Me and iPods are done!

After three weeks of waiting, I finally got the new screen for my ipod… When i put it on… The screen looked like it cracked… as of November 15 2009, 8:28 PM i am giving up on Ipods forever

Podcast From N-Star Prod. Is Soon To Be Out!

As none of you know, I and a few friends are starting a Podcast! Two weeks from yesterday will be the First set of Podcasts. The list of them follows.

•Ubuntu Podcast-Cameron and Cole|
|
•N-Star Product Reviews-Cameron and Collin|
|
•Random podcast-Cameron, Cole, Collin, Wyatt|
We hope you guys Tune in to the ShoutCast station we will have up! -Cameron-

The Beginning Album 1–INFO

So you’re probably here because of my Twitter of Facebook… well heres the info.

Artists:
DJ Tanisi

Positively Dark

Hasuni

AND a couple unknown artists but they will be available LOCALLY in Austin, MN..

the reason being i don’t want t ship the cds. if you want a copy, and you LIVE in Austin, MN just email me at kilbox1a@gmail.com so thanks for reading this post

FreeMemory–iPod–IPhone app

The iPhone and iPod Touch comes with 128MB of runtime memory. That is different from the 8GB, 16GB or 32GB of storage memory that the iPhone or iPod Touch has. The iPhone and iPod Touch does not use the storage memory as virtual memory, so the memory available for applications is limited to the 128MB of runtime memory.

The 128MB of RAM has to be shared with many system processes. This leaves only about 30-40MB for applications.

Native iPhone/iPod Touch applications such as the iPhone dialer, iPod and Mail can remain running even though you have closed them.

This leaves any remaining memory available to non-native iPhone/iPod applications such as this application. This remaining memory can change and can affect the performance of applications, sometimes even causing the applications to close unexpectedly.

You can use the “Free Memory” button to make 20MB available for other applications. It is not recommended to free up more than 20MB as it may cause the iPhone or iPod Touch to restart always. Also, most applications do not need more than 20MB.

If you have less than 4MB available, attempting to free 20MB of memory may take 1-2 minutes or may cause your iPhone or iPod Touch to restart. You can close individual applications by bringing up that running application and holding the Home button until the applicaiton closes.

The running processes table shows all applications or system processes currently active. PID is the process ID.

Currently the iPhone SDK does not allow retrieving information about each process or allow those processes to be terminated. The SDK also does not provide an interface to restart the iPhone or iPod Touch programatically.

The Battery Level indicates the current charge percent of the battery.

I am hireng…for free

Jobs @ ThinkGeek

ThinkGeek is hiring! w00t! Open positions are detailed below. Please e-mail your resume to us at the address listed in the job description. Text, HTML and PDF formats are preferred. Don’t be shy, if you’ve got the skills and want to work hard and have fun with a bunch of geeks and their dogs, we want to hear from you!

Current Open Positions:
Industrial Design Specialist
Copywriter
T-Shirt Illustrator
Product Photographer & Retoucher
Merchandiser & Product Buyer
Graphic Designer
Systems Administrator
Senior Perl Programmer
Director of Marketing
Industrial Design Specialist (Wizard of Unique Makeology)

Posted: July 7, 2009

Become part of a dynamic group at ThinkGeek developing custom manufactured retail products.

Your job will be to help facilitate the process of taking a new product idea from conception, to prototype, to final finished item. Products can be as simple as a custom plush toy or as complex as an electronic gadget. You will coordinate with our existing partners in the US and Asia. You will also work to find new partners depending on the product requirements and existing vendor strengths and weaknesses. You will be specifically responsible for negotiating costs, aggressively managing timetables and resources, researching and applying for patents and copyrights, quality control processes, packaging, licensing opportunities, and delivery arrangements for the product(s).

ThinkGeek is looking for someone who understands products well. What is feasible to create… what is not? What are the general processes needed to create the item desired? What improvements or analysis can you add to help improve the product? You don’t need to be able to build an electronic circuit from the ground up, but you do need to have a good understanding of generally how gadgets and technology work, an eye for design and know what is able to be realistically created at a certain retail price point.

