Category: Super Sweet Shirts

New Repo Man Shirt!

   Holidays are approaching quickly!  As you can see from this sweet picture, its already October.  I have been busy in the lab pumping out a few last minute designs before the holiday season kicks in and all new designs come to a halt.  This new shirt came out sweet, inspired from an alternate movie poster of “Repo Man.”  This shirt is pure punk rock.  Any fan of this cult hit will love this.  This is now available in our Etsy store, eBay, and supersweetshirts.com.
   Follow us on instagram for a coupon code that will save you some scratch.

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My Fantasy Football Experiment

    I’m a pretty big football fan and a die hard fan of the Buffalo Bills.  Every year I have the chance to join someone’s fantasy league but never really wanted to try it.  I had never done it and it always seemed like a pain in the ass.  This year I decided to do it, except I decided to try something different.  First off, this was a free league with nothing more than “bragging rights” for the prize.  Fine with me.  All this meant was that I was free to be as crazy as I wanted to be.

   
    The draft was the most fun.  You had the predictable choices go first in the beginning rounds…but I decided to be ridiculous.  Or was I?  I didn’t understand the logic of picking random players from different teams.  So what if they are the best players.  I looked at the Buffalo Bills roster this year.  The defense was looking great, the offense has impressive weapons with two starting running backs, and the quarterback (at the time) was supposed to be decent.  So in my eyes, EJ Manuel is either going to pass it to his two top receivers, or to his 2 running backs….and if hes not passing it to them, they will be running the ball with those two running backs.  Its almost double the points every play!  Right!?  The people I ran this by before the draft laughed at me…but nobody really told me “why” it wouldn’t work.  The only drawback I saw was the bye week.  My goal was to make the playoffs with this method, so sacrificing the bye week was something I was willing to do.

   Of course I kept this a secret from everyone in the league accept my friend Pat who was pretty excited to see how this would work as well (although laughed at it as being ridiculous.)  I had my draft board laid out, 6 overall pick, and determined to get all my players.

My first pick:
C.J. Spiller

I figured, out of all my players, he would be first to go if someone where to take a Bill.

My second round pick:
Sammy Watkins

He has gotten so much hype in the off season, I didn’t want to chance losing him/  I wasn’t really worried about losing Manuel at this point.  I figured I could snag him in the 3rd round (like the Bills probably could have done…)

My third round pick:
EJ Manuel

My fourth round pick:
The Buffalo Defense

In the end I got everything I wanted:

EJ Manuel
Robert Woods
C.J. Spiller
Fred Jackson
Scott Chandler
Mike Williams
Buffalo Defense

Backups for bye week:
Ryan Fitzpatrick
Brian Hartline
Mark Ingram
Delaine Walker
DeAndre Hopkins

The Bye week will be tough to get through, my best shot at points is Fitzpatrick because he doesn’t have to win, he just needs to get me those garbage stats hes known for.

So how have I done?  I’m 2-2.  I should be 3-1.  I lost the first week by only a few points because I forgot a player when setting my line up.  I didn’t know “w/r/t” was basically an extra player to use.  What was once a laughing stock during the draft…is now raising eyebrows.  Nobody wants to lose to my team.  Nobody.

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"Bill…..It’s your baby…"

    I’m pretty excited about this latest addition to my catalog of baby clothes.  As stated in an earlier post, I recently saw the “Kill Bill” movies about 2 weeks ago for the first time.  I’m not sure why it took me so many years to see them, but I loved them.  I started brainstorming ideas for baby clothes and it wasn’t long before I came up with this.  The original plan was to find full body pajamas but I was unsuccessful.  Option #2 was going to be a yellow romper.  I was able to do this.  I wanted it to sort of look like the yellow outfit from the movie, or at least look like that was the purpose of the color selection.  I came up with this:

This is available in all our eBay, Etsy, and of course at supersweetshirts.com

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Random News Update!

  I’ve been crazy busy the past few weeks, so I haven’t had much time to update this blog!  A few notes:

1) We are already into September!  Less than 4 months until Christmas!  Every order we have been sending out since the summer has has an included coupon code as a “thanks.”  Keep these handy as they can be used this holiday season!

