The Martin Fury scandal: Karatechop reveals all

The Martin Fury scandal: Karatechop reveals all

Over the last week the Martin Fury scandal has rocked the world ... of Warcraft. I got the chance to sit down with Karatechop, the player at the centre of the scandal, to hear his side of the story.

WoW Insider: Who are you?
Karatechop: I'm Karatechop, the Guild Leader of The Marvel Family on Vek'nilash-US.

There are postings on the net where someone purporting to be Karatechop says they work for Blizzard. I'm assuming this is not the case?
I'm not an employee of Blizzard. I'm not a hacker, I'm just a person who had a pretty tight regular group of people who liked playing WoW.

How did this whole thing start? 
One of my guild members, Leroyspeltz, had his account hacked back in December. He was an Officer at the time and whoever hacked his account ravaged the guild bank, which happens. Once Blizzard was able to rescue his account, he noticed several of his toons were gone.
When you say gone? Are we talking deleted or transferred?
According to him, some were deleted and some were transferred to other accounts, but at the time he assumed they had been deleted. He opened a ticket with Blizzard back in December I believe and they never responded. 

Things just sat there until sometime in mid-March. We had a looting error in 25 man OS . As the guild leader I handed an item to Leroy by mistake so he immediately opened a ticket so the item would go to the proper player. They resolved that problem then they asked him for more information on this problem he had reported months ago that hadn't been solved. He received some emails from Blizzard detailing what they were sending him, and when he logged in on April 19th all of his characters were back.

So what happened next?
All of them had in-game mail from Blizzard and lots of random items. He had no idea why he was getting them. Most of them seemed to fit Blizzard's usual M.O. for restoring hacked account, tons of low level stuff, stacks of Silverleaf and the like. Blizzard has rarely restored any toon I've seen hacked to its former glory. They seem to give you some random stuff and just leave it in one of these multiple in-game mails. On his level 13 warlock, I believe, was Martin Fury.

When he realized he had Martin Fury and shared that information with you, why not open a ticket immediately?
I was unsure of what it was exactly. Sure, we read the stats, but we didn't even contemplate a ticket.

Why not?
It was in-game mail from Blizzard. We just assumed it was something they sent him. We didn't think it was real. I honestly thought it was something Blizzard gave to one of Leroy's alts for four months of ignoring the problems with his account.

So when did you first use Martin Fury?
On April 20th the guild was in a 10-man Ulduar run. Leroyspeltz was not in my Ulduar group at the time when he opened the mail. We were on Ignis and I brought Leroy into the group. We tried it and it worked.

And you didn't consider this cheating or worry that a GM might notice? You didn't worry you might get into trouble?
No, it came from Blizzard. We were laughing about it. After killing Ignis we went out and reset the raid to heroic. We went back in and killed Flame Leviathan

How many charges did the item have?
When we got it, Martin Fury had 100. We used it fourteen times.

So when did things go wrong?
We had used it on Malygos and 25-man OS earlier in the week and, again, this wasn't, for me anyways, a way to get loot or achievements. This was purely a comedy thing for me. It was funny. We went back to Ulduar with twenty-two people and made several legitimate attempts at Flame Leviathan. This is where I feel really bad. Some of the people we had with us didn't know we had Martin's Fury. Then we engaged and used the item, it was a riot!

I was unable to play over the weekend and didn't check in with my friends. When I tried to login on Tuesday is when I had discovered my account was banned. That's when they started to let me know that we had achieved some world's first, which was also never my intent.

So you hadn't achieved any world firsts?
Some of the people wanted full clears, but I didn't want to take that away from the guilds who had worked so hard to get there. I didn't think we had world firsts, but some people have claimed we had. I also wasn't worried about hiding anything as, again, it was an item sent to us by Blizzard.

Did Blizzard get in touch with you? No GMs mid-instance?
No. They claimed to have sent me an email once I found my account was banned, but this didn't happen either. I had to jump through the hoops to reset my email address with my account banned and open a web form questionnaire.

And your account is still banned?
Yep.

