Scripting News for 9/30/2006

NY Times: “Top House Republicans knew for months about e-mail between Representative Mark Foley and a former teenage page, but kept the matter secret.” 

Newsweek has a lengthy excerpt from Bob Woodward’s new book on the war in Iraq. I bought a copy at Amazon for delivery next week.  

Google News articles about Idiocracy. 

Closing line from the narrator in Magnolia: “We may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us.” 

The Beatles sing Ticket to Ride when it was new and they (and we) were young. This is why YouTube is great, even if they don’t make a trillion dollars. What memories. And what value.  

Word is getting around about Idiocracy, a movie written and directed by Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill), that opened only in a few cities at the beginning of the month. I heard a review of it this morning on NPR, they said it was great. I totally want to see it.  

Doc talks about a Vendor Management Systems, to balance the other side’s Customer Management Systems. I, of course, like. A prototype for this is a movie review system where I own and control my data. Today, I rate movies on Netflix and Yahoo, but I can’t get them to share the data with each other, so they make recommendations without info the other one has. If I had a place where I kept my movie ratings and gave each of them a pointer to it, they could read it and I would control the data. It would be very easy to set up, the technology is no trick at all. The hard part is getting enough users to do it this way to gain critical mass. This is also the idea behind Edgeio and Marc Canter’s People Aggregator. Open systems, users own the data, silos smell of sulfur. 

According to this (anonymous) guy, people like me are “destroying discourse in this country.” Or is it that I just know scripting and should stick to that? Or was yesterday’s political writing the best in a long time? 

Michael Markman: “History asks, ‘Where were the good Germans?’ I don’t want future history to ask, ‘Where were the good Americans?’” 

People are using this post of mine to say I support things that I don’t support. I was asking for an icon for validated OPML. An icon that would link to the validator. To link from HTML to an OPML version of the data behind the page, I generally use the white on orange XML icon, as I have for years, and I’m not going to change that. Hopefully that’s pretty clear. 

Scripting News for 9/29/2006

How Bush goes 

I seriously think my country has lost its mind. We’re getting the best wakeup call possible with the torture bill. We’re getting the warning, if we re-elect the Republican Congress, we deserve what we get.

However, it’s not up to me, it’s up to the Republicans. That’s the basic truth. If you love the Constitution, if you love this country, how can you support what Congress just did. I struggle to find something to say, but then there really is nothing left. If the Republican voters can’t figure this one out, we’re totally screwed.

I wonder if Bush will leave office at the end of his term. Someone should ask him that question and listen carefully to the answer. An unequivocal “yes” is the only acceptable answer. I don’t think he’s planning to leave. That’s what all this maneuvering is about. The next step will be they’ll find some American citizens who are terrorists, and Congress will vote that in time of war the President doesn’t need to charge them with anything to imprison them until the war is over. They can already put non-citizens, legal or illegal, in prison, indefinitely without charging them.

What’s next? How far is “economic terrorism” from Islamofascists? Not really very far at all. When McCain runs for President the immigration issue will be front and center. Use your imagination if you want to understand what the final solution will be. And you should worry. I don’t believe U.S. citizenship is any kind of protection.

We may be in the last moments of free speech in this country, unless we do something about it. It seems we still have a vote. I will vote against the Republicans, take that as a given. But that isn’t enough. We need people who voted Republican in past elections to stand with us, to vote them out, now, so we can begin the process of unwinding the mess we’re in.

I heard a talk by Joseph Biden earlier today. I think he’s got some interesting ideas. Might want to take a look at that, for something positive and constructive we can focus on. And yes, once there’s a new Congress, we can begin the impeachment process. That’s how Bush goes. We can’t wait for him to decide whether he wants to leave or not. It’s time for him to go.

An important life lesson 

I should probably do a Flickr illustration for this one.

Four years ago today: “One of the lessons I’ve learned in 47.4 years: When someone accuses you of a deceit, there’s a very good chance the accuser practices that form of deceit, and a reasonable chance that he or she is doing it as they point the finger.”

Yahoo opens its identity system 

Jeremy Zawodny links to Yahoo’s diminutively named Browser Based Authentication (or BBAuth).

If it’s easy to program, and delivers on what it says it does, this is a huge deal. Basically Yahoo is opening up their identity system, and user-data system, so developers can build on Yahoo as a platform. It’s a bit further than Amazon was willing to go with S3 (it has an identity system, but it’s not the same one that Amazon uses).

The Identity Gang folks are going to be talking about this for a long time to come. Now Google and Microsoft have to speak. I’m pretty sure they’re not going to federate with Yahoo. Will they?

