Blizzard Auctioning WoW Server Blades for Charity

Blizzard has announced an awesome charity auction that will benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Starting October 17, 2011 gamers will get a chance to win retired World of Warcraft server blades. The server blades were done up commemorative style and signed by members of the WoW team in order to make them some of the coolest pieces of videogame-nerd art the world has ever seen. Here’s a clip from the press release:

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced a series of special charity auctions featuring server-blade hardware that was originally used during the early days of the company’s award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game, World of Warcraft. Game enthusiasts around the world will get a unique chance to own a piece of World of Warcraft history — original HP BladeSystem servers that once housed hundreds of different realms across North America and Europe. The net proceeds from the auction will benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, one of the world’s premier centers for the research and treatment of pediatric cancer and other catastrophic childhood diseases.

In total, approximately 2,000 of the original server blades from about 500 different World of Warcraft realms will be auctioned. The server blades will each be contained in a custom windowed case featuring the World of Warcraft logo and offering a view of the computer hardware inside. They will also come with a commemorative plaque signed by the World of Warcraft team, making each one a true collector’s item.

This auction rules on so many levels. I love that Blizzard is hosting an auction for a great charity. It gives me warm fuzzies and makes me proud to be a Blizzard gamer. On a purely superficial level, I can’t get over how cool these server blades are. If I win the lottery tomorrow then I’ll bid on all of them. I will make a geek wall of awesomeness that’s full of retired WoW server blades. It’ll be awesome!

For more info on the charity auction, go here.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus Live Blog Announcement

Here’s a heads up that I’ll be live blogging the Samsung Galaxy Nexus press conference featuring Google Android Ice Cream Sandwich. The presser kicks off on October 18, 2011 at 7:00PM Pacific Time. I hope a bunch of you join me so that we can watch the event together and make wise-ass comments. It’ll be fun!

Coffee Talk #410: Who’s Your Favorite Comic-Book Artist?

Today’s Coffee Talk was inspired by a post from RPadholic Thundercracker and seconded by N8R. The former asked me about my favorite comic-book artist and the latter suggested that the topic should get its own Coffee Talk. Well here it…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, waiting for a shipment from a certain fruit company, Bill Simmons’ theory of Tom Hanks’ two careers mirroring Michael Jordan’s, or where the hell Dennis Miller is these days, Coffee Talk is the place to do it. 

Today’s Coffee Talk was inspired by a post from RPadholic Thundercracker and seconded by N8R. The former asked me about my favorite comic-book artist and the latter suggested that the topic should get its own Coffee Talk. Well here it is! Unfortunately, I don’t have much to contribute. I enjoy looking at comic-book art and appreciate it, but I’m so awful at drawing that a lot of it is beyond me. I like to write and reading is one of the best ways to improve writing. For example, my blogging style is influenced by the writing of Mark Waid, Peter David, and Brian Michael Bendis (love my parenthesis!).

As far as artists go, I dig the technical proficiency of guys like Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane. That said, I enjoy Frank Miller’s stuff too; his pencils aren’t the sharpest, but his style is so distinct. I like artists that use exaggerated styles like Ed McGuiness and Humberto Ramos. Mark Waid’s comedic writing in Impulse was perfectly complemented by Ramos’ playful art style. Of course I love Alex Ross’ paintings. Should I win the lottery, I would pay Ross to paint one of my walls.

Now it’s your turn! Who are some of your favorite comic-book artists?

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

This weekend I’m going to mess with some Orlesians and wyverns in the Mark of the Assassin expansion pack for Dragon Age II. I played through it once to enjoy all the story elements and would like to give it another go so that I can solve all of the intricate puzzles. Aside from some annoying stealth elements, I enjoyed it…despite Felicia Day’s character. On the portable side, I’ve been enjoying Scribblenauts on my iPad 2. I love Scribblenauts. I love my iPad 2. This is an excellent combination. Yay 5th Cell!

How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?

CA Governor Jerry Brown Allows Warrantless Phone Searches

If I could smack California Governor Jerry Brown on the back of the head, I would. He pissed me off when he took away my Amazon affiliate income for several months. Now he has vetoed legislation that required police offers to obtain a warrant in order to search your phone. That creeps me out. The idea of a California cop — not nice ones like Ponch and John — being able to search my phone for nebulous reasons is creepy. Here’s more from Wired:

California Gov. Jerry Brown is vetoing legislation requiring police to obtain a court warrant to search the mobile phones of suspects at the time of any arrest.

Brown’s veto message abdicated responsibility for protecting the rights of Californians and ignored calls from civil liberties groups and this publication to sign the bill — saying only that the issue is too complicated for him to make a decision about. He cites a recent California Supreme Court decision upholding the warrantless searches of people incident to an arrest. In his brief message, he also doesn’t say whether it’s a good idea or not.

