TriangleArrow-Left.svgDecember 2013 Issues of the Questaholic Magazine February 2014TriangleArrow-Right.svg

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Interview with

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by Miss Alaska

Sirapyro is a well known face in the clan these days, always ready to chat, and eager to help out with clan events, parties and teams for bosses or dungeons. While his gender choice in-game may be a tad misleading, this guy's a regular hanging about the north western desk of the Grand Exchange, so be sure to give him a wave when passing by! Now, after his long time serving in the clan, with his current position as our Fellowship of Clans representative, a member of Event Thugs United, the Reruitment Razzers, and the Low Council, Sirapyro has agreed to sit down for the first Questaholic interview of 2013. Show us what you got twisted firestarter!

So Sira, why the heck are you always a girl now?

The question of the month, it seems. I’ve always just kind of gone back and forth with my gender, it’s an RPG and the Mage exists so why not. This “session”, though, I’ve just never really gone back, and I’ve met a lot of new friends (all of who know I’m not really a girl, I am incredibly honest about that to everyone) while as a girl, and now I just kind of have a reputation for it that gives me something to joke about, gives me a little more entertainment here and there.

Why are you so beautiful with your stylish outfits?

Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So, thanks, I think?

What else do you normally like to do in RuneScape besides look beautiful?

Nowadays I spend most of my time bankstanding and socializing. I’ve been taking up bossing more, though, as well as generally training my skills up here and there..

What the strangest occasions you've witnessed at your post in G.E?

Hmm... probably some shenanigan of our dear friend Mr. Potart, or the many, many WARS that have occurred between rival PK’ers who hang out in the area.

What do you do when you're not on RuneScape?

I’m a full time student and usually spend my non-free time there. If I’m on on RuneScape in my free time, I’m probably on another game.

Do you have any pets?

I do! I have five dogs and three cats... quite a bit, I know. They’re Chance and Bayley and Ozzy and Bebe and Kirby and Scout and Sylvester and LK(Little Kitty... don’t ask).

Have you ever been traveling anywhere in real life?

Not far, but yes. I live in California, and have traveled around and seen the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Zion, and a few other areas located in the general vicinity of California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona..

Anamona
What is your favorite spot in RuneScape? Why?

The Grand Exchange North-West stall, because it’s a good social place and I have a lot of friends who hang out there now!

Was it difficult to get used to RuneScape 3?

Not really, I picked up on it rather fast.

What is your favorite skill? What about your least favorite?

Firemaking and Fishing, respectively.

What do you think about the new skill, Divination, and the new skill which will come out next year, Inventor?

I am not particularly fond of Divination, but I can tolerate it, unlike other skills. I am not looking forward to Inventor because it is supposed to be a money sink skill, and on top of that it will take away my 80+ cape again.

LizBeth
Siraaaaa!!! How are you, bud?

I’m great, thanks, Liz! 2- icon smile.gif

Being such a stunning female pixel in game, do you get hit on a lot?

Not seriously, no. But that’s also mostly because I hang out in the same place and I’m incredibly honest to everyone that I am not NEARLY as feminine in real life as I am ingame.

As you know, I prefer asking personal questions rather than what you do in RuneScape. Anyway, I've read somewhere that one of your goals in life is to get into the film industry, is that what you're still aiming for? What made you decide to pursue that as your chosen career?

I am still aiming or that, and am currently attending film school FOR it. YouTube pretty much sparked my interest, I saw videos and thought “I want to do this”, took classes in High School, and here I am.

Any plans of becoming an actor or do you prefer working behind the scenes?

BEHIND THE SCENES! Sorry, the thought of being on camera scares me.

Your hobbies are video making and video gaming and I've already seen samples of your videos. I have to say they are pretty good. Are you more into filming animations?

I am actually more fond of live action in general, I’m not a huge fan of animation. I also have a particular fancy for Machinima(The use of videogames to make movies), which are the videos I make.

What's your all time favorite movie?

Chinatown. Enough said.

Any favorite actors/actresses?

Not specifically, no.

In real life, how would you describe your personality? What makes you tick?

I am... pretty antisocial and shy, but also pretty competitive. I don’t even know completely what makes me tick, I don’t really think about it that way.

Pyro Tim
Why do I have to post my questions on the forums and not in the cc?

Because we need them here to log them for the magazine! And to prove YOU asked them!

What is your favorite color?

Red!

