Internet Connectivity Frustration

So I am a student at the University of Redlands, in Redlands, CA. My parents and I pay over $35,000 a year for tuition and room and board. That is after $12,000 a year in scholarships. With around $9,000 of that going to pay for my dorm room, one might expect decent internet. Not so at the University of Redlands. The download speeds are very inconsistent. The pings in online games such as Counter Strike: Source frequently jump to 400ms and up making the game impossible to play. The time the ping stays so high has been increasing everyday. Keep in mind that a normal ping is from 20-40ms. I complained last year and no one responded, and I just complained again today. Hopefully someone will respond this time. The problem is most people don't use the internet for gaming and don't notice how crappy the internet speeds really are. More posts on th is topic to come.

Hitman

So, just got back from the Hitman movie starring Timothy Olyphant. It was as I expected: pretty bad. Don't get me wrong, I had fun watching it, I just laughed at it and got mad when they fucked the story up. Not only did the story not fully match the Hitman games' story line (in the movie Agent 47 wasn't even a clone!), the editing wasn't very good. In one scene there was a medium range shot of a Russian General talking but his mouth wasn't moving for part of it, then when it zoomed in the sound didn't match up with the video. This problem happened several times throughout the movie. There were some continuity problems as well throughout the film, which is a very common problem in film and TV.

Overall I'd give this movie around 6.5-7 stars out of 10.

p.s. if your wondering why I am posting this review in a techblog, its because its a movie based on a video game.

Sweet Deal on Steam

If you have Steam and want to get Bioshock, Quake Wars, or both, you can get them on Steam for 20% off through Monday November 26th. That means they are both $39.95 instead of $50!

Holiday Shopping Etiquette

Avoid long periods of shopping with children old enough to walk as much as possible. If you can afford it, get a babysitter, unless you are there to make them try on clotthes, etc. which I don't recommend. Don't get your kids clothes for Christmas or other holidays, or at least not too much, unless of course they love clothes, then do get them clothes.

DO NOT BRING children that require strollers of any kind. There is no reason to bring this children to the store other than save on not having a baby sitter, to be near them a lot, put them in excess danger of being kidnapped, and annoy the hell out of all the other shoppers that like to travel faster than two feet per minute. If you dare say that you can't afford a babysitter, than don't buy so much stupid over priced, yes overpriced even though its Black Wednesday, clothing and other consumerist bullshit that you don't need, like the overpriced cell phone accessories that are hawked throughout entire malls. Don't buy DVD for your self unless you know you are going to watch that movie at least three times after you get it, if not, rent the fucking thing at Blockbusters or NetFlix. Not sure why I don't use NetFlix, but it really is a good service.

Again, limit the amount of children in shopping malls as much as you can parents. It makes your shopping more stressful and it makes others nearly homicidal rages-you really don't want to watch while little bobby and sally get their heads smashed into the concrete repeatedly do you?

First Post

Hello to any and all that are reading this. This is the first of hopefully many posts. This will be a gadget and technology blog styled after my personal favorite tech blog Gizmodo. I can't promise I will be as funny, though I'll do my best, and I can't say that there will be nearly as many posts per day because I am a full time college student at the University of Redlands and do not have anyone working with me, though perhaps someday I might. Please check in often, I hope to have at least one new post a day to start out with.