This is a hands on job. You might be asked to build a simple physical mock-up product one day, write some instructions for a product another day, or fly to China and meet with our vendors. If you love to build things and want to help ThinkGeek create the coolest most unique geeky products around, then we have a great job for you!

Please Keep in Mind!
We have specific requirements for people applying for the Industrial Design Specialist position. Please read the “How To Apply” section below to make sure you apply correctly or your application will not be considered.

Requirements

College degree or equivalent
Hands on experience with making things or modding existing products. Electronics, crafts, tinkering… etc.
Highly detail oriented and organized
Understanding of product style and ergonomics
Strong understanding of retail price points and technical capabilities of consumer products
Strong negotiation/sales skills
Keen familiarity with popular tech culture (gaming, science, computers, internet culture, etc.)
Independently motivated with a strong work ethic
Excellent person-to-person, communication & written skills
Travel abroad 2-3 times/year (China/Hong Kong/Japan)
Very strong spreadsheet and word processing skills.
Very strong computer and internet use skills.
Team oriented personality with only occasional bouts of solipsism.
Ability to grok ThinkGeek.
An appreciation for Star Wars, good beer, dogs, monkeys and smoked bbq ribs is a plus.
This position is on site in our Fairfax, Virginia office only. No outsourcing or freelance positions for this job will be considered. Not even you Mighty Mouse.

Strongly Desired

E-commerce experience
Manufacturing experience
Chinese Language skills a plus (Mandarin and/or Cantonese)
Patent, Trademark, Copyright and Licensing experience a plus

How To Apply
ThinkGeek is a small, close-knit group of fun, weird, and enthusiastic people who run one of the most successful niche e-commerce sites on the Internets. As part of SourceForge, Inc, a publicly held company, ThinkGeek employees receive an excellent benefits package while enjoying the perks of working in an exciting start-up environment in our Fairfax, Virginia office. This posting is for a permanent, full time position in our Fairfax, Virginia office. Only local applicants or those willing to relocate at their own expense will be considered.

In addition to your cover letter, resume and salary requirements please complete the following simple assignment. Failure to include everything, including the assignment will cause your application to not be considered. (no hard feelings, but we need to make sure you really want the job… ok?)

Industrial Design Specialist Assignment
Please submit a list of your 4 favorite existing retail products, with links to photos and/or product listings. The retail price for each item should be $50 or less. For each product answer the following questions:

Why did you choose this product? What is unique, technically interesting, or visually appealing about it?
What technical and design challenges do you think the manufacturer faced when creating this product?
What would you change about this product to improve it?
Obviously you know the retail price to the consumer, but what do you think it cost the manufacturer to make this product?
Please submit your assignment in your cover letter, or as part of your PDF, HTML or plain-text resume.

Apply for the Industrial Design Specialist position here:

Copywriter

Posted: July 1, 2009

ThinkGeek is looking to hire an on-site copywriter who will assist our merchandising and marketing teams in writing creative content that fits the ThinkGeek voice. If you’re The One, you will also have an understanding and appreciation for technology and gadgets, an immersive understanding of popular geek culture, and a sense of humor that’s cutting. You will be writing across a variety of media (primarily web and print).

Some examples of the types of projects you will be working on:

Assisting merchandisers with front-end product copy for all variety of products from simple shirts to complicated gadgets.
Writing press releases.
Working with the marketing team to write ThinkGeek promotional copy (banner ads, print ads, catalogs).
Working on packaging, instructional sheets and documentation for in-house developed projects.
Assisting the customer service team by writing customer-facing communication.
Requirements:

At least 4 years of professional copywriting experience.
A degree in English/marketing/communications/journalism or equivalent combination of education and experience.
The ability to understand and describe complicated technical products to customers.
A gift for coordinating several different in-flight efforts simultaneously.
A strong analytical and process-oriented mindset.
A creative bent.
Other desired skills: (not required, but very nice to have)

You love science fiction and fantasy.
You love video games and all things technology.
You are a geek and love geek pop culture.
You have a great sense of humor.
Only applications that include portfolios of previous copywriting samples will be accepted.

