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WoW Rookie: Training up
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the basics of a good start in the World of Warcraft. Visit WoW.com's WoW Rookie Guide for links to all our tips, tricks and how-to's. Training up your spells and abilities used to be fairly complex -- not the process itself, mind you, but figuring out where to go. Trainers were tucked into obscure nooks and crannies all over the world, a real incentive to go exploring. Several infamous profession trainers were even located inside instances; you had to fight your way in, bags stuffed with all the mats for the next batch of recipes you hoped to train, and skill up like mad so you could buy the next available recipe while your group kept the area clear. Training is much simpler in today's World of Warcraft, but it's hardly intuitive. We've pulled together a few notes on training for class spells and abilities, professions, riding skill for mounts and weapon skills, to help steer you to the right place at the right time.
Trust in Casio's Japanese Exilim EX-FS10S, it'll turn your bogeys into birdies
Sure, we could rattle off a list of specs -- and if you're curiuos, it's a 9.1 megapixel sensor with 3x optical zoom and 720p video -- but you know what's really gonna have Casio's Exilim EX-FS10S flying off shelves? The ability to stand it behind your tee and show you exactly how you screw up your swing, with special help of the company's trademark 1000 frames per second burst mode. The catch is, while the EX-FS10 is already available in US, only the Japanese model seems to have your golf buddy. Bummer.
We have a Tabard: I could teach you, but I'd have to charge
Looking for a guild? Well, you can join ours! We have a tabard and everything! Check back for Amanda Dean talking about guilds and guild leadership in We Have a Tabard.It's so nice to run a raid when everyone is up to snuff on their characters and can focus entirely on what their doing. Unfortunately there seems to be at least one person who is not at the top of their game. Either the healer that's standing in fires or the DPS that can't fight their way out of a paper bag. They're not bad people and they mean well, but they are better cheerleaders than raiders. What's a raid leader to do?I like to help people out and give people a shot, but there's only so much that I can do. At some point I have to consider the needs of the other nine or people in the raid over the needs of the single player. I was leading ToC 10 with a Hunter pulling 1800 DPS and the entire raid averaging about 2700. We had a number of wipes, but low DPS was a contributing factor. I called out the DPS saying, "Guys, I really need to be seeing 3K DPS." The 1800 Hunter said, "I don't think Hunters can pull 3K DPS." I nearly fell out of my chair.My first response is to try to offer quick suggestions for how to resolve an issue (this is considerably easier when it's a raid awareness problem rather than a role problem). I feel genuinely awful when I have to remove someone from a raid, but the raid environment is not where one should learn his or her class.
ESA: Record number of game development classes offered in U.S.
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/educational/Record_number_of_game_development_classes_offered_in_U_S'; According to a report recently published by the Entertainment Software Association, colleges in 37 states (and the District of Columbia) currently play host to 254 courses in video game design, art and programming. That may sound like a skimpy sum, but it's up from 200 programs offered last year. We'd tell you what percentage increase that represents, but we didn't take many math courses throughout our collegiate career. Rich Taylor, ESA's senior vice president of communications and industry affairs, said these figures are indicative of "the importance of the videogames industry, which is well-poised to create additional employment and professional opportunities in the coming years." We just see them as scholastic incubators for the next generation of Schafers, Carmacks and Wrights.
WoW Patch 3.2.2 lowers cost of flying
Even as inflation and worldwide recession jacks up transportation fares, it seems that Blizzard is bucking the trend and continuing to drive training costs for mounts even lower. Blizzard poster Mumper -- a blue so new to posting that even Zarhym was caught off-guard -- confirms on the forums that the costs to train for flying have been reduced significantly in Patch 3.2.2. Expert Riding is now available for a the ridiculously low price of 225 Gold, down from the 600 Gold price slash of Patch 3.2 (it was originally a whopping 800 Gold)! But wait, there's more! Faction discounts apply, too, but instead of Thrallmar and Honor Hold, which Level 60 players are unlikely to have any substantial standing with, these have been changed to Orgrimmar and Stormwind reputations, respectively.Mumper (gotta love that name) explains that it was unreasonable to expect fresh Level 60 players to have even 600 Gold. He says that Blizzard wants more players to be flying around at Level 60, and the changes should make it easier for even new players to zoom around the Outland in fancy (and faster) flying mounts. It's good news that Blizzard is being very considerate of the playing community and its economic needs in these harsh times. Now if only we could get discounts off those paid services...DoTs! More DoTs! Fifty DKP minus!Onyxia returns! The Brood Mother has been revitalized as a 10 and 25 person raid, so you'll need to be sure you know everything that's coming at you. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2.2 will make sure you're set for Nefarian's nasty daughter as well as other cool changes.
