Mac vs PC. My personal showdown

For a while now I've been contemplating getting a MBP(MacBook Pro), since I do, and will be doing a lot more graphic design work. Coupled with that, virtually every game I play now is offered on them too. Their sleek design and unibody shell are very appealing, especially since recently, they've upgraded their hardware specs. This is where I was almost impressed... Almost.


A 17" MBP's Specs: $2399.99

• 2.53GHz Intel Core i5 Processor
• 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X2GB
• 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm [Add $50.00]
• 17-inch Hi-Resolution Antiglare Widescreen Display [Add $50.00]
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 512MB

HP a while back introduced a "premium" line of laptops, to which they almost immediately hacked to pieces with their updates to them. Amidst the ruins of their revised ENVY lineup, the 17" stands as one of the sole survivors of that massacre. without drastic upgrades, this is what I came up with:

A 17" ENVY from HP: $1,474.99

• i5-460M Dual Core Processor (2.53 GHz, 3MB L3 Cache)
• 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
• 17.3" diagonal Full HD HP Ultra BrightView Infinity LED Display (1920x1080[Add $100.00]
• 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5850 Graphics [HDMI]
One 6 Cell (standard) and One 9 Cell (over-sized) Lithium Ion Battery [Add $75.00]

The MBP lineup became instantly more appealing with their addition of the Intel I line, and the 330M switchable graphics cards. Unfortunately when i bench-marked the two graphics cards (330M vs 5850), I was sadly disappointed in this Nvidia card in the MBP. There are two HD 5850s, and since HP isn't specific on which one, I decided to bench both, although I'm fairly positive it's the lower of the two that they used. The test was 3dMark Vantage and found here: [Here]:

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 (GDDR5) 6957
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 (GDDR3) 5221
Nvidia GeForce GT 330M 2700

Sadface MBP, sadface. Even if the MBP wasn't almost $1,000 more, the specs make it hard to want to pass up a graphics card that is at least double the performance level. If i wanted a blue ray player/dvd burner, plus a bunch more accessories, I'd still be cheaper than the MBP.

I understand that MacBooks are for the cool kids, and it's a novelty computer to own, but come on; that's a lot of money on top of the really slick looking and performing envy lineup. I suppose if you absolutely have to have a mac, they've done a good job at increasing the hardware on the lineup for you, but you may want to take a second look at the lines from PC makers.

Addicted to the internet?

[Alexandra V. Tobias], 22, was arrested after the January death of 3-month-old Dylan Lee Edmondson. A shame any person would kill anyone, let alone a 3 month old. What I haven't told you is why, and it just so happens that it ties into the topic of this post today.

So this Alexandra apparently killed her child and has plead guilty to shaking the baby profusely for crying, and even may have hit its head against something during the process. Why? Over interrupting her FARMVILLE game on Facebook. FARMVILLE. Are you kidding me?! While they should put a gun to her head for being a complete moron, I'm happy she's going to at least have the joy of spending 25 to 50 years, if not a life sentence for second degree murder, in prison as a baby killer. And a baby killer over something as stupid as a Facebook flash game. This story is a huge outlier from the normal of course, but it shows a prime example of how pervasive Facebook, or even the internet as a whole, has become in our lives.


Apparently research has been done on what they like to call "Internet Anxiety." Internet addiction has now become a serious mental malady that has gained acceptance from the scientific community, according to Ars Technica, a technological news and information website created in 1998. A large portion of the US population feels what they're calling 'disconnect anxiety' when away from either a computer or a cell phone with internet connection. The Solutions Research Group has headed the research project on this.

27% of Americans feel acute anxiety during a long break, while 41% feel it only on occasion. Unsurprisingly, age plays a large role in these percentages. The youth of today has been inundated with various mediums of technology, whether it be a hand held game, console, computer, or cell phone. Everyone has at least one way to connect to the internet while most of us have several methods. People over the age of 50 are less likely to experience this anxiety.

Did you know the average person spends up to 90 minutes a day on Facebook alone? Each day, there are more than 500 million active users at any given time, and 50% of all accounts on Facebook are active at least once per day, averaging over 700 billion minutes spent per month on Facebook. That's a large amount of time, and a majority of the people aren't addicts, which bring the average way down. But don't worry ,there are plenty of people who spend more than 90 minutes a day. Another little fun fact about Facebook? in July of 2008, there were 27.8 million accounts in the US. In 2010, there are over 125 million, in the US alone.