ThinkGeek is a small, close-knit group of fun, weird, and enthusiastic people who run one of the most successful niche e-commerce sites on the Internets. As part of SourceForge, Inc, a publicly held company, ThinkGeek employees receive an excellent benefits package while enjoying the benefits of working in an exciting start-up environment in our Fairfax, Virginia office. This posting is for a permanent, full time position in our Fairfax, Virginia office. Only local applicants or those willing to relocate at their own expense will be considered.

Please submit your resume, portfolio, and salary requirements in PDF, HTML or plain text format. Sorry, freelance or offsite requests will absolutely not be accepted.

Apply for the Copywriter position here:
T-Shirt Illustrator

Posted: July 1, 2009

ThinkGeek is looking for an impressive Illustrator with a deep understanding of geek culture who is also passionate about technology. ThinkGeek has a fast growing design department, and we want you to be a part of it. When you aren’t generating amazing ideas and illustrating T-shirts, you will be helping out with various design tasks based on our needs: making web graphics, photoshopping images, photographing products, doing print and web marketing, prepping our print catalog, creating custom packaging, and even designing elements for custom video games.

You must have a great sense of humor, and amazing illustration abilities and technique. Can you draw Rancors with your tablet while blindfolded? Good. That’s a start.

Requirements:

At least 5 years of professional pop-culture illustration.
Advanced illustration skills in various styles & techniques.
Degree in graphic design or equivalent combination of education and experience.
Ability to quickly illustrate multiple concept prototypes.
High-level proficiency in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, the Gimp, or other similar design software.
Proficiency in designing graphics optimized for web use.
Deep familiarity with Internet culture, gaming, science, math, assorted smart stuff, and a general affinity towards geeks.
You really enjoy:

video games (including retro games).
old-school table-top games and/or boardgames.
science, math, and assorted smart stuff.
computers and technology.
robots and the future.
braaaaaaaains! (Oh, sorry. Our HR zombie got distracted there for a sec.)
geek pop-culture.
gadgets, gizmos and shiny things.
dreaming in 8-bit.
Only applications that include portfolios of previous illustration work will be accepted.

ThinkGeek is a small, close-knit group of fun, weird, and enthusiastic people who run one of the most successful niche e-commerce sites on the Internets. As part of SourceForge, Inc, a publicly held company, ThinkGeek employees receive an excellent benefits package while enjoying the benefits of working in an exciting start-up environment in our Fairfax, Virginia office. This posting is for a permanent, full time position in our Fairfax, Virginia office. Only local applicants or those willing to relocate at their own expense will be considered.

Please submit your resume, portfolio, and salary requirements in PDF, HTML or plain text format. Sorry, freelance or offsite requests will absolutely not be accepted

Apply for the T-Shirt Illustrator position here:

Product Photographer & Retoucher

Posted: June 16, 2009

ThinkGeek is looking for a Photographer with excessively mad Photoshop skills. Primary responsibilities will include shooting and retouching product photos and preparing images for web and print. You will also assist our lead Photographer in planning and executing photo shoots. In both cases, you will be working closely with our Merchandising and Creative teams to ensure photos meet the creative and branding needs of the site.

Requirements

Expert in digital photography and photo retouching.
Expert in Adobe Photoshop and other digital capture and retouching applications
At least 2 years of photography experience (SLR Digital Cameras); professional studio and/or product photography experience a BIG plus
Experience designing & setting up various types of studio lighting
Experience creating product animations for web use (animated gif, Flash, etc)
Excellent communication skills and willingness to be given creative direction when necessary
Familiarity with Internet culture, gaming, and an affinity towards geeks
Other desired skills (very nice to have):

Product-specific photography & styling experience
Portrait photography
Experience with shooting and editing video
Graphic Design
HTML and web design
When applying, please include photography samples or links to sites with samples and portfolios. If we can’t look at your work, we can’t hire you. Just like we can’t hire programmers who don’t have code samples, or bounty hunters who don’t have trophies.

ThinkGeek is a small, close-knit group of fun and enthusiastic people who run one of the most successful geek-related e-commerce sites on the Internet. As part of SourceForge, Inc, a publicly held company, ThinkGeek employees receive an excellent benefits package while enjoying the additional benefits of working in an exciting start-up environment in our Fairfax, Virginia office. This posting is for a permanent, full time position in our Fairfax, Virginia office. Only local applicants or those willing to relocate at their own expense will be considered.

