So this is the best news article I've read in a very long time.

Source

Pictures

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. – Pranksters in at least three states are messing with electronic road signs meant to warn motorists of possible traffic problems by putting drivers on notice about Nazi zombies and raptors. And highway safety officials aren't amused.

The latest breach came Tuesday during the morning rush hour near Collinsville, Ill., where hackers changed a sign along southbound Interstate 255 to read, "DAILY LANE CLOSURES DUE TO ZOMBIES."

A day earlier in Indiana's Hamilton County, the electronic message on a board in Carmel's construction zone warned drivers of "RAPTORS AHEAD — CAUTION."

And signs in Austin, Texas, recently flashed: "NAZI ZOMBIES! RUN!!!" and "ZOMBIES IN AREA! RUN."

Officials in Illinois are concerned the rewritten signs distract motorists from heeding legitimate hazards down the road. The hacked sign on Tuesday originally warned drivers of crews replacing guardrails.

"We understood it was a hoax, but at the same time those boards are there for a reason," said Joe Gasaway, an Illinois Department of Transportation supervisory field engineer. "We don't want (drivers) being distracted by a funny sign."

Authorities haven't figured out how pranksters access the signs. Gasaway believes the Illinois sign was changed remotely, and Austin Public Works spokeswoman Sara Hartley suspected the hackers there cut a padlock to get into the signs' computers.

Some Web sites, such as Jalopnik.com, have published tutorials titled "How to Hack an Electronic Road Sign" as a way to alert security holes to traffic-safety officials. Jalopnik urges its readership of 2.6 million a month not to put its lesson to practice.

"Hacking generally is about showing where there are holes in security systems, and I think this is a great example of that," the site's editor-in-chief, Ray Wert, told The Associated Press by telephone Wednesday. "I'm sure there are all sorts of ways to use that information in a way that's inappropriate, but we're trying to make clear this is an issue that needs to be confronted by traffic safety and transportation officials."

Wert said he had no immediate plans to take down Jalopnik's how-to guide.

In Illinois, tampering with an official traffic control device is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $250 fine — half what a culprit might have to pay in Texas if caught. If convicted in Indiana, a culprit faces up to a year in jail and $5,000 in fines.

So I'm looking for people to help fund my blob savings. This just looks like way too much fun to not have one.

(Lake not included)

edit: Thanks saedo, I understand what you're talking about too.

All right I got to thinking about future patches and if Blizz goes according to inital plans (that can change), they intend for 3.1 Ulduar, 3.2 Surprise Instance, 3.3 Icecrown Citadel.      There is some fan speculation that they should throw another patch in there, 3.4 for Icecrown and have 3.3 as another surprise instance.    Well I'll get into more detail as I list things.    The point of this is for me to list down baddies and talk about them.

*** POSSIBLE SPOILERS ***

(so don't read this thread at all if you don't want those)

Yogg-Saron

3.1 - There are definitely signs that point to him being in Ulduar.   Corruption of key figures in Storm Peaks...   Sulphuric attackers (fire elementals likely so Old God controlled)...   Loken defeated in Halls of Lightning and stating a master...

3.2 - But he makes more sense if he were in Azjol'Nerub, down where Arthas and Anub'Arak faced off against a Forgotten One.   Where the cultists of the Old Kingdom are.   This is one of the speculations of the surprise instance.

Ulduar could merely have a lackie Yogg-Saron set up to run the place.   Ragnaros the Firelord!   Well, not really.  lol

Expansion - There's some talk where he could be set up as the next big expansion villian.   That either means we only poke his eye out and he comes back in a more full form, or don't face him at all.    But expansion villians need territory we can invade (and level in), like how Illidan was set up to be the inital villian cause he had Outland (yes finished off with Kil'jaeden), and Arthas with Northrend.     

I suppose he could be in the Emerald Dream, being close to Ysera he could be responsible for the Nightmare corruption.   It would be Azeroth but how it looked in it's original condition.   Though if we invade that and set up base camps and roads everywhere, dunno how that's gonna work.

Other thing I can think of is Maelstrom.  But it's probably a different Old God at work down there, doubt Yogg-Saron goes there.   Depending on source there's 3-5 Old Gods kicking around.   There's speculation there's one underneath Tirisfal (west part of it), and possibly one under Black Fathomdeep.

Deathwing

3.1 - This one would be out of left field but hear me out.   The attack of black dragons are pretty "sulphuric" themselves.   He was corrupted by the Old Gods, so could be working directly under Yogg-Saron now.   Then he'd be the corrupting force, either directly or via Yogg-Saron.

