Scripting News

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 02:52:11 GMT

Aaron Brown introduced Kitty Kelley, author of scandalous unauthorized biographies. Brown said that to call her biographies unauthorized is like saying that Willie Sutton made unauthorized bank withdrawals. Anyway her new book sounds very interesting as does Seymour Hersh's. Something for everyone. I'll read both. Can't wait to hear what Rush Limbaugh says about Kelly! That'll be fun for sure.

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 02:48:18 GMT

With Hurricane Ivan aiming for the Gulf Coast, a couple of peeves. Biloxi is not pronounced phonetically. The "lox" part is actually pronounced "lux." And the syllable that's emphasized in the name Mobile is the second one, not the first. So it's Mobile, not Mobile. For the most they're pronouncing New Orleans acceptably, either New Or-lee-unz, or N'awlins (the "ew" after the initial N is audible, but just barely). What you don't want to say is New Orleeeenz. Bad bad.

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 02:43:34 GMT

NY Times: "Amazon.com, the e-commerce giant, plans to take aim at the Internet search king Google with an advanced technology that the company says will take searches beyond mere retrieval of Web pages to let users more fully manage the information they find."

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 01:00:25 GMT

Three years ago: "I want a telephone number that I can call that records a message, stores it as an MP3 on a static server, and emails me the URL."

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 00:38:05 GMT

Question for President Bush: Would we have gone to war in Iraq if 9-11 hadn't happened?

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 00:27:43 GMT

Bob Stepno, a Berkman Thursday regular who relocated to Knoxville, is looking for RSS local to his new hometown.

Tue, 14 Sep 2004 20:57:29 GMT

There's a Seattle weblog meetup tomorrow night.

Tue, 14 Sep 2004 20:42:23 GMT

I heard of a briefing to be held at a second-tier search company, and they're inviting bloggers in for an early look. This is a company that I've written about, a mixture of positive and negative; but I think always realistic. I didn't get an invite to the briefing. Now, this is the way tech companies controlled the tech press, and created the need for tech blogs (like this one). I'm not going to change. You won't see air-brushed pictures of what I see, for better or worse. But it's sad when companies that really need help (remember, this is a second-tier search provider) only choose cheerleaders to roll out their offerings through.

Tue, 14 Sep 2004 18:45:04 GMT

Megnut: "Follow your heart." Amen.

Tue, 14 Sep 2004 18:51:01 GMT

Scott Koon: "We don't hate all the other cities around us. Just Tacoma and the Eastside."

Tue, 14 Sep 2004 18:38:56 GMT

Seven Years Ago: Fractional Horsepower HTTP Servers.

Tue, 14 Sep 2004 16:26:39 GMT

Michael Schuermann reviews Mozilla's new RSS features.

Tue, 14 Sep 2004 18:34:28 GMT

Mozilla.Org: What are live bookmarks?

Tue, 14 Sep 2004 14:46:25 GMT

A friend asked what Osama bin Laden wants. He's pretty much told us. First and foremost he wants westerners out of Saudi Arabia. Presumably when that happens the Saudi government will fall and he'll take over. Fundamentalists already control Iran, and are maneuvering to take control in Iraq. So, just a guess, in a year, maybe two, maybe five, they will control the three largest proven oil reserves in the world. At that point they won't need bombs and airplanes to strangle the US economy, just cut off the credit, no more loans, no more financing the trillion dollar deficit. Sad thing is there's nothing anyone can do about this, that's what Scott Rosenberg said yesterday. Bush has dug the hole so deep that there's no hope. So when he asks what Kerry's plan is, well, basically we'll make the best of a very bad situation, which you created, Mr President. As voters, the most expedient way to tell the world we know we fucked up is to get rid of Bush, now that we have a chance to. Rush Limbaugh and his dittoheads won't like this, but a vote for Bush is a vote for the Islamic Revolution. He's their best guy (hey he gave them Iraq).

Tue, 14 Sep 2004 10:08:25 GMT

From the strange bedfellows department. Iraqi interim Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih visited Tehran saying the new Iraq wants peace with Iran. A couple of weeks later, the AP reports that "Hundreds of thousands of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards began military maneuvers Sunday near the border with Iraq."

Tue, 14 Sep 2004 10:00:49 GMT

Don Park says the techniques of 3D games can replace the desktop metaphor. I agree. I remember thinking the same thing the first time I played a 3D game.

Tue, 14 Sep 2004 09:48:10 GMT

Correction. Yesterday I said that the Wall Street Journal credited Upside for breaking the story about AOL's Napster work-alike. Ryan Tate, the author of the Upside article says my memory is flawed, and the WSJ credited me, not Upside (and not Scripting News).