Scripting News

Good morning, and good new year!

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 20:50:11 GMT

<a href="http://whoisylvia.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/01/vanishing_profe.html">Sylvia</a>: "Professions I just wish didn't exist then, now and forever are monks, nuns, priests, policemen, soldiers, high school vice principals, animal psychologists, prison guards, and executioners."

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 02:05:28 GMT

Yes, indeed, <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/DN-obamasmokes_05edi.ART.State.Edition1.3e8ee63.html">Barak Obama is a smoker</a>.

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 02:12:50 GMT

<a href="http://curry.podshow.com/?p=431">Adam Curry thinks</a> the Saddam execution is a shark-jump moment for MSM. I don't know that the cell phone camera guy wasn't part of the official coverage. Maybe the Iraqi govt understands Youtube, they probably do. And <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/">Russert</a> and <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/">Stephanopoulos</a> had both watched the unofficial tape before the Sunday morning talk shows, so MSM was definitely in the loop. Don't count them out yet, the new channel works for <i>all</i> journos, not just bloggers.

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 02:13:22 GMT

A random fact I learned recently after working through the HBO series <a href="http://www.hbo.com/rome/">Rome</a> -- the term caesar applied to all rulers of Rome. It was a title, not a name. And then I learned that the German kaiser and the Russian tsar were both derived from caesar.

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 02:21:13 GMT

Do I dare admit that I've seen the great movie <a href="http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=70028899&trkid=134852">Idiocracy</a>? Nahhh. I haven't seen it. But if I had, I would say the funniest part is where the Carls Jr vending machine mouths off at a customer. Doc Searls would just love it. Totally.

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 02:22:26 GMT

<a href="http://www.newshounds.us/2007/01/01/im_baaack_.php">The News Hounds guy is back</a>. But he won't be watching Fox anymore. Ouch. :-(

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 23:02:59 GMT

The unedited voice of a person

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 21:26:07 GMT

People use blogs primarily to discuss one question -- what is a blog? The discussion will continue as long as there are blogs.

It's no different from other media, all they ever talk about is what they are. We got dinged by the NY Times because all bloggers talked about at the DNC was other bloggers. But what were they busy doing -- talking about other reporters, except when they were talking about bloggers -- talking about bloggers.

Nothing wrong with it.

In the early days we joked that they were watching us watch them watch us watch them. And so on.

In 2003, when I was beginning my stint as a fellow at Berkman Center, since I was going to be doing stuff with blogs, I felt it necessary to start by explaining what makes a blog a blog, and I concluded it wasn't so much the form, although most blogs seem to follow a similar form, nor was it the content, rather it was the voice.

If it was one voice, unedited, not determined by group-think -- then it was a blog, no matter what form it took. If it was the result of group-think, with lots of ass-covering and offense avoiding, then it's not. Things like spelling and grammatic errors were okay, in fact they helped convince one that it was unedited. (Dogma 2000 expressed this very concisely.)

Do comments make it a blog? Do the lack of comments make it not a blog? Well actually, my opinion is different from many, but it still is my opinion that it does not follow that a blog must have comments, in fact, to the extent that comments interfere with the natural expression of the unedited voice of an individual, comments may act to make something not a blog.

We already had mail lists before we had blogs. The whole notion that blogs should evolve to become mail lists seems to waste the blogs. Comments are very much mail-list-like things. A few voices can drown out all others. The cool thing about blogs is that while they may be quiet, and it may be hard to find what you're looking for, at least you can say what you think without being shouted down. This makes it possible for unpopular ideas to be expressed. And if you know history, the most important ideas often are the unpopular ones.

Me, I like diversity of opinion. I learn from the extremes. You think evolution is a liberal plot? Okay, I disagree, but I think you should have the right to say it, and further you should have a place to say it. You think global warming is a lie? Speak your mind brother. You thought the war in Iraq was a bad idea? Thank god you had a place you could say that. That's what's important about blogs, not that people can comment on your ideas. As long as they can start their own blog, there will be no shortage of places to comment. What there is always a shortage of, however, is courage to say the exceptional thing, to be an individual, to stand up for your beliefs, even if they aren't popular.

I sat next to Steven Levy the other night at dinner in NY. He volunteered that in his whole career he had never written a word that wasn't approved of by someone else, until he started a blog. I applaud him for crossing the line. I give him a lot of credit for writing without a safety net. It really is different. Comments wouldn't make the difference, what makes the difference is standing alone, with your ideas out there, with no one else to fault for those ideas. They are your responsibility, and yours alone.

