I love Netflix but this made me laugh.
From Collegehumor.
Sh*tflix
Wow: Redridge Mountains
So I found out about the World of Warcraft year pass that you get when you subscribe for a year and you get a mount in game and also a copy of Diablo 3. Any way I have been playing a little bit, my hunter that is 85 didn’t seem fun to play so I got on a priest that was level 5. I worked through Elywnn Forest and Westfall to come to Redridge Mountains. From the past the quests were kind of dumb and you would need a group to do some of the higher level quests so when I would get to them I would just try my hand at Duskwood, but since the update I found that the area was fun to play.
When they had the Cataclysm expansion they updated the old original content to add new quests and tweak game play. From what I saw in this area I am liking the changes to some of these area I have done 20-30 times. To start they changed the quests to work in a progression rather than just have a pile of quests that you go out and do. This is keeping in the new areas that have a story rather than just a pile of quests, I didn’t read much of the quests text, seem to have stopped doing that before I got my first guy to level 40 but it was clear that there is a story line and you play though cleaning up the area from the Blackrock orcs.
There new phasing system were as you work through the quests that things change helps with the story because it helps you see that by blowing up that tower did keep the tower blown up and the orcs around it would go away or change in some way making the world more dynamic and not so static.
I have not done any of this with any other players were they may be on a different part of the quest line, and they have made it so that you can do the quests by yourself even when there are elite attacking you by in the case of Redridge you get a elite squad from being captured and then work with them to finish off the boss in the area that is causing the problems.
As for gear and loot they do a good job now all the way from the start to my now level 23 giving out gear that is good, some of the old areas such as these were giving out gear with no stats while the new areas were giving some good stats on them or you would have to go to dungeons to get some of your gear. It helps you work through a level vary easy also, so that you never feel stuck and leveling up even a priest by myself has been fun and not too hard ether.
I plan on playing this guy mostly doing just quests, I was expecting to get him up to a level where I could get into dungeons and just tag along a bunch of them to get my levels but I am enjoying what they have done to make the old world more fun to play.
Learning to DJ
A few months ago after going to a family members wedding and talking with the DJ and asking him a few questions I decided that I would give DJing a try. So I played with some open source software out there called MIXX and found that it was fun to do. I also have done sound work with my Dad since I was in middle school, there has been some time though that I have done none but I still know what I’m doing with sound equipment. I also have some equipment from my podcast setup.
I looked around for what I would need, and since I didn’t have much money to spend on stuff I got a basic Hercules DJ Console MK4, Harbringer 15″ powered speakers, Bringer Eurorack mixer package. Console was didn’t come in the package, and it came with stands, cables, and some cheap mics.
On the mics though I did get a email after saying they would give me a $50 credit for select items, but it didn’t work and when I talked with them on the phone they just asked me what I wanted and I got a Shure SM48 for free.
Anyways I played with my equipment and acquired more music, and a guy from work’s daughter was getting married so I was testing my speakers in the gym at work and I offered to do the wedding for free so I could get experience.
Things went good, learned a lot such as even though you talk with the people you are playing for, they may have other plans so you may need to get more information on what songs are if they give you a disk of things they like. I wasn’t informed of what some of the songs were for and played them but later they wanted them for dances that the bride and maids were doing oops. Also found out that I had my speakers up too high and the patio covering was blocking the sound to the people in the back. It may have also been that I was trying to keep the volume to a point that if you were in the back it wouldn’t be all that loud but on the patio were people were dancing I think it was loud enough.
So Friday I am going to do the music for my cousin’s second local wedding reception, not sure what I will play but have some music that will be good for the audience. They said they didn’t want to dance so not sure how good some of the songs will be that normally get danced too. I have just spend a few hours going though music to get an idea of what I have again since it’s been a few months since I did the first wedding.
The more I learn and get experience it should get more fun to do, just need to get more people to pay me to do things for them and more then once every three months.
Google’s New Look
Over the past month or two Google has been changing how things look on their sites such as the search page, G+, news, docs, and recently Gmail, Reader, and calendar. I have the new look running on all my Google stuff except GMail. I don’t know why but with the extra spacing I was having problems reading my inbox, but as writing this I did switch to the new look and after seeing that you can change the “Display Density” I kind of like it too.
All the new looks are meant to make things nicer and more modern, along with make all the Google pages the same look across their sites. I have one problem with them having dynamics width and not a fixed with once they get too wide. But not vary many people are running there screen at 1080p and maximize there screens like I do, I think. Writing this in Word I only have it using half the screen because it would look bad so I need to go back to keeping my GMail in a smaller window. G+ dose have a fixed width though, humm.
Now that G+ is on my domain apps things are working better, since I can stay logged into one account now. But it seems that the new look dose make it much easier to use the sites. Seems that I’m just rambling on about this so will call it for now.
