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Seven wikis for seven worlds

Want to dig really deep into your favorite sci-fi or fantasy world? Need to study xenobiology in the Delta Qudrant or catch up on current events on Earth-616? In the old days, your resources might be limited to the few texts that got published (often without authorization from the creators of the TV show, movie, or book). But in the age of online, user-generated content, sci-fi and fantasy fans themselves can contribute to the extensive store of knowledge about their favorite fictional universes—and do they ever. Here are seven encyclopedic resources for fictional worlds so richly detailed that they rival the one you're sitting in right now.

Lostpedia

How many different ways are Jack and Kate connected? What do we know about Richard Alpert’s history? If these are the kinds of burning questions that keep you wide awake and staring at the ceiling as we embark upon the last season of the tortuous narrative that is Lost, then you’d better set aside a hefty chunk of time, because you’re about to find yourself pulled into the jungle that is Lostpedia. Every episode, every character—and, after all, there are truly no minor characters where the Island is concerned—are all here. If it’s speculation you’re after, there’s no shortage of that, either: Got a theory on what the smoke monster is? Where the island is located? You’ll find a willing audience to entertain your thoughts on the matter.

Memory Alpha

Among the most painstakingly constructed sites I’ve ever seen, Memory Alpha is a comprehensive catalog of everything in the mainstream Star Trek canon, from the Prime Directive to the last episode of Enterprise . All five live-action series are covered, along with the animated series and all the movies, including the recent reboot. If you want to go beyond that to the novels and other media, though, you’ll need to check out a second wiki called, naturally, Memory Beta.

Wookieepedia

I’ll come clean: I once managed to win a game of Star Wars Trivial Pursuit in just two turns—and that was well before the advent of wikis. These days I’m a little rusty, but if I want to brush up on all things Star Wars, I turn to this brilliantly-named site, which includes not only both series of films but the Clone Wars TV show and the vast reaches of the “expanded universe.” If you’ve ever wanted to delve into the mechanics of lightsabers or wondered what exactly Bothan spies were, this is your only hope.

Buffyverse Wiki

Way before Twilight made vampires sparkle, Sunnydale was home to a legion of the fanged guys—not to mention its very own Hellmouth. The universe of Joss Whedon’s legendary series (and its spinoff, Angel) is chronicled here as meticulously as the work of any Watcher. In the end, there is no more fitting tribute to the show’s eponymous heroine than to point out that she saved the world. A lot.

TARDIS Index File

It may look like a compact site, but don’t worry—it’s bigger on the inside. Following the adventures of all eleven incarnations of everybody’s favorite Time Lord and his blue box, the wiki also features an extensive list of the Doctor’s companions and his greatest foes. Be careful how you mess with the wibbly-wobbley timey-wimey stuff, though, as any unorthodox changes will be EXTERMINATED.

DC Database

I’m not sure Hollywood knew what it was in for when it started turning comic books into movies left and right. There are more than 42,000 articles in this database devoted to titles from the DC Universe, everything from household names like Superman and Batman to cult favorites like Sandman and John Constantine. Really though, I only need utter four words to make you clutch your head in confusion: Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Marvel Database

Of course, you can’t mention DC without talking about Marvel—it’s like the Pepsi vs. Coke of the comic world. Fear not, for the twisty multiverse that houses the X-Men, X-Factor, X-Force, Excalibur, and, of course, Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight has its own wiki. Then again, it’s a sucker’s game to think you can ever truly comprehend the entire Marvel continuity (without going all Dark Phoenix, anyway).

Now that I’ve led you into a world where you’ve thoroughly wasted your time clicking and reading, you’ll be happy to know that there are plenty of other wikis for pretty much every fictional universe you’ve ever heard of. If only there were a wiki for the real world as comprehensive and carefully assembled as—oh, wait.

Five sites for smart consumers

We all have our own opinions about politics, sports, and even technology. We all occupy our own particular neighborhoods, income brackets, and sections of the iTunes store. But the one thing we all have in common is that—whether we’re buying necessities, splurging on luxuries, or dealing with everyday financial challenges—we’re consumers.

