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Not much to say about this one, expect that we’ve now launched a proxy server. It’s not the biggest, or the best proxy server available, but it should be one that’s readily accessible and fast (as it’s hosted by Google’s App Engine).

It’s available at http://techjawaproxy.appspot.com/ and we’ve placed a link to it in our navigation menu on our website.

As with most proxies, you won’t be able to really log in and maintain sessions with it, but that’s to be expected for the most part.

We’ll be launching our official forums soon too, stay tuned.

First, let me state these views are opinions of the writer (Jacob), and are not fact, nor should they be mistaken for fact. They may be offensive, but let’s face it, if they are; I’m probably talking about you.

The whole source of this article/rant was due to a conversation a co-worker and myself had on an outing to go get lunch one fine afternoon.

Social Networking, (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, ect.) can be a wonderful tool of connection if used properly; unfortunately that is seldom the case. Children, teenagers, adults, they all abuse and make these social interactions which should be pleasant, a living hell. The problem is it has transformed our society where friends were based on personal contact and the willingness of another person to actually give a crap to find out your day to day doings; into a society where we are force fed every move of some close friends, and that one person you saw walking down the hall in high school and you thought they smelled like urine.

It’s true before MySpace, Facebook, and the like, AIM and other instant messengers existed to where you could still have this information shoved upon you forcefully like an enema from a doctor with an ice cold hand. So this isn’t a new problem, it’s been growing slowly but surely for the past 15 years. And it suddenly exploded in the early 2000′s with the great popularity MySpace gained practically overnight. I’ve kinda tip-toed around saying what the problem is and I guess I’ll skip the drivel and get down to the point.

Social Networking gave a highway for every person on this Earth to complain and moan endlessly about their not-so-bad lives. OMG, FML, LOL, LMFAO, WTF, DTF; okay that one doesn’t really fit but it’s my favorite of the bunch. “My car got a flat tire, and I had to fix it when it was cold outside, FML.” Sorry poor you, be thankful you even have a car. Though the true surprising bit of information here is that someone so mentally inane to think changing a tire is a tragedy, can even be intelligent enough to in fact change said tire. In the end Social Networking has started to breed a society filled with attention seekers and one-uppers. “You think that’s bad, listen to what happened to me.”

Of course, I have the option to remove these people, block them, ignore them, and remove myself from the social networking circle. Most the time I do block/ignore them, but it seems when you ignore one, ten more pop up. Aside from breeding a society of attention seekers, it’s turned a large majority of people into over sensitive cry babies. “OMG my gf accepted this guy and said wuts up, what do I do?!?!?! LOL!” You stop being a retard, and accept the fact you’re not the only phallus shaped object in your significant others life.

While we’re on the topic, Social Networking puts a ridiculous amount of unnecessary strain on a relationship due to what you can now see from “Wall-to-Wall.” Interactions between your significant other and the outside world are now publicized for you to see where as before you’d have to rely on them to tell you such things. Which if your relationship is one of any substance you communicate like two normal human beings, and don’t rely on technological auto posts to notify you of the possibilities of infidelity.

As I’ve already mentioned due to Social Networking we are force fed heaps of information we really don’t care about. You can hide it and ignore it, but it’s the simple hope that your acquaintances and friends will use this tool for good. It’s wonderful for making plans, getting in touch with that old friend from way back when you moved from town. You know, before the days of Facebook; when you only had one or two avenues of getting hit on by 65 year old creepy men. Though, Social Networking has really shined a light for me on people I thought were great and genuine to proving they’re just unintelligent, whiny, attention seeking, self absorbed donkey’s. As the old saying goes, “It’s better to appear stupid, then to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” Unfortunately this current avenue of readily available information sharing has removed plenty of my doubt on just how stupid people are.

I know all I’ve done is complain and rant basically through a form of Social Networking, but hey you got to let it out somewhere. And I’m not dropping, “OMG FML’s” all over the place. I just believe Social Networking has transformed our society from where people had to be practiced and skilled in the art of “I’m pretending I’m giving a crap,” into one where deception is just a mouse click away. All these places can be wonderful and used for good. These good things can include back-links to your website and advertising, or updating us ONCE IN A WHILE on the events in your life. Not the standard, “I made meatloaf LOL”, “I stubbed my toe LOL FML”. That’s one more thing I cannot stand, that LMFAO and LOL have essentially replaced punctuation as a whole in our conversations. Periods, comma’s, semi-colons, question marks, they still do exist and can still be used; which is exactly why they are still on your keyboard.

In the end I know this will accomplish nothing, but for the few of you that do sympathize with what our society is becoming; at least we can try and stop it. If we can’t stop it, at least slow its progress.

That’s all for now, I’m signing off. LOL

My first game review for Techjawa.com is on the new Splinter Cell: Conviction.

The game follows the story of Sam Fisher as he tries to learn the truth behind the death of his daughter, among other things. Having not played a Splinter Cell title for quite some time, due to the fact that I’m not a very “stealthy” player, SC:C brings a lot to the table. The game no longer revolves around having to be 100% stealthy, now allowing players to “run and gun”. That doesn’t mean that you no longer need to use the shadows to aid Fisher. The game has added a new feature known as “Mark and Execute” where a player may target a certain number of enemies (varies by weapon) and execute them with a button press. The good thing about the mark and execute is that it can not be used for every take down, which would make the game a bit easier and more redundant. The execute ability must be recharged by using hand to hand moves on the enemies, which requires you to use your good old stealthy tricks if you wish to live. There is also the “Last known position” in the game. When spotted by an enemy, Fisher can duck back behind cover which automatically activates the last known position. Enemies will attack where they last saw Fisher giving you the opportunity to sneak into the shadows and flank them. There are instances in the game where you get to interrogate different people for information. During this time you receive information from the given character, and when they no longer wish to talk you can press the “interrogate” button to persuade them. The way in which you persuade depends on where you decide to stand in the room, using pianos, tables and even urinals to get the job done. You may also upgrade your weapons as well as change which pistol and secondary weapon you are carrying by using the various weapon stashes placed along the route of the game. If you can’t find a weapons stash and are looking for a gun with a little more “kick”, you can always pick up one of the enemy’s weapons. No Splinter Cell game would be complete without the gadgets either! So far I have only unlocked a limited amount of these gadgets, some of which include EMP grenades and remote mines. I hope to get my hands on the sonar goggles that were available in the game’s demo soon.

Overall the game seems to be well put together and has a good story line thus far. The game does play smoothly and the controls are simple enough to get comfortable with in just a few minutes. The game does hold a bit of difficulty in the single player campaign, where I have died numerous times already. This personally makes me want to play the game more as I love the challenge, especially since I’m currently playing on the normal difficulty.

A warning to parents: Almost every sentence that comes from the enemies of the game seem to contain cursing, and they talk quite a bit.

My next review coming soon will cover the multiplayer aspects of the game, so stay tuned!