There is a war being waged across the computer world. It is a war without beginning, and a war that most certainly will not have an end. It does not necessarily involve that huge corporate entity known as “Microsoft,” nor does it always involve involve the faceless empire of “Google.” Many times it involves that of the open source community, other times the black- and white-hatted security experts, other times the Web 2.0 junkies, other times just the common user.

This war? It is the war of “I’m Right, You Idiot, So Let Me Tell You How It Should Be.”

Since as long as I can remember (which isn’t very long, to be honest), mankind has always had the problem of individuals thinking themselves to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Some are rather skilled individuals, some are not. But, as a wise Jedi once said, “Size matters not. The only difference is in your mind.”

And, unfortunately, that’s true here.

Case in point, the people that make up my computer certification class. I bring you Subject A, who I shall call Abe. We are talking about the basic networking components. The hub on Layer 1. The switch on Layer 2. The router on—

“WAIT A MINUTE AREN’T THERE SWITCHES THAT HAVE ROUTING CAPABILITIES?!” Uhh, sure. Those are layer 3 switches. So, anyways, we have routers on Layer 3—

“SO WHY WOULD WE USE A ROUTER IF WE HAVE A LAYER 3 SWITCH?” Uhhh, well, routers came before layer 3 switches—

“ARE WE USING A LAYER 3 SWITCH OR A ROUTER IN THAT OTHER LAB?”

…

Who the hell cares?! Must we specifically have to tell people it’s not important, primarily because this is just an explanation that will segue right back into configuring Routing and Remote Access, and making sure we do it right when we’re taking that wonderful certification test.

And then there’s the case of the man who must drill all technicalities despite the fact that generalizations were invented to quickly go over concepts without spending hours on it. Network Load-Balancing and Clustering.

“Aren’t those two basically the same thing?” No… let me explain. This does this and that does that, and when this happens…

“But since this and this, aren’t they the same?” No, I haven’t finished. This and this…

“I asked about clusters, not load balancing. You didn’t answer my question.” Wait, what?

I know comparatively a lot about things that most people don’t even care about. Therefore, it’s sometimes best to not even open your mouth. One must gauge whether you are being helpful, whether you’re on topic, and whether the topic warrants the time being used.

And, of course, making sure you have your facts straight before you start criticizing something is always a plus. Like when a bunch of “l33t” users couldn’t figure out the logic behind numbering the upcoming Windows client OS as “Windows 7″ (refers to the kernel version, which I would THINK those type of people would know something about), or how the Microsoft IT personnel couldn’t wrap their head around the concept of Mandatory Access Control (MAC), which is pretty much the basis for all the stereotypical governmental security measures you see in Hollywood movies (”Hey, this file is marked as Top Secret! Let me see if I can crack the password and get top secret clearance…!”).

So, in total, I find that this world of computers, which is supposed to be a world of logic, information, and advancement, is just the same as the real world: full of bull.

This might be impetus for the writer to fulfill his lifelong dream and takeover the world. Or, at least, carve his own nation out of it.

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I’m currently taking classes for my A+ certification, and one of the characters in this class is a man who reminds me a lot of the guy in those stupid ditech.com commercials. “Lost another one to Ditech!!!”

Normally, I wouldn’t care so much, since people here are learning to use computers (Holy crap, is A+ cert supposed to be this easy?!), and they come from all different backgrounds and with little or no familiarity with computers. But, seeing as this is a class with an instructor (who happens to be more than qualified to teach), I feel there is a difference between asking questions to clarify a subject and asking questions to dispute a concept you know very little about.

The instructor talks about the Recycle Bin, and how it’s a temporary holdover whenever you “delete” something. I respectfully pay attention even though 99% of what’s being taught is stuff I already know. Anyways, this guy, who I shall call Mr. Ditech, suddenly says, “But isn’t it not really true that it’s not deleted? Isn’t it true that it’s still there?” He then goes on about the FBI coming to your house when you’re away, taking away your hard drive, and extracting all the data that you thought was safely deleted, hoping to find something illegal so they can haul you off to jail.

Now, the instructor knows this type of person, so after giving him a few terse answers to his barrage of “isn’t it” questions, he quickly ends it by saying, “You know what? You’re absolutely right. There it is. Absolutely right.” Mr. Ditech is at a loss of words to say immediately, so the instructor uses that to his advantage and pushes forth with the lesson.

Hmm… I understand what he was getting to, and Mr. Ditech is right, but 1.) it’s not at all in the scope of the class, 2.) if the FBI is after you, you’re pretty much screwed no matter what, 3.) he’s emphasizing less about the computer concept and more about his bone to pick with “the government.”

Other things he’s tried to make arguments about.

• The move away from floppy drives in favor of disc burners and flash memory, saying that it’s all the computer makers forcing people to stop using floppy disks.
• Microsoft and Bill Gates in general, saying that Microsoft has a monopoly on 100% of all computers in the world, which isn’t true. (Windows is on roughly 95% of all home user’s computers, but only 50% in commercial environments, with fierce competition from UNIX.)
• The fan of a power supply sucking air into the computer, which he thought wasn’t efficient even though he knows nothing about physics.
• The use of fiber optics and burying lines in the ground.
• The computer industry’s change from analog to digital, particularly the “copier industry,” as glamorous as a “copier technician” sounds like.
• The need to learn a new operating system every few years, even though the Windows interface is almost EXACTLY the same from version to version.
• The archaic nature of the Command Console and DOS commands, even though he was told it’s archaic and confusing.
• The “confusing nature” of doing basic tasks in Windows, like opening a folder. (Is double-click that hard?)
• The “confusing nature” of complex, multilayered problems, which are inherently supposed to be confusing. (Why else would they be complex, multilayered problems?)

