back to my favorite playstyle – Dual Wielding!

my Frost death knight dual-wield spec – 2/52/17

there is nothing more sexy than having 2 offensive weapons on each of your hands.  back when i was still a scrub warrior, this was always my setup when not tanking.  death knights, thankfully, were given the ability to wield 1-hand weapons on both main and off-hands.  unfortunately it got broken in a nerf not so long ago.

now once again, with the new patch (3.2.0), the frenzy of dual-wielding death knights is back!  and this time, it’s more than every death knight could have asked for with the addition of a new talent – Threat of Thassarian.

so what is this new Threat of Thassarian talent?  well in a nutshell, it allows a dual wielding DK to do damage with the off-hand weapon on certain special strikes.  it is a 3-point talent, and raises the chance for your off-hand to do damage for those special strikes by 100%.

now don’t confuse this with Nerves of Cold Steel.  this talent increases your chance to hit targets with one-hand weapons, and also increases the damage of your off-hand weapon.  it used to be that special strikes, such as Frost Strike, was counted only as a main-hand strike.  so if you had a 1-hand weapon, damage from the strike is counted as a main-hand strike only.  Threat of Thassarian allows you to do 100% damage on your off-hand weapon on certain special strikes, thereby making dual-wield damage viable once more.  it’s like hitting Frost Strike on your target with your main-hand and off-hand weapon now.

search through the web and you will find lots of links to cookie-cutter dual wield specs.  mine is no different really.  but i always tend to customize a talent or two.

here is one of skeletonjack’s dual wield recommendations – the 3/51/17 build.  according to SkeletonJack (SJ), it is the dual wield build with the highest damage output.

i adopted the 3/51/17 build above, but made a few modifications of my own.  i didn’t like how SJ spent his points in the frost tree.  (a) for one, he placed 1 point in Hungering Cold (HC), and left out Unbreakable Armor (UA).  errr, what’s with that?  in a damage perspective, UA clearly beats out HC  by far.  that’s a no-brainer.

but i know SJ, i’ve read lots of his posts.  he always has a reason for this, although i missed out on his reason why he took HC instead of UA.  maybe its a raid utility talent.  helping the tank perhaps in securing the mobs from wandering off to unsuspecting healers or careless ranged DPS casters?  who knows.  for me it’s UA or nothing.

(b) on second note, he took 2/2 Improved Frost Presence (IFP).  while i don’t really have anything against this, i saw 2 other options where you could rather spend your points.  by the way you need 3 more points to spend at least 35 points in the frost tree in order for you to access the higher tier talents. so the next 3 points are basically filler points.  spend them according to your preference.

(i) you can spend 2/2 on Icy Reach (IR) and another 1 on IFP.  or have it 1/2 on IR and 2/2 on IFP.

HC for me is not an alternative damage-wise.  while it does infect all your victims with Frost Fever, you have the glyphed Howling Blast for that to take care of. i am not in favor of Glyph of Disease by the way.  there are lots of boss fights with adds in Ulduar (and other raid dungeons?), so it’s your choice.

now why Icy Reach?  there are several boss fights where you will be thrown off to a distance or have to run away.  being able to attack farther away gives you lesser damage downtime.

why not Improved Frost Presence?  fully raid-buffed and without IFP, i can still reach a ridiculous amount of 26-28k HP in my present gear.  having more health is always a good thing for melee damage dealers.  but being able to attack while farther away from the boss/target is better for me on a DPS perspective.

besides if you’re gonna take this option you get 3% increased stamina anyway.

(ii) or you can forget about IR and IFP and instead spend all 3 points in Icy Talons (IT).  that’s right, 12% more haste on your attacks for the next 20 seconds.  that is getting half of what you lose for not taking 5/5 IT (20%) and Improved Icy Talons (5%).  faster attacks is a good idea.  you can get more procs from killing machine this way.

besides, if there are no enhancement shamans in you raid, you’d be missing out on the haste effect of their totem.

so after you’ve decided what talents you take as fillers, go on and get the other good stuff in the frost tree.  don’t forget to grab Unbreakable Armor.  that’s an increased strength buff by 25%  for 20 seconds.  very nice when timed with Heroism/Bloodlust i say.

all in all, this takes out 52 points spent under the frost tree.

for the blood tree, 3/3 is recommended for Subversion and that’s about it.  you spend the remainder of your points in the unholy tree.

so why Subversion?  it drastically lowers your threat while not in Frost Presence.  this can’t be argued.  lesser threat means more chances of survival or causing raid/party wipes.  i however have been testing 0/53/18 for a while too.  so i’m used to the threat issues and how to deal with it.