First Blogging / Podcasting Month Post
So this is my first post for blogging month. It can also be podcasting month too and I plan on doing that also because I am trying to grow both of those. So I am going to give an overview of some of the things I have been thinking to cover.
On the blog I will be talking about some of my experiences with playing with new Linux distributions. I have also just setup Google+ on my domain since that came out a few days ago so ill have some posts about the experiences with it. Also I am trying to use Google Docs to work out my posts before I put them in WordPress on my site so will see how that goes for typing things up over using Word.
On the podcast I will be talking about some of my designer to do a podcast or show. There will be coverage of some of the tech news stories, and what I think of them. I finally will work to expand some of my thoughts about technology and how we are using it right and how we are missing out on other things.
These are just a general listing of things I want to try and work out, if I can get something that works out good I may turn it into a regular show. Also the blog will probably get some more focus.
And to close typing this out in Google Docs has worked out not too bad, will see what else I can do with it.
Also if you noticed it was late L had it written up, just didn’t post it yet hehe. 10 min shot.
Online Checkout – In Real Life
This is a great little video about how some websites can be so hard to buy things online, made by the Google Analytics team.
Podcast / Blog Month – November
So I heard that November is Podcast month, this is where if you are a Podcaster or want to start then you try and do a show every day for the month of November. I thought this would be a good way for me to get into doing shows so I plan on doing this. But with some modifications, I’m not sure if I will do a show every day but try and to one every other day at least.
Also it was brought up that you could do this in blogging, so I am going to post something every day in the month of November to WebLuke.Net, I hope it will be something good, may just be a video and some comments on it will have to see.
I may put up a sub-site for the Podcast not sure about that yet. I hope this will help me get use to posting more and also build my Podcasting skills or knowledge. I just hope I don’t skip out on this and miss building my abilities.
Gadget Reviews for Everyone
Over the years I have been posting on and off on my website about things I have been doing, things I find that are cool or fun, and just tips or tricks on things I use. But It seems that I may have more to add to my site along with something to add more content. I have noticed that most tech related blogs or sites seem to cover everything tech or just one specific topic, while that is good to do, they seem to miss something. They focus on so much detail and seem to get to a point where everything is amazing or it’s just another gadget. On the other end is normal people who don’t care about the details who want to say that something is cool but they just make a video on YouTube saying its cool.
There should be a middle ground, a place where the important details to a normal person to know if they want something but also enough techie details to let someone who knows more to understand what makes it work that good. An example is on a tech blog covering smart phones would have things like the model of the processer, screen resolution, and radio details. But do those things matter? Not really, what most people want to know is how big is it, is it fast enough to play games and stuff on, and what cell phone company will have it and that it will work on their WIFI at home.
So what I am trying to get at is that I want to start reviewing tech products that I find cool, that real people would want to have, and put it in a way that is not too techie and not too simple that about anyone can check it out and learn about something they have herd of or may want to get.
I know there are thousands and thousands of tech blogs and sites, some big some small, but I look at things different, and I hope that I won’t get to a point were when you have seen a hundred smart phones you have seen them all, but see a hundred and say these ten are good and here is what makes them cool or more interesting to look into getting over the others.
This will be a slow start, and I know I will have to spend a lot of time getting things started. But I think it will be something I will enjoy. I will also need test units and also just getting info on new products and if I can just playing with them in store because right now I have no way of buying things just to play with it for now. I’ll be working to change that soon though.
Any way look forward to more product reviews and in a way that not just a techie would know what I was talking about but with details that matter!
Google Galaxy Nexus
Google and Samsung just announced a few days ago there new Galaxy Nexus phone and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich! From the demos of new features and how slick the hardware is its making me want one of these new phones. There are some things that bugged people such as the name is backwards to the other Nexus phones out (Nexus One, Nexus S) but meeh not that big of a problem.
There was a few problems with the demos but things like voice dictation worked good but the guy tried doing it too fast and it had the first word wrong. Also the face unlock didn’t work but that could have been other things.
But as for new things such as the fonts, task switching, camera app, menu buttons, and power of the phone I can’t wait for this. You can get some info about it on the Google site  ( http://www.google.com/nexus ) or check out the YouTube video in this post. Also Twit.TV did some good commentary along with the announcement video check it out at ( http://youtu.be/lD79yTFS2-0 )
They did not have full specs of the phone or what cell phone companies in the USA would have it, but it sounds like there will be one for CDMA companies (Sprint and Verizon) and a HSPA+ version (T-Mobile, ATT&T, almost every other cell company around the world) But they did say it would have a desktop dock like the Nexus One, this is something I use every day with my Nexus One still.
Can’t wait hope it won’t cost too much and I can get one on T-Mobile unless someone wants to give me a hook up 😀