Sharpened.net

If you've been visiting Sharpened.net recently, you may have noticed a few small changes in the past few weeks. I'm excited to announce that I have a few major updates planned for this year as well. I can't tell you what they are right now (since that would ruin the surprise), but let's just say they are substantial. It's too early to give an exact timeline, but expect to see at least one of the updates live on the website in the first half of the year.

If you have your own ideas about how I can improve Sharpened.net, please let me know!

If you've used the Internet at all today, you've probably learned that Google, Wikipedia, and a host of other popular websites are protesting the SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) today. SOPA is a bill that originated from the U.S. House of Representatives and PIPA is a similar bill from the U.S. Senate. The goal of the bills is to help enforce copyright violations and protect intellectual property. Those are both good things, so why are Google and others protesting these bills?

The Internet organizations that oppose SOPA and PIPA point out that they are too broad and don't actually accomplish that they are intended to do. Instead, they claim the bills simply limit free speech on the Internet. For example, under SOPA, nearly every website with user-generated content (UGC) would be labeled as a copyright violator, since it is likely not all users' posts are original. Additionally, websites would be required to remove all links to other sites that may contain copyright infringing content. PIPA attempts to protect domestic websites from international plagiarism, but fails to accurately distinguish what makes a website foreign or domestic. Enforcing the new laws proposed in these bills would be extremely difficult and costly.

I have mixed feelings about SOPA and PIPA. Having dealt with dozens of copyright violators over the past several years, I would welcome anything that helps make it easier to stop others from stealing my original content. However, I agree these bills wouldn't actually help. It is simply too difficult for the U.S. government to police all the sites on the web. Instead, I think Google and other large websites actually have more power to fight against Internet plagiarism. In my experience, Google has done a phenomenal job of protecting my content by removing copyright violators from their search index. Therefore, if Google doesn't think these bills will help, I have to agree.

It seems I discover a new technology each time I travel. Last time, it was Delta's iPhone app. This time, I learned about indoor Google Maps from an advertisement in the airport. Yes, the same company that brought you the now ubiquitous Google Maps now offers indoor maps of buildings.

While mapping the inside of small buildings isn't too useful, I can see a great benefit in mapping the layouts of malls, schools, and corporate offices. We'll now be able to find our way around malls using our smartphones, rather than those four-sided map towers. You know, the ones where it takes about a minute just to find the "You are here" marker since your location is always on the fourth side you check. Then you have to rotate the map in your head to find out which way you are facing and you still end up going the wrong way. I prefer the Google Maps alternative.

I'm not sure how Google is compiling maps of indoor locations, but I imagine the company is working individually with property management companies to get building schematics. That means it might take awhile for a map of your favorite hotspot to show up on your phone. But pretty soon, your phone will not only show you how to drive to your next downtown appointment, it will guide you all the way to the office door.