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Dave Winer - Scripting.com

Scripting News - 2017-06-29T03:29:21Z

- 2017-06-28T18:55:28Z
davecast.org is something new to try out. It works like the Slack group without the need to be approved or log in. It's real time. No need to refresh. And it's also brand-new, so it will certainly have bugs. 🍄

- 2017-06-28T17:06:38Z
This is a test. For the next sixty seconds this station will conduct a test of the weblog testing system. This is of course not an emergency. So hang out and count your blessings! ☀️

- 2017-06-28T16:30:31Z
Re the opening scene of Fargo season 3. They say it's an homage to The Trial by Franz Kafka. Okay then. Very interesting analysis. Thanks to Jim Grinsfelder for the pass-along.

- 2017-06-28T14:49:30Z
How tweets are represented in the Scripting News feed

- 2017-06-28T14:00:37Z
Instead of Trump growing to fill the presidency, he's shrinking the presidency to fit Trump.

- 2017-06-28T14:02:40Z
So Phil Jackson is finally gone. Now to find a replacement for Dolan. A consolation prize for DJ Trump? Bloomberg? Jeff Bezos?

Reporters don't dumb it down - 2017-06-28T20:56:26Z

I'm a daily listener to the Daily podcast.

It's so frustrating when a reporter they interview spends a couple of minutes not explaining.

"It's too complicated for your listeners to understand," the reporter might say. What a waste. You could use the time instead explaining what's going on. Some people might not understand, and some would. With the approach they use, no one understands. Some is better than none, don't you think?

And people who read the Times are smart. Don't you all know that?

Knicks humor - 2017-06-29T03:29:21Z

- 2017-06-27T12:33:54Z
Good morning outliner users! 🐄

- 2017-06-28T02:16:51Z
Lawrence O'Donnell says that the Repubs would have only gotten 5 votes for their Un-Obama-Care bill. 5 votes. F-I-V-E. 1-2-3-4-5. Just 5. Not 50. Five.

- 2017-06-27T15:52:29Z
We have a huge challenge in the US, not just to re-establish rule of law, but also to figure out what it means to have an open society and not be vulnerable to the abuse we took in 2016.

- 2017-06-27T13:40:16Z
Braintrust question: Best way to monitor system load on Ubuntu?

The last day for Fargo - 2017-06-27T12:39:52Z

According to Dropbox today is the last day to use Fargo.

A frequently asked question: How do I export my outlines? It's a trick question. You don't. They are sitting in your Dropbox folder in a standard open format, supported by any reasonable outliner. They will still be there tomorrow after Fargo stops working.

BTW, it couldn't hurt to copy them out of your Dropbox folder into a backup somewhere. Better safe than sorry. 🐱

A reminder, they changed the API, and today is the last day the old version of the API works. I decided not to maintain Fargo, so when the old API is turned off Fargo will stop working.

If you like the outliner in Fargo, it's available in another package, LO2. The outliner is also available as open source, so if you want, perhaps you can get another developer to make it work with Dropbox.

Fargo is a great product, but what I hoped would happen with it, has not happened. It is tightly integrated with the Dropbox platform, which has not taken off as a developer ecosystem. I wish it had, but the fact is that it hasn't. At some point you have to cut your losses. That's part of development too.

Still diggin!

New strategy for Twitter/Facebook metadata - 2017-06-27T22:09:04Z

The way this blog works doesn't fit into the way Twitter and Facebook do metadata. I knew this would happen with the Old School redesign, because I am immersed in their worlds. Basically every day has the same big image. That sucks because the image has nothing to do with what's being pointed to. They designed their metadata for a model that does not fit my blogging style. For a while I changed my style to accomodate them. But as you know I don't do that anymore. Now I am myself and if they don't like it, etc.

Anyway, I was including an image that never changed in the metadata. Not only did this screw up Twitter and Facebook, but it also screwed up other apps that read their metadata. Like Slack and apparently Feedly.

So I nuked the image.

It's still at the top of the home page of my blog. But it's not in the metadata. Let's try that for a while and see if it makes things better. It'll probably break something else. That's how this stuff works. Or doesn't.

"It's even worse than it appears."

To future-of-news people - 2017-06-27T21:37:00Z

I sent an email this morning to several friends who I think of as future-of-newsers. People whose opinions I have high regard for, and who care about the future of news. The topic, the future of blogging. This is what I wrote...

I have a feeling the tech blogosphere has a chance to reboot now...

Which begs the question -- what is a blog?

http://scripting.com/2014/06/27/iKnowWhatABlogIs.html

We need a reboot of the blogosphere. It's not that every blog has so much value, but some do. Think of the 2008 financial crisis and the blogs and podcasts that were born out of that. The same should be happening now. I'm sure it is, we just have to find it.

We have a huge challenge in the US, not just to re-establish rule of law, but also to figure out what it means to have an open society and not be vulnerable to the abuse we took in 2016.

The solution is not going to come from Twitter or Facebook. The big news orgs are good at channeling leaks, but not new ideas. Quite the opposite, they're desperately trying to cling to the sensibility of the World Before Trump.

