yup, the whole space phase is what made me stop playing. One fleet.
Oh noes! I'm being attacked 4 jumps away! Ah, beat them down. OK, the timer is getting low on delivering that species to the other planet 5 jumps away. Better get moving! Ah, only 1 more planet to go. What!? I'm being attacked 7 jumps away. Grrr! Ok, beat them down...now how much . What!? Timer's expired! dammit!! {klaxon} oh! What now for cripes sake? Being attacked 4 jumps away? Yeah, good luck with that. ALT-F4.
Spore is an abysmal failure as far as I'm concerned. Was cute for about 2 days...then it simply jumped the genetically-engineered shark.
...then the government/nanny needs to protect them from any possibility of harm.
You mean the government nanny that allocated the H1B visas because they're weren't enough skilled people to do the job? Now there are millions out of work that are able to do the job due to the poor economy. I'll be damned if my tax payer money should pay support costs to those out of work while the government I fund gives jobs to foreign nationals.
"But they usually get very defensive when you take your problems outside."
Outside? Outside what? Outside the lines of the students' legal rights? Schools, Colleges and Universities are not a magical place where their laws trump the law of the land. These organizations are still bound by the laws of the USA and when laws and rights are violated people with a *spine* need to stand up and defend themselves!
If the teacher/instructor/professor is so concerned that people not cheat to pass their class then they need to mix the problems up from semester to semester. This just reeks of laziness on the part of the instructor. I know the instructor just wants to teach the same syllabus year after year so they can just glide through year after year of monotonous existence; but, guess what? Instructors still need to pull their own weight and "think" instead of simply trying to justify their laziness by blaming high grades in their class on cheaters.
It's like this: If someone stole something of yours at work that you worked on for months, not only would you call the police, you'd also inform management. Sure, work would probably fire the person and your police report would certainly damage the offending person's reputation; but, I believe they made that bed now they should sleep in it.
I don't believe in being Mr. Nice Guy (tm) after my rights have been violated.
Now, if this instructor had said, before the semester started, that they'd be collecting notes from each person at the end of the semester someone could have brought this faulty line of thought to a higher authority within the college for discussion on whether that's really a good thing to do or not. But, that's not what happened.
This instructor rummaged through personal property and took something she found of value to herself and her students. Depending on the perceived value of the notes taken this could be more than a simple slap on the hand for this instructor.
Do I believe she was being malicious? No. Stupid. Short-sighted. Yes.
I've got this female friend from years ago who still chain mails me the latest version of "Febreeze Kills Pets!!1!" emails. I've asked her numerous times to stop to no avail. A few months ago, she sent me another one with a couple dozen other unfortunates in the "To:" list. I don't know most of the people on the list. I reviewed the contents and sure enough snopes has a write up on it debunking the contents of this email, too.
I'm a good civil servant so I hit 'reply all' explaining to everyone that the message was bogus. True to "Tuttle, OK, USA" form, one of the recipients asked me, rather snippily, "who are you and how did you get my email address???" She further went on to say I was harassing her upon receiving my single email from her.
My single reply was, "Freaky, huh? Say hi to Kathy."
A few days later I got an email from Kathy. She was a little distressed that I took the effort to debunk the contents of her email...embarrassing her in the process. She also informed me that the friend that sent it to her had years of nurse-training for an old-folks home and knew what she was talking about. She, a nurse, is the final authority on whether swiffer or febreeze is poisonous to animals. ((rolling eyes))
--------
I know that wasn't the nicest I could have been; but, you know what? I'm tired of coddling the ignorant masses that clog our "series of tubes." Even after others have taken the time to investigate the matter the muggles still point, drool and ignore all reason. Meh.
Releasing the tapes gives the org (an alleged terrorist org) the opportunity to review their own security apparatus and make changes where applicable. Such as: If a conversation from a certain number released certain information at a certain point in time, it would allow the org to do several things:
1) Remove the communication device from service. (ie: get replacement hardware that has not been compromised.)
Bad for the US as intel is now harder to come by. 2) Determine if the person using said comm device is a traitor to their cause and kill them.
Bad for the US as intel is now harder to come by. 3) Use alternative means to deliver communiques.
