Scripting News

Why I like netbooks

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:49:24 GMT

John Markoff quotes Steve Jobs. "We don't know how to build a sub-$500 computer that is not a piece of junk."

As with all Jobsisms, it's beautifully elegant, true -- and misleading. You have to read it very carefully.

He isn't saying no one knows how to build one, just that "we" don't know how to. Fine. And the last part is almost Republican it's so clever and nasty. He's not actually slamming Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer and MSI, but if you don't read it carefully you might think he's saying they're pieces of junk. I think he's been studying Sean Hannity.

Now here's what Dave Winer, Mac user, says: They are not pieces of junk. Quite the opposite, they are elegant Mac-like products, and you can be absolutely sure behind the scenes Steve is throwing tantrums at his engineers day and night extolling their virtues and telling them to hurry up cause their lunch is being eaten. This is the same guy who said people don't want video on their iPods until he had an iPod with video.

Jobs then said that the iPhone could be seen as Apple's netbook. Hmmm. Maybe Jobs doesn't understand what's so appealing about netbooks. I suppose it's possible.

Look, iPhones are not and never will be netbooks. Just like writing for the NYT is not and never will be blogging (Markoff once said the NYT was his blog).

iPhones are too locked to be netbooks.

OK, I suppose it's time to say what a netbook is...

1. Small size.

2. Low price.

3. Battery life of 4+ hours. Battery can be replaced by user. Atom processor seems to be a requirement, those that aren't Atom aren't selling (and are apparently being discontinued).

4. Rugged.

5. Built-in wifi, 3 USB ports, SD card reader. It seems it must have 802.11n to be taken seriously.

6. Runs my software.

7. Runs any software I want (no platform vendor to decide what's appropriate).

8. Competition (users have choice and can switch vendors at any time).

As a Mac user I would very much like to see a Mac netbook. Yes, I know if I'm willing to hack, I can get Mac OS to run on one, but I have a hard enough time keeping supported hardware working.

On the other hand, Windows XP/Home is not so bad as long as it doesn't get infected with malware. So far I'm happy.

What I am using (the most frequent question potential netbook owners ask): Asus Eee PC 901, purchased in July for $600, now sells for $440. I took it with me to the DNC and it was the only computer i used. Now when I travel, I leave the MacBook Pro at home. Too heavy, too much computer to carry.

I've suggested elsewhere that it might be time to have a Netbook conference. I'd be happy to participate as a host, organizer, or speaker. There's an active community of bloggers following netbooks, and it's a happy cooperative place. It feels like the early days of the Apple II or IBM PC.

If Jobs is missing the excitement that would be a shame because it would be nice to have an Apple netbook, and no the iPhone is not a netbook. Not even close.

Today the MSI Wind really went back

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:55:19 GMT

I got the DLink router, and btw, it has a fantastic browser-based interface, best I've ever used -- anyway -- I carefully restarted all the machines after carefully setting up the router -- and then the moment of truth, boot up the MSI Wind. And the exact same thing happened. It took the router down! I don't know how it's even possible, but I repeated the drill and it did it again, and that was the end for me. I am not a professional hardware debugger, I'm just going to say I got a bad unit. I boxed it up and sent it back to Amazon in Lexington, KY. I still had more unwinding to do, because the Slingbox doesn't like the DLink, so finally now I'm back to my Airport Extreme, the router I forgot I had. It worked so well with everything but you-know-what. Kevin Tofel, who I respect enormously has nothing but praise for the MSI, but I paid my dues now, I'm going to take a deep breath and move on to other work for the rest of the week. Five days of futzing with hardware is enough!

Subscribe via Google?

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:59:38 GMT

I just tripped over a heretofore unknown feature of Google.

Theoretically, unless I misunderstand, and I probably do, if you "subscribe" to Scripting News, then you'll be more likely to see results from this site in your Google searches?

Oy it seems I have to add keywords to my RSS feed.

Google doesn't need keywords. That's the whole point of Google. That's what makes it great, why it works. It can find stuff without keywords.

This is 1/2 a great idea (I've been lobbying for something like it for years) but I'm not jumping through all these hoops.