What’s worse than a know-it-all braggart that doesn’t shut up? A know-nothing braggart that doesn’t shut up.

I’m a beta tester for the Tsukihime Translation Project (and no, you’re never going to get a leak from me), and one of my first assignments was to do a final, penultimate proofing of several script files. Now, serious proofing isn’t something to be taken lightly, especially when you figure that thousands of people are going to be reading this stuff.

Anyways, I’m trudging away at the script files, trying to get them done as expediently as possible. One enthusiastic member of the BL Game Project is… well, I’m not too sure how to describe it. My best, honest guess is that he’s developing a sort of power complex and isn’t really approaching members in a very diplomatic or even cordial fashion.

Now, I think this person is a good person and a hard worker, but sometimes certain people aren’t at their best in certain positions because of the way they do things. I told him that he needed to stop being a pest, since people have lives outside of the BL Project. Too, the situation is more complex than that.

• Person A was being yelled at.
• A was waiting on B to finish.
• B has been thinking of the problem at hand.
• B has also been busy with at least two other aspects of the BL Project.
• B has a real-life project that he’s working on, which ostensibly would have a strict time schedule.

One of the major headaches I’ve had to deal with (and will have to continue to deal with) is when people’s egos become bloated via their character in the game. It’s annoying when you start getting some really imbalanced or munchkinized player characters. Here’s some notable issues that came up.

• One person wanted/wants to be an incredibly smart and talented spellcaster and fighter.
• One person was a spellcaster who wants to wield an incredibly destructive sword and have all the necessary skill to use it at it’s fullest extent. And the direct apprentice of a certain TYPE-MOON character.
  • Barring the character just mentioned, they wanted to be a spellcaster that was hideously powerful, and more powerful than their teacher, too.
  • Worse, their view of that TYPE-MOON character is fundamentally flawed, basing it on a flawed adaptation that TYPE-MOON denies ever existed.
  • Even worse, said person is actually pretty dense (has knowledge, but no sense at all), yet wants their character to be very knowledgable and wise, knowing the best thing to do in all situations. Right.
• One person wanted an echelon/support hybrid who wants to become the single most popular and all around useful character in the game.
  • Said person has/is trying to establish himself as a de facto ruler of an entire realm. For no good reason, really. 
  • Said person doesn’t shut up about their character, or their huge entourage.
• One person wants a frontline fighter who wants to deal incredible amounts of damage in a short amount of time without much effort. Their weaknesses are either insubstantial or character-breaking with not much of a median in between.

Yay, I ranted about it. Creating a Character Template will make people want to overpower themselves, as does creating a Skill Template. It’s all ego and self-pleasuring. Unfortunately for me, I can’t really do that myself, since I’m designing the mechanics, trying to balance characters, and trying to serve as a model for how other character sheets.

(You think this story is convoluted? You should see my other stories.)

So, earlier, he had really really wanted a finalized Character Template and Skill Template. Story-wise, the incomplete Character Template was fine, and the Skill Template was really only for battles and such, which were out of his scope. But, that’s what he wanted, and he wouldn’t stop whining unless I make one. So, I stop my proofing work, dig out my notebook, and start creating a skill template. It grows larger and larger. It becomes very detailed and very scary. So I deem that a Skill Encyclopedia Template, and quickly draft up a Skillbook Template for easy viewing. This is over the course of two nights, I think. A short period to draft skill templates for an RPG engine that’s still hasn’t been fully designed, in any case.

It’s all done, and even write down stuff that’s in my notebook on the Wiki. Now, I’m back at the beginning of my story. I don’t want to hear any more “do this,” especially since I create a lot of stuff as well as organize things. I have obligations to help get a Tsukihime translation out as fast as possible, seeing as it was delayed by nearly a year for absolutely STUPID reasons.

So, I get quite irritated when someone tells me to do something, even half-jokingly, when I’ve recently done a lot of stuff related to it and am currently busy doing something far more important. Worse, they have no idea about the full implications about what their asking.

To create the Skill Template, it starts out with the Battle Mechanics. The basic design was drafted a while ago. Next was creating the relationship between Basic Stats and Derived Stats. Level gain, max level, and differing ranks between characters (a mage with low Endurance versus a tank with very high Endurance vs your average hero), and finding elegant but sufficiently detailed numbers. Now we’ve got a basis for Health Points, Tech Points, and Magic Points. Next, I have to dissect possible attacks. Attacks have various costs associated with them, and can have side effects. An attack hits something, and it has certain elemental properties, a certain damage equation, a certain effect that’s applied to their attack, a certain effect that lingers on. And that’s just like, one hit. Granted, a lot of attacks will be one hit, but not all are like that, and a good system should be able to accomodate the complex procedures. These are computers, which can compute things near instantaneously, not pen-and-paper RPGs where simplicity plays a HUGE factor. And “effects” is a whole other story, too.

::yawn:: I’m tired. Maybe I’ll work on Project T some more. A celebration for finishing my main run through my assigned script files for the beta.