There has been and still is a lot of buzz on the internet lately about a couple of bills making their way up to the United States Congress. The first of those bills is SOPA, which stands for the Stop Online Piracy Act of 2011. The person behind the idea of SOPA is Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas. Namely, the corporations who support the bill are the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Podcast Episode 2: SOPA will Change How you Do Things

Now, let's get it straight. If you live in a country other than the U.S., the American government isn't all as perfect as you may think it is. It's been corrupt for the longest time in that the government runs on money. The "people" who are trying to pass on these bills are corporations. We all know that corporations can influence a decision to an extent because they have money. The problem is that there are morons who don't realize that they are trying to govern the internet when they have probably never used the internet enough.

The main purpose of SOPA is to protect American content creators from piracy by targeting foreign websites who put American businesses at an inconvenience. The way SOPA works is that when a court order is granted, it will be carried out on the infringing website to make it, simply put, disappear.

Protesters of the bill argue that because the way that the bill is now written, it will alter the principle of freedom. Many of the websites that you visit often are most likely protesters of SOPA, and just to name a few: Wikipedia, Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Twitch.tv, and many other websites oppose the bill. Even the White House has announced that  if the bill ever reached President Obama's desk, then he will veto it.

How SOPA can Change the Way you Use the Internet

There's no denying it: It's going to change the way you use the internet. This bill, if it does ever happen to pass, is going to allow those swindler corporations to destroy the internet when they see something they dislike. You just don't destroy the internet just because it doesn't fit your business standard.

One example of what could happen is at home. It's here at Drift Apex. If our website happened to get taken down because of SOPA, then it will injure the passions and ideals of our community. It's hard to let go of something you're dedicated to. If the Congress is going to interfere with that, then they are morons.

Pirates are pirates. They don't care about the law. Those people in the Congress believe that just because one person pirates a single file, then they are losing money. That is the problem. Think about it. Most people who download content illegally are not going to even buy the product they are pirating in the first place. What the Congress needs to do to defeat the pirates is give a better service than the pirates.

The language used in the bill is so vague that almost anything could be taken for copyright infringement. An example of that would be Wikipedia. All that it takes is a single link on a page to something that Viacom thinks they own for a website to be taken down without proper due process.

One of the largest podcast networks on the internet has seen how dishonest the Universal Music Group is. In one of their videos, they used a clip of the Megaupload song for reporting and commentary purposes, which falls completely under the realm of fair use. Their video was removed unjustly by the UMG in that they don't have the rights to the Megaupload song. They just take down whatever video they think harms their business.

It's Time to Do Something about It

Listen to the people who have the right perspective. It's time to not just sign an online petition, but to go do something about it with bigger actions. Many websites are "blacking out" on the 18th of January to show what the internet would be like if we did not have access to certain websites that we all enjoy. It's better to focus on things we can actually change to help everyone. It seems like the best choice right now is to keep piracy the way it is.

There is another bill that is closely related to SOPA. It's called the PROTECT IP act, or PIPA. It denotes the Prevention of Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011. If these bills were to ever be passed, and they are very close to passing, Congress would be taking away the fundamental doors for creating jobs and growth not just from people who pirate, but from normal internet users as well. Internet censorship is not a good thing. The U.S. is already suffering in many ways. Please, don't make it worse.

It's time to stop being ignorant. These bills are not just going to lower the number of pirates. It's going to threaten due process, free speech, and is just simply, a bad, bad bill. Keeping things in order is usually a good thing, but too much control is harmful.

Drift Apex is joining the group of people who are against SOPA. If you're still pondering how to side on these matters, then just know that you can help make a difference if you believe in the following: The internet is supposed to be a wide network of limitless knowledge, a place to express yourself, and create.

Please, communicate with your congressperson, head on over to AmericanCensorship.org, share this article on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and so on to help spread the message that SOPA and other bills like it are just plain evil.

This past weekend marks the start and end of yearly fighting game tournament known as SoCal Regional, an event that brings players from all around the world to take part in competitive gaming events. Today, the grand finals of Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 were dynamically played out by our U.S. players.

In the last match of Street Fighter, Justin Wong went up against Ricky Ortiz, a player that he sent to the loser's bracket and then only to face him again. They both played Rufus, a rare sight since the release of Arcade Edition due to balance changes, better, and newer characters; but character loyalty played a good part in this match-up, and their combos and zoning was solid throughout, but Justin Wong came out on top.

Shortly after the grand finals of Street Fighter, the Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 tournament started. The top 8 matches were well-played, but with pressure building up, we saw many players drop their combos which in turn caused lost games. We saw many people use Wesker as an anchor, with Doom as an aid, which was quite devastating to players due to both rush down and keep away abilities. The characters that stood out the most were Clockwork's Doom/Strider combo, Noel Brown's Frank West, Jago's Trish, and Justin Wong's Ironfist, who was actually a low tier character.

The last round had Justin Wong (Iron Fist, Wolverine, Akuma) and MINE (Wesker, Taskmaster, Magneto) as the players. Justin was just sent to loser's bracket by MINE the previous game, but won in that bracket, causing a rematch as the grand finals. Previously dropping combos in the last match, Justin finally got himself together and turned the tides against MINE, able to reset the set, and take victory against MINE's team, playing a solid Ironfist throughout. Although MINE put up a good fight, Justin Wong came out victorious yet again.