For you Internet addicts (including me I guess!), [Net Addiction Recovery] is here to rescue you from your addiction to the internet. To the tune of $14,000 a month, they will house you, and teach you the ways of 'returning to the real world.' Oh, if you're poor, I guess you're S.O.L.; not that most of people who are addicted want to quit in the first place. There is a lot of counter arguments, stating that it isn't even a problem to begin with... But of course there is; it's politics after all.

To leave you with a little food for thought, here are the 5 signs according to psychologists, that you're addicted to Facebook, or the internet:

• Losing sleep: If you're tired every morning because of late-night-friending, take a break, a UCLA psychologist advises: "You shouldn't be neglecting yourself because of Facebook."
• You spend more than an hour a day on Facebook: "Probably no one needs more than 30 minutes," one therapist said.
• Reigniting old flames: Here's where the divorce comes in. "Facebook is a fun, pleasant, happy, beautiful world," a psychologist said. But it's not real, and people are watching.
• You're not working: Obviously, "if you're not doing your job in order to sneak time on Facebook, you could have a real problem."
• Withdrawal: "Try going a day without Facebook. If you find it causes you a lot of stress and anxiety, you really need to get some help."

Today's playlist, three more great songs for you to enjoy!
[The Catalyst - Linkin Park]
[Runaway - Hail the Villain]
[Monster - Skillet]

Music. The rush of emotion from a good beat, and an even better message.

If you're feeling some way, even if you don't publicize it, there is a song written by someone that will make this feeling stronger tenfold. Music has the power to move you, calm you, stimulate you, and do things like set moods for a whole room or party. It's because of music that bars and parties are so much fun. It creates the environment.

You listen to a lot of music, as I do, and often time we like the songs beat, or lip sync to them; and it has become an integral part of our lives. It is my escape; my place where I push forward when I'm down, or the thing I go to when I need inspiration. Music makes me create; and without it I don't know what I'd do. Everyone has a "song" or two that they feel best describes themselves, or a very strong emotion they feel on a regular basis. When that song plays, I feel like I'm released from a self imposed cage, if only for the few minutes it plays.

It's hard to describe the sensation music brings me. I'm literally never without it. Where ever I go, you'll probably find me with headphones and an mp3 player to listen to my play lists i sit around all day and make. I almost feel naked without the ability to listen to my music whenever I want. If I'm thinking creatively, a single song can inspire a whole idea, whether it be a Photoshop manipulation, blog, or fantasy character. When my music is on, the ideas start flowing, and I can't explain to you why. Maybe you'll try it one day and figure it out, or maybe you understand what I mean already.

Life to music is far more powerful.

Today's playlist headers:
[The Sound - Switchfoot]
[Naive - The Kooks]
[All Over Me - Default]

Delayed blogging | Your 'handle'

I've had quite a bit on my plate lately, including my houses' first and basement floor completely flooding leading to a serious amount of de-humidifiers and high powered fans in the house drying things out, and a lot of class work to worry about.

I was talking to a few people last night, and one of them brought up the fact that they called me by 4 different names, one being my real name and three alias', that I responded every single just like they were calling my name. I never realized how much you become your online name to the extent that when you HEAR your handle, you'll probably respond as though they were calling you. Having this conversation made me recall a time in an Art History class of the renaissance that every time she mentioned a "crucifix" in a picture, that I was immediately more focused as if she were calling me.

In Starcraft 2, I am Rumor; in my gaming community, Skye; on virtually everything else, Crucifyx. And if you were to call me by any of these names, I'd most likely respond as quickly as if you called me Tom. I'm probably called by any of these names more often than my actual name on a daily basis, so it's almost no surprise.

On another note, part of the reason I've been lost for what the blog about was the fact that I've been designing a website from complete scratch; which means no stealing code or images. I'm in a web programming course right now at Macomb, and because i'm fairly versed in this field anyways, i felt like i was going to go over and above with it. This is what i have for project one. Project 2 and 3 will eventually build upon it: [My class website]

After this post, I've decided I'll be putting up 3 links to songs a day that I think you should listen to, because they're awesome songs for whatever reason. Listen to them!

COICA, and why you NEED to care about it.

If you care about your internet browsing experience, you should read this NOW.

