I've had various naming schemes at employers. One, it was sea creatures (the name of the company was The Pond). Another, military aircraft (the owner was a vet who spent his Army years flying helicopters). Another, the staff picked so it was a mishmash, though our SpamAssassin cluster used names of successful US presidential assassins (though when we got to McKinley's and couldn't spell it, it was marking the end of the meme). Yet another, trees.
For my personal stuff, though, I use names of famous dogs, and I try not to recycle them. I've used Toto, Fido, Speck, Einstein, Astro, Scooby, Nipper, Laika, Strelka, and a lot more. My latest are Gromit (can't believe that in 10 years I'd never used it!) and Petey.
The story's icon inspires me: Pac Man should be revived as a first person eater!
Part of the greatness of Pac-Man was that you could see the entire board at once and plan your route accordingly. A first-person perspective would take that away. Sure, you could have a map, but that clutters the HUD and mars the immersion.
But, I haven't seen anyone mention the superb Pac-Man Championship Edition. It took everything great about Pac-Man, improved the visuals, and tweaked the gameplay just enough to make it new.
I was a manager at an ISP shop that unionized (I came in after the unionization effort), and I offer a hearty "hear, hear" to your comments, particularly the first paragraph. At that business in particular, it was largely because a general manager came in who expected the staff to, you know, *work*. They unionized to protect their right to be slackers. I was hired to deal with the slacker admin staff so the GM didn't have to. When the business started going under (not directly due to the unionization; bad business models tend to do that), it really hurt that I had to let the more junior admins go when they were the ones who actually worked.
"I say we take off; nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." - Corporal Hicks, in "Aliens"