Scripting News

Sun, 26 Jan 2003 21:22:41 GMT

What's the connection between IM and weblogs?

Sun, 26 Jan 2003 23:20:13 GMT

Watched the SuperBowl at Scoble's. Hoopty Loops. Rating the commercials. Coming up with new words, and revitalizing old ones. Chris Pirillo is blogging the party. Gnome Girl brought the jello. "It's the Super Bowel party," says Scoble. Best commercials so far: Pepsi Twist, FedEx, Monster.Com, Sierra Mist, Budweiser, Reebok, Sony.

Mon, 27 Jan 2003 00:47:40 GMT

Dino Morelli hit a deal-stopper working on a schema for RSS 2.0. The problem is that each can have zero or more elements.

Mon, 27 Jan 2003 00:08:11 GMT

NY Times: "Newspapers are engaged in technological one-upmanship over 'AstroTurf' letters to the editor that look like authentic grass-roots responses from readers but are not."

Sun, 26 Jan 2003 15:31:02 GMT

If you have a TiVO or workalike, record today's SuperBowl, even if you're going to a party; for no other reason than to be able to watch the commercials in private and repeat as necessary. I should probably send a bill to some Hollywood exec for this message. ";->"

Sun, 26 Jan 2003 20:33:58 GMT

Economist: "The best way to foster creativity in the digital age is to overhaul current copyright laws."

Sun, 26 Jan 2003 16:31:21 GMT

John Rhodes: "Why not use RSS feeds to keep customers aware of new products and services?"

Mon, 27 Jan 2003 03:01:36 GMT

NY Times: Scooters for Technophiles.

Sun, 26 Jan 2003 19:47:20 GMT

Google Weblog: "In SearchKing v Google the judge has denied SearchKing's request for preliminary injuction. In other words, SearchKing asked for their PageRank to be put back to where it was while the trial was being held, and the judge said no."

Smokers only

Sun, 26 Jan 2003 17:44:51 GMT

As a former smoker I would congregate with other smokers, and this is one of the things I miss the most now that I don't smoke. The places smokers congregate tend to be good places for conversation that bridges social and age differences because smoking cuts across all the denominators -- young and old, male and female, professional and working class. All are represented in the ranks of smokers.

I remember a conversation I had on the "smoking deck" of a resort I go to. Smoking is prohibited everywhere but there. I was talking with a man in his early 20s. We were talking about nothing at all, just one of the heaviest subjects between young and old (I was in my early 40s at the time).

The question was, why do you, Dave, think you're smarter than me?

Or put it another way -- hey old dude -- you don't know shit. ";->"

Which, of course, is mostly what young people have to say to old people. (Or so it seems.)

So is it true, am I smarter than the young guy?

Now, of course, I don't know the answer. I couldn't unless there was some objective measure of smartness. So all I can do is have an opinion. But that doesn't mean I can't use the scientific method to form the opinion. So I asked my young friend some questions.

How old are you now? 22. Do you know more than when you were 18. Oh sure! No comparison, I was really stupid then. How about at 15? I was just a kid, I didn't know anything.

(I move in for the kill.)

Do you think learning stops at 22?

Answer: Of course it doesn't. You learn things in your late 20s that you can't imagine in your early 20s. And the early 30s have their lessons, as do the mid 30s and the late 30s (oh boy!) and then the early 40s. And some of the learning is pegged to other people's experiences. Like when one of your parents dies. Or a child goes to college. Or things out of your control (bypass surgery).

Ask a really old person about this. One of the sweetest things about life is that you can always learn, right up to the moment you die. And that's part of what's most enjoyable about being human. For some reason, if we can find the pure learning, it's a joyful thing, whether or not we ever get to use what we learn.

BTW, my young companion basically said that learning does stop at 22. I wish I had his phone number or email address, he's probably about 27 now. I'd like to ask the obvious follow-up question.