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Newbie tips to surviving the DUST 514 experience
It's DUST 514's launch day, and if you've hit dirt with your face more than your combat boots, then you might need a helping hand with CCP's MMO shooter. PlayStation Universe has posted a pair of guides to help new players get off to a strong start, and since Massively cares about each and every one of you, we wanted to pass them along so that you don't end up a shallow grave on an alien world. The first guide is a hodge-podge of beginner's tips, and the second has to do with earning much-needed skill points. "In the early days, we think it's wise to hoard ISK and SP until a time when you're ready to decide on your specialization," the author writes. "Until then, the Militia Gear is good enough." Good luck, soldiers! If you have any DUST 514 tips or tricks that you'd like to pass along to other Massively readers, please do so in the comments.
More Tips for Troubleshooting Automator Workflows
In my last post, I shared some useful tips for troubleshooting Automator workflow problems. I didn't cover everything, though. There are lots of other ways you can troubleshoot your workflow. Here are some more tips to help. 1. Use Get Selected Finder Items Wisely Automator workflows are frequently created to process files and folders. When you save a workflow as an application, you can drag files and folders onto it and they're passed right into the workflow for processing. Other types of workflows behave similarly. Save a Folder Action workflow, for example, and every time new items are added to the folder, they're automatically passed to the workflow for processing. At the top of a workflow, Automator tells you if it receives files and folders as input. From time to time, however, you may notice that your workflow has processed your files twice, or that it's encountered some kind of obscure error. Often, this is due to the presence of a Get Selected Finder Items action at the beginning of the workflow. As enticing as its name sounds, the Get Selected Finder Items action isn't always needed to process files and folders. Remember, depending on the type of workflow you built, those items may be passed automatically to your workflow. In these cases, the inclusion of the Get Selected Finder Items action causes the dropped items to be appended to themselves. This can result in the items being processed twice or an error. So, what's the solution? Just try removing the Get Selected Finder Items action from the beginning of your workflow. Many times, that one simple change fixes the problem. Don't insert the Get Selected Finder Items action at the start of a workflow if your workflow already receives Finder items as input. 2. Finding Missing Output Files Imagine this. You run an Automator workflow that takes a PDF and outputs its pages as images. The only problem is that the images never seem to show up. Sound familiar? If you've ever been unable to find files output by a workflow, it may not necessarily mean that your workflow failed. Those files may actually be buried somewhere on your system. This is because some Automator actions generate their output files in hidden temporary folders. The Render PDF Pages as Images action is one example. It extracts the pages of a PDF as image files, gives them unique names, and saves them into a hidden temp folder. Render PDF Pages as Images sneakily outputs files to a hidden folder. Note that it doesn't have an option to select an output folder. To determine whether this has happened, run your workflow in Automator. Then, open the action's Results area. If there are files or folders listed, you should be able to figure out where they're located by viewing them in list view. An action's Results area tells you if an action really produced a result. To output the files or folders to the desired location, just insert a Move Finder Items action into your workflow. This should move the items from their secret location to the Desktop or wherever else you choose. Use the Move Finder Items action to move hidden output files someplace more useful. 3. Improving Recorded Task Playback A great feature of Automator is its ability to record things you do manually, so you can play them back later as part of your workflow. A not so great feature of Automator is its knack for being unable to play back what it records. There are a number of reasons this can happen, and some options for fixing things. You may have made a mistake while recording. Remember, Automator is watching. So, it picks up your mistakes too. If this happens, try selecting the extra steps in the Watch Me Do action Automator adds to the workflow. Then, press the Delete key to remove them. You can remove recorded steps by selecting and deleting them. You may have moved too fast, and Automator couldn't keep up. It may have missed some of what you did. You can try to resolve the problem by recording the steps again. This time, take your sweet time. Automator may be unable to repeat what you did manually. Unfortunately, Automator can't access everything in OS X. It can access a lot, but not everything. If this happened, consider trying a third-party macro utility, such as iKey. It may have greater reach than Automator. 4. Locating Missing Actions If you've ever launched Automator but have been unable to locate an action that you used in the past, it may not mean that action is entirely gone from your Mac. Automator may just be unable to load it for some reason. For example, maybe the app the action works with isn't installed anymore. You can see what Automator is unable to load by checking the Console app (in /Applications/Utilities). Just open it up, launch Automator, and see what shows up in the Console. The Console app tells you what actions Automator can't load. Here, the Entourage actions weren't loaded because I don't have Entourage installed anymore. I now have Outlook installed. 5. Service Workflows Not Triggering? Have you created service workflows, but when you trigger them, they don't seem to run? Give them some time. For whatever reason, they may take some time to get going. After one has run, however, subsequent service workflows should run a bit faster. You may have also noticed that you can assign keyboard shortcuts to Service workflows. If you haven't noticed this, you can do it in System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts. Assigning a keyboard shortcut to a Service workflow Once you've assigned a keyboard shortcut, you may have found that the workflow doesn't run when you press the keyboard shortcut. One possible fix is to manually choose the workflow from the application's Services menu. Then, once it's been triggered for the first time, the keyboard shortcut often starts working again. Hopefully, these tips and my prior tips have put you on the path to more stable and reliable workflows. Good luck and Happy Scripting!
