Dave Winer posts in early January 2016

My current bookmarks page of sites that I visit or feeds that I consume includes a link to DW's feed near the top of the list. I access his feed multiple times per day to see what new insights he has posted. I'm mainly interested in his thoughts and projects regarding web publishing.

I agree and disagree with his tech posts. I don't care about the other topics. I don't access his Facebook or Twitter pages, except in extremely rare occasions. I read the RSS feed from his blog.

Here is how I read Dave Winer's writings: feed page.

I use my custom "feed" command that is included within my Junco code that powers this site. The feed command also exists in the Parula code that powers my message board at ToledoTalk.com.

Here's how it works. The feed= is surrounded by two curly braces at each end. The line must begin at the start of a new line in order for it to work.

Scripting News - 2024-12-13T01:57:59Z

- 2024-12-12T16:22:52Z
Possibly the last moment when the Dems really kicked ass.

- 2024-12-13T01:57:59Z
It's a big enough umbrella but it's always me that ends up getting wet.

- 2024-12-12T15:58:06Z
BTW, I hear that Safari now defaults to using HTTPS. Not sure exactly what that means. But if they ever actually stop showing scripting.com, which will always be plain old HTTP, I'll probably ship an Electron product that browses the web, and doesn't care if it's HTTP or whatever new fad Google is promoting. I'm going to hold the fort for the original web. I can't change scripting.com to HTTPS, it would break all the images and probably a lot of other stuff.

I'll keep my Tesla, thank you - 2024-12-12T16:12:58Z

I saw a pundit suggest people harass people who drive Teslas.

When I bought mine, it cost $70K, a large sum of money that I will not throw away just so a pundit can make a point.

Here's my rebuttal. I'd like to see you get on without buying Exxon products. We all agree they suck, but evil companies have a way of building dependence, that's how they stay in business while openly doing despicable things.

When I put down $70K for what is, btw, a fantastic car, no one knew how evil Elon Musk was going to turn out to be, how little he would care what you and I think.

And I don't believe anyone can live a pure life and extract all evil from it, and still participate in civilization.

- 2024-12-11T15:37:44Z
Bingeworthy has an RSS feed (not public yet), and new ratings show up in my blogroll, of course.

- 2024-12-11T17:10:40Z
I have United Healthcare insurance. I got it as part of my Medicare package when I turned 65. I've had good experience with them. I had major surgery in 2002, cost hundreds of thousands, included a one-week hospital stay and lots of followup treatments. I know the hospital did all the work with them, I was shielded from any complications, but as far as I know there were none. Never had a treatment questioned or denied. I had another insurance provider for many years after that, but when given a chance I went back to United. Just want to say, so far -- knock wood -- I am a happy customer.

- 2024-12-11T14:39:52Z
Just added to my todo list -- add the option to use the WordPress REST interface in place of the WPCOM interface, this will give WordLand the ability to edit WordPress sites anywhere, not just on wordpress.com. When I made the choice to go with WPCOM I didn't have ChatGPT to look at the other options, I was surprised to find that WordPress actually had a good JavaScript API. It doesn't look like the conversion will be too bad. It's obviously better to be able to work with all WordPress sites.

- 2024-12-11T15:08:20Z
No more elections where Hope is the main theme. Better: Kicking ass. Kicking ass is for ass-kicking Americans. I personally like Hope, but I'm also a sports fan and understand the value of kicking ass.

Answers for a tester - 2024-12-11T20:33:05Z

A valued tester of WordLand asked a series of questions, which I answered in some detail, and felt it was a good idea to post the answers here on my blog.

• Any kind of feedback you want to give is totally welcome. I'd prefer it be in the GitHub issues section so it might inspire other people to contribute.
• Re image insertion, I'm not sure it could be simpler. The goal is to get an image into the user's document. If it succeeded at doing that then I'm happy with the design. ;-)
• The target audience is writers who use WordPress. The idea is to put all the features writers need in one place, rather than scattered around the WP interface. And to use modern UI techniques you'd see in social web apps.
• I've tried to answer the questions you raised in the only way I can. For example I need to use a term for the arrows that move you through the stories you've written. They aren't all posts, but they are all drafts. I can explain that in the docs, but I seriously doubt if anyone would read them. There is a distinction and it's important to make that distinction. I also don't think it's crucial to get that one "right" -- not that I think there is a right answer to that one other than removing the feature, which I like having there because it emphasizes that we're working with a set of documents that you can edit.
• In all cases, you could raise any issue you have, I will think about what you say, but accept my response, and trust that I've incorporated your experience as data that might inspire a change in the design at some point.
• But do understand that a lot of thought has already gone into this, and a quick review by a new user is no substitute for a product design.
• I know the docs are non-existent. I am limited in the time I have and the commitments I've made. The truth is that even dedicated users won't read them. I know that by the questions they ask. But I will write the docs.
• What I suggest is you try using the product for its intended purpose, and assume that all feedback is welcome (it is) but once it has been registered, you should move on to the next thing.
• I've worked with testers many times going back a very long time. I've even hired testers. I don't take offense to critiques of the software.

