My 2 ISK...

Ok, so I held my piece during the controversy.

1. MT items - I was confident that they would not start selling magic bullets or "I win" ships. If they post them, I quit, too easy and too many people with that attitude. I think CCP get it. We, the veterans, have invested a significant amount of money (in the form of PLEX and monthly subscriptions) and time in this pasttime. Faster training for new accounts is one thing, but anything that allows someone to leapfrog training time for money is bad.
2. Expensive vanity items? Capitalism will work this out. If you don't want them item, don't buy it. Too easy.
3. Leaked internal stuff. I thought golden goose was added by irate fans, but I saw it in the leaked "Fearless" newsletter. Someone should probably tell CCP that subscribers might not like to be considered so. "But subscribers weren't meant to hear that," some might say. Well the rule in customer support is, "Always speak as if the customer is listening." This reinforces polite manners dealing with the customer, and ensures that any internal communications witnessed by the customer are not damaging to the relationship. Plus, "the EVE customer is a golden goose" attitude will develop into a corporate culture, if it has not already....and that's bad. "Customer satisfaction is our only goal...." or "A Happy Customer Will Continue Subscribing and Invite Friends" would be a much better attitude to build into their corporate culture.
4. Greed is good? Note the question mark, that simple character sets up that issue of the newsletter as a debate. The format of the page where microtransactions are discussed clearly lays it out as a pro/con discussion.
5. Can I Haz Ur Stuff? The ones who left will either return, or they won't.
6. Walking in Stations. 5 minutes of entertainment. I note that my usual way of doing business in station has not changed. If I'm in station for long, I can go stand someplace else with a different view. Be nice to have community areas and stuff, and the ability to decorate, but I think we'll see such things down the line. I would like the ability to spin my ship in the new hangar. And it would be nice if we turn off Captain's Quarters to see the old hangar. I'm confident that old-school spinning shall return.
7. Minimum requirements and multiboxing. CCP's stated minimum is one client with minimal settings. If you want to run more than one client or more than minimal settings you need a machine with greater than minimum requirements. I can run two clients and my machine is getting to the point where it barely meets minimums for some of the new games. Core 2 Duo, 4 GIG RAM, 9800 GTX+ with 1 gig is getting long in the tooth.
8. DIAF and such. Helicity wasn't permabanned for his out of context remark...not directly. He was permabanned for his reaction when they spoke to him later. The proper reaction would have been "I did not mean that literally, it is a figure of speech/'net meme."

Back at it (Pirating)

After about a 3 year hiatus, I decided to go back to lowsec. First hunt, guy autopilots into a gate. What a moron! But do I want to blow most of my positive sec status on one shot? What the hell, why not? So I shot him.

Then I got tired of waiting and no traffic. So I scanned the system for anoms and such. 6/10 plex. Went for a ship to run it in, something nimble where I can get out quick. Gila. Ran first room, np. As soon as I land in second room and hit dscan, probes out, two different set. One German, one Russian. Warp out.

Returned in covops, cloaked, but the warp @ range function doesn't work with DED plexes, it put me at 0 on the gate, decloaked, with a sleipner right there. So I ran away a bit, cloaked and watched the gate.

Sleipner left system. Back into Gila, start running again. Sleipner is back, so I decided to watch for him and if he showed up (I was 30k+ away from warp-in point) I would warp out. Always aligned. He showed, I disengaged, checked alignment, and watched his velocity, if he tried to come for me I'd bolt. He disconnected or ninja logged.

Two minutes or so later, I've re-engaged the pirates and unknown to me, gotten closer to the warp-in. Here he comes again. Recall sentries, align to warp. Drat, scrammed. Launched hammerheads and started shooting him with missiles, but it was all over. Got my pod out though.

In station I'm staring at a PVP drake. HAM and buffer and MWD with a scram. PVE Gila didn't do well against sleipner, but the drake might. I had just built the drake a couple hours before. So, maiden voyage, back to the plex, and sure enough, the guy's sitting on my Gila wreck like some kind of hyena on a kill.

He isn't leaving. Not scared of a Drake. Five minutes later, I know why. Damn that sleipner's tough. Active tank, set of ecm drones won the fight for him. Broke my lock when we were both about 50% shields. I relock at 20% and he's back up to 90%. Game over.

Should have known that a 4+ y.o. character isn't going to have some lame fit on a commandship in lowsec. I wouldn't. I had a couple months character age on him too. Usually can do well based on skills, but when you're against another well skilled character, tactics win.

A note about recent 'fit' posts

These are primarily fit for C5/C6 wormhole operations, but could be used for high end mission or exploration site fleets as well.

Armor fleet is 2 Guardians, 1 salvager, plus DPS ships.
Shield fleet is 2 Basilisks, 1 salvager, plus DPS ships.
More DPS means doing sites faster, but loot is split more ways. Balance is up to you.
I have looked for non faction modules where ever possible. Bling IS nice though.

If your purpose is different, your fit will be too. "Form follows function." Somebody said that and it is one of the things I love about EVE.

YMMV

cya in space
Xal

Fit - Myrmidon for shield logistics fleet (combat salvager)

Designed for 100k EHP, shield buffer near 20k, minimum resist > 70%, at or near cap stable.

[Myrmidon, Myrm - Shields]

Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II

Invulnerability Field II
Invulnerability Field II
Large Shield Extender II
Heat Dissipation Amplifier II
Photon Scattering Field II

Small Tractor Beam I
Small Tractor Beam I
Salvager I
Salvager I
Salvager I
Salvager I

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I

Hammerhead II x5
Hobgoblin II x10
Hammerhead II x5

Fit - Ishtar for shield logistics fleet

Designed for 100k EHP, shield buffer near 20k, minimum resist > 70%, at or near cap stable

[Ishtar, Ishtar - Shield (T2)]

Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Beta Reactor Control: Diagnostic System I
Beta Reactor Control: Diagnostic System I

Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Invulnerability Field II
Caldari Navy Photon Scattering Field
Invulnerability Field II

75mm Gatling Rail I
Small Tractor Beam I
Small Tractor Beam I
Salvager I
Salvager I

Medium Core Defence Field Extender II
Medium Core Defence Field Extender II

Fit - Drake for shield logistics fleet

Designed for 100k EHP, shield buffer near 20k, minimum resist > 70%, at or near cap stable

[Drake, Drake - Shields]

Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Invulnerability Field II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Photon Scattering Field II

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Hobgoblin II x5

Fit - Dominix for shield logistics fleet

Designed for 100k EHP, shield buffer near 20k, minimum resist > 70%, at or near cap stable

[Dominix, Domi - shields]

Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Shadow Serpentis Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Shadow Serpentis Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Shadow Serpentis Magnetic Field Stabilizer

Caldari Navy Invulnerability Field
Caldari Navy Invulnerability Field
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Optical Tracking Computer I

350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L

Large Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Large Core Defence Field Extender I
Large Core Defence Field Extender I

Garde II x5
Hammerhead II x10
Hobgoblin II x5
Heavy Armor Maintenance Bot II x5