Tips for Troubleshooting Automator Workflows
Automator's great for streamlining time consuming and repetitive tasks on your Mac. It's easy. Just launch it, find a few actions, and string them together to form a workflow. Then, run your workflow anytime you want to perform that series of tasks again. What happens if your workflow doesn't run as you expect, though? Finding and solving problems in Automator is often easier said than done. Suddenly, the simple tool that's supposed to make your life easier has become a real pain in the neck. This week's post covers some things you can do to troubleshoot a finicky Automator workflow, track down the problem, and hopefully solve it, so you can get back to work. 1. Run Saved Workflows in Automator Automator workflows are saved and run in a variety of ways - as apps, iCal alarms, print plugins, and more. When a saved workflow encounters a problem, however, it may be next to impossible to figure out what went wrong. This is because saved workflows don't really include any diagnostic tools. In some cases, the workflow may even fail silently, without alerting you that something is wrong. Your only indication of a problem may be a lack of the end result you were expecting. Not very helpful, especially in a longer multi-action workflow. When you encounter a problem with a saved workflow, your best bet is to open up the workflow in Automator, and try running it there. By doing so, you'll gain access to some of the techniques described below. 2. Fake Workflow Input When you run a workflow app or plugin within Automator, you may see an alert indicating that the workflow will not receive input. An Automator Input Alert for a Text Service Workflow This is because, often, saved Automator workflows expect input for processing. For example, a workflow app may expect dropped files or folders as input, a service workflow may expect text as input, or a print plugin may expect PDF files from the print system. In any case, just dismiss the alert and add an action to the beginning of the workflow to retrieve the required type of input. If your workflow processes files, for example, add a Get Specified Finder Items action. If your workflow processes text, add a Get Specified Text action. Whatever you add, just be sure to remove it once you're finished troubleshooting. Get Specified Text at the Beginning of a Text Service Workflow 3. Check Action Results Automator works by passing information to actions for processing. Most actions perform a very specific function. As such, they accept specific types of information as input. And, they produce different types of output. The New TextEdit Document action, for example, wants text as input. It then adds this text to a new TextEdit document, and passes the document as output for further processing. Often, when a workflow fails or produces an undesired result, it's because actions aren't receiving or producing the expected types of information. To diagnose this problem, click the Results button beneath each action in your workflow. Then, when you run the workflow, you can see exactly what information is being passed from action to action. Suppose, for example, I have a workflow that should take the contents of a text file and add it to a new TextEdit document. I may try creating my workflow with the following actions: Get Specified Finder Items - Configured to get a text file Filter Paragraphs - Configured to look for non-empty paragraphs New TextEdit Document All the actions appear to link up properly, and the workflow may even run without an error. But, the result is not what I want. Rather than the content of the text file being added to the new TextEdit document, the path of the document is added. A Misbehaving Text Workflow An Undesired Workflow Result By displaying the result area of each action in the workflow, I can see that a file path was passed to the Filter Paragraphs action as input. I can also see that the same file path was output by the action, rather than the paragraphs I was expecting. This tells me that there's something wrong with the Filter Paragraphs action. Action Results Indicate Potential Problems Checking the action's description area provides additional clues. It tells me the action expects text as input, not files. Action Descriptions Specify Input and Output Types So, in this case, the fix is to insert an action that outputs text, rather than files, before the Filter Paragraphs action. NOTE: Surprisingly, Automator doesn't include an action for reading text from a file. There are third-party actions available that can do this. Or, as a workaround, you can try using the Combine Text Files action, which receives one or more files as input and outputs their text content. 