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Monday, May 19, 2008

World Of Warcraft

Design a character from one of two factions, the Alliance or the Horde. There are eight races to choose from (all races can be both Female and Male) in the basic game and ten races with "The Burning Crusade" expansion. Currently there are eight playing classes (see below), but this is subject to change when the new expansion "Wrath of the Lich King" is released later in 2008.


Pros & Cons
Pros:


•Customizable interface with addon mods
•Great interface
•Excellent, interesting, and unique storylines
•Make your own adventure (not stuck on one storyline)
•Huge playerbase (amount of people playing)
•Excellent customer service in the game and on the phone
•Voice emotes and dances unique to your choice of race

Cons:

•Your friends might make fun of you (but who cares? its a great game)
•Frequent Updates (interface mod incompatibility)
•A lot of obnoxious people (most people have used this game as an entry point into the MMO scene)
•Different versions are tied to their regions, i.e. an American version of the game cannot play on European Servers and vice versa.
•Monthly subscription fee (about $15)

More information

You basically roam around inside the dynamic online world called "Azeroth" killing beasts, monsters, giants, dragons and even other players of the opposing faction if you so wish, while completing tasks (quests) to earn virtual money and items to improve your character and take it to the next level.

There are currently a total of 70 levels in World of Warcraft, you start at level one and as you progress in the game you gain levels, making your character more powerful with better character statistics (strength, stamina, intelligence, spirit and agility) and abilities/spells (depending on what class you choose/roll).

World of Warcraft is the most played game of the MMORPGs, connecting a huge amount of realms over several continents and countries. With over ten million subscribers --and growing-- you're sure not to adventure alone, but can of course if you prefer not to adventure with other people.

World of Warcraft has always been the gateway MMO for a lot of people new to the genre, it is a fairly simple game with a fast learning curve, the game only becomes as advanced as you want it to get.

The user interface is very simple and easy to understand, but for people that want a different look, or more advanced control there are custom user interfaces and interface enhancements to download from various World of Warcraft Interface sites. But for the inexperienced, the basic UI will take the new player to the highest level without any real need to change your UI.

Classes & Races

The Alliance consist of:

•Dwarves (Hunter, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Warrior)
•Draenei (BC only) (Mage, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Warrior)
•Gnomes (Mage, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior)
•Humans (Mage, Paladin, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior)
•Night Elves (Druid, Hunter, Rogue, Priest, Warrior)

The horde consist of:

•Blood Elves (BC only) (Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Warlock)
•Orcs (Hunter, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior)
•Tauren (Druid, Hunter, Warrior)
•Trolls (Hunter, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior)
•Undead (Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior)

Both factions now have the same classes (after BC was released), the classes are the following:

•Druid (Able to Shapeshift into various animals to benefit him or herself)
•Hunter (A tamer of animals and most commonly a ranged DPSer)
•Mage (A DPS class that focuses on magic spells to deal heavy damage to it's enemies)
•Paladin (The holy warrior that is a combination of a caster /healer / warrior with it's heavy armor, healing magic and combat magic.
•Priest (The primary healer, but can also be dealing damage if he or she is talented in that direction)
•Rogue (Uses the shadows, moment of surprise and stealth to deliver heavy blows to it's enemy)
•Shaman (With the use of totems that buff yourself or your group, also provide excellent for combat aid.
•Warrior (Primary tank class, but can be talented to deal melee DPS)
•Warlock (A caster with the ability to summon a demonic pet and a combination of DoT spells and heavy damaging spells like a Mage)

Tradeskill

There are also several trading professions in the game such as:

•Alchemy
•Blacksmith
•Enchanter
•Herbalism
•Jewelcrafter (BC Only)
•Leatherworker
•Skinner
•Tailor

Neuton Battery-Powered CE 6.2 Mower

The Neuton mower is a battery-powered machine that lets you mow your lawn with the ease of a gas-powered motor and the environmental and cost effective savings of an electrical. The Neuton uses a 24-volt battery that can be used for 45-60 minutes continuously. A big attraction to the Neuton mower is its quiet operating level - it was named the quietest rotary mower by the Noise Pollution Clearing House.