Ripxx debuts Personal Measurement Device for exercise nerds and Olympic athletes
If we're being candid, the Ripxx Personal Measurement Device (or PMD, as the hip kids call it) looks a lot like the original SPOT with the addition of a display. But aside from the physical likeness, there aren't too many similarities between the two gizmos. Launched this month, the handheld fitness tool is apt to be a surefire winner for any competitive athlete, not to mention competitive individuals in general who just need a statistical way to track their dominance. Essentially, an integrated GPS tracker pumps out ten tracking signals every second during, let's say, a ski run. That information, coupled with data gathered from a trio of accelerometers and gyroscopes, is used to record your location, orientation, speed, vertical drop, rolls, spins, turns and just about any other movement you make. Once you're done, those points can be plotted on a map for review. We're told that the U.S. Olympic team is already using a prototype to train for the 2010 winter games, though mere lay people won't be able to buy one until mid-December for $329.
Microsoft's training materials teach Best Buy employees how to trash Linux
Look, nobody's saying Linux is perfect for every consumer (or even most), but Microsoft's "training material" for Best Buy employees casts the open source operating system in a bit of a bad light -- and isn't exactly accurate. A few of the humorous tidbits in the Linux comparison guide include mentioning World of Warcraft as incompatible with Linux (despite great support for it under WINE), calling Linux's safety reputation a "myth," and describing Linux updates and upgrades as difficult and time consuming. The availability of Windows Live Essentials as a "free download" is also quite laughable -- Linux has endless free alternatives to Microsoft's Live Essentials, and many of them are better than what Microsoft offers. Not to say there hasn't been the odd consumer that was burned by purchasing a Linux-running netbook, but we'd say there are enough tangible benefits to Windows for Microsoft to avoid misinformation when talking down the open source competition.[Via technabob]
5 Apps for the cyclist
Apple products and the bike go together well. They seem to appeal to the same sort of folks: evangelistic, committed aficionados willing to pay any premium, to be brutally honest about it. Oh, and let's not forget, they love to talk at length about these objects of their affection at parties. You know who you are. You've got a copy of Colorado Cyclist in your bathroom. So it seems like getting the iPhone working for you on the bike would be a no-brainer. And it pretty much is. Here are five apps that I've found I like, most centered around the fact that the iPhone's built-in GPS gives cyclists the kind of on-bike information they want, and the après vélo experience they crave until the next fix, I mean "ride." From the outset, you'll need a bike mount, if you want to take advantage of these apps' functions en route. Otherwise, the iPhone slips just fine into a jersey pocket, and will hold a GPS lock even though a ziploc sandwich baggie. Mount-wise, pickings are slim, but there are a few out there that are relatively low-profile. Plus, battery life can be a problem. Most endurance athletes are out there for hours at a time, and GPS tracking can quickly drain an iPhone battery. if you take care to turn off everything non-essential, you may be able to get that whole ride in. Or, you can do what this guy is doing; he's building an iPhone bike mount with power. Maybe now the iPhone can make its RAAM debut. On to the apps! 1) Ascent Mobile. I have a warm place in my heart for Montebello Software's Ascent. If I harken back to the old days, Garmin could barely be bothered to come out with a Mac version of its then-popular TrainingCenter software and had shunted all its Mac users to MotionBased. Ascent came through with elegant desktop software that tapped into the data side of the bike geek. Finally, a place to really churn through the routes and elevation, while watching your heart rate, speed and cadence throughout that quad-shredding ride. You can zoom right into your loop post-ride and slice and dice the data to see any element of it you like. What's more, Ascent really made it look good. By the time Garmin came out with its watered-down and feature-hobbled Mac version of TrainingCenter I was so over Garmin software. I used it strictly for the route-upload function and kept everything else on Ascent, with an online version stored on MotionBased for route sharing (though I've since moved from MotionBased to RunningAhead now that RA has GPS upload.) So I was thrilled to hear that Ascent was coming out with Ascent Mobile, $9.99US. Ascent Mobile gives you all the relevant data you could want on a ride, plus lots of ways to check out your ride right on the iPhone afterward. Best of all, it naturally syncs with the desktop version of Ascent, sold separately. Can I let go of my trusty Garmin Edge 705? Quite possibly. We'll see where this little relationship goes. (Oh, and yes, Erica, it gives your max speed.) 2) B.iCycle. Ok, maybe you're more of a "just the facts, ma'am" kind of rider. We've got one for you, too. B.iCycle, $9.99US, is a simple, GPS-based tracker that gives you some easy stats during your ride. It saves your tracks for later viewing on a map, and gives you all of the essential features you might want, without too much feature clutter. It has a nice map view for on-bike routing, and a way to email your route to yourself afterward. Think of it as a very inspired bike computer. 