(Dell is holding a machinima contest, which we'll discuss shortly. They asked me to write a tutorial to help new machinimators get their start.)

Every day, I feature a video by some brave soul that dived in head first into the world of machinima. For those that aren't familiar with the term, it stands for machine and cinema. The literal definition is movies made in a 3D gaming platform. Using this basic guide, as well as the other tutorials and resources available to you, you'll be creating your first project in no time!

Here is what you'll need if you want to make a machinima for free:

• WeGame camera - A free capturing program
• GIMP - A free image editing program
• Audacity - A free audio editing program
• Windows Movie Maker/iMovie - Free video editing programs that should have come with your appropriate system

[Thanks for originally suggesting this, Bryan!]

Read on for optional and advanced tools, plus additional resources ...

From our mini-guide to starting your own WoW blog, we spawned more in-depth posts for each step. Now that you know a bit more about finding a blog host, determining your goals, figuring out your slant, and becoming part of the WoW blog community, it's time for you to hop on your keyboard and get to work! Okay, wait. I don't mean for it to sound like a job (even though for some of us, it is). I mean, don't be afraid to just start writing! No reason to fear the blank screen, my friend. Here are a few tips to get you steaming up to at least your high school 30 words-per-minute mark.

Today we continue to expand on our mini-guide to starting your own WoW blog. After you find a blog host, determine your goals, and figure out your slant, you should work to become part of the WoW blog community. Although it's true that the WoW newsy-type sites like WoW Insider are very competitive with each other about breaking stories, WoW bloggers on the whole are a very collaborative, friendly, and helpful group. It can only benefit you to jump in and get to know them, so here are a few tips to help you break into the community.

Starting your own WoW blog is a lot of fun. We gave you the mini-guide to starting your own WoW blog, and then went into more detail on finding a blog host and determining your goals. In today's step, we'll help you work on what your slant is. A slant is your unique (or peculiar) way of looking at the topic you chose in Step 2.

Scout the competition
You need to know what's already being done out in the blogosphere in order to find out where the gaps are. For example, coming out of Step 2 you've decided that because you are a huge fan of the Hunter class you'd like to blog about all things hunting. You probably already subscribe or read some Hunter blogs already, but if you don't, a simple Google search of "WoW hunter blogs" will turn up over 400,000 pages. That's a lot of Hunter talk! But don't panic. Remember that the first search results page or three will list the most popular blogs on that topic and those are the main ones you need to look at. Subscribe to them and read them daily. In fact, putting your own spin or argument on a topic that another blogger discussed while linking back to that blog is a good way to pique the interest of the bloggers themselves. (We'll talk more about backlinking and blogrolling in Step 5.) So with all these blogs, how do you enter the fray?

Continuing to expand on the mini-guide to starting your own WoW blog. let's talk about something that's far more important than your blog host: What do you want to do with this thing? Goals determine what you're going to write about, how often you write, what not to waste your time on. They give you focus. That said, you may start out thinking you want to write about one thing and change your mind later. That's okay too. You're not a failure. That's the beauty of blogging; it's very fluid. However, when you're starting out, keep in mind that it's much harder to garner a reader base if you're all over the map with your posts rather than being more focused. That doesn't mean it's impossible, just harder. After the break, I'll go into some things you should consider before diving into your first blog post.

Last week I opened up a big can o' worms by giving you a mini-guide to starting your own WoW blog. I've conceded to popular demand and decided to give you more detail on what's involved with each step. Today I'm going to talk about what's involved in finding a place to host your blog.

There are about a bajillion places to start your blogging life. Some are easier; some are more customizable. Usually the more customizable they are, the more complex they are to set up and use, and sometimes they are also more expensive. Let's call these two options (1) the Easy Way and (2) the Fancy Way. After the break, I've listed five things to consider when choosing which of these ways you want to go:

I've been a blogger since before the term "blog" existed. (In the mid-90s, we called it a "diary" on our "zine.") I've been blogging about WoW for about a year now. For some reason, people really like to read and blog about WoW, which is the main reason WoW Insider even exists. WoW is a social game so it lends itself to group discussion. People want to share their experiences and their knowledge so much that there are literally thousands of WoW blogs out there. If you've been bitten by the blogging bug and want to start writing about your own game exploits, here's a 5-step mini-guide for you after the break.

Every other week, computer security expert Jon Eldridge is your Azeroth Security Advisor. He will delve into the darkest reaches of computer security rumor and bring the facts back home even if they're wriggling at the end of a pike. His goal is to provide useful information to gamers who don't think about security much and flame fodder for those self appointed experts who need to rationalize the cost of their expensive certifications. Like any good security force he's a mercenary at heart and is happy to take subject requests from the user community that he serves. So feel free to leave a comment below or just sit back and enjoy the show.

It's Friday night at 6:45 pm server time. Your raid begins in 15 min and you think you're ready to go. Narrowly escaped another speeding ticket trying to get home from work in time? Check. Belly full of pizza? Check. Mind totally polluted on bad tasting energy drink? Ch3cK! Dog fed and walked? Check. TiVo recording the latest over hyped drivel? Check. Kids unconscious. Check. Parents or domestic partner unconscious or otherwise leaving you alone for one damn second? Check. When will they understand that you ARE being social by locking yourself in the computer room all night... jeez!

Time to rock and roll! Or not. What's this? A patch? On Friday night? Agony, shame and defeat. Azeroth will not know the terror of your blade this night. Gornak the mighty has been caged by some dweeb code monkey and their total POS patch system. Your raid leader is going to KILL you. Wait, what about downloading the patch from the Internet? Just Google up the patch number and let your cable modem download it at lightning speed right?