And, during any of this, you never took screenshots?
I'm not that type of player. We never took screen shots that often of anything. We didn't record encounters. Again, it was a group of friends who just had a good time playing the game together

Do you think it's fair that you've been banned?
No, I don't believe banning is fair, especially since this would be my first infraction in the 4+ years I've played the game. But it's Blizzard's game and they are the ones calling the shots, so fair is relative. Up until the bans, I honestly didn't think I was destroying the World of Warcraft.

You must have thought that this item didn't belong in a player's hands even if it came from Blizzard?
I thought it odd, but with the charges I wasn't sure.

Do you expect to get your account back?
No.

Do this bother you? Has it put you off WoW?
Yes, I loved that game. I was never bored with it, I had 159 days of my life on that character.

Are you going to reroll?
I don't believe so. I think I'm going to try something else. Again, this being my first infraction on any level whatsoever it seems like they overreacted. Where they really failed was that they locked the accounts of all my guildies who were online at the time. Not people who had any of those raid IDs mind you, but everyone.

Did many people on your realm know what was going on?
No. Not even the whole guild just the people on the runs. Actually it wasn't even all of them. As I said before I tricked 3 or 4 of them, I thought it was funny.

Who else has been banned as a result? Was it just you and Leeroy? Was it other folks in the raid or your guild? 
Everyone in the guild who was online had their accounts locked for twenty four hours, regardless of whether or not they were in the run.

How are they reacting to this?
They aren't happy. Some are upset at me, but most of them have my back on this. We didn't hack the game. We were given a 'You Win' button and it was something we used.

Well thank you for speaking to us.
Thanks for taking the time.

15 Ways For You To Do Your Best Work

  

15 Ways For You To Do Your Best Work Do your best work by challenging the way you did things yesterday. Do your best work by allowing your passion to see the light of day. Do your best work by becoming part of the solution versus growing the problem. Do your best work by expecting nothing less than you playing at world-class. Do your best work by giving away the credit (especially when you crave it) Do your best work by practicing your skills so you become a virtuoso. Do your best work by releasing excuses and doing important things. Do your best work by getting up when you’ve been knocked down. Do your best work by keeping your promises; to others and to yourself. Do your best work by showing integrity. Do your best work by delivering more value than anyone could ever expect from you. Do your best work by making time to refill your well. Do your best work by having a strong foundation at home. Do your best work by becoming as fit as a pro athlete. Do your best work by doing work that makes a difference and inspires others to do the same. As Chuck Palahniuk once said: “The goal isn’t to live forever. The goal is to create something that will.”

Success Vs Challenge

Challenge Need
Do we really need challenge to achieve success in our lives? Well the answer for this question lies within each one of us and yes we all need the challenge part in order to take the success path, and it is not necessarily that you overcome all the challenges that face you in your journey to success, challenges are there to make you more enthusiastic about achieving your goals and reaching your distention.

Also the challenges help us identify and clarify our visions in which by them we would reach the targeted goals in our lives and no success shall be achieved without the existence of the vision.
Successful Vision
Every one of us should have a vision for his life, and even have a vision for the way for achieving it and working for it, believe in your own dreams and also believe that God has a greater dream for you and its more that you can wish for yourself, believing in this makes you beats all the odds in your way and surrender to God’s greater plan for you that would take you to the next best place in your life would make you see all the challenges you have faced through your journey as small little stones thrown at you to make you stronger and tougher in this life.
Success Road
Neither the way nor the destination matters, what really matters is the journey itself and the end of the race and when you get to reach the end line you get to look back at your journey and see how much you have achieved and what you have been through this is the real success and the taste of this will stay with you forever, as they say in order to taste the sweetness of success you should first taste the bitterness of failure and believe me this is what really matters, counting the lessons that you have learned along this journey and the challenges you have overcome, being at the top is not easy , reaching your goals is not simple but in the same time this is not impossible to achieve, believe in God, In yourself, and in your skills and capabilities then start all your engines , work hard for it, then you are finally there, not pleasure would be compared to this joy of getting what you want.Written By : Usman Awan