3.2 - But a lot of people are more inclined for Grim Batol as the instance with him experimenting with Twilight drakes.   Though I offer another location, Deathwing's Lair on Outland.   It'd have to be a new floating rock east of Hellfire, and gives us a reason to visit Outland again (like with KZ on Azeroth).

Expansion - Deathwing just doesn't seem to have a large domain we can invade.   Though they could always make one up by having him I dunno, conquer the South Seas or something.   Or expand upon his Outland base to be much larger than it probably is, like a 2nd half of Outland.    Or, being the Earth Warder he's supposed to be, can raise a new continent on his own, perhaps the chunk of Kalimdor he sunk into the ocean back when the Well of Eternity exploded.

Nozdormu

He's pretty much been heavily hinted at being the one behind the Infinite Dragonflight.   Back when he was created or something, the Titans did show him exactly when and how he'd die so he'd not get all abusive with his powers.   So his actions now could be interpreted as fighting that fate, ensuring that fate (saw he'd die by the hands of 10/25 would be heroes), or maybe just simple Old God corruption.

3.1 - Nothing really points at this.  Unless it's just a one boss encounter underneath Wyrmrest Temple or CoT.

3.2 - Probably CoT, or something in Crystalsong if he pops up.   I can only really see Wyrmrest as one boss encounters.

Expansion - Again this guy doesn't really have a large domain we can invade.   Though, an idea for this would be to make it entirely in Caverns of Time.    Either make it enitrely in the past, like seeing Azeroth before the Sundering.    Or have some weird amalgamation of zones in which each corresponds to a different time period.  The goal would be to fix all that to save the timeline.

Frost King Malakk

3.2 - Well only possibly this patch.  He'd be the leader of the frost trolls of Zul'drak.  Gundrak (deeper parts), is another speculated candidate for the surprise instance.  Not much more is really known about him beyond this.

Anyways, that's all for now, go go Lore Nerds!

If you are on Vent...  You should do this!

Vent Normalization makes every bodies voice the exact same volume. In essence, you won't blow your ear's out or have difficulty hearing people.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's how:

- Go to Setup

- Enable Direct Sound

- Select the SFX Button

- Select Compressor and click Add.

- Under Compressor Properties use the following settings

- Gain = Adjust for how loud you want people to be. (I use 15)

- Attack = 0.01

- Release = Around 500

- Threshold = Around -30

- Ratio = 100

- Pre delay = 4.0

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What the settings do - Copied and pasted from page 8

Gain
How much volume you feed into the compressor. Not really relevant unless everyone is too quiet, then you can turn this up a little; turning it up too much will sound EXTREMELY *%*%ty.

Attack
How fast volume change will happen. example: setting this to 500 means that any-
thing coming in will only be dropped in volume after a half a second. for vent this should
be set as low as possible.

Release
how fast the compressor stops changing things. not really that relevant with vent, setting it around 500 is good for voice material.

Threshold
This sets the point where we actually start changing what?s coming in. Whereas 0 is the absolute loudest you can have for an input, -60 is super quiet. Average users will probably come in somewhere around -25 to -15, with the occaisional few being really quiet, which is why I have this set so low.

Ratio
How much any sound below the set threshold gets compressed and/or modified in the volume department.
If you still want to hear SOME volume variation then set this lower (2-4)... the higher you set it the closer in volume everyone will be.

Pre delay
Mostly just deals with processing; with computer and digital processors they can look ahead a few milliseconds to see what needs to be dropped in volume or changed before it actually comes through the speakers. Highest is ideal.
 

In case some of you are wondering ( I know some of the DF ladies are) this is how the nursery is comming along:

Still need to paint the closet(not shown) and my mother in law is making a set of curtains that match the crib set.

The Who:  Consider this my disclaimer!  My name is Laura H., and I'm a recent college grad.  I work for a mining company that will soon lay me off due to economic hardship (the fall of metal prices being key).  I have no political background except what I was forced to take in high school and college.  I consider myself (borrowing a great phrase from a former roommate) a "crunchy conservative:"  I have liberal tendencies, but tend to view things conservatively.  I'm financially self-sufficient, have no car payment,  and have relatively little debt.

The What:  My take on HR 1, bantered about in the media as the almost $1 trillion dollar bailout bill to help jump-start the economy.  With no political background, I'm going to read it in chunks (all 680 pages or so!) and tell you the most fun things about it, things maybe you didn't know.

The Where:  I'm going to post this on Facebook, Myspace, and my World of Warcraft Website.  I might get more energetic.  If you like it, tell your friends!