Don't do it.

Have you ever lost a battle because you fumbled through a sequence of actions? Perhaps when trying to run from a rogue you dropped a Stoneclaw Totem rather than the intended Earthbind Totem. Alternatively, you may have cast Frost Nova rather than Counterspell on a Warlock casting her 1.5 second Fear. Missed clicks or keystrokes have been the bane of many players. This is where the magic of macros can save you from keyboard fumbling.

Among their many uses, macros can be used to establish cast sequences, "I win" buttons and evasive action commands.

Macros are something many players have heard of, but shy away from because they require some basic scripting knowledge. For the uninitiated, macros are commands built by users to execute customized actions or action sequences. A macro, known in the Computer Science world as a macro instruction, are defined as a rule that specifies how a certain input sequence should be mapped to an output sequence. Sounds horrible, I know, so let's make it easier.

Macros in World of Warcraft, are really just new and simplified ways to do the same old things. For a Mage, this can be a Presence of Mind / Pyroblast button, the "I win!" macro for Fire / Arcane mages. From simple commands to eat and drink at the same time, to determining a target's status (friendly or hostile) and casting an appropriate spell, macros can be used to streamline game play and clean up your User Interface.

While catching up on my reading, and perusing Kestrel's blog this morning, I came across a post examining some of the fundamentals of tipping when dealing with a craftsman or asking to have a lockbox opened. By nature, tipping is a controversial topic, even in a virtual world. There are only loosely defined guidelines, the gesture is optional (or is it?), and it is all about communicating and exchanging with politeness and respect.

Before we can determine how to go about tipping, we need to have a clear picture of if and under what circumstances tipping is appropriate. We have previously discussed some of the situations in which this is debatable, including:

1. When you are dealing with a player who is leveling their crafting or lockpicking skills, and you are providing the materials, in essence, you are already helping them out; the exchange is costing them nothing, and they are gaining a skill point.
2. If you are purchasing an item for a fee of Xg plus materials, then the fee may also be said to contain the tip, or stand in place of it.
3. Kestrel points out that if the person volunteers to travel to you, this is tip-worthy behavior. This might then complicate the above two situations.
   

Apparently, the new patch has been having some problems under Windows Vista. Based on the description of the symptoms, I imagine this would be the same for other patches, so many of you may know this fix already. But then, some of you may have just upgraded to Vista. Anyway, here's the problem: the patch downloads OK, but the patcher fails to run correctly. According to Growl at Gitr's blog, this is because of permissions; the "normal" user on Vista doesn't have admin permissions, and therefore can't do things like run patchers.

Fortunately, Growl has an easy solution. Just right-click the WoW icon and select "Run as administrator" (as depicted); log in and WoW will spawn the patch download, which will inherit its administrator privileges and, in turn, spin off the patcher, also running with admin privileges. Safety is good, Microsoft, but Vista might be a little too safe for its own good. Couldn't we at least have an alert asking us if we wanted to authorize the patcher?

One of the many things that I remember from raiding pre-Burning Crusade was how often many Rogues would lament the lack of real use for poisons. As such, a whole generation of PvE Rogues let their Poisons get dusty, and judging from some of the things I've seen in pick-up groups since then, I can only wonder if there is a true appreciaton for the art of poisons. (There again, I could just happen to be getting continually unlucky in PUGs and always seem to luck into the Rogues who just don't know better.)

Now this isn't to say all elder Rogues abandoned their poisons altogether, nor that all new Rogues don't understand them. This is instead an open letter to those Rogues who simply haven't messed with them enough to know the difference between an instant poison and a hole in the ground, and who continually use caster poisons on melee targets. It is for those folks that I'm writing this week's column. (Well okay, and for anyone curious about poisons in general...)

Etherjammer wrote in detailing how he was able to tame a dragonhawk at level 10. Now, this was intriguing enough that I decided I needed to try it. In his blog post he describes a journey that starts in Menethil and ends in Fairbreeze Village. What's the caveat? You run dead. Since my hunter is level 40 I decided to start my jog in Southshore where she is currently bound. If you decide to try this at a lower level, I would suggest swimming up from Menethil to Southshore and beginning your death jog from there.

Step one: Die: I would suggest stripping off any gear you care about and let a nasty (or three) eat you.

Step two: The jog begins: The first leg of the journey takes you up past Tarren Mill and Strahnbrad. From there follow the road west to Chillwind camp.

There's been many a time when I have been tempted by the lure of a larger monitor. I just never seem to have enough room on the screen in WoW, between all my toolbars and chat windows and party member icons and such. The actual window into the world seems to get more crowded the more I play. Now, since I am ultimately a geek, what would be better for me than one big monitor? Two monitors. Yessir, I've been planning to dual-head my system for a while now, and when Bill wrote WoW Insider asking for help on this, I jumped at the chance. I know it's been a long time coming Bill, but here it is.

First, some caveats. I run a nVidia graphics card, so these steps are using their drivers and control panel. I don't have access to an ATI card since they are not allowed within 100 yards of my house, so I cannot give any advice with that side of things. However, the setup within World of Warcraft should pretty much be the same. For the purpose of this article I set up my system using two 18-inch monitors: a Samsung and a Sony, so it doesn't matter what brand of monitor you use. Being left-handed I configured the left-hand monitor as my main game space, and the right-hand monitor as my toolbar/bag/chat window space.

Also, in order to complete this dual-heading setup within WoW you'll need to download CT Mod 2. I used the CT_Viewport feature within the mod to configure the play space within the game. There might very well be some other options out there, but this seemed the simplest since I already had the mod running on my system.