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Hacker Takes On World of Warcraft

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A hacker was able to clear out whole cities by running around with level 1 characters and killing all NPC’s and players within Stormwind and Orgrimmar over and over again, making the game virtually un-playble. European servers were hit first then US servers were hit shortly after. There are some videos that document what was happening. Blizzard community manager Nethaera posted the following statement about the issue and it being fully addressed.

“Earlier today, certain realms were affected by an in-game exploit, resulting in the deaths of player characters and non-player characters in some of the major cities. This exploit has already been hotfixed, so it should not be repeatable. It’s safe to continue playing and adventuring in major cities and elsewhere in Azeroth.”

“As with any exploit, we are taking this disruptive action very seriously and conducting a thorough investigation. If you have information relating to this incident, please email hacks@blizzard.com. We apologize for the inconvenience some of you experienced as a result of this and appreciate your understanding.”

Microsoft Security Essentials

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I was asked today about which programs are good for general Windows PC protection against a variety of malware and as always I suggest both free and paid applications but somewhat surprisingly, Microsoft Security Essentials comes up as one of my favorite free anti-malware solutions.

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What’s to like about MSE? Well, for starters it’s free but it’s also very easy to use. MSE doesn’t have a ton of garbage filling up the UI and it offers a selection of easy to use and useful features. MSE doesn’t bog down your system, it simply does what it needs to do and then quietly monitors the system in the background, providing real-time protection with out eating up a ton system resources.

MSE is updated daily to ensure that the latest threats won’t get through. Scan times are fast compared to some other applications and the only time you have to wait for any significant amount of time during a scan is when MSE performs it’s first system scan or when you run a “Full Scan”, otherwise, my scans only take about a minute or two with the longest scan time being approximately five minutes, when using “Quick Scan”.

Another thing that I enjoy about MSE is that it doesn’t seem to get in the way of the stuff that I know isn’t malware. I know this sounds strange but if you have used a variety of ant-malware products, you probably understand where I am coming from on this one. Having to go in and make exceptions for all the software that I know is supposed to be running on my system is time consuming and annoying, not to mention that you inevitability end up missing something that runs in the background and supports another main application, then you get to spend the next twenty minutes trying to find out what’s being blocked and causing your application to crash and or stall.

Just like any other malware solution it’s never going to be perfect and as always the best protection against malware is common sense. Tread the inter-webs carefully  and be proactive in reducing your risk of getting malware. Stick to sites that you know and don’t open random emails with weird attachments. I know it sounds like a no brainer but it happens all the time, sometimes we get tricked into doing something we shouldn’t. Even email from friends and family can be loaded with bad stuff, often these “loaded” emails are passed along even without the senders knowledge, so be careful.

Microsoft Security Essentials works on all three of the most popular Windows versions including XP,Vista,and Windows 7, the only major requirement here is that you have a genuine copy of Windows running. If your unhappy with your current malware solution, I recommend giving MSE a shot, remember you can always go back to what you had before and did I mention it’s free?

You can obtain Microsoft Security Essentials here.

Steve Jobs

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Steve Jobs sadly passed away one year ago today, October 5th 2011. Whether or not you liked Steve Jobs or whether or not you like Apple, you can’t say that his impact on the world of technology wasn’t huge. Apple has placed a video tribute to Steve Jobs on it’s website along with a short letter from Tim Cook, the current CEO of Apple.

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I would like to take the time today to share a short story with you about how Steve Jobs has inspired me personally.

The Life of Steve Jobs is a truly inspiring story, one that when revisited today left me feeling just the way it did one year ago, well, one year ago and a day. Why do I add a day? Well, a funny thing happened last year and I thought it would be interesting to share with you all today.

A little over a year ago I was feeling defeated,  and frustrated with what I was studying, I was uncertain about what the future would hold, I began to look for an inspirational quote or speech to lift my spirits. While searching the web for a very brief period of time, I stumbled upon Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address. It really captivated me and it was exactly what I needed to hear. As funny as it seems, the speech seemed to have found me, I laughed a bit because it was amazing that I had never came across this speech before, except for when I needed hear it, I guess it’s purpose was well served. What is unfortunate is the very next day, Steve Jobs passed away and this further solidified my inspirations. If you watch the speech you will see how powerful these two events being tied together like this could bring you pause.