This is wrong in so many ways.

Of course I could still be completely missing the point.

PS: There was no need to invent a new namespace for the feature they added to RSS, it already has a category element that does what their new element does. They made the same mistake Apple made with iTunes. If they had looked before they lept they would both be using the same element and their feeds would be interchangeable.

What does a recession look like?

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:19:29 GMT

Yesterday I went to lunch at one of my favorite local lunch places. 12:30PM on a weekday, the place usually is buzzing, but not today. I was the only lunch customer. While I waited another person came in. The place had an awful dead feel to it. I thought to myself: Okay this is what a recession looks like.

FriendFeed's new realtime API

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:20:01 GMT

Yesterday I got an email from Bret Taylor at FriendFeed saying that their new "realtime" API had been deployed publicly, so I quickly took a look, and found that, as with all other elements of their API, it's simple and easy to support. I immediately wrote glue to connect it to the OPML Editor.

FriendFeed: Real-time API (beta).

To understand how it works, consider a hypothetical web app. I live about 1/2 block from a bus that goes to the BART station. Suppose there's a web page that updates when the bus passes a stop about a mile from my house. I'd point my web browser to the page, but it wouldn't refresh right away, but when the bus approached, the page would upload, and flash some kind of message saying "Get out there Dave!"

That's how FriendFeed's realtime API works. Ask a question and wait for a response. You might wait a long time, minutes, even hours, and that's a good thing. When the event you asked about happens, you can act on it instantaneously. And instead of making thousands of calls asking "Is it done yet?" you make just one.

Now it may sound like a silver bullet, but like all things in computer design, there's a tradeoff. You have to keep a process running waiting for the answer, and over on the FriendFeed side, they have to keep a process running too. But it's probably a good tradeoff. And the performance is stunning. I tested it with my own FriendFeed account and the script running on my machine detects updates the instant they happen; unlike polling apps I have running against Twitter that sometimes take 2 or 3 minutes to detect a change.

I have a project that's been waiting for just this functionality, I hope to get to it after the election.

One more comment -- FriendFeed does a good job with the APIs. When asked, I recommend that other developers just do it the way FriendFeed does. I was able to get something running within a couple of minutes. Once I got that far, I'm pretty well hooked, but only had to put in another hour to complete the project. Considering that the goal of an API is to get developers to hook into your service, this feature, and the performance of the service which is also excellent, is all that it takes to get a chance at uptake. That's why I'll generally put aside other work when there's a new feature in the FriendFeed API.

Evolution

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:42:36 GMT

A second look at MSI Wind

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:52:47 GMT

Since today is a day of second looks, I've decided to hold on to the MSI Wind for a few more days. I have 30 days to return it, after all, so no hurry -- I guess.

The incompatibility is definitely with the Airport Extreme. After reporting that, I've gotten lots of clues from people here and on Twitter that indicate that there are serious compatibility issues with that router, I've even reported on one before with my Nokia N800 handheld computer (which I never managed to get working with the Apple router).

So, I'm willing to try another 802.11N router, even though I gotta wonder why people who make WLAN adapters don't debug their issues with Apple's (imho very popular ~~and well-designed~~) router.

I really like DLink USB hubs, do they make good routers too?

BTW, I did install the new drivers from the MSI site. I have the "RT2700E" hardware.

A second look at W.

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:09:32 GMT

Something Oliver Stone said about W. got me thinking.

"I really, in my heart, think that this guy's policies are going to be around for a long time. And my grandchildren are going to be talking about this guy Bush like the way they talk about Teddy Roosevelt, the way they talk about Lincoln, the way they talk about Washington. I think he's had monumental impact on the future of this country."

Weird. I wonder what he means. I don't think he's right, but he did get me thinking, as I said.

