Scripting News

Jemima Kiss

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:31:06 GMT

Scoble and Son

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 14:36:34 GMT

Riding the escalator in the Leicester Square station of the London Underground.

Aunt Anita & Scoble

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 14:40:17 GMT

London Underground

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:44:50 GMT

Complete New Yorker archive on a hard disk

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:48:44 GMT

I saw an ad in yesterday's NY Times that offered the complete New Yorker magazine archive, including all the cartoons and ads, going back to 1920-something for a bit more than the hard disk would cost. The ad was from J&R, the company that makes the product is Pexagon. $149. Sounds like there might be DRM.

I asked for something like this from the music business. A hundred gigs of popular music for $500, all pre-installed on the disk without DRM.

Someone at the New Yorker had this idea too? It's a good one. Bulk content for collector types. Another source of revenue. I want to run my own personal radio station, so having every song of a certain genre or from a certain period makes the diff.

A new way to get in Club140

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:55:54 GMT

Bonjour mes amis!

If you post a twit with my name in it following an at-sign that is exactly 140 characters in length, my little script will pick it up and add you Le Club 140. (Practicing my French!)

For example...

@davewiner, you are a very nice person and I enjoy sending you replies. I have actually nothing to say, but when has that stopped me before?

If you posted that, your name would appear here...

http://club140.org/

Of course you will be more original, won't you?

Meanwhile, in other news, Club 140 has caused at least one person to swear off Twitter forever. Too bad so sad! :-(

I found the watch!

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:08:31 GMT

Normal life can now resume.

Club 140

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 21:43:09 GMT

Just for fun I'm keeping track of people I follow who have posted "perfect" Twitter messages, ones that are exactly 140 characters long.

http://club140.org/

Here's the announcement, which of course, is a perfect 140.

The number one feature request for http:\//club140.org/ is our own RSS feed, so of course, that's exactly what I implemented. Everyone happy?

Lost my watch

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 19:15:47 GMT

Lost my watch somewhere in the house, and now I wish Apple sold one.

Where is Apple's watch.

Who makes the iPod of watches?

What's the real story??

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 01:10:19 GMT

Bush and Cheney knew what was going to be in the NIE for months. That's not a stretch. It's completely unbelievable that they didn't ask or weren't told what was coming.

They tried to drum up support for a war anyway.

Hoping to rush us to war. Then the NIE would come out and they'd say that no one knew that there was no nuclear program in Iran.

The only question is why they didn't start the bombing.

Could it be that they gave the order and the military didn't do it?

In the meantime one has to wonder why the French president Sarkozy was saying the same things about Iran along with Cheney and Bush.

There's a back-story we're not hearing.

Bowling for gold

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 19:30:36 GMT

My mom sent a news clipping about some seniors who have bowling tournaments with their Wii's. Of course it's on the web too, but there's something nice about getting a clip in the mail from mom.

Zune as a podcast player?

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:59:13 GMT

A discussion of Zune as a podcast player has begun under the late November Casting in 2007 piece.

NPR radio debate

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 00:37:12 GMT

I caught a bit of today's radio debate between the Democratic presidential candidates.

NPR is providing it as an MP3 download. Much appreciated.

One thing's for sure, we dodged a big World War III size bullet today with the National Intelligence Estimate. Looks like the military didn't want to go to war with Bush, again.

Now a question for the electorate, how do we make sure that the next president gets the message loud and clear -- no more bullshit wars. I think a late-term impeachment and trial of Bush and Cheney would help make the point to future presidents. Fuck with the people again and we'll have your ass.

That Bush even thinks about legacy is a travesty. He belongs in jail. That's his legacy.

The creative process

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 19:55:16 GMT

I've been focused for the last 1.5 months on creating something new. It's amazing how much work it takes to do this. In the end you strive to make it look so simple and install so easily that it seems obvious and trivial. But after all that, if it worked, people are creating in ways they weren't before. That's the gratification available to creativity. These days it's rarely rewarded with money. Okay, that's the way it goes, and in some sense is the way it's always been. The reward of art is insight. The reward of achievement is the possibility of more achievement. Having done it once, you always want to do it again, the next time on your terms, but it never works out that way.

Creativity is a process like seduction. The idea has to be teased out, you have to come at it straight on, then from the side, then sneak up from the rear. It isn't until you understand all facets of a problem that the solution is revealed, and then, if it's really a solution, it reveals a whole new class of problems. (The joy of platforms.)

I think I got there this time. I have to wait a couple of weeks before taking the next step. Now I have to get ready to get out of town. There may be more writing here, maybe not. We'll find out soooon enough!

Want something more to read? Check out this piece about different things we've done with RSS. Think about it. Moving the ball forward in one of these directions is what's next.

Odd fact

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 02:35:33 GMT

A one-night stay in a relatively nice hotel in a European capital costs an American about the same as a Mac Mini.

It's left as an exercise for the reader to determine which is a better deal.

Greenspun

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 02:36:33 GMT

I miss Phillip, a real agent provacateur if there ever was one.

As reported by the NY Times, he's offering payments to illustrators to spiff up Wikipedia articles.

"It occurred to me that when the dust settled on the Wikipedia versus Britannica question, the likely conclusion would be 'Wikipedia is more up to date; Britannica has better illustrations.'"

Just $20K (less than 30 nights in a European hotel for an American) and he's given the publishing world something to think about.

That's called leverage!

This is just a test

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:29:01 GMT

Best wishes to Marc

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:30:24 GMT

Best wishes to Marc Orchant and his family.

Marc had a heart attack yesterday, not a small one, and he's in a coma after surgery, and fighting for his life.

This is a test

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 05:26:26 GMT

Jeff and Bill

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 16:25:14 GMT

It's fascinating to watch the back and forth between Bill Keller, a top editorial guy at the NY Times, and Jeff Jarvis, a NY blogger who they look to for an authoritative view of blogging as it relates to journalism.

http://www.buzzmachine.com/2007/11/30/updating-bill-keller/

I don't want to presume to speak for Jarvis, but I share his obvious frustration at the way Keller spins the blogger position. God help us if the bloggers replace professional journalists, but also god help us if the professionals don't start taking their jobs seriously. Someone needs to watch the people who run the show, who manage the US budget and military, run the education system, keep the trains and garbage trucks running. If it's not the Times, who would it be? I don't trust any of my fellow bloggers to do it.

Keller's comments are about as irresponsible as our President's insistence that Congress is to blame for his mistakes. It's a joke -- you don't have to look very deeply to see that Congress was Republican for most of Bush's tenure, and the bloggers are, like Congress, looking for some leadership from the professionals. Keller, if you want permission to keep doing the same sloppy business in the future that you've been doing in the past, you won't get that from us bloggers. We want you to do better. And you can start by quoting Jarvis accurately.