As it has in so many other parts of our lives, the Internet has transformed the way we consume. We can now look up reviews, compare prices, and check on a vendor’s reputation, all before we pull out our credit cards or sign on the dotted line. The Web has given us voices we didn’t have in the past, to talk back to vendors and tell our fellow consumers what we think. Here are five of my favorite sites for consumer information, advocacy, and savings.

The Consumerist

The Consumerist blog, which covers a wide range of pro-consumer issues, started as a cog in the Gawker Media machine. But it eventually became so popular—and so respected—that the site was purchased by Consumers Union, the organization behind Consumer Reports. Among the most popular articles are reader reports about companies that mistreat their customers; the site has become a sort of crowd-sourced Better Business Bureau. But it also covers personal finance, the banking industry, and maintaining good credit. How influential is The Consumerist? In the past year, the site’s editors have twice had sit-down interviews with White House officials about economic and consumer issues. And horror stories about vendors are often followed up with posts along the lines of, “After The Consumerist posted my letter, the CEO of Company X contacted me directly…”

ConsumerSearch.com

If you’re looking for reviews of Macs, iPods, iPhones, and related products, you know where to go. But for everything else, the best place to start is ConsumerSearch. For a given type of product—say, LCD TVs—the editors at this meta-site gather review information from all over the Web, compile it into a comprehensive report (ranking each source by its credibility), and provide recommendations—best overall, best value, best budget, and more. A full report for each product type provides background information and useful buying advice.

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

The CPSC site isn’t pretty, and it certainly isn’t fun to read, but if you’re thinking of buying a product—for your child or household, or for outdoor, sports, or recreation use, in particular—the site can be invaluable, providing browsable and searchable recall information and safety tips. You can even report unsafe products yourself. The agency also publishes Web videos and occasional podcasts covering recalls and safety and buying tips, and there are RSS feeds and e-mail lists to keep you up to date on the latest safety information.

Dollars & Sense

While it focuses on the San Francisco Bay Area, you don’t have to live there to get something out of the San Francisco Chronicle’s Dollars & Sense blog. It provides an informative and entertaining take on real-world personal finance—sensible spending, money-saving ideas, timely bargains, and consumer advocacy. As the author puts it, the blog is about “finding new ways to inject dollars, cents, and sensibility into your everyday spending.” (Disclaimer: The author of the Dollars & Sense blog is a former Macworld staff member who is married to a current Macworld staffer.)

DealMac

Part of being an informed consumer is knowing where the deals are. When it comes to sales, specials, and coupons for Mac-related products, DealMac has cornered the market. On a typical day, the site points out 70 to 100 current deals on Mac-related items—hardware, software, accessories, you name it. To make that fire-hose of information easier to digest, subscribe to the site’s RSS feed, use the site’s search engine, or sign up to be alerted via e-mail whenever a particular product (or type of product) is mentioned. The company that runs DealMac also runs similar sites for computer and camera memory, digital cameras, and fashion, as well as a site that gathers up coupons and online coupon codes, and a “master” site that consolidates many of the other sites’ deals.

Five rib-tickling tech sites

Growing up around Stanford University and the greater Silicon Valley (before it was Silicon Valley) I encountered my fair share of electrical engineers—a brilliant bunch who, to a person, lacked any discernible sense of humor. Today’s crop of propeller heads are a wittier (though occasionally cruder) crew, as evidenced by some of my favorite Websites and Twitter streams:

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs

A pseudonymous goof on Apple, its CEO, and its passionate fans and detractors, Dan Lyons’ fake diary (Twitter: @fsjblog) can be funny, obscene, insightful, inspirational, and irritating—often all in the same post. Lyons started the blog while he was still a technology writer for Fortune. But even with his identity exposed, Lyons rarely pulls his punches: Companies, corporate heads, publications, politicians, journalists, and celebrities all suffer the wrath of Lyons’ faux CEO.

Walt Mosspuppet

Another fake techno-celebrity site. Walt Mosspuppet (Twitter: @mosspuppet) is a cantankerous puppet-version of Wall Street Journal technology columnist Walt Mossberg. I’ve met Mossberg, and the puppet’s caustic personality is nothing like his. But that doesn’t make the videos, the blog, or the Twitter stream any less of a hoot. As with Fake Steve, the puppet’s humor often transcends mere jokes to offer real insights into technology and journalism.

