Chris Curtis dot Org

Gimme My Keys, Firefox!

2008-08-10T18:03:01Z

I’ve been a long-time user of Firefox, but for a while now I’ve actually been browsing with Camino as the regular browser on my mac. After using Firefox 3 (FF3)for a while at work and my other computers, I figured it was finally time to switch back on my mac, too. So, I downloaded and installed it, copied over my more recent bookmarks, and went about my life.

That is, until I noticed that FF3 wasn’t following one of the altered keyboard shortcuts I’d set up the last time I used Firefox to change the Quit shortcut. (For me, ⌘-Q to quit the app is dangerously close to ⌘-W to close a tab.) I use the standard OS X method to alter/reassign keyboard shortcuts, so I just went back and redid the Quit shortcut change for Firefox like before. Except it didn’t work. Sure, my reassigned shortcut of ⌘-⌥-Q worked, but so did the old ⌘-Q, rather defeating the purpose.

So, I started my hunt for an answer. A Mozilla support thread let me know that I wasn’t alone in this frustration and also pointed me in the direction of a Macrumors thread. This, in turn, gave me the actual Bugzilla entry for the issue, including discussion from some of the developers and users. Apparently, a fairly late change in FF3/Gecko 1.9 made it so that system-assigned shortcuts weren’t being observed and it’s unlikely to be fixed really soon. One of the developers mentioned it ought to be possible to get around this with an addon/extension, though.

Now it was off to find an extension to help solve my problem. After far more searching than I’d prefer, I found Keyconfig, an extension by “doranado” that’s been around for quite some time, but looks to have been recently updated. I installed the extension, restarted FF3, reassigned some of the shortcuts (you’ll find the option under the main Tools menu to open up Keyconfig), and held my breath. Thankfully, this seems to have done the trick and I no longer need to worry about accidentally hitting Q when I meant to hit W on a shortcut. I figured this info might be useful for other FF3 users out there.

Tips For Your Vehicle Gas

2008-05-09T20:34:01Z

I recently received one of those “chain letter” type emails, this one purporting to be from someone working in the gas/oil industry and giving some tips on how to get the most out of your gas. (It also, of course, encouraged me to email it on to ten friends to “get the word out”, but that sure ain’t happening!) I typically don’t much care for those sorts of emails, but this one actually had some pretty decent sounding advice. So, I figured I might as well look into it to see how legit the advice was.

Not surprisingly, snopes.com has an article dealing with these very tips. The consensus point is that following the tips certainly shouldn’t hurt you (aside from possibly taking extra time), but that for the most part the gain you’ll see in practical terms is pretty modest. Anyway, I figured it might be worth passing this info along to anyone else interested.

FreakAngels

2008-02-18T01:31:00Z

A free, online comic by the master: Warren Ellis. I've been a huge fan of Ellis for years and this new comic looks pretty darn good. #

Warcrafter

2008-01-19T13:38:00Z

Searching around for something to allow me to "try out" gear, I found Warcrafter, which is pretty neat. It's still "beta", but lots of nice features. And, of course, there's Ghrikk. #

VeriSign’s at it Again

2008-01-12T06:09:00Z

Well, it looks like VeriSign (aka Network Solutions) is at it yet again: being one of the scum of the internet. This time, they’re proactively squatting on domains that people are looking up. Check that link for details, but the short, short version is that if you do a who-is search that uses a VeriSign/Network Solutions service and the domain wasn’t previously registered, VeriSign puts a hold/lock on it that means you can only purchase it from them and not other registrars. I’ve mentioned VeriSign multiple times before. Clearly, they’re not one of my favorite companies.

Still More 24 Ways

2007-12-18T13:53:01Z

For the third year in a row, Drew McLellan is serving up another 24 helpings of web design/development goodness. I’ve mentioned the other two years previously, but the annual 24 Ways site is always great.

So far, the day one Transparent PNG article, the trick for warning about CAPSLOCK, and the table of available fonts look particularly good. However, just about everyone should be able to find something useful in this batch of wonderfulness.

