Archives 2009

Extra! Extra! New Post! – Zynga Mafia Wars – How to win a fight, best weapons, armor and vehicles

So, by now some of you may have noticed some cool new features, enhanced gifting, asking mafia members for help, etc.   So here are some of those items broken down a bit!

Helping your family out! This is a cool feature.  From what I can tell – you publish your need to help complete a job, and all they need to do is click on it and wondrous things can happen, both for you and the person clicking on it!

It doesn’t require you to use up any of your energy or anything, you just earn experience and money for clicking on something, effectively helping out your community!

That said, there is a lot of value to be derived both for you in completing the job, the mafia member you’re helping, and Zynga from a viral spread into the community perspective, so a tip of the hat to them for introducing this :)

In the realm of Gifting, I’m sure we’ve all seen this lovely new icon:

Yes, it is the little package, and yes I have a lot of horses :) Though that said, I’ll publish a list of what outstanding items I have that I’m glad to give away if anyone is in need :)

Also, here is a breakdown of the Loot and the bonus you get from them

If you happen to have pictures of the missing bonuses (and the missing bonuses) let me know!  Or if I’m missing anything in general :)

	Collection	Bonus
	Diamond Flush Collection	+1 energy
	Heart Flush Collection	???
	Sculptures Collection	+3 defense
	Poker Chips Collection
	Club Flush Collection	???
	Cigars Collection
	Spade Flush Collection	+2 stamina
	Rings Collection
	Ties Collection	+6 defense
	Paintings Collection
	Cufflinks Collection
	Great Race Horse Collection

And what is the greatest addition to gifting? You can now gift items you win from doing jobs! Items such as Blackmail Photos, Computer Set-Up’s, and the ever elusive Untraceable Cellphone (A day doesn’t go by where I don’t get a request for those, as I use them all up myself too :))

If you’re looking for other information on Mafia wars, check out my other post :)

And as always, feel free to add me on Facebook, Mafia Wars, and on Twitter :)

Extra! Extra! New Post! – Zynga Mafia Wars – How to win a fight, best weapons, armor and vehicles

Thanks MSLearning for the heads up!

Yes indeed, there will  be 2 new books this month, but the links to download them will not work until April 15th! So you’ll need to try the links again then!

Windows Small Business Server 2008 Administrator’s Companion (Pro—Administrator’s Companion) by Charlie Russel and Sharon Crawford

Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition: Build a Program Now! by Patrice Pelland

As soon as they’re available, I’ll update this post with pictures to them as I usually do! Which also is a good way to ensure there aren’t any issues downloading them  like past books (Let’s not forget the massive Vista Resource kit from before :))

So keep on the look out and more free books coming soon! :)

So, I can keep track, I’m making this list here for myself!

So, there is Party with Palermo

There is the unpublished ClusterFunk

Wow! New Version of TweetDeck! Lots of new Features! Lots to get used to, and some things to get annoyed by!

Firstly.. there is a new Icon! And to tell you the truth, I keep losing it in my application list! doh!  But once I get past that (Yes I keep trying to get past it) I am fine!

Many people are really intrigued by the “Facebook” integration, though that has been there since v0.22b, so I’m not really going to talk about it too much here! – Just to say you’ll end up seeing this:   which will show your friends status on Facebook below it! – You are limited to a single Facebook account (FYI :)) Oh, and part of that is the functionality to post to Twitter, Facebook or both!   Again, not a big deal to me – especially as I use the Facebook plugin app to auto-pull my tweets and update my status (To the semi-annoyance of my Facebook friends, but I use Twitter more formally anyway, so people need to get over that :))

On to Options! (re: Settings)

Look at some of these new settings!.. The big ones is really.. “Show preview information for short URLs” which looks something like this:

So, that is pretty cool, and yes I have that enabled so I can see what kind of content it will be! When you do click on the URL it will still launch via the ‘short’ URL meaning if it’s an Adjix, Bit.ly or other type of ‘tracking’ link, it’ll still get the tracking on it

Oh, and last but not least.. If you’ve ever heard me complain about the Resource Usage of TweetDeck, and how it will tend to eat up >1gb of ram on my system.  Well, it seems the memory leak is fixed (for the moment.. I’ll leave it on over night and see how much I rack up) but it’s been going pretty good to stay in the ~200mb range!

So, good luck out there on your upgrades – Upgrade now! I’ll continue to monitor my resources and more, and if I find out anything new that I’d really like to complain about.. I will :)

Yea I know this isn’t new, but if you’re not aware of it, here you go!

Get a second chance to pass your Microsoft Certification exam — free offer!

In the real world, you might need more than one chance at certification. With Second Shot, if you do not pass any IT professional, developer, or project manager certification exam on your first try, you can retake the exam without an additional cost.

Register for Second Shot and take advantage of our Career Assist Package—which means you can get any Microsoft E-Learning collection for just US$35.

•Sign up for the Second Shot offer today

Career Assist Package: Register for Second Shot and get any Microsoft E-Learning collection for just US$35

Until June 30, 2009, as a part of Second Shot, we are offering a Career Assist Package. Along with enjoying the benefits of Second Shot, you can access a collection of Microsoft E-Learning courses, which provide 8 to 20 hours of online instructional content to help you master a product and prepare for a certification. This offer applies to IT professional or developer e-learning collection titles only. Does not include Microsoft Office or Windows end-user (non-IT) focused collections.

Career Assist is available only in select countries.

•See a list of eligible countries/regions

Normally priced up to US$350, these e-learning collections are just US$35 when you register for Second Shot. Limit one per customer.

Note For this promotional offer, once you have activated the discounted e-learning collection it will only be available for 90 days.

In today’s challenging economic times, how do you stand out from the crowd, stay up to date with relevant technologies, and get the top jobs? Becoming a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) is a great start.

•Learn more about the Career Assist Package

•Register for the Second Shot offer

So, take advantage of this if you’re trying to stay relevant, certified and beyond! :)