Crazy Apple Rumors

Crazy Apple Rumors’ John Moltz (Twitter: @carumors and @Moltz) does funny better than any technology writer I know. Why he hasn’t been snapped up by the entertainment industry is beyond me. (Oh, wait, maybe it has something to do with all the sexbot jokes). Crazy Apple Rumors went on hiatus in 2008, but it’s now kinda-sorta back on a “whenever I feel like it” basis.

27b/6

27b/6 (pronounced “two seven bee slash six”) is the work of Australian humorist David Thorne (Twitter: @27bslash6). He doesn’t focus purely on technology; he covers a wide range of subjects. His posts often take the form of e-mail exchanges in which he skewers his targets with charmingly clueless sincerity. Not-to-be-missed entries include Party in Apartment 3, Overdue Account, Simon’s Pie Charts, and Photography Tips.

xkcd

Proving that stick figures can be funny, xkcd is (in the words of its creator, programmer Randall Munroe) “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.” Published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Munroe’s work is by and for geeks. (I occasionally post a link to his Someone Is Wrong On The Internet strip to make a point in the Macworld forums.) If you’re tickled by math and technology jokes, sci-fi references, and social awkwardness, bookmark xkcd.

Virtualization: Behind the scenes

I recently wrapped up my second (nearly) annual look at three leading Intel Mac virtualization products—VMware Fusion, Parallels Desktop, and VirtualBox—along with an overview piece designed to help you figure out which one best suits your needs.

If you followed my Tweets during the development of these articles, you got a glimpse behind the scense at what went into the project: “Spent 5+ hours yesterday setting up a test that will probably only merit a couple sentences in final writeup. But it had to be done.”

Based on the response to those Tweets and some e-mailed inquiries, it appeared there was some interest in a “behind the scenes” look at just how a large comparison review/roundup like this comes together. So if you’re interested, grab an All Access pass from the bin on the right, and join me on a tour of the virtualization review production studio. I’ll try to give you some idea what it takes to put together a comparison test like this, and why it can take so long for it to finally appear online. (I started this project in mid-October, and it wrapped up in mid-January.)

Pre-production

After deciding to tackle this project, I had to figure out how I was going to actually do it this time around. Last time, I didn’t include much specific testing data. This time out, I wanted to change that. But what to test, and on which operating systems, and on which computers? Hard decisions, indeed. In the end, I chose my Mac Pro (2.66GHz quad core, 8GB RAM) because it’s neither the fastest nor the slowest of Apple’s Intel-powered Macs. It also had a lot of drive space available, which I was going to need.

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Eight steps to Internet unpopularity

After a particularly trying weekend moderating the Macworld forums, it occurred to me that there are a handful of ways to become an Internet pariah in a very short period of time. In the hope that you might not fall into some of these traps, allow me to enumerate those ways.

1. Troll Let’s start with the most obvious. Take up an unreasonably opposing point of view simply to get a rise out of people. This is most effective when you visit a site devoted to Subject A and then state that just about everything related to that subject stinks. For example, visit a Nikon forum and slam its cameras in favor of Canon. Trail over to the Huffington Post and gush over Sarah Palin’s first literary effort. Drop by our sister publication PC World’s site and let them know just how much you love Snow Leopard and despise Windows. Whether your comments are based in fact or not, they’re unlikely to be welcomed.

2. Passionate cluelessness Okay, we get it that you have very strong political/religious/hygienic views. Derailing a discussion of the benefits of a new computer graphics chip to present those views in inglorious detail may not be the best way to make friends and influence people.

3. Dispassionate cluelessness Several years ago a little something called “Google” rained down from the sky. This Google provides the means for finding answers to many, many questions. I’m routinely amazed at how helpful people can be when others need assistance, but it’s unwise to abuse their patience by clamoring for increasing amounts of help when the answer you seek is a simple Google search away.

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The real genius of the Genius Bar

My wife and I recently purchased an iPod touch (8GB, second generation) primarily for our kids to use for games. After setting it up, however, I couldn’t get any sound out of the speaker—audio worked fine in headphones, but not at all when trying to use the speaker. So I made an appointment at the local Apple Store’s Genius Bar to have them take a look.