3) Bicycle Gear Calculator. Ok, grease monkeys, this one is for you. It's obviously not intended for on-bike use, but half the fun of the sport is the tinkering you get to do with your bike while you're not on it, talking about it at parties, or relentlessly reloading chainlove.com for the next steal. Now you can talk gear ratios with ease. Input chainring size, sprocket size, and crank length and all the relevant math is done for you. Plan ahead for a big hill ride and get your bike properly geared so you look like Laurent, Stefano, or Marco (may he rest in peace) on those hills. $4.99US at the iTunes store. 4) iMapMyRide. iMapMyRide is another GPS tracker, but is borne out of the website mapmyride.com, which is the sister site to mapmyrun.com, a favorite of mine, pre-Garmin Forerunner. The nice thing about this app -- other than the fact that it's free -- is that it is built to work well with the website, which is a great place to discover new routes and make connections with other like-sported people. I can't say the app itself is revolutionary in any way, but if you're already multi-sport and have been taking advantage of the MapMyFitness community-based functions, iMapMyRide may be a useful way to go for you. 5) TrailGuru. I didn't want to leave the mountain bikers completely out of the loop, so here's something for you singletrackers. I'm not entirely sure how this differs from some of the other GPS-based tracking software, but the community associated with it seems to be more interested in off-road use, so you may find that you discover new and interesting ways to tear up the trails near you. It seems to be a fave around TUAW, so I'd be remiss not to mention it. If you have experience with this app, let us know in the comments. I'm still working on integrating the iPhone into my fitness endeavors. I admit I love my Garmins (yes, I have both the Edge and the Forerunner.) And I can't imagine I'd be brave enough to do with my iPhone what I did with my Forerunner 305: put it under my swim cap at the start of a triathlon. But you never know. If you ever see a fellow race participant with what seems to be a very oddly-shaped head under that swim cap, come and introduce yourself to me.
Wii remote enrolled in student-developed CPR training program
Taking a more passive approach with the Wii remote than, say, operating a 15-ton grapple or saving your friends on Tatooine, a team of biomedical engineering undergraduates at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have been developing a companion CPR training program. Using the controller's built-in accelerometer, it tracks hand position as you practice those vital life-saving maneuverings, charting depth and rate of compression to give you a more accurate performance reading than the conventional Resusci Anne mannequin. The American Heart Association is sure impressed: it just pledged a $50,000 fund to UAB for the continuation of the project. The software's expected to be complete early fall 2009, with an open source download being released on the AHA website. No telling what these crazy kids'll accomplish once MotionPlus gets its time to shine.[Via Coolest Gadgets]
Palm Pre training dude accosted by giant hand in internal Sprint training vids, new apps spotted
There's really not much meat to these ultra-short videos highlighting major features of the Pre, but they do suggest that Sprint employees are already being actively trained, likely on final or near-final hardware and software. Painless for the reps that have to sit through them, yes, granted -- but if this is really all the help in-store peeps are getting prior to the phone's launch, we sense trouble. Perhaps more interesting than the videos themselves, PreCentral forum members have astutely observed that Documents To Go and Adobe Reader icons make quick cameos -- two apps that many, many productivity-minded Pre owners will be taking interest in. Check the videos after the break.[Via PreCentral]Read - EmailRead - Gestures
ScreenSteps 2.5 takes screen-based documentation a step forward
ScreenSteps, the invaluable tool (mentioned here many a time) for writing software documentation quickly and easily, has updated to version 2.5. Among the new features is improved annotation capabilities, including a text tool and keyboard shortcuts for speedy duplication and repositioning of annotations. You can set a status on lessons to remind yourself what's ready to publish, and what needs a little more work. Lesson steps can be more easily manipulated and reordered in the lesson inspector. Also, compiling lessons into full manuals is significantly easier, including the ability to quickly filter which lessons are included at the time of export. I use ScreenSteps extensively in training clients on the websites I work on. It's not expected of me in most circumstances, but a PDF instruction booklet or an HTML export embedded in the content manager does wonders for reducing support calls. If you write any kind of screen-based documentation and haven't taken a look at ScreenSteps, it would be worth its price in the time it could save you. The best part of the system is that you can easily re-use and update manuals without much hassle, allowing a skeleton manual to be quickly turned into a custom manual for a client, or making it easy to add a step you didn't think of until you were in the middle of a training session. You can try out ScreenSteps for free, and pick up one of two versions if you dig it: Pro for $59.95US, or Standard (lacking export of full manuals and support for MindTouch Deki and Confluence export) for $39.95US. There's a full feature comparison on the Blue Mango site.