Steve contributed greatly to the world of technology and his life has inspired millions. I would implore you to try and find something or someone who inspires you, then get out there and be innovative and create and mold the world around you.

To see the short video head to Apple.com

World Of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria Picks Up Steam

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When World of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria first hit store shelves it seemed that excitement for the game was a bit lacking. Many game shops throughout the country did not have a midnight launch of the game due to a low amount of pre-sales.World Of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria Logo

Sales of the new expansion seem to be picking up though as a press release from Blizzard Entertainment indicates that approximately  2.7 million copies of the game have sold and the overall subscriber base has surpassed 10 million, which is great news considering the company saw a rather large loss of subscribers around the previous Cataclysm expansion. Blizzard also pointed out that these sales figures do not take into account a Chinese release of the game which is expected to push sales even higher.

I have had some time to jump into this new expansion and I really feel that this is something to be excited about. The introduction of so many new ways to play the game along with a noticeable, back-to-roots feel, makes this expansion stand out from the rest. Mists of Pandaria was met with early criticism by some members of the community for introducing the Pandaren race into World of Warcraft lore in such a dramatic way. As time has gone on, and the game has finally been released, players are starting to see all of the hard work that Blizzard has put into this title.

Hearing about certain features and gameplay dynamics is one thing, but experiencing them first-hand with your favorite characters is totally different. The beauty of the continent of Pandaria alone is striking and the music and sound of each new area pulls you deep into this new land. Challenge modes bring in a whole new reason to run instances and with the challenge mode leader board, you have a whole new reason to brag about your guild. Even I was unsure about some of the new features, like pet battles, which turn out to be very entertaining and offer up a good challenge. You can see the beauty of the new, simplified, and less static talent tree in action and your character has never felt so uniquely customizable. With new challenges for us even after level 90, this game has plenty of content to chew through and a ton of replay-abillity value.

I hope that as time goes on, those of us who have wrote off Mists of Pandaria will re-consider and jump into the new world. Although World of Warcraft has changed quite a bit since the “Vanilla” days, it is still created by the same great company who, from what I can see, really cares strongly about the community that supports them. As always, I’m sure we will run into some issues that need to be addressed and I’m sure further balancing of classes will become necessary but Blizzard again will respond to these issues in the next update and we will move on as we always do.

So let’s embrace what Blizzard has worked so hard on and let’s get into a war that’s actually fun, a war between Orcs and Humans, the driving conflict of World of Warcraft.

Xbox Music Looks To Be a Great Move For Microsoft

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Zune wil be rebranded as Xbox Music in the relatively near future and I like the direction Microsoft is taking it’s re-imagined entertainment app. Xbox Music will not only be available on Xbox but also on Windows 8 PCs,tablets, and Windows Phone as well.

The new service will allow existing subscribers to migrate through the rebranding with ease and users will still have access to the same content they had before the switch. The buzz surrounding the new application is getting louder as we draw closer toward the end of the year and we hope to hear more official details on the new service soon.  Our best guess is the app will be released along with Windows 8 and could feature ad-based music streaming similar to Spotify, but it’s only a guess.

I have always liked the Zune player but I have preferred the iPod over the years mostly because I owned an iPod first and didn’t want to figure out how to transfer everything over to a new system, not that it’s overly complicated, but because I have really never had a good enough reason to switch. I have however have used Zune software for Windows and generally liked the experience. With the release of Xbox Music I will gladly jump right in as I plan on doing a review of the app as soon as it is available.

The Xbox itself is really my favorite Microsoft experience as it combines all of my entertainment needs into a simple, easy-to-use interface. Although many argue back and forth about whether PSN is better than Xbox Live, I still think that Xbox Live is done really well, even when you consider it’s faults. With my solid library of games and media on my Xbox, having a well integrated Music service, especially one with free streaming music, will complete my media experience on the Xbox.

The Xbox is really more than just a gaming console, it really has become a media hub, this was Microsoft’s goal and they have done a really god job with it. Thinking ahead to the next obvious direction for Microsoft’s console, I can only imagine that this new music service will be integrated with SkyDrive to allow for a complete cloud solution to allow you to access your media from any other device running Windows 8. This should line them up pretty well with Apple and their cloud services, with the exception of not having a gaming console.

As Windows 8 rolls out we will be anticipating the release of Xbox Music and hopefully we will be rewarded with a solid media library and music streaming app.