After a few minutes of blowing compressed air into the headphone jack, and plugging and unplugging headphones, the Genius gave up and handed me a new iPod touch with a functioning speaker. The whole process took about 30 minutes (including my wait time), and didn’t cost me a penny. Well, technically it didn’t cost me a penny.

In actuality, it cost me 17,390 pennies (that’s $173.90 in the more-common dollar units). That’s because I was sucked in by the real genius of the Genius Bar: it puts Apple’s customers in a store filled with desirable Apple products, and with some time to waste while waiting for their appointment at the Genius Bar. In my case, that time gave me a chance to purchase a spare battery for my 15-inch MacBook Pro, and a case and screen protectors for the iPod touch. These were all items on my “I need to get these at some point” list, but the visit to the Genius Bar was the perfect excuse to get my shopping done.

So while the Genius Bar serves an important function for customers (and a popular one—it was swamped the whole time I was there) by providing them direct contact with Apple, it also serves as an incredible sales engine for Apple’s retail arm.

After my time was done with the Genius Bar folks, I kept my eye on some of the other Genius Bar visitors. Of the five folks I watched, four of them had purchases in hand when they left the store. (I imagine that Apple tracks the revenue generated by Genius Bar visitors, and knows exactly how much money the average Genius Bar visit is worth. It won’t ever happen, but I’d love to see those figures!)

In short, the Genius Bar is simply pure genius. It lets Apple help its customers while helping its revenue at the same time.

One person's quest for faster broadband

Several months ago, I wrote about how pathetic my broadband options were in San Francisco and, in fact, how bad things are in the country as a whole.

Since then, I decided to make the switch to something faster. At 7,500 feet from an AT&T central office, the fastest standard DSL speeds I could get were 2.5 Mbps down (about 310 KBps) and nearly .5 Mbps up (about 60 KBps). For things like downloading giant Apple software updates and uploading photos and HD videos, that just didn’t cut it. Although I’ve had a great experience with my ISP, DSL Extreme, over the years, the company simply couldn’t offer me better speeds for a reasonable monthly fee.

After I wrote the original story, Comcast—our local cable provider—expanded its broadband options to our house to include several faster tiers. Although weary of the company’s 250GB-per-month bandwidth cap, I bit the bullet and ordered a 15 Mbps/2 Mbps plan for about $65 a month (I don’t have Comcast cable or phone service, otherwise it would have been less expensive).

What happened after I ordered was a tragedy of errors that reaffirmed my contempt for Comcast. After one appointment where the tech was unprepared to complete the job, a second that Comcast cancelled during my appointment window, and a third during which nobody even bothered to show up, I canceled my order and started the search again.

While expressing my dismay at the unbelievable incompetence of Comcast on Twitter, I got in touch with local ISP Sonic.net. The company’s Fusion Broadband product promised speeds of up to 18 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up using ADSL2+ technology. But once I talked with Sonic.net’s CEO, I found out the company had even more ambitious plans to offer a bonded product that combined two DSL lines (two pairs of wires) to dramatically improve both download and upload speeds. I volunteered to be a test subject.

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Opinion: Tear down those Office walls, Microsoft

My first reaction to Microsoft’s Thursday announcement that it will release a new version of its Office suite for the Mac in 2010 can be summed up in one word: Why? The very notion of a software suite like Office seems completely out-of-date.

Of course, I know perfectly well the reason Microsoft wants to keep pumping out new versions of Office across all the platforms it serves: The suite accounts for about 30 percent of Microsoft’s overall revenue. But as a buyer, I just don’t get it.

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Introducing Macworld’s Digital Photography Superguide, third edition

Last weekend a friend stopped by for lunch and to show off his newest purchase—a shiny new SLR camera. Almost as soon as we sat down the questions started. What was the difference between the P and the green square, he asked, pointing to the mode dial. And was using the Portrait mode better than fiddling with the settings himself?

For all the work camera companies have put into making their cameras as easy to use as possible, many people still find the process of getting a good shot shrouded in mystery. That’s partly because, to take advantage of the full creative potential of your camera, you need to take the reins and make some decisions yourself. And that can be scary if you aren’t sure what is happening behind the scenes.