Neighborhood Walkability

2007-12-15T07:27:03Z

Neat site that utilizes Google information and maps to get a quick look at how "walkable" your neighborhood is. I'd love to live somewhere that I could walk to lots of stores and such rather than having to drive. #

Free With Mats

2007-12-05T17:40:00Z

Nice, upcoming WoW site that lets you find gems/enchants as well as has user-submitted information on tradeskill crafting. Once more profiles are added, it should be a nice way to find people to craft items, do enchants, etc. #

Cleaning out OS X Languages

2007-11-08T14:37:00Z

I used "Monolingual" myself a while back, but here's some good info on possible options. Be sure to read the comments, too. #

Are Compact Fluorescents Worth it?

2007-10-30T13:29:00Z

Someone does some quick math showing just how much you can save in even a single month by switching your lights from regular incandescents to CFLs. #

Leopard’s Blue Screen of Death

2007-10-30T13:05:00Z

Most Windows users are at least aware of the existence of the dreaded “Blue Screen of Death” (BSoD) that can occur when a particularly bad error surfaces. Rarely do Mac OS X users encounter the same sort of thing, but apparently that isn’t the case for some people upgrading to the newly released OS X 10.5 Leopard. According to most reports, the BSoD is caused by old versions of Unsanity’s Application Enhancer (APE) being present on the system.

Everything I’ve read about APE makes it sound pretty shady and it definitely isn’t something I’d install myself, so I figured that I’d be pretty safe once I get around to upgrading my own system. Well, Daring Fireball reveals that APE actually gets installed behind the scenes when the Logitech Control Center (LCC) is installed. Want to guess what I have installed? Yup, you got it.

So, before I even think about upgrading to Leopard, I’m going to have to figure out how to uninstall (and never reinstall; curse you, Logitech!) the LCC as well as make sure all remnants of APE are gone. So much fun.

Next Midrange Graphics Card

2007-10-29T13:36:00Z

If the AnandTech review is accurate (and I've always liked their reviews), the forthcoming NVIDIA 8800 GT card may be a fantastic compromise between great performance and moderate price. #

Leopard is Here

2007-10-27T22:20:00Z

Apple’s newest version of their operating system was released yesterday: Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard”. I haven’t installed it yet myself, but I’m definitely looking forward to some of the features. Probably the one drawing the most notice is “Time Machine”, Apple’s new graphical automated-backup system. I’ve been using SuperDuper! for my own backups for quite some time (and I’ll continue to do so for my “snapshot” bootable backups) and it’s worked great, but I’m looking forward to using Time Machine for less critical “as I go” type backups where I can use it to really easily grab a previous version of a file or something deleted. For an easy to read review of Leopard, check out the review by Macworld that goes over most of the major changes as well as high (and low) points.

Speaking of backing up… John Gruber on Daring Fireball put up a quick backup and installation/upgrade guide for how to best install a new OS version. While it’s obviously written with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard (or other OS X versions) in mind, the basic guidelines would be equally applicable to pretty much any OS installation/upgrade on any platform.

Schedules and Sleep

2007-10-15T12:39:00Z

A few months back, I started a new job. It’s another customer support spot for a software company, but we’ll not go into specifics since… well… it’s better that way. Anyway, after the initial training, I was put on a 6pm to 3am shift. While nice in that I got to avoid the evil rush hour traffic (or would that be “traffics” if there are two rush hours?), it was definitely a strange schedule to work. Being an unusual and overnight shift like that, I just never really felt like I had much time to do stuff during “weekdays” when I wasn’t working. I usually wouldn’t be super-tired when I got home, so I’d stay up for a bit, but then when it came time to wake up after I did go to sleep, it was a real chore to drag myself out of bed. So, it would feel like I only had a few “useful” hours to do stuff between leaving work and going back again.