Success Story Of Microsoft Owner Bill Gates

Bill gates

Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955 in Seattle in a family having rich business, political and community service background. His great-grandfather was a state legislator and a mayor, his grandfather was vice president of national bank and his father was a lawyer.
Bill believed in achieving his goals through hard work. He also believes that if you are intelligent and know how to use your intelligence, you can reach your goals and targets. From his early days Bill was ambitious, competitive and intelligent. These qualities helped him to attain great position in the profession he chose also Bill was deemed by his peers and his teachers as the smartest kid on campus; Bill’s parents came to know their son’s intelligence and decided to enroll him in a private school, known for its intense academic environment. That was the most important decision in Bill Gate’s life where he was first introduced to computers. Bill Gates and his friends were very much interested in computer and formed “Programmers Group” in late 1968. Being in this group, they found a new way to apply their computer skill in university of Washington. In the next year, they got their first opportunity in Information Sciences Inc. in which they were selected as programmers. ISI (Information Sciences Inc.) agreed to give them royalties, whenever it made money from any of the group’s program. As a result of the business deal signed with Information Sciences Inc., the group also became a legal business.
Bill Gates and his close friend Allen formed a new company of their own, Traf-O-Data. They developed a small computer to measure traffic flow. From this project they earned around $20,000. The era of Traf-O-Data came to an end when Gates left the college. Upon graduating from Lakeside Bill enrolled in Harvard University in 1973, one of the best universities in the country, He didn’t know what to do, so he enrolled his name for pre-law. He took the standard freshman courses with the exception of signing up for one of Harvard’s toughest mathematics courses. He did well over there, but he couldn’t find it interesting too. He spent many long nights in front of the school’s computer and the next day asleep in class. After leaving school, he almost lost himself from the world of computers. Gates and his friend Paul Allen remained in close contact even though they were away from school. They would often discuss new ideas for future projects and the possibility of starting a business one fine day. At the end of Bill’s first year, Allen came close to him so that they could follow some of their ideas. That summer they got job in Honeywell. Allen kept on pushing Bill for opening a new software company. 
Within a year, Bill Gates dropped out from Harvard. Then he formed Microsoft. Microsoft’s vision is “A computer on every desk and Microsoft software on every computer”. Bill is a visionary person and works very hard to achieve his vision. His belief in high intelligence and hard work has put him where he is today. He does not believe in mere luck or God’s grace, but just hard work and competitiveness. Bill’s Microsoft is good competition for other software companies and he will continue to stomp out (challenge) the competition until he dies. He likes to play the game of Risk and the game of world domination. His beliefs are so powerful, which have helped him increase his wealth and his monopoly in the industry.
Bill Gates is not a greedy person. In fact, he is quite giving person when it comes to computers, internet and any kind of funding. Some years back, he visited Chicago’s Einstein Elementary School and announced grants benefiting Chicago’s schools and museums where he donated a total of $110,000, a bunch of computers, and provided internet connectivity to number of schools. Secondly, Bill Gates donated 38 million dollars for the building of a computer institute at Stanford University.Written By : Usman Awan

Most Beautiful and Lovely Flowers of the World

Top Ten Most Favourite Flowers Of Girls

1. Roses

This flower deserves to be placed at first place in the list. This flower is symbol of love and is used to express love in whole world. Rose has many varieties and colors and different colors carry various meanings, as red color is color of love and yellow shows friendship.

Roses

2. Lantana

This bunch of spectacular flowers is considered as weed by many people and unfortunately this is endangered specie of flowers. The plant is strong and color of petals change with increasing age of plant.

Lantana

3. Blue Bells

This flower specie is present in European forests and come in its beauty in spring season. These flowers give an impression of sorrow and grief and are truly eternal in their beauty.

Blue Bells

4. Bleeding Heart

These flowers are available in spring season only from April to June. These are present in three colors as red, pink and white. These flowers are very delicate and required special attention and care.

Bleeding Heart

5. Black Eyed Susan

These flowers are symbol of happiness and cheers. You can identify these flowers due to their unique sharp yellow petals and black spots in middle.