4. Check Automator's Log Checking the results of an action doesn't always tell you what went wrong. You may glean a little more information by consulting Automator's log area. Press Command+Option+L or choose View > Log to display it. When you run a workflow, the log area tells you which actions ran, and often indicates problems that were encountered along the way, such as an action that wasn't supplied with the appropriate type of input. Automator's Log Area Indicates Successes and Failures Sometimes, the log tells you that information was converted from one type to another. This is because, in some cases, Automator tries to make incompatible actions work together. This doesn't always work, however, and can result in an error. So, be on the lookout for failed conversions. 5. Step Through Workflows Running a workflow and checking action results is great, but it's even more useful to check the results of each step of your workflow as it happens. You can do this by stepping through the workflow step by step. Click the Step button in the workflow's toolbar or select Workflow > Step from the menu bar. Automator's Step Button The above techniques may not resolve every problem you encounter with Automator, but they will certainly help you to more easily identify solutions for some. Happy Scripting!
Insider's Guide to Mists of Pandaria: WoW Insider readers crowdsource their best tips and advice
Did you know you could do this? We crowdsourced readers' favorite advice for Mists of Pandaria and patch 5.1, to show you all the little inside tidbits you just might have been missing. Included is an entire section of tips for streamlining your dailies -- don't miss 'em! Let's rev up first with a few of our most recent tips and tricks posts: While there are limits to how far you can progress, you can start your farm as soon as you get to Pandaria -- no need to wait for level 90. Get exalted with Lorewalkers in an hour or less; collect all the lore objects for each "story" in a single, enjoyable session, or simply make sure you don't miss any nearby items while you're leveling. Murder this innocent creature, win fabulous prizes. Riding the Darkmoon carousel gives you a buff to XP and rep gains. I can turn into what? A baby panda? Tip: How to see if your Grand Commendation is active. Tip: Where to get new pets in old dungeons. Blingtron now helps you become a natty dresser. If you're a treant, here's how to become hot stuff. Down your dailies and discover hidden delights with our collection of reader discoveries and advice, collected after the break.
Breakfast Topic: Crowdsource your best Mists tips, tricks, and discoveries
Hear that cacophony of clacking and tapping? That's the sound of your fellow readers banging away at their keyboards to help us crowdsource the best tips, tricks, and pointers for Mists of Pandaria and patch 5.1. Let's tip off all our friends who never hit that one area of that zone over there. Or the ones trying the other faction for the first time in Mists. Or that dude who didn't catch what happens if you go over here and try this. I wish I'd known about ... Oh, WOW! Look what I just discovered ... Heyyy! I didn't know you could ... If your tip elicits that kind of response, it's the kind of pointer we're looking for. Need more inspiration? Check out our tips for doing those pesky daily quests or finding sweet little hidden quests. If we get enough good pointers, I'll compile them all up in one fat "just so's ya know" post. So what hot tips would you be most hot to pass on to a friend who was just heading into Mists? What's your favorite don't-miss discovery or most sage piece of advice?
