Monday, December 14, 2009

Blood Pact: Meet the minions, part 4 - the felhunter and mage-hate


Blood Pact is your weekly warlock digest brought to you by Dominic Hobbs. "Ah, of course. Our latest prodigy. The real thing can't live up to the legend, I'm afraid. No matter, you've come here to learn, not to hear me make jokes to myself. ~ Strahad Farsan

When Wrath first came along I wrote a piece about how warlock utility in 25 man raids had all but disappeared. I had many dissenters to that statement, using examples such as Soul Stones and the like. One that came up a few times was the Felhound and how useful he is. I have to agree, he's a regular bag of tricks, but when it comes to 25 man raiding he's been (rightly) left in the kennel for quite some time. This is about to change.

"But Dominic, you seething pot of demonic mage-hating bile..." I hear you cry "...where is all the mage-hate?" Well, yes, I can imagine the title did lead you to expect an article so vitriolic and anti-arcane as to leave nothing more in its wake than quivering lumps of nerdy arcanists, armpit-deep in tears; and maybe a lost looking sheep. I'm not sure I can do that though, as I don't really hate mages -- that point is really going to need clarifying.

Continue reading Blood Pact: Meet the minions, part 4 - the felhunter and mage-hate

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Blood Pact: Meet the minions, part 4 - the felhunter and mage-hate originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Where to Find Post-Thanksgiving Deals

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Well, Black Friday came and went, but it's still kind of Black Friday at many places through the end of the weekend. This means hundreds of amazing deals on electronics and other digital doodads, not to mention insanely long lines. We don't really think all the fuss is worth it, particularly since two weeks ago, we bought a Panasonic 42-inch plasma HDTV for about $1,100. In fact, we're confident that deals will persist for the next five weeks of holiday shopping. And let's not forget that many of these Black Friday sales are also available online. But if you're in the mood to shop this weekend, and sometimes that's enough of a reason to deal with the crowds, here are some sites you should check out before you god.

DealNews: This site lists the latest deals on all sorts of merchandise, including, of courses, deals on electronics. Sales are listed by retailers (Apple Store, Sears, Amazon.com), as well as by specific item (such as LG's 42-inch plasma HDTV for $899). You can also print out coupons here.

Gadget blogs and sites: Both Engadget and Gizmodo have exhaustive lists of all the deals that are to be had today. Or, if you don't have time to browse through each and every deal and link, you can check out the top ten Black Friday deals that Laptop magazine has compiled.

Retrevo: This newly launched site lists the latest deals, and, unlike a lot of other sales listing sites, even tells you what it thinks is a good discount versus just a discount. but also offers a nifty new shopping tool that lets narrow down gadgets by price range, brand, feature list, then scours the Web for online deals, user and blog/Web site reviews, and images and gives you a customized breakdown of price and quality on whatever you're looking for.

BlackFridayInfo: This site comes alive today with pretty much every Black Friday deal that any major retailer might have, and offers links to online deals right on the main page, so you'll never have to leave your desk!

Assorted tips: If you know what you want, but just don't have a strategy for beating lines or traffic, you're in luck, because everyone in the gadget and product review business usually has its own Black Friday guide. Just do a search for "Black Friday tips" and you'll likely find a full list of stories such as this one.

For more ideas on what to buy this holiday season, check out the Switched Holiday Gift Guide.

SwitchedWhere to Find Post-Thanksgiving Deals originally appeared on Switched on Sat, 24 Nov 2007 20:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kindle for iPhone takes over the world, hits over 60 new countries

We all now know that Kindle is more than an e-book for Amazon -- it's an entire digital content platform with aims on world domination, which explains why the company has felt more than comfortable releasing software-based readers for other platforms. To that end, they've announced that Kindle for iPhone is now ready for download in over 60 additional countries, which probably overlaps as a pretty beefy subset of the list of countries to which the actual Kindle is shipping. And, unlike the real thing, you'll actually be able to browse the full web with your iPhone -- not to say that HTML on an E Ink display was ever a very satisfying experience to start.

Kindle for iPhone takes over the world, hits over 60 new countries originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Boxee Box pictured in the wild: it's small!

Whoa, we sort of guessed the Boxee Box was going to be small from those press pics we saw the other night, but we didn't know it was going to be freaking tiny -- check out this shot of the asymmetrical set-top next to a Coke can just posted up on the Boxee blog. Sadly, neither Boxee nor D-Link has updated us on what's actually powering this little guy, but we do now know that it'll have an RF remote control and S/PDIF and RCA audio outputs in addition to HDMI, SD, USB, WiFi, and Ethernet. Sounds like a tiny little chunk of awesome -- we're looking forward to finding out way more at CES.

Boxee Box pictured in the wild: it's small! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stephen Harper and the Jewish question - Globe and Mail


Globe and Mail

Stephen Harper and the Jewish question
Globe and Mail
The message begins: �When it comes to fighting anti-Semitism, the Conservative government will not compromise.� The photo was taken when Harper was given ...
PM needs new stand-up routineToronto Sun

all 24 news articles »

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Using Snow Leopard's Image Capture app, or how to clean up a room

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One of the lesser-known changes in Snow Leopard is the update to the Image Capture application. This little gem of the Mac has always been available to grab photos from devices such as digital cameras and scanners, but with Mac OS X 10.6, Image Capture has turned into my personal hero.

In 2007 and 2008, my in-laws both passed away and in the process of closing out their estate, we inherited many family photos. When I mean many, I'm talking about boxes and albums filled with them, enough to fill a spare bedroom in our house! Rather than just tossing the photos, we wanted to keep them because many of them were cherished family pictures, and others (taken by my father-in-law) were spectacularly good travel photographs.