Bad for the US as intel is now harder to come by.
See a theme anywhere in there?
I'm not saying the US did everything by the book - it should have. I'm just pointing out that 'reminding' terrorists isn't on the agenda or even part of the problem.
When your opponent believes that you and he are not in a war, you have achieved 99% victory. When your opponent believes no one is at war with him he is a fool.
There is very much a campaign against open source and very much a campaign against closed source.
For example: There were many office suites until Microsoft entered the arena...then most fell. The OSS answer was OO.o and probably others.
IBM vs Sun IBM vs Microsoft Windows vs Linux Windows vs Mac Office vs OO.c IE vs Moz/Firefox
then there was
Google Chrome vs Firefox.
I think the Mozilla Foundation is very nervous that Google created Chrome as Google is a major sponser of the Mozilla project. How long will it be before Google decides the marriage is no longer viable?
I think you missed the key point of the statement..."Irish tax haven." Basically, Microsoft is allegedly using offshore accounts as a tax haven. Opps, you don't understand that term. Microsoft is allegedly stealing money from the US Government by using accounts that are inaccessible to the feds while complaining to the feds that software pirates are the bane of Microsoft's^H^H^H^H^H^H$oft's existence.
As for "...stealing from the rich." Be serious. M$ is stealing from the poor. Us poor tax payers, that is. Clear now? KBye.
The C++ Programming Language, 3rd Edition is pretty excellent.
While I agree that it's an excellent read, let's not jump the gun. Bjarne's 3rd edition does not teach C++ from the bare-ground up. This tome, as no other words seems to do justice to the words contained within, has been written almost entirely with generic programming in mind - that is, it begins by twisting the reader's mind with templates. Templates, as a lot of C++ developers are aware can be quite painful for experienced developers, let alone lowbie magi.
I'm going to do a public service announcement by introducing "C++ Primer 4th Edition" (Lippman/Lajoie/Moo) (clickity).
Then, after mastering that excellent read, partake of "The C++ Standard Library: A Tutorial and Reference" (Josuttis) (clickity).
If after reading those first two, and maybe many others, one finds oneself still up for more mental anguish, then and only then could I recommend "The C++ Programming Language" (Stroustrup).
Just because it's foreign (and maybe a little silly) doesn't mean it's not a high-powered brand. Middle-class American white folks might not realize it, but Ultraman is the third most merchandised character in the world, right after Mickey Mouse and Charlie Brown (and before Superman). And the people who command that kind of market share have lawyers?
Has anyone stopped to consider that Toyota is doing this on purpose *because* they are aware of the Streisand Effect and they are now moving into viral-marketing to save their sales during this economic downturn?
Intel has whored the x86 line almost to death. Microsoft, for it's part, has whored the Windows line to death - eg: Vista. The market has simply been 'fleshed-out.' There are new verticals to explore. The PC market has been played to death and that horse will continue to take a beating over the conceivable future; although, people are no longer fascinated by PCs or are no longer going to be woo'd by MS and Intel simply because they released a new OS/MB combination.
No one can doubt the success of Windows XP. IMHO, it was too successful. People have found a system that meets or exceeds their expectations/needs. We nerds can wax philosophic all we want, the market's trend is going another direction. Small appliances with enough power to complete the jobs people need completed will be performed by footprints that are smaller and smaller - both in terms of power consumption (THINK GREEN!!) and physical dimensions.
Maybe MS/Intel arn't worried - they should be. The next time you see a police car take a good look at all the digital equipment running inside that squad car. There are no less than 2 cameras in the cars now - 1 dash cam and 1 rear view mirror cam. Some cameras are actually built into the flashlights they use to blind you with as they approach your vehicle to site you. What kind of computers do you think are running that equipment? Let me tell you from experience: Whatever gets the job done! If they can get a free OS to perform it's job that is much more attractive to the designer/builder than the MS tax.
There are many markets yet to explore. Some young, financially-poor, hungry engineer is now currently exploring markets unbeknown to us. He's the guy hoping the giants stay asleep. The people who build his equipment also hope the giants stay asleep. As soon as someone's idea takes off, there will be many off-shoots that will be wanting to have a piece of undiscovered market share. Ti and companies like them are counting on it.
