Seems like a bonehead mistake, of gigantic proportions. Chevrolet has shipped their 2012 Sonic without break pads installed – no big deal. Oh, wait, we need those in order to keep from careening into intersections full of people and/or car? Well crap, let’s get to the dealer. No wonder it was $500 off, they just sold us a kit, not a car. Some assembly required I guess. Given that, we assume, most cars are made with robots I’m not sure how this would have happened – oh yeah, the robots aren’t aware that pads need to 101% be installed. If maybe, I don’t know, people still put cars together someone would have caught the mistake. I’m sure the guy who worked the assembly line for 40 years (and knows more about your car than the guy who drew up the blueprints) would have stopped production before such a deadly product was shipped. And they say we need tort reform? I think this shows we need something, anything, to keep companies on their toes. Not that we need to sue Chevy all at once now. Not at all – but if they weren’t worried about lawsuits I wonder if they’d ever give us break pads? It sure doesn’t seem like something on the forefront of their mind. Can’t wait to see The Consumerist get a hold of this one.

Here is what SlashGear had to say, the source (for me) of the story…

We’re pretty certain that someone at General Motors is in a whole heap of trouble this week as its been discovered that a batch of their Chevrolet Sonic cars with missing brake pads have left the factory and were sold in kind to unsuspecting customers. While these missing pads aren’t currently being rated as something so fatal that GM is recommending a total instant freak-out on the part of car owners, if you are one of those owners, you probably should bring your car in to be checked. Nothing like cruising into grandma’s house for New Years and finding yourself on the other side because you brakes just… you know… aren’t there.

via 2012 Chevrolet Sonic recalled due to missing brake pads – SlashGear.

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What has become incredibly lame about it is the suggestions that people make or conversations that really don’t need to happen. I feel like a celebrity at times. You know how people probably try to play the Kevin Bacon game with Kevin Bacon? It gets really old. My favorite suggestion is to stop wearing a hat. “You wouldn’t lose your hair if you didn’t wear a hat.” Well, you wouldn’t know if I never took it off. Not only do people automatically assume they are the first to impart these words of wisdom but they think you care. I’ve never once replied “You know, I never thought of that! People should pay you for that type of advice – genius! You are an absolute genius, please write books, humanity would be better off”.

And how dare people? Maybe it is an obvious comeback but could I go around telling people it’s probably the pastries and fried chicken that was making them fat? And as a balding person I have the same attitude of the morbidly obese in America – I could care less. Stop bugging me about it. Can I point out the blemish on your face shaped like Italy – because that’s all you are doing – making me self conscious about something that up until that point didn’t bother me at all. Luckily the feeling of inferiority washes away and I’m back to being happy about other things.

But this is the root of such comments I guess. People can sometimes only feel better about themselves when they point out the flaws of others. C”est la vie.

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Greens < Quests < Dungeons < Heroics/Rep Rewards/Justice Points < Epic Rep < Raid Level

Now, for many this seems obvious due to the item levels of the gear at hand, but sometimes we forget a piece or two of this equation. Obviously if you were like me and immediately rushed to Blackrock Caverns at 3:02 AM when the expansion went live on the servers you picked up a few uncommon-level (green) items that put an ICC piece you’ve been wearing for months to shame. If you did a few quests on a neglected alt you also noticed those rewards were a bit amazing compared to the weak epic items (purple) you were wearing.

But as not everything in the game is mentioned - actually in the game – it may just be worth mentioning the general rundown if you are looking to build a heroic or early raid set. This isn’t class specific or trying to build a BiS (best in slot) set, just a guide to Cataclysm gearing, and doing it efficiently.