BTW, if after reading this, you think you could be this kind of tester for WordLand, and you have experience with WordPress, and a site on wordpress.com, and are excited about the idea of a simple way to write and manage lots of documents in a WordPress environment, please fill out this form, I'll read it right away, and if it seems like a fit, I'll authorize your account.

- 2024-12-10T15:36:23Z
This time of year every day feels like Sunday.

- 2024-12-10T15:08:44Z
Here's a sad fact. When something open takes off, the vultures swoop in and try to own it. You wouldn't believe the greed I've seen. It's a virus, and it needs to stop, or at least be exposed as it's happening.

- 2024-12-10T14:37:06Z
Yesterday I did a podcast about why it's important to choose humble names for groups of developers working on open formats, using podcasting as an example. Another case in point, the Social Web Foundation, which is about ActivityPub and the Fediverse, when there are many other forms of the social web. Here's where the rubber meets the road. They're having a meeting in Brussels where people can demo their social web apps, but it's only about ActivityPub. If you have a project for Bluesky, or Threads, or non-ActivityPub Mastodon, or RSS for that matter, you should feel welcome there, regardless of what their Call For Participation says.

Apple watch and Tesla - 2024-12-10T16:50:48Z

Many Tesla drivers wish they'd evict Elon Musk. On the other hand can your car do this?

- 2024-12-09T16:08:36Z
Podcast: We all own and no one owns podcasting. 11 minutes.

- 2024-12-09T14:49:47Z
Anyone can build on an open format. That's part of what it means for it to be open. Developers and users are free to use anyone's ideas, or not use them, even if they claim to be the Holy Church of Some Open Format. No one can form an organization that owns the future of the open format because then it wouldn't be open.

- 2024-12-09T15:25:13Z
I've got the new version of Bingeworthy running here. When I saw how the database code worked, I had to redo it from scratch. It was probably my first SQL project, and I barely knew what I was doing. It's too bad, because looking at it from that point of view I could see how SQL could have been much simpler by making some of the optional features automatic. A higher layer on top of SQL is possible, it seems to me. Having ChatGPT review my ideas has been invaluable in this project. I'm going to use it myself for a while, and see how I want to reorganize the user interface. There were opportunities for factoring I didn't take back then because I was in a rush to do something else.

- 2024-12-09T20:08:15Z
How I know Twitter was great. When something was going on anywhere, any kind of thing, I'd go to Twitter and it happened there 14 minutes ago. It was the pulse of the news. And somehow they couldn't figure out how to make a business of that! Amazing.

- 2024-12-09T16:54:48Z
I bet a lot of people who voted for Trump hoped they were voting for Jimmy Stewart in Mr Smith goes to Washington, or It's a Wonderful Life. I think they may be surprised to find that they actually voted for Mr Potter or Ebeneezer Scrooge. Look for a lump of coal in the stocking.

- 2024-12-09T17:07:55Z
If you want to get excited about the future, I highly recommend this week's Jon Stewart podcast interview with Bernie Sanders. I recognize these ideas, it sounds like what we're waiting for in the social web and in journalism. And working for and with each other.

- 2024-12-08T15:23:08Z
Mozilla has repositioned itself as "a global crew of activists, technologists and builders, all working to keep the internet free, open and accessible." These are all worthy goals, but in my experience Mozilla has been an obstacle to these things. I wrote in a comment on Mastodon, "A long time ago they invited me to present my ideas, and like an idiot I thought that's what they wanted, instead it was an ambush, people mostly wanting to ridicule me because they thought anything that a person does can't be any good, it has to come from a big company like Mozilla or Google. I thought then and still do now, how do they justify wasting their time on such a ridiculous thing. I kept on doing what I was doing, but switched off their browser first chance I got." If they really want to get behind projects that make the open web stronger, I'd be happy to help guide them, but only if they've sobered up and take that mission statement seriously, instead of just as a justification for holding on to their jobs a little bit longer.

