Its an addict... er, hobby shared by millions world wide, though when you ask anyone who has spent any time playing the World of Warcraft the last thing they will say is that its educational experience, much less that they learned anything about productivity from the game. But that is exactly what screenwriter John August took away from his time spent exploring Azeroth. My personal favorite gem is #7:

Remember, the game is supposed to be fun. Yes, you can spend hours pouring through the forums, finding exactly the right talent tree. Or you could wing it: explore some new lands and kill some big monsters. Obsessive planning won’t make the game more enjoyable. It will just make it more like work...

...On a bigger level, as you look back at any period of your life, you don’t remember what a solid plan you had. You remember what you did. You remember the adventures, the scrapes, the unanticipated detours that turned out to fascinating. So don’t plan your way out of an exciting life.

Even if you have never even heard of the World of Warcraft, there is something that pretty much anyone can take away from Mr. August's revelations. It is definitely worth spending a few minutes reading.

Seven Things I Learned from World of Warcraft [via WOW Insider]
productivity, tips, World of Warcraft

You may not know him by name, but you probably have at least one of his most notable invention's offspring sitting in your house. Robert Adler, an engineer at Zenith for over 60 years, is best known for his work developing the first practical television remote in 1956. Adler's remote, the Zenith Space Command, use ultrasonics to control the TV instead of the photocells that were prone to interference or the clumsy wired solutions used in previous remote control designs. One of the most incredible features of the Space Command was the fact that it did not need batteries to operate. Aside from his work on television remotes, Adler also was awarded over 180 patents during his tenure at Zenith. Succumbing to heart failure, Robert Adler passed away at the age of 93.

Man who glued TV watchers to the couch dies [via Engadget]
geeks, inventors, Robert Adler

It's a problem faced every day by iPod owners everywhere. You want to protect your shiny (and expensive) toy with a case but, you have to remove the case to dock your iPod to a speaker system or for syncing. SendStation, maker of all sort of cool iPod gadgetry, think they have a solution. The SendStation Dock Extender is the size of the iPod plug on the standard Apple USB cable (so it fits any case that lets you connect the USB cable) and raises the iPod so it will fit in any dock while still in its case. The dock extender also include a Universal Dock insert designed to take the stress off the connector that will work with almost any Apple dock and many third party accessories. The Dock Extender should be available in March of this year. Pricing has yet to be determined.

Product Page
gadgets, mp3 player accessories, Apple, iPod

toys, Legos, Star Wars, Millennium Falcon