So if you're not into politics or government doings, you may be unfamiliar with what COICA is. COICA, is S.3804, or the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, which was proposed by Senator Patrick Leahy and Senator Orrin Hatch. It's currently being considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

That's nice and all, but why do I care?
To answer that, you need to know what that means. This bill will allow, via court order, to create a blacklist of Internet domain names, by referral of the Attorney General. Your ISP, financial translation providers, and online ad vendors, like google AdSense, would be required to block any domains on this list. That means you, as the end user, would be Permanently blocked from any website that this bill incorporates. In essence, it's an internet censoring system.

Any domain that is "dedicated to infringing activity" would be subject to being added to this blacklist. As any good politician, this is a massively broad term which can be almost defined at the time they want to block it. Basically, any site where counterfeit goods or copyrighted material are "central to the activity of the Internet site" would be blocked.

Don't think you do use any sites like this?
Number 1, you're probably lying to yourself; 2, you're not thinking about what kind of websites this covers. Let's take YouTube. a while back a company called Viacom (better known as the CBS Corporation) tried to bring down YouTube under the premise that their copyrighted material is central to activity of Youtube, but was keboshed because under our current law, it is completely legal so long as they remove any illicit material in a timely matter. Under this new law, however, Viacom would have been successful. If this bill passes, Viacom doesn't even need to prove YouTube is doing anything illegal -- as long as they can persuade a court that enough other people are using it for copyright infringement, that's enough to get the whole site censored.

"Censored" is not too strong of a word?
If you think about how the law in the US works right now, if you're doing something illegal online, you are brought to court where they then can shut you down if you lose. COICA will bypass that court case by simply blocking the site from US users. The funny thing is that the US government has been criticizing China and Iran for this kind of act, where Obama informed the United Nations that "We will support a free and open Internet." Is that so?

COICA doesn't take you down from the internet. Au contraire, it just blocks people living in the US from being able to view the website at all. For now, it'll be the big fish, but COICA, with its vague reasoning's, would technically allow a site to be blocked due to special interest groups demands. What if a large enough corporation is trying to sell a product someone is giving away for free now? This all bypasses due process. Take them to court if they're doing something illegal, not just hide them.

Look it up. It's all over the internet right now, and groups of people are petitioning to have this bill stopped.

Radio stations at your fingertips

Radio in your car is great. It allows us to listen to upcoming music while we are on our way to some destination, or maybe while you're at your desk you also have the radio playing. But what if that radio station played only music you wanted it to play, and could remove songs you didn't like?



This is more of a reality than you may think. For those who aren't familiar, websites like [Pandora] and [Last.FM] have taken the music streaming business to the next level. They allow you to create custom radio stations, using keywords like your favorite band, song, or even genre type. You're not limited to one of these keywords, as each radio station can use multiple tags to refine your music tastes even further. Although i can't speak for Last.FM, Pandora allows you to skip 6 songs per hour, and has minimal advertising, (unless you pay for the premium version, which is only $36/year!) You can thumbs down songs you don't like, in which case you'll never hear them again, and thumbs up songs to tell the song parser to play that song more often, as well as find more songs that have similar qualities to that song.



Of course this radio station is limited to a computer... just kidding.
[Microsoft SYNC] announced not too long ago that any car equipped with their SYNC system will have Pandora in their car! If I had the opportunity, I don't care what car I'd need; it'd be in my car. In addition, virtually all smart phones have a Pandora app created specially for them, so no matter where you are in the world, you have the same access to your personal radio stations as if you were listening to them on your computer or in your car

If you're curious on how to get started, just go to either [Pandora's] or [Last.FM's] website and sign up! In the meanwhile, if you'd like to have an example of a Pandora radio station, here's one that I've been customizing for years, enjoy!

What the web has done for art

The hardest thing for an aspiring artist, be it paintings or images, music, or other mediums, getting into the field is excruciatingly difficult. You don't know who to talk to, and you don't know how to break into the field. Even if i were to create a 'work of art', I wouldn't know the first thing of getting my name out there in the professional world; it's just not that kind of a system. The internet and places like [Deviant Art] have created an outlet for people who dabble in various art forms to show their work to others. people like Freddie W, who deals with video editing, would never be known if it wasn't for the internet.