but the real  icing in taking Subversion is not for the lesser threat.  it’s the added critical strike chance to your Blood Strike (BS) and Obliterate (OB).  2 of the strikes you use often as a frost-spec’ed DK.  3/3 of Subversion and that’s an additional 9% critical strike chance!  yummy!

i only took 2/3 from this talent.  like i said, i’ve tested 0/53/18 for a while and it deals damage just as well as without it.  damage-wise though, there is really that difference that i noticed, of course, with having more critical strikes from BS and OB.  6% is good enough for me.  i could always take out 1 point from another talent, but 6% will do for now.

now for your final points, it’s all in the unholy tree.  see how i spent it here.  you basically have to take Necrosis and Blood-Caked Blade to maximize your dual-wield spec damage output.  dual-wield is about fast attacks which means more white attacks.  one of your top damage, when you review fights, should come from white attacks too.

enjoy!

non-KDE app filechooser trick

did you ever get annoyed of that non-KDE application using KDE’s native file chooser taking up the entire width of your screen whenever it is opened?  this seems to be a common and persistent problem for non-KDE applications that use the KDE file chooser to open or save files.  a good example of this is OpenOffice.org.  here is a simple trick to solve that problem.

Step 1 > Click on the file chooser icon as shown in the image below.  Or you can click on the File menu and then selecting Open.

Step 2 > When the file chooser dialog box is already out, resize it to your preference.

Before.  Notice how the file chooser box occupies the entire length of my screen.

After.

Step 3 > Click on the window menu that is usually at the icon located at the top left corner of the window.  Then select Advanced, and then selecting Special Window Settings from its sub-menu.

Step 4 > On the Special Window Settings dialog box, check on Size and select Remember from the drop down menu to its right.  This will tell it to remember the size of the file chooser dialog box to its current width and height (when you resized the box in Step 2).This will not only remember the size of the file chooser dialog box on this session, but also in future sessions.

Step 5 > Don’t forget to click OK once you’ve done all these steps.  Close everything.  You don’t have to close the application (OpenOffice.org in this example).  Open the file chooser dialog box again and notice that its dimensions are now set according to how you wanted it.

Note that this trick will only remember the size of the file chooser dialog box to the application you’ve configured it to.  I’m sure there are ways to tell KDE to always set the file chooser box to a certain width and height.  That’s gonna be another topic later on.  Enjoy!

can’t connect to all Yahoo! accounts on Kopete

The problem started as far back as June this year.  Yahoo users trying to connect to the said network through Kopete could not.  Several people were quick to notice it.

A quick fix was to override the default server for logging in to something else. But this was a temporary fix.  Eventually it didn’t work anymore.  Not wanting to use any other 3rd party messenger, I opted to log on to the messenger service through Yahoo Mail.  It works fine even on Linux versions of Firefox although Yahoo does warn you that the operating system you are using has not been tested.

Months after, I went back to using Kopete for Yahoo after I upgraded my desktop.  It appears that the newer versions has the fix for the Yahoo problem patched into it.  Currently I am using Kopete version 0.80.2 on KDE 4.3.2.  What is strange is that I can’t login to all my accounts.  I have 3 Yahoo accounts.   Out of the 3, only 2 are able to connect successfully to the Yahoo servers. The other one can’t connect and there are no apparent error messages except for,

Object::connect: No such signal ClientStream::disconnected()
Object::connect:  (receiver name: 'yahooclient')
Transfer ACCEPTED by: LoginTask
Transfer ACCEPTED by: LoginTask

If you are experiencing a similar problem drop me a note on how you fixed it.  If you still haven’t found a solution, we can go report a bug @ bugs.kde.org to make it official. I am guessing that this might not be a Kopete problem, but it won’t hurt if the developers are made aware of this weird behavior.

In the meantime, I’ll keep on searching for fixes.  Oh by the way, the one account that could not connect wasn’t like this all the time.  It was able to connect once, and that was the one time only, then after that it wouldn’t anymore.

ADSL connections on Kubuntu 9.04

What Does NOT Work

KNetworkManager can’t manage ADSL connections.  Don’t waste your time searching the web for solutions. It’s not worth it in the end.

WIDC won’t work.  I never understood what WIDC was supposed to do.  It endlessly scanned my machine and got nothing.  The configuration options is a mess as well.  It doesn’t really provide any clear options and you will just end up as confused as to how to configure your ADSL connection with KNetworkManager.

What Works

pppoeconf works out of the box most of time. Unless if your ISP really has a weird ADSL setup, then chances are, your connection won’t work if configured through this app.  The chances are slim.