This past week, I switched departments at work. More power, more responsibility… and a new schedule. I’m now working 8pm to 7am shifts, which is even weirder. I still get to miss traffic, but now they’re 10 hour days and it’s dark essentially the entire time I’m at work. I will be getting 3 days off a week instead of two, which should be nice, though. Anyway, this whole “work at night and sleep during the day” thing is just really odd. I’ve always been a bit of a night owl, which is a good thing, but not to the extent that this new schedule’s going to require.

I suppose I’ll get used to the new schedule. Eventually. Maybe finally getting some curtains/drapes/whatever for my bedroom window would help things so it’s darker when I need to be sleeping during the day… Anyway, I think I’m just rambling after getting off my work shift now. *grin*

Maximizing your Rogue Gear

2007-10-10T22:56:00Z

I previously posted about consumables that should be brought to every raid. Consumables are very important, but they’re temporary. In addition, we need to worry about other ways to maximize our potential and that includes getting our gear enchanted and using the best gems we can in that gear. If you’re going to a raid without an item enchanted or with gear unsocketed, all you’re doing is letting yourself and your raid down. You’re not being the best rogue you can be.

Specifics when you continue on.

Enchants

Below are typically the “best” enchant to get for each item slot. Some of them aren’t actually true enchants (head, shoulder, leg), but they do the same thing. If you have a piece of gear and you know you won’t be using it long, you can sometimes go for a lesser version of some of these enchants, but if you’re going to be using a piece of gear for a while, do yourself and your raid a favor and get it enchanted! If multiple things are listed, they’re placed in general order of preference for the “best” enchant.

Head: [Glyph of Ferocity]

Shoulder: [Greater Inscription of Vengeance] (Exalted with The Aldor)
[Greater Inscription of the Blade] (Exalted with The Scryers)
Honored versions of above

Cloak: Greater Agility - +12agility

Chest: Exceptional Stats - +6 to all stats

Legs: [Nethercobra Leg Armor]

Feet: Cat’s Swiftness - +6agility, minor run speed
Dexterity - +12agility
Surefooted - +10hit rating, 5% snare/root resist
Boar’s Speed - +9stamina, minor run speed

Wrist: Assault - +24AP

Hands: Superior Agility - +15agility
Assault - +26AP

Weapon: Mongoose - +120agility and slight haste increase occasionally
Executioner - occasionally ignore 840 armor (mainhand only)
Major Striking - +7damage
Greater Agility - +20agility

Gems

So, you got a new piece of gear with some gem sockets in it? Don’t be silly and leave the sockets open, put something in it! At the very least, go to the cheapo gem vendors in Shattrath/Hellfire Peninsula and get the generic 1-2g gems. As with enchants, though, unless you’ll be getting rid of that piece of armor soon, do everyone a favor and put some decent gems in it. The “best” gem for a particular person can really vary as it depends on what will help you most. Generally speaking, though, +hit can almost never be wrong, so Rigid Dawnstone and Glinting Noble Topaz are always good bets. Your personal milage may vary.

Typical Best Choices
Yellow: [Rigid Dawnstone]
Red: [Glinting Noble Topaz]
Blue: [Shifting Nightseye]

Other Good Gems
Yellow: [Smooth Dawnstone]
Red: [Delicate Living Ruby]
Green: [Jagged Talasite]

With wide accessibility to the epic versions of gems either from raiding or purchase with Badges of Justice, if you’ll be keeping the piece of gear for a long time, making the investment in the epic gems can be worthwhile. They aren’t huge upgrades over the rare version, but every little bit helps when we’re trying to squeeze out more performance.

Incidentally, a lot of rogue pieces have socket bonuses that really just aren’t fantastic. If the bonus isn’t super, don’t worry about matching the socket colors. Instead, just put in a nice gem that helps a stat where you’re lacking. Oh, and avoid +AP gems. They’re almost never the right choice as most other gems will give you a better overall performance increase.

Oh, and so you can see whether or not I follow my own advice… Ghrikk on Shadow Council.