Archive for August, 2010
Admin Comeback
Posted by soulwarrior in News on 31 August 2010
After I reinstated my weekly column, became the host of the eTCG.de Podcast and even started to pull some strings of the eTCG.de magazine recently, I decided it was about time to enter active duty as administrator of eTCG.de again. I have some great things in mind for the site and I think I can really contribute to its success.
I’m looking forward to the things that lie ahead of us and am grateful for every community member that welcomed me back! Here’s the forum thread with a few more details.
Coverage of the final of the eTCG.de Pro Challenge
Posted by soulwarrior in Coverages on 30 August 2010
This past weekend, the final of the eTCG.de Pro Challenge was held. It was a unique tournament in a couple of ways:
A little more than 110 players showed up, less than expected, but not bad nonetheless. An additional 70 players showed up for the side events alone, a lot more than expected! All in all, we were pleased with the attendance.
I was responsible for the live coverage of the event. I wrote a number of articles, focusing on deck features and opinions on the new format. I think you’ll certainly be able to get some ideas on what to play for the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series that will be held in 4 weeks.
Be sure to also check out my Twitter feed. I tagged most posts with the “#EPC” hash-tag. Here’s a quick link to a Twitter search for Tweets with that particular hash tag. Meanwhile, all the videos were uploaded on YouTube.com. Be sure to check those out as well!
As you can see, there’s quite some stuff to discover. The tournament was a great success and we all had a blast. I hope I was able to transfer that into the coverage. Feedback’s appreciated!
Unter den Hut geschaut: Draws & eTCG.de Podcast Vol. 4
Posted by soulwarrior in releases on 27 August 2010
I have to disappoint those of you who can’t get enough input regarding the new banned list and the upcoming format. At least when it comes to my weekly column. In it, I’m tackling another big news that came out the past week: In the future, there will be draws in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. The article can be found here: Unter den Hut geschaut: Draws.
If you’re into the banned list and want to learn a little more about the upcoming format, I can recommend this week’s eTCG.de Podcast. We invited none other than Michel Grüner as a guest and he was kind enough to accept it. He has a lot to say about the new format, so tune in and compare his thoughts to yours: eTCG.de Podcast Vol. 4: Banned List Special.
Multitasking as a threat
Posted by soulwarrior in Blog on 26 August 2010
I stumbled across this Tweet by Tony Robbins and got hooked. Well, OK, I sighed at first when I realized that his “quick read” was (I guess unintentionally) meant to be a joke, but the article by the New York Times he linked was interesting enough to make me read all 5 pages of it.
The article describes the heavy effect of digital media and gadgets on Mr. Campell and his family. I guess most of you can more or less – in my case: more – relate to Mr. Campell. I have found myself in a couple of situations where I wanted to finish something quickly, but “got lost on the internet”. Heck, a friend of mine (PJ) could relate so much to a story I told him, he came up with the title “net lock” for this phenomenon. You can lose a lot of productivity when you’re constantly multitasking between several programs that are all running on your computer or can’t stop switching between tabs in your browser (Facebook tab, I hate you!).
While I don’t consider myself to be as extreme as Mr. Campell (I draw the line at the iPad – it’s a waste of money in my opinion as it doesn’t do anything that I can’t do with my laptop. Further, I can’t create with it; for me, it’s a tool to consume and I don’t need another tool to do that; however, I’ll purchase it with my lockerz points one day! If you need an invite, hook me up!), I’m still affected heavily by the effects that are described in the article. Just now, I wanted to do something else (this article was meant to be finished by 9 pm, it’s 9:40 right now – I got involved in a longer ICQ conversation with a friend). As you can see in the screenshots, my test results weren’t that bad – especially for a “heavy multitasker”, but I guess I could still do better.
What are your thoughts? Do you consider yourself a “heavy multitasker”, do you see the effects on your daily life (especially when you’re separated from all the digital media) and what’s up next in the future? I’m really looking forward to all your input! Oh, and try the interactive tests in the article and compare results with me!
P.S.: Be my guest and make use of the Facebook comment function that I recently added to this page! I would love to see it put to use. 