Cascade Finder windows with AppleScript
You're busy. You've got tons of things going on at any given time. Your Mac's screen is constantly cluttered with a bazillion Finder windows, and you keep shuffling them around to find the one you need. Sure, Mission Control in Mountain Lion lets you view all of your Finder windows at once in a pretty tiled view. But, it doesn't sort them, and with a ton of little windows, finding the one you want is no piece of cake. How nice would it be if the Finder had a "Cascade Windows" feature? With a little help from AppleScript, your wait is over. In this post, you'll write a simple AppleScript that sorts your opened Finder windows and cascades them, making it quick and easy to find the one you want and clearing your cluttered screen in the process. Let's get started. Does your screen look like this, with windows everywhere? AppleScript can help. Expose shows your Finder windows, but it's still not always easy to find the one you need If you get stuck with any of the scripting in this post, you can download the complete scripts here. Prep Work First, you'll need some opened Finder windows. If you're interested in the topic of this post, then odds are good that you already have plenty of opened windows. If not, you can open some, or you can run the following AppleScript to create some for testing. Just open up AppleScript Editor in your /Applications/Utilities folder, paste in the following script and run it. The script creates a folder named Cascade Windows Test on your Desktop, adds 10 subfolders to it, opens them, and randomly positions them on your screen. The Cascade Windows Test script creates a bunch of folders and opens them, ready for cascading. Writing the Script Create a new AppleScript Editor document and paste in the following script. Comments have been provided to explain each portion. Running the Script When you're ready, go ahead and run the script. Or, for quick access, save the script as an application and drag it to your Dock. When run, the script asks you to specify how many pixels you'd like between the menu bar and the first window. A default value of 10 pixels is suggested. Tell the script how far down you'd like the first window positioned Next, the script asks you how many pixels you'd like between the left side of the screen and the first window. Again, a default of 10 pixels is suggested. Tell the script how far over you'd like the first window positioned The script asks you how many pixels high you'd like each window, suggesting 300. Give the script a desired window height The script asks how many pixels wide to make each window, suggesting 350. Give the script a desired window width Choose how far apart you'd like the windows from one another. The default is 25 pixels, and should allow enough space to see each window's title bar. Specify an offset between the cascaded windows Finally, the script asks if you want to cascade the windows to the right. Doing so creates a staggered effect. Choose whether you want your cascaded windows staggered to the right The script finds any opened Finder windows, sorts them alphabetically by folder name, and cascades them. Cascaded Finder windows, staggered to the right Cascaded Finder windows without staggering With your windows cascaded by name, just scan through the title bars to find the one you need and click it to bring it to the front. Your days of searching through a cluttered screen of windows has come to an end.
Create Evernote 5 template notebooks with AppleScript
Evernote 5 is a wonderful app for gathering information and keeping it organized and synchronized between your devices. In Evernote, you create notebooks and fill them with notes. These notes can be anything - thoughts, web clippings, files, photos, audio, etc. Whenever you need to recall information you've added to Evernote, just type in a few keywords to instantly locate it. This post shows how to use AppleScript to create template notebooks that contain default template notes. You can use these templates for creating new projects, jobs, or anything else you might need. Let's get started. To Configure 1. First, go to the Documents folder in your home directory and create a folder named Evernote Templates. 2. Go into Evernote and begin creating some notes to serve as templates for your notebook. Suppose you're creating a template for a design project. You might create template notes for materials, meeting notes, phone notes, a status report, etc. Go ahead and enter placeholder text and assign default tags for these notes, as well. Creating template notes in Evernote 3. Once you've created your template notes, select them all. You're going to export them so they can be imported later when you want to create a notebook. Selecting your template notes in Evernote 4. Choose File > Export Notes to bring up the export window. When prompted, enter a name for your template notebook, such as Design Project, and save it into the Evernote Templates folder in your Documents folder. Make sure you're saving in Evernote XML Format (.enex), and that you've chosen to Include tags for each note. Exporting your template notes as an Evernote XML file 5. Repeat the process for any other template notebooks you might want. A folder of exported Evernote XML files that serve as templates 6. Launch AppleScript Editor, located in /Applications/Utilities, and create a new document. 7. Enter the following script into the document: (If you have any trouble, you can download the complete script here.) 8. Save the script as an application and drag it to your Dock, so you can quickly trigger it at any time. Saving the AppleScript as an application To Use Launch the AppleScript application you saved (if you prefer to test right from AppleScript Editor instead, click Run in the toolbar). First, the script looks in your Evernote Templates folder and retrieves a list of exported .enex files. It then asks you to choose one. Choosing a notebook template Next, the script asks you to enter a name for the new notebook. Type the desired name, and click OK. Entering a notebook name The script creates a new Evernote notebook named accordingly, and imports the chosen .enex file. The script then searches the opened Evernote window for the newly imported notes. A new notebook created from a template Notes imported into the newly created notebook Congratulations, you've written your very own notebook template utility for Evernote! Now, with only a few clicks, you can quickly create notebooks containing pre-existing default notes.