Ryan Tate is “confused but interested.”

Wes Felter: “Google released the same thing a few months ago.”

Wikipedia as a tool for character assassination 

Seth Finkelstein: “For people who are not very prominent, Wikipedia biographies can be an ‘attractive nuisance’. It says, to every troll, vandal, and score-settler: ‘Here’s an article about a person where you can, with no accountability whatsoever, write any libel, defamation, or smear. It won’t be a marginal comment with the social status of an inconsequential rant, but rather will be made prominent about the person, and reputation-laundered with the institutional status of an encyclopedia.’”

I don’t believe in War On Terror 

I don’t believe in “War on Terror.” It’s a Republican code-phrase which is used to change the US from a republic with a strong foundation for freedom, into a Christian terrorocracy. The irony is of course that the terrorists are the ones who always invoke this idea of “War on Terror.” After the latest fiasco in Congress, we’re once again dependent on the courts to uphold our basic values. We’ve lost two branches of government. For now the executive appears to be respecting the courts. Key word there is “appears.” I have no idea what they plan next.

Daniel Conover: “Shame on us.”

Scripting News for 9/28/2006

Podshow raises another $15 million. Oy. 

JC: “What on earth Podshow is going to do with almost $25M in funding is anyone’s guess, but it’s not going to end well I can tell you that.” 

In other earth-shaking economic news, I bought a couple of chairs today. And a table. :-) 

New header graphic, taken in the living room at my old house in Woodside, CA. 

Interview with Ann Greenberg on the future of media.  

Now that Facebook is open, I have joined, and also started a group for Scripting News readers. Let’s have fun! 

Here’s a perfect description of the MacBook shutdown problem. It appears a lot of Mac users are dealing with this, yet there has been no public acknowledgment from Apple. The symptoms are now very well-known. It doesn’t cure itself, it only gets worse. I’ve reverted to using my Sony Vaio, which is really hard on my eyes. The MacBook shuts down so frequently, it’s become useless.  

Scripting News for 9/27/2006

Screen shot. Three days into the ad program at Techmeme, one of the advertisers, oDesk, has used their spot to announce something noteworthy, and it bought them more visibility, at least with me. The second just says Techmeme Sponsorship which seems a fair waste of the attention, why not say something about your company. The third does explain what the company does, but not very efficiently. Seems like people are still figuring this out, or the price isn’t so high that it’s worth much thought. If I had a slot there I’d be trying more ideas out, for sure.  

Scoble: “Find me the best blogs from Demo.” Ditto. 

Random idea — A BitTorrent device that plugs into your router (or maybe it is a router) that senses when you’re not using the net, and starts serving BT content. As soon as you start using the net, it goes offline.  

Steve Matthews: Top 10 Uses for RSS in Law Firms. 

I took the MacBook down to the Apple Store in Emeryville. The “genius” (no sarcasm) took a quick look at the machine and said they know what the problem is (he wouldn’t explain), and ordered a replacement part. I’ll have to leave the computer at the store for 4-5 days in about a week. Why I had to drive down there I don’t know. What would it be like to own a Mac where the Apple Store is a hundred miles away?  

Another dumb question. I have a Windows machine that’s misbehaving badly, but I think I can trick it into launching the Explorer, but I have to do it from the command prompt. But I’m stuck, cause I don’t know how to type the name of a directory that has a space in it. In other words, I want to CD to a directory called “FOO BAR” without the quotes of course. Is there a way to tell command.com to change to that directory? (Postscript: Two things made all the diff. 1. I switched from command to cmd. 2. And instead of launching the Explorer, which seems to be damaged in some way, I just used MS-DOS to copy the files to a backup disk. It took a couple of hours, but it’s done. Thanks for all the great advice!!) 

Martin Schwimmer says I’m right, the monkey is wrong. :-) 

Liz Gannes reports on Day 1 at Demo. 

Duncan Mackenzie is thinking about tags vs categories in blog posts.  

On this day in 2003, Doug Kaye added an RSS 2.0 feed with enclosures for IT Conversations. I wrote: “Hey we’re starting to get a (very small) installed base of interesting feeds that use the enclosures.” That’s how standards get created. Someone goes first, then someone goes second, compatibly. And so on. In this case, Doug was the “ratifier.” 

When I see this dialog I think it’s only talking about photos. But then I read it carefully and “albums” might refer to music. Is this the place where you lose all the music on the iPod if you click on Yes? I don’t see how it could be. And damn if I know what they’re talking about. I’ve never synced (is that a word) this iPod with a photo library or folder. I just use it for music.  