Where should I go? What should I do? Those are only a couple of the most common questions we ask ourselves throughout our lives. I bet that back in the day, for most of us, we wanted to become a superhero, a police officer, and so on. At that point in our lives, we could only imagine that happening – and for some people their dreams of having that job came true. At any rate, let's talk about high school now.

When you become a senior in high school, people are going to come up to you and ask you "what do you want to become when you grow up?" You probably won't have a solid answer to that question nevertheless, so being in school is going to help you decide what you want to become when you grow up by providing you the opportunities and programs to explore the various fields of science, technology, sports, and so on.

The fact of the matter is that if you aren't sure of what you want to do with your life and you are still in school, then you should definitely explore the various clubs offered through the school to help you decide what you want to major in and pursue as your future career.

What are you going to do with your life?

The FIRST Robotics Competition is a event that allows many high school students to come together to build robots and to compete to complete a specific task. The Drift Apex crew had taken a rare chance to interview Kevin Ross, a regional manager for FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), and sit down with one of the groups that had partaken in the competition, Team 2930.

The audio recording of the interview with Kevin Ross allowed the Drift Apex crew to start up a podcast on technology (and gaming, of course)! Listen to the first ever episode of our new podcast below:

Podcast Episode 1: Interview with Kevin Ross

FIRST Robotics Competition Overview

Kevin Ross at the FRC Seattle Regional 2011.

The Drift Apex videography crew dedicated their time to capture footage of under six hours throughout the three days spent there at the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Seattle Regional during March 17th-19th, 2011.

Volunteer cameraman, Andrew Kim, who helped us capture footage at the FRC while we were on the field interviewing others.

Eight, highly educational, clips were uploaded straight to the Drift Apex YouTube channel for all of those interested to find out what happened at the competition. Watch the clips below:

Read what Nikhil C., a member from Team 2930, who, in his own words provided a general overview of the FRC:

Let me tell you about a world of robots, companionship, sleepless nights, and gracious professionalism. That world exists in the hands of FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. An organization dedicated toward the inspiration and teamwork of children and teenagers everywhere in the world through the use of  repeated cooperation.

A member from Team 2930 holds up an award for gracious professionalism.

FIRST was founded in 1989 by already successful inventor, Dean Kamen. His dream was "to transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders." His dream has stayed alive for 20 years, and this year's competition at the FRC celebrated the times. Kamen has expanded his reach out in not just the United States of America, but in other countries like Isreal, Turkey, Japan, and much more as well.

I would like give a big, big thank you to all of our cameramen, photographers, presenters, and interviewees for making all of this possible. We hope to visit the next FIRST Robotics Competition in 2012.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a role-playing video game. Within a demo video shown at this week's E3 by Bethesda Game Studios, the developers of the game, we see the use of a new engine that renders this game to amazing detail. Bethesda has adjusted the gameplay make do for the casual audience. The previous releases of The Elder Scrolls in the series were of slower pace than many other games in the genre, but in Skyrim the gameplay is much more fluid. Also, they changed the leveling system to seem like Fallout. Now, it is much more easier to understand how to level up.

The enemy AI are ways smarter and have a lot more detail. There are dragons and large trolls that are colossal, and unlike the prior releases of The Elder Scrolls there weren't many large enemies that you could fight. The dragons attack at random and can do runs to pick up people, alongside shooting fire, making them very dangerous. When you kill one you absorb its soul and you gain "shouts," which are very strong spells. Bethesda has made changes with how you hold on to your weapons. It is at a point were you hold on to a spell on one side and sword on the other. You may also dual-wield swords.

The UI has also changed to where the menus are even more cleaner and faster. It includes a new map system and 3D models of every item in the game that you can get that makes it possible to look at any angle you want to. All together, I think that this game will be a milestone for the company, being that we would be able to easily accomplish making an amazing land that we can do anything on.

The game will be released on November 11, 2011. Are you going to buy it? Leave a comment to let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Today is the day that Sony has finally come to fully restore the PlayStation Network from the recent attack on the network a couple months ago. Sony welcomes all PS3 consumers back with a customer appreciation program, which has already been passed around long before the official availability of the program today.

The program allows all PSN members to select two free PS3 games, all yours to keep, from a specified selection of:

1. InFamous
2. Super Stardust HD
3. WipEout HD Bundle
4. LittleBigPlanet
5. Dead Nation

Moreover, Sony is allowing two free PSP game downloads from a selection of:

1. Killzone Liberation
2. LittleBigPlanet PSP
3. ModNation Racers PSP
4. Pursuit Force

In addition to those two offers, PlayStation Plus will be given for 30 days free for non-subscribers and an additional 60 days for current subscribers. PlayStation Home will be offering 100 free virtual items for download. Lastly, movie rentals on Ghostbusters, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and Bad Boys will be offered for the first weekend of June for free.

Today, corporate gaming giant Sony announced that their "PlayStation network system is still vulnerable to attack." A large amount of concern has been rising over the company's credibility as one of the biggest data security breaches in internet history caused hundreds of PlayStation players to have their private details exposed on a wide-scale.

It is not known how Sony is going to improve its security as of yet, but this recent attack three weeks ago is sure to scare many of its online users off for good.

League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena game similar to games such as Heroes of Newerth and Bloodline Champions developed by Riot. It was created by Steve Feak, known as Guinsoo in the League of Legends community and the previous designer of DotA. The game's basis is inspired by the gameplay style of DotA, of which was was created by Eul, but with upgraded features and much more. The main selling point, however, that sets League of Legends and DotA apart is that the game is free and Riot doesn't charge for powerful items.