- 2024-12-07T16:53:06Z
Screen shot of my blogroll on Scripting News. It's dynamic. Shown are the latest posts on the emptywheel blog. When a blog updates it moves to the top of the list. A 2024 adaptation of a concept from early blogging days. It should be part of the social web. You can try it out realtime at scripting.com.

Why I like my Model Y - 2024-12-07T14:23:29Z

Yesterday I wrote that I'd trade in my Model Y if an non-Tesla EV came along that equaled it. A few people asked what I liked about the Model Y that I'm not finding in alternatives. Here's the list.

• I love the handling of the Tesla. It's a muscle car like the 2007 BMW 535i I used to drive, great acceleration, but handles like the 1993 Miata another car I owned and loved. I've also owned really sloppy cars like a Subaru Forester or a Toyota Sienna minivan, even a 1974 Plymouth Voyager, the largest American passenger car ever made. I'm never going back to a car that doesn't have the authority of a Model Y.
• The Model Y has lots of headroom, which my long torso needs, so I don't bruise my head each time I get in the freaking car.
• I have a Tesla charger at home, so whatever I buy has to be compatible with or adaptable to it.
• 4WD is important because where I live it snows in winter, and I drive on dirt roads a lot too.
• It's a computer. It's going to be hard for a competitor to offer the integration with a network that Tesla offers, they're a computer company as much as they're a car company. Their connection to Starlink (assumed to be coming) is going to be hard to compete with too.
• Calling it self-driving should get them in trouble with the FTC, there's no way anyone should trust it to drive itself, and the car's OS enforces that view, so I guess they have lawyers at Tesla. That said, I like having access to this technology. I've been an innovative software developer for a long time, and I like using tech that pushes the leading edge. The marketing (a Musk feature presumably) is what I don't like.
• Charging network. I occasionally take trips that are out of range of my home charger, to Boston, or NYC sometimes leave me needing a charge on the way home. I'd like to have the option of driving cross-country as well. The Tesla charging network is a big plus. I honestly don't know how good the charging situation is for other brands. This would be something for car magazines to rate, to have a way of measuring it, as people who are put off by Musk's politics (about 1/2 of American voters) look for ways to drive something other than a Tesla.

So this turned into an ad for Tesla. Heh.

There are reasons we love it so much.

Just separate from Musk and all's well.

I've been thinking Tesla drivers who love America should have some kind of demonstration. We all park our cars around local Tesla dealers, let the police tow our cars, only to be replaced by other Teslas. We're all computer nerds, we could probably even figure out the scheduling. We probably have nearly as much money as they do. Just sayin.

Tired of companies that push us around politically and Tesla is one of the worst. So far they've managed to convince us they aren't Elon Musk, but that's a mirage, he is the company and the company is him. They are completely one and the same.

Like the My Pillow guy and his pillows. 😄

- 2024-12-06T23:14:40Z
2018: I’m not picky about where I get new ideas.

- 2024-12-06T22:30:59Z
As Trump's cabinet takes shape it's as if the cast of HBO's Silicon Valley is taking over the US government. I'm glad to be alive. I really liked the show, it was incredible satire having lived through pretty much the whole thing, I swear some of the scenes felt like they were set in my backyard at the hacienda in Woodside or at one of our offices, esp in the early days of DaveNet and this blog or the early days of TechCrunch.

- 2024-12-06T22:28:41Z
When Bluesky was experiencing its huge post-election surge, it was exciting because lots of users were experiencing the surge in followers and engagement. It was exhilirating. That has slowed to nothing now, no more engagement there than on Threads, Masto or Twitter. The character limit on Bluesky being considerably less than the others makes it harder to rekindle interest imho. And btw the euphoria being gone is neither good or bad, it just is.

- 2024-12-06T22:00:57Z
ChatGPT is also a tutor. I'm learning new ways of coding SQL through drill and it's also improving my JavaScript code. It's infinitely impatient. It does make mistakes, but that's also good for the drill, catching the mistakes is instructive too. And in programming you always have to be looking for errors, because you'll almost always find them. "Runs the first time" is a rare occurrence, no matter who wrote the code."

- 2024-12-06T15:04:15Z
I drive a Tesla Model Y, the best car I've ever owned. I wish Elon Musk wasn't associated with it. If there were a good alternative to the Tesla, I would divest in a minute. I could afford to do it and would welcome the opportunity.

