Software License Agreements... sigh

I'll have to see whether someone has been collecting odd things about Software License Agreements. I'm sure there must be sites for us to grumble about them. My grumble today relates to Adobe's for Flash Player 10.1. Is there another Flash player out there, that is safe and reliable? Not that I've not found Adobe's Flash player to be either unsafe or unreliable yet, but when the SLA reads as follows I have to wonder:

7.1 Use of PDF Files. When you Use the Software to open a PDF file that has been enabled to display ads, your Computer may connect to a website operated by Adobe, an advertiser, or other third party. Your Internet Protocol address (“IP Address”) is sent when this happens. The party hosting the site may use technology to send (or “serve”) advertising or other electronic content that appears in or near the opened PDF file. The website operator may also use JavaScript, web beacons (also known as action tags or single-pixel gifs), and other technologies to increase and measure the effectiveness of advertisements and to personalize advertising content. Your communication with Adobe websites is governed by the Adobe Online Privacy Policy found at http://www.adobe.com/go/privacy (“Adobe Online Privacy Policy”). Adobe may not have access to or control over features that a third party may use, and the information practices of third party websites are not covered by the Adobe Online Privacy Policy.

For a start: Why would I use Flash Player to open PDF Files? I hate pdfs. Oh, is this something that whoever coded some Flash movie I've clicked to view might have included in its instructions? BTW - Please don't. Is there really no way to configure Flash Player so that it simply will not open pdfs, or not without an option to cancel the play before it opens?

I guess I'm glad Adobe are so open about how security can (I'm guessing) be breached with Flash. See more:

7.3 Local Storage. Flash Player and Adobe AIR may allow third parties to store certain information on your Computer in a local data file known as a local shared object. The type and amount of information that the third party application requests to be stored in a local shared object can vary by application and such requests are solely controlled by the third party. You can find more information on local shared objects at http://www.adobe.com/go/flashplayer_security. For more information on how to limit or control the storage of local shared objects on your Computer, please visit http://www.adobe.com/go/settmgr_storage_en.

Now, what is with the incredibly long document with no language menu so one has to scroll through searching for your own language?

Pondering Primary Paladin

Moontulip (59), Aman'thul

What do you do when you can't sleep?

Munch through a movie? Attack an assignment? Conquer countless Kakuro?

Why not Patch your Paladin? I'd have been way more alliterative if only I'd gone protection. And with Dungeon Finder levelling appears to be more popular through dungeons than questing. But this first pally of mine harvests skins and ore so she needs to be out so I quest and harvest at the same time to prevent monotony from either.

I didn't look very far but three of the top results I glanced at shared the same recommendation for build, so I began along that line with the points I have so far at 59... Then I discovered Caer Morrighan's action plan and I'll be considering the allocation suggested there.

My next challenge (at some point, though the game may change all over again before I get around to it) is to rediscover how to play pally, what attacks and controls to use.

For rotation I could start with advice from Dan Wolfe at Gameolosophy:

Aoe:

CS-Judge-Holy Wrath-DS-Conc now you can wait until your holy power is at 3 for more powerful divine storms.

Single Target:

CS-Judge-TV-Exorcism on proc once again you can wait until you have 3 holy power for max Templar’s Verdict hits.

Is that significantly different from Caer Morrighan? I don't know, I've finally begun to tire, so before I lose that I'm going to try again to sleep... Caer's plan [update 14 November...after some playtime... Caer's plan changed]. Ignoring for now the comments on Zealotry and Avenging Wrath that I just don't have to worry about for several more levels:

Single target

* Crusader Strike (CS) - Filler - CS - Filler + Use Templar’s Verdict (TV) whenever its
a) free or b) you have 3 Holy Power (HP) overriding the normal rotation.
Filler Priority: Hammer of Wrath > Exorcism with Art of War only > Judgement > Holy Wrath > Consecration

Multiple targets

* As above with Divine Storm replacing TV

Oh dear, before I play I'll also need to re-gear... Caer tells me "Agility is now bad." :( Apparently I need to look to:

Cap hit and expertise. After this, ... Strength. And Haste/crit.

Unholy ?fun with WoW 4.0.1 patch Death Knight

Missing dancing tonight after a cold hit my chest so that breathing hurts... I decided to spend the pre-sleep evening choosing a talent build for my death knight. While exploring the advice out there I had to battle my aversion to the whole persona of a death knight.

The talent tree summaries only helped by [probably] eliminating Blood, because I'm not really comfortable with a tanking role. Still left Frost and Unholy. I would avoid Unholy because it just sounds icky, but I felt I needed a more thoughtful reason.

Guide4wow helped me out by identifying, in their opinion, Unholy as the faster levelling build... and I'm still levelling.

I still needed advice with a rotation. Many months ago when I last played the dk, I never did gain any certainty over which spells/attacks to use. In this I've taken initial advice from Vraagar's lens: Unholy Death Knight DPS Guide and Death Knight Builds.

