Pike - Slashdot User

New WoW Patch Brings Cross-Server Instances 342

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday December 09, 2009 @04:36AM from the new-and-shiny dept.

ajs writes "World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King expansion was staggered into 4 phases. The fourth and final phase, patch 3.3, was released on Tuesday. This patch is significant in that it will be the first introduction of one of the most anticipated new features in the game since PvP arenas: the cross-realm random dungeon, as well as the release of new end-game dungeons for 5, 10 and 25-player groups. The patch notes have been posted, and so has a trailer. The ultimate fight against the expansion's antagonist, the Lich King a.k.a. Arthas, will be gated as each of the four wings of the final dungeon are opened in turn — a process that may take several months. The next major patch after 3.3 (presumably 4.0) will be the release of Cataclysm, the next expansion."

Comment Measurable results (Score 2, Funny) 197

by Pike on Wednesday December 09, 2009 @12:47AM (#30374164) Attached to: Monkeys With Syntax

I guess they'll know they had a "syntax error" if the monkey fails to understand the warning and gets killed by the falling tree.

Comment Re:Email is dead (Score 1) 266

by Pike on Wednesday October 14, 2009 @11:33AM (#29745439) Attached to: Yet Another Premature Declaration of Email's Death

Because it doesn't require my instantaneous attention and I get to control when I reply.

Neither does Twitter. Nor will Google Wave.

The problem with email isn't its asynchronous nature and that's not what's being declared dead here. Everyone loves that part. The problem is how its oversimplified inbox/outbox/folder/reply-to-all format overcomplicates multi-person and multi-project conversations. Gmail made a lot of progress by ditching folders in favour of labels and powerful search, but the basic problems still remain. Google was right, a brand new open protocol is needed that doesn't try to remain compatible with IMAP, POP and SMTP.

Twitter, on the other hand, is an awesome option for stuff on the other end of the scale - very quick casual questions or comments. Because it removes the social overhead of initiating email contact -- makes it more like just a comment to someone on the street. Twitter makes it easy to make contact and interact with both friends and strangers on a very light level. I've asked questions of people on Twitter that I never would have if email was my only option.

Submission + - Google Denies Soldiers Access to Google Voice

Submitted by

Camberg

on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @11:11AM

Camberg writes: "While not a soldier myself, I work here in Iraq on the American base in Baghdad Iraq. I am hearing a lot of soldiers voicing complaints about the fact that Google Voice doesn't allow them to use the service. They live at a legal US address, most have a USA phone number on skype or yahoo, and yet google shuns them. You'd think that being the new world leader for online interaction they would have an exception for soldiers serving overseas that use a USA number. Instead they're alienating the soldiers who are only becoming more attached to services like skype and yahoo that offer phone numbers for incoming VOIP calls."

Submission + - What can a nerd teach refugee kids from Burma? 1

Submitted by

Eirik H

on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @10:28AM

Eirik H writes: "Me and my girlfriend are going to an orphanage by the Thai-Burmese border for refugee children from Burma aged 5-17. We are staying for about 3 to 4 weeks and are to do some sort of educational activity. Now, she's a professional illustrator and painter making it fairly easy for her to come up with something, but what can a programmer/webdesigner/nerd like myself teach them? Afaik, they are not exactly blessed with heaps of Quad Core's, I'm betting all I can find is an old box sitting in a corner with Windows 95 and no Internet connection, though I'll probably bring my own laptop. What would you Slashdotters suggest?"

Submission + - Privacy control for Facebook applications (gatech.edu) 1

Submitted by

kikininthebut

on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @12:04AM

kikininthebut writes: "The 2009 USENIX Security Symposium started this week at Montreal with presentations on many relevant topics related to Internet security, such as privacy issues on social networks. The xBook system, a Facebook privacy control system developed by researchers from Georgia Tech, IBM and Google will be presented on thursday with an information flow control model which increases users' control over the level of access that 3rd-party applications have over their personal data. Seems especially relevant given the latest privacy-related incidents involving social networks.

A prototype of the xBook system has been implemented as a Facebook app and the full paper can be downloaded here."

Comment oh the humanity (Score 1) 371

by Pike on Tuesday August 04, 2009 @02:19PM (#28944891) Attached to: Large Hadron Collider Struggling

I don't blame it. If I were a Large Hadron Collider, I would probably struggle too.

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