Even if W wasn't a great President, he did become President and that's not easy to do as so many can testify. What he had down, what he knew how to do, was how to get elected President. Because:

1. He has good genes, no matter how dumb you may think he is, he isn't.

2. He was deeply involved with his father's losing 1992 campaign (not just according to Stone).

3. He loved his father and sought his approval, as all sons do, but didn't feel the love coming back.

So he did what he knew how to do, arranged it so he would run for President. After winning, he had no clue how to be President or even what it meant. I bet his father didn't take him into his confidence when he was in office. And while his father wasn't a great campaigner, he did really know to be President, he had been around the office for 20 years before he occupied it, as did many of the people he brought in with him.

Another observation, some based on intuition, and other parts based on observation of the 2008 campaign. While Bush II probably couldn't have done it without Karl Rove, it seems equally true that Rove needed Bush to win. But Rove may have found his new protege, who's getting broken in on the campaign trial, Sarah Palin, as Bush II was broken in by his father. That's the nightmare waiting for us should Obama win, which of course is nothing compared to the nightmare that awaits us if he loses.

If the Republicans lose

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:33:16 GMT

Upfront caveat: I'm not willing to say "When the Republicans lose" but I am hoping I get to say "When the Republicans lost."

So if the Republicans lose on November 4, they will have to make a much more serious transition than they think they'll have to.

They've been winning elections by saying nonsense things to the electorate, things that are precisely true, even though they know damned well that when the people hear them on TV or via email or word of mouth, they're hearing something different from the precisely true things they say. And lately they haven't even been worrying about the line between true and false. They say things like Palin was exonerated in Troopergate, when the exact opposite is true, she was indicted.

Now the "elite" -- people who know how to read and bother to, know this is what's going on. The Repubs didn't care because they could blow by our opinion of them, and as long as they were winning, what could we do about it?

Now it seems the Republicans may actually lose, and if they do, here's the change: If they want to get heard, they're going to have to stick to arguments that are based on what's actually going on.

I know -- it's tough.

MSI Wind goes back

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:04:53 GMT

Apparently the problems I've had this weekend are connected to an incompatibility between the MSI Wind netbook and my Airport Extreme router. At least there's a correlation, when the Wind is on, the router goes down, quickly, within a minute or two. If I turn off the wifi adapter on the Wind, I can leave it on indefinitely and the router works without a hitch. Or if I turn the Wind off, everything is fine. Or if I return the Wind to Amazon. :-(

Another piece of data, my networking problems started at the exact moment that I first turned on the Wind.

Conclusion: The Wind goes back to the factory and I travel with the Eee 901, for now at least. It has none of these problems, the Airport Extreme likes it, and it likes the Airport Extreme.

Netbook nuisances deja vu

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:54:05 GMT

With all the troubles I've been having with my Mac network, which thankfully (knock wood, praise Murphy, IANAL, my mother loves me, etc) seems to be cured, I haven't had much time to try out my new MSI Wind that arrived on Friday.

My attention is finally there, and now I'm reliving all the problems I had getting started with the Asus Eee PC 901, but unfortunately I don't remember how I worked around all of them. I do remember this -- Windows seems fine, once you get over all these hurdles, but until you do, your soul cries out Why oh why can't I just use a Mac! (Curse you Steve Jobs, give a Mac netbook please!!)

The latest one is that even though it's got a good wifi connection, it still keeps trying to connect through the 3G modem which is sitting in my travel bag while I'm working at home. I remember this problem well from the early Eee days, but it doesn't do it anymore. Somehow I must have figured out how to get it to stop doing this, or it stopped on its own. Arrgh.

Mac networking help sought

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:53:31 GMT

Update: The problem appears to have been solved.

I've been trying to track down a problem on my Mac-only network since Friday afternoon, and now have it narrowed down pretty well to one computer, my main desktop, that's got some kind of bug that makes it very slow at copying file to one other system, and vice versa.

Here's a schematic of a piece of the LAN.

Even so, copying files to any other computer on the network is just as fast as always. So you'd think it was the fault of the other computer, but evidence indicates otherwise. It can copy files to other computers quite quickly.

When I say slow, how slow is that? Well, it's very very slow. About 2MB per minute.

This computer just isn't working very well. I drew up the schematic and scanned it, but it took about 100 times as long as it usually does.

If this were a Windows machine I'd think it was infected.