True enough. I tried EVE for the 14 day trial period. I loved the idea of EVE; however, it was a pain in the ass to get anything accomplished. If you wanted to get new quests you had to be referred to the next quest giver or else they wouldn't even talk to you. Then, some of the quest lines were cryptic at best and I couldn't figure out where/who to turn the quest in to. I gave up but not for a lack of trying.
EVE is a very intelligent game, one requiring patience and perseverance. The problem is, at the end of the day, I've used up all remaining patience and just didn't have enough for those frustrating quest lines you inevitably will run into.
Space fantasy game where you can get your own super-destro-death-star warship: +5 points. Poor playability: -5 point Help Forum FULL of too many people for an overtaxed support agent: -3 points.
I'm sad that I feel this way. EVE holds so much promise.
There are a few possible scenarios by this statement - all of them conjecture. At this time, the article is very light on detail.
"He sent an e-mail to his principal saying, 'Look what I have,'" DeFeciani said.
Conjecture #1) He was indeed using it for blackmail or other nefarious means.
If this is the case, nail his behind to the wall.
Conjecture #2) He simply reported the problem and the typical knee-jerk reaction ensues.
If this is the case, let him pay off his transgression by working with the people on the IT Team so he can be mentored and more easily monitored. Mentoring is the key element to his natural progression toward becoming a productive citizen.
Conjecture #3) He was showing off his leet h4x0r 5k1llz by attempting to embarrass the admins at that facility.
This is a tough one. I don't want to see some kids life completely ruined because he didn't understand the ramifications of his actions. Certainly, he should be punished but lets not lose our minds. Again, mentoring would probably go a long way in waking this kid up.
Maybe I'm missing the joke - but, I'm calling you out.
Lest anyone misconstrue this to be a factual writeup concerning what the future (from a 1950's perspective) holds, let me bust this photo all to hell and back.
This is a picture of a US Submarine Reactor Plant Control Panel. IAUSSSQ. (I Am US Submersible Ship Qualified - A US Submariner.) This pic is simply doctored.
Second: The 'teletype' is from the 80's - certainly not the 50's. Gotta love the paper in the teletype, too. It just magically appears!! Don't even mention the numerical keypad to the right of the keyboard.
Third: I'm loving that late 50's era TV mounted on the wall where console TVs were designed to be furniture that sits on the floor. And, anyone having owned one of these behemoths can attest, one didn't want to carry those TVs any further than they had to, let alone lift it up over their heads.
Forth: The wheel on the 'computer console.' Home computer.....a wheel? Huh!? Inner wheel: Xloc. Outer wheel: yloc. (LOL)
Fifth: The unfortunate little person cut and pasted into the photo. His size is all wrong for this picture.
This is nothing more than a cut & paste job.
I know. "Buzz kill". "I'm a lot of fun at parties." "I suck."
Several ranking CPOs lost the ability to advance because of bad fit-reps these two shitheads issued - our COB committed suicide on board our boat for Christ's sake. The 'official' report said the command had nothing to do with it. Sure, right. I don't believe anyone believed it.
Let me clarify this lest anyone take it out of context. The official report stated that the COB, I forget his name, was having family problems and it was his family problems that drove him to commit suicide. I feel very strongly that may have been part of the reason. I also feel strongly that stresses at work were the root of the cause. He didn't want to hurt his wife more than this was already going to hurt so he came on board, with a loaded pistol, lay in his rack and shot himself in the chief's quarters. His best friend on board, another chief, found him.
Too young, huh? Here goes. I'm an ex submariner. As near to a futuristic, fully-operational spaceship as we're likely to see in our lifetime is a naval submarine.
The CO (That's "Commanding Officer") of our boat was a late thirty to a forty-something. An early forty-something. The remaining officers were (junior) sub thirties - One as young as 25. Ranking officers in US submarines tend to be younger than their surface fleet counterparts. Submariners are also a heck of a lot smarter. As a matter of fact, submarines are not run quite like surface fleet ships. Knowledge tends to drive submariners - not rank, so much. I've told junior to mid-ranking officers to go eff themselves after they've issued me a command to do something that they didn't realize would have disastrous consequences. When they complained, the senior officers told them to shut it, lest the rest of the crew loose more respect for that officer because of their lack of knowledge.