• Starting out – If you are hoping into Cataclysm for the first time you really have two options. You can quest or you can instantly just hop into the Looking For Group’s random dungeon queue (though now note that you need to discover the dungeon entrance before you can queue for that dungeon – this includes random dungeons, have only one discovered, and you’ll only land in that same one). There are advantages and disadvantages to both, and depending on the type of player you are you might level faster with one over the other or prefer one over the other. I’d say that doing the starting quests for the new zones is essential for two reasons; you will then unlock the portal to said zone and upon reaching friendly you can pick up reputation tabards for later, as well as getting a head start on building rep with the Cataclysm factions. For gearing up however, unless you really have nothing good left over from Wrath, you can easily just hop in dungeons and get instant upgrades from drops. However, keep in mind that you still need to win a few rolls.
  • Greens – Green, uncommon, OMG items. They will destroy a few of your WoTLK items simply because one stat is two to three times as much as what you currently have. Don’t feel bad about swapping out an epic piece for a new shiny green, it happens to the best. You can keep your ICC gear for a while, even until level 81 or 82 depending on the stuff you are wearing, but a lot of regular greens are impressive or weighted in the right areas to not switch. As a Resto Shaman though I had to be very careful. I was suddenly stacking stats I didn’t need and dropping so much needed haste that I had to go back to my ICC stuff as the dungeons became more challenging.
  • Quests Greens – Sometimes a bit better quality than the greens you’ll get from random drops and dungeon trash, and if you really have poor WoTLK-type gear then maybe this is a good route to take simply to get you in the door to Cataclysm dungeons (recommended, not required). Not every quest will give you a decent reward, but if you have two specs you can possibly build both gear sets up in a series of quests. Again, you’ll want to be building up rep with each of the new factions, and it’s worth researching which to go for first for the provided head enchants and higher level gear that each new faction has for sale.
  • Quest Blues – Though it will take more time to get to, you can snag some major (iLvL 325 mostly) upgrades by completing the quest chains in the new Cataclysm zones for blue/rare armor and weapons. This time invested vs. gear gained however is beaten, in my opinion, by simply grinding a dungeon a few times for the upgrades you could be getting from bosses. Then again, I couldn’t replace my Resto Shaman’s ICC boots (Earthsoul Boots) until researching a quest chain in Uldum that is based off a random dropped item that starts the chain. I literally ran each new instance more than a few times, and saw not one set of healing boots drop, at all. Wowhead.com is your best source for this type of research, using their character profiler, right clicking an item and selecting Find Upgrades.
• Next Steps;
  • Regular Dungeons – Yay, you feel confident enough to start running the new dungeons in Cataclysm! If you didn’t just blindly jump in you likely have a bunch of green/uncommon gear from leveling, running around exploring new stuff or grinding out materials for your newly upgraded professions. While in your first dungeon you’ll likely get at least a green drop that will make your old gear look stupid – if you are lucky you’ll grab a nice blue/rare item. The item levels will vary depending on the dungeon (level) and the boss – you’ll be able to pick up iLvL 308 to iLvL 333 gear, the latter level being able to get you into and destroying heroics if you can outfit your toon in 333 gear totally. Be aware, to step into the random heroic queue you’ll need an average item level of 329 (check the General section of your Character Sheet). I can attest, it isn’t easy getting to an average iLvL 329 by sporting 333-gear alone. You will almost need to get some gear from the below sources in order to get over having an iLvL 308 or 316 gear you just can’t find a replacement for.
• Getting somewhere (how to love level 85…);
  • Justice Points - If you were stacking Justice Points since the end of Wrath, when it made no sense to spend them, you likely have a few to spend on some decent gear. I can’t profess to know (or care) about each class in the game, but I can say that generally what I’ve seen in level 85 Justice Points reward gear has been somewhat disappointing. I can only suggest knowing what your new play style is, what stats are most important to your class/spec and taking an overall look at your gear and stats to find what you might currently need the most. I was, for example, pretty well stacked in the haste I needed to heal, almost perfectly balanced, and couldn’t justify a few of the upgrades they offered as the stat switch would have killed groups. Eventually though I was able to decide on a piece that could be reforged away from Mastery and was made to make up for the haste loss from upgrading from an iLvL 308 piece I had to drop.
    I’ve heard that Resto Druids are having a hard time finding Justice Point gear too, though I can’t confirm this. Paladins seem to actually have a set for each spec, where Shamans have just two (combining the Elemental and Restoration gear sets). I just think that reforging these items to personally fit you is 101% intended by Blizzard, though I could be wrong (I tend to argue that reforging is central to the game now for top-end players  - a lot of gear seems imperfect as it normally drops).
  • Reputation Rewards – Ignoring, for now, the upgrades you can get when reaching Exalted with the new factions, this is a great source of upgrades at even the Honored and Revered levels. Honored with each faction will unlock iLvL 333 rewards, and Revered with each faction will unlock iLvL 346 rewards. Be sure to check the quartermasters or Wowhead to see which faction you’ll want to level first, or which to balance to get different upgrades for different slots (or for your secondary talent specialization).
  • Heroics – This will be the same iLvL (346) as the gear you can get from revered reputation rewards, but you are going to have more options at your disposal once you can queue for or run some heroic dungeons (no iLvL required if you walk in with your own group – get your guildies to get you in the door!). Simply, bosses drop a much larger variety of stuff and there are more of them to kill than there are reputation vendors (while some rep rewards seem to overlap too between vendors).
    It seems the best method, oddly broken down in the middle of this post, is to;
    • Queue dungeons for 308-316 gear
    • Queue for level 85 dungeons for 333 gear (while wearing a reputation tabard!)
    • Grind/gain rep for revered level 346 gear (quest or instance grind – questing after revered seems to be the fastest)
    • Random heroics for remaining 346 gear (boss drops)
    • Finishing rep grind to then gain Exalted reputations for purple/epic gear
• Epic Reputation Rewards – Again, you’ll want to research which faction gives you the best Epic (iLvL 359) reputation rewards at exalted – but some of this gear is simply the best you’ll equip until you can step into raids and pick up loot from raid bosses.
• Raid Level Items – Go raid, stop reading this