2) Years ago we used to do a yearly holiday Indie shopping show in Rochester, NY.  I haven’t done one in a few years now because we have been so busy each holiday, but this year I might be squeezing one in, which will be in Buffalo, NY.  I’ll know more on this if we get “accepted” into the show.  It’s not something I need to do, and I’m sure I’ll kick myself for doing it because it gets so busy, but it’s great to get out and see the people who buy from us! I miss it.

3) It’s 2014, and yesterday I watched “Kill Bill” for the first time.  I’m not sure why it took me so long to see it, but I’ll definitely be working on some Kill Bill shirt art, hopefully soon!

Stay Tuned!

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Fan Expo Canada: I Have Returned.

  

    Well, I have to admit,  this most recent trip to a comic convention was a lot better then the last.  Also, the overall experience in Toronto, Canada was more enjoyable as well.  Up until this point, I never really had a great time in Toronto.  Don’t get me wrong, I am far from saying that I “love” this city, in fact, I barely like it, but this time around was quite pleasant.

    We didn’t get a hotel, as these days, you can get a way better room for a fraction of the cost using Airbnb.  If you are unfamiliar with this site, its basically people that rent out their apartments or other properties they own.  In this case, we rented an apartment on the 34th floor of the Tiff on Widmer St. right in the heart of downtown Toronto. It was a one bedroom apartment overlooking the city with a nice balcony.  A pretty awesome deal.

 

View off the balcony.

View off the balcony at night.

    When we arrived, we unpacked our gear and head out to the streets in search for some food.  We were right near King Street which was loaded with places to eat/drink.  We didn’t put much effort in to researching for this particular meal as we were both pretty hungry from being stuck in shitty Canadian traffic for way longer than we should have.  We choose a restaurant called “Hush” which advertised a rooftop patio.  It didn’t really feel like a rooftop patio.  It just felt like a patio, mainly because it actually wasn’t on the roof of the building.  False advertising.  The drink menu was slim with only a few beer choices and some mixed drinks.  We went with some hard ciders called, “Somersby.”  I got the regular and my friend Pat got the blackberry.  I should have figured they were going to be horrendous when the waitress asked if we wanted them on the rocks.  She said they were “meant to be on ice.”  I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but if you brew something that tastes the best when you dilute it with ice, its probably terrible.  We opted out of the ice.  And we were right.  Terrible.

    We ordered burgers for dinner where we were reminded the hard way that you really don’t get to choose your temperature in Toronto when ordering a burger.  They just bring you a well done patty.  Thankfully it somehow was still juicy, but I will probably never order a burger in Canada again.  I did other research online about this topic, and this is apparently just how things are there.

    When cashing out, I was reminded of another really obnoxious Canadian thing that we actually encountered a lot when we were in Montreal.  The dreaded credit card machine.  Here in the states, you order your meal, they bring the check, you give them your card, they take your card, the bring it back for you to sign in privacy were you pay your bill and calculate whatever tip you want to leave.  In Canada, they give you a device that’s about the size of a Zack Morris phone, they swipe your card, and then hand the machine over to you to cash yourself out and enter your tip.  The entire time you awkwardly do this, they stand over you.  It is awful.  I jokingly mocked the device at the table with our waitress who told us that the US is “behind” on this restaurant technology.  I am going to disagree.

    After dinner we headed outside and noticed a ton of people in Blue Jays gear heading to the stadium.  It was a really nice night and we didn’t really have plans to do anything specific, so we said “why not?”  Off to the Rogers Centre , off we went for a random baseball game where it happened to be against the NY Yankees.  I really don’t care about baseball anymore, although I did when I was a kid.  This made the game a bit cooler to see, especially because I got to see Derek Jeter play before he retires.  It was kind of cool.

    A few awkward things about Blue Jays baseball.  First, the drinking age in Canada is 19.  Second, the marketing for Blue Jays gear is based around the slogan, “I Love BJ’s.”  Third, the $17.50 seats are a nice bargain, but its pretty much the section of the stadium that’s just packed with 18-19 year old kids.  So basically your sitting in a section full of 18-19 year old girls, all drinking heavily, all wearing shirts that say “I love BJ’s.”