Why is your character a girl if you're a guy? I get confused

Because it’s an RPG and your avatar doesn’t have to be a representation of your real life! HOPEFULLY, your avatar is only symbolic of your personality, what you look like is irrelevant.

Santa Ends
Sira, what are your goals in life?

I’d like to start working in the film industry, whether or not it’s in production or post-production.

Do you think money or passion is more important?

I’d say passion.

How is your country like? What is your favourite and most annoying part about the place you live in?

My country? It’s... free? That’s a hard question to answer because I don’t have anything else to compare it to, I’ve never lived outside my country. My favorite part about my area though is the weather, which is pretty consistently warm. However, given that that area is Los Angeles, the most ANNOYING is definitely the traffic!

Would you see yourself playing this game in 5 years? Or even next year?

Next year definitely, and I could see myself playing in five years, but I would hope that it’s at a reduced rate.

What's your favourite memory playing this game? Worst? You enjoy making videos I see, do you enjoy the process or the reward?

My favorite memory would be when I finally got my first skillcape, my Firemaking cape. My worst would be the process of GETTING that cape because my friends kept stalking be down and blocking my fire lines! >:[ ...And my YouTube channel was never able to take off, so there really is no reward in that aspect. The reward, to me, IS the process.

What's your favourite Christmas song?

I... can’t really think of one. Uhh... Jingle Bell Rock?

MsKonnan
Hi, Sira,
Probably the most likely question I would ask, is why your avatar is gender confused with your rl? However that has already been asked.

Been asked many a time! :P It’s not confused, though. I use the excuse that my avatar and myself are two different people. I may be one gender in real life, but that doesn’t mean she has to be the same! ...>.><.<

So tell us how you feel about trying to get more people in the clan to participate in EVENTS! It was really good of you to step in to represent our clan in the Fellowship of Clans (FOC). Are you happy with how that group is evolving?

It’s a bit tough, it’s thrown some people over the edge, but I’m confident right now. While answering these, I’ve been helping out Miss Alaska with the 15 days of Christmas events, and we’ve been doing really good so far. With the Fellowship of Clans, the group is evolving well, I’d say. We’re currently on a hiatus due to the holidays, but we will get back on to a regular schedule soon!

Do you think we need more ETU funds, or do you think we need more ways to spend what we have?

I think we need to spend more of what we have, but we also need to have a form of upkeep so we don’t go broke.

I enjoy seeing you playing in my time zone in the evenings. Are you at your best mornings or evenings?

Definitely evenings, considering whenever I have the choice, I’m not even awake during the morning. I am definitely not a morning person.

Chapu555
Hi syra chap here, question: are you girl, boy or a potato?

All three.

Ytse
What is a Sira, and why do you light them on fire?

A Sira is ME! I don’t like them on fire, I AM fire!

What really grinds your gears?

The sound of gears grinding. *shiver*

When are you going to meet Boba?

When you guys forcibly rip me from the place I hide whenever he comes around.

>;$?

Whut?

What made you decide to shave your lumberjack beard thing?

It was dirty.

Who was phone?

Idunno o_o

Wise Ork
Why is blue a colour?

Because it falls onto the visible color spectrum and has one of the shortest wavelengths, thus giving it one of the highest color temperatures and makes it break through much more than other colors, seen in the sky or ocean.

What's your opinion on cabbage-genocides by Cabbage Slugs? http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Cabbage_slug

That bugs should leave our food alone!

Do you like cabbage as much as this dude?

I’m not really a big cabbage fan.

Cireon
Why are you so opposed to joining in the Vex contest?

I have a really bad habit of getting out of hand when I get competitive, and I made the last one feel a little too competitive to myself. I don’t like doing that.

So, is Firemaking your favourite skill? If not, which is?

I’d say it is, sure, yeah! :3

Which skill do you like least? Would you mind if it was removed from the game?

Fishing. Fishing, fishing, fishing, I cannot stand it, NUKE IT!

Anything?

Nothing.

Cheers Sira for answering some of the clans questions! Do stick around in-game, and keep brightening up our days in world 66 with your flamboyant get-ups in the G.E :P But in all seriousness, you're one of the many interesting, useful, yet friendly clan members that make Clan Quest so awesome!
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Article by Miss Alaska

~!~PLANTING THE VEX~!~
A Clan Quest Tradition
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The first competition for unique places to plant our clan vex was won in a tie by LizBeth and MsKonnan.
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Article by MsKonnan

~!~Avant-Garde Poetry Corner ~!~
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The Sixth Age - Part 2
by Wise Ork

As the Sixth Age continues, 2 new gods arrived
Charging their weapon, 'till only 1 has survived
The godless, disgusted, joined in the fight
Hoping to show Gielinor mortalkind's might

Meanwhile in lands close yet so far away
Azzanadra listens to what Zaros has to say,
The elves are still hoping for Seren's return
Holding on to hope that their kin will not burn

But all this warring has made people blind,
For Sliske's still laughing while he plans to take over mankind...

