open PvE fighting has brought up an interesting question, one that many people have some strong feelings on. What is the appropriate way to tag mobs? Is it okay to camp spawn points and AoE immediately in order to grab some scourge? Is it okay to take away another person's Shadow of Doom? What about if you accidently tag something you shouldn't have? Do you give them some gold in exchange?I have to admit, after trying for over two hours to summon a Shadow of Doom and tag it, my group decided to go a different route. We went to a new spawn point, summoned all four, and threw out as much AoE as possible. Our thought was that doing this would mean we'd at least be able to get one Shadow (we ended up getting them all). This of course upset everyone else that was there – but we had tried for a while before hand to get a single one. And we did summon all the Shadows ourselves.While this might be a questionable activity to some, it's what we did. But what would you do? How have you handled, and will you handle, tagging these mobs?
Byline 2.0 update a huge improvement: adds tag support, mini browser
Phantom Fish yesterday updated Byline to version 2.0, adding functionality to browse by tag, and a spiffy new wood-grain interface. I briefly reviewed Byline 1.0 in July, but wanted to re-visit the application after the update. Byline 2.0 is a Google Reader client and offline browser for the iPhone and iPod touch. After having used beta versions for the last few weeks, I can say with certainty that this update takes Byline head and shoulders above the first version. Byline 2.0 is faster than both version 1.0 and Google Reader's MobileSafari-optimized interface. Articles are now grouped in folders according to tags you've already set up in Google Reader. You can mark whole folders of items as read, and save items to your phone by starring them. The app doesn't show a splash screen at startup, but instead a "blank" version of the interface, which gives the illusion that the app is hanging for a short period of time. As soon as the list of folders appears, however, loading items was zippy on my iPod touch (connected via WiFi, of course).
TAG Heuer's ritzy Meridiist handset gets unboxed
All but the most affluent among us have likely purged the pricey Meridiist from our memories, but if you've ever wondered what exactly a £2,650 ($5,162) cellphone looks like (and really, who hasn't?), you'll definitely want to check this out. The fine folks over at Stuff were able to point their camera at TAG Heuer's exquisite handset ever-so-briefly, and while the images tell half the story, the folks handling it told the other. The chunky phone reportedly reeked of unnecessary luxury and was built solidly, but we didn't get the impression that they were champing at the bit to call this a bargain. At any rate, there are a few more shots where this one came from (that would be the read link, for the uninitiated).
NEC's ad system pumps out spots based on gender, age
For better or worse, targeted advertising isn't going anywhere. Seemingly, it's not getting any more discrete, either. NEC's Digital Signage Solution combines a camera, a large display and a FeliCa contactless IC card reader / writer in order to dole out advertisements that cater to certain demographics. The system includes the innate ability to determine "gender, generation and other attributes" of a person in order to serve up advertisements that will cause him / her to spend some dough. From there, the individual can scan their phone in order to access related content on their mobile internet browser. That's all and fine and dandy we suppose, but how on Earth do you convince busy citizens to stop by and have a look at an otherwise uninteresting flat-panel?[Image courtesy of NEC]
The science of snagging a tag
WoWWiki defines the tag as damaging a mob, thereby reserving the monster or NPC for you and your party so that only you may loot or gain XP from it. It also turns the status bar of the mob gray to other players to indicate that it has been tagged by another player. Rufushonkeriv asks an interesting question over at LiveJournal, however, about kill stealing and how it can happen in World of Warcraft. The tagging mechanism, which isn't present in more than a few MMOs, is supposed to prevent kill stealing in the game.However, the poster asks how a mob he has tagged is sometimes tagged away from him and explains how, when attempting the same thing, he only ends up killing a grayed-out mob faster. It is quite possible that the poster uses a DoT spell to get a mob's aggro, only to lose it to another player who deals damage with an instant cast spell. Lag can also sometimes explain how a player might think she damaged a mob first, only to have it turn gray when another player hits it. Technically, the first player to damage a mob tags it -- it isn't the player who has aggro or the player who first cast a non-damaging spell on the mob (such as Mana Tap or Hunter's Mark). There is some confusion as to the amount of damage needed to secure the tag. For example, if a player damages a mob for 1 point and a second later another player hits it for 1,000... who tags the mob? In theory, it should be the player who hit the mob for 1, because she damaged the mob first. The mechanic is pretty straightforward but in some cases players are confuddled through a mix of lag, lack of understanding about the tagging rules, and just plain old bad luck. As a rule of thumb, when tagging, hit it fast and hit it hard!
