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Breakfast Topic: Rerolling our roots
The question arose in the WoW official forums "Why do they call it 'rolling?'" This is of course in reference to creating new characters. The original poster pointed out that there really is no rolling involved just selection. I'm sure its obvious to most of us that the terms comes from pen and paper role playing games where we roll dice to determine character statistics and sometimes other attributes. But it got me thinking of terms that we use for WoW that came from other games: The battleground Zerg comes from Starcraft's Zerg race which was kind of a fast, battle driven faction. DKP is short for Dragon Kill Points, a term that dates back to EverQuest when the main bosses were dragons. Nerf means to make things less powerful, and refers to the Nerf brand of spongy toys. For some reason we refer to instances as dungeons, despite the fact that Stockades is the only actual dungeon that comes to mind. Though I have to admit, even in D&D dungeon crawls were typically done in caves or castles. It's surprising how terms seem to stick with us even when they're obsolete. Speaking of rolling, when was the last time you actually rolled down a window in a car? It's good to go back and remember out gaming roots. I'm sure there are many more crossover terms, and terms from the World of Warcraft lexicon like Leroy Jenkins, will out live Azeroth. For the life of me I can't find the etiology of the term "twink." What else am I missing?
Verizon updates T&Cs to further redefine "unlimited" data usage
After Verizon's ambiguousness ended up hitting it right where it hurts (read: the wallet), the carrier cleaned up its act a bit and redefined "unlimited" in a hot-off-the-press version of its Terms & Conditions. While perusing through the legalese, you'll notice that checking out "continuous web camera posts or broadcasts / automatic data feeds (RSS)" are strictly prohibited, right along with P2P sharing or using your BroadbandAccess as a "substitute or backup for private lines or dedicated data connections." Moving on, you'll also see that exceeding 5GB of usage during any single billing period gives Verizon the right to "reduce throughput speeds of any application that would otherwise exceed such speed to a maximum of approximately 200Kbps." It gets worse -- these speeds are (unsurprisingly) "subject to change," so it sounds like your connection can be throttled right on down to a crawl should you pass the 5GB barrier. Have fun!*[Via jkOnTheRun]*...just keep it under 5GB if you know what's good for you.
iPhone 101: Hacks Vocabulary Primer
We here at TUAW are always on the lookout to help you, our dear readers, understand what is going on in the crazy world of Apple related technology. The biggest news, as of late, has been the continued efforts to hack the iPhone. A rich language has developed around the iPhone hacking community, and we thought it might be time for a primer of sorts. Never again will you confuse your jailbreaking with your bricking. Jail. The public areas of the iPhone or iPod to which, by default, Apple allows read/write access via USB. In Unix terms, this refers to the /private/var/root/Media folder. Jailbreak. The iPhone and iPod touch hacks that allow users to gain access to the entire Unix filesystem. In Unix terms, this refers to changing the root of the directory tree to /. Activation. The process that allows you to move beyond any of the various screens that instruct you to connect your device to iTunes before it can be used. On the iPhone, you can only make emergency calls until your iPhone is activated. Bricking. To render an iPhone or iPod touch inoperable. The 1.1.1 firmware update turned many iPhones into iBricks. Users could not reactivate their iPhone to get past their "Please connect to iTunes" screens. Although the phones could still be used for emergency calls, users were locked out from all normal iPhone operations.File system. The way your iPhone or iPod touch uses its memory to store data and applications. The iPhone and iPod touch use two "disks": a smaller private file system that contains the operating system and a larger public one that contains your media (songs, videos, etc), preferences, and data.
Fraser Speirs clears up FlickrExport licensing confusion
It sounds like confusion has arisen over how FlickrExport's licensing terms work; specifically, how many licenses one needs to purchase, and for which machines. To help simplify things, Fraser has adopted terms like The Omni Group uses, which I personally applaud: a user can purchase one license and use it on two machines; for example, a desktop and a notebook (though both licenses can't be in use simultaneously). On the other hand, a business can't purchase ten licenses for twenty employees, even if no more than ten copies of FlickrExport are in use at any given time.Read up on Fraser's blog post for an update and a more in-depth explanation of the simplified terms, and if you're one of the confused users who doesn't need an extra license or two that you purchased, Fraser will be personally contacting you to offer a refund.
