Blizzard has made it official (more or less): the newest expansion for World of Warcraft will be coming sometime soon. Blizzard hasn’t given an exact release date, just a date it won’t be released! Cataclysm, the follow up to Wrath of the Lich King, will be out this year. Best guesses put it in the fourth quarter 2010.

This should be a feature packed expansion. Some highlights:

Two new races: Goblins for the Horde and Worgen for the Alliance.

The level cap has been bumped to 85.

The Cataclysm is going to tear apart much of Azeroth making the starting zones different. This ripping apart is done by the new end boss, a big mother of a dragon!

We’ll finally be able to use our flying mounts all over the world.

A new secondary profession, archeology.

The sprucing up of the starting zones and making the leveling process more straightforward (and hopefully more fun) is needed especially if Blizard hopes to keep luring in new players. The smoother and the quicker the process the better, especially through the first 20 levels when your character is less dangerous than a bunny with an attitude.

I’ve never minded levelling to end game but I also don’t love it, so I am glad there will be only five more levels. Truthfully, when leveling my mage, Zappersz on Rexxar, the grind started to get to me around level 78, so it’s nice that they’ve cut back this time. I am actually digging the idea of archeology (sorry, bad pun). Not that I am that into shoveling (I can see it now, we’ll have +50 digging talent shovels!) or for that matter WoW history, what I am excited about is the flexibility this new profession is supposed to give us in customizing our characters abilities. Maybe just maybe the game won’t be so gear-centric?

From what I understand stats are also going to be simplified, which is good I was tired of needing a spreadsheet to figure out my DPS. For mages, stats like spell power and haste will be gone and everything will be based on intellect (this brings me back to my D&D days). I wouldn’t be surprised if they based haste on agility, though this would be a change for mages so I’m not sure how that would go down.

On a smaller scale, I’ve read that fishing is going to be improved. Fishing is useful but more boring than cutting your toenails while watching paint dry. It’s hard to stay awake and you have no control where your cast goes. Making WoW fishing like Legend of Zelda fishing would be appreciated.

One thing I noticed while cruising the forums is that some players are unhappy with the release date. The complaints I read were basically from players who are already well into Ice Crown Citadel. Complaints boil down too, “Man, my guild and I will be done with ICC this summer and we’ll have to wait months and months for new raiding content. That sucks!” My answer is simple: it maybe bad news for higher end raiding guilds but for the average Joe player the timing isn’t bad at all. My guild is just into the second wing of ICC, so the timing may be perfect for us. I’ve read a fair amount of complaints that Blizzard now caters to the lowest common denominator in WoW. There’s a reason for this: there are a lot more players out there that fit the average Joe description than elite raiders. To quote Star Trek, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of a few.” You get the idea.

All in all I think this will be a much welcome expansion for WoW.

Social networks on the internet are a reflection of social networks in real life. With this little fact also comes the acknowledgement that the less pleasant aspects of human interaction are found on the internet too.

Based on my experiences as a bit of a social reject, before the advent of social networks the internet was very much a place for the less socially gifted to find the social interaction they desired. Discussions would be very much focused on topics they’d feel comfortable with, shared with liked-minded people. Then, with social networks becoming a regular phenomenon – with MySpace, followed by Facebook more and more ‘regular’ people found their way onto the internet.

It was then that the internet began to remind me more of my High School time, with the usual groups of people, including the nerds like me over there in the corner. Nothing wrong with it, aside from the usual differences between said groups. Many people I know who are perfectly comfortable in more technical-oriented groups of people outright refuse to join or significantly participate in social networks because to them it’s just awkward.

There’s this almost universal image of the nerdy guy in some High School or similar movie who is always clumsy, always afraid to join in with any social activities. It’s not that far removed from the truth, aside from the nerdy glasses and lack of fashion sense. We nerds can be pretty fashionable.

What it comes down to is that the intimacy found on the minor social networks of small forums where everyone knows each other and little unexpected happens is something one would never find on a large network such as those offered by MySpace, Facebook or Google+. The difference, to put it in real-life terms, is akin to a group of friends gathering at one of their homes or the local arcade hall versus getting dropped in the midst of a gigantic party where you know maybe 0.1% of the people there, if even that many.

I notice that a lot of people tend to get burned out on such massive social networks, with many taking a ‘Facebook break’ or similar. This would suggest that such networks place a lot of strain on one’s social capabilities and implies that those less gifted in that area will have a hard time finding a reason to even sign up.

If I look at the reasons why I signed up for the social networks I am or was on, I can conclude that it is mostly for the promise of social interactions. When I then look at the reasons why I have left some, it was mostly due to anti-social aspects also found in life, mostly harassment. On the internet humans tend to be even more harsh and uncaring than in real-life, and this is sadly the truth when observing those large-scale networking sites. The lure of anonymously lashing out at individuals who are weak or with whom you disagree, or to do other things I won’t go into too deeply, but which are normally very much frowned upon in society is just too strong for many. The resulting degenerative behavior can be very harmful to the fabric of a social network.

Everyone is probably familiar with the expression ‘to be alone in a crowd’. This is also one of the major reasons why people leave social networks, as well as why many never join up. The main issue I see with social networks is that they are very much focused on what is ‘normal’: ‘normal’ people with ‘normal’ hobbies and issues.

To pull the limelight towards myself again, I am dealing with a lot of personal issues due to a medical condition I was born with and a country which hasn’t treated me well because of it. It has led to me straying quite far from this ‘normal’ line and my subsequent experiences on Facebook and especially Google+ have made me realize that the general attitude on social networks is like that during a big, busy party: total chaos and very little time for an in-depth look at anything. This quickly leads to disappointment and sometimes resentment among individuals when they feel that they and their issue don’t get the attention they feel it deserves.

