This afternoon, after I interview inarguably one of the most interesting 100-year-old residents ever — a staple of the media, probably from the advent of anything that could be considered a medium — and knocking out two political stories (and typing up the sheriff’s department’s crime log, if there’s time), I’ll be heading down to Anaheim to get my press pass for Blizzcon.
This year, my coverage will be going into the Daily Press’ features section, the paper’s teen magazine and out to the corporate intranet for other Freedom Communications papers to use. I’ll also be firing off a barrage of pieces to the Associated Press for them to scatter on the wind like dandelion seeds.
While you wait patiently for my coverage (and possibly my byline, depending on your local paper’s feelings about AP bylines) to show up in your local paper, you can follow my live-blogging of the convention via Twitter. My Blizzcon-centric feed is the cleverly named @blizzconnews.
And of course, I want to see if I can activate the Grunty the Murloc Marine World of Warcraft in-game pet tonight. The murloc costume back in 2007 worked on Thursday night, but last year’s bear mount — with murloc copilot — didn’t work until the subsequent Tuesday server maintenance.
It’ll be even more awesome if the murloc space marine (an homage to the forthcoming StarCraft II) interacts with the zergling pet (an homage to StarCraft I) from the original World of Warcraft collector’s edition. There’s at least twoother pets that interact with other pets this way now.
UPDATE: Yep, the zergling and Grunty definitely do interact. Depending on who gets the drop on whom, the loser dies messily. Very fun.
Joel and James ride the slide at Goofy’s house in Toon Town. James finally overcame his fear of slides after this and went on it over and over and over and over.
James and Isabel rock out on Goofy’s piano.
James and Isabel crash while Kate shops at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in Fantasyland.
This is a pretty cool Google Maps mash-up: Destroy your home town. A nuke at the middle of the 92345 ZIP code will totally take out our house, alas, although the fallout will be blowing away from work, so I’ll be able to cover the attack from there.
I did one of these a while ago, but with the price drop of the iPhone 3G and sudden Treo death, several friends have gotten iPhones recently, and I figured running down what I’ve currently got on my iPhone might be useful for app ideas for them.
Home screen: First off, notice that I’ve rearranged the icons on the bottom, to be what I actually find most useful, rather than what Steve Jobs felt like mentioning in a speech. I recommend you do the same.
Most of the stuff on the home screen are default apps, but there’s a few others:
Facebook: This app is pretty good, but like real Facebook, there are way too many subtle distinctions in content, so you will find yourself clicking on three or four tabs to see everything that’s going on. Also note that anyone whose feeds you may have muted in Facebook will show up un-muted here, so you can remember why you did it. A new version of this app is coming soon. Free.
Pandora: If you haven’t discovered this streaming music service yet, which creates radio stations based on any songs you suggest, and then refines it based on your reactions to the program’s choices, this is a good time to do so. Works fine over 3G and even Edge service. Free.
Pennies: A simple budgeting app. The only issue with it is that it wants a set amount of money every month — if that varies, it’s not quite as useful. Not free, but cheap.
Shazam: Identify songs that you put your phone’s microphone near. The program will then offer to sell you the songs on iTunes, show you the lyrics or the music video on YouTube. Free.
Tipulator: A gorgeous little tip calculator. I know; I can do this with the calculator or just in my head. It’s still very efficient and slick. Not free, but modestly priced.
Twitterific: Post and read from multiple Twitter accounts. There are small ads, but they’re unobtrusive. If you really hate them, there’s a pay version that eliminates them.