Tip: Making ITPC links work with the official Podcasts app
My iPhone 5 arrived last Friday, and because my old iPhone 4 had gotten so cluttered with apps, I decided that instead of restoring from an old backup, I would go ahead and just start over completely. Most of my important documents and logins are all stored in iCloud, so it wasn't a big problem to start from scratch. Doing so will allow me to cut back down on apps, making sure I only install the ones I'll use (at least to begin with). But one issue did present itself: Because I decided to no longer sync with my iTunes install on my Mac, I had to re-subscribe to all of my podcasts manually in Apple's new Podcasts app. Most of those weren't an issue -- I mostly listen to famous podcasts like Adam Carolla's show and the Thrilling Adventure Hour. But a few of my podcasts are harder to find: They come only through ITPC links, which is a special browser protocol that will automatically subscribe you through iTunes when linked (with authentication where necessary, usually for premium content). I tried clicking on the ITPC links for my podcast in Mobile Safari, but Safari, unfortunately, doesn't recognize the link automatically. For a while, I worried that I'd have to sync up to iTunes just to subscribe to the few podcasts that use this authentication. The solution? It turns out to be surprisingly easy: Just change the "itpc://..." specifier at the beginning of the URL to "feed://..." Instantly, when you load up that URL, iTunes will jump in and help you out. In fact, if you have the Podcasts app installed already (and if you regularly listen to podcasts, you should), the app itself will pop up, and load up the feed for you. It makes me wonder why the ITPC protocol itself isn't just supported in Mobile Safari, but nevermind. Changing the URL to "feed" will get you exactly what you're looking for.
Audi e-bike Wörthersee lets you pop wheelies eco-style, plays nice with your smartphone
We're no stranger to e-bikes here, but most of the examples we've seen so far have very much been meant for A-to-B rides. Audi's aiming to fix that with its e-bike Wörthersee prototype. The carbon fiber transport not only has a strong 2.3kW motor -- the most powerful ever in a bike, so says Audi -- but can use that power for tricks. You can flick the Wörthersee into a wheelie mode and either shift your weight around or leave it fully automatic, depending on the fierceness of your stunt skills. Not that it'll be a timid ride if you prefer to keep both wheels on the ground, as a motor-assisted pedaling mode will take you up to 50MPH, and you can still ride at 31MPH if you're not keen on using your legs. That's faster than the already speedy Grace One City we tried, folks. The vorsprung durch technik also comes through a smartphone tie-in, although in a much more stunt-savvy way than the app- and tuning-focused Ford E-Bike Concept: it tracks video and trick runs, both for its own game system and for bragging rights on Facebook. With a very light 3.5-pound carbon fiber frame and a quick 2.5-hour charge-up time, the e-bike Wörthersee sounds like a wild ride that will charge quickly enough for a spin on your lunch break, but we wouldn't rush to put down a deposit. Audi is calling the prototype a "show bike," which is a sign than the design as-is won't show up at the local sports store. We'll let you know if the Wörthersee or a more pragmatic descendant makes the leap to a dealer.
April Fool's jokes streak across the MMO community
It may be the weekend, but that's never stopped pranksters in the past from pulling off truly epic April Fool's jokes. Many MMO studios, bloggers, and fan site operators are lining up to take a shot at the jester's crown today, hoping that their blatant (and entertaining) lies will at least amuse, if not trick, players. It would be fool-hardy (har har) to try to round them all up, so suffice it to say that office clowns have been quite busy thus far. From Star Wars: The Old Republic's announcement of playable ship droids and City of Heroes' offer of ludicrous marketplace sales to Blizzard's focus on educational kids games and StarCraft 2's playable supply depots to SOE scaring visitors with Chatdy, the gags are flying fast and furious. We might be the most impressed with a deeply detailed wiki entry for a Guild Wars mission called Annihilator 2: Searing Day, during which players are sent into the past to save Gwen from the G-1000. If you've spotted any other pranks, please share them in the comments!