Now, that surely was a rambling worth a tl;dr tag! And we’ll skip over the fact that this isn’t really a complete guide to anything. The major missing portion is crafted items, and there are certainly some best in slot pieces out there coming from trade professions. It just seemed outside the scope of this write-up for “noobs”, and depending on your server you may find it almost impossible to get decent upgrades from crafted gear – no one may have the recipes needed or be willing to part with the materials needed for a reasonable price. You could go ahead and farm the mats for a crafted upgrade yourself, but take a close look at the time needed versus what you’ll be getting. You can pick up iLvL 339 crafted-epics (blues), but will it be worth the time spent away from dungeons (while most seem to be PVP based anyways)? Maybe using the Wowhead character profiler and the upgrade lists it gives you shows this is the best route – you’ll have to do your own research to be sure (if there isn’t an Elitist Jerks thread already pointing you to the crafted pieces you’d want…). I’ve also kind of skipped over what I call auction house drops, or the rare BoE items, because it’s going to vary and not easily counted on. One item, from Blackrock Caverns I’ve seen at least 10 times, while others just once or in-game not at all. I just hope the guild above helps your priorities if you feel like you are falling behind since the release of Cataclysm, maybe this will help a few players focus on gearing up for some end-game fun.

Here is a summary of links that might be useful that were mixed in above – for quick reference;

• Wowhead Character Profiler (Find an upgrade, view your items, enchants, gems)
• Bind on Account Head Enchants – From Reputation Vendors at Revered
• Purchased Reputation Rewards – From Honored to Exalted Reputation Levels
  • Purchased Reputation Rewards – Exalted Reputation Epic Items Only
• Cataclysm Reputation Quartermaster Listing – Click the name of each Quartermaster to then find their location, what they sell and discussion from users on other things about the faction (where to start? best quests? reward discussion?).

And one additional link, not included in the article anywhere else; Item Level entry at Wowpedia – Cataclysm. That will take you to the table showing the various item levels of items that come after Wrath of the Lich King – it’s a great way to get the above information without actually reading much

Feel free to point out changes that need to be made to the above (rambling) post, or flame me for ignorance in the comment section below.

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For those of you too busy downloading the entire Beatles catalogue to check out entertainment news, the second-to-last “Harry Potter” movie debuts Friday.

The first 36 minutes of the film are already online, circulating on a number of “torrent” sites, which help users download sometimes- pirated media files. The leaked chunk of the movie is raising some interesting questions. Among them: Will the film actually do better because a portion of it has been leaked online?