For me, the big rush came when I started publishing DaveNet essays in late 1994. I would revise and edit, for an hour maybe more, before hitting the Send button. Once I did that, there was no turning back. The idea was out there, with my name on it. All the disclaimers (I called the essays "Amusing rants from Dave Winer's desktop") wouldn't help, if the ideas were bad, they were mine. But if they were good, they were mine too. That's what makes something blog-like, imho.

New Year inventory

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 21:09:16 GMT

Reading Grace Davis's first post of 2007 reminded me to note that 2006 was a very good year in my family. Everyone who was alive at the end of last year is still with us at the beginning of this one, although my dad, who I still call The Miracle Man, gave cause for concern in the spring. We all seem to be getting on better too, though slowly -- that's something else to be grateful for.

I just bought $500 of new clothes at the Gap on the web, a nice way to begin a new year, I think. I'm always resolved to do better, so to make resolutions at the beginning of the year seems like more of the same. Indulging and celebrating, now that's different. And buying stuff after Christmas means you get much more bang for the buck.

What I might have said to Suze Orman

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 20:58:14 GMT

On the flight back from NY I sat in the same row as TV celebrity Suze Orman. I was in a window seat, and she was in the other window seat, so I didn't get a chance to talk with her.

If I had had the chance, here's what I might have said...

First, of course, I've watched your show, and I admire your chutzpah, but I gotta say, I'm (obviously) a man and I don't think you treat men very well on your show. Myself, I do pretty well with finances. The only debt I have is a mortgage, for its tax benefits, I could afford to pay it off. I have always been a saver, haven't been in debt since my late 20s (I'm in my early 50s now) and I have health insurance, and home owner's insurance. I've never mooched off women. I'm pretty responsible, I even quit smoking and stayed quit. And I don't like the way you treat men on your show.

Yeah, after saying that, I would have been happy to sit next to this person for six-plus hours on a flight from NY to SF. Not.

So another thing I'm grateful for is that I wasn't seated next to Suze Orman.

PS: Speaking of smoking, I heard that Barak Obama is a smoker?

Tomorrow begins the year we decide who won the <a href="http://davenet.scripting.com/2002/03/25/longBetWithTheNyTimes">Long Bet between</a> weblogs and the NY Times.

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 02:15:28 GMT

The Rolling Stones <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=J4YlW2ix3zo">sang</a> <a href="http://www.keno.org/stones_lyrics/timewaitsfornoone.html">Time Waits for No One</a>.

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 16:59:17 GMT

<a href="http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/12/30/millions-miffed-at-poor-quality-from-holiday-hdtv-purchase/">EngadgetHD</a>: "The 'plug and play' approach that has become quite common on today's electronics didn't work out so well with HDTVs, leaving customers baffled that their TV wouldn't magically display the clean, crisp imagery they viewed on the in-store displays when making their purchase."

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 23:39:38 GMT

<a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/31/what-is-the-definition-of-a-blog/">Mike Arrington asks</a> what is a weblog?

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 02:13:11 GMT

<a href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/whatMakesAWeblogAWeblog">I wrote a piece</a> on this subject in May 2003.

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 02:13:47 GMT

I tripped over two new (to me) <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/ref/multimedia/podcasts.html">NY Times podcasts</a> today. One of my favorite columns in the Sunday Times is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/podcasts/cohen.xml">The Ethicist</a>. Now it's available in a podcast. And they have a podcast of a selected <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/podcasts/ts-sample.xml">op-ed piece</a> from behind the for-pay wall.

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 14:52:47 GMT

<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/DD8B7E9F-7FCA-4AD6-B67C-EE5A98530946.htm">Al Jazeera report</a> on Saddam Hussein execution.

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 11:52:51 GMT

Doc Searls, wordsmith

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 17:32:23 GMT

Is "wordsmith" a word? Not sure, but if anyone qualifies as one, it's Papa Doc. (Postscript: It is a word.)

This piece, about DRM, is exquisite in its imagery, in its wordsmithery, and accurate.

However, I don't agree with Doc's recommendation for technology.