Pocket Gamer: How to get Trophies in used Vita games
We've seen Sony's own tips and tricks for the Vita, but as the device ages (six days old already!) more and more will appear, as Pocket Gamer shows with its tutorial that explains how to renew trophy-earning functionality in used Vita games.Upon booting up a pre-owned Vita title, players will get a screen that reads, "You cannot earn trophies in this application. Only the first player to use an application can earn trophies. To earn trophies, you must link the Sony Entertainment Network account of the first player to use this application with the PS Vita system." Pocket Gamer says the following steps will render that warning useless: Go to the main menu and hold down the screen for two seconds, until little bubbles appear on the upper-right side of each game's icon. Hit the bubble you want and click "Delete." A screen reading "All data related to this application will be deleted" will pop up. Hit "OK." Load the game and you should be good to go.This process won't delete the previous player's trophies, Pocket Gamer adds.
Sony posts official tips and tricks for Vita, comments have more
It's the first weekend with your Vita and you've spent the entire time together, touching, sliding, swiping, tapping the back... Oh, yeah. You know more about each other than any other device you've played with previously, but there's always more to learn. Sony has compiled a list of nine tips and tricks for the Vita that may make your life together easier -- as long as you put the toilet seat down, Harold. No really, that's one of the tips.The list in includes Sony's tricks, but the comments offer a few more gems, such as pressing the plus and minus volume buttons to mute all sound on your Vita. You can also mute it by yelling at the top of your lungs, "Shut up, Vita!" Really, try that one on a crowded bus some time.
3 time-saving WoW keyboard shortcuts you may not know
I think we all like to save time in game when doing mundane things so that we can get back to the fun stuff. I also find that World of Warcraft is unable to read my mind and know that I really meant "armor" when I typoed "amror." So out of necessity, I've discovered some tricks to let WoW know what I really mean in a timely fashion. Shift-clicking a crafting material in your inventory with the appropriate craft box open will search for patterns that include that mat. I can never remember if my jewelcrafter has already leveled past some gem or other, but with this trick I can easily check. Also, if I pick up some meat and don't know if I have a recipe for it, shift-click searching lets me know. You probably already use this trick for searching in the Auction House, as well. Shift-clicking the icon for a letter in your mailbox will put all items from that letter into your inventory. I find this invaluable for sending items to my bank alt. Note: This will delete the letter from your mailbox if there is nothing written in the letter itself.
That hide-the-Newsstand trick? It works
Yes, it works. You can hide Newsstand and it works exactly like those hundreds of posts and tips and videos say it does. We don't know exactly who figured this out -- coverage of the trick is pretty widespread at this point and there aren't exact credits -- but kudos to who did. It wasn't us. (Update: Appears to be from here, and originally discovered by @AnataTenshi Well done.) Basically, there's a tiny bug in iOS 5 that allows you to stick Newsstand into a folder if you catch it just as you're making another folder. It's a little tricky and takes about 5-10 tries on average to get it right. Line up three apps: app 1, Newsstand, app 2. Drag app 1 onto app 2 to create a new folder and then as soon as iOS is getting ready to folder 'em, drag Newsstand into the same group. About 80% of the time, this fails. You get a folder with both apps and Newsstand left out in the cold. When you do, just drag both items back out and start again. But about 20% of the time, Newsstand goes into the folder, and it is for all purposes hidden. So yay. Be aware that the Newsstand item will not be seen in the group icon (see the picture on this post) so if you ever intend to use it, you may have to hunt around in folders to find it. And one more thing: The other tip? About spoofing the lock screen by going through the Camera roll? Doesn't work. Thanks to everyone who tipped us about this Update: Some commenters are warning that you should not attempt to run Newsstand from a folder.
Breakfast Topic: Are you an Azerothian prankster?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Back in the good ol' days, our guild was much smaller and tight-knit. We had enough for a solid 25-man raid, with a handful others who just liked to call us "home." Some guildies knew each other in real life or were roommates who liked to have fun and play pranks on each other. While I glad to not be a part of it, I did enjoy hearing the creativity they came up with, especially when it involved something in game. The most memorable prank was back in the golden days of yore, back when mounts were items in your bag, guns and bows took ammunition, and gold wasn't fished in fountains. Someone logged onto a low-level alt and commented the character wasn't where he had left him. He shortly discovered that he had no gear, no gold for a flight path, no hearthstone, no mount, was nowhere near a bank, and had to run through high-level mobs to get anywhere remotely close to bank access. Watching him discover all these atrocities one at a time made for a very entertaining evening. With authenticators bringing heightened account security and Blizzard making items such as mounts "learned," pranks such as this are hard to recreate. This just means pranksters have to be more creative. Do you and your friends pull fast ones on each other? What epic in-game tales and pranks were you in on or have you heard about?