Here's another little thing: My first CO and XO (Late 30s to early 40 (sub-43)) were the most charismatic leaders I've ever worked under. I would have followed them to the bottom of the sea. My next CO/XO combo (early 50s/late 40s) were, IMHO, more concerned with book-keeping. It was a very unhappy three years for the entire crew under the command of those asshats. Several ranking CPOs lost the ability to advance because of bad fit-reps these two shitheads issued - our COB committed suicide on board our boat for Christ's sake. The 'official' report said the command had nothing to do with it. Sure, right. I don't believe anyone believed it. The next CO I didn't stick around long enough to get to know.
So, as for being too young? Not buying it. There are many ranking officers that are much younger than their ranking CPOs (high ranking enlisted) on board. Subsequently, junior officers are much younger than the Chief's on-board.
Well, I certainly agree that the world doesn't need any more Drizzt-named characters. That being said, why should a cartoon character be removed from exploring a story-line reserved for the Horde or the Alliance? It's a fantasy world - let's fantasize!!:)
As for other game developers having already done this...I have no experience with that as I did not know this. Knowing this now doesn't change my mind on wanting to see something like that in WoW. Maybe it just wouldn't fit. My post certainly isn't garnering anyone's attention via moderation so I expect that there is little chance of this post being answered by Blizzard.
To Jeffrey Kaplan: I'm sure your teams are very aware of R.A. Salvatore's series of books involving Drizzt Do'Urden and his viewpoint of his racial history and his disagreement with it. Is there any possibility of WoW incorporating some type of engine to allow players to choose a change of allegiance (WRT Alliance/Horde) with the opposite faction? (IE: A Blood Elf choosing to fight for the Alliance, etc.). I'm wondering if after reaching a certain level (say level 10 or 20 and limiting the choice to only a few levels thereafter (6 levels, perhaps) that the player could choose to permanently change allegiance to the opposite faction.
Slashdot Mirror
yup, the whole space phase is what made me stop playing. One fleet.
Oh noes! I'm being attacked 4 jumps away!
Ah, beat them down.
OK, the timer is getting low on delivering that species to the other planet 5 jumps away. Better get moving!
Ah, only 1 more planet to go. What!? I'm being attacked 7 jumps away. Grrr!
Ok, beat them down...now how much . What!? Timer's expired! dammit!!
{klaxon} oh! What now for cripes sake? Being attacked 4 jumps away? Yeah, good luck with that.
ALT-F4.
Spore is an abysmal failure as far as I'm concerned. Was cute for about 2 days...then it simply jumped the genetically-engineered shark.
OMG! That was brilliant! That brought tears to my eyes.
FWIW, I am a former Sub Sailor. USS Phoenix (SSN-702).
Gotta plead "shocked to see this!"
Thank you. I'll have to investigate this further.
Outside? Outside what? Outside the lines of the students' legal rights? Schools, Colleges and Universities are not a magical place where their laws trump the law of the land. These organizations are still bound by the laws of the USA and when laws and rights are violated people with a *spine* need to stand up and defend themselves!
If the teacher/instructor/professor is so concerned that people not cheat to pass their class then they need to mix the problems up from semester to semester. This just reeks of laziness on the part of the instructor. I know the instructor just wants to teach the same syllabus year after year so they can just glide through year after year of monotonous existence; but, guess what? Instructors still need to pull their own weight and "think" instead of simply trying to justify their laziness by blaming high grades in their class on cheaters.
It's like this: If someone stole something of yours at work that you worked on for months, not only would you call the police, you'd also inform management. Sure, work would probably fire the person and your police report would certainly damage the offending person's reputation; but, I believe they made that bed now they should sleep in it.
I don't believe in being Mr. Nice Guy (tm) after my rights have been violated.
Now, if this instructor had said, before the semester started, that they'd be collecting notes from each person at the end of the semester someone could have brought this faulty line of thought to a higher authority within the college for discussion on whether that's really a good thing to do or not. But, that's not what happened.
This instructor rummaged through personal property and took something she found of value to herself and her students. Depending on the perceived value of the notes taken this could be more than a simple slap on the hand for this instructor.
