http://blog.flup.org/iceman iceman's blog hosted by blog.flup.org Copyright 2003-2008, iceman blog-08@huntersys.net (iceman) allan@saddi.com (Allan Saddi) Saddi Enterprises Blog/Web Chat http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://blog.flup.org/iceman?entry=6605 Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:48:34 +0000 http://blog.flup.org/iceman/comment?entrynum=6605 http://blog.flup.org/iceman?entry=6605 iceman's blog
We drove down to Anaheim on Thursday. Took the 405/22 to avoid downtown LA on the 101. Traffic was flowing despite being rush hour, so that was nice.

Friday we caught the Diablo 3 panel. I was blown away. World of Warcraft was my first MMO and first Blizzard game, so I really had no interest in Diablo before Friday. They've got like 100 death animations for the misc. mobs based on how they're killed. For instance, dissinegrate will cause them to melt into a pool of slime on the floor. Certain mobs will still have unique deaths, like bursting into a pile of worms or whatever. Also, they are putting in some cool player deaths. Like a certain boss will bite a player in half.

After that, caught the WoW classes panel. They had a good wealth of info about what they were planning for each class and detailed some of the thought process behind the design decisions. The Q&A was great. lol

Saturday we caught the Dungeon and Raid panel and the WoW General Q&A. Both excellent. Also got to meet up with a couple other Skywallers. Overall a great time. We also caught the Closing/Concert, but I took off after the comedians because I had a headache. Everyone else said the concert was awesome though.

Despite the overcrowding, everyone really seemed to have a great time. I'm excited about D3 and expect the 3.0 WOW:WotLK patch to go live Tuesday.]]> http://blog.flup.org/iceman?entry=6573 Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:33:49 +0000 http://blog.flup.org/iceman/comment?entrynum=6573 http://blog.flup.org/iceman?entry=6573 iceman's blog
I rolled a Tauren Death Knight and played through the intro quests from level 55 to 57. I have to say that I am really impressed at the quality of the content. It's still a bit buggy and laggy, but the entire line of quests leading you from 'rebirth' to joining the horde/alliance is really fun. A ton of death and destruction. lol A few things I really liked were:

-Any race can be a DK
-You start at level 55
-You get your 100% ground mount (a summon) on like the 3rd quest... the quest rocks.
-You get to slaughter masses using siege weapons and flying mounts (user-controlled)
-They start most of your skills (weapons, first aid, etc) to 270 to reduce grinding
-You start with most all Azeroth flight paths
-The DK combat system is unique and fun
-You get a buff in the starting area that sends a Valkyrie to rez you free, can only happen once every 10 mins
-You start out in nice greens and end up with a full set of VERY nice blues
-The last battle is E P I C

We also ran Utgarde Keep, the first Northrend instance. It wasn't too difficult really, but since none of us had any clue what to expect, we wiped on one boss and once on trash. Only one quest we found for it, to kill the last boss. The ring reward was weak, but paid 10g too.

-1st boss: Tank-n-spank with summoned non-elite adds. We easily AoEd them down while DPSing the boss
-2nd boss: Most fun, caused our wipe. lol 2 NPCs, 1 caster/1 melee. When they die, they continue to fight as ghosts (that are immune to attacks) until they are both dead. Best strategy was to kill the caster, then the melee.
-3rd boss: Phase 1: Massive local WW-type attack you have to avoid, stacks +shadowDmg debuff and has unavoidable aoe stun/shadow damage
-3rd boss: Phase 2: Valkyrie flies down and rezzes him, then he does a bunch of aoe spell damage. Really not a tough boss tbh.]]> http://blog.flup.org/iceman?entry=6568 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:22:54 +0000 http://blog.flup.org/iceman/comment?entrynum=6568 http://blog.flup.org/iceman?entry=6568 iceman's blog
So, the 3G iPhone was released today. My wife and I decided to upgrade her 3-4 yr-old RAZR and my first generation iPhone.

Yesterday morning the fun began when a colleague saw a link on MacRumors.com to the new iPhone 2.0 sofware upgrade. There were instructions on how to download it and enable applications in iTunes 7.6. We both had iPhones and decided to do the upgrade and check out the applications.