Please submit your resume, portfolio, and salary requirements when applying. Sorry, freelance or offsite requests will absolutely not be accepted. To apply, click the “Apply Now” button. You will get an email from us confirming that we have received your application.

Apply for the Product Photographer & Retoucher position here:

Merchandiser & Product Buyer

Posted: May 29, 2009

The ThinkGeek Overlords are seeking a Merchandiser & Buyer that will be responsible for growth, profitability and overall awesomeosity of several product lines.

Specific responsibilities include:

Source and buy products that fit into the unique ThinkGeek product mix
Develop and maintain vendor relationships
Predict, manage and reorder inventory for several ThinkGeek product lines
Merchandise and manage your products throughout the ThinkGeek website
Work with our customer service, marketing and development staff on items related to your product lines.
Required:

College degree or equivalent
4-6 years experience as product manager or buyer, preferably for toys, gadgets, or consumer electronics.
Excellent person-to-person skills
Highly detail oriented and organized
Strong spreadsheet and word processing skills required
Strong computer and internet use skills
An understanding of Internet & Geek Culture. An ability to Grok ThinkGeek.
Willing to occasionally drive to New Jersey to visit our warehouse when needed.
Must be willing to play with a pile of gadgets and gizmos in the search for the perfect products for the site.
This position is on site in our Fairfax, Virginia offices only. No outsourcing or freelance positions for this job will be considered. Thanks for asking!

ThinkGeek is a small, close-knit group of fun, weird, and enthusiastic people who run one of the most successful niche e-commerce sites on the Internets. As part of SourceForge, Inc, a publicly held company, ThinkGeek employees receive an excellent benefits package while enjoying the benefits of working in an exciting start-up environment in our Fairfax, Virginia office. This posting is for a permanent, full time position in our Fairfax, Virginia office. Only local applicants or those willing to relocate at their own expense will be considered.

Please submit your resume and salary requirements in PDF, HTML or plain text format. Sorry, freelance or offsite requests will absolutely not be accepted. To apply, click the “Apply Now” button. You will get an email from us confirming that we have received your application.

Apply for the Merchandiser & Product Buyer position here:

Graphic Designer

Posted: May 22, 2009

ThinkGeek is looking for a seriously wicked Graphic Designer with skills and experience in creating optimized web graphics, illustration, print work, t-shirt design, and marketing/branding. Primary responsibilities will include supporting the graphical needs of our web development and marketing teams. Additional responsibilities will include T-shirt design and illustration, catalog and other print work, and miscellaneous ‘projects of the moment’.

Requirements:

At least 2 years of professional graphic design experience.
Degree in graphic design or equivalent combination of education and experience.
Proficiency in designing graphics optimized for web use.
Proficiency in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, the Gimp, or other similar design software.
Intermediate to advanced illustration skills.
Familiarity with Internet culture, gaming, and an affinity towards geeks
Other desired skills: (not required, but very nice to have)

Digital photography and photo retouching
Branding experience
Experience in catalog design and production
Knowledge/Use of Flash
Familiarity with writing HTML
DHTML, XML, CSS, Javascript, Perl * Linux or Unix
Ability to draw an identifiable Boba Fett in < 60 seconds.
Only applications that include links to portfolios of previous design work will be accepted. It would be pretty silly to apply for a design job and not link to examples if your work!

This position is on site in our Fairfax, Virginia offices only. No outsourcing or freelance positions for this job will be considered. Thanks for asking!

ThinkGeek is a small, close-knit group of fun, weird, and enthusiastic people who run one of the most successful niche e-commerce sites on the Internets. As part of SourceForge, Inc, a publicly held company, ThinkGeek employees receive an excellent benefits package while enjoying the benefits of working in an exciting start-up environment in our Fairfax, Virginia office. This posting is for a permanent, full time position in our Fairfax, Virginia office. Only local applicants or those willing to relocate at their own expense will be considered.

Please submit your resume, portfolio, and salary requirements in PDF, HTML or plain text format. Sorry, freelance or offsite requests will absolutely not be accepted. To apply, click the "Apply Now" button. You will get an email from us confirming that we have received your application.