More on MacBook random shutdowns 

Via email from Tim Joransen…

“A coworker’s daughter had one with this problem. She had it sent in before she started college, but it happened again once she got to college. After a lot of stress and pushing Apple, they resolved it, by trading it up for a Mac Book Pro. So they spent more money, but they did get $200 off for having to do this. I guess the Apple tech person said they probably didn’t want to bother risking it continuing. Not a pretty picture for those it afflicts.

“His daughter loves the Mac Book Pro even better (bigger screen), but my friend isn’t too happy.”

Scripting News for 9/26/2006

Jeremy Zawodny on Yahoo’s Hack Day.  

Update on my restarting MacBook. It’s gotten much worse, to the point where the computer reboots every ten minutes. A few weeks ago I got some pointers from people saying that Apple is requesting people to bring their MacBooks into an Apple Store, so I called the store in Emeryville and was told they’ve never heard of the problem, and I should bring it in so a technician could look at it. So apparently Apple isn’t aware of the random restart problem. I don’t know if I should waste a trip down to the store, I know I can’t be without use of the laptop for any extended period of time. Not a happy situation. 

Eric Soroos had the same problem, after three weeks in service, his MacBook was fixed. He says at some level Apple is aware of the problem, if not at the retail level.  

Mike Kaltschnee has had two replacement Macs, still getting random restarts. He provides the range of defective serial numbers, my serial number is in the defective range. Guess it’s time to take it in. Surprising that the people at the store don’t know about this problem. Surprising that they’re still selling defective computers?  

Jason Calacanis reports that there are now mobile versions of all the Weblogs, Inc sites. 

Good luck to my buddy Robert Scoble on the launch of his new show, aptly named The Scoble Show. Go get em dude!! 

Why it’s been so quiet here the last couple of days — I’m furniture shopping with another good buddy, the world-famous Ponzi, of Gnomedex fame. She flew down from Seattle just for the occasion. She’s a really great person to do this with. We’re having a lot of fun! That’s why there’s a picture of a chair below, we call it The Million Dollar Chair. It’s really nice.  

 

A monkey is living in my old bedroom at my parents house. He’s typing random letters into a typewriter. In 1986 he typed the letters I, P, O, and D next to each other. He says I can sue Apple for trademark infringement. I say no way.  

Scripting News for 9/25/2006

Ray Ozzie named top Agenda Setter for 2006. 

Where the fcuk is Gastonia? I asked my friend from Gastonia. She says I answered the question with the question.  

Everyone’s writing about the new ads on Techmeme this morning, so I thought I’d come at it from a different angle. I’ve often wanted to buy a spot on Techmeme, when I have something to announce, and don’t want to wait for other people to point to it. I’d rather just pay a bit of money and get the idea displayed in the right margin. Not sure if it makes sense to buy a whole month. Will the sponsors actually have anything to say? We’ll find out. A month is a long time to fill. Also, I wish I had had a chance to bid on an ad, I wonder how Gabe decided who to offer it to, and how he set the price. Will the value of an ad on Techmeme go up or down next month or the month after? 

Scripting News for 9/24/2006

ConvergeSouth, Oct 13-14, Greensboro, NC. 

Russell Shaw digs into Apple’s history with the USPTO on trademark applicaitons for iPod and (gulp) iPodcast. This may explain why they’re being so aggressive.  

Check this out. Now Google is using my previous search results (and presumably choices) to find the results “most relevant to you.” Good move. Next step: Let me tell you where my blog is, and you can use that data too.  

Stewart Brand reviews Roomba. “It is perfect for bachelors of either sex who put off vacuuming chores for months.” 

More twists and turns in my iPod saga 

The commenters finally nailed the problem, I think. The DRM strategy of the iPod is getting in my way. Each iPod binds to one and only one desktop or laptop computer. Connecting to another is a no-no. That’s why it comes up as a read-only device when you plug it into a different computer. There are ways to hack around that, by copying an XML file from one machine to another, but that’s not too much help when the other machine is a few miles away, and aside from that, I don’t like to hack around that way because — dumb me — I actually paid for this stuff.

So I decided to move the machine. It was time to do it anyway. So now the old desktop is in the new house, I downloaded the weekend’s podcasts, some real good stuff, a few interviews with former President Bill Clinton, a Modern Love podcast from the NY Times, an all-star cast with Scoble, Malik and Arrington. Nice stuff for a walk on a Sunday afternoon. Only one problem. When I plug the iPod into the desktop, the original one, the one it used to like, it now acts like this is a foreign computer! Want to reformat the iPod, the Mac asks? No fucking way Jose. I like the iPod just the way it is, no thanks. But it insists. Sighhhh.

