Scripting News

Mon, 26 May 2003 00:40:27 GMT

Slightly Bent: "Where are all the leaked screenshots and information on the next version of Internet Explorer?"

Sun, 25 May 2003 19:24:25 GMT

NY Times: Prospecting for Gold Among the Photo Blogs.

Sun, 25 May 2003 20:06:42 GMT

4 thoughts on a thoughtful Sunday. 1. I want to learn how PhotoBlogs work. 2. Why don't a small number of users of the popular weblog tools work together to create an authoritative review of the category and show us how the products compare. I'm working on a taxonomy of weblogs for the two conferences I'm keynoting in the next two weeks.You can start there if you want but you probably don't need my help. Users taking the lead, it would be a first. Why not? 3. Next question. Why can't you get real pizza outside of NYC? No one has a good explanation why that is. But it's true nonetheless. Here I sit 4 hours by car from NY, if I want a good pizza, I have to go there, they don't make it here. Same with bagels and cheesecake, and pastrami. 4. Isn't it time for the search engines to implement something like siteChanges.xml? Think of all the bandwidth that's wasted by search engines looking for changes on pages that never change. So many sites these days use content management. A little coordination would keep all our bandwidth bills down and make the SEs a tiny bit more JIT.

Sun, 25 May 2003 12:30:56 GMT

I don't know if this means anything but there are no stories on Google News about Colorado Governor Bill Owens's veto of the state "Super-DMCA" law. They link to one press release from the Music Indistry (sic) News Network commending the governor for the veto. Is this the same kind of thing as CBS (owned by Viacom), ABC (owned by Disney) and NBC (owned by GE) not reporting the FCC handover of local media to big media conglomerates like CBS, ABC and NBC?

Sun, 25 May 2003 20:56:32 GMT

Robert Wiener writes to say that searching for Colorado and veto gets a bunch of hits on Google. BTW, I wasn't thinking Google might have been holding back, I was thinking the newspapers were.

Sun, 25 May 2003 09:25:25 GMT

Zawodny: "PageRank stopped working really well when people began to understand how PageRank worked."

Speaking of Google, I was kind of bored and wanted to see how my investment in John Doerr was doing, so I fired up Google, and lo and behold, my story is #3. It's above the fold now. Back in the dotcom boom that might have been a funding event. ";->"

Sun, 25 May 2003 14:58:13 GMT

The last few articles on Russell Beattie's weblog have been outstanding. I just sent him an email of compliments, but then realized I should do it here too.

Sun, 25 May 2003 21:55:53 GMT

Chris Pirillo: Don't Kill the Shareware Industry.

Sun, 25 May 2003 09:19:33 GMT

Adam Kalsey: Anatomy of a Meme.

Sun, 25 May 2003 14:08:55 GMT

It took me a while to trip over the easy user interface for the button maker. Hey it's really easy.

Sun, 25 May 2003 13:26:40 GMT

Don Park: "Go Daddy Go!"

Sun, 25 May 2003 09:06:07 GMT

Ole Eichorn reviews Moving Mount Fuji, a book on technical interviews at Microsoft. Read the examples. He provides the answers. Finally. Now maybe I can get a job in Redmond. Just kidding. ";->"

Let's not waste our chance

Sun, 25 May 2003 10:02:30 GMT

Something clicked for me. The weblog world, in general, often isn't any better than the professional pubs.

I wonder why some weblogs so openly say things that are just plain wrong, that are so easily refuted, without presenting the opposing data, or even suggesting it might exist with a disclaimer like imho, or ymmv, or ianal.

Most places I don't expect journalism, but some places I do, and they disappoint often enough to make it noteworthy. They say things that sound like they did a thorough investigation, but did they? How would they respond if challenged? Is it more important that their readers think they're right than actually being right?

One thread on a respected blogger's site gives the whole weblog tools market to one of the companies. Is this based on analysis that's better than a quote mill for the Big Pubs? Is it based on features, or any deep understanding of how the products work, or the economics of the market? I have data that contradicts theirs, fairly superficial stuff -- why, on investigation didn't they uncover it?

If this kind of thinking rules, we've traded one corrupt and inept system for another. We must not let this happen. We have a chance to make it better, let's not waste it.

3/2/02: Assembly-Line Journalism.