Apply for the Graphic Designer position here:

Systems Administrator

Posted: May 13, 2009

Do you dream shell commands? When someone jokes, "Is there an echo in here," do you think "Of course, it's a shell builtin!" When you wake up at 0 8 on a Saturday morning, do you wish you could adjust that last asterisk in your circadian cron job to 1-5? Do you swing from package dependency graphs like Timmy on his monkey bars? Does the prospect of three consecutive nights of post-midnight operations sound exciting? Can you do all that and still not curse under your breath when someone makes a boneheaded move on their workstation and needs your help to recover? If this sounds like you, you should apply to be our new staff systems administrator!

Applicant Objectives

3+ years professional experience managing and maintaining Linux servers
Experience supporting Windows and Macintosh desktops
Extensive knowledge of Apache configuration
Experience with MySQL backups, maintenance, and recovery
Familiarity with various package management systems, including RPM, emerge, etc.
Thorough understanding of networks, including firewalls and routing
Experience automating alerts and tasks using Perl
Ability to comprehend and implement complex business requirements in an exacting manner
Team-oriented personality
Good desk-side manner
Bonus Objectives

Some knowledge of SQL
Experience with heterogeneous VPNs, load-balancing network services, or wireless networks involving multiple locations
Experience identifying performance bottlenecks in network and server systems
Experience using BIND to deliver DNS service
Experience specifying hardware to meet software requirements and other business needs
ThinkGeek is a small, close-knit group of fun, weird, and enthusiastic people who run one of the most successful niche e-commerce sites on the Internets. As part of SourceForge, Inc, a publicly held company, ThinkGeek employees receive an excellent benefits package while enjoying the benefits of working in an exciting start-up environment in our Fairfax, Virginia office. This posting is for a permanent, full time position in our Fairfax, Virginia office. Only local applicants or those willing to relocate at their own expense will be considered.

Please submit your resume and salary requirements in PDF, HTML or plain text format to sys-admin-jobs@thinkgeek.com. Sorry, freelance or offsite requests will absolutely not be accepted.

Senior Perl Programmer

Posted: May 13, 2009

Here at ThinkGeek Laboratories, we are constantly developing new technologies to drive our web site and its attendant systems, but we have reached the bandwidth limits of our current team and need to further parallelize. Thus, we have embarked on an experiment to overlay Randal Schwartz's programming-related memory engrams on other staff members.

Unfortunately, early test subjects have not taken the process well. Not only are we nearly out of PHBs, but our budget for institutionalizing prior subjects is limited. We are therefore seeking subjects with extensive Perl coding experience, as we believe this will ease the restructuring of the mental pathways.

Subjects in ThinkGeek experiments will have opportunities to play with cool new stuff long before it appears on Engadget or Gizmodo, root access to the machine that goes "ping," and an atmosphere where you can pick your hours, run any desktop OS you like, and the freedom to wear shoes whenever your pinky toes are not hooked up to transcutaneous electrodes.

Our software is developed in-house, so projects will run a wide gamut of business areas (accounting to warehouse management, and everything in between). Development will be on an existing suite of software, so the ability to adapt to and extend an existing architecture is a must. Responsibilities will include: web/console/batch based application development, maintaining and configuring development servers, participation in requirements and specifications gathering processes, software quality assurance and internal documentation. The ideal candidate should have strong Linux skills and be able to work and learn new skills independently when necessary, but also work as part of a team.

Applicant Objectives

5+ years professional programming experience with Perl 5
4+ years professional experience working with databases (SQL)
Extensive knowledge of Apache and familiarity with Apache module development
Ability to comprehend and implement complex business requirements in an exacting manner
Team-oriented personality
Know how to work hard and have fun
Bonus Objectives

Experience developing automated functional and performance testing suites
XML
HTML/XHTML
Javascript/AJAX
Solid Linux Knowledge (4+ years of experience with Linux or Unix systems)
Retail industry software development experience
Web Services development (servers/clients)
First name Jen or Tim a plus
ThinkGeek is a small, close-knit group of fun, weird, and enthusiastic people who run one of the most successful niche e-commerce sites on the Internets. As part of SourceForge, Inc, a publicly held company, ThinkGeek employees receive an excellent benefits package while enjoying the benefits of working in an exciting start-up environment in our Fairfax, Virginia office. This posting is for a permanent, full time position in our Fairfax, Virginia office. Only local applicants or those willing to relocate at their own expense will be considered.