One blogger goes further, asking if Warner Bros. Entertainment, which made the film and shares a parent company with CNN, leaked the clip on purpose

“Warner Bros. Pictures is usually none too fond of leaks, especially if a film gets out before it premieres in theater,” writes Ernesto, editor-in-chief of the site TorrentFreak.com

The TorrentFreak editor doesn’t realize, I guess, the extreme amount of correlation between a movie being distributed by Warner Bros. and the likelihood it will show up on torrent sites before being released. Now I didn’t say causation – I’m not going to just say that Warner does this – but it seems odd. Then it seems odd that the news organization who is also part of their parent company would be running this as one of their top stories.

I’m just going to suggest that they may not have leaked the beginning of the movie – but they want you to go out and find it, watch it and want more. Because this is the perfect trick to pull on Potter fans. They won’t be happy with watching even half of it – and if the fans are not sure if they want to get out to see the movie some leaked footage is a great way to have them salivating for more. If it’s good enough – and God damn do people love their Harry Potter.

If I had a dollar for every Warner Bros. screener I’ve seen offered online I’d be a rich man. I think this is more of the same, guerilla, viral marketing. Otherwise they wouldn’t be pushing a news story on it – they might have kept quiet.

Quote and story via CNN News (who is in the umbrella of companies that Warner Bros. is also a part of..) @ http://m.cnn.com/primary/_nzxmS3-in6b0iFBoA

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Check it, it’s kinda creepy. Even shows how French people invented the Interwebs.

From a French postcard c. 1910. Notice the caption which translates as “In the year 2000.” Not too far off, except for the costumes.

via Christopher Herot’s Weblog: Videoconferencing c. 1910.

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Six German states have told retailers to stop selling Red Bull Cola energy drinks after a test found a trace amount of cocaine.

The bans started Friday after a sample test conducted by authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia state found 0.4 micrograms per liter in the drink.

Five other states also banned it from shops amid concerns over possible narcotics law violations.

via The Associated Press: Cocaine test prompts Red Bull removal in Germany.

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Khyber: S3 Virge, not regular Virge. There was a difference. S3 Virge used MeTaL. Regular Virge/VX/DX/Trio3D did not use metal. S3Virge cards did.

UncleFluffy: Sorry, I think your memory is somewhat faulty there. MeTaL was definitely Savage series only, I know because I helped write it.

via Slashdot Comments | A History of 3D Cards From Voodoo To GeForce.

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I bet it’s a bong in a dorm room somewhere. An awesome bong that looks like President Garfield.

Someone has beheaded a statue of President James Garfield that was installed last week at an Ohio college.

Hiram College spokesman Shawn Brown says the vandalism was discovered Friday morning, just a day after the sandstone statue was dedicated on the campus in Hiram, 30 miles southeast of Cleveland.

Brown says the college is hoping the head will be recovered so the 95-year-old statue can be restored, but police have no leads in their investigation.

via Statue of former president loses head in Ohio.

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Blizzard, why are you messing with my Wintergrasp?

In an effort to better balance the amount of players that are in Wintergrasp at any given time, we are changing the daily quests in Wintergrasp to a weekly format. This will result in an increase in the honor reward given by these quests as well as additional Stone Keeper’s Shards. These quests will reset every Tuesday morning at 3:00 AM.

There are two known issues that may occur once these changes are pushed to live realms:

• The quest mark will now show as gold, even though the quests are repeatable.
• After the quests reset, players near the NPC quest givers may need to move out of line of sight in order for the quests to properly appear.

via World of Warcraft – English (NA) Forums -> Wintergrasp Quest Changes.

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Honestly, I didn’t buy any new ones for a long time. I kept wearing the same old ones even though they lost their white-ness. But eventually I noticed that the necks had become stretched out and I decided to pick up a few packs. And another admission that I don’t want to make publicly, but some I wore without washing them. Today is one of those days. I thought I got them all but I grabbed one and put it on.

All day I’ve been pulling the back collar part up because it’s been falling, and bugging the crap out of me. Then upon closer inspection I find that the collar is wider than the ones I recently threw out. What gives? It hasn’t even gone through the wash yet, how can this be? How did the others last so long and these new ones stretch when you open the bag?

Congress, Ralph Nader, someone, please help. And don’t get me wrong, I checked them before I paid for them – they weren’t streched before I bought them.

Fruit of the Loom – I want an apology. A personal one.

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