Do I believe she was being malicious? No. Stupid. Short-sighted. Yes.
That was a great story!
I've got this female friend from years ago who still chain mails me the latest version of "Febreeze Kills Pets!!1!" emails. I've asked her numerous times to stop to no avail. A few months ago, she sent me another one with a couple dozen other unfortunates in the "To:" list. I don't know most of the people on the list. I reviewed the contents and sure enough snopes has a write up on it debunking the contents of this email, too.
I'm a good civil servant so I hit 'reply all' explaining to everyone that the message was bogus. True to "Tuttle, OK, USA" form, one of the recipients asked me, rather snippily, "who are you and how did you get my email address???" She further went on to say I was harassing her upon receiving my single email from her.
My single reply was, "Freaky, huh? Say hi to Kathy."
A few days later I got an email from Kathy. She was a little distressed that I took the effort to debunk the contents of her email...embarrassing her in the process. She also informed me that the friend that sent it to her had years of nurse-training for an old-folks home and knew what she was talking about. She, a nurse, is the final authority on whether swiffer or febreeze is poisonous to animals. ((rolling eyes))
--------
I know that wasn't the nicest I could have been; but, you know what? I'm tired of coddling the ignorant masses that clog our "series of tubes." Even after others have taken the time to investigate the matter the muggles still point, drool and ignore all reason. Meh.
Releasing the tapes gives the org (an alleged terrorist org) the opportunity to review their own security apparatus and make changes where applicable. Such as: If a conversation from a certain number released certain information at a certain point in time, it would allow the org to do several things:
1) Remove the communication device from service. (ie: get replacement hardware that has not been compromised.)
Bad for the US as intel is now harder to come by.
2) Determine if the person using said comm device is a traitor to their cause and kill them.
Bad for the US as intel is now harder to come by.
3) Use alternative means to deliver communiques.
Bad for the US as intel is now harder to come by.
See a theme anywhere in there?
I'm not saying the US did everything by the book - it should have. I'm just pointing out that 'reminding' terrorists isn't on the agenda or even part of the problem.
When your opponent believes that you and he are not in a war, you have achieved 99% victory. When your opponent believes no one is at war with him he is a fool.
There is very much a campaign against open source and very much a campaign against closed source.
For example: There were many office suites until Microsoft entered the arena...then most fell. The OSS answer was OO.o and probably others.
IBM vs Sun
IBM vs Microsoft
Windows vs Linux
Windows vs Mac
Office vs OO.c
IE vs Moz/Firefox
then there was
Google Chrome vs Firefox.
I think the Mozilla Foundation is very nervous that Google created Chrome as Google is a major sponser of the Mozilla project. How long will it be before Google decides the marriage is no longer viable?
No war? I have to disagree.
I think you missed the key point of the statement..."Irish tax haven." Basically, Microsoft is allegedly using offshore accounts as a tax haven. Opps, you don't understand that term. Microsoft is allegedly stealing money from the US Government by using accounts that are inaccessible to the feds while complaining to the feds that software pirates are the bane of Microsoft's^H^H^H^H^H^H$oft's existence.
As for "...stealing from the rich." Be serious. M$ is stealing from the poor. Us poor tax payers, that is. Clear now? KBye.
While I agree that it's an excellent read, let's not jump the gun. Bjarne's 3rd edition does not teach C++ from the bare-ground up. This tome, as no other words seems to do justice to the words contained within, has been written almost entirely with generic programming in mind - that is, it begins by twisting the reader's mind with templates. Templates, as a lot of C++ developers are aware can be quite painful for experienced developers, let alone lowbie magi.
I'm going to do a public service announcement by introducing "C++ Primer 4th Edition" (Lippman/Lajoie/Moo) (clickity).
Then, after mastering that excellent read, partake of "The C++ Standard Library: A Tutorial and Reference" (Josuttis) (clickity).
If after reading those first two, and maybe many others, one finds oneself still up for more mental anguish, then and only then could I recommend "The C++ Programming Language" (Stroustrup).
FINALLY! Someone will be able to help me find that dream girl I keep dreaming of! Think she'll be able to forgive me? [nudge, nudge. wink, wink.]