- 2024-12-06T15:10:18Z
I'm getting a new Apple Watch today, the latest model. My current watch, which I wear all the time (except when it's charging) is a 5th gen. The new one is 10th. I had to upgrade because there's a Tesla watch app out now that won't run on my old watch. It's the most rational add-on for the car. A must-have.

- 2024-12-05T18:00:19Z
Looking for more excellent WordLand bug report writers. 😄

- 2024-12-05T22:55:19Z
Chuck Shotton: "Posting a video to YouTube is infinitely easier for a lot of people than understanding how to publish a podcast." True.

- 2024-12-05T23:14:26Z
17-minute podcast I recorded on Tuesday after hearing that the president of South Korea had declared martial law.

- 2024-12-05T15:32:03Z
Dom Christie has an interesting idea related to listening lists. Aggregate all the shows from all the feeds in a list into a single feed. This seems brilliant because it reduces the implementation in the client to almost nothing, just rebuild a feed periodically, it could be done entirely in the client app. But it also could be something users could share with other users, sort of a meta-channel. I think it's brilliant with the caveat that sometimes when you implement it you find something that makes it more complex than it seems at first. This is the second idea I've heard that the initial listening lists idea spawned. I think there's a lot of unexplored possibilities here.

- 2024-12-05T15:38:16Z
As if in response to Dom's idea, overnight, via email Leslie Joyce sends a link to a feed containing first episodes of new fiction podcasts. First comment, how useful! I love this idea as a user. And second, how innovative! I love this idea as a media hacker, what a clever use of RSS. I've added it to my blogroll and to my shared list of podcast feeds.

- 2024-12-04T15:09:41Z
I filled out the Podcast Ideas page I started as a placeholder on Nov 30. If you have a friend who works on a podcast client, please send them a pointer to this piece, or link to it from your social web accounts on Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads or via your blog. Let's nurture and feed new features to the open podcast world, ones that helps creators and influencers build new networks that can only work outside of the silos. It's time to start moving the market again, it's been stagnant for far too long.

- 2024-12-04T15:43:16Z
I am definitely the last person to hear about ListenNotes search engine for podcasts. It's incredible. Just starting to explore its capabilities.

- 2024-12-03T17:29:21Z
Today's song: Where is the love?

- 2024-12-03T12:48:43Z
President Biden pardoned his son. I have no problem with that, because his son was accused as a proxy for his father. If there is any legitimate use of presidential pardons, this is it. Perhaps relatives of the president should also be immune from prosecution. Does anyone really think Hunter Biden would have been tried for such petty crimes if he weren't Biden's son? The journalists, as always, have equated two very different things. They're playing their own game, trying to self-pardon in a way, to avoid being a target for the incoming administration, which we're all scared of, and I guess that's the point, to scare us.

- 2024-12-03T12:58:09Z
BTW, another thing journalism is getting wrong, the FBI is not the squeaky clean organization they present it as.

- 2024-12-03T13:21:36Z
We're looking for a Busy Developer's Guide to Bluesky's feed format.

- 2024-12-03T16:42:14Z
I frequently have trouble remembering the names of things I want to use in my writing. I've come to rely on ChatGPT for help. So I wrote to ChatGPT: "I'm trying to remember the name of the stone that has the key to understanding a language." To which it replied: "You're likely thinking of the Rosetta Stone. It was crucial in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs because it featured the same text written in three scripts: Greek, Demotic, and hieroglyphic. The Greek text provided the key to understanding the other two scripts."

We need a BDG for Bluesky - 2024-12-03T16:27:08Z

I was very happy to see this post on Bluesky this morning from a friend, Matthias Pfefferle, who works at Automattic on the connection between WordPress and ActivityPub.

In his post he asks if there is a BDG for creating a PDS for Bluesky.

A BDG is a Busy Developer's Guide, something we did first for SOAP in 2001 when we were trying to figure out how to map XML-RPC onto it. Since then there have been lots of BDGs for all kinds of things. It's a useful concept because developers are often overly busy, so we need to get right to the problem before understanding all the theory behind it. We need an example that works, and we'll just do what it does. That also guarantees interop, which is the point of course.

Now we have a similar problem. Bluesky stores a user's writing in a PDS. If we can generate a PDS for our blogs, theoretically Bluesky should be able to see them and use them as if they were created inside Bluesky. If it were easy to understand we could get busy converting everything so it works there. We can do that because we're using popular simple formats like JSON (see below) to organize our work.

For example this is how I use JSON for my blog, the one you're reading right now.