   The excitement of the game only lasted until the 7th inning, then we were ready to get the hell out of there and go find a craft beer place.  Upon doing some research, we settled on “Bar Hop” which touted 30 taps, over 100 bottles, and 2 casks.  That was enough for me to make my decision.  We headed down to this place, which was walking distance from the stadium.  This is were Canada falls short with their beer.  The entire list was 5% ABV beers, all from Canada.  There was on 7% Imperial IPA from North Island which I started off with.  It was actually pretty decent.  We then had a wild cider on cask which sort of smelled like urine, but tasted better then it smelled.  The overall experience at this place was pretty good.  Nice vibe, great beer selection (probably the best your going to see being in Canada), and a nice crowd.  After our beers, it was time to head back and get some rest before FanExpo!

   We got to FanExpo around 11 after having some breakfast.  The line was gigantic to get in, but moved quickly and we were inside in less the a half hour.  We were pretty shocked at how fast it was.  Once inside, it was nerd insanity (with a lingering scent of B.O.) 

   With my only prior experience of one of these things being the Niagara Falls Con, I was blown away at the size of this.  People from all over wearing their favorite costumes and merchandise for everything nerdy imaginable.  Celebrities line up along the outer perimeter signing autographs for ridiculous prices, some with lines of people, some with no line or people at all. 

    The second section of the convention center was the best.  It was the section with all of the comic book artists and other random artisans from all over.  People selling custom shirts, artwork, cosplay weapons, etc.  It was very cool and we spent the most time here.  I was trying hard to find my daughter a Tardis Dress, but was unable to.  Actually there was hardly anything there for babies/toddlers.  It really made me think about looking into a vendor slot for next years show, but I’ll probably pass.

    Overall this trip was decent.  I would definitely go to FanExpo next year, and although I still sort of hate Canada, this recent trip to Toronto was decent.

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Karate Kid Miyagi-Do New Onesie!

It’s been a while since I had some new onesies to debut.  Over the next few weeks I will have a bunch coming out.  The first onesie that I am releasing is another Karate Kid Onesie.  Before this I only had this item:

   Now you can dress your kid like a hero with the new Miyagi-Do onesie.  I had always wanted to do a print involving the Miyagi-Do logo.  This onesie came out awesome and whether you buy this for your kid, or a gift for someone elses, everyone will love this.

This is available in our Etsy, eBay, and main website at supersweetshirts.com where you will get the lowest price.  Follow us on Instagram for a coupon code to use at our main website.

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Buffering is Bullshit. Get VPN.

    So much is happening these days with video streaming services and ISP’s.  They are at each others throats, blaming each other for terrible speeds/buffering issues, with the real loser being the consumer.  Its obnoxious, but there is a way around it.  VPN.
The Verge published a great article a few days ago with video of a guy visually showing you the difference in speeds both using a VPN, and when your not using a VPN.  If you are unfamiliar with what a VPN is, it is basically this:

There are loads of benefits to having a VPN.  One is protecting your IP address.  Your IP address is your digital footprint and personal identifier.  When using a VPN, you can hide this information from websites you visit.  If you live in a country that regulates internet usage by forcing censorship with firewalls, stealth vpn can free you from that nonsense.  VPN can also hide your activity from big brother.  Its your business, keep it that way.
    Lets get back to that article I was referring to.  All of the ISP’s are messing with streaming services, and no matter how much you bitch, there isn’t anything you can do.  Or is there?  When using a VPN, your ISP doesn’t know that your watching Netflix.  If it doesn’t know, it can’t throttle you.  Some bloggers may argue that there is no difference, but I disagree.  A writer on Verge also subscribed to this theory.  Watch this experiment:

https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/5vs3QhEx_3w&source=uds

I have seen the same results from personal experiences.  Those who argue this theory, also make mention of low quality or free vpn services which are no good.  If you are going to go with a vpn, I highly suggest using Torguard.  Torguard offers a few different products, all very useful depending on what you’re looking for.  I currently have a vpn through them, along with a torrent proxy.  The speeds are fantastic, and I have had nothing but good luck with them.  I have used STRONGVPN as well, but cancelled.  The service was decent, but they were expensive and made it difficult to switch locations by tacking on all sorts of charges.  Torguard makes it easy.
There is one more thing you may want to do when considering a VPN company to go with.  Torrentfreak wrote an article this year called “Which VPN Services Take Your Anonymity Seriously? 2014 Edition.”  They contacted loads of VPN providers asking them their policy on “logs.”  Basically the only evidence possible that can be used against you when using a VPN.  Torrentfreak asked the following questions to these providers:

1. Do you keep ANY logs which would allow you to match an IP-address and a time stamp to a user of your service? If so, exactly what information do you hold and for how long?

