Rick, Author at Hamell.net

Guild Wars 2 Weaponsmithing Farming Locations

Posted by Rick on May 5, 2013 in Games 0 Comment

Guild Wars 2 Weaponsmithing Farming Locations

***Update 12/22/13 – I do not play Guild Wars 2 much anymore. But I’d like to keep this resource up and running. If you’d like to take over editing it, please let me know. Either email rick@hamell.net or leave a comment below. I’m also looking for people who would like to do the same thing for the other crafting skills. Thank you!****

One of the biggest pains in Guild Wars 2 is farming for components to level the crafting skills. Here are suggestions of locations to find items for the Weaponsmithing Crafting Skills

The Crafting skill is sorted out by level, with the minimum suggested number of crafting items needed to advance to the next crafting tier. IE, You’ll need 28 Tiny Claws total when advancing from Levels 0-75 (Tier 1) to Levels 75-150 (Tier 2)

Please note Copper Ore, Greenwood Logs, Iron Ore, Soft Wood Logs, Seasoned Wood Logs, Hard Wood Logs, Platinum Ore, Elder Wood Logs, and Mithril Ore are also obtainable by using Salvage Kits on Armor and Weapons.

Tier 1 – Level 0-75
Copper Ore, Qty 180
– Caledon Forest (Level 1-15)
– Metrica Province (Level 1-15)
– Plains of Ashford Continue reading “Guild Wars 2 Weaponsmithing Farming Locations” →

Guild Wars 2 Armorsmithing Farming Locations

Posted by Rick on May 5, 2013 in Games 0 Comment

Guild Wars 2 Armorsmithing Farming Locations

One of the biggest pains in Guild Wars 2 is farming for components to level the crafting skills. Here are suggestions of locations to find items for the Armorsmithng Crafting Skills

The Crafting skill is sorted out by level, with the minimum suggested number of crafting items needed to advance to the next crafting tier. IE, You’ll need 20 Tiny Totems total when advancing from Levels 0-75 (Tier 1) to Levels 75-150 (Tier 2)

Please note Copper Ore, Jute Scraps, Iron Ore, Wool Scraps, Cotton Scraps, Platinum Ore, Linen Scraps, Mithril Ore, and Silk Scraps are also obtainable by using Salvage Kits on Armor and Weapons.

Tier 1 – Level 0-75
Copper Ore, Qty 80
– Caledon Forest (Level 1-15)
– Metrica Province (Level 1-15)
– Plains of Continue reading “Guild Wars 2 Armorsmithing Farming Locations” →

Foiled Terrorist Plots since 2009

Posted by Rick on April 21, 2013 in Lists, Misc 0 Comment

Foiled Terrorist Plots since 2009

2009 May 20: 2009 New York City bomb plot Three U.S. citizens and one Haitian from Newburgh, New York were arrested in a plot to bomb a Riverdale Temple and a Riverdale Jewish Center in The Bronx, New York City in an alleged homegrown terrorist plot. It was also alleged that they planned to shoot down military planes operating out of Stewart Air National Guard Base also in Newburgh.

2009 September Najibullah Zazi of Denver was indicted on charges of trying to build and detonate a weapon of mass destruction. He and two others allegedly planned to detonate the homemade explosives on the New York City subway system.

2009 August – September: On September 24 William Boyd and Hysen Sherifi charged with conducting reconnaissance of the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia and obtaining armor-piercing ammunition with the intent to attack Americans.

2009 September 24: Michael Finton/Talib Islam a 29 year old man from Illinois charged with trying to kill federal employees by detonating a car bomb at the federal building in Springfield, Illinois.

2009 September 24: Hosam Maher Husein Smadi a 19 year old illegal immigrant from Jordan charged with trying the bomb the 60 story Fountain Place office tower in Dallas, Texas.

2010 January 7 Adis Medunjanin an alleged 2009 NYC Subway plotter attempts a suicide attack by intentionally crashing his car on the Whitestone Bridge in New York City. Medunjanin has since been charged for his role in an Al Qaeda plot to conduct coordinated suicide bombings on New York’s subway system.