Please submit your resume and salary requirements in PDF, HTML or plain text format to coder-jobs09@thinkgeek.com. Sorry, freelance or offsite requests will absolutely not be accepted.

Director of Marketing

Posted: March 30, 2009

ThinkGeek is looking for a strategically oriented leader who is not above doing the legwork. This is an opportunity to help set the future direction of a fun, rapidly growing, highly successful Internet retailer. If you're interested in joining ThinkGeek as our Director of Marketing, write and tell us about the results you've accomplished in the following areas:

Refining and determining short and long term marketing strategies and plans
Identifying, implementing and maintaining tactical marketing initiatives including: affiliate programs, online advertising, email marketing, periodic promotions, catalog marketing and creative grassroots initiatives including social networks, blogs, strategic partnerships, and mobile marketing.
Building an exhaustive understanding of customers
Making the most out of your marketing budget
Requirements:

Bachelors' in Marketing, Business, or other related field, or equivalent experience.
5+ years Internet marketing experience.
Strong knowledge of web marketing, email marketing and direct mail production processes.
Strong quantitative skills required to analyze and optimize campaign performance.
Ability to work cross-functionally with other teams and to manage multiple projects simultaneously in order to meet ROI goals.
Must be results driven, detail oriented, and a team player.
Ability to work under pressure in a fast-paced team environment
This position is onsite in our Fairfax, Virginia offices only. No outsourcing or freelance positions for this job will be considered. Thanks for asking!

ThinkGeek is a small, close-knit group of fun, weird, and enthusiastic people who run one of the most successful niche e-commerce sites on the Internets. As part of SourceForge, Inc, a publicly held company, ThinkGeek employees receive an excellent benefits package while enjoying the benefits of working in an exciting start-up environment in our Fairfax, Virginia office. This posting is for a permanent, full time position in our Fairfax, Virginia office. Only local applicants or those willing to relocate at their own expense will be considered.

To apply for this position or refer someone you know, please use our online interview system managed by Accolo.

Once you have completed the online interview, your information will be forwarded to the hiring authority for decisions on next steps. Sorry, freelance or offsite requests will absolutely not be accepted.

tralala

a Technorati post    fkwhsr8sai

Google’s TV commercials

The weekend is almost over, and I have had the television on, in the background, for most of the weekend. I have been doing lots of other things, but had the television on specifically to see the Google commercials I had heard so much about.

I had been moving from channel to channel, hoping to have the best chance of seeing one, but with no results. I then went to a web page that was pointing to the ad which is already on YouTube.

I must say I get it, but then after getting it, what’s the point? Yes, Chrome is clean and easy, it is uncluttered – whoopee. The austerity is precisely why I don’t like it. If I wanted something really stripped down, with just the basics, I’d look through my old CDs for a copy of Internet Exploder 3, which Microsoft was so fond of including on CDs included with magazines on the newsstand – much as back then many magazines had the obligatory AOL CD.

It is not simply because I don’t like Chrome that I’m writing this. I’m wondering what has changed with Google. After all, have you ever seen a commercial for Google, the search engine? I haven’t. Not ever. Google used to let its code do the talking – and it did it very well.

So with all the success that Google has had with its search product, why change what works now? Beyond that, how does Google benefit from the browser, since there are no ads in it, being displayed while one browses?

These are questions I believe deserve answers (and not quips), Though I don’t think of anything sinister happening, in the spirit of openness I think answers should be forthcoming.

For A Buddy… How Does Runescape Work?

