As powerful a TV show as you’re likely to see this year, FX’s Iraq war drama “Over There” (10 p.m. Wednesday) makes no overt political statement about the war; it simply puts one Army unit on display and lets viewers draw their own conclusions.

A riveting character-driven series, “Over There” is haunting and unsettling. After watching the first three episodes, it had me a little jumpy and on edge. Rarely does a TV show have such an impact.

Intense and unflinching, “Over There” is filled with believable profanity and the gore that comes with war. One unforgettable image is that of an advancing, gun-toting Iraqi whose upper body dissolves when struck by a mortar while his legs continue in their forward momentum before collapsing.

With images like this and a roster of complex characters (an Arab-American soldier joins the unit next week), “Over There” is a series that sticks with you long after the end credits roll.

Hiddenpcmaster Approved

There are several printer companies that are encoding the serial number and the manufacturing code of their color laser printers and color copiers on every document they produce. These markings are used by government, the U.S. included, to track counterfeiters. Xerox, for example, prints the serial number of each machine coded in little yellow dots on every printout. Most companies use the same combination of tiny yellow dots on white paper - so it’s invisible to the naked eye. If you want to see if your printer is using this tracking process, then shine a blue LED light (like a keychain laser) on your page and use a magnifying glass.

Lexmark takes printer tracking a step further. Some of their printers’ software monitors your printer usage, creates a log file at c:\program_files\lexmark500, and then sends that information off to Lexmark. Lexmark claims that printer output and cartridge usage for “survey purposes”…whatever that means.

We really do live in a “big brother” world now, don’t we. Everyone is being tracked, tagged, and monitored online these days. From tracking cookies, to adware, to spyware, and even possibly having your printer telling on you, there is no anonymity online. Your IP address flags your location. Your email is scanned by the NSA for keywords like “terrorist” or “assassination.” Your company may be tracking your web usage. Your domain listing has your contact name and phone listed. Data recovery tools can retrieve files from hard drives wiped clean. People need to realize that just because you are on the net, it does not mean that you are anonymous. Seriously…even your printer knows what you’re up to!

Sources: PCWorld, Broadband Reports

So your questions probably are, �What is a Slingbox� and �Why don�t you get a Tivo�? Let me answer the second question first. I have a Tivo. Actually, I have two, but with work, family, and computing, I often don�t have time to watch my recorded programs. Now lets answer the first question.

What is a Slingbox? Well it is a nifty little device that lets you view recorded content on your network from anywhere in the world. Let�s say that I am on a business trip that prevents me from watching a program. No problem, I just set the Tivo to record it. When I get to my hotel room, I log into my Slingbox from my laptop and watch.

I am so getting one of these� well maybe for Christmas.

It�s finally been updated again, my music sidebar. I’ve been told a few times already that my music collection was getting a bit stale… So I’ve taken it up a notch and posted some of my favorite headbangin tunes.

More songs to be uploaded soon. Enjoy!

Here are my latest “Stats” on Battlefield2….

by comparison you can see my co-worker’s “Stats” below….

A KVM switch is a keyboard, video, and mouse switch. It allows you to control more than one computer with the same keyboard, monitor, and mouse. Why would you want to do this?

A KVM switch comes in handy when you own and use more than one computer, but you don’t want to cover your desk with or pay for a bunch of input devices. If you have an old computer that you’d like to access regularly, this is the perfect application for a KVM switch. Just set up the old PC near the new one, plug in your KVM switch, and both computers are accessible to you anytime. Some two port KVM switches even come with built-in cables.

KVM switches are a must in large network setups with several servers. No reason to take up space and go through the expense and hassle of setting up sixteen monitors and keyboards when you can just pick up sixteen port KVM switch. You can even get rack mountable configurations.

Do you need an experienced Computer Technician to come to your home or office? I repair computers, troubleshoot Windows, install printers and wired/wireless networks for all major brands. With extensive Island-wide coverage, (Long Island, New York) innovative repair solutions and convenient installation and instruction, My on-site service program ensures the longevity of your technology.

A few examples:

SpyWare Virus Removal Package: $ 85/PC Flate Rate
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They don’t call me hiddenPCmaster for nothing!

I found this review by an unknown author on the net which sums up this soon be be classic game (once the bugs are patched!) Wally.

An excellent game with a funky user interface.
Jul 10 ‘05

Author’s Product Rating
Product Rating: 4.0

Pros
Arcade Like war that sacrifices nothing for fun.