How do you guys feel about this practice? Are you comfortable with the idea of police officers searching phones of “people of incident”? Or are you wigged out that cops can see your naughty pictures and videos for vague reasons of suspicion? Do you favor safety or civil liberties in this case?

Source

Sprint and Verizon iPhone 4S More International Than AT&T’s

[Updated 10/13 3:37 PM PT] If you’re a world traveler that’s also an iPhone fan then you might want to considering picking up an iPhone 4S on Sprint or Verizon instead of AT&T. The iPhone 4S is SIM-locked on AT&T, while CDMA carriers Sprint and Verizon will allow customers to use foreign SIM cards. This allows globetrotters to enjoy cheaper data and voice rates in other countries. Here’s the deal from MacWorld’s Jason Snell:

There’s a new wrinkle that potentially makes the international-roaming experience better on Sprint and Verizon iPhones than it is on AT&T. Sprint plans to sell the iPhone 4S with its micro-SIM slot unlocked; Verizon’s will be initially locked, but if you’ve been a customer in good standing for 60 days, you can call Verizon and ask for an “international unlock.” (A Verizon spokesperson told me that this is Verizon’s standard policy for all world phones — it’s just the first time it’s manifested itself on an iPhone.)

As someone that enjoys hopping to different countries (you know, back when I had money), this makes the CDMA iPhone 4S models terribly appealing. When I travel, I always get a local SIM for those times you meet cute foreign chicks in a bar networking purposes. In the past, I’ve use an unlocked GSM phone for foreign use to ensure global compatibility and to not be annoyed by carrier bloatware that’s unnecessarily munching on data. A CDMA iPhone with an unlocked SIM slot sound perfect for world warriors (like Ryu).

The only downside is that the CDMA data rates on Sprint and Verizon iPhone 4S are much slower HSDPA rates on the AT&T model. For some people, domestic slowness is worth the international bliss.

Do any of you find the international capabilities of the Sprint and Verizon iPhone 4S appealing?

Source

[Update 8:59AM PT] According to Engadget, the Sprint version will not have an unlocked SIM slot. A Sprint rep told the site:

Our SIM does not come out of the device — I believe the same is true of Verizon’s iPhone but you would need to confirm that with them. Customers can sign up for one of our international rate plans and use this phone all over the world. When traveling internationally, there is a setting that must be turned on within the device to connect to GSM. The phone will work with a SIM that is provided within the device out of the box. International voice and data charges are on a pay-as-you-go basis and vary based on the country where the customer is using their phone; a list of rates is available at www.sprint.com/international.

Well that sucks….

[Update 10/13 3:37 PM PT] Sprint released a statement saying that it will unlock the SIM slot for customers in good standing. The SIM slot is shipping unlocked, but will be locked by a future software update. If you’ve been paying your bill on time, Sprint will then unlock it…again. That seems incredibly stupid. Just leave the damn thing unlocked in the first place! Anyway, here’s a clip from the statement:

Sprint’s policy is to have the iPhone 4S SIM locked to our network domestically and internationally. At launch, the International SIM will be unlocked. We do expect a SIM lock to be pushed to the devices shortly after launch. We will then allow existing customers in good standing to unlock the SIM for international use if needed in the future.

PlayStation Network Hack Attacked Again

Several Sony only services have been attacked, potentially compromising thousands of PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment accounts. Sony estimates that up to 93,000 accounts have potentially been affected by the cyber attack (I wanted to use the word “cyber”. Sue me.). Here’s more from Sony Chief Information Security Office Philip Retinger:

Less than one tenth of one percent (0.1%) of our PSN, SEN and SOE audience may have been affected. There were approximately 93,000 accounts globally (PSN/SEN: approximately 60,000 accounts; SOE: approximately 33,000) where the attempts succeeded in verifying those accounts’ valid sign-in IDs and passwords, and we have temporarily locked these accounts. Only a small fraction of these 93,000 accounts showed additional activity prior to being locked. We are currently reviewing those accounts for unauthorized access, and will provide more updates as we have them. Please note, if you have a credit card associated with your account, your credit card number is not at risk. We will work with any users whom we confirm have had unauthorized purchases made to restore amounts in the PSN/SEN or SOE wallet.

The good news is that Sony picked this up early, a small percentage of accounts were affected, and credit card numbers were not at risk. That bad news is that some knob is walking around as your DC Universe Online character and tarnishing your good name. I kid, I kid.

Seriously though, head on over to the source link below if you’re worried about your account(s).

Source

RPad.tv Second Anniversary!!!

Today is RPad.tv’s second birthday! They grow up so fast…. Anyway, to celebrate the site’s birthday, RPadholic N8R graciously donated his time to create a new banner for the site. Since community is a huge part of RPad.tv, I’d love to hear your input. What one character would you like to see in the new RPad.tv banner? Please leave your suggestions in the comments section!