Scripting News

Tue, 28 Oct 2003 23:54:50 GMT

Jay Rosen reports that the Siegal Report, the results of the NY Times investigation of itself after the Jayson Blair incident, has gone 404. For the non-technical, this means it's gone, the links don't work. He suggests that finding out what happened should be the first priority for the Times' Public Editor, named yesterday.

Wed, 29 Oct 2003 04:44:42 GMT

Pioneer has a new combination TiVo/DVD burner that lets you burn TV shows to DVD. "Sadly, I fear it won't be legal for long," says Wes Felter.

Tue, 28 Oct 2003 23:57:11 GMT

I'm just about ready to flip the switch on the new archive for Scripting News. We've also made major progress on bringing a new management team on board for UserLand. Hope to have the deal ready to announce next week. And to celebrate 500 days of No Smoking Dave, I placed an order for two new servers, to run in a new cage here in Boston. This is where I'm going to put various specs and public services that are currently running at UserLand, so the new team can focus on Manila and Radio. Murphy-willing there will be quite a few changes, for the better, in the remaining weeks of 2003.

Tue, 28 Oct 2003 21:13:25 GMT

Taegan Goddard: "Karl Rove wants to run against Dean."

Tue, 28 Oct 2003 21:10:15 GMT

Jon Udell: "Microsoft is pitching a Windows-only UI renderer that targets 2006-era desktops and notebooks, while allowing MSIE to stagnate. I can see how and why they arrived at this strategy, but it doesn't seem to be the kind of Web/GUI convergence I'm looking for."

Tue, 28 Oct 2003 15:54:59 GMT

A data point in the Great Google Blog Experiment. This weblog, presumably because it's run by the Boston Globe, is included in Google News. So the owners of Blogger, and the company that loves the Web, is tilting the table in favor of people whose main qualification are the ink stains on their keyboards. It is ironic, isn't it?

Tue, 28 Oct 2003 22:55:04 GMT

A report from the Blogger's BOF at Microsoft's PDC.

Tue, 28 Oct 2003 12:41:32 GMT

Ed Cone on presidential spin re Iraq.

Tue, 28 Oct 2003 12:42:19 GMT

Speaking of presidential politics. Dean is the leader, but with the other candidates focusing on specific primaries, and the Dean campaign spread thin, and his lead not really all that great, it seems that the early primary season is going to be split, and maybe Dean won't win any of the contests? Was it enough to use the Internet to raise market-leading amounts of money? It didn't turn out to be enough in technology, why should it in politics? Imho, the Internet race will go to the candidate that unlocks the eBay-like secret to Web politics and keeps them coming back for more. Get out of the hub and spoke mode. No rock stars. Knock down barriers. Let's crack the blog hosting problem and figure out how to give everyone who wants one, no matter what their party, persuasion or political affiliation, a modern weblog with all the bells and whistles. Take a chance that all those voters may not choose your guy. What exactly do you have to lose? Will politics-as-usual get your guy elected?

Tue, 28 Oct 2003 13:11:45 GMT

This is what passes for respect among Unix fans. It's also the first clear statement that Red Hat closed the huge security holes that were present three years ago. I stand corrected. Mea culpa. Anyway, the Linux community has been plagued by flamers for ages, it's deeply integrated in the culture, so much so that they had to write an Advocacy Howto, to have some hope of attracting ordinary users. Unfortunately it is widely ignored. That's also part of making shitty software, having an arrogant, xenophobic, user-hostile community.

Tue, 28 Oct 2003 12:37:03 GMT

Don Park has a picture of the LA fires from space and the wind that causes them. "It's the Santa Ana wind, high deserts' middlefinger to Pacific Ocean."

What weblogs are news?

Tue, 28 Oct 2003 12:11:48 GMT

Every so often I hear from a person with a weblog who has asked to be included in Google News, was turned down, and is not happy about it. I understand this must be difficult for Google, how do they decide? Some of their choices are puzzling. And it seems to matter what CMS is used. If it's weblog software, it can't be included, if they use a more expensive CMS, they can? If it's one person writing, they can't; if there's more than one they can?

Here's what they say when rejecting a site for inclusion in Google News: "Thank you for your email. We have reviewed [url] but can not include it in Google News at this time. We currently do not include news-related blogs. If there is a non-blog news site associated with this movement, we would be happy to review it. We appreciate you taking the time to contact us and will log your site for consideration should our constraints change."

Has your site been turned down by Google News? Comment here. Doc Searls is also interested in this question.