Runescape and MMORPGs
Movies such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Chronicles of Narnia have added popularity to playing fantasy-based games. With our increasingly interactive society, many people play these games in online communities. One of the most popular games is called Runescape.
Fantasy online games have been around for decades. These Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) attract at least 19% of online gamers, according to a 2007 survey by the NPD group. Players can interact, go on quests, defeat monsters, or even fight each other. Runescape, a Java-based game, is among the most popular of these MMORPGs.
Runescape World
Runescape’s world takes place among several kingdoms in the universe called Gielinor. The kingdoms represent different people and classes that can interact with one another and worship different gods such as Zaros and Guthix. Runescape players create characters that have different skills within the Runescape world.
Unlike many other MMORPGs, Runescape is not centered around a specific goal in order to win. Runescape is designed to have an open-ended playstyle, much like the console-based Grand Theft Auto game series. But if you must have a goal, there are built-in quests with rewards. The first tutorial gives you a quest in which you can make yourself a weapon. You have to complete a few tasks such as mining for tin and copper, acquiring a hammer, and smelting minerals in order to complete the quest. As your player gains more experience, the list of quests you can choose from will expand into more difficult adventures.
Beginning on Runescape
To start in Runescape, you visit the main website and select the “play now” option (see additional resources below). From here you can choose the level of graphics and create your character’s name.
After creating a name, you select your character’s gender and looks. You can choose your character’s hairstyle, skin tone and outfit. You also decide whether you will use a one-button or two-button style of mouse play. If you aren’t satisfied with your choices, you can always change them later on in the game.
Tutorials
Once you’ve designed your character, Runescape immediately transports you its 3-D world. You begin by going through a tutorial that emphasizes the basics of Runescape gameplay and character development. What separates Runescape from many other MMORPGs is that you don’t get easily bogged down into certain races and classes. Instead, your character development mostly relies on what skills you choose to develop and emphasize. The more you practice certain skills, the better you become at them and gain experience levels. For example, people who practice their fishing and hunting skills rarely go hungry. They can even trade their fish for other people’s items. Although Runescape has a free option, you can select a paid membership that gives you more gameplay choices like advanced skills. It also removes ads from Runescape.
The tutorial goes on to show you how to access certain menus in Runescape, how to talk to Non Player Characters to get information, and how to navigate the Runescape world. Among the first tasks you learn are to chop down a tree, start a fire and cook shrimp.
You can participate in more quests, join other characters in their missions, or simply walk around and talk to other Runescape players. If you feel like fighting, some of the quests involve defeating monsters. You also have the option of challenging other players in special combat zones. You can earn gold and use it to purchase special weapons, items and even upgrade your character’s look. Once you feel that you have a good understanding of Runescape’s mechanics, you are free to explore the rest of Geilinor.

hello, watch this video

Why Backup your PC or Mac?–Pirillo

When was the last time you backed up your computer? If the answer is “never” or “I don’t know what to use,” then you might try either Backblazeor SpiderOak. Online backup services trump traditional backup methods – so long as you have a broadband connection.

1. You know you can access your data from anywhere, at any time.
2. Once you start using the service, it just runs in the background (virtually silent).
3. No need to buy any additional hardware.
4. With my links, you can save 10% off either service: Backblaze orSpiderOak.
5. All data storage is off-site.
6. The software is tied into the service directly (versus getting it as a “bonus” package).
7. These particular solutions are cross-platform – which may not be important to you now, but think about what might happen a few years from now if you decide to get a new operating system.
8. Redundancy! You don’t want to have a single point of failure.
9. These are service companies, not hard drive companies – and when you need help, you know you’re going to get it (and if you’re not being helped by Backblaze or SpiderOak, let me know immediately and I’ll kindly thump a few skulls for you).
10. Software updates come to you on a regular basis – that’s a very GOOD thing.

Why I like SpiderOak:

• It’s easy to share your files with friends (with RSS, too).
• You can backup multiple computers through one account.
• File duplication checks to ensure you’re not wasting space.

Why I like Backblaze:

• Request a USB stick or DVD of your data at any time.
• You have the option to add your own encryption key.
• It gives you a “changelog” to review (at the folder level).

I’ve negotiated an exclusive 10% off either one of these online backup services - Backblaze andSpiderOak. They’re now both Mac and Windows compatible! You can download and try each one of them for yourself (and PLEASE let me know which one you like more). If you don’t start backing up online, you’ll regret it.

And don’t buy ANYTHING without first asking me if I can save you money – because I bet I can.