Welcome to PC.net

Today marks the 13th anniversary of Sharpened.net. Since the name of the website changed from Sharpened.net to PC.net earlier this month, it's hard to know who's birthday to celebrate. Technically, it is Sharpened.net's birthday, but the website is now officially called PC.net. However, PC.net, in its current form, has only existed for 13 days, so it seems rather silly to celebrate a birthday of 13 years.

The easy solution would be to not celebrate the 13th anniversary of Sharpened.net. But it's too late for that; I've already started celebrating by writing this entry. Therefore, I feel it makes the most sense to celebrate the website's 13th anniversary as PC.net's birthday. After all, Sharpened.net and PC.net are one and the same. The way I like to think of it is that when Sharpened.net grew up, it received a new name – PC.net. So when I refer to PC.net, I am really referring to the grown up version of Sharpened.net.

I realize most 13 year olds are hardly considered grown ups, but keep in mind PC.net is a website and not a person. In fact, a 13 year old website is rather mature in Internet years. Still, for the sake of simplicity, I am keeping track of the website age in human years. That means PC.net is now a teenager! Let's hope that websites don't go through the "terrible teens" like humans. I would prefer not to relive those years again.

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The Web has evolved a lot over the past few years. While there have been many changes, I'd say the biggest is how interactive the Web has become. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the Web was largely an informational resource. In recent years, however, it has become a place to communicate and share information with other users. The online community is truly a "global village."

Websites like Facebook and Twitter are designed specifically for social networking, but many other websites have incorporated social interactivity as well. Wikis like Wikipedia, encourage users to add their own content to webpages. News websites and blogs now allow users to comment on the articles, rather than just read them. The days of passively surfing the Web are over. Website visitors now expect to be able to respond to the content of webpages and interact with other users.

Therefore, just one week after changing the domain name, I have added the capability to comment on PC.net! You can now post your feedback directly on the website, rather than emailing me. Welcome to the 21st century, I know.

After reviewing several options, I have chosen to use Disqus as the comment system for PC.net. Disqus allows you to post from one of many different account types, including Google, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo!, OpenID, and Disqus accounts. I have also enabled Guest posting, which allows you to post as a guest. You just need to enter your name and email address. If you choose to post as a guest, don't worry, your email address will not show up in the post.

Since this is my first experience with a website comment system, I have only enabled comments for news articles. However, I may decide to add comments to other sections of the website in the future. We'll see how it goes. If you have any comments, LMK! Just click the "Comments" link below.

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I am excited to announce that Sharpened.net is now PC.net!

When I registered "sharpened.net" in 1999, it was the best unregistered domain name I could find. The name represented my passion for swords as well as my desire for knowledge. I soon launched a computer help website with the slogan, "Sharpening your knowledge of computers and the Internet." Over the past 13 years, Sharpened.net has grown into a popular computing resource with regular visitors from around the world.

Today, on May 1st, 2012, Sharpened.net becomes PC.net. The new name is elegant in its simplicity and yet represents the broad scope of personal computer (PC) topics that Sharpened.net has covered over the years. Not only do the letters "PC" stand for "personal computer," but they just happen to match my initials as well.

Compared to Sharpened.net, PC.net is easier to type, easier to remember, and yes, definitely easier to say. The two D's in a row in "sharpened dot net" were not easy to pronounce, and this fact was not lost on me over the years. Therefore, I made sure to choose a new name that should have no pronunciation issues whatsoever.

Now that Sharpened.net is PC.net, you may notice a few other name changes throughout the website as well. For example, the Sharpened Glossary is now the PC Glossary, the Computing Help Center is now the PC Help Center, and the Sharpened Resources section is now the PC Resources section. Additionally, nearly all references to Sharpened.net have been updated to PC.net, except for the History section, which chronicles the history of the website.

Besides the small changes above, everything remains the same. I still exclusively own and run the website. This isn't some kind of merger or buyout like when CNET bought VersionTracker.com and the owner of VersionTracker said nothing would change, but within a year the entire website was absorbed into Download.com and not even a small trace of VersionTracker was left. This isn't like that. The new domain name is the only change.

I do, however, have some exciting plans for later this year. Switching to PC.net is the first step in a series of improvements I plan on making to the website this year. Specifically, there are two more major updates coming in the next few months. I have a feeling that you regular visitors will especially appreciate the next one. While I am not giving out any hints yet, let's just say the update is long overdue.

It is with a bit of nostalgic sadness that I say goodbye to the old domain name, since Sharpened.net was my first website and will always hold a special place in my heart. But Sharpened.net lives on in PC.net. I hope you will continue to find this website to be an enjoyable and useful resource for many years to come.

- PC

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