There is amazing talent out there that is only realized through the internet. People in the boondocks who can create ballads from thin air are never discovered because they're not mainstream; they're not in the beaten path. In point of fact, the web has done wonders for anyone looking to show off what they can do. It's free (which for many of us is crucial) to post content on Deviant Art or Youtube, and because it's unlimited, all we have to do is what we love to do: create.



A hobby such as posting images to photobucket or deviant art can, if that person is skilled enough, turn into a job of their dreams, where they're paid to do something they would do for free. Now who would turn down an opportunity like that? Aspiring artists of any field should be doing this. Whether you think you're a fantastic dancer, singer, whatever; get out there and show the world via these websites what you can do. What do you have to lose? So maybe a bunch of [Trolls] will post flammatory garbage on the comment section, but what people fail to realize is this: you aren't aiming to please the whole world with what you can do. It only takes one person who finds value in what you're capable of to start you off.

I feel like i've known you my whole life

It's quite amazing the deep bonds you make with the people you play games with our talk to online. I'm sure, if you know someone who chats online regularly with people, that you've heard them say that they know more about these people than most of their friends in 'real' life. It reminds me a lot of a past relationship of mine.

In a short period of time I came to a point where I thought there was nothing more I could learn, and maybe I was right. We were together my entire teen and adult life up until a few months ago, but it only took a fraction of that to get to the point where there wasn't much left to talk about. Aside from my depressing parallel, this occurs frequently between people across the world.

Two people in a gaming community I belong to recently moved in with each other, after meeting online not too long ago. I talked to her, and all she could tell me was how much in love she is with this man. If online relationships aren't in 'real life', then how can this girl, who believes and feels with her heart that this is true love, really experience it? These relationships are more real than we give credit to. They're as real as any friendship, whether you meet from a class you're in, or work, simply walking down the street, or sitting at a computer telling each other your stories.

I've personally experienced this more recently than a few months ago. I've found several people who have recently come into my life, whether in a small or large way. They've helped me realize things about myself, allowed me to see things in a different perspective, and I genuinely enjoy spending several hours of my day with them, even if it's only small talk. I feel these people, who I don't even know their real names, connect with me better than many people I've met in passing. The commonalities between us clearly assist in why we feel these connections to these people.

These people, whom you probably only know by an alias they go by online, also have real names they keep a secret. This alias is good enough for us, though. Is someone's real first name important? The answer is fairly simple: it isn't. We go months, years even, without knowing each others' first name; and even once we do know their name, we seldom use it. Our alias is as good as our real name, and our stories, regardless of our name are the same. This alias is a name we think of almost randomly. It can be a word or phrase that means something to us personally, or just a funny phrase they heard once before. If nothing else, it just gives them more to talk about.

You share a game of poker, a night of laughs and drinks, a highly competitive tournament, or just stories of your lives, and you wake up one day feeling like this is how it's always been. Like these faceless, nameless voices aren't really faceless or nameless at all; that they too are just like you, sitting there and sharing their life with you. It's like you've known these people your whole life.

With these, who needs a TV... almost.

As i'm sure on a daily basis you use websites like [Youtube] and [Hulu] for hours watching the countless videos and shows available at the click of your mouse. If you've missed your favorite show because of work or other obligations, these mega sites have come to the rescue. I'm not sure if everyone is aware of what these sites offer, so we should start there.



Hulu is a site that is fantastic for watching your favorite TV shows across several networks, or for watching older movies. They have advertising at regular intervals throughout an episode, but they are at normal break points that you'd find on TV, so a conversation isn't abruptly cut in half for poor advertising planning. All you have to do is type in your favorite TV series, ended or new, and it'll most likely be able to find the episodes for it! Now there is some delay between when it airs and when it'll be found online often, but that's for marketing and business reasons, so the broadcast companies get the money instead of everyone watching them at their computers the moment its released.

If you like non mainstream shows, like anime or some other stations not provided by Hulu, Youtube may be your savior. Youtube has a wide variety of shows categorized into genres. You'll be able to find tons of your favorite anime, cartoon, or indie shows by using their BROWSE feature. Often if you try to use their search for content, you'll find user uploaded content. Useful, but not always.



Of course, if you're not into tv shows but like videos, Youtube is your site. Since they cater to the upcoming artists, Youtube contains an almost endless database of user created content, with almost every genre or topic covered. If you prefer watching idiots fail at doing tasks you shouldn't try in the first place,watching a man being pole-vaulted off a chariot, or even less hardcore things like... [Kittens!], you won't be disappointed.