• Here's a folder in a repository on GitHub. Broken down into years, months, days, and posts.
• Each post is a JSON file, like this. It has three bits of data, the text of the post, when it was created (which also serves as a unique ID, no two posts have the same creation date) and type. This item has a type of outline, because it can have structure, though this post does not.
• Here's another post that does have structure. In Bluesky it would be represented as a thread.

Here's the question. What's the absolutely simplest way to have that structure of posts represented in a Bluesky PDS?

PS: I had a conversation with ChatGPT to scope this out.

- 2024-12-02T14:09:46Z
WordLand is the easy editor that writers using WordPress always deserved. I updated the docs this morning to include very basic getting started stuff, and it now includes a link to a form where you can apply to be a tester. At this time it's limited to people who know how to write a bug report, how to find and read the JavaScript console in a web browser, and take a screen shot that shows clearly what went wrong. This the hardest part of getting a product fit for general use, and I'm too old to try to wrangle workable bug reports from well-intentioned users who basically aren't scientists. This time I'm determined to do this the right way without excess wear and tear on me. 😄

- 2024-12-01T20:16:20Z
The Big Interview with Dan Rather podcast is gold. Just listened to his interview with Steven Van Zandt of the E Street Band and the Sopranos. There are nine seasons of this podcast between 2013 and 2021. Going to keep me busy for a while. The RSS feed works.

- 2024-12-01T20:40:28Z
One way to help RSS-based podcasts is to promote individual episodes from the past. Sometimes shows are done, but the archive contains good stuff. Not everything is based on current events. Music, art, history for example. Also bring the feed out from hiding. At least the nerdy people should understand how this stuff works. One of the big crimes was when the browser makers tried to hide the feeds. I like to be able to lift the hood even if I don't understand what I'm looking at.

- 2024-12-01T21:37:15Z
I'm using the term "RSS-based podcasts" in place of "podcasts" to make sure whoever reads it knows to ask the question of other "podcasts," are you RSS-based? The best answer is to encourage YouTube et al to just connect their "podcasts" to RSS and everyone's happy. Like "organic cheeseburgers." :-)

- 2024-12-01T15:48:38Z
For the record, Bluesky has completely taken over from Threads. Threads is basically at zero, needs something to shake it up. Obviously this could be different for everyone. And engagement on Twitter is pretty close to zero. I still check there periodically because despite what people say a lot of people I follow still post there. And I do too, since cross-posting costs me nothing. And it has been pointed out that deleting your Twitter account comes with a fairly huge risk. And if you do it, I wouldn't announce it, because anyone apparently can claim your account once it is completely deactivated. And that could create some problems for you. Probably better to hold the account indefinitely.

- 2024-12-01T15:22:23Z
I've exported the data from Bingeworthy 2 in JSON and uploaded to a new public repo. It can be used to seed the ratings table for the updated instance.

- 2024-12-01T14:09:18Z
Welcome to the last month of Scripting News in the year 2024. Each year goes by faster and faster. And as we move forward in time, there's less room in front of us on the runway of life, and more behind us. At some point in the next decade my plane will probably take off. I feel a sense of urgency about getting it done. Still a fair amount on my todo list, but I'm making progress. As someone once said many times: Still diggin!

- 2024-12-01T14:11:36Z
And welcome to the time of year you can't remember what the day of the week is. For what it's worth today is Sunday. Feels like Monday?

- 2024-12-01T14:10:59Z
And here, for the record, is the archive for November. A relatively lite month, only 87K worth of text. The norm is about 120K.

I'd like to excerpt from and comment about three DW posts that he made over the past couple days.

• Jan 4, 2016 - Leave nothing but footprints
• Jan 4, 2016 - Why tech insiders must be on Facebook
• Jan 5, 2016 - Re Twitter easing the 140-char limit

Dave claims that he likes the open web, and he often rails against silos, such as Twitter and Facebook. In the summer of 2013, I discovered the #indieweb group via a poster mentioning the https://indiewebcamp.com in a comment to one of DW's posts. Maybe the word "silo" has been used for a long time to describe social media sites, but the term got popularized in my conscience by the Indieweb site.

I added #webmention support to my Junco code because of the Indieweb group. The Indieweb people "use" social media sites differently. They own their own domain names. They post articles and notes to their own blog sites. But rather than manually cross-posting their info their many social media presences, they use software that makes it appear that the Indieweb users are using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. just like everyone else, but that's not the true.

Indieweb users use software to post to other