My personal hunch is that there has to be something better than the current forums and social networking sites for such things. One is too small with an undersized audience, the other busier than a highway during rush hour. A happy alternative where the ADD-types can spend all day long posting and looking at funny pictures, yet where those with actual issues can find a more secluded place where they can feel welcome too.

Maybe that’s the most social ‘social’ network possible.

If you liked this article, please share it!

In a few weeks, the Chinese-owned e-commerce giant Alibaba will be announcing its first ever initial public offer (IPO) in the U.S. This move has raised the anticipation of many investors. In fact, about 100 meetings will be held in different U.S. cities and a total of three continents worldwide to scout for potential shareholders. One question every potential investor is asking is whether it will be worth buying into Alibaba’s IPO.

According to online advertising statistics gathered over the years, all numbers point to the IPO being a possible lucrative venture for any investor. Since its inception, the Chinese e-commerce company has registered remarkable growth to rival that of the largest Internet marketing giants, such as eBay, Amazon and Facebook. There are a number of facts of which every potential shareholder should be aware.

Growth of Alibaba

The 2013 business calendar showed great success in growth and turnover for Alibaba. At the beginning of the year, the Chinese merchant company spent more than $3.5 billion acquiring other online marketing companies during its expansion plan. This paid off since two of its subsidiaries raked in a clean $240 billion in closing sales, which is double what Amazon or eBay has ever handled in one annual sale. Moreover, Alibaba’s popular subsidiary TaoBao is ranked in the top 20 e-commerce websites visited globally. Of all the packages sent to China, a growing economic super power, about 60 percent is handled by Alibaba itself or its subsidiary websites.

There is more to these statistics: Yahoo is one of the biggest investors of the Chinese e-commerce website. Yahoo’s stocks are currently valued at $39.5 billion and about $30 billion of this revenue is from shares held at Alibaba. And with the coming IPO, Yahoo will be required to surrender a portion of its 24 percent ownership of the e-commerce website, which is icing on the cake to investors.

By 2012, Alibaba had garnered more than 36.7 million online users registered to its website, a number that rises constantly each year. About 2.8 million online stores are signed to the website as well, and more than 6,000 products are handled in the site in divided categories. Even though most Americans are yet to hear of this giant e-commerce Chinese site, it is clear that Alibaba is growing bigger, and as a result, a financial prediction has been made that it will be handling in excess of $1 trillion a year in transactions once this IPO goes through.

What does the future look like for an investor participating in this IPO? Even with the millions of users registered to this Chinese e-commerce website, there is still a huge number of potential users from China that have yet to register. With the IPO announcement, Alibaba anticipates to increase its users through sign-ups from the U.S., Europe and targeted Asian countries.

Anticipated IPO Meeting

The anticipated IPO is set for September 3rd and will happen in three continents. Alibaba announced that its top officials would be divided into two groups to tour the three continents, as they scout for potential investors. In the U.S. alone, investors in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver and Kansas City will be invited into the IPO meeting. The IPO meetings will also be held in London, Hong Kong and Singapore, where the company’s executives will scout for potential investors. About 100 meetings will be held globally in what is going to be the largest valued IPO in years, even larger than what Facebook launched some years back; the value is estimated at $200 billion against Facebook’s IPO of $104 billion.

Humble Beginnings

Alibaba started as a small merchant website in a Chinese apartment and has grown to employ more than 24,000 workers stationed in China and other places around the world. Today, the Chinese e-commerce website provides a platform for companies to sell directly to consumers (through Tmall) and for consumers to buy and sell from each other (TaoBao).

It is evident that Alibaba’s turnover was stable even before the IPO and it is set to rise even higher after. These are the statistics as they stand and you can pretty much guess what investing in the IPO will mean to your business portfolio.

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low at an emergency meeting amid worries about corona virus, it has damaged the tourism industry sector of this country and increased the risk of recession.

In the announcement on the website at the end of Friday, the Bank of Thailand said the bank’s monetary policy committee voted unanimously to cut the policy rate to 0.75%, effective March 23.

This is the second interest rate cut in many months after this bank also lowered the interest rate by 0.25% in February.

The Monetary Policy Committee viewed that the COVID-19 outbreak in the period ahead would be more severe than previously expected and the situation would take some time before returning to normal.

“This problem will seriously affect the economy of Thailand,” BOT said in the announcement. “Moreover, the epidemic has caused worries in global financial markets, affecting the liquidity and the operation of financial markets in Thailand despite the general stability of the financial system.”

According to the Monetary Policy Committee of Thailand, cutting borrowing costs will assist borrowers who affected by the disease and it eases liquidity tensions in financial markets.

BOT said it would ensure adequate liquidity as well as the normal operation and stability of financial markets.

It is expected that the Thai Monetary Policy Committee will continue to meet on March 25.

BOT said they will ensure adequate liquidity as well as the normal operation and the stability of financial markets.

It is expected that the Monetary Policy Committee of Thailand will continue to meet on March 25.

BOT is the latest central bank in Southeast Asia that loosened the policy after the central bank of the Philippines and Indonesia lowered interest rates by 0.5% and 0.25% respectively on Thursday. Meanwhile, the central bank of Malaysia loosened compulsory reserve regulations.

In other countries in Asia – Pacific, the Central Bank of Australia (RBA) also lowered the basic interest rate and has started the quantitative easing program.