Scripting News

Wifi in BART

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:34:34 GMT

I rode the BART into SF last night for a dinner near Moscone, first BART trip I've taken with the new Asus Eee PC 901 with XP. It's a fine little computer, so little in fact that you can almost think of it as a cell phone or an iPod, maybe a big iPhone, esp if you add on an EVDO modem, which I have.

I had a 20 minute wait for the train returning to the East Bay at the Montgomery St station, so I whipped out the Asus, thinking I'd listen to some music or watch some video, but I noticed there was a wifi signal. Odd, since we were about 50 to 100 feet underground. Turns out it was an official BART wifi signal, a free trial, so I signed up, logged on, and downloaded the latest episode of Fresh Air and listened to it on the train home.

Now get this -- the wifi signal went about 1/2 the way across the tunnel under the bay! After the signal went away, with the lid closed the Asus makes a fine podcast player. All my podcatching software runs on it just fine. We may be getting somewhere interesting. (If only Apple had made a cell phone that ran Mac software, I know it's something like the Mac, but I'm lame and have no patience for platforms that are "something like" platforms my software already works on.)

Anyway BART's on board. Nice! (And yeah I know they're going to charge for it, and that's fine.)

My to-do list for Identi.ca

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:56:21 GMT

I had a great phone conversation yesterday with Evan at Identi.ca. It was just an hour, but we covered a lot of ground. And Evan is an open kind of guy, so I'm pretty sure he won't mind me saying what I was lobbying for him to do next.

1. Cosmetics. I want to spiff up my presence on Identi.ca the same way I have with my presence on Twitter.

2. Payloads. We never got them from Twitter, so as a result every time you want to push a picture or video through Twitter, it involves showing the user a URL. Over time it fades into the background, we forget how ugly this is, but when you use FriendFeed, you don't see so many URLs cause it understands a few common data types, and does something intelligent with them. This should be formalized before it gets out of control, and RSS enclosures are the obvious way to go. Thumbs for pictures, embedded MP3 player for audio, same for video, where possible.

3. Threaded discussions through a plug-in with Disqus et al.

4. Plug-ins! (This is killer. I would write some right off the bat.)

5. Let's play with RSS clouds for lightweight federation. Again, I would definitely ship code that connected with Identi.ca on this level. It's been years since I did anything with clouds in RSS, but it's a feature that's been there for a half-decade, ready for someone to pick it up. This one was Evan's idea, but I obviously support it.

Anyway, there were some other things we talked about, of course, that I don't want to make public at this time, esp things Evan is going to do that are cool but didn't come from me. Gotta leave something to tease about.

Micro-blogging meetup in September?

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 02:40:30 GMT

Following up on yesterday's piece about fragmentation in the micro-blogging world; on my walk yesterday I took a Steve Gillmor podcast with me, an interview with Dustin Sailings, the developer of TwitterSpy. All three of us, like Rafe Needlman at Webware, and many others, are trying to sort out the "micro-blogging" world we live in now, how we got here, and where we'll be. Is this like the first Iraq War, or the second? Is it like Instant Messaging, where interop has always been a problem, or like blogging and RSS, where it wasn't (much of) a problem. I'd say we're at an inflection point -- a lot of it depends on what people do, actually the technology doesn't seem to be the issue, it's what people and money do that will make the difference.

That's why I suggested to Steve, on identi.ca, that maybe a micro-blogging camp-style meetup in Sept would be a good idea. I also sent an email to Rafe with the same suggestion.

We could do it in Berkeley at the Hillside Club, lots of great restaurants nearby, easy to get to from BART. Or we could do it in San Francisco, or down in the valley, or in NYC, or Montreal. I think it should be in North America since almost all the development is happening in the US and Canada.

What's cool about where we're at is that users understand what's needed this time, before the technology has arrived.

I'm anxious to hear what everyone thinks and I don't think there's any substitute for a face to face meeting.

It would be great to keep it small, but it must also be open to anyone who wants to participate. No way can this be an invite-only "Friends Of Someone" type gathering. No one must be able to say they weren't allowed to come.

Anyway that's the idea. What do you think??

Update: After saying most of the development is happening in North America word of a Japanese Twitter-like service just popped on TechMeme.