Portal 2 'Insane Cube Tricks' video is true to its name
We anticipated that we'd be seeing some Portal 2 trick videos sooner or later -- but we wouldn't have predicted the tricks therein wouldn't really involve that many portals. Check out the video after the jump to see some truly impressive cube throws, by way of YouTube user Schrobotindisguise.
Gold Capped: Earning gold for absolute beginners
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Aaron wrote in the other day to say: Despite having played WoW for years I'm a complete gold-making newbie and my characters are all dirt-poor because of it. I decided it was time to start playing the gold-making meta game so I've been reading through issues of your Gold Capped column, and while I've really enjoyed what I've read I'm afraid I'm still at a loss as to where to get started. Obviously I don't have a lot of upfront capital to jump-start my endeavor, either. I was wondering if you've ever written or would consider writing an article for complete, absolute beginners such as myself. Unless you started the game with rich friends, this is something that everyone has to go through. People getting into earning gold from scratch often don't have any clue where to start, and they often have a bunch of incorrect ideas about what they need to get going.
Wings Over Atreia: Boss world tour -- Inggison
Back in January, Wings Over Atreia brought you the first installment of a series highlighting the who, where, what, and even some how of Aion's world bosses. At that time, we took a tour around the land of Heiron and met up with those tough (and some not-so-tough) bosses who taunt players with their juicy, coveted loot. But Heiron is for youngins; this week, we will focus our tour on the playground of the highest levels, the lands of Balaurea -- specifically, Inggison. It never fails -- the best goodies are never the easy-to-get goodies. As much as Daevas may want to get their hot little hands on some of the weapons, armor, and crafting materials dropped by these world bosses, they have to first find these giants and second actually defeat them. So much easier said than done. On the bright side, some of the mobs are easier to kill and can even be soloed (although they are also well-camped). On the not-bright side, others don't seem to show their faces as often as hungry loot-hunters would like, or they take a friend or 20 to take down. So what's a Daeva to do? Soar past the cut for some tips, tricks, and a handy map for seeking out those Inggison bosses and convincing them to give up their loot.
HTC Thunderbolt 3G data problems solved?
When we first received our HTC Thunderbolt review unit, we -- and others, apparently -- experienced problems with 3G data not always functioning in areas without 4G coverage. Things improved after we performed a factory data reset, but that's pretty inconvenient. Fortunately, some clever folks over at Android Central have come up with an explanation and potential fix for this issue. It looks like some devices are being activated in areas with eHPRD coverage but then used in areas without. eHPRD allows simultaneous voice and data on EV-DO networks, and provides faster LTE switching -- assuming 4G is switched on. Supposedly, this feature is down in some parts of the country, so phones configured to use eHPRD can't initiate a data connection over 3G, but ones provisioned for regular EV-DO are connecting fine. One way to reconfigure the Thunderbolt is to re-activate it on the network, which is one of the side effects of doing a factory data reset. A better way is to invoke the programming menu and re-provision the device manually by following the steps outlined in the source link and illustrated in our gallery below. Sadly, we can't verify this solution because we currently have both eHPRD and LTE coverage in our neck of the woods, but some people are reporting improvements. Let us know in the comments how it works out for you and be careful not to mess with any of the other settings. You have been warned. Update: Dial ##778# and tap the Call button to enter the programming menu. The password for the Edit Mode menu is 000000. Follow the source link for more info. %Gallery-119980%
HTC Thunderbolt test menu exposes missing 4G / 3G switch
As we mentioned in our recent HTC Thunderbolt review, there's no option provided in the settings to switch off 4G (LTE) and force the phone to operate solely on 3G (EV-DO). Obviously this is an issue when conserving battery is more important than reaping the benefits of LTE's ludicrous data speeds. Fortunately, we can thank the good old *#*#4636#*#* test menu for remedying this odd deficiency. This hidden menu, which became popular with the Nexus One and is available on most Android devices, allows you to enable / disable radio modes. On the Thunderbolt it lets you select between LTE+EV-DO, EV-DO only, and LTE only. Now you can have your cake and eat it too -- well almost. Follow the source link for step-by-step instructions.