Anyway, the first step imho is to understand that we have a way out. We just have to decide to use it. That means getting over the idea that journalism and blogging are the same thing. As long as we believe that, there really isn't any hope. (Imho of course.)

Because the circumstances are so dire, it's a very exciting time to have new ideas, because there's a small chance they might take hold. When everything is "normal" the chance for innovation isn't so great.

There's no action item here, other than listen for a stranger with great ideas and when you hear one, tell everyone about what you heard. The ideas must be out there now. We just have to turn in their direction. I think that's how this works.

With much love,

Dave

Handmaids in Washington - 2017-06-27T18:32:06Z

Facebook a.k.a. The Moral Parade - 2017-06-27T13:05:35Z

Facebook is about the news, in a weird way.

Each bit of news potentially fires up a moral parade, where people recite prepared speeches.

Often the speeches begin explaining how what someone said is like this other thing, then basically recites a canned story for that thing.

You could give each story a number, and just type the number. The computer (Facebook) could then get the text and insert it into the comment for you. Discourse could happen much faster.

Eventually Facebook could predict what you'll say and just say it for you. Like the self driving cars Google is making. You'd sign onto Facebook and see in your notification drop down menu "You have commented on Betty Fird's post."

You could read it if you like, but eventually you will know that Facebook correctly stated your opinion.

Originally appeared as a post on Facebook two years ago today.

- 2017-06-26T12:20:05Z
Good morning students and teachers! 🍏

- 2017-06-26T19:40:58Z
This is the human side of Health care is socialist.

- 2017-06-27T03:51:56Z
Scripting News on Aug 28, 2014. I've been digging around in Fargo's CMS, looking at all the different ways it renders content, all from outlines.

- 2017-06-26T18:10:04Z
Interesting Politico piece posits that Trump acts as if he's mayor of the United States. If NYC is his model, that mayor is esp powerless, because the governor of the state also has a lot of power over the city. It's approx 1/2 of the population of the state, and probably much more than 1/2 of the money. For example, the MTA, which runs the buses and subway, is run by the state, not the city.

- 2017-06-26T18:05:02Z
Brent asks if the length in enclosures in RSS-in-JSON is a number or string. That's what the test podcast below is for.

- 2017-06-26T17:29:33Z
From time to time I have to do a podcast to test things out. This is one of those times. Let's see what happens.

- 2017-06-26T15:26:03Z
Body shaming is wrong no matter who you're using as the example. Someone is being hurt by this. No, I don't care how much you have suffered.

- 2017-06-26T13:24:16Z
I need an app to view RSS feeds in the browser because Chrome and Safari refuse to let me do that. I'd love to hear the reason why.

Subscribable feed lists give power to users - 2017-06-26T12:24:36Z

An interesting comment from Chris Aldrich about subscribing to lists of feeds in a thread on the Woodwind app site on GitHub.

Here's the basic idea. There's a difference between importing OPML into a reader and subscribing to it. The latter is very powerful, for the user, but a lot of RSS reader devs may not want their users to have that much power. It's not a very hard feature to implement.

The idea has been much-discussed here. We call them reading lists. Michael Arrington even wrote a TechCrunch piece about it in 2005.

Subscribable OPML is something all my readers have been able to do through an OPML feature called inclusion. I wrote a howto for a River5 user re inclusion just last week.

Share Your OPML was a service I operated for a while. It made it possible to manage your OPML separate from the reader you used. It was meant to encourage readers to support subscribable OPML. I'm looking for an excuse to bring it back, but first we need a base of shared feed lists.

A lot of good stuff can be done if feed readers are willing to delegate list management to other services. IMHO the only reason a reader developer wouldn't do it is because they want to lock users in. If I let you edit your feed list elsewhere that means you could give the list to another vendor and have a choice which to use. It's really something users should demand, esp if you're paying for the service.

- 2017-06-25T12:27:31Z
Good morning Internet guzzlers! 🍺

- 2017-06-25T12:43:06Z
So glad I stopped worrying about Facebook and am now blogging Old School style on scripting.com. I've found my sea legs once again.

- 2017-06-25T12:56:23Z
Dan Shafer died. I knew Dan from the Mac developer community in the 80s, hired him to write the first docs for Frontier. Bon voyage mi amigo! 💥

- 2017-06-25T12:29:24Z
Money was a big issue yesterday in the nascent tech blogosphere. First, you do this because you love it, not because it pays well. (It doesn't pay at all.) Now I'd like to take you back to a discsussion that was had many years ago that resulted in this conclusion. You don't make money from this work, but it leads to opportunities where you can make money. Ideas and information make their way to you and if you are so-inclined you can make money by investing in those ideas. No sure things, but some bloggers have made billions, and others have made millions. And others have made a decent living. Not from their blog but because they blog.

- 2017-06-25T12:32:31Z
In 2015 I wrote that Dropbox could be the king of the one-page app. Because storage is the thing the web doesn't, on its own, do, and storage is the thing Dropbox does best. And they have an API, and they understood the connection to one-page-apps earlier than anyone. But it didn't happen. I've emailed with people at Dropbox from time to time and the best explanation I can come up with is that they are focused in different areas. It seems to me, from my outside perch, that they are trying to become a competitor to Google's and Microsoft's Office products. I was hoping they'd become a platform, focusing on distribution and investment in startups.

