Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

The three-day work on my apartment's heating unit had been put off because there was a strike in a major port. That was annoying, but not too big of an issue.

Know what is a big issue? The same strike is keeping me from getting my new computer. GRUMBLE!

I ordered it on 3/7. It was supposed to ship by 3/18. That's three working days from now, and they don't even have the parts yet. Blah.

I was mostly okay with my glacier slow computer, until I ordered the new one. Now I get endlessly grumpy that I'm so much slower in game than everyone else.

I know I'm not their only customer effected by this, but I'm going to ask if they can upgrade my shipping anyway. Also, this explains why their live help/customer service chat has been offline for days...

There are many things from the Star Trek world that would be life-changing to have now. Transporters (visit your family around the world without wasting a day on an airplane!), food replicators (OMG I've dreamed about them so much. Whatever food you want! And I bet they could make it as low calorie as you want! Any food in the world!), and the whole computer system always there and ready to respond to you.

With Amazon Echo, we're a step closer to the computer system. Once you turn it on, all you need to do is speak a question or command out loud, and it responds. (Sort of like a version of Siri, but for your home.)

I was about to drive to Amazon's HQ and demand one, but it turns out the 'wake word' (the word you have to preface all of your questions/commands with) is pre-set and you can't use your own.

The wake word is Alexa, not Computer. :(

I'd love to be able to just speak up in my apartment. "Computer, set a timer for 15 minutes." "Computer, how far is it to Smithsville, CA?" "Computer, remind me to send an email to my sister tomorrow."

Using 'Alexa' isn't cool at all.

I might get one anyway (I submitted a request for an invitation to buy one). Since I have Prime membership, the price would be $99 instead of $199. Some reviews have mentioned that Amazon might include the option for different wake words later... I'd think 'Computer' would be a popular one.

Edit: By way of al_zorra: The National Wildlife Federation talks about the risk of zombies.



Assuming animals can't become zombies (generally a safe assumption), then I'd buy his logic.

STAR WOLF STAR WOLF URHUIOQHFIOQ I CAN'T TYPE STAR WOLF

The star horse is nice too, but it looks too much like the star pony for me. STAR WOLF WOLVES ARE MY FAVORITE MOUNT IN THE GAME STAR WOLF

STAR WOLF EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

"You get them from being Exalted with the Tol Barad " No idea what Tol Barad is, hopefully it's not something endgame-ish, because EEEEEEEEEEEEEE STAR WOLF (Edit: Wait, wait, Tol Barad is PvPing! HA HA HA HA HA! For once I'm in eee good luck! I can PvP til the cows come home!)

And for teaandfailure and everyone, looks like 12/7 is going to be the Cata release date:

A recent blue post revealed that they're planning on ending the current arena season as early as October 12th. In this same post, it's stated that next season will begin one week after the release of Cataclysm.

Boubouille from MMOC has uncovered an interesting bit of information from the game files...

+ARENA_MASTER_NO_SEASON_TEXT = "Arena battles and Rated Battlegrounds are only available during an active player versus player combat season. Season nine will begin on December 14th, so be prepared at that time to take your shot at glory!"