The When:  It'll probably take me about 2 weeks to go through the whole bill, and I might not stay in order.  But never fear, I'll not only post a link to the amended 680-page bill, I'll tell you what section I'm going for.

The How:  I found a .pdf that supposedly is the amended 680 page version of HR 1.  I'm not sure it's real, but I'm willing to give it a shot.  Anytime I quote from my particular version (which I will link at the end of this post, along with any other websites I use) I'll

        do something like this so you know it's a quote (and I will cite my work.)

The Why:  When I was at my first community college, I had to read a shortened version of The Patriot Act that was passed by our government.  It was scary stuff, and I learned a lot.  I decided to do it for HR 1 because it's a huge deal for the American People, I have a LOT of time on my hands, and I consider it a fantastic learning experience.  I'm not in it to change anybody's mind about our government, but if anything I write makes you stop and think a little, I'll consider myself content.  I welcome comments and questions regarding my opinions, especially if you know what you're talking about.

PART I

I decided to start at the beginning here, and began with the introduction.  The general introduction and Title I - General Provisions lasted until page 69.  I admit, I skimmed a whole lot of this.  A lot of it was "reference Subsection A" and "pursuant to the course in subsection C" and similar legal jargon.

According to the beginning, the purpose of this act, known as the "American Investment and Recovery Act of 2009" (p. 2) is to:

     (1) To preserve and create jobs and promote economic recovery.
     (2) To assist those most impacted by the recession.
     (3) To provide investments needed to increase economic efficiency   by spurring technological advances in science and health.
     (4) To invest in transportation, environmental protection, and other infrastructure that will provide long-term economic benefits.
     (5) To stabilize State and local government budgets, in order to minimize and avoid
            reductions in essential services and counterproductive state and local tax increases. (p. 2-3).

My first thought was "there are 5 goals here, and there are 680 pages to this amended bill."  Oh dear god.  So do the math.  I'm not an engineer, and got out my calculator.  Granting that you might need 2 pages for introduction and 5 pages for citations and/or credit (leaving 673 pages) it's roughly 134.6 pages per goal.  Considering that I personally could condense #4 and #5, and it would make MORE sense, I am not impressed with the current verbosity.

After this I came to Title I - General Provisions, which lasted until midway down page 69.   This covered grant receivers and grant givers (all my grad-student friends, REJOICE!), then detailed grants to the EPA, DOT, and DOHUD (Dept. of Housing and Urban Devlopment).  Nothing about schools yet (all my grad-student friends, WALLOW IN YOUR MISERY!).

Then there came a lot of items about the Inspectors General.  Interestingly enough, I had always thought it was "Inspector Generals."  I was wrong.  All combined in the DOE, NSF, NBA, NASA, DVA, DOHUD, DOT, DOJ, DHS, the other DOE, DOA (tee hee), and the DOD (and I'm forgetting an agency or two) get $193,500,000.  I did the math again and got $208,500,000.  Ok, I'm not sure my math skills are going great, but you get the idea.  And that's just for the Inspectors General. 

According to Wikipedia.org, "In a civilian or military administration, an Inspector General is a high ranking official charged with the mission to inspect and report on some bodies in their field of competency. The plural of the term is Inspectors General."  Even they knew about the plural.  According to HR1, the Inspectors General of the alphabet soup I listed earlier are independent of their respective agencies, which means they don't have to do what the agency leaders want if they think it's against the law.

My FAVORITE part of Title I came on page 14:

     SEC. 1112. ADDITIONAL ASSURANCE OF APPROPRIATE USE OF FUNDS.
     None of the funds provided by this Act may be made
     available to the State of Illinois, or any agency of the
     State, unless: (1) the use of such funds by the State is
     approved in legislation enacted by the State after the date
     of the enactment of this Act; or (2) Rod R. Blagojevich
     no longer holds the office of Governor of the State of Illinois.

Check it out, man!  Blagojevich got his OWN MENTION as someone we CAN'T GIVE MONEY too!!!!!!  How AWESOME is that?

On page 15, the Act mentions that unless you participate in the E-verify system, used by the INS, you can't get any money either.  Page 16 has a lovely item listing that all agencies have to post on Recovery.gov what they are using our money for. Staffing issues, locations of offices, and how the Inspectors General remain independent is listed further on.  It also states how no whistle-blower can get fired or otherwise impugned for being a Good Citizen.

Well, I think that sums up enough of what I read on pages 1-69.  Stay tuned for Part II.  It's just going to get better.

My Link:  http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/hr1_engrossed.pdf