I used to use Youtube for all my anime needs, but apparently they've started some sort of "rental" program after the first couple episodes; you know, draw you into it and then punch you in the face while asking kindly that you pay for the rest of the videos with the dubbing instead of English subtitles. Fortunately I'm not opposed to reading the subtitles for my anime, but I know many people who hate it. Be wary of these infuriating rental programs. Worse comes to worse, I'm sure if you did a Google search for it, you'd find it elsewhere, but in a lower quality and resolution.

All in all, i can see this type of online TV watching to become an eventual norm, if it already hasn't made it there. Because of this capability, you'll almost never find me on a TV unless I'm playing a [video game] of some sort.

Running out of Internet?

While the space and content of the Internet is virtually unlimited, the amount of users based on our current I.P. system IS running out. So for those non 'techy' people, you ask "What is an I.P.?" An IP is the series of numbers separated by a period; for example: 192.168.1.1 (Standard for connecting to an in house router). The way we get an IP address is from an internet service provider, such as comcast, wow, at&t, etc. Through these providers, you are given access to a single IP address, or sometimes a pool that everyone shares. They are how website URLs work, and how others can communicate with each other from across the world. It's an integral part of how technology communicates with other technology. Phones also are given IP addresses.

So if that's the case, how on earth are we running out of addresses for devices? Well, if you do the math on the quantity of addresses, which range from 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255, you end up with approximated 4 billion addresses. The problem is that there are almost that many devices in the world today, and the market for said devices is only expanding. As more and more people get computers and smart phones, and more people enter that market, the demand for these addresses will continue to increase. These numbers are controlled by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA,) so blame them. (just kidding)



What are we going to do? Well, in 1998 the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) devised a new number scheme called IPv6 under RFC2460 (Click the RFC to read the official document if you want to be very confused.) IPv6 uses a number scheme called hexadecimal, which uses the numbers 0-9, and letters A-F to create new combinations of addresses. An IPv6 example IP address would look something like: 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:1:1. Very different huh? Well with this convention, a ton more addresses are possible. To give you an idea of how many more... There would be enough addresses for everyone on the planet to have 4 billion unique IPs for their PERSONAL devices. That's a LOT of addresses. If I had to guess, we'll be transferring gradually as the addresses run out over the next several years.

Those who already have IP addresses don't really have to worry, seeing as how you already have it. What we'll be seeing is a hybrid network that accommodates both IPv4 and IPv6 for a while, as there's no really need or rush to get everyone off of IPv4. While IPv6 has other benefits (that are far too nerdy to post here), IPv4 is good enough for now. Expect to see IPv4 run out of addresses before 2012.

Your second life in Second Life

What is Second Life?
If you've never heard of second life, it is defined by Wikipedia as follows: Second Life (SL) is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab launched on June 23, 2003, and is accessible on the Internet. A free client program called the Viewer enables its users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another, or travel throughout the world (which residents refer to as "the grid").

This is the literal definition someone would give when trying to explain to someone what in the world Second Life is. While the former definition is very true, it is so much more than just that. But first let's talk about this so called "avatar" that people use to interact within the the grid.

A what?

My avatar in Second Life

An avatar is the medium by which players (members, or residents) interact with each other. An avatar is a fully customizable entity that allows your full creativity and allows you to express yourself in ways your actual body may be unable to. Piercings, Tattoos, gothic styling, and almost limitless other fashion statements are possible to make your avatar reflect the you that you want people to see. This is what i mean by being able to express yourself. No one see anything, except what you show them. It is literally an extension of your personality if you choose it to be. There are of course people who join SL for the sole purpose of ruining the "immersion" Second Life offers its members. But more on that later.

But why?
So you might ask, what about SL makes it so addicting for people? The answer is fairly simple. It allows you to live the life you want to live without constraints. You can be an architect and construct buildings and art where the only limit is your creativity. You can be a clothing designer, graphic designer, model, driver, sex icon, or literally anything else that you can think of. It's all at the tips of your fingers. All it takes is for you to want it bad enough to go get it. You can have a family via role playing within SL, have a house where you sit down with your significant other and watch movies, or even do the naughty after dark (Virtually, of course.) When i say you can do everything and more real life has to offer in Second Life, I'm not joking. You can even attend school and learn about stuff, just as you could in real life also.