Black eyed susan

6. Calla Lily

This flower is beautiful death as their looks are so pleasant but these flowers are poisonous and can prove fatal. However just looking this flower you can not even imagine of its notorious crime.

calla lily

7. Hydrangea

This flower is cute and attractive as its smother colors and tender petals provide soothing affect. They have star shape that is attractive for children. If you have wedding plans in next few months or days then try to decorate the stage with this flower. This flower is symbol of cheers of marriage.

Hydrangea

8. Bird of paradise

The very glimpse of flower is witness that why this flower is named as bird of paradise. This is magical and truly spectacular flower and does seem to be heavenly creation.

Bird of paradise

9. Canna

This follower is used in many films and is sign for beauty and love. This is very famous flower since long times ago. The flower is itself exotic but the leaves covering this flower are equally amazing. These leaves are like banana leaves big and beautiful.

canna

10. Cherry Blossom

This flower is found in Japan. This flower is present in two colors as white and pink. Amazing thing is that this flower blossoms on a tall tree and in fall Cherry blossom trees looks spectacular.

Cherry blossom

Written By : Usman Awan

Top Powerful women Entrepreneurs in India

 Powerful women Entrepreneurs in India-Indra Nooyi, S.Gandhi, Lalita

 Powerful women Entrepreneurs in India-Indra Nooyi, S.Gandhi, Lalita

This Madras born woman was a straight “A” student in her school. Nooyi did her bachelors from Madras Christian College and MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. Nooyi then went to USA and attended Yale University. From Yale, she obtained degree on management. This brilliant corporate woman started her career in Boston Consulting Group and moved on to Motorola and Asea Brown Boveri. She joined Pepsi Co. in 1994. She turned the company into a bold risk taker. In 1998, Pepsi acquired Tropicana. In 1997, Pepsi started its own fast food chain. In 2001, she became President of Pepsi Cola. Wall Street Journal included her name in their top 50 women to watch in 2005. Fortune magazine declared her 11th most powerful women in business.

Sonia Gandhi-13th position—President, Congress Party

Sonia Gandhi-13th position—President, Congress Party

She was born in Italy and had a normal upbringing. In 1964, she went to Cambridge to study English and met Rajiv Gandhi. The two fell in love and got married in 1968. Sonia’s entrance into politics was accidental. In 1991, after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, she was approached by the Congress Party leaders but she refused. She finally joined politics in 1998 by taking over the charge of Congress Party. Her opponents tried to ruin her image by labeling her as a foreigner, but with her timely decision to give up the position of Prime minister to Dr. Manmohan Singh, after winning the general election of 2004, she outmatched her opponents.

Lalita Gupte & Kalpana Morparia—93rd position—Joint Managing Directors, ICICI Bank

Lalita Gupte & Kalpana Morparia—93rd position—Joint Managing Directors, ICICI Bank

Kalpana Morparia and Lalita Gupte are Joint Managing Directors of ICIC Bank, the second largest bank of India. Lalita Gupte holds a Master’s Degree in Management Studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. She joined ICIC Bank in 1971. Her reason behind success is her supportive family. She got great support from her husband and in laws.

Ms. Kalpana Morparia is a graduate in law from Mumbai University. She joined ICIC in 1975 as a senior legal officer. In 1996, she became General Manager. She became Executive Director in 2001. In 1999, for her contribution in Finance and Banking sector in India, Indian Merchants' Chamber awarded her.

Vidya Manohar Chhabria—95th position—Chairman, Jumbo Group

Vidya Manohar Chhabria

The wife of late Manohar Rajaram Chhabria, is now leading Jumbo Group, a Dubai based $1.5 billion business conglomerate. She became chairperson of the company after the death of her husband in 2002. She runs the business with the help of her three daughters. She was ranked 38th most powerful women by the Fortune magazine in 2003.

