Its been written many times across the web before but it needs to continue as long as the SOPA bill is still alive.

The internet will NOT exist as we know it.
Sites like (YouTube, Redditt, Digg, Facebook, Google, etc…). These sites will come under fire to the point where people will lose their access and ultimately companies like the RIAA will force their hand and big websites will cave. We’ve seen it in small form with the RIAA/MPAA and online piracy of content. You know, when ICE comes in and seizes a domain name? Well now that will be on a global scale.

How about when Viacom went after YouTube under the DMCA? It can/will happen.

Still don’t see the issue?
Okay, think Chinese-style censorship across the entire WWW (World Wide Web aka “Internet”).

The recent “hold” on voting until the New Year should not be seen as a victory because they are likely trying to remove exposure and then secretly pass it while everyone is busy with a new topic. Also keep in mind thanks in part to “line item veto” not existing the government can and probably will attach the bill to a much more favorable bill. Say maybe a two month delay of federal taxes?

We need change across the entire system but for now lets work on keeping the internet because if SOPA passed its possible a blog post like this could cause the agencies to come and force my and anyone elses blog offline for “infringing”.

What can you do?
Voice your concern, post about it, call your political office and write to Congress. Thats physically write a letter to your senator or governor. An email is nice but will likely get caught in a spam filter and/or be seen by some intern who will delete it. A letter is harder to “lose”.

Why should you care?
At this point if you still don’t get it but work or play on the internet I feel sorry for you. This SOPA bill has the potential to not only kill the internet but could harm potential web developers/designers, such as myself!

Originally I wasn’t going to post a response to the outcry of posts/comments about “government spending” on an app of which I was a developer on. However the more I sat back this evening I figured I have nothing to hide, but wanted to set the record straight.

It all started with a simple tweet from a follower of mine and thought it was a critique on the code which i’m sure could be enhanced (it was modified 20 times across 4 rounds). Yet it was a bit more involved than that.. lets begin…

Okay, so first off I was accused of developing an app for OSHA and was paid anywhere from $50,000 – $200,000 to do. Both figures and the range in between is far from the truth. I was hired by a development company in Boston to port an Android app to iPhone which was simple enough. However as the gov continued to make changes, updates and modifications it began to add up. (my personal favorite was the myth that a custom UI is against the iOS TOS). Yet in the end I made a minuscule fraction of what others are claiming. In fact I worked over a weekend just to get “another build” to the team.

Of course to my “luck” I never even was the last developer on the project yet my name was shipped with the source code when it really should have been the company I was working with. Well actually my companies name was included, even worse.. but whatever, the damage or lack of damage is done at this point. I just wanted to set the record straight, not even including the fact I do not label myself a ninja iOS developer and never have. I work on apps, learn in my free time and extend my overall programming knowledge to Objective-C.

I guess the takeaway from this post is don’t always assume what you read is the whole picture and more importantly developers that work with teams get paid a fraction of what the end client is billed.

As an aside my personal favorite comment on some pro-FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) website was my company must be somehow connected to a political arm and in turn won this amazing contract. Well if thats the case than someone owes me a bunch more money!

Update: Without getting into specifics on programming a few people asked me about old code and extending NSLocalisedString. The latter was done in an effort to mimic language switching in-app before the client decided we could use the devices language setting (my preference on the matter). The old code is because the app was never cleaned before being released, not sure why.. but there you have it.

In early 2011 I put the final steps into action on starting my first non-freelance company. I joined forces with @PhilipJNeal to provide a combined 20+ years of professional experience in development and design. The company may be new, but the work and clients are not.

Basically PixelBit is 3Pixels and mkeefeDESIGN merged into one company, though it is a bit more complex than that its a good overview. Right now the company is still in the building phase, but as luck and good contacts would have it we have our first project already underway. While I can’t speak on the specifics I can say its all extremely exciting.

Update: The mkeefeDESIGN blog will be transformed into the personal blog of Matthew Keefe and soon a new blog for PixelBit will be online.