Color you shocked? How about color you racist?
Has anyone stopped to consider that Toyota is doing this on purpose *because* they are aware of the Streisand Effect and they are now moving into viral-marketing to save their sales during this economic downturn?
SWITCH
Intel has whored the x86 line almost to death. Microsoft, for it's part, has whored the Windows line to death - eg: Vista. The market has simply been 'fleshed-out.' There are new verticals to explore. The PC market has been played to death and that horse will continue to take a beating over the conceivable future; although, people are no longer fascinated by PCs or are no longer going to be woo'd by MS and Intel simply because they released a new OS/MB combination.
No one can doubt the success of Windows XP. IMHO, it was too successful. People have found a system that meets or exceeds their expectations/needs. We nerds can wax philosophic all we want, the market's trend is going another direction. Small appliances with enough power to complete the jobs people need completed will be performed by footprints that are smaller and smaller - both in terms of power consumption (THINK GREEN!!) and physical dimensions.
Maybe MS/Intel arn't worried - they should be. The next time you see a police car take a good look at all the digital equipment running inside that squad car. There are no less than 2 cameras in the cars now - 1 dash cam and 1 rear view mirror cam. Some cameras are actually built into the flashlights they use to blind you with as they approach your vehicle to site you. What kind of computers do you think are running that equipment? Let me tell you from experience: Whatever gets the job done! If they can get a free OS to perform it's job that is much more attractive to the designer/builder than the MS tax.
There are many markets yet to explore. Some young, financially-poor, hungry engineer is now currently exploring markets unbeknown to us. He's the guy hoping the giants stay asleep. The people who build his equipment also hope the giants stay asleep. As soon as someone's idea takes off, there will be many off-shoots that will be wanting to have a piece of undiscovered market share. Ti and companies like them are counting on it.
True enough. I tried EVE for the 14 day trial period. I loved the idea of EVE; however, it was a pain in the ass to get anything accomplished. If you wanted to get new quests you had to be referred to the next quest giver or else they wouldn't even talk to you. Then, some of the quest lines were cryptic at best and I couldn't figure out where/who to turn the quest in to. I gave up but not for a lack of trying.
EVE is a very intelligent game, one requiring patience and perseverance. The problem is, at the end of the day, I've used up all remaining patience and just didn't have enough for those frustrating quest lines you inevitably will run into.
Space fantasy game where you can get your own super-destro-death-star warship: +5 points.
Poor playability: -5 point
Help Forum FULL of too many people for an overtaxed support agent: -3 points.
I'm sad that I feel this way. EVE holds so much promise.
There are a few possible scenarios by this statement - all of them conjecture. At this time, the article is very light on detail.
Conjecture #1) He was indeed using it for blackmail or other nefarious means.
If this is the case, nail his behind to the wall.
Conjecture #2) He simply reported the problem and the typical knee-jerk reaction ensues.
If this is the case, let him pay off his transgression by working with the people on the IT Team so he can be mentored and more easily monitored. Mentoring is the key element to his natural progression toward becoming a productive citizen.
Conjecture #3) He was showing off his leet h4x0r 5k1llz by attempting to embarrass the admins at that facility.
This is a tough one. I don't want to see some kids life completely ruined because he didn't understand the ramifications of his actions. Certainly, he should be punished but lets not lose our minds. Again, mentoring would probably go a long way in waking this kid up.
Well, at least I called it. I was missing the joke! LOL
Thanks for the info! :P
Maybe I'm missing the joke - but, I'm calling you out.
Lest anyone misconstrue this to be a factual writeup concerning what the future (from a 1950's perspective) holds, let me bust this photo all to hell and back.
This is a picture of a US Submarine Reactor Plant Control Panel. IAUSSSQ. (I Am US Submersible Ship Qualified - A US Submariner.) This pic is simply doctored.
First: This is a picture from a museum - not a computer museum, though - probably a maritime museum. Here's another picture from the same museum.
Ref 1: http://tommcmahon.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/maneuvering.jpg
Here's a sailor tending to the RPCP - Reactor Plant Control Panel.