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Article by Wise Ork

~!~ A Guide to setting up a new computer ~!~
by Wolfie
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I love doing things on the computer, and I'm sure that is true for anyone reading this, but there is one thing I love more: Doing stuff on the computer... for free! There are so many programs and things that perform features for some reason still not built into operating systems, and many of them cost money. But paying for things on the internet is silly which brings me to my favorite word and perhaps the only vocab word you will have to aquatint yourself with for this article: Open Source.

Also known as Freeware or Shareware. Open Source programs are simply programs you can use and usually modify for free. They have a bunch of different licenses and things that come with them like:
MIT, BSD - Do anything you want with, no warranty if you goof it up though.
GPL - Do anything you want with, but can't change the license (will always be free).
APACHE, Mozilla Public License - Do whatever you want with, but you can't patent any new tech you make.

As you can see the common element here is: You can always use them for free! 100% legal, 100% free programs made by people simply trying to make things more enjoyable for everyone. Anyways on to the actual programs now that the legal jargon is out of the way for anyone that cared:

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Gaming

Gaming is one of the main things I look forward to on a computer so I have several programs that help me do that and rock at it.

Daemon Tools Lite - http://www.daemon-tools.cc/products/dtLite
This is a great tool for burning cds but the main thing I use it for is the feature it offers to virtually mount a cd meaning with just a .iso file saved on your computer you can play a game that would otherwise cost money require a cd.

Dolphin - https://dolphin-emu.org/
Emulators are awesome free and legal programs that turn your computer into a console. All video consoles are computers so your computer can work as any console from any era, and it can do all this legally. Also any game you own you can have a rom or iso of backed up on your computer so you can play it for free on your computer. Once you buy a game or movie you legally own that data and can use it for your own personal use in any way shape or form you decide. Dolphin emulates Gamecube and Wii. (To use the wiimote with your computer you just need to go to bluetooth and search for a device then press 1+2 on the wiimote http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0056FOHVW at the same time. To use the gamecube controller with your pc I suggest http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003VAHYQY )

N64 - http://www.pj64-emu.com/
Project64 emulates the Nintendo64. Controller for pc: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E6LJIXO

Nes - http://www.jabosoft.com/categories/1
Jnes emulates Nintendo.

Pidgin - http://pidgin.im/
This has every chat client known to man rolled into one so if I need to contact someone and only know one way to reach them or they got locked out of the way we usually communicate I can just pull up Pidgin and not have to worry about downloading a new program to use aim or irc for the first time in years.

SNES - http://www.zsnes.com/?page=files
Zsnes emulates Super Nintendo.

Runescape - http://www.runescape.com/downloads
The Runescape Gaming Client. I prefer this over the browser because this means no address/tab/tool/menu bars at the top and no lag from doing other things in the browser as I play Runescape.

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Office

Sadly computers can't all be fun and games and sometimes we need to do work so here are the programs I use to help me get st00f done.

Foxit Reader - http://www.foxitsoftware.com/downloads/
Adobe Reader is horrible. It is slow and it lags and it is just blah. If you encounter pdf files you really want Foxit reader because it will open them without freaking out and slowing everything down. Even if you have Google Chrome as a web browser you can still set Foxit Reader as the default pdf program by just disabling the other pdf viewers in plugins and your comp will thank you for it.

Firefox - https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
The addon market alone for Firefox makes it 100% worth it for me. Performance is almost the exact same as Google Chrome and it doesn't spy and record everything you do so that is nice. Also Chrome has about 1/100th of the addons Firefox has.

Notepad++ - http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v6.5.2.html
The regular notepad program is a joke and this is such a wonderful replacement to it. Notepad++ has a built in line counter and code highlighter to help coders. As well as spellcheck. Not to mention tabs. Honestly it is just a million times better than the notepad program that comes with a computer.

Open Office - http://www.openoffice.org/download/
Open Office is a free alternative to Microsoft Office. That is right, free, not $500, free. And it can even open Microsoft documents so you don't need to worry about if you are working on a project and exchanging files with someone that uses Microsoft Office.