How do you...?
Everyone plays Second Life a different way. Some are out seeking love and relationships, some seek to meet new people with similar interests from around the world, some go to show off their impressive DJing skills via live streaming, and others seek to start a business they don't have the funds to start in real life. There isn't a way i could explain to you every way or reason people are on SL, all I can tell you is that they simply are. Me? I'm on it to have fun, and meet interesting people, and listen to music. Unfortunately, as a gamer, it doesn't really hold my attention very well. I get bored easily, but that's just me! There is so much out there I don't do, that if i did, I'm sure I'd enjoy it more.

But it's just a game
It's not. I've been scolded by members who have been in SL far longer than I have for saying this. To casual users and people unfamiliar with it, it is indeed just a game. But for some people, it literally is a second life. The bonds they form with people are real, whether we admit it or not. Hearts are broken, love and relationships are formed not based on our appearance, but strictly by our personalities. They fall in love their real selves, not their fleshy posterior. You can reason with residents all day about the fallacy of their beliefs, but you'll never convince them, with good reason. If it feels real, acts real, and you love everything about it, why should you listen to a naysayer? Accept it for what it is, not what it is to you.

I hear horror stories all the time because of SL
I'm sure you do, as do I. I also hear of kids shooting up schools, airplane accidents, and stories where kids killed themselves because of these high stress situations in real life. The point is, these horror stories are outliers, they're not mainstream. Not every, or even a huge percent of people in Second Life leave their families to peruse a life on SL, just as not every kid in high school commits suicide. D&D is not the leading cause of depression and cultish behavior in the youth, and SL really isn't the leading cause of... well; anything. Take it with a grain of salt. Every time you step out of your front door you have a chance of not returning, but that doesn't mean you live in a bubble your whole life. You get out, you do things, and you have fun along the way (hopefully.)

This is probably the finest form of what I would consider to be a "proxy life." Don't be afraid of it, I have a feeling this will become a very real and normal thing in our future.

What it takes to be a Diamond level player in Starcraft 2

[Very nerdy post incoming]

I bet, all the while you're playing Starcraft 2 (herein will be called SC2) quick match games, you're wondering "How on earth do i become a Diamond level player?" It's a fairly good question, seeing as how when you watch commentaries, they're typically focused on high level diamond players like HuK, TLO, IdrA, Marrow, etc, and these players are way beyond what we consider 'good at SC2'. So the question still stands: how do i get one of these:



It's quite simple really. All you have to do is one of the following:

• Build a massive amount of a unit that can hit air AND ground units and upgrade them.
• Proxy or cheese, whether it be unit producing structures or cannons.
• Tech to tier 3 units while your teammates protect you (3v3 and 4v4 ONLY.)
• M&M&M Ball (in all leagues.)
• 4gate (in all leagues.)

I know, the nerd in some of you will rage, saying "well you can defend this kind of stuff!" Of course you can, but realistically lower tier players do not have the macro/micro capabilities to stave off a well executed reaper harass, or 6 cannons eating their resource line. As a test, I decided for several platinum 4v4 games that i was going to do NOTHING except produce marines off of 6 - 10 reactors, and upgrade them. Unsurprisingly, I won 99% of the games, as well as did so well score wise that the system promoted me to Diamond rank 40s.

Maybe this is a 'strategy' that requires nerfing, or maybe more balancing is required; but all I know is that it works, and works almost too well. If you're looking, however, to play a more 'legit' way, that shows off your Micro/Macro, i suggest watching pro level commentaries, or game analysis to brush up on your Sc2 experience. You'll never learn too much in the world of Starcraft, that I can guarantee. I'm all about early aggression/harass, however.

If you haven't been introduced to Starcraft 2, or are one of the several people I've heard say "I just play single player," I urge you to take a look at the multi-player, or the game as a whole. There is a ton of fun to be had, and a lot of great experiences and memories to share with friends you make through the game. There's nothing quite like sitting down with 3 other friends and stomping people in 4 vs. 4 matches for hours and hours. Go on, give it a try.

Oh, how technology ruins grammar...