Ref 2: http://www.guardfish.org/history/mid_years/images/RPCP3.JPG
Second: The 'teletype' is from the 80's - certainly not the 50's. Gotta love the paper in the teletype, too. It just magically appears!! Don't even mention the numerical keypad to the right of the keyboard.
Third: I'm loving that late 50's era TV mounted on the wall where console TVs were designed to be furniture that sits on the floor. And, anyone having owned one of these behemoths can attest, one didn't want to carry those TVs any further than they had to, let alone lift it up over their heads.
Forth: The wheel on the 'computer console.' Home computer.....a wheel? Huh!? Inner wheel: Xloc. Outer wheel: yloc. (LOL)
Fifth: The unfortunate little person cut and pasted into the photo. His size is all wrong for this picture.
This is nothing more than a cut & paste job.
I know. "Buzz kill". "I'm a lot of fun at parties." "I suck."
Move along.
You have issues.
And, no, your post didn't have the effect it intended.
Now, finish your cereal so your mommy can put your binkie back in your pie-hole.
Let me clarify this lest anyone take it out of context. The official report stated that the COB, I forget his name, was having family problems and it was his family problems that drove him to commit suicide. I feel very strongly that may have been part of the reason. I also feel strongly that stresses at work were the root of the cause. He didn't want to hurt his wife more than this was already going to hurt so he came on board, with a loaded pistol, lay in his rack and shot himself in the chief's quarters. His best friend on board, another chief, found him.
It was a very fucked-up day. RIP, COB.
Too young, huh? Here goes. I'm an ex submariner. As near to a futuristic, fully-operational spaceship as we're likely to see in our lifetime is a naval submarine.
The CO (That's "Commanding Officer") of our boat was a late thirty to a forty-something. An early forty-something. The remaining officers were (junior) sub thirties - One as young as 25. Ranking officers in US submarines tend to be younger than their surface fleet counterparts. Submariners are also a heck of a lot smarter. As a matter of fact, submarines are not run quite like surface fleet ships. Knowledge tends to drive submariners - not rank, so much. I've told junior to mid-ranking officers to go eff themselves after they've issued me a command to do something that they didn't realize would have disastrous consequences. When they complained, the senior officers told them to shut it, lest the rest of the crew loose more respect for that officer because of their lack of knowledge.
Here's another little thing: My first CO and XO (Late 30s to early 40 (sub-43)) were the most charismatic leaders I've ever worked under. I would have followed them to the bottom of the sea. My next CO/XO combo (early 50s/late 40s) were, IMHO, more concerned with book-keeping. It was a very unhappy three years for the entire crew under the command of those asshats. Several ranking CPOs lost the ability to advance because of bad fit-reps these two shitheads issued - our COB committed suicide on board our boat for Christ's sake. The 'official' report said the command had nothing to do with it. Sure, right. I don't believe anyone believed it. The next CO I didn't stick around long enough to get to know.
So, as for being too young? Not buying it. There are many ranking officers that are much younger than their ranking CPOs (high ranking enlisted) on board. Subsequently, junior officers are much younger than the Chief's on-board.
Well, I certainly agree that the world doesn't need any more Drizzt-named characters. That being said, why should a cartoon character be removed from exploring a story-line reserved for the Horde or the Alliance? It's a fantasy world - let's fantasize!! :)
As for other game developers having already done this...I have no experience with that as I did not know this. Knowing this now doesn't change my mind on wanting to see something like that in WoW. Maybe it just wouldn't fit. My post certainly isn't garnering anyone's attention via moderation so I expect that there is little chance of this post being answered by Blizzard.
To Jeffrey Kaplan: I'm sure your teams are very aware of R.A. Salvatore's series of books involving Drizzt Do'Urden and his viewpoint of his racial history and his disagreement with it. Is there any possibility of WoW incorporating some type of engine to allow players to choose a change of allegiance (WRT Alliance/Horde) with the opposite faction? (IE: A Blood Elf choosing to fight for the Alliance, etc.). I'm wondering if after reaching a certain level (say level 10 or 20 and limiting the choice to only a few levels thereafter (6 levels, perhaps) that the player could choose to permanently change allegiance to the opposite faction.
0_o
+3 Interesting? I gotta find a new crowd.