2. Under what jurisdictions does your company operate and under what exact circumstances will you share the information you hold with a 3rd party?

3. What tools are used to monitor and mitigate abuse of your service?

4. In the event you receive a DMCA takedown notice or European equivalent, how are these handled?

5. What steps are taken when a valid court order requires your company to identify an active user of your service?

6. Is BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic allowed on all servers? If not, why?

7. Which payment systems do you use and how are these linked to individual user accounts?

8. What is the most secure VPN connection and encryption algorithm you would recommend to your users?

Torguard answered the questions if great detail.

1. TorGuard does not store any IP address or time stamps on any VPN and proxy servers, not even for a second. Further, we do not store any logs or time stamps on user authentication servers connected to the VPN. In this way it is not even possible to match an external time stamp to a user that was simultaneously logged in. Because the VPN servers utilize a shared IP configuration, there can be hundreds of users sharing the same IP at any given moment further obfuscating the ability to single out any specific user on the network.

2. TorGuard is a privately owned company with parent ownership based in Nevis and our headquarters currently located in the US. Our legal representation at the moment is comfortable with the current corporate structuring however we wouldn’t hesitate to move all operations internationally should the ground shift beneath our feet. We now offer VPN access in 23+ countries worldwide and maintain all customer billing servers well outside US borders.

We would only be forced to communicate with a third-party in the event that our legal team received a court ordered subpoena to do so. This has yet to happen, however if it did we would proceed with complete transparency and further explain the nature of TorGuard’s shared VPN configuration. We have no logs to investigate, and thus no information to share.

3. Our network team uses commercial monitoring software with custom scripts to keep an eye on individual server load and service status/uptime so we can identify problems as fast as possible. If abuse reports are received from an upstream provider, we block it by employing various levels of filtering and global firewall rules to large clusters of servers. Instead of back tracing abuse by logging, our team mitigates things in real-time. We have a responsibility to provide fast, abuse-free VPN services for our clients and have perfected these methods over time.

4. In the event of receiving a DMCA notice, the request is immediately processed by our abuse team. Because it is impossible for us to locate which user on the server is actually responsible for the violation, we temporarily block the infringing server and apply global rules depending on the nature of the content and the server responsible. The system we use for filtering certain content is similar to keyword blocking but with much more accuracy. This ensures the content in question to no longer pass through the server and satisfies requirements from our bandwidth providers.

5. Due to the nature of shared VPN services and how our network is configured, it is not technically possible to effectively identity or single out one active user from a single IP address. If our legal department received a valid subpoena, we would proceed with complete transparency from day one. Our team is prepared to defend our client’s right to privacy to the fullest extent of the law.

6. BitTorrent is only allowed on select server locations. TorGuard now offers a variety of protocols like http/socks proxies, OpenVPN, SSH Tunnels, SSTP VPN and Stealth VPN (DPI Bypass), with each connection method serving a very specific purpose for usage. Since BitTorrent is largely bandwidth intensive, we do not encourage torrent usage on all servers. Locations that are optimized for torrent traffic include endpoints in: Canada, Netherlands, Iceland, Sweden, Romania, Russia and select servers in Hong Kong. This is a wide range of locations that works efficiently regardless of the continent you are trying to torrent from.

7. We currently accept payments through all forms of credit or debit card, PayPal, OKPAY, and Bitcoin. During checkout we may ask the user to verify a billing phone and address but this is simply to prevent credit card fraud, spammers, and keep the network running fast and clean. After payment it is possible to change this to something generic that offers more privacy. No VPN or Proxy usage can be linked back to a billing account due to the fact we hold absolutely no levels of logging on any one of our servers, not even timestamps!

