Scripting News

Fri, 24 Jun 2005 02:04:22 GMT

I'm sure this doesn't mean a lot to most people, but I'm now using the OPML Editor to create and edit Scripting News. In the business, we call this Eating The Dogfood, which is actually kind of a gross image (you have to see your users as dogs, which may not be very healthy). Anyway using the product yourself helps reinforce its reality, to me. In The Soul of a New Machine, the engineers working on the Data General mini-computer experienced a disconnect when they saw someone using their product, . To the engineers it is and always will be a prototype. But if people are going to use something as a product, the perspective has to shift, you have to see it as a tool, something people use, something you use.

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 15:33:07 GMT

Today's OPML news: "Here is a blogging tool that does not have a browser-based interface. It runs from a folder structure of OPML files that live in your www folder, and are uploaded as you modify them. There's a dynamic server app running at blogs.opml.org, that renders the OPML files in the familiar weblog form. Of course since all the data is stored in folders and OPML files, this is 'small pieces, loosely joined' -- client side tools and server side environments can replace my parts, with only one or two XML-RPC calls to exchange preferences data that are too small to fit in an outline."

Fri, 24 Jun 2005 01:56:46 GMT

Greenspun: "Kugluktuk is an easy place to make friends if you're traveling with a dog."

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 19:55:43 GMT

A candidate for the song, I forgot to mention, sung to this tune, Back in Seattle Again. "Out where a friend is a friend." Okay just for fun, here's what it might sound like, ever buddy.

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 19:48:15 GMT

I was wondering how the professional journos were going to handle the news we had here yesterday, since there were no other sources, no press release. Finally CNET broke the silence and ran a brief story. Is it that they don't trust me, don't believe me... or are they slow? Do they need a second source? Is it news that I said what I said? Something perhaps for Jay Rosen to ponder. For me, it's sunny and I get to go for a walk on the Seattle waterfront. I'll take this question with me.

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 23:20:57 GMT

Paul Thurrott: "He violated his NDA by a good 36 hours." The he he's talking about is me. I didn't violate anything. If he's got a beef it isn't with me. Something like that can really damage a reputation, and he should withdraw the statement. It's wrong.

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 20:27:26 GMT

The Seattle header graphic is back.

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 18:16:10 GMT

A Seattle burnout podcast after days of heavy programming on the OPML Editor blogging tool.

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 16:10:56 GMT

Steve Tibbett: "Having your blog available in a standard format is IMHO a great thing. It wrests your creations from the grips of your blogging tool, and puts it into a format where interoperability is possible." Exactly!

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 14:15:56 GMT

John Palfrey is waiting for the Supreme Court's decision on Grokster.

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 17:10:47 GMT

You should now see a white-on-orange XML icon on your blog.

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 16:06:25 GMT

Steve Tibbett and Peter Bruels are Most Valued Testers. They're catching all my mistakes. Cooooool.

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 16:13:59 GMT

There was a bug in caching, so changes to the blog wouldn't show up until the cache expired (five minutes). Fixed the bug, now changes show up almost immediately.

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 16:14:29 GMT

Steve reports a problem with a call to zSuite in the RSS builder. Fixed it. Please do a Get Latest Code from the Community menu.

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 16:32:11 GMT

Steve also reports that the alt text for his header graphic is (like mine) Give em hell Harry! That's not good (he doesn't have a picture of Harry Truman on his blog). So there's a new version, 0.43, and if you do a Get Latest Code, you'll see a new command in the sub-menu called "Header description..." Choose it and a dialog appears, asking what it should be. I updated mine to say "Harry Truman was a media hacker!"

The plan

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 17:28:41 GMT

I was programming in every little sliver of time I had in the last days to get the blogging tool together in time for Gnomedex. It's still quite rough. But now I want to switch modes, it's time for the schmoozing to begin, and then tomorrow morning it's time to sing. Then it's time to make lists, listen, ask questions, talk, listen some more. On Sunday I fly down to San Francisco for the day, for meetings, and then Monday mid-day fly back to Orlando, then drive back to the beach, pack up my van and head to DC and then NYC for the 4th of July. Somewhere in there I'd love to meet with NY people to talk about OPML and outlining and all the new stuff. Then on to Canada, and then who knows where.