Okay, so this may seem a little subtle for people who are blinded by Mac devotion, but listen up. 1. I’m using these podcasts with the permission of the publishers. 2. I’m breaking no law. 3. I paid for the Mac and the iPod (quite a bit of money, I might add).

So, dear friends, is this really the best the industry can come up with for a podcast player? Perhaps some venture capitalist with a bit of guts, instead of dipping their big toe in the market (i.e. Odeo, Podtech, Podshow, et al) wants to go all the way and fund the development of a real podcast playing device? Give me a call if you want to pursue this. I have a few ideas.

Scripting News for 9/23/2006

Three years ago today: “Chris Lydon has been doing a series of audio interviews on his weblog at Harvard. There are already over 25 interviews, representing 40 separate MP3 files. The archive is nearly 300MB. It’s a perfect application for RSS enclosures.” 

My two cents on “podcast” 

Today is, in a sense, the three-year anniversary of podcasting. It wasn’t called podcasting then, but all the essential elements of what would become podcasting were in place. A regular show with a theme (Chris Lydon inteviewing people he finds interesting), a feed that has those shows as enclosures. The enclosures are in MP3 format. And a small number of aggregators that could do something interesitng with all that. A step down the road that would lead to podcasting.

When this became a juggernaut, almost exactly a year after the first Lydon feed, it desperately needed a name. Danny G came up with “podcast” and we liked it, so that was it, the decision was made, a “rough consensus” formed, and from then on we called what we were doing podcasting.

Now there’s no doubt that part of the reason that podcasting took off then and not in 2003 or 2002 or 2001 is that there was an iPod and it was a juggernaut. People were interested in portable media, and the iPod had everything to do with that. So it made sense to relate this new art to the iPod, even though what Leo says is totally true, our podcasts work on things other than iPods. In fact, I wonder why Apple or someone else hasn’t invested in making a device that is GREAT for listening to podcasts on the go, but that’s another subject altogether.

Apple has a legitimate concern if you look at it from their point of view. Although I am not a lawyer, it seems to me that iPod is an excellent trademark, it’s not descriptive, it’s a made-up word, until Apple came up with it, it meant absolutely nothing. So, from the start, it was a defensible trademark. Then it went through the lifecycle that most runaway successes do, commercial interests try to take advantage of the popularity of the mark and name their products relative to Apple’s, some leading to confusion, others not.

I think podcasting may create some confusion for the podcasters but not for Apple. No one confuses a podcast with an iPod, any more than car wax is confused with a car. And it’s totally explainable that a podcast works on other hardware, by saying that the computer industry makes stuff that works together. To think that today’s iPod isn’t the leader in the market is to be in denial. So all competitors are able to play content that works on Apple’s market leader. Emphatically, this is a good thing, and I feel no pity for Apple at being forced to be open, which is what podcasting forces them to be, like it or not.

I guess my take on it is this. I like the term podcasting because it causes people to find out where innovation really comes from. Apple has been coasting on other people’s work, as well as contributing their own, but they’re not very generous when it comes to sharing the credit. I’d be inclined to work with them on this, and other things, if they would be kind to us and our creations. Instead Apple sneers at the people who gave them this innovation, and sends demand letters to members of the community.

Maybe change is something Apple should contemplate? Maybe there’s a way of working with creative people outside their own company that creates a win-win, and a foundation for further innovation?

Scripting News for 9/22/2006

Paul Krugman on 9/21/04: “It’s hard to identify any major urban areas outside Kurdistan where the U.S. and its allies exercise effective control. Insurgents operate freely, even in the heart of Baghdad, while coalition forces, however many battles they win, rule only whatever ground they happen to stand on.” 

The math of anonymous discourse on the Internet. :-) 

Wired: “Apple Computer has slapped Podcast Ready with a cease and desist letter, claiming that the terms Podcast Ready and myPodder infringe on Apple’s trademarks.” 

A question about iPod that’s sure to get me flamed. :-) 

Jason Lefkowitz: “I do not agree that Microsoft has the right to ‘turn off’ my computer remotely if I’ve paid them for their OS, just because they don’t like a new piece of hardware I’ve slapped in.” 

Keith Veleba: “Like most ‘activation’ schemes, it’s a grave inconvenience to the honest folk, and no concern for the pirates, cause they’ve already broken it.” 