8. For best security we advise clients to choose OpenVPN connections only, and if higher encryption is called for use AES256 bit. This option is available on many locations and offers excellent security without degrading performance. For those that are looking to defeat Deep Packet Inspection firewalls (DPI) like what is encountered in countries such as China or Iran, TorGuard offers “Stealth” VPN connections in the Netherlands, UK and Canada. Stealth connections feature OpenVPN obfuscation technology that causes VPN traffic to appear as regular connections, allowing VPN access even behind the most strict corporate wifi networks or government regulated ISPs.

The complete article can be read here.  StrongVPN gave an evasive answer at first which made me not want to use them.
    I’m going to continue this series throughout the month, sharing how to configure a router for your home to be permanently connected to a VPN, how to set up a torrent proxy with uTorrent, and how to take almost any router and flash it with DDWRT which will allow it to be permanently connected to VPN. 

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Fan Expo Canada Bound! (I’m not sure if I’m excited.)

I consider myself a comic geek, although at the age of 35, I have to curb by buying habits to not look like a total asshole.  I have a baby and a wife, so instead of buying the Punisher first appearance, Spiderman Issue #129, I’ll make a home repair or maybe throw some money in my baby daughters starter account.  But on occasion, I do pick up a few issues still hear and there.  I also love sci-fi and Doctor Who.  With being a fan of all these things, one would think that I must attend geek festivals and cons, left and right.  I actually don’t.  At the end of August, I will be heading up to Toronto for “Fan Expo”, the biggest event I will have attended, and also, only the second.
   My first experience at one of these things was at the Niagara Falls Comic-con.  I was pretty excited to go to this event.  There was going to be a few guests that I found interesting, one being Mic Foley (whom I’ve always been a huge fan of) and Cory Feldman (that’s right, Corey Feldman.)  I have gone to see Foley at other wrestling related appearances, so I wasn’t too excited to see him, but it would have been cool to get my “Stand By Me” DVD signed by Corey Feldman.  We arrived on time to this event, where we were surrounded by people in costumes in the parking lot.  It was neat to see.  We then approached the Niagara Falls Convention Center only to find ourselves standing in a gigantic line because the building was at capacity.  This is an absurd notion if you are selling tickets to something.  I was pretty annoyed from the start.  After about an hour, we found ourselves close to the entrance.  Anytime now!  All of a sudden, flocks of nerds started running out of the line at full speed to the other side of the building.  We stood there wondering what had just happened, only caring slightly as we felt that at any moment, we would be inside.  One of the door guys casually came out and said, “Oh hey guys, the line has moved to the other side. We are closing this entrance.”

Looking across the parking lot at the other side of the building, the new line appeared…..even bigger than it was before.  After another hour of standing around, we had finally made it inside.
What to do first!?  A casual stroll was in order to browse the vendors, see some people, etc.  So much is for sale at these things!  I started to see the celebrities set up their tables, and the lines started to form to see them.  Corey Feldman’s line was huge. I immediately gave up on that, and headed over to Foley’s line.  It was reasonable, and I had a copy of his first fictional book, “Tatum Brown” that I wanted to get signed.  I was in line for about 30 minutes, when I was told that it was about $80.00 to get this signed (I could be off a little. but by no more than 10 or 15 bucks.)  Cash only.  Fucking Cash only.  What if you wanted to meet 2 people and buy some comics.  You’re supposed to stroll around with hundreds of dollars cash in your pocket like “Joe Bucks?”  It’s insane!  At this point, I’m determined to accomplish something.  The person behind me offered to hold my place in line so that I could go to the ATM machine around the corner.  I stood there, in line, again….waiting for my turn at the ATM.  The guy in front of me looked as though someone he knew had just died.  Then he filled me in.  The ATM was out of money.  The ATM….was out of money…..

So I quit.  I grabbed the $20.00 in my pocket, bought a Doctor Who shirt and left that shit-hole, never intending on going back for future events.
   Toronto Fan Expo, is supposed to be the real deal.  Huge lineup of guests, one being Patrick Stewart whom I would love to meet.  According to the Internet, the event drew 100,000 people last year.  At the moment, this very moment, I am excited.  I’m sure it will remain that way, up until I realize that Patrick Stewart will want an absurd amount of money, or I get stuck in some gigantic line…..or the ATM runs out of money.  Regardless, I will keep my head up…

I’ll at least walk out with a T-Shirt.