Cons
Horrible UI, laggy 64 player ranked servers

The Bottom Line
If you have the patience to wade through the UI then pick this game up!

Full Review
Battlefield 2 is flat out entertaining� once you actually find a decent server and get past its horrible user interface issues. Battlefield 2 is an arcadey modern warfare game set in the near future where the United States, China, and the fictional Middle Eastern Coalition are at war. Battlefield 2 is a game that in no way attempts to be realistic or a military simulation. All the realism that would otherwise be present has been replaced by aspects that make the experience more fun rather than tedious. The game is geared with its heart and soul to its online experience and if you have a poor connection this game should be passed up. The gameplay and feature set of BF2 will set a standard for future generations of online military games. Everyone will find something to treasure in BF2, be it the player who loves to rein terror from the skies to the guy who likes to sneak past the enemy defenses and plant bombs on enemy vehicles� there is quite a bit more to do in BF2 than capture flags and kill the enemy. The best question for this review is exactly what makes BF2 tick? This review will focus on what I think makes this game fun and unique. The graphics come last on my review as you can see for yourself what the game looks like. No tech jargon in this review.

Game play comes first and foremost and thus it will be the first aspect of Battlefield 2 to discuss. When you start up BF2 and jump into a 64 player server you are immediately greeted with a host of options ranging from your equipment load out (Kits) to the ability to commandeer a jet and engage in dogfights. The kits comprise of a variety of specialty equipment load outs that give you access to tools required for specific task. The Medic for example will get a load out that includes a defibrillator to revive fallen soldiers as well as a medic bag to heal other players, a sidearm, an assault rifle, grenades, and knife. An �assault� load out will include an assault rifle with under mounted grenade launcher, smoke grenades. In short each kit has a specific set of tools that give the player advantages in some situations and disadvantages in others. The only weapon common to all the kits are the knife and sidearm. While the kits add to the variety of the game play they more or less satisfy each player�s specific goals in the game. Many players enjoy the obvious benefits of being a medic and his capability to heal others and revive dead players while others will enjoy laying down a wall of lead as a machine gunner. Each kit load out is designed to benefit the team aspect of the game. A medic heals and revives; a machine gunner provides unlimited ammunition; the spec ops kit allows for the destruction of bridges and enemy vehicles and so on and so forth. Ideally each squad will have a varied kit load out amongst its members.

Squads are the heart of the game. While many players choose to be a lone wolf on this massive battlefield the squad is the most beneficial aspect of the multiplayer experience. Once you have chosen your kit you can tab over to the squads menu where you can join or form your own squad. Joining a squad allows you to spawn right next to the squad leader while being a lone wolf makes you spawn at areas controlled by your team on the map. It isn�t hard to see the advantages of spawning next to your squad leader. A good squad leader will keep himself alive and use good teamwork to keep his troops alive. If everyone in the squad bites the dust except for your squad leader spawning near him will put you right back into the action. When an enemy squad is pumping out soldiers it is in your team�s interest to find and root out the squad leader to cull his non-stop assault. This makes digging in and defending a base more dynamic. No longer can you camp it with a vehicle or ignore the squad leader. The ability to change kits after you die and then spawning by the squad leader makes it a bit hard for the enemy team to dig in. If you don�t take out the leader than his squad will spawn with the tools needed to take you down. A tank will become useless after two anti tank kits spawn near the leader you neglected to find. The strategy present in squads is a welcome addition to BF2 and one of its best features. Going up the hierarchy from the squads is the commander; the commander has the ability to direct squads to mission objectives and a variety of other tools. The commander can call in devastating air strikes as well as use radar to reveal the enemy locations in a limited portion of the map. The commander�s ability to organize and send out your teams squads is the key to victory. Your base is under constant assault and your squad is being attacked by an overwhelming force. The commander has the ability to scan the area to reveal troop movements, send in reinforcements for your team, and drop supplies. The commander is also capable of raining down metal death upon your foes.