My take on the Fusion Twitter Widget
Posted by soulwarrior in Blog on 22 August 2010
As you all probably know (at least the people who ever took the time to scroll all the way down to the footer and read it), this site is using WordPress as the Content Management System of choice together with the Fusion theme that makes everything look so sleek. Additionally, I’ve been studying computer science some years ago. While I’m not really into programing anymore or at least never felt like I could create cool stuff with my skills (save for example my own coverage script back in the days…), I still make use of the little knowledge I have left to tweak this site here and there.
With the latest update of the Fusion theme came a Twitter widget. It’s looking pretty cool (it almost looks like the feed on the right) and I was happy to get rid of the plug-in I used before to mirror part of my Twitter feed as my theme brought this functionality now with it and it looked better. However, one thing bugged me about the widget: there was no link to Twitter, so if somebody felt like replying to one of my tweets, he had no chance to do so with little hassle. This is where my rudimentary programing skills kicked in!
Now, the feed also features a little Twitter-icon in front of every tweet and if you click on that icon, you’ll be forwarded to the tweet in particular. Then, you can easily retweet or reply to the tweet. In case you’re also using the Fusion theme on your WordPress site or are simply into programing and want to take a look, here’s the code snippet.
// theme widget: Twitter
function fusion_TwitterWidget($args){
extract($args);
echo $before_widget;
print $before_title.__(‘Twitter’,'fusion’).$after_title; ?>
<?php
$username = get_option(‘fusion_twitterid’);
$limit = get_option(‘fusion_twitterentries’);
if($username<>”) {
$feed = file_get_contents("http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=from:" . $username . "&rpp=" . $limit);
$feed = str_replace("<", "<", $feed);
$feed = str_replace(">", ">", $feed);
$clean = explode(‘<title>’, $feed);
$twitterurls = explode(‘<link type="text/html" href="’, $feed);
$amount = count($clean) – 1;
print ‘<ul id="twitterupdates">’;
for ($i = 1; $i < $amount; $i++) {
$cleaner = explode(‘</title>’, $clean[$i+1]);
$cleanerurls = explode(‘" rel="alternate"/>’, $twitterurls[$i+1]);
print ‘<li class="entry">’;
print ‘<a style="background-color:transparent;" target="_blank" href="’;
echo $cleanerurls[0];
print ‘"><img style="border:0px; padding:0px; margin:0px;" src="’. get_bloginfo(‘siteurl’).’/wp-content/themes/’.get_option(‘template’).’/images/twitter.png’. ‘"; /></a> ‘;
echo $cleaner[0];
print ‘</li>’;
}
print ‘</ul>’;
}
Important notes:
- You need to edit the “functions.php” of the Fusion theme and replace the existing code for the Twitter widget with the code above.
- Further, you need to upload a file named “twitter.png” (all lower case) into the “images” subfolder of the Fusion theme folder (usually wp-content/themes/fusion).
P.S.: Thank god for the HTML encoder that made it possible to display the code without rewriting everything by myself (mad thanks to Jeremy Winter for linking it in this article.
Unter den Hut geschaut: Premier Event Organization
Posted by soulwarrior in releases on 20 August 2010
The topic of premier event organization came up in the eTCG.de message board. Some users thought they had a good idea how much a bigger tournament would cost and estimated some ridiculous amounts like 900 Euros for the whole event with everything included.
I decided I could shed some light on the topic, so I wrote an article that lists all the various things that need to be taken care of prior to a larger event: Unter den Hut geschaut: Premier Event Organization. Oh, and it also gives you an idea of the amounts of money that are involved.
Unter den Hut geschaut: Bluffing or unlocking the full potential of Pot of Duality
Posted by soulwarrior in releases on 17 August 2010
One of the most discussed cards at the moment is Pot of Duality. A lot has been said about the drawbacks of the powerful spell and some even say that it is almost entirely useless because of the fact that your opponent gets to see the card you add to your hand. However, in the hands of clever players, even the drawback of Pot of Duality can be an advantage!
This week’s article deals with bluffs – e.g. trapping your opponent by making him think you set a different card. Read on: Unter den Hut geschaut: Bluffing or unlocking the full potential of Pot of Duality.
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