Learn Daylite from a MacAngel
If you were intrigued by last week's review of Marketcircle Daylite 3.9, Daylite Server, and Daylite Touch enough to purchase the application suite or download the trial, you might be at the point now where you're feeling a bit overwhelmed with how to install, configure and use the applications. Don't worry, there's a MacAngel available to help you!Marni Melrose is a La Jolla, California-based Mac consultant who has made Daylite her life's work. She not only knows the application and its technical requirements in detail, but she's also an expert on using Daylite to get things done. Under the name The MacAngel, Marni has developed a number of training videos about Daylite over the years. She's recently completed an amazing 93 minute tutorial that goes through the process of setting up Daylite 3.9, Daylite Server, and Daylite Touch, and then continues on to teach you the MacAngel Method. The MacAngel Method is Marni's creation, taking David Allen's GTD principles, stirring in the ideas of Stephen Covey and other authors, and then using her experiences implementing Daylite for businesses for over 7 years to show how Daylite can help you drive your business forward.I'm a Daylite Certified Partner, but after watching The MacAngel Method GTD for Daylite 3.9 & Touch, I felt that I really knew a lot more about how to organize my work and personal life with Daylite than I did from struggling through teaching myself by trial and error. In her video, Marni does a phenomenal job of showing you exactly what to do and, more importantly, why you're doing it.You can view a 29 minute "trailer" to see how the training works, and then purchase the full video for $45 if you find it as useful as I did.
Argent Tournament Dailies: A Valiant's Field Training
This is one of the quickest and easiest dailies to complete for your Argent Tournament prestige. The questgiver asks simply that you kill 10 Scourge units in Icecrown.Remember, in 3.1 any mob that will grant you quest credit will show as much on their tooltip when you mouseover them. Use this to your advantage and don't waste your time with an AOE pack that won't give you credit!Given its close proximity to the Tournament grounds, many players are likely to flock to Sindragosa's Fall to kill the Scourge mobs there, including Frostbrood Whelps and Cultist Corrupters. You have some other choices, though -- the Valley of Lost Hope is chock-full of mobs that grant quest credit, as is Aldur'thar, and both are close enough to the Grounds that you don't need to fly all around the zone just to get your quest done. Crack some Scourge skulls and grab your reward!Reward: 1 Valiant's Seal and 13g 23s Editor's note from Alex Ziebart: I happen to like doing the Shadow Vault dailies side-by-side with this one. The vrykul for Leave Our Mark count as Scourge for this quest!
Officers' Quarters: Neros and zeros
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.I can't take credit for the column name -- it was a turn of phrase used by the writer of this week's reader e-mail. It's a fitting expression, as you'll see. He wonders just how to get people to care again when a guild is faltering. Hey Scott, Thank you for this column, hopefully you and the comment crowd can help me. Over the last few days I've had to watch my beloved guild start to unravel. Our problem is, apart from a few select officers and members, we have too many Neros, content to fiddle as our guild burns, and Zeros, members who don't really contribute anything but a raid spot. Nobody seems to care enough to even sign up for our website. We have had trouble with our loot system, suicide kings, and raid scheduling, and it has caused some key members to seek other guilding opportunities.
XSEED unleashing Drill Sergeant MindStrong on WiiWare
The ESRB ratings database has revealed the first WiiWare game from publisher XSEED: Drill Sergeant Mindstrong, which is, uh, a brain-training minigame collection. A weird one.The description of the game mentions minigames "in which players train and compete in math, rhythm, and reflex/timing drills guided by a trainer named Sergeant Mindstrong." The whole thing has a military theme, including a saluting minigame and one about marching in time. All the minigames will have "Hell" at the beginning of the title, like "Hell Roll Call." Siliconera speculates, because of the XSEED/Marvelous connection, that this is Discipline, the WiiWare game announced last year. The title fits, as well. However, Discipline is a sort of adventure about escaping from prison, and this is military brain training.