Pros & Cons
Pros:


•No gas to buy
•No cord gets in the way
•Easy to start
•Extremely quiet

Cons:

•Expensive
•Battery doesn't last very long
•Battery takes long to charge
•Not that powerful, only 2.4 HP - 36 Volts x 50 Amps
•Heavy

More information

Features


•Battery: 360 Watt-Hour lead/acid with charging station
•Battery takes up to 8 hours to charge
•Battery life: 45 - 60 minutes
•Motor: 36 volt, 50 amp electric motor
•Blade-tip speed: 1800 ft/min
•Weight: 69 lbs.
•19-inch wide cut

Accessories

•Rear collector bag
•Mulching add-on
•Edge/trimmer attachmen

MythTV

MythTV is an open-source digital video recorder and media streamer software for Linux and Mac OS X. It is most often used in PCs as a free alternative to the popular TiVo service. It also has many of the network media streaming capabilities in Xbox Media Center. MythTV has almost all PVR functionality found with TiVo, including "Live TV" that allows you to pause, rewind, and fast forward live TV. It supports multiple TV tuners for multiple simultaneous recordings. Video is compressed using rtjpeg (from Nuppelvideo) or mpeg4 (from libavcodec). It is available as a free download, and is very often bundled with an Linux-based operating system for easy setup. One of the more popular MythTV bundles is Mythbuntu, a combination of MythTV and the popular Linux distro Ubuntu. The current release is version 0.21 released on March 8th, 2008.


Pros & Cons
Pros:


•Free, open-source alternative to TiVO
•Commercial detection/skipping
•Distributed architecture supporting multiple clients and multiple servers for a more advanced setup
•Web-based interface for remote recording
•Customizable menus
•Includes many other apps including weather, web-browser, gallery, music player
•Support for multiple simultaneous TV tuners
•Live TV functionality. pause/rewind/fast forward live TV
•Web-powered electronic program guide
•Control your set-top box with an IR blaster
•HDTV support
•Built-in DVD importer for "backing up" DVDs

Cons:

•Complicated setup geared towards more techie people
•Difficult working with digital broadcasts and HDTV
•Doesn't interact with digital cable/satellite directly but instead requires an IR blaster

More information

Features


•Supports ATSC, QAM, and DVB high-definition television.
•Pause, skip, and rewind live TV shows.
•Intelligently schedules recordings to avoid conflicts.
•Interfaces with free TV listing sources such as XMLTV or PSIP.
•Interfaces with subscription listings service Schedules Direct in the United States and Canada.
•Schedule and administer various system functions using a web browser-based interface.
•A backend server and frontend client architecture, allowing multiple frontend client machines to be remotely served content from one or more backend servers. A single computer can perform as both the frontend client and the backend server.
•Analyzes recorded shows for optional commercial skipping
•Plays recordings at an accelerated or decelerated rate, adjusting the audio pitch as necessary.
•Controls a decoder/STB using an infrared remote (Irblaster)
•Web interface for setting up recordings remotely
•Customizable, skinnable menu

Setup

MythTV should be installed on a PC (or Mac) with a compatible video tuner card. MythTV continues to support more tuner cards as they are released, but it currently supports Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 150/250/350/500 series of tuner cards. The combination of PC + MythTV now can be used as a HTPC. The tuner card can be hooked up to your (1) analog OTA or cable directly, or (2) can be connected to your cable or satellite set-top box which can then be controlled using an IR blaster connected to the HTPC. The MythTV interface has an EPG (powered by XMLTV) that should be configured to your TV programming setup. A unique feature to MythTV is its distributed architecture allowing for multiple recording machines and multiple playback machines on the same network for a transparent experience to the user. For example, you could have MythTV connected to your digital cable in the living room, and have a second MythTV box in your bedroom that connects seamlessly to the digital cable and access the recorded shows remotely.