Z-Fest 2010 is the second anual Zelda festival! When we say Zelda festival we mean 6 TV’S running various Zelda games, PLUS 4 computers with emulators! Could u ask for more? We will be playing all night long, so tune into our LIVE Ustream Here! Also, expect a video, summarizing the event, soon! Here are some [...]

Ahh yes, July 31 is here again. Harry Potter has turned 30 today! Happy Birthday! Hopefully he plans to do something special with Ginny and the kids. Also, to those of you who don’t normally give out birthday wishes to fictional characters, it is J.K Rowling’sBirthday as well! She is turning 45! Hopefully not too old to get to work on a Harry Potter encyclopedia….or even better…book 8!

Happy Birthday guys!

As the clock strikes 5:57 CT Harry Potter fans around the world continued to frantically refresh their webpages in hopes of seeing the new trailer for the final installment of the Harry Potter saga. They got lucky. Warner Brothers released the trailer 3 minutes earlier than promised, a nice treat to for the more dedicated fans. As always, Harry Potter fan sites lit up with posts about the trailer merely seconds after it had come out. The trailer was no let down to Harry Potter fans. Running a total of 2 minutes and 29 seconds, it offered fans a good preview of what the film will look like. If the film is as good as the trailer, it better win an Oscar…..no 5 Oscars!  You can watch the trailer below.

The special effects in the movie look absolutely stunning! The cinematography….breathtaking. Even Dan, Rupert, and Emma’s acting (a usual rough spot in Potter films) looked fantastic! I was, quite simply, blown away. Could a Harry Potter film really be this good? Is Warner Brothers going to end the series with the kind of film that fans have been dreaming of for the past decade? I hope so.

Moving on from my never ending praise of the trailer, I had a few questions/complaints. One thing I noticed while watching the trailer was that it looked an awful lot like Lord of The Rings…with wands. The two quick shots of the final battle were especially similar to the way battle scenes were depicted in the Lord of the Rings m0vies. I also had a question with two of the scenes we saw briefly.

Why are Harry and Voldemort alone while dueling at Hogwarts?

Same question but, why are they alone in the forest?

Regardless of any small complaints I had regarding the trailer, I was simply amazed by the trailer. Watching this trailer had a feeling to it that I had not felt since reading the 7th Harry Potter book. It’s a feeling of euphoria and sadness all at once. This trailer marked the beginning of the end for me, as a Harry Potter fan, and gave me goose bumps while watching. I can only hope that the movie is able to deliver this feeling to all fans. I can only hope that Warner Brothers has finally put together the type of film that the Harry Potter fans deserve. The type of film that will contend for and win a Golden Globe or Oscar or both! Please, Warner Brothers, make this a good one.

Let me start this off by saying I’m a huge Glee fan! I know it’s corny and cliche, but that’s why I love it! They do great covers on the show and whether or not you think their versions are as good as the originals, they help make great classic songs popular again! Ok so now to the good stuff!

SPOILER WARNING!

Ok so, the show starts off with Sue telling Mr. Schuster that she is going to be a judge for regionals! Quite a way to start. As usual, we go through the argue-with-the-principal scene. All this succeeds in doing is creating a reminder for Mr. Schuster that if Glee club doesn’t win regionals, the club will be canceled. So after going through some pre-show drama, regionals begins.

Setlists

First, some random school we have never seen on the show before, sings an Olivia Newton-John and Josh Grobin medley. Josh and Olivia are guest judges, so everyone suspects this school cheated and knew the judges beforehand. Side Note: This school has some crazy and hilarious name like oral adrenaline…oral hygiene…oral singing…. something along those lines.

Next, is New Directions! They sing three songs. (All by Journey)

Faithfully

Any Way You Want It

Don’t Stop Believin

Last, is Vocal Adrenaline. We only see them sing one song, but it’s a long and amazing one! Bohemian Rhapsody originally by Queen

Now back to the summary. As our Glee Club is walking off stage, Quin’s mom comes to talk to Quin. If you forgot, her mom had kicked her out of the house because Quin got pregnant. Quin’s mom has a story to tell about how she left her husband because he cheated on her. As they are reuniting, Quin’s water breaks!!! She is rushed to the hospital while Vocal Adrenaline is performing and gives birth to a girl, who she names Beth. Then, we switch back to Rachel and her mom. Rachel asks her to come and teach Glee Club. Rachel’s mom says no because she is tired of teaching.

So, now it’s results time!! Ready to find out who wins!? Well, the random school comes in second. Ready? …….Vocal Adrenaline comes in……..first (ugh). That leaves New Directions in third. So, now Glee Club is over…right? Wrong, Sue (YES SUE!) stands up for Glee club. and blackmails the principal into letting Glee Club go another year! Also, we see that she voted for New Directions to win Regionals!

Have you had enough surprises yet? Well, theres more. Rachel’s mom adopts Quin’s baby! (I know right!?!?)

All in all, this episode was full of surprises! It was a great end to the second season and reminded me of the good old days of Glee (back in the first season). New Directions sang some great songs, but I still liked the first season finale better. Glee will be back in the fall and will start over again on a trip to sectionals! I’m looking forward to seeing Curt get a chance to sing some more. After seeing the live Glee tour, it’s obvious that Curt and Rachel have the best voices by far! Glee!