Jay Rosen says when he explains his NewAssignment.net to journalists, they predict, “If people do step forward to fund assignments, they will be interests with an agenda who only want results that support that agenda. Or they will be passionate believers in a cause who know the truth and won’t accept an account that differs. By taking their money you’re asking for trouble.” 

BusinessWeek: “Google and Yahoo at times passively profit from click fraud and, in theory, have an incentive to tolerate it.” 

Salon: “If one good thing can come from our country’s apparent decision to legalize torture, perhaps we can finally agree to kill off the ‘Myth of the Independent Republican Senators.’” 

Today is OneWebDay. Yaaay web. Go team! 

No doubt the Apple zealots are going to flame me for this 

But I swear I can’t figure out how to copy some podcasts onto my iPod so I can listen to them on my daily walk.

Details. I hosed my Sansa by copying a 2GB folder on it. Now it just loops endlessly, refreshing the database, restarting, refreshing the database, restarting, until the battery runs down. I’ve been emailing with their tech support people, to no avail. The device won’t respond to updating the firmware. I’ve tried all the magic incantations. Sansa == dead.

So back to Plan B. Try to use the iPod. It’s plugged into my MacBook, not my desktop which is a few miles away at the old place. No problem, I have it configured for manual updating. But here’s the rub, when I drag an MP3 file onto the “Dave’s iPod” icon, in iTunes or the Finder, nothing happens. No file gets copied. I tried everything I could think of, honestly, so go ahead and flame me for being dumb, because I can’t make this easy to use software do what it was designed to do.

Message to readers: Helllp!

Where do you want to go today? 

I had an exceptionally unpleasant experience installing Windows on my ThinkPad yesterday. I answered all the questions it asked, entered the long registration string from the back of the package, but then the OS refused to boot, saying that I had installed it too many times. I could re-enter the number (which I tried, same result) or call a phone number. So I called. On the other end of the line was a robot, of course I was talking to the same piece of software that already said no, so it wasn’t a surprise when I got the same result. You’ve installed the software too many times. So I hit the O button on my phone. Nothing happened. I hit it again, and again. Finally a voice with an Indian accent comes on the phone mumbling so I can’t make out what he’s saying. I guess that he wants me to read him the number, so I did, and this seemed to make him happy until I got about half way through it, then the line went dead, and a minute or so later another Indian voice comes on saying “How can I help you sir?” So I explain, again, he responds, not mumbling, and we get through it, and no surprise, it doesn’t work. He says that I’ve installed it on too many computers. I explain for the third time that I paid for the software, got it just that day, installed it on exactly one computer (which I might add, already had a valid Windows license, so they got paid twice for this machine). I guess there was something in my voice that sounded sincere, and they give the guys in India some discretion because he gave me a number, that I entered, it worked, and the software is running. Needless to say if the computer needs a fresh install of the OS I’m surely hosed.

Straight talk 

John McCain wants to be President.

The last thing he would do is cross the current President, because that might mean he doesn’t get to be the next President.

So when he “fought” the President and then made peace with the President, they were obviously just doing photo ops for TV ads they’re going to run next month that explain how American democracy runs just great with Republicans running the Senate and House as well as the White House. They were also shooting commercials for McCain’s primary campaign which I guess has already started.

So John McCain is some different kind of Republican?

Nahhh. El Diablo. Capitol Hill smells of sulfur.

Scripting News for 9/21/2006

Doc went to the Berkman Thursday meeting this evening.  

Steve Williams, Digg: “If we could look in the head of the page to find the corresponding mobile-friendly page, we’d be ecstatic.” 

Dan Farber: “Mary Jo Foley has been a persistent thorn in Microsoft’s side for more than 10 years.” 

Mike Arrington says he knows who the anonymous blogger, Dead 2.0, is, but he hasn’t told the rest of us. It could be a good thing for the tech blogosphere to put a name to this person, might make people think again before taking cheap shots if they could end up being responsible for what they say.  

MP3 of yesterday’s NewsHour interview with General John Abizaid about the war in Iraq, from the NewsHour podcast feed. 

My inner-cynic has figured out what’s going on with the “debate” about torture in the Sentate. It’s so obvious, I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. The Republicans are about to lose Congress, at least partially because the electorate has come to realize how dangerous it is to have the executive and legislative branches both controlled by the same party. Solution — show the President having an argument with three of his staunchest supporters. Fake controversy. Voila. Extra benefit — it distracts the press and the public from the awful news from the Iraq. Challenge to the Dems, get the focus back on Iraq, asap.