I'm sure you, like myself, are inundated with text messages or chat messages on your computer with language like "omg hru?", which of course means "Oh my god, how are you?" Like a plague, such acronyms and abbreviations have cannibalized the way we communicate to such an extent, that it has penetrated our everyday life and how we interact. Proper etiquette in letters and formal written documents have also fallen prey to the laziness we face when trying to type to our friends and family. I can't begin to tell you the times I've heard COLLEGE professors talk about how they found a 'LOL' in a paper a student submitted for a grade. By god, I hope that person failed.

But realistically, is typing "hey, wht r u up 2??" so much faster that you, 9 times out of 10, elect to use that instead of sounding literate and going with "Hey, what are you up to?" It may just be a pet peeve of mine that people at least attempt to sound educated when talking on a public forum to hundreds or thousands of people. Facebook is notorious for this kind of grammatical nightmare, and as such, a website has been created just to make fun of the people who'd rather hit send before briefly checking what they typed. And that website is!




Seriously, even though you're not getting graded to use a spell checker, you still look dumb for not doing it. But aside from raging about it, it's honestly a little upsetting. I grew up in the world of technology, and will rarely use the whole "Lol" or will use emoticons to express emotion on an otherwise emotionless medium, but as I've gotten older and grown accustomed to computers being an integral part of my live, I've begun to become increasingly paranoid about how I portray myself online via text. If i were to make a serious post on Facebook about how angry I was, but fail to use any sort of punctuation, would anyone take that seriously?

I'm not saying invoke the grammar police for everything little detail of your posts; I'm saying at LEAST use a spell checker, and for the love of God USE PUNCTUATION.

The illusion of seclusion

The way we as online addicts view being 'social' is very different than the people we probably live with. To our families, they see us in a basement or at a desk for several hours a day and think we're doing it to be antisocial, and to seclude ourselves from others. Honestly, this is probably false. One of the greatest things about the internet is its ability to connect us to people whom we'd never be able to meet otherwise. Games between players from all over the world (in my circle, New Zealand, UK, and many states in the US!) are shared, and we meet on a common ground. We're there to have fun; we're there to make friends. These friends, although you may never meet them in the flesh, become the best of friends; ones you feel you've known your entire life. You don't have to see them in the person to cherish the time you spend with them, and you end up learning more about them than most of your "real life" friends.

I use the term "real life" loosely. This is the phrase your parents say when you say you have friends, and that you aren't social, but people who never experience this first hand will never be able to understand... but that's okay. I know that I don't feel any less fulfilled whether i'm sitting on a couch watching tv with a friend, or shooting zombies with them via Left 4 Dead 2. Where we are makes no difference.

So while we may be the ones hiding as hermits, we are instead the ones who are able to fly through the world, and meet people across the globe. We're capable of making real life connections to people who we only see and hear, never touch.

I've tried before to explain this position to people who are unfamiliar with it, and the response is always the same: "But they aren't real friends, they're internet friends." As annoying as this response is, I can't really blame them for it. It's a phenomenon that our parents were too early to experience. Internet dating and relationships are in full force, and whether you want to admit they're real or not; to the people, they are very, very real. We fall in love, we get broken hearts; we laugh, we cry. Why is this so vastly different than real life that you refuse to learn about it?

What is a proxy life?

By definition, a proxy is described as a substitute or agent to something, for someone. When I speak of a proxy life, i think of a life i have grown accustomed to; a life online. Gamers, social butterflies, and even the casual user has seen how greatly the internet has impacted our lives. Games like Second Life (and i use the term 'game' loosely for it) is a prime example of a shift in what we as a society view as a shift in social interaction. Giants like Facebook allow people to keep in touch with friends from years ago, or even make new ones with similar interests.

Why am i talking about this? It is probably the easiest way to show you where i come from, and what i do on a daily basis without getting into the details that frankly no one cares about. I guess from what i've told you, you don't really know what this blog is about or even for. The internet is such a vast wealth of knowledge, and i feel that without dedicating yourself to it, you fall behind on some topics that actually impact you in the technological world. I aim to try to talk about a lot of it, even if i use this as a journal.

So what topics will be on here? Probably everything from gaming, networking, security, online social networking, digital art; virtually anything pertaining to the online experience... your own proxy life.

 I am a gamer, graphic designer, programmer, and student of network security. My spare time is almost entirely dedicated to gaming and photoshop, which is indicative of my pale complexion.

Welcome to the proxy life.