Still there is more variety to be discussed. If you become tired of the enemy commanders shenanigans you can destroy a variety of structures vital to the commander. The command center, the radar dish, and the artillery can all be destroyed. Lone wolf commandos will enjoy disabling the commander�s tools. If your own base has been ravaged by a squad the you can rebuild it as an engineer as well as repair your teams vehicles. Bridges play an important role too. A well placed C4 charge from the spec ops team can cut off a bridge in a second. Having trouble keeping enemy armor from taking your base? Blow the bridge that they use and force them to go around to slow them down. If you�re an engineer you might opt to keep the bridge up and place some anti-vehicle mines instead. The variety of tasks to do is vast. From the strategically sound bombing of the command center to the totally evil task of planting c4 on enemy planes and detonating them right before they take off. Shoot down helicopters in the anti-air tank, transport troops in a boat, fly high and go in for parachute assault with your team in a chopper, ect. ect. ect. So much to do!

I am a big stickler on infantry weapons. Visually they are all detailed correctly but specification wise some are askew. This is a moot point as the game is not a one shot one kill sim. The G36 should not be as powerful as the M16; both shoot the same bullet but the M16 has a much longer barrel and thus more velocity behind the projectile� but I digress. Arcadey = fun. Overlooking such quibbles as those the weapons all offer a unique way of offing your opponents. Right clicking brings up the iron sights of your weapon and or an optic if it is equipped with one. The iron sights allow the player to shoot more accurately at a target farther away (barring the weapons own bullet deviation from the three shooting positions). Some weapons are equipped with a red dot, others a scope, others just plain jane irons. It is quite a thrill when you have an accurate weapon such as the M16 and you manage to get a kill at a distance such as 400 yards� Lying down tightens the group of such an accurate weapon and makes hits easier to make at greater distances. Each weapon of course has benefits and weaknesses which adds to the variety. A Chinese Ak-47 has more power than the M16 but lacks the accuracy for detail work at longer range. Each weapon is FUN to use and offers a unique experience �behind the wheel� or rather behind the trigger. Weapon unlocks become available as you progress in rank on ranked servers. Once a weapon is unlocked it becomes useable in ranked and unranked servers.

The game looks great! I am running a 3.0 ghz Intel with a gig of ram and a radeon 9800. Not the best on the block but it allows me to play the game with adequate graphics. Ill spare the technical jargon and just say that it gets the job done and a bit more. It doesn�t look a thing like halflife2 but it maintains a fresh look on modern machines. The water is nice, the environments have good ploy counts and the detail on the weapons is bar none good. If you want to look for yourself there are numerous screens on the net to satisfy your curiosity of the games graphical prowess. There is no need for me to get detailed about the blades of grass and pigeons that fly away when an enemy gets near them.

The sound of the game completes the package. The weapons don�t sound a thing like they do in real life, but it gets the job done. (I want to hear the Sproing! Sound of the M16s buffer and spring every time I fire the weapon but that�s probably just me.) There are no echoes of gunfire as each bullet breaks the sound barrier and creates its own little thunderous sonic boom� Most games neglect weapon sound effects but in this case it doesn�t detract from the game play. This is just nitpicking. Artillery is earsplitting as I guess it should be when it hits five feet in front of you and sends your limp body 200 feet into the air.

The user interface is what brings it all down. The retail copy has the worst UI I have ever experienced. The server browser is a pain to use� On my machine I have to hit internet games, then local games, and then go back to internet games just to refresh the server list. You would think that the refresh button would take care of that for me but that is not the case. It never refreshes all the servers and thus I have to do my little trick. If you are not scrolled up all the way on the server list and you perform a server search your query will come up totally empty handed. Lets not forget the hour it seems to take for the game to get past all the EA �challenge everything� screens and other misc. developer icons. It took so long to boot up I went in the BF2 folders and disabled most of the intro screens simply because they are a waist of time. The netcode on ranked games that have 64 players is not optimized. Unranked servers seem to get along fine, but some ranked games are a lag fest. BF2 also has a habit of crashing to the desktop after a game ends. It�s not you and your machine exclusively but about 10-15 people in the server that will drop all the way to their desktop.

Fun, insanely entertaining, buggy UI. The merits of BF2 outweigh the cons and the game manages to satisfy in a way few other FPS do. Once you get into a server with a low ping and a good squad the game becomes FPS bliss. There were several matches where I felt like I was playing through a scene from Blackhawk down. Watching enemy jets try to cut your squad down with a bomb and missing only to crash because they couldn�t pull up in time to clear the smokestack is something you can�t see in Counterstrike. Getting a kill with an M16 at 400 meters is strangely satisfying. As usual patches will fix its UI problems and all the is required to do is wait for the updates. I give it my recommendation.

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