That’s why we regularly feature photography tips and how-to articles on Macworld. Each month we give you stories about the latest camera technologies, managing your photo library, and turning your snapshots into interesting projects—all from a Mac user’s perspective. But we know that digging back through all of those stories—some of which appeared only in print—can be a hassle, if not impossible.

For readers who want all of that information in one place, we’re pleased to offer Macworld's Digital Photography Superguide. In the third edition of our popular photography book, we offer the latest advice on buying a new camera, getting great shots, and using iPhoto ’09 to manage and edit your growing photo library. All of the information has been updated and expanded to cover the latest developments, and comes organized in an easy-to-follow guide.

In this 136-page book, we step you through the entire photography process, from shooting in difficult situations—including under water or in dim rooms—to importing photos quickly and safely, to adding valuable information like names, locations, and ratings to your files. We explain how to use iPhoto’s levels histogram to take the mystery out of correcting a photo’s colors and lighting. Once you’ve polished up your photos, you’ll even learn how to show off a bit by turning them into giant posters, printing them on fabric, or creating beautiful slideshows, calendars, books, and more. We also show you how to protect your photos from hard drive disasters.

If you’ve been wishing you knew more about your camera or feel overwhelmed by your photo library and aren’t sure where to turn, this book can help.

The Digital Photography Superguide comes in three convenient formats: you can download a PDF for $12.95 for immediate access. If you prefer to have something you can hold in your hand, you can get the PDF mailed to you on a CD for $12.95 or get a beautiful, full-color printed book for $24.95.

Want to take a peek before you lay down your money? Go ahead. You can download a 14-page, 2MB preview that includes the table of contents and a few sample pages.

Also available in our Superguide series are the iPhone & iPod Touch Superguide, Mac Gems: 240+ Softwarte Bargains Mobile Mac Superguide, Mac Security Superguide, Mac Basics Superguide Leopard Edition, Mac OS X Hints, Leopard Edition, Total Leopard, and the Digital Music and Video Superguide. We think they’re really great books, and we think you will, too.

Click here to get more information on how to buy the Digital Photography Superguide.

A not-so-deeper look at OS X 10.5.8

Most of the time when Apple releases an OS update—like Wednesday’s Mac OS X 10.5.8 release—I’ll usually spend that evening examining the update package, trying to find information on what’s included in the update that wasn’t specifically covered by Apple and its release notes. It’s become something of a tradition here at Macworld North—I’ve written detailed looks at 10.5.3, 10.5.4, 10.5.5, 10.5.6, and 10.5.7.

But no more, it seems—at least not for this update. Apple’s own notes do a good job at covering the big details of the items it updated this time out. I did take my usual dive inside the update package’s files to see what else might be hiding there. While there is a large list of files that have been updated, the majority of those changes seem to be minor, such as updates to language files.

I did manage to find a couple things that Apple didn’t mention that I think are worth sharing:

• The background of the Sharing tab in Address Book’s preferences now has striped rows for easier reading. This is big. Huge news. Just remember you read this earth-shattering scoop here first!
• The iDisk icon is now blue, instead of purple. I wasn’t too keen on purple, so this is a welcomed change.
• The following Dashboard Widgets were updated: Dictionary, iCal, Movies, Stickies, Stocks, Unit Converter, and Web Clip. I have no idea what’s changed, if anything—consider this a challenge!
• There’s an updated version of the Apache (web sharing) manual in /Library/WebServer/share/httpd/manual.
• The Ruby and Python frameworks were updated, for those of you who work with those languages.

There’s also the usual assortment of updated frameworks, changes to time zone files, and minor updates to many Unix programs and/or their help pages. A long list of system extensions are also updated, but trying to figure out what’s changed in those would be basically impossible.

Overall, I think Apple struck a good balance between providing too much information and not enough information about the 10.5.8 update; most consumers won’t care about the things Apple didn’t list, and those who do care probably have the tools to investigate the changes themselves.

I’ve installed the update on three Macs now, and all three are up and running just fine. If you’ve noticed any new behaviors, options, or (I hope not) bugs in OS X 10.5.8, please feel free to share in the comments.