No exaggeration. It took over 2 full hours to upgrade the phone. lol I can't possibly imagine wtf would take that long. The entire contents of the memory and firmware combined were under 8 gigs. Who knows?

Anyway, despite the time needed to perform the upgrade, it went flawlessy. I was able to reactivate my phone and buy applications with ease. Let me tell you too, it was worth the wait for the app store. There are tons of helpful and entertaining programs to download. Many of them are even free.

That brings me to this morning...

My original plan was to get up and head to the AT&T store around 6 for the 8 am launch. As usual, I thought better of getting up so early and decided to head over about 930. When I got there, I was pleased to find only about 30 people in line. They were in good spirits and, based on my experience at the initial launch, it seemed as though my strategy had played out perfectly.

But then... ;-) After about 30 minutes, we began to realize the line hadn't moved in quite a while. I called a friend at work who told me AT&T's authentication servers were down. The line didn't move for almost 90 minutes, except for the few people who threw in the towel and left. The whole time, no one from AT&T provided any updates at all.

Once the line started moving again, they came out and said there were no more phones, but if we stayed in line they would take our information and call as soon as a new shipment arrived. However, about that time a FedEx truck pulled up and it turned out to be another shipment. WOOT!

It ended up taking over 3 hours to get into the store... And by the time I did, they were out of the 16gb model that I wanted for myself. But I did manage to score the VERY LAST iPhone (an 8gb black) for Staci. She is very happy, but has to wait until she gets home from work to play with it.

Anyway, that was my adventure. lol I'll have to post again when I manage to get the 16gb black for myself.

P.S. I added a new poll]]> http://blog.flup.org/iceman?entry=6548 Wed, 14 May 2008 08:53:36 +0000 http://blog.flup.org/iceman/comment?entrynum=6548 http://blog.flup.org/iceman?entry=6548 iceman's blog
It actually took Staci and me like 9 hours to assemble the new desk and get the computers (etc) set up again. It took so long we weren't able to dump the old one at the land fill since it closed at 4pm. It's in my truck, so I guess I will have to dump it tomorrow. That gives me time to load the old A/C unit and some other crap that has been haunting the garage and get rid of it all at once at least.

Every muscle in my body is sore. lol

Old setup
No Desk
New setup

Sorry for the quality of the pics, they were taken on the iPhone with no consideration for the lighting/environment. You get the idea though. <3]]> http://blog.flup.org/iceman?entry=6547 Wed, 14 May 2008 08:40:11 +0000 http://blog.flup.org/iceman/comment?entrynum=6547 http://blog.flup.org/iceman?entry=6547 iceman's blog
I have pics, just relegated to actual digi-cam stuff.

Most recent missed events include:

My WoW guild: http://khans.guildportal.com/
Blizzcon August, 2007
Germany October, 2007
Foundation Room (Mandalay Bay) Las Vegas December, 2007 (Schmitty's Birthday/George's Graduation)
Hawaii 2008/Pro Bowl 2008
My father's lymphoma diagnosis May 2, 2008
PBX upgrade May 3, 2008

If you know my emails, please let me know if you want pictures/details.]]> http://blog.flup.org/iceman?entry=6316 Fri, 11 May 2007 09:49:43 +0000 http://blog.flup.org/iceman/comment?entrynum=6316 http://blog.flup.org/iceman?entry=6316 iceman's blog
I really use this as a travel log for myself and my family/friends. With another trip to the EU coming in October, you can expect some new pics and (hopefully) video soon. I just bought a camera with HD movie capability, so I intend to get some great video.]]> http://blog.flup.org/iceman?entry=5232 Fri, 29 Jul 2005 09:49:15 +0000 http://blog.flup.org/iceman/comment?entrynum=5232 http://blog.flup.org/iceman?entry=5232 iceman's blog
lol]]> http://blog.flup.org/iceman?entry=5097 Wed, 08 Jun 2005 18:03:13 +0000 http://blog.flup.org/iceman/comment?entrynum=5097 http://blog.flup.org/iceman?entry=5097 iceman's blog ]]>