The program pppoeconf should be accessible under /usr/sbin/pppoeconf on Kubuntu 9.04 and should be used with administrator or root privileges.  So use sudo on this command. By the way, this is an application that should be run on the terminal.  Get konsole or, for me, yakuake, on the ready.

Just go with the defaults.  It works fine. Once you’ve got it configured you’re good to go.

pon dsl-provider – to turn ON the  ADSL connection

poff dsl-provider – to turn OFF the ADSL connection

Again, both commands above should be used with administrator or root privileges.  Sudo is your friend!  But you shouldn’t be using these commands at all.  If everything goes right, Kubuntu Jaunty Jackalope should remember all of you your settings on the next session.  You don’t have to add anything to have your connection start automatically on boot.  Everything should already be set correctly.

Have fun surfing the web!

The Programmer and the Princess

A programmer was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, “If you kiss me, I’ll turn into a beautiful princess.” He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket. The frog spoke up again and said, “If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week.”
The programmer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket. The frog then cried out, “If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I’ll stay with you and do anything you want.” Again the programmer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.
Finally, the frog asked, “What is the matter? I’ve told you I’m a beautiful princess that I’ll stay with you for a week and do anything you want. Why won’t you kiss me?” The programmer said, “Look, I’m a programmer. I don’t have time for a girlfriend — but a talking frog, now that’s cool.”

source: http://www.jokes.com/funny/whatever/the-programmer-and-the-princess

I’m only a C?

Boo, I only have a grade of C in my own country.  How much more for the entire world?  Waaaaa!!!

But then again it’s not really a surprise.  What with the geographic and political conditions of the Philippines.

By geographic I mean just look at that map below.  That’s a total of 7,000 and 100 islands there.  The major ones are still, well islands…  albeit big ones.  The interesting ones are the hardest.  They’re smaller islands where you will find the whitest, softest sand, the clearest sea waters, amazing fish and coral reefs, the perfect beaches!  Airports?   Yeah they’re in all major cities and most points of interest, but not all.

And there are several political issues in the country, particularly isolated in the lower-most group of islands in the south-western part, where travel would be a bit unwise.

My Lakbayan grade is C!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

To My Friends

My Friends,

While you never really asked me the reasons why I left, I feel that I owe you an explanation nonetheless.  It has been over a year already.  It is long past due that you should hear my side of the story.  So I am writing this now to tell you why I have to go on my own in this big city.

Back from where we originally come from, our beloved little city, fate brought us together.  Those were fun times. Great times.  The crazy moments that we shared together were ones that were filled with laughter, adventure and of course, “spirits.” There was so many a day, or more like night, where we would be holed up in a place downing some shots, watching videos or just playing around with computer games.  And when we were not doing either of those things, we made sure we were off to another place doing something else.

But like all things in life, everything must come to an end.  Yet with every ending, another door opens.. .  A new chapter in life begins.  We started the new chapter full of excitement, hope and optimism.   Deep down though, we knew that sooner or later we might not be seeing each other too often.  It is one of the inevitable things in life.  I guess we never accepted that fact.  So as much as possible we tried to slow it down.  That was the plan.

It wasn’t that long.  Eventually, we found ourselves in the same big city.  Not everyone could come.  But most of us are here.  Was it not wonderful that we started another chapter of our lives together in a strange new place?  Again, the very same things that we left behind in our little city, we were doing it here in the big city.  This time though, it is far from the comfort and security of our own homes and families.   This time, it is with the addition of many new things.

As with every new beginning it is always something different.  Along the way we met several faces.  With each step made, we learned new things.  It is not alone that a man does great things.  There is always that group of people behind him.  However, you do know that you are not there just to depend on them.  You don’t let the group carry your weight.  You do realize that the group is you.

I never left you my friends.  I merely tried to see the world in a different light.  You should try it sometime.  For when we tread together we seem to overcome the impossible, how do we know that we are strong enough to be on our own?  How will you know that when you are not with me or him, you will overcome the challenges in life that sometimes you must face alone?

I am still here.  The times we had is something I am very glad I have shared with all of you.  There will be more of those times.  I am quite sure of that.  After all.. .

Friendship is not made with the exchange of names.  It is made through moments and experiences. Friendship is not earned by seeing each other too often.  It is earned through sincerity and trust.  Friendship is not kept only in the fun times.  It is also through the sad moments.

Sincerely,

Your Friend

Very Light Virtual CD ROM App For Windows

Mounting ISO9660 images, or CD/DVD images, stored on your hard disk has never been a problem with me on Linux systems. A simple mount command from the console and I’m good to go to see the contents of the image. Modern versions of popular Linux distros even have this already worked out, so the average Linux user, or maybe me being lazy, can just mount it through the GUI without having to become root.