Skype - http://www.filehippo.com/download_skype/
As much as I hate Skype for the many many security flaws it has until TeamSpeak or Ventrilo offer video chat I'm afraid skype is here to stay.

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Media

Perhaps the second most common activity for most people is to do something involving audio, video, or pictures and these are my must have programs for interacting with all types of media.

Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/
A wonderful audio editing program. It can easily and quickly handle things like increasing the volume of a song or speeding it up or removing those annoying 5 seconds of silence some tracks get. If you are into video making it is great for applying all kinds of effects as well.

Gimp - http://www.filehippo.com/download_the_gimp/
Gimp is a great photo editing program. It can easily add text to images, resize them, change colors, crop, clone, and just generally do anything you would want to do to an image and do it for free. Now yes photoshop is better but honestly unless you are a graphic designer you won't need the amazing extras photoshop has to offer and as a result won't have to steal it or pay the hefty price tag.

Hypercam - http://www.hyperionics.com/hc/
Hypercam is a great free screen recording program with a lot of features. It will give you a little watermark but that is easy to just trim off later when you edit your video.

Irfanview - http://www.filehippo.com/download_irfanview/
I just can not go on enough about this program! It really makes browsing through pictures a lot more pleasant and way less of a hassle than windows makes it out to be. It has a ton of settings that let the user customize just about everything to do with viewing pictures. Just set this as the default program for opening all picture files and you will be enjoying things just the way you like them once you get your ideal settings made.

Lightworks - http://www.lwks.com/index.php?option=com_docman&gid=8&task=cat_view&Itemid=189
Lightworks is a free video editing program that is almost on par with Sony Vegas which costs several hundred dollars if you don't steal it. Lightworks was actually used to make the movie Pulp Fiction! Cool fact for any movie fans. Really anything someone on the hobbyist level wants to do to a video lightworks can do it and do it for free. Sony Vegas is better but it costs money and unless you are working on the professional level Lightworks is completely up to snuff.

MediaCoder - http://www.mediacoderhq.com/download.htm
Medicacoder is a wonderful free file conversion program. It is fast and simple. You can easily strip the audio or video from a program or change the format either are in. Say if you have you favorite video saved as .mkv and your portable media device will only work with .mp4 this program will have you sorted out very quickly and with just a few clicks.

MediaMonkey - http://www.mediamonkey.com/download/
Itunes is the devil. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. It installs literally 5 programs when you get it. Itunes, Itunes helper, apple mobile, Bonjour, and some other Itunes updater. Not to mention it sets itself to run at startup! Any program that sets itself to run at startup and isn't essential to running your computer is just rude. And Itunes is pretty poorly built, if you have a lot of songs expect a lot of lag. Well MediaMonkey can synch to any ipod, ipad, tablet, sandisk, or any other media device I have connected it to and never had any problems or lag from having a large library of music or random device hardly anyone knows about. It also works as just a regular playlist and you can subscribe to podcasts on it as well and it has a bunch of very handy preset playlists like default cd sized playlists of your most played songs. And it is only 1 program and doesn't set itself to run at startup. (If you are really into sharing music check out spotify https://www.spotify.com/us/download/ )

Vlc Player - https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html
Vlc player is the one stop shopping of movie files. No more giant codecs packages slowing down your computer. Just set it as the default program for all video files and you can just click and play even the most random unheard of things. Not to mention for silent files it has an audio bar that goes above 100%! You can set the bar as high as you want and it is limited only by your speakers! I have my own set at 200% max and I find even the most silent of videos will be loud at that point. Heck it even has a record the desktop feature if you want to use it as a simple screen recorder.

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Security

Most of you probably know I am big on security and have already covered this topic extensively so here is a quick rundown of the programs I use to keep my computer safe.

Antilogger - http://www.zemana.com/product/antilogger-free/overview/
Zemana Antilogger is a free program which randomizes then decodes your keystrokes for free! So if you happen to get a keylogger all it will pick up is gibberish!

Antimalware - http://www.avast.com/index
Avast is a great free program to keep your computer safe from viruses and you just need to register it once a year or so.

Firewall - http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/
Comodo Firewall is just.... the best firewall you will ever have and it is free! Set this puppy on proactive mode with sandbox enabled and pup blocking turned on and nothing gets through. Everything else is just an emergency backup for the rare chance this misses something.