TAG Heuer's ???3,400 Meridiist handset gets official
Surely those rumored shots of TAG Heuer's luxurious first handset from last week are still stuck in your head, right? Go on and purge those puppies right on out, as we've got the very first press shots (more in the read link) of the now-official Meridiist to focus our attention on. Reportedly, the handset was indeed developed in partnership with Modelabs, and beyond the all-metal casing, you can also expect a sapphire crystal screen, 2-megapixel camera, multimedia player, 1.9-inch QVGA display, Bluetooth and a battery good for 7-hours of yappin' aimlessly about how pricey your new mobile is. Speaking of which, did we mention this prized piece will run you between €3,400 ($5,420) and €3,900 ($6,216), depending on customizations, when it sashays onto the scene in Q2? Yeah, ouch.
Hands-on with LeapFrog's new edutainment lineup
LeapFrog is virtually unchallenged in quite a few of its product lines, but that doesn't seem to be slowing them down any. The company was showing off bunches of new product at Toy Fair 2008, with most of it newly designed to hook up to the computer and help parents keep better track of what their kids are learning with all these "toys." Products like Tag -- a reading pen similar to the FLY pentop -- can tell parents what words kids are reading well, and how much time they spend with a book, while the new Leapster2 and Didj handhelds let parents track the curriculum the kids are running through -- with the Didj even allowing parents to work in custom vocabulary lists or other subjects into their kid's game of choice. Unfortunately, the LeapFrog2 suffers from same screen viewability woes of its predecessor, and both handhelds are quite chunky, but we did like the Didj's screen and software, and that $90 pricetag is quite palatable.%Gallery-16271%
Smart closet tells clueless geeks what to wear
If you count yourself as one of a legion of the "clothes clueless," then this smart closet could be the end of your troubles. It sounds as if you'll need a wardrobe full of RFID tagged clothes for it to work -- although the specific technology isn't clear -- but once your clothes are wired sown up, your wardrobe will inform you when you "accidentally" choose the same clothes the second time you meet the same person, and will give you advice on the correct shoes to go with your outfit, among other hints. Of course, the inventors have overlooked an array of paradoxes here (if you're organized enough to set this up, you've gotta have some common sense) but we like the wackiness of the idea anyway. If the future's anything like this, we better be ready for a whole lot of patronizing machines.[Via The Raw Feed]
Rakuten exploits cameraphone craze for advertising purposes
Although this certainly won't go down as the first attempt to integrate cellphones into discrete marketing, Japan's largest online shopping mall operator is apparently taking advantage of the country's oh-so-superior handsets and offering up tantalizing "promotional videos" for consumers who snap pictures of ads. Rakuten is reportedly set to hand out thousands of pilot issues of a magazine, Zero90, in hopes that mobile-wielding readers will snap photos of certain articles in exchange for a free commercial intellectually stimulating media clip. While this sounds an awful lot like QR codes, the actual technology used in the pages isn't mentioned, but we do know that Japan-based Clementec is behind it -- and you thought print media had too many plugs as is.[Via Physorg]
Singapore aquarium tags fish with RFID chips
Keeping track of your personal pet using any means necessary is one thing, but embedding RFID chips into some 20 aquarium fishes is taking things to a whole 'nother level. Sure, we've seen RoboFish unleashed in a public aquarium and the means to care for your guppy remotely, but officials at the Underwater World in Singapore now have a much more exciting way to learn details about the animals customers see. Reportedly, the name and species (among other information) about the chipped marine animals are displayed on touchscreen displays whenever they swim by, which eliminates the old fashioned "match the picture with the fish" signs that still exist in other facilities. The project was set up over a three month period and set the venue back $19,600, but considering that the execs are thinking about risking someone's life to tag sharks in the near future, we can only assume that it's been a hit.[Thanks, Andrew B.]