Knight News Challenge

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:15:12 GMT

The Knight News Challenge is a program to fund tech innovation in relationship to journalism. Every year they request proposals for a share of $5 million in grant money, every time around I try to think of something that fits their guidelines, but the third requirement always stumps me. Here's the list:

1. Use or create digital, open-source technology as the code base.

2. Serve the public interest.

3. Benefit one or more specific geographic communities.

1 and 2 are no problem, I have lots of ideas that fit those criteria, but I almost never have a project that applies to one or more specific geographic communities. The stuff I've worked on, blogging, RSS, podcasting, have all been broadly applied technologies that work in every geographic community. Nothing geographically specific about the stuff I like.

Update: As often happens, writing helped clarify my thinking. Yes, there have been projects I've done that were geographically specific. Starting the Berkman Thursday group was a way of bootstrapping a blogging community in Cambridge MA, as were the first two BloggerCons. If we ever do Hypercamp it will also be geographically specific.

Anyway, I offer my help -- if anyone reading this blog is submitting a proposal, maybe there's some way we can team up. I'm going to need some new projects after the election, which is coming up soon!

BTW, the one project that I have on my long-term plate that I think would be a good fit, were it not for #3, is Future-safe Archives. It's a project best done in cooperation with a university, and with a bit of funding, the idea could likely be sold to one. I regularly get emails from people at various universities who are interested in creating work on the web that has a chance of lasting beyond their lifetime.

Also, I'm curious how the previous Knight projects have been doing. Have any of them gained traction?

Campaign Stops Map

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:43:03 GMT

As an experiment in social computing, and because I'd like to see where the candidates have been and where they're going, I've started a map on Google that's open for anyone to add items to that's meant to show where the candidates are.

Here's a link to the map.

I've entered stops for all four candidates for tomorrow and a few of today's stops. Tomorrow Obama is in Florida, McCain in Missouri, Palin in Colorado and Nevada, and Biden is in Seattle (with no public events).

If you know where one of the candidates is going to be, add a note. In the text of the note include a link to the article that says where they will be (or where they were).

You can add links to writeups of the events, with pictures and videos if they're available.

Update: Putting the map together helped make this story seem more real. \"Barack Obama's stop at Cape Fear BBQ and Chicken in Fayetteville, N.C., this afternoon underscored the continued resistance of some voters to his candidacy -- and his identity. The trip, according to a pool report, offered 'some powerful and at times ugly interaction.'\"

I'm not a liberal

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 12:43:23 GMT

I'm also not The Left.

I have a mixture of values some which you'd label right, others left, and others don't fall on that spectrum at all.

I don't think the Republicans are particularly conservative.

I think it's funny that it's a virtue when they propose cutting taxes but when Democrats do it, they call it socialism.

I don't know what Republicans stand for these days. I read Brooks, Kristol, the Weekly Standard, National Review, PowerLine, Hot Air, all are supposedly conservative people, but they don't really stand for anything. They're more like baseball fans. They like the color of the hat, or their parents were fans of the same team, that's why they root for the Republicans.

Look, I'm a Mets fan because I was a Mets fan when I was a kid. I rooted for the Mets probably because my parents grew up in Brooklyn and Rockaway and therefore rooted for the Dodgers. I like to think I'm a Mets fan because they have better philosophy, but I know in my heart that it's really the color of the hat. Only recently did I learn that the Mets colors, orange on blue, were derived from the colors of the two NY teams that moved to California. So I'm a National League baseball fan. For that reason I don't think of the American League as a "real" league. I like orange because it's the Giants color, and blue because it's the Dodgers, and I didn't even know it!

I mention all this baseball stuff because in politics I don't have the feeling of loyalty to a team that many do. I do not always vote for one party or the other. As I've said before, in national elections, I've voted Republican more often than I've voted Democratic.

I also think that when people talk about The Left or The Right or conservative vs liberal, they'r really saying "I cling to the past when trying to understand the future." I also think, sorry to say, that people who do this are idiots who don't deserve a vote (but thankfully I don't get to decide who gets a vote).