My kind of blogging and the 2008 campaign

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:17:04 GMT

Not that anyone is paying attention, but I seem to disagree with almost everyone about what blogging is. To me it's the empowerment of the individual to speak for him or herself, not through filters of the press.

I learned first-hand about those filters when I briefly took a professional job in the mid-90s. Some editors are great and some really interfere. Add enough editors, and what the author thinks gets lost. So does the man or woman in the street or the experts who were interviewed for a story.

It got really bad toward the end of the 20th century, but as the cost of publishing tools went down, and their ease of use went up, and as people got more familiar with the technology, the rules started to change. The gatekeepers lost a lot of their power. And now when the media starts to go along with a corrupt campaigner wanting somehow to make Britney Spears and Paris Hilton figures in this election, like WIllie Horton was in 1988, well -- guess who speaks up and calls bullshit on it.

Paris Hilton's mother!

Now that's what I'm talking about.

If you see bullshit, call it. If you're the mother of one of the celebs who happens also to be a donor to McCain's campaign, it has extra ooomph when you say the ad is a waste of (your) money, money that should be spent improving America, because that's what we want from our President.

No I'm not going to vote for McCain, but Kathy Hilton is. McCain should pay attention. He can manipulate the press, for sure -- they love to be whipped into frenzy (it's what they do, they live for it) but the rest of us are truly sick of being on edge during these campaigns, wondering if some crazed scream is going to end up flushing our chances down the toilet. But there's a new safety valve now, and it's my kind of blogging, not the professional's that's going to save the day. I hope.

BTW, what hypocrisy for McCain to boast that he's always put America first. To say Obama would rather lose a war to win an election. If McCain were putting America first, he wouldn't make a mockery of the process. Take the Presidency seriously. We do, so does the rest of the world. He snickers -- "we're just having fun." Take up a hobby, play golf, get a dog, a puppet, do your mischief in private. (Funny how he sounds just like the dirty tricks pranksters that worked in the Nixon White House).

American Airlines wifi?

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:55:22 GMT

I heard that AA has wifi on some cross-country flights. Thinking I'm going to NY sometime in the next week or so -- therefore -- I want to figure out which flights are the ones blessed with wifi so I can try it out and report on the quality and performance, etc.

Any ideas would be most appreciated!

I bought a fun domain!

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 19:35:06 GMT

I bought a fun domain just for fun.

http://rep.ublican.com/

Started it off with Joe Trippi's post today, whcih was most excellent!!

Twitter will kick themselves for missing this

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:59:58 GMT

Imagine if the world of Instant Messaging had been under one roof, if one vendor had invented it, and had 100 percent market share. Further, what if that vendor had the foresight that there would be other vendors and that compatibility between their services would make a huge market, and that incompatibility would keep the market fragmented and relatively small. What would that vendor have done?

Now think about the opportunity that was before Twitter in 2007 and may even still exist in 2008, to do the same for micro-blogging. Imagine if Twitter had rolled out a blueprint for how to tie up a compatible micro-blogging service to Twitter's service, in such a way that I could use one vendor's service and you could use another, but somehow I could still follow you and you could follow me. That's the nirvana we're all seeking as new services come online and finally start attracting users.

I think it's good that Steve Gillmor is using Identi.ca as his micro-blogging home. Given the amount of enthusiasm he has for Twitter, I'm sure this decision didn't come quickly or easily. Me, I'm using FriendFeed these days, and to the extent I post to Twitter it's done by some bridge software I wrote that watches what I do on FF and posts new stuff automatically to Twitter.

When we move to different systems we're creating a mess, because there are differences in these systems (and that's good, I like the ways FF is different from Twitter and Identi.ca) so bridging them requires some thought, experimentation and consideration. I'm sure Steve would like to be able to communicate with people who use Twitter (can he?) but I can follow Steve fine over on FF, which has the ability to subscribe to feeds from other users.

I've had to turn off FF's monitoring of my Twitter feed, because it would catch "echoes" of messages my bridge sent to Twitter which then appeared a second time on FF. This meant having discipline to only use FF to post now. Anything I post on Twitter will not be seen on FF.

This is chaos but it's good, because now users are understanding the issues of federation, and will know a solution to the problems when they see it. Users can even participate in the discussion, because they are becoming so familiar with the problem.

