SOPA: Stop Overreaching Politicians ASAP

Firstly, sorry for the cheesy acronym, but I’ve really had enough talk of this SOPA bill (Stop Online Piracy Act, for those who’ve been living under a rock). Now I’m all for stopping internet piracy, but the overreaching wording of the bill poses a serious threat to free creation and free thought on the internet. Just this Wednesday there was a “blackout” in which major websites protested the bill including Google, Wikipedia, and Reddit. Even the father of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, is urging Americans to protest the bill.

I’m glad to see widespread support among major websites and last time I checked Google managed to get 7 million signatures on their anti-SOPA petition (which I proudly signed twice and posted the link of my Facebook). Thanks to these companies and the voice of millions across the country the bill has been put on hold temporarily. Many congressmen who were previously for the bill are now jumping ship which is great and all, but if they fully understood the bill to begin with and still supported it then why are they changing their position now?

I just don’t think a government body whose average age is 58.2 years old should be voting on something that they clearly know nothing about. They have too many ulterior motives with lobbyists and such and are quite frankly not with the times. To be completely blunt, as a young adult who relies heavily on the internet, I don’t need a bunch of old geezers stripping me of my internet rights that I enjoy on a daily basis. Go ahead and do whatever you need to do with online piracy (hence the name SOPA), but don’t drag me and every other law-abiding citizen into the fray.

This post turned into more of a rant than originally intended, but I had to get that off my chest. Thankfully the bill has been put on hold, but I have a feeling this is only the beginning of a much larger struggle between power hungry politicians and tech-savvy American citizens.

Addicted to Google? That’s a Bit Redundant

We had an interesting discussion in class on Monday regarding Google’s role in new media and our lives. While I have no doubt in my mind that Google has access to large amounts of my own personal information, I find myself not losing much sleep over the situation.

                Some background info before I jump into this: I use Google as a search engine daily, I have a Gmail account as my secondary email, I own an Android phone which is fully integrated with Google, I use Google’s news page to stay up-to-date on the latest trending topics, and I also use Google Maps frequently to find my way around unfamiliar places. I’ve also dabbled with Google Music, Google Earth, and other miscellaneous Google services. To say the least, I’ve found myself to be heavily reliant on Google over the years.

                Now that doesn’t mean I get a nice warm and fuzzy feeling knowing that a single company has access to so much of my personal information, but the risk-reward ratio justifies it for me personally. Having a single suite of services and applications is so much easier than managing multiple accounts and passwords. As I mentioned before, I also have an Android phone that I’ve had for some time and this has only enforced my reliance on Google and its services. The convenience of having all of Google’s services in the palm of my hand is really valuable and I honestly couldn’t see myself going back.

                So while I’m not exactly ecstatic about Google having so much of my personal information, I find it hard to look at the situation in a negative way. The services that Google provides me on a daily basis far outweigh the value of whatever information I have given them. Now, if my credit card information somehow slipped into the wrong hands due to Google’s own mishap then my tune might change.

Blogging about Bloggers on Blogging

For my first blog prompt I chose to read an interview with Bruce Schneier, the man behind the blog Schneier on Security. While Bruce had much to say on the topic of blogging, I want to share the big takeaways that I personally found tucked within Schneier’s thoughts on blogging.

                The first thing I found surprising in Schneier’s interview is that he posts two to three times per day. While I’m sure many blogs do something similar, and possibly even more, I’m surprised that he manages to produce all of this material on his own. To be completely honest I’m finding it hard to even write my first post, let alone whipping up two to three each day. Along the same lines, I was also impressed by the amount of traffic that his blog gets. 220,000 views per day sounds like a significant number for such a niche blog.

                A side-note, but I also found his comment on “surfing secrets” to be quite humorous. “Tabbed browsing. Civilization would collapse without it.” I think I found this particularly funny because the interview was fairly formal up to the point and it was nice to see some of Bruce’s personality come through to the reader. Also, I agree, tabbed browsing is da bomb.

                Lastly, toward the end of the interview Bruce gave some solid advice to someone just like me, the newbie blogger. “Just do it. Don’t worry about being boring. Don’t worry about being interesting. Just do it.” And while that’s easier said than done, I hope I can use that advice to put together some solid posts in the future. So there you have it, a newbie’s first blog post about an interview with a blogger on the subject matter of blogging. I think I just went into blogging overload…

Woot!

5 minutes left in class.