Right now you are viewing SeeTheHour.com, a website on the Internet. The Internet is a gigantic mess of data and we are but a small speck of that data. Compared to sites like Google.com, we are nothing. This is what’s great about the Internet! We can exist and have the exact same share of the Internet as Google does! Your Internet provider can’t tell you that Google is more important then we are (even if they are). So why does this matter?

Net Neutrality

Say you have Comcast Internet service. As of now, Comcast’s only job is to allow you to access the data on the Internet as fast as possible. Comcast is not concerned with what data you are trying to access. It works to deliver all data on the Internet to you equally. The service provider is neutral in its delivery of network information, hence net neutrality.

Why is this important?

If net neutrality did not exist, the Internet would be a very different place. Say, like before, you had Comcast Internet service. Well, without net neutrality, Comcast could decide that some sites are more important than others and that these sites deserve to load faster. They would probably make sure sites like Comcast.com loaded as quickly as possible. The Internet would turn into something that resembles TV and Radio. Service providers could block or slow down sites that they see as unimportant. This would devastate the freedom and innovation of the Internet, it would also devastate small sites like SeeTheHour.com

So, who is actually trying to end net neutrality?

Internet service companies have vocally expressed their interests in ending net neutrality. They would like to create a tiered system of service. This would open up faster connections for some sites and limit connections to other sites. In order to be at the top of this tier, websites would have to pay service providers. This would be devastating to any website that couldn’t afford to pay thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars to service providers. These sites would have their connections limited and would run much more slowly. Beyond making money, service providers argue that they are running out of bandwidth and need the power to limit parts of the Internet. Are you willing to trust Comcast to use this power fairly? I know I’m not.

I want to support net neutrality! What do I do?

In 2005, the FCC made an attempt to end net neutrality and to obtain stronger control over the Internet. Currently, there is legislation passing through congress to legally support net neutrality. Such a law does not currently exist and, if passed, would make net neutrality a legal right. Unfortunately, most Internet service providers have plenty of money to hire lobbyists. These political lobbyists are working to convince our political figures to vote against net neutrality. We can’t let this legislation fail! Email your state representative! Complain to Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and others like them! President Obama has pledged to stand up for net neutrality, send him a letter telling him to keep his promise! Fight for net neutrality before it’s too late. At the very least, sign the petition shown below to show your support for net neutrality.

For more information check out http://www.savetheinternet.com/

Also watch Hank Green explain Net Neutrality in this video:

Behringer 1202 FX

7/10 Stars

Price $99.99

The Behringer 1202 FX is an audio mixer. The general purpose of a mixer is to mix up a bunch of different things at different volumes and put them into one output.

I bought the 1202 FX to use in my room. Did I need it? No, but it’s fun to have a mixer in your room! First some basic features of the 1202 FX.

Now, before you start telling me that you need more inputs or more features, let me say that this thing is about as cheap as you can get. The price is a key factor in my rating of this product. It’s cheap, so keep that in mind as I list my complaints and solutions.

Complaints and Solutions

1. Audio Quality is average at best on this thing. You get what you pay for when it comes to quality. There is some good news though. Chances are, if you are buying a $100 mixer, that you aren’t going to have outstanding (and expensive) speakers. To hear the quality problems on this, you’re gonna need at least $700 in speakers. Although, once you try to use it with nice speakers, the poor quality is very obvious. Side note: I tested this mixer on some nice JBL PA system speakers and that’s where I’m getting this information from.
2. Inputs are a constant struggle with this. Only 4 mic inputs and only 4 stereo inputs? I need 9! Well, I have a simple solution to this. If you are willing to give up stereo on two inputs, it should help you out. Take advantage of the left and right inputs on the stereo channels to plug two different devices into the same channel (one to left and one to right). Then, you can choose the device you want using the “pan” nob on the mixer! Suddenly you have turned 8 inputs into a potential of 12!
3. Effects Processor on the 1202 is interesting. It has 99 “different effects!” Don’t get too exited yet though, most of them are just repeats of the same effects with different settings. For example, more than 30 effects on the processor are just simple reverbs. That said, it’s everything I ever wanted it to be. The effects are corny and cheap and virtually useless in most professional situations, but they’re perfect for me. I just wanted some cool effects so I could show off my awesome mixer to my friends. These effects are perfect for it too!
4. EQ is a mess on this thing. Luckily, I don’t really ever need to use it. The 3 bands of EQ on the board are set to fixed ranges, which is the main problem. For me, it means that I can’t even turn up the bass in a song without getting some other stuff brought up along with it. This isn’t a serious problem, but it is slightly annoying. I paid $100, what did I expect?

Overall I give this mixer 7/10 stars. Sure there are plenty of problems, but don’t expect to be able to buy anything better in this price range. If you have $100 to spend on a mixer, this is the one to buy. I recommend it to anyone as the best mixer for $100 or less. If you have more money, spend it, but for most non-professional uses I would recommend trying the Behringer 1202 FX.

Where to Buy

Behringer 1202 FX – Mixer reviewed in the article

Behringer 1222 FX – More expensive model with more inputs, but same quality issues

Mackie 802-VLZ3 – More expensive model with same amount of inputs, but higher quality