This has always been a problem for me when it comes to Windows.  A tool for mounting images as virtual drives (or a loopback filesystem perhaps) is not supported by default on Windows for how many major versions. I can’t say it’s the same for Vista and Windows 7. I have yet to tinker around with Vista more, and I haven’t seen, or pretty much, used a Windows 7 yet. So you have to download a 3rd party app to be able to mount images.

Having been forced to use Windows XP on my home computer (my Kubuntu disk crashed, grumbe &*@#$!) for some time finally made me search the web for a Windows app to mount images. I always forget the names of the popular ones. Besides, I have to install it, sits on my system tray, and I don’t want that. I just want to mount an image, plain and simple. No fancy stuff.

Here’s what I’ve found and recommend in case you might be looking for one too – VCdControlTool.exe.

It is a very light-weight tool for mounting CD/DVD images.  You don’t have to install it.  It runs right out of the box.  Is fast.  The size of the app doesn’t even go over 50kb including the driver.sys and readme.txt files.  Very simple to operate, unless you’re totally clueless like grandma.

Unfortunately, I can’t remember the download link of the file.  But all is not in vain.  I’m sure a quick Google Search and you’ll have this app in no time.  By the way, I can’t say this will run on Vista or future Windows releases.

Trailing Slash In WordPress Permalink Causes 404 Error In IE

Prettifying a URL is an old technique.  It is generally called URL Rewriting.  Why should you do this?  For one, it’s better to look at it.  A URL that has “?s=1&sid=4752891&gn=0&.rand=99olqituu202iqzx37a6″ after the domain name, can be quite confusing and unpleasant to look at for those who don’t understand it.  Secondly, re-written URLs are more SEO-friendly and user-friendly as well.  There are many more advantages to URL rewriting, and I won’t cover that here.

Being a WordPress noob, I knew I would be rewriting my URLs to look pretty. Luckily, WordPress has a built-in tool for this so us noobs won’t have to manually edit the .htaccess file by hand. This feature can be found in Dashboard –> Settings –> Permalinks.

Here are a few exmaples of the options already provided by WordPress.

Default – http://www.domain.com/?p=123

Day and Name – http://www.domain.com/2009/09/21/sample-post/

Month and Name – http://www.domain.com/2009/09/sample-post/

Numeric – http://www.domain.com/archives/123

The last one is the custom structure, where you have to put in what you want the URL to look like.  Clicking on those radio buttons, you will see that the custom structure text field is filled out with something like,

/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/

which is the structure for the Day and Name option.  Click on other options to see what comes out.  These are already clues on how to customize your own URL.  I made mine put the post name or page name after the domain.  The structure is easy, it’s just like this,

/%postname%

This results in a URL that looks like these,

http://www.domain.com/how-to-cook-beef-stew

http://www.domain.com/about

Be careful with putting a trailing slash on the URL structure.  The Day and Name example above has a slash at the end.  This could confuse some browsers, such as Internet Explorer, thereby causing the dreaded 404 error.

This error may not be exclusive to WordPress permalink structures alone.  It would seem that if you’re not very careful with the rules in your custom .htaccess file and you happen to have a trailing slash in it, chances are you will be getting 404 errors when browsing with IE.

Creating A Static Front Page With WordPress

For new WordPress users trying to set up a website and using the former as a CMS, this is usually among the first questions asked.  This is really easy.  In fact the WordPress Codex has it all written down step by step here.

Then usually, the next question after having done the steps is, “I have 2 Home pages now.  How do I fix this to show just one?“

Under “Troubleshooting Themes” of the tutorial explains a bit on why this happens.  If you’re not patient enough to learn the internals of WordPress or manually edit a template file, the quick solution to this problem is a plugin.

Search for WordPress plugins that deal with Page Management.  I use pageMash to do this.  It’s not very updated but it still works up to 2.8.4 quite well.  If there are more updated (compatible and tested with 2.8.4 version) plugins that deal with page management I would suggest you install that instead.

I AM WARRIOR

“I AM WARRIOR. Where others would hide behind their faith, summon the powers of corruption, or simply disappear into shadows, I will stand and fight with honor. And I will win.”

I just gotta love this signature.  It’s very poetic for a warrior.  It’s so bold.  Not literally, of course. LOL!

But really it’s ironic too.  “.. . I will stand and fight with honor,” Yeah of course.  You will just stand there stunned with that spammable  warlock AOE stun.  And when the lock incinerates your ass to kingdom come, that would be honor.. .  an Honorable Kill for the lock that is!  Hahaha.. . :p

This is taken from the signature of one warrior in one of the threads under the General Discussion forums of the World of Warcraft.

Salute Sir!