For my own future reference because who knows when I'll actually play this toon, and by then I'll have lost the links to the above advisers, and will have forgotten what their abbreviations mean, the plan is:

For solo targets/victims (check in Unholy Presence):

1. (I won't always start with this, but then 1 is never in my typical rotation) Neither adviser mentioned Death Grip but I have it at 1 on my action bar just because it was there before and I think I had a good reason for it, but I'm open to advice against that.
2. "Diseases Up" apparently means attack with Icy Touch (for the disease Frost Fever) ...
3. ...and Plague Strike (for disease Blood Plague)
4. Dark Transformation [?if] Active
5. Scourge Strike (U F) [I guess that means it needs an Unholy and a Frost Rune although the game says just an Unholy]
6. Festering Strike (B F) [needs Blood & Frost Rune]
7. Death Coil on Sudden Doom proc [Sudden Doom is an unholy talent, maxed at 15% chance to occur from auto attacks - making Death Coil not cost runic power]
   
8. Mr 12 uses Obliterate after diseases, but he is a Frost Death Knight.
9. Mr 12 doesn't advise using Rune Strike 

AoE Rotation (switch to Frost Presence)

• Mouse click Horn of Winter [ DKB advised this at end of rotation, but as it lasts 2 minutes I don't really understand why not to start as strong as possible]

1. No Death Grip in this case
2. Diseases ...
3. ...up and spread to everything with 
• Pestilence
4. Dark Transformation [?if] Active
• Death and Decay
5. Scourge Strike
• Blood Boil
6. Festering Strike if BB and FF runes up.
7. Death Coil on Sudden Doom proc

All that other fun stuff I have no idea - use the anti-magic, anti-spellcaster stuff if fighting a spellcaster I guess, but when to use Blood Strike or Death Strike, or Gargoyle - {shrugs}

Trip notes going up at family blog

For anyone who might be interested, I've finally got back to actually publishing some of the notes I had jotted on our trip (to Canada and the US back in June/July), over at the family blog Counting Everything. Only four days in so far, the rest will have to wait till assignments are finished for the year.

EBLIP online journal... sigh

Loving the online journal Evidence Based Library and Information Practice because: Interesting, Chock-full of interesting; Free. Makes me want an e-reader of some sort so I can more easily take it somewhere more comfortable for reading.

Really annoyed by the journal because: For *&^%$#@! - it is freely available online - why on earth is it being published with those -------! columns?  In fact, wouldn't those columns be even more of a nuisance on an e-reader?

I guess I'd understand if the journal was being issued principally as a print journal and the online version is merely for accessibility - is it?  This journal is so interesting I'd consider paying a fair amount for a print subscription just so I can read it somewhere comfortable, but I can't find any information pointing to that as an option.

Thinking happy

At first, I ignored the topic because it was a meme, but then of course it appeared again, and by then I was feeling a little frustrated that I've been so busy I've not kept on target for 30 posts in 30 days. 

Not that I shall let such a minor issue bother me... at least that is something I have learned over the years: a little cognitive control of my emotions, and thanks to neuroplasticity (and making sure my son saw a documentary about it on SBS) I needn't worry if the relevant parts of my brain (the full-text of that article in pdf) are damaged. 

And that is what makes me happy: my thoughts.  When I remember - I choose to be happy: I think through the current situation until I find a perspective that feels positive - and it is rarely difficult. After all, I'm fortunate that much of the time a good proportion of my needs are easily met.  If there are any not being met I can enjoy the process of planning, imagining, pondering how to meet them - or I can focus on the joys of one of the many that are already.

Fly a Kite! by SlinkyDragon via kwout

More on citing board games: Scruples

How delightful: Having decided that a comment I was writing had developed beyond a simple example to append to my post about citing board games in APA style: as I entered a title for this new post it occurred to me that the theme of Scruples is what earned this blather its own space.

MyBlogLog shared another curiosity when I scanned its statistics for me today... Someone searched my blog for cite the board game scruples.

Unless the querant was pondering the ethics of citing board games, I'm guessing the curiosity was how to cite that particular game Scruples. I do have a copy of the game, and this is how I would cite the copy I have. As the game is revised and updated every five years (High Game Enterprises, 2008), you might have a different copy.

Depending whether my text refers to the game as a whole or a specific part of it, in-text citations might be:
(A Question of Scruples, 1986)
(A Question of Scruples, 1986, q178)
(A Question of Scruples, 1986, rules p.6)
(A Question of Scruples, 1986, base of box)

A Question of Scruples [Board game]. (1986). Sydney, N.S.W. : Milton Bradley

So, why would I not cite the publisher as corporate author? Because I am not sure that Milton Bradley are responsible for the design of the game. Although I would not rely* on the source regarding this particular information (Wikipedia and BoardGameGeek) to insert [Surname, I. (Designer)] in author place, it may be the game was designed by an individual who sold it to a game company who may have shared rights to publish it with companies in other countries.

*The claim of designership maybe false. Or overstated, perhaps the claimant merely created and sold the concept of the game.

It is sad for historians, and board game appreciators, that game publishers have not been in the habit of acknowledging the provenance of the games they publish.

Considering the claim (unverified, but uncontested) of a designer outside the publishing company, the claim on my box of copyright by MB "under Berne and Universal copyright conventions" and the absence of any information acknowledging designers or design teams (would that be too hard?), seems they may simply have bought the right to publish, and that the designer did not retain any right to acknowledgement for design.

I have seen a game in which the publisher did acknowledge the source of the concept, and the company personnel who then developed it into a game. I'd like to see more of that. Just like my uncle likes to read the credits rolling at the end of a film.