Code mode is for real - 2017-06-25T15:53:13Z

- 2017-06-24T14:57:01Z
Good morning sports fans! 🏈

- 2017-06-24T20:50:06Z
Health care is socialist is getting a bunch of new reads today thanks to some powerful RTs.

- 2017-06-24T18:34:44Z
Today is emoji day ⭐️ on Scripting News. We have all the ⭐️ best emoji. And they're free, for you, the best ⭐️ people in the universe, the readers of ⭐️ this humble blog. ⭐️

- 2017-06-24T18:20:20Z
It makes sense that because of reconcilliation Repubs have a hard time repealing ObamaCare. It seems fair that you should have to have 60 votes to repeal something that required 60 votes to pass. How will they explain it to the voters they've been lying to about "repeal and replace." Double-talk. Swamp-talk. 👍

- 2017-06-24T18:05:49Z
I've started a chatroom on Gitter. Not sure what I'll use it for. Also not sure if it's open for anyone to join. I want it to be. The community guidelines apply. Keep it short, respectful and on-topic, and no spam. ⚾️

- 2017-06-24T15:19:17Z
BTW, don't ask me to pitch RSS, I won't do it, because the request is based on a misunderstanding. RSS is not a product, it's a format. I have never made a dime from it. You have as much at stake in its success as I do. So I always turn it around and ask the person who asked me for a pitch to instead pitch me on it. I don't budge on this. Ever. 🏀

- 2017-06-24T15:01:10Z
Is anyone using the JSON version of the Scripting News feed in their feed reader? It's a bit of a trick question, in a way, because as far as I know, only River5 and Electric River support this format. If so, send me an email at my address, on the About page here. 🍰

- 2017-06-24T05:50:50Z
Journalists keep making a serious technology error -- assuming the only damage Russia can do to our government is during elections. 🇺🇸

- 2017-06-24T14:26:32Z
I get my health insurance through the ACA. It's very much alive, Spicer. Without it I would not have health insurance. 🍋

The sad state of tech news in 2017 - 2017-06-24T13:43:48Z

It won't take much to reboot the tech blogosphere, just a few bloggers with ideas who listen to each other and want to work with each other. That was the idea behind blogrolls, to visibly show the relationships.

• I'm still thinking about how to integrate a blogroll with the new design of Scripting News. I pushed everything aside to get a clean look for the new site. I want to avoid bringing it all back.

So, we have a few people who are writing and listening. That's a needed first step. Next we need a way to announce and hear about new tech products. Not just ones that get VC backing or come from big companies. We already hear about those products through TechMeme and the pubs that contribute to it. We also have platform-specific news about tech products, it's more limited, but it's there.

It will likely start with word of mouth among the bloggers. If Richard is using a product and speaks highly of it, I'm likely to take a look. Especially if he says it fits into what I'm doing through the open formats my software already supports.

Then I want a river, a place where I can go to find out quickly what's new, in the way of products, not BigCo bluster or another $250 million VC deal. I want to know what my peers are doing. So I can learn from them, and so we can make our products work with theirs.

Work together is a phrase you'll hear me use a lot. It's the potential of tech, but it often isn't the attitude of tech. Even the smallest most independent developers dream of dominating. You can't work with people who dominate, even if they win.

I want to hear about products that are open to connecting to mine.

There have been times, often defined by news sources, that have created huge swells of compatible technology. To name a few: InfoWorld, PC WEEK, MacWEEK, TechCrunch. Very fond memories of the communities that gathered around each of those.

It's time for another. The opportunity is there. It's been a long time since we had an open development community that worked to create great new user experience without lockin. It's like riding a bicycle or swimming, you don't forget how to do it. And like tennis or baseball, you can't play without partners and competition.

Republican-inspired art - 2017-06-24T14:52:32Z

- 2017-06-23T11:50:48Z
Thank you Om for the tweet-love. ❤️

- 2017-06-23T16:02:34Z
An idea worth RT'ing: "A site people could go to, fill in some info about themselves, and find out how much they would lose under the Repub plan."

- 2017-06-23T13:52:38Z
githubpub is a Node app that serves from GitHub repositories.

- 2017-06-23T14:52:02Z
Fix for the Scripting News RSS feed: we now process glossary entries and emoji short codes. The net effect is that text shortcuts like RSS will be expanded as well as 👏 emoji 👏, in the feeds. As they say, still diggin!

- 2017-06-23T11:52:59Z
So many thoughts today begin with -- If the Dems only had their shit together.

- 2017-06-23T11:53:24Z
If the Dems only had their shit together, we would be mobleizable to knock on neighbor's doors this weekend with pre-written talking points. "Did you know that you could will lose your health insurance if the Republicans have their way?"

- 2017-06-23T11:47:33Z
Repubs who consider voting for the repeal of Medicaid and the ACA should fear the hellfire they will face when they run for re-election. This weekend is the time to make your feelings felt.

#rss