Skill up on Adobe products with free video tutorials
It's no secret that the American economy is suffering, and many of us are experiencing the cold-water shock of abrupt career shifts and planned or unexpected part-timer-ification. Want to spark up your value to an employer, or gain some new skills to improve your freelance mojo? Adobe's free video tutorials may be right up your alley.The library of CS3-centric tutorials is extensive, and covers most of the content that was delivered on DVD with the products. The CS4 section is a little thinner, and most of the demos are performed with the Windows versions of the apps, but the videos are still valuable for new feature info. Adobe's full training site covers paid and e-learning options for all the company's technologies, and of course there are many respected third parties offering training on the CS4 suite.If you've got a favorite training resource, free or fee, let us know below.
GameStop training video light on training, heavy on hilarity
Oh, GameStop. We have plenty of reasons to laugh at you. You call us up during dinner to coax us into trading stuff in, and you ask us about strategy guides and pre-orders every time we try to shop in your store. Now, it would seem you also like to employ what we've dubbed the "poor man's Lara Croft," as this very real training video shows. The video is kind of like watching a clown get the crap kicked out of him. You want to intervene, but every time he gets punched in the nose and you hear that honk sound, you can't help but laugh. Watch Ima and her amazing Zack Morris impressions after the break.
Ask TUAW: Recovering pictures, updating Facebook, iPhone battery life and more
Once again, it's time for another edition of Ask TUAW: the place where we try to answer all of your Mac and Apple-related questions. This week we're taking questions about recovering pictures from corrupted compact flash cards, Twitter for the iPhone, extending iPhone battery life and more.As always, we welcome your suggestions for this week and questions for next time. Please leave your contributions in the comments for this post. When asking questions, please include which Mac and which version of OS X you're running. If you don't specify, we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac. Okay, let's get to it!Nick F. asks:I've got some pictures I need to recover from a corrupted Compact Flash card. What's the best, preferably free, software to do it on my Mac?This is one of those questions that can get frustrating if you're a Mac user. On the Windows side, there are a few good (and free) pieces of software that can help you accomplish this task. For the Mac, you're choices are mostly limited to pay applications -- at least if you want good results. Fortunately, these pay applications are very good.For my money, the piece of software that works best when you want to recover pictures from a bad CF or SD card is Klix ($29.95) from Joesoft. I've used it quite a bit with clients, and on my own bad cards, and each time it performed flawlessly, recovering every lost picture from the card. Other alternatives for the Mac include CardRaider ($19.95), PhotoRescue ($29.00) and Data Rescue II ($99.00). I realize that $29.95 for a piece of software might seem like a lot to some people. But if the software is easy to use and works as advertised, I think it's a worthwhile investment in the long run. Besides, it would cost far more to go back and take those vacation pictures you lost on the card again when you could buy Klix and recover them from your bad card instead. Given that, a program like Klix is actually a bargain.If you've got Windows running on your Mac (either through Boot Camp or virtualization) and you've had good luck with one of the tools from the other side of the fence, let us know in the comments.
Nintendo offers free DS, Personal Trainer: Math to math-loving kids
What's the best way to entice middle-schoolers into their schools' math clubs? How about the promise of a free Nintendo DS -- and a math game? Personally, we think the best way would be to move the meetings to Steak 'n Shake and replace the "math" part with "vanilla malts." But, while delicious, it's not exactly educational, and wouldn't really make for a good PR opportunity for Nintendo. Instead, the company has partnered with MATHCOUNTS, a "national enrichment, coaching and competition program" for middle school math, to bribe four middle school math clubs across the US with free DS systems -- and, of course, Personal Trainer: Math. They could hand out Fire Emblem or something -- but again, not so much of a PR opportunity.
First look at Nobilis' music training game
Maybe we're just suckers for video games as music teaching tools (as suggested by the dusty NES Miracle Keyboard in our closet), but we're pretty intrigued by Nobilis' MUSIC. The publisher has released the first screens about the training title, revealing the focus of some of the lessons, most of which seem to deal with reading music. In addition, interactive quizzes ask players to identify notes, arrange notes to match sound samples, and match pitch contours to samples. MUSIC also features virtual keyboard and drums, along with a selection of songs to play. The minigames on the cartridge include activities like a rhythm game in which players pop balloons by clapping.MUSIC comes out in Europe in April. No US release has been announced. %Gallery-44541%