iPhoto Keyword Assistant and Manager plugins updated
The two major keyword plugins for iPhoto have both been updated recently. First up is everyone's favorite free alternative, Ken Ferry's Keyword Assistant which we've covered in the past. This new 1.9.4 version adds a panel with tag keyword auto-completion, and it can also alphabetize the keyword list.Next is Keyword Manager, a shareware plugin for iPhoto that brings some more robust features to the table for seriously serious iPhoto keyword junkies. New in version 1.2 is: Copy and paste keywords between photos Jump directly to next untagged photo Fixed crash bug in Dutch version Minor stability bugs fixed Japanse localization German localization Chinese localization A demo is of course available, while a single license to Keyword Manager is $19 from Bullstorm Software.
TextMate AutoTag bundle for WordPress
In the market of Mac users who have text to edit, TextMate has become one of the household names that we turn to the most. Likewise for the blogging world, few - if any - services come to mind before WordPress. Brett Terpstra of Circle Six Design knows this, and that is why his AutoTag Bundle for TextMate seems to be such a match made in nerdy blogging heaven. Brett's AutoTag bundle works with WordPress 2.1 and its Ultimate Tag Warrior plugin to present a window (pictured) containing all the tags you've used on your WordPress blog; perfect for tagging your posts on the fly and helping you to keep your tag system tidy. But one might ask: what is an AutoTag plugin without some auto action, right? AutoTag can tag your post for you by scanning what you've written and comparing it against your tag database. Simply type 'auto' and press tab to watch the magic happen. And as if that wasn't enough, AutoTag even has a command for suggesting new tags, again based on a scan of your post's content or even Yahoo's Tag Suggestion feature. With all this clever 'auto' functionality going on, let's just hope Brett's next plugin isn't called 'AutoBlog,' or we might all be in trouble. To give your TextMate + WordPress workflow a tagging boost, you simply need to install a UTW-RPC plugin for WordPress (available with the AutoTag bundle) in order for TextMate to access your database of tags. Setup is really simple, but be sure to download the version of AutoTag that corresponds to the version of TextMate you're running, i.e. - Cutting-Edge or the regular version available from the Macromates site. The AutoTag bundle and UTW-RPC WordPress plugin are open source and available from Circle Six Design.
PanGo unveils WiFi-based active RFID tag
Although PanGo isn't the first firm on the block to kick out WiFi-enabled RFID tags, that didn't stop the outfit from introducing its latest active unit and aiming it squarely at you (and your officemates). Sure enough, this third-generation "asset tracking tag" touts a smaller form factor, "enhanced functionality," and extended battery life compared to ones past, but still looks to ride along with you while on employer grounds or while in the company car. The device will reportedly last "over five years" on the built-in battery, and boasts about being the "world's first" to be compatible with the Cisco Certified Extensions (CCX) tag protocol -- which is a "WiFi communication mode that enables a higher level of location accuracy for Cisco 2700 Series Location Appliance customers and the ability for the tag to provide enhanced telemetry reporting." Most frightening, however, is how close these voyeuristic liaisons are to shipping, and since your boss can place a batch order by the end of the month, you should probably keep a close on anyone trying to slip you something in your coat pocket while 'round the water cooler.[Via DailyWireless]
Keyword Manager 1.1 adds major keyword management features, more
Keyword Manager from Bullstorm scored a license purchase from yours truly the day we found it, and the feature-packed iPhoto keyword plugin recently had an unassuming but handy upgrade to v1.1. Clicking on the "What's New?" heading at Bullstorm's site reveals a strong list of new features, including: Address Book auto-completion Share keywords between photo libraries Alphabetic sorting of keyword lists Preferences windows Built-in software update If you've been looking for an easier-to-use and more powerful way to wrangle your iPhoto library, I highly recommend giving Keyword Manager's full-featured demo a try. One of its most useful features, besides highly streamlining the tagging/keyword assigning process, is its ability to filter keywords in a search. This is something iPhoto is sorely lacking, but Keyword Manager makes it easy to pick keywords to both search for and exclude. This feature alone is easily worth a good portion of the plugin's $19 USD (€19 in Sweden and EU) for a single license.