Would it have been better for Twitter to anticipate it? Absolutely, because the chaos could have been avoided; and it would have been better for Twitter because they could have been the Network Solutions of this space, the name authority, and there would be their elusive business model. Your name on the micro-blogging network would cost $5 per year, payable to Ev, Biz and Jack, Incorporated. That would add up to quite an annuity. It still could happen, but there isn't much time left.

Update: See the discussion on FF.

cgerrish: "I once wrote that it wasn't possible to rebuild New York city somewhere else. But Twitter has stopped doing some of the things that made it the New York City of social media. Its streets are filled with potholes, there are abandoned buildings and broken windows, squeegee guys trying to clean your windshields, trash on the streets, basic services not working and periodic power outages. People won't migrate individually to other services, they'll leave in tribes. And every tribe is connected to many other tribes."

Playing the race card

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:07:20 GMT

Obama plays the race card when he takes the stage. Look at his face. He's an African-American. There's the race card. Can't be hidden. It's right there. Next issue.

PS: When McCain takes the stage he plays the "age card."

PPS: When McCain says he has more experience than Obama he's playing the age card.

PPPS: Don't forget he's playing the Bush card and Republican card.

PPPPS: And the veteran card.

PPPPPS: And other times the ridiculous old fart card.

PPPPPPS: I almost forgot. When McCain shows up the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant card is being played.

Make some of your own

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:09:16 GMT

Scoop Nisker said, famously: If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own.

That could be the anthem of blogging. With the tools so cheap, there's no reason to sit around grousing that you don't like the way the news is reported. You can always be a reporter. What's stopping you?

Duncan Riley points out something obvious, TechMeme is skewed toward TechCrunch. I agree. It's completely observable.

At the moment he has a story that should be #1 on TechMeme, in his humble opinion. It would be if it were written by a TechCrunch person (which Riley used to be, he ought to know). No doubt.

BTW, other sites have the same story. I first heard about it on redstate.com.

This is a problem!

The solution is to "make some of your own."

It would be a simple matter to write a program that regularly reads 20 or 30 blogs, aggregates and ranks the stories they're linking to and publishes the result. It's so simple it should be done.

I predict that if the combination of TechCrunch/TechMeme is Coke, this aggregation would become Pepsi. And once that happened, there would be a lot of grousing about how this new thing misses important stories, and we're off to the races!

Such an effort would certainly give Gabe an incentive to broaden the perspective of TechMeme, which would be a good thing, imho, for everyone.

Update 9AM: Duncan's piece appears on TechMeme.

Is this Rocketboom 2.0?

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:14:58 GMT

If so sign me up!

Puppet finds new home

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:51:25 GMT

I feel great!

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:46:22 GMT

Point of View!

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:16:56 GMT

It's all about where you're lookin at it from.

Remember that awesome picture of Obama speaking in Berlin on July 24?

Did you see all those digital cameras?

Did you wonder what their pictures look like?

Check it out.

Watching them watch Obama watching Obama watching them.

McCain runs a cowardly sleazy ad, early

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:10:44 GMT

0. Here's a blogger doing what a blogger should do.

1. McCain is running an ad that, without saying anything that can be rebutted, shows images of promiscuous or crazy young white women in a commercial filled with imagery of Barack Obama, a black man.

2. Marshall says (and so far is right) that the press will, during the campaign, say the ads are controversial and hard-hitting, and after the campaign, as they did with the same tactic used against Harold Ford, a black man running for the US Senate in Tennessee, will say that what they were doing was transparent and unfair. (So far the attacks on Obama are tame and mild compared to what was run against Ford in 2006.)

3. It's good to have bloggers in the mix, being listened to, because the candidates and their backers should be held accountable for what they say and do, while the campaign is going on. McCain should take the hit now, not after the election.

4. The press has done some nasty sleazy hits of their own in recent elections. The Dean scream was manufactured by the press; only after he withdrew did the mea culpas come. The Swiftboat ads, unsubstantiated smears, were run nationally, for free, by the networks. That should not be tolerated.

5. The ads were backed, we find out, by people who now want our respect. Shouldn't smears be two-way? Why not expose the people who created and financed the ads while the ads are running? Isn't the job of the press to seek the truth? Isn't that what we're told they do better than mere bloggers do?