Any software whose purpose is to copy-protect data, will fail. This is a simple corollary of Murphy's Law, which isn't just a joke, it's a law of nature. Engineers have to learn this in designing systems. It's one reason users get so pissed off when copy protection schemes interfere with their ability to use products in the way they were intended to be used.

For example, I bought a copy of Windows XP to install over some bits that had gone bad on an IBM ThinkPad. As I was installing the software, it told me I would have to first uninstall it on another system it believed I had already installed it on. Now, I couldn't do this, of course, because the software was wrong, I hadn't installed it anywhere else. So here I am, almost $200 poorer, hoping to have a good user experience, and getting ready to call for help, a misadventure all of its own. Never did get the software working on the laptop. Microsoft has my money, I have nothing. If I want satisfaction I'm going to have to put more than $200 of my own time into getting it. Never mind. Lesson learned. No more copy protected operating systems for this user. I don't care how much of my rights they've taken into consideration. I don't trust schemes whose purpose is to lock me out of things I have a right to get into.

So Doc, if you're going to draft a set of rules by which customer-aware companies live, put NO DRM pretty near the top of the list.

Imho.

United Airlines almost didn't blow it

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 17:44:09 GMT

But they did.

When I was checking in on the web before going to NY, they offered the option of upgrading to first class for $250. Now that was too good to pass up. Only $250 to be treated better, to get a bigger seat, to be smiled at and cared for? It's a deal! On the way back, I expected to get the same offer, and take it, but they made it really difficult. Here's how.

First, I had to change the flight. Of course there's no way to do it via the web, I wish there were. I call the 800 number, and navigate through their automated system, knowing all the time that it wouldn't be able to handle it either. I pressed 0 for Operator a number of times, but that trick, which often works, was disabled. Remember that I was prepared to pay more to be treated better. Finally, I navigated to the place where it routes you to a person. They put me on hold, listening to recorded messages, but the connection had gotten really bad and I could only hear every third word. I wasn't sure if they were saying things I needed to hear, or if it was the usual idiotic advertisments. I stayed on the line. Finally, after waiting ten minutes, an Indian voice came on. Her name is "Annie." I could only hear every third word. I tried speaking loudly slowly and clearly. After repeating myself a few times I got off the phone, and checked my email. She had made the change, charged me $100, and I went ahead to the web site and spent the $250 to upgrade to first class.

But I realized, sheez, I wanted to pay more to be treated better, and in the end I paid more and wasn't. My time was treated as valueless. Second, not only did they save money by hiring a cheaper person in India, but they also cheaped out on the phone line! Even Skype would have been better than the system they were using. India may be far away, but don't they have good phones? They must be losing business this way. It sure didn't feel good.

Otherwise, the service was great, and I would say What A Deal were it not for this little bit of mess.

The Millennium U.N. Plaza Hotel

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 17:56:49 GMT

I promised the desk clerk at the Millennium U.N. Plaza Hotel that I would blog this and I am a man of my word.

When I checked in there, they asked for a photo ID. He said he was going to make a photocopy. I said I didn't want him to do that. He said it was a requirement, since the hotel was part of the UN. Not sure why or if this is true, but I've been asked for a photo ID going into office buildings in NY, and generally let them have it, but I was concerned in this case because they had also taken an imprint of my credit card. With these two piece of information, there are some delicate places they can get into.

If you're not worried about this, I think you should be. When you hear about schools and businesses losing hundreds of thousands of credit card numbers, it could be yours. I once had all my mail stolen. They eventually caught the people, and it was identity theft. I don't think they ever got access to any of my accounts, but they got banking records and credit card numbers. Since most places don't ask for driver's licenses, it's still thought of as a fairly good way to identify people. But not if you routinely give it to hotels and they enter it into their systems. Next time they lose a few hundred thousand identities, it may include drivers license numbers. If it's the Millennium U.N. Plaza Hotel that loses them, it will be include mine, because I let them photocopy my license.

If I hadn't, I would have lost the money I pre-paid for my room. The desk clerk promised that I would get the copy back when I checked out. However when I asked for it when I checked out they said I couldn't have it. I said that's the last time I stay at your hotel, he said fine. I said I'm going to blog it (I felt stupid at this point) and he said okay.

In my humble opinion, the Millennium U.N. Plaza Hotel in New York plays pretty loose with customer's identity information. I won't be staying there again -- a shame, because otherwise it's a nice hotel, reasonably priced, at a good location.