2010 September 20: Sami Samir Hassoun, 22, a Lebanese citizen living in Chicago, was charged with one count each of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted Continue reading “Foiled Terrorist Plots since 2009” →

How to Fix: Google Earth “Please leave or end your current meeting”

Posted by Rick on February 16, 2013 in google, Technology How To's 1 Comment

How to Fix: Google Earth “Please leave or end your current meeting”

I recently upgraded to an Macbook Air, running OSX 10.8. As it had been a while, I decided to take this opportunity to reinstall all my applications from scratch instead of restoring from Time Machine in Migration Assistant.

One of these apps was Google Earth. Upon launching I got this error message immediately:

“Please leave or end your current meeting before starting or joining another meeting”

I followed a variety of troubleshooting steps in the Google Earth Forums but continued to get this error message. Apparently part of the problem is that Google released a new 7.0 Beta version, but the download doesn’t really tell you this. Some suggestions in the forums say to unplug the computer from the Internet and change some preferences. Another suggestion told how to download the older 6.2 version of Google Earth for Mac. My issue ended up being a Combination of these problems.

First I downloaded and installed the 6.2 version. This can be found by going to the download page: http://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/agree.html

Uncheck the box that says “Include Google Chrome, a fast, free browser made for the modern web.” Then right above the “Agree and Download” Button is an arrow that says “Customize your installation of Google Earth with advanced setup.” Click and open this. Click on “Previous Version (6.2)” and then click on the “Agree and Download.”

Install Google Earth as normal by opening the .dmg file and copying the Google Earth App to the Applications Folder.

Launch it and see if the error goes away. If not, you may have to do this next step.

Disconnect the computer from the Internet. Open Up Google Earth. If should open fine. Go into Preferences (under the Google Earth menu option in the top left corner,) and then choose 3D View. I had to change “Texture Colors” to “High Color (16 bit) “Anisotropic Filtering” to Off, and checked the box “Use Safe Mode” under “Graphics Mode” before Google Earth was stable enough for me to use.

Once I did this, I was able to update my list of Oregon Ghost Towns again!

September 2012 Disneyland Trip Pictures

Posted by Rick on February 10, 2013 in Travel 0 Comment

September 2012 Disneyland Trip Pictures

An early fall trip to Disneyland in Los Angeles is starting to be somewhat of a tradition in my family. Once again we drove down from the Portland area along the I-5 corridor. The return trip always includes a stop over in San Francisco. This was the same trip where we stayed only a couple of blocks away from Venice Beach.

We always go to the right, to enter into “Tomorrowland” first. I’m still up in the air about the 1990’s refurbishment, and I really miss the “People Mover” for some reason.

The Astro Orbiter is the first ride in this part of the park. It replaces the older Star Jet Ride that opened in 1974. Geared towards younger children, the ride orbits around a fake orrery showing an unknown Solar System.

Here you can just barely see the top of Cinderella’s castle through the trees.

One of the cool parts of Tomorrowland is the Star Wars themes. Kids can learn to be Padwans and “fight” both Darth Vader and Darth Maul with their own lightsabers.

The “Moonliner” looks to be the rocket part of the original Star Ride. It remains forlorn as decorations.

If find Tomorrowland fascinating in general because it was a glimpse of the future when it was built. “Tomorrow” held a lot of promise for many people. Now it’s Tomorrow, and it’s interesting to see how much everything not only diverged from that imagination, but also didn’t really change. How practicality trumped wishful thinking, and how certain technologies just never came to be.

The Cymbal monkey is a statue in the “pet cemetery” of one of my favorite rides, the Haunted Mansion. Most of the statues have a pun or funny little saying on them. Most of them are also a bit boring after reading the 100th time though, although I still get a thrill out of the ride and will ride it at least five times during a three day visit.

And of course, the Sailing Ship Columbia that occasionally circles Tom Sawyer’s Island, and plays host to an epic battle between Peter Pan and Captain Hook. Most of the time it just sits there as a huge prop, never moving, and frequently inaccessible.