Anu Aga- Chairperson (former) Thermax Group

Anu Aga- Chairperson (former) Thermax Group

Like Vidya Manohar Chabaria, this woman also became the Chairperson of Thermax Engineering after the death of her husband Rohinton Aga. The company’s condition was critical at that time. Its share price dipped to Rs. 36 from Rs. 400. Anu Aga, the then Director of Human Resource, Thermax, was compelled to take charge of the company. In order to make the company profitable, she brought a consultant from abroad and restructured the company. The strategy worked and the company saw profit again. She stepped down from the post of chairperson in 2004. Now, she spends most of her time in social activities. Bombay Management Association awarded her Management Woman Achiever of the Year Award 2002-2003.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw—Biocon

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw—Biocon

She is the first female master brewer and the richest woman in India. Her father was a master brewer and he encouraged her to get into this profession. Shaw obtained her Honors degree in Zoology from Bangalore University. Then she went to Ballarat University to study brewery. Her first job was in Carlton & United Beverages in 1974, as a trainee brewer. She started her firm Biocon India in 1978 in her garage. When she applied for loan to the banks, she was turned down. At that time, biotechnology was not known in India and she was a female and her company did not have much assets. With her hard work and determination she overcome all these obstacles and turned Biocon into the biggest biopharmaceutical firm in India.

Simone Tata—Managing Director (former) Lakme

Simone Tata—Managing Director (former) Lakme

With her visions, she changed a small unknown cosmetics company, one of the subsidiaries of Tata Oil Mills, into one of the leading cosmetic companies of India. Lakme changed the face of Indian fashion and cosmetics forever. For her success, Simone N. Tata is also known as Cosmetic Czarina of India. Simone joined Lakme in 1961 and became Chairperson in 1982. The company is now sold to Hindustan Liver. Simone is now heading Trent Limited another subsidiary of the Tata Company.

Indu Jain- Chairperson (former) The Times Group

Indu Jain- Chairperson (former) The Times Group

Indu Jain has many identities: spiritualist, entrepreneur, humanist, educationalist, great lover of art and culture. She was the Chairman of the The Times Group, the biggest and the most powerful media house in India. The company was bought from a British group. Now, her two sons Samir and Vineet are running the company. Among the major products of the company, The Times of India, the largest selling English daily newspaper of the world. In 2000, Jain delivered speech at the Millenium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders.

Priya Paul—Apeejay Surrendra Group

priya paul

Priya Paul finished her Bachelor’s in Economics from USA. She got into her family business at the age of 24 after her father Surrendra Paul was assassinated in 1990. Appeejay Surrendra Group has several subsidiaries such as, tea, hotel, shipping, retail, real estate and financial services. At present, Priya is the Chairperson of Appeejay Park Hotels.

Sulajja Firodia Motwani— Kinetic Motor

This beautiful woman is the Joint Managing Director of Kinetic, and the Managing Director of Kinetic Finance. Her grandfather founded this company. He was a very well known figure in the Indian auto industry. Sulajja did her MBA in America. Later, she worked in Barra International, a California based investment consultancy firm, for four years and then returned to India and joined her family business. She travels a lot around India and likes to deal face to face with people. This is how she tries to understand the market in her country.

Neelam Dhawan—Managing Director, Microsoft India

Sulajja Firodia Motwani— Kinetic Motor

She has become a pioneering figure in the IT industry of India. Neelam Dhawan has been working in the Indian IT field for the last twenty two years. She is the new Managing Director of Microsoft India. Before coming to Microsoft, she worked in all the top IT companies in India such as HP, IBM and HCL.Written By: Usman Awan