I've had an Epson Perfection 4490 Photo scanner for a few years, and the software that came with it was adequate. However, I just didn't feel like I wanted to spend the time and effort to scan a bunch of photo prints, and was considering sending them off to be digitized professionally. Then, in a fortuitous experiment, I tried Image Capture 6.0.

This latest version has made it possible for me to slap down a bunch of photos on my scanner without regard for orientation, and have the scanner digitize them individually for placement in a folder. All it takes is making sure to check the Detect Separate Items checkbox, and Image Capture analyzes the overview scan to pick out the individual photos, straighten them out, and save them to a folder, auto-numbering them in the process. Once I've digitized a large batch, I drop them into a folder on my wife's MacBook Pro, where they're dragged into iPhoto, tagged, edited, and organized. The originals? They go into the trash.

Image Capture is faster than the Epson software that came with the scanner, it allows me to scan a lot of photos very quickly while working on other things on my Mac (like writing TUAW posts), and it's making it possible for me to burn through digitizing thousands of prints without spending thousands of dollars using commercial scanning services. The best part of this entire project is that in the process of converting atoms to bits, we're going to recapture some space in our home. Your mileage may vary depending on the scanner model you're using, but if you haven't given the Snow Leopard edition of Image Capture a try, check it out.

TUAWUsing Snow Leopard's Image Capture app, or how to clean up a room originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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VIDEO: GM commissions Chevrolet Volt dance to go with song. Yes, really.

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Chevrolet Volt Dance - Click above to watch the video after the break

"E for electricity, V for Chevy Volt and me..." Catchy little diddly, sure. But we were mostly willing to let the Chevrolet Volt song make the deep, dark trek into obscurity with nary another mention. That is, until today. What made us change our tune, you ask? Boy, are you in for a treat.

Witness the Chevy Volt dance. Yes, it is an official routine apparently commissioned by GM. Showgoers that meandered near the GM area at the LA Auto Show may already be familiar with this little number, but the video's just too good not to share with the rest of the class. We especially like it when the four-person crew stops whatever they're doing to throw us an "E" and a "V."

Trust us. You owe it to yourself to click past the break and watch the video. Here's hoping The General antes up to send these dancers around the country for the rest of the auto show circuit.

[Source: GM-Volt.com]

Continue reading VIDEO: GM commissions Chevrolet Volt dance to go with song. Yes, really.

VIDEO: GM commissions Chevrolet Volt dance to go with song. Yes, really. originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The 3 Best Netbooks Right Now

Yesterday, we saw the best laptops at any price. But what about their little brothers, the netbooks? Quite simply, here are the three best models that you should choose from, provided by Mark Spoonauer from Laptop:

Toshiba mini NB205

Starting Price: $399.99 ($382.36 now at Amazon)
If you're going to be staring at a 10-inch screen for hours on end you deserve a design that doesn't feel claustrophobic, and the 3-pound NB205 delivers with the biggest touchpad in its class and a spacious chiclet-style keyboard. This netbook doesn't look cheap either, thanks to the textured lid and slick color options (black, white, pink, blue or brown). We're not fans of Windows 7 Crippled Edition, but the NB205's nearly 9 hours of battery life and 250GB hard drive make this $399 machine a great deal. [Review]

HP mini 311

Starting Price: $399
What a difference Nvidia graphics make. This Atom+Ion-powered netbook can not only handle mainstream games like World of Warcraft without breaking a sweat, it takes full advantage of Flash Player 10.1's hardware acceleration for dramatically smoother Hulu playback on the 11.6-inch screen (or bigger screen via HDMI). You can even edit video on this 3.2-pound powerhouse, which comes with a stylish HP Swirl pattern in black or white. If you care about longer battery life, get the cheaper Windows XP version.
[Windows XP Review] [Windows 7 Review]

Samsung N140

Starting Price: $384.99
Samsung made a splash last year with its first netbooks for the U.S., and the $399 N140 builds upon the success of the NC10 but modernizing the design, adding Windows 7 (though it's Starter), and beefing up the hard drive to 250GB. Available with a burgundy or blue lid and outlined with silver trim, this Atom machine performs like other netbooks but features a glare-free matte display and comfy keyboard. You also get decent audio courtesy of SRS Sound. [Review]

Mark Spoonauer is the editor-in-chief of Laptop Magazine and Laptopmag.com, which reviewed over 130 notebooks and netbooks during 2009. To see all of their top picks of the year, click here.


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Michelle Malkin � NBC&#39;s �Law and Order� putting <b>conservative</b> media <b>...</b>

Reader Alex e-mails: �During the finale of 'The Biggest Loser' last night, NBC aired a promo spot for an episode of Law and Order where a conservative talk show host is put on trial for murder based on creating a 'climate of hate. ...
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Glenn Beck's �Midas Touch� Hurts His Credibility - David Horowitz's NewsReal Blog (blog)


Kansas City Star

Glenn Beck's �Midas Touch� Hurts His Credibility
David Horowitz's NewsReal Blog (blog)
There's no joy in Mudville when I have to call out a fellow conservative. In his Dec. 10 episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart (NOT the ...
Glenn Beck no longer a 'paid spokesman' for GoldlineDaily Finance (blog)
The Buzz | Beck: Good as gold?Kansas City Star
Fox New's Glenn Beck is dangerous to AmericaExaminer.com

all 30 news articles »

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Tea Party event coming to S.A. - San Antonio Express


Tea Party event coming to S.A.
San Antonio Express
Sarah Palin, television host Sean Hannity and other conservative speakers. Tea Party Support announced this afternoon that the event, billed as the National ...


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