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Netflix Alert: Review – "Homefront"

  

     I’ve been waiting for this one.  I meant to go see this in the theatre when it initially came out, but couldn’t get the time.  The plot is simple.  Statham is an ex-cop that wanted to get away from it all, took his daughter, and moved into the country so that they could ride horses in the country.  They unfortunately chose a place where everyone has horrible southern accents and where James Franco’s character “Gator”, is a ruthless, feared, psycho meth dealer.  Of course paths cross, and Statham can’t escape becoming a target.

     From the very beginning of the movie, I noticed a common theme in all of Stathom’s movies.  There doesn’t seem to ever be a character that I think would ever beat him in a fight, accept maybe Expendables 3 when he goes toe to toe with Scott Atkins.  Other than that, never.  This movie is even worse.  Throughout the movie Stathom fights overweight trashy hillbillies.  There is rarely a suspenseful scene where you sit there and think, “Oh no, how’s he going to get out of this?”  Instead, you sit there and watch as he gets surrounded by like 8 guys, and you can’t wait to see them all get completely destroyed like characters in a video game.  Its awesome.

This fight in the beginning (which lasted maybe .5 seconds started it all…

   There were a few points in which the film dragged on a little too much, but with such a simple premise, they had to fill it with something.  I had no issue with the movie, my wife found it to be boring in some spots.  They did a good job of hiding Franco from looking like a little kid picking a fight with a grown man by portraying him as “crazy.”  If you’re in the mood to watch something that involves no thinking what-so-ever, definitely relax to this film.

 Check out my shop at supersweetshirts.com for totally awesome t-shirts that you will find nowhere else!

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Film Review: "The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz"

   I’ve been waiting for this film since the day I heard it was being released.  You may have heard of Aaron Swartz, and depending on what you have read and what source you read it from, you may have a radically different opinion then someone else.  Aaron was a brilliant kid and deserved to have his story heard.  This film does a great job of doing what the rest of the media failed to do.
   “He was the internet’s own boy, and the old world killed him” said a friend of Aaron Swartz.  I found this film enraging.  If I didn’t have a wife and a kid, I would be way more active in being a pain in the ass to our government.  At 35 years old, I have a wonderful wife and a fantastic little girl, so my passion for life is devoted to them above and beyond.  But there is a part of me that wants to be a defender of the Internet and to fight for free information.  That part of me is obviously not going to surface because I don’t want to get myself into trouble.  Aaron Swartz is a true hero and his true story is told in this film.
   When Aaron was 12 he developed a version of wikipedia (before wikipedia) that was so cutting edge, his teachers thought it was ridiculous.  They were obviously wrong.  At 14 he developed the standards for RSS.  He was so ahead of everyone else, that when he spoke in front of an audience at this young age, people found what he said captivating and that it made sense, but that they couldn’t not laugh as 80% of his head was hidden behind his laptop screen when he spoke.  He was a young kid with a vision for things internet related that the rest of the world just didn’t get.

   As Swartz got older, his focus became more political.  He became obsessed with freedom of information, primarily publications of academic research, and the fact that it should be available to everyone.  Instead publishers have taken documents and journals funded by tax dollars, and charge ridiculous amounts of money to access them.  In the end, Aaron hacked into MIT’s academic database and downloaded millions of articles with the intention of making them available for everyone.  Soon he was the victim of an “example” being set by our government during a time when legit black hat hackers were getting busted simultaneously.  He did the wrong thing at the wrong time.  The government was set on killing this kid no matter what his intentions were.  This film catches the raw emotions of his family, friends, and colleagues as they all look back on Aaron’s life during this time.
    I highly suggest watching this film. You get a really good look into this kid and his life.  The films touches on his analysis of a reading and collecting court documents that had case decisions that went hand in hand with benefiting major corporations.  You may go into this film thinking that your are about to watch a film about the kid responsible for Reddit.  You will come out of it knowing much more.



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