World's Expensive Musical Instruments

World's Expensive Musical Instruments

What's 300 years old, made of wood and easily outperforms most mutual funds?
A Stradivarius violin. Or an antique guitar or mandolin, for that matter.
A growing group of investors is viewing music—as in unusual and expensive instruments—as a wise place to put cash. Not only can a musical instrument offer substantial financial returns; it is more functional and more fun than a painting on a wall. You can play your Strad to your heart's content, or rent it out to violinist Joshua Bell. Just be sure not to drop it.
Not much has changed in the field of violin production and dealing since Antonio Stradivari set up shop in Cremona, Italy, during the late 17th century. Dukes and queens coveted the craftsman's creations back then; today, the instruments sell for wild sums to a comparable group of wealthy amateurs.
Of the 1,100 violins that Stradivari is believed to have made during his lifetime, only 650 are known to remain. Although there were other noted violin makers in Stradivari's time—such as Guarneri and Amati, whose works now fetch great sums of money—the surviving Strads are more numerous, more famous and more expensive.
Even the most successful and celebrated luthier of all time might have been surprised to learn that his "Lady Tennant" violin was sold last year by Christie's for more than $2.03 million, the highest amount ever paid for a musical instrument at a public auction.
In 1998, Christie's auctioned a very similar Strad (crafted in 1698, one year earlier than the Lady Tennant) for $880,000. One could infer, then, that certain Strad violins more than doubled in value in this seven-year period, says Kerry Keane, the musical-instrument department head at Christie's.
In private, they may go for even more: The Stradivari Society, a private Chicago-based organization that purchases rare violins and loans them to promising young musicians, values some "golden era" (post-1700) Stradivari violins at $6 million each.
Stradivari (born 1644, died 1737) is believed by many to have built his finest instruments as an older and consequently more skilled craftsman. An early-period (pre-1700) Stradivarius, therefore, may sell for less. However, "such examples represent excellent values for musicians, as sound does not precisely follow price," write Stradivari Society founders Robert Bein and Geoffrey Fushi in their essay, "The Masterpieces of Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù: A Market Perspective."
According to the Stradivari Society, the value of Stradivari and Guarneri violins has tripled since 1990.
"As institutions and museums hold an increasing percentage of the great violins, the competition intensifies for the remaining instruments when they do become available, and the continued increases in violin prices of the current decade dramatically reflect this fact," say Bein and Fushi.
What gives this particular fiddle its unrivaled appeal? Some scientists have suggested that Stradivari used alpine spruce that had grown during an era of uncommonly cold weather. This may have made the wood abnormally dense and contributed to the brilliant sound quality of his instruments. Others insist that no instrument maker has ever worked harder.
Perhaps the answer lies closer to the fact that instrument connoisseurs, like stock investors, are drawn to a great story. Strads are undoubtedly beautiful in sound and design, and many have been passed down through the hands of generations of great musicians, from 18th-century master Nicolo Paganini to 20th-century virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin.
The allure of rich provenance may also explain how rock legends can turn cheaply-made guitars into million-dollar purchases. While violins still top the list of the most expensive instruments, their fretted cousins are quickly catching up, especially those attached to celebrity names.
"Musical instruments have been great investments, such that I now consider them to be far superior to money in the bank, especially at today's interest rates, or in most stocks or mutual funds," says George Gruhn, a guitar dealer based in Nashville, Tenn., who has sold Fenders and Les Pauls to Paul McCartney, Johnny Cash and Eric Clapton.
In fact, Gruhn suspects that Clapton's "Blackie" guitar—the most expensive ever sold publicly, at $959,500 in 2004—was assembled from guitar parts purchased in part from him in the 1970s for, oh, maybe a few hundred bucks. (Read Forbes FYI's 2005 article on collecting rare guitars, " While My Guitar Gently Reaps.")
Unlike the stock market, with its booms and busts, the musical instrument market has only periods of growth and periods of plateau, Gruhn postulates. Some guitars in his collection that would have brought in $50,000 one year ago now go for $150,000, he says.
But is this kind of growth sustainable? "Only if one does [one's] due diligence," cautions Christie's Keane. He cites six fine-instrument value determinants:
1. Attribution (who made it)
2. Quality
3. Condition
4. Provenance (who played it)
5. Freshness to the market. An instrument brought out of 200 years in hiding incites "an air of discovery," Keane says.
6. Fashion. For example, "classical guitars are hot right now."
Once you've done your homework and put in your winning bid, don't closet your new acquisition or display it on the mantle under your Picasso. Like wine or art, fine instruments need to be stored in a carefully monitored, semi-humid climate to maintain their worth.
As for the most expensive instrument ever sold—"The Lady Tennant"—it could fetch up to $3 million today in prime condition, Keane estimates.
Not a bad return for an old piece of wood.          by : Usman Awan