I also think that, in order to vote, you must prove that you've watched and understood Why We Fight and The Fog of War. If you're voting in California, I'd require reading Cadillac Desert.

Me, I think the Constitution is pretty good. I tend to take a man at his word unless I'm given a reason not to. I have been pretty good with money, but like so many others, I've lost a lot this year. I'd like to think that when I need medical care it won't matter how much money I have. I really do care about other people, even though I'm not a Christian and don't practice any other religion. Sometimes I wonder how people who call themselves Christian can ignore the teachings of their faith when it comes to being generous with others. In this country, so often, it seems Christianity is a very close-minded hard-assed me-first fuck-you culture.

What else? I don't think this is a Christian nation, emphatically, I think it's un-American to think that any religion owns us. I've read both of Obama's books, and I'm glad to see he not only agrees, but can explain why it's so important. I think abortion sucks, and I understand why some people want to outlaw it, but I don't support them. I think most of all we need to become a team, here in the USA, and start pulling together, or else we're really fucked. And I don't think being a team is something you just talk about, it's something you must act on.

I think people who say Obama is liberal haven't bothered to find out anything about him. It's my conservative side that's voting for him.

America's religion is the Constitution.

I love this country. It saved the lives of my parents and grandparents, and without America, I would not be possible.

Update: Cross-posted at Huffington.

Powell endorses Obama

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:07:02 GMT

Maybe the best political ad ever

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 01:37:22 GMT

Twitter does have track

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 22:14:08 GMT

Steve Gillmor has been saying that Twitter doesn't have track for quite some time, and for some of that time he was correct, but it's been bothering me for a while because I don't think he's correct now. Hopefully I won't look too stupid if I don't understand all the subleties of tracking Twitter topics.

Enough caveats? I hope so.

Anyway...

Suppose I want to track all conversations about Obama on Twitter?

1. Go to the search page.

2. Enter "Obama" (leave out the quotes).

3. Click on Search.

4. Wait.

5. A few seconds later it will say something like this: "58 more results since you started searching. Refresh to see them." When you refresh, sure enough there are the 58 results. (Those were the ones that appeared while I was writing this blog post.)

Now maybe that's not what Track does, if so I'm stupid.

How will Twitter make money?

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:51:04 GMT

Imho, asking how Twitter will make money is not a dumb question. It's not a sporting thing, not idle conversation. I don't think people are saying Twitter won't find a way to make money, rather expecting that how they make money will change the way Twitter works, probably not an improvement.

The investors in Twitter, I think, like most tech investors, lack the perspective of a user. Here's the key point, we feel like we're investors too. We're putting our time into developing the service, when people sign up to Twitter because I urge them to, or stay there because I pour my time into it, I wonder where that investment will go when the people who control the service (Fred, Bijan, Ev, Jack, Biz, et al) change it so they can make money.

There's an uneasy feeling that when we see how it works, we aren't going to like it.

That's why the question keeps coming up, imho.

I have a preference. I'd like to be able to pay Twitter a monthly fee to opt out of however they decide to commercialize it. I think that's the honorable way to transition from a free approach (the current one) to a money-making approach.

A very short review of W

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:09:21 GMT

I went to see the 4:05PM showing of W at the California Theater on Kitteridge in Berkeley, and well, it was a nice movie, but I never really got into the plot. It could be I know too much about the actual story, like having read the book before seeing the movie.

It is sympathetic to both Bush presidents, who were the main characters. Like the other Oliver Stone movie about a President, you're left wondering what would have been different if the son felt loved by his father (with Nixon it was bigger, we were asked to wonder what if anyone had loved him).

You can't help but get a big crush on Laura Bush, the Democrat librarian who (according to the movie) really does love Dubya (she calls him Bushie).

The White House fools are like cartoon characters. You'll laugh out loud at the portrayals of Rumsfeld, Rice, Rove, Cheney, but they all came off as weakly played arch enemies of Batman or Superman. Or a SNL parody.

I was hoping for a great Oliver Stone movie. Any Given Sunday is one of my all-time favorites, but this one never draws you into anything like a plot, there's zero suspension of disbelief. It was interesting as a spectacle, nothing more.