So thanks to Josh Marshall, who has the attention we don't, for using it for a good cause.

Streamfile looks really cool

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:46:34 GMT

It solves a problem we all have.

http://www.streamfile.com/

I want to send a big file to someone who may or may not be very tech savvy. Look at all the steps they save, assuming you have a place to store a 2GB file, which most people don't.

I just sent a song to NakedJen in Salt Lake City where, according to Jen, it's 111 degrees right now.

Luckily it was a cooooooool song.

"cheesecake"

Obama to announce VP pick tomorrow night?

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:42:56 GMT

If so Tim Kaine, the governor of Virginia looks like the choice.

What is a liberal?

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:34:17 GMT

I listened to part of Fresh Air today in the car and they were talking about arms control in Reagan's presidency, and were throwing around terms like liberal and such as if they were technical terms that had well-established definitions.

Then I realized I had no idea what it meant. What makes a liberal different from a conservative? What I'm looking for is an explanation that takes into account the derivation of the words. Aren't conservatives liberal too? Forget the labels -- explain the words.

BTW, it's an interesting question because in the United States the term liberal and conservative ought to mean the same thing. We are a liberal country. Our philosophy is that if it's not illegal you can do it. In an older country to be a conservative means you want to bring back the king, pope or ayatollah. The United States is what conservatives in other countries hate.

Landing at Logan

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:33:41 GMT

Knol is Google's Wikia

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:18:30 GMT

Wikia is Jimmy Wales' dream of doing to Google what Wikipedia did to Britannica. Unfortunately for Wales and his investors, Google had a 10-year lead, and a huge ecosystem had been built up around it. Google is a thriving coral reef, and one doesn't just show up one day with an idea and compete with an ecosystem. That's why Wikia didn't, and isn't likely to work.

It's amazing how balanced the arrogance is, because the same thing that makes it so hard for Wikia to gain on Google is going to make it virtually impossible for Google to catch Wikipedia with Knol.

The thinking is likely just as superficial and greedy as Wales' hypothesis that the approach that could unseat Google is the secret sauce that makes Wikipedia work, as if that had anything to do with Wales. It doesn't, anymore than Google needs Larry and Sergey to keep on rolling as a coral reef ecosystem. See, Wikipedia is a coral reef too, and you don't just open shop one day and think that because you can drive flow into your version of Wikipedia that the coral reef will magically assemble on your plot of ocean bottom. Instead what you attract are spammers, as Duncan Riley observes in his writeup on Inqisitr earlier today.

Google is going to keep being the coral reef for search, and Wikipedia is going to be the coral reef encyclopedia. Ironically, Knol probably would have fared better if instead of having the appearance of Google tilting the table in its favor, search engine-wise, they had put something in its robots.txt file that kept the Google crawler away, so that the opportunists would have stayed away too. That would have given them some time out of the spotlight to build up some real momentum, giving it a chance to compete with Wikipedia. Not sure what Wikia could have done, the idea seemed doomed from the start, because search isn't like a Wiki, and human-authored search results are something of a contradiction.

Random stufffff

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:24:28 GMT

Via Doc Searls, Google runs a registrar, without the gunked-up cross-selling choked process of other registrars. I've gotta try this out, I'll transfer one of my domains there.

I added VMWare Fusion to my Amazon wishlist last night, just as a reminder to myself, and this morning got an offer for a review unit from a product manager there. I accepted, of course. It'll make it much easier for me to prepare the Windows version of the OPML Editor, and of course I will write about it here, exactly as if I had paid for it. (I installed the Beta of v2.0.)

It's really cool that Amazon wishlist items are reflected on FriendFeed.

Wasn't last night's season premiere of Mad Men fantastic!

Fred Wilson thinks blog comments should make it on TechMeme. It's true that some comments are better than many blog posts, and I check TechMeme several times a day, but I'm hoping we escape the grips of centralized thinking and remember that what made blogs work was that everyone gets their own platform to speak their mind. TechMeme takes us back to the place that didn't work, where everyone fights for scarce attention. Aside from that, as Wilson notes, TM has made its mind up about us, relative to others, and what's important, vs what's not. (To which I add we're the sentient beings, and TM is a piece of software. What irony that we care what something that is incapable of thought thinks. We'll wait a long time for recognition that way!)