Scanner - http://www.malwarebytes.org/
MalwareBytes AntiMalware is a free on demand scanner and has one of the highest detection ratings on the market. I love this program so much I paid $20 for the lifetime licensee so it will actively monitor my computer 24/7. I have noticed a 0% impact on performance and greatly increased peace of mind.

Shredder - http://eraser.heidi.ie/
Most of us at some point will have personal photos or financial documents on our computers. Eraser is a free military grade file erasure program so if you want something gone just hit it with this puppy and no one will be able to bring it back.

Vault - http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads
Truecrypt is an amazing free encryption program and anything you put in the vault will stay in the vault. Great for anything personal on your computer that could potentially get your identity stolen if someone were to snatch it.

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System

Some programs are required just to keep your pc running happy and this is the category I made for them.

CCleaner - https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download
CCleaner is a great program for those of us that never close our browsers and want one button to clean up our history and fix some stuff up around the computer like registry errors.

Media Preview - http://media-preview.en.softonic.com/
For some reason even in Windows 8 some of the highest resolution (.mkv) and most commonly used (.flv) video files do not have built in previews in windows. In the windows explorer interface they simply show up as the icon of whatever program you have told to open them (in my case vlc player). This program is a simple set once and forget you have it on your computer solution that adds increased functionality to windows explorer giving every video filetype I have ever used a preview. It doesn't run 24/7 either; it simply makes some changes and only runs when you pull it up to adjust those settings which you probably never will.

Nvidia Inspector - http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/nvidia_inspector_download.html
Something I found out is that if your computer has two graphics cards it is set to use the crappy one for the browser which in most cases is smart because if you are gaming and have your browser up odds are you want your game to have the high rendering speeds and more processing power. However as a Runescape player (browser based gaming) that doesn't work for me at all. And Nvidia has disabled setting a browser to use it in the graphics card control menu. Luckily Nvidia Inspector will let you pull up any program and simply enable the Shim Rendering Mode setting to make Nvidia the default graphics for it.

Utorrent - http://www.utorrent.com/downloads
Utorrent is just a simple lightweight torrent program. A must have for torrent users.

Winrar - https://www.win-rar.com/download.html?&L=0
Winrar technically is only a free "trial" claiming it will expire in a month or whatever but I have put it on every computer I have ever owned and it has never actually stopped working when the trial was up. It opens and creates excellent compressed Zip, Rar, 7z, and Iso libraries.

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Article by Wolfie

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1. Hunter- Divine Box Traps

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These nifty item from the divination skill is one of the most useful divine locations. At 64 divination, you can combine 20 chinchompas and 45 vibrant energy to make one, which when placed can give roughly 14k hunter experience in less than 2 minutes.

It takes up about 55% of your daily gathering limit of divine energy locations. Gives more reward when sharing with others. Also you can go to world 2's Burthorpe square, people share divine locations there. In a day's work you can get about 25k hunter experience in 5 minutes or so.

All in all, a good addition to the dailies list. A herb patch II is also good, it gives decent xp in herblore.

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2. Surge- General Skilling

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Surge makes you jump 10 steps to the front if there are no obstacles. It is mildly efficient, very useful in agility at the abvanced barbarian agility course, where if you take the left lane while sliding from the slope, you can jump to just 2 steps away from the starting rope obstacle. It increased my xp/h from about 65k/h to 72k/h.

Another use is divination, where you siphon nodes too far away from the crevices, you can jump forward and save steps.

Deadly useful for warbands as well, surge allows you to take an even shorter period of time to reach Quercus from the camp area. It saved me from death a few times.

3. Morphic Tools- Woodcutting, Fishing, Fletch, Craft, Smith, Construction, Hunter

Stealing creation reward tools come in 2 types, morphic and volatile.

Due to the bonus xp update some time back, you can click “gain xp” from the tool which has been transformed, and not have to equip it. A noteworthy part is that volatile tools give 6k more bonus xp than morphics. You can do so by keep changing the volatile proto tool to the one you want, use up the bonus xp, recharge and gain bonus xp and it goes on. You can potentially gain 140k bonus fishing xp an hour, doing non combat SC.

Also this means there is no need to equip rune equivalents for woodcutting, free up inventory spaces for construction, no need to cut unstrungs to gain fletching xp and also use a better net in hunter.

Got a tip or two to share with fellow questers? Give me a private message on the offsite and if I use it, I will credit you.
~!~ ***** ~!~

Article by Santa Ends