Turkeys in my back yard. I shot this through a window, unfortunately when I went outside to get a clearer picture they turned and ran away. I wasn't going to hurt them.#

A friend asked me now that it's over what do I think of Game of Thrones. She hasn't watched the show, but knows that I did. I don't have a ready answer. Here's an analogy. What do I think of San Francisco? I lived in the Bay Area for a long time, and for a very short time I lived in the city (on Broadway). There are some things that are incredible about it, the weather down the peninsula is about as perfect as weather can be about eight months a year. Food is excellent. Lots of smart people. I had a lot of very positive experiences there. But the traffic is awful and you always have to be prepared for an earthquake, and I've lived through one, and didn't like it. People are obsessed with money, I find that dull, which is probably the main reason I left. I've been watching GoT for a long time. It's impossible to say what I think of it. It's a thing. It's like asking me what I think of a close relative, perhaps one who just died. #

Now I think the best season finale ever was Six Feet Under. The show wasn't pretentious, in fact its point was to make mundane the most dramatic thing that happens to each of us. So the ending was an ending and nothing more. I'm not going to spoil it here. I think there needs to be a site where you can keep your watching history and you can write things like this with enough metadata so it knows not to show it to you if you haven't seen the finale of the show I'm writing about. Maybe in Internet 4.0. #

The only show that I can think of that didn't punt on the ending was Mad Men. The end was a surprise, but someone I knew had guessed it. It was clever and satisfying. The Sopranos ending was almost a pure punt (we did find out the ending for a few characters in the last episode). Unlike a lot of people -- I liked the ending. I also liked the ending of Lost. Someday someone will do a show (like Seinfeld duh) that disclaims up front to be about nothing, therefore the finale, by definition will be nothing. I guess that was also Newhart. I didn't watch either of them. #

Video of the last scene in Mad Men.#

One of the best things I read about GoT was in a Facebook post. Maybe you can read it. I'm not going to port it. Not my job. :-)#

GoT spoiler. NakedJen do not read. The sanest ending for GoT would be Khaleesi doesn't destroy Kings Landing. She takes the throne. (Keep the end of Cersei and Jaime.) She marries Jon Snow, and he takes up sculpting or pottery, maybe farming and bends the knee. Everyone relaxes and has a good time.#

Nancy Pelosi: It's time to get out every gun you have and fire it. Because you're about to lose all of them. You have to wake everybody up and say listen, this is it, after this point we do not have a government. #

What CJ would say to Pelosi: "The fall is gonna kill you." #

GoT fans, you must watch this alternate ending to series. #

Once a long time ago I wrote on this blog that we should have fewer humans, and the rage it provoked was awesome, and imho totally wrong. As we consume the life-sustaining ability of our planet, if we had fewer people, we'd consume it at a slower rate. I don't think there's any great reason to overpopulate the planet, esp when we're so resource-constrained. BTW, I'm a mystic, i.e. I believe in the mystery of it all. :-) #

BTW, I did an image search for WTF on this blog and the results were interesting.#

I picked some of this up on impulse and it's great on everything. I imagine I'll get tired of it, but for now. #

I want to buy a cool exercise bike for home. I like the idea of taking virtual trips, and that there be inclines and declines. But I'm pretty sure I don't want to do cycling classes. Any recommendations? #

So many things to say about the last episode of Game of Thrones, but I don't believe that was actually the last episode. 💥#

If you are pro-choice, as I am, focus your ire on people who vote for abortion restrictions. That's how we should divide ourselves. This isn't just a battle for women's rights, it's much broader than that. We need to unite, not divide. Keep that in mind when you post something clever that further divides us. You're doing someone else's work there, someone who is very much opposed to you and your values. #

I haven't watched season 2 of Fleabag yet. The reviews are incredible. The first season was great. #

This piece really resonated with me. So many good points. When a project catches on the work really changes. And the difference between this kind of creative work, and say writing music, is that software is used not just listened to. Another thing I've noticed is that people who come along and build off your open work expect you to step aside when they want to take over. This is a big disconnect, I create the software because I want to build on it, not to create a lifestyle for you, though I don't mind if you do that, that's why I made it open. But don't ever expect the originator of a project to step aside. That's a bug in your thinking. I've also noticed that the people who want to take over rarely have any original ideas other than they want to take over (and of course that's not original). #

When people I follow blame a group based on race, gender, age, sexuality, I unfollow immediately without a second thought.#

The town of Woodstock, where I live, is working on a law to limit short-term vacation rentals. When I was shopping for a house here, I used the AirBnBs. But now that I own property here, I have conflicted views. I understand the reason they want the law is to have more housing available for full-time residents to rent. #

I ran a poll yesterday asking what people expect from the GoT finale, tomorrow night. FWIW, I expect to be satisfied. They aren't going to pull any punches in the finale. They had something great last week, and they're going for the kill this week. I expect to be blown away. #

A good afternoon song (no hidden meaning).#

Look at what the AG is doing now. He's going to change the rules so the Mueller investigation is retroactively illegal. I bet they put some FBI people on trial. That'll completely put an end to investigations. In their calculations, people who work in government have to decide who they fear most, Trump or what comes after Trump.#

Poll: "Thinking of famous series finales, Sopranos, Deadwood, Six Feet Under, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Lost. Will the end of Game of Thrones give resolution, or will it leave you wanting more?"#

Suppose the worst person in the world has a great idea, but you aren't listening because you don't like this person. In normal times you would be the main loser. But if the idea could help us avert the climate or constitutional meltdowns, we all lose because of your pride. That's why I try to listen to smart people even if it hurts my ego.#

Resist efforts to divide us. When people say that a certain class of people, based on age, race or gender, is responsible for something bad, it probably isn't true. If it isn't and you perpetuate the lie, you're doing Trump's work, and you should stop doing that. #

My auto insurance company wants me to try a new app that will rate my driving safety using GPS and motion detector in my iPhone. What they don't say is if it will affect my insurance rates. #

Idea for a web app. A URL shortener that sanitizes and beautifies the writing on the page before displaying it. I often won't point to interesting stories because the HTML in the page is so obscene. Example. I thought Charles Barkley had some wise words for Kristaps Porzingis, worth passing on. I apologize in advance for the BS on that site. #

BTW, this is what the post above looks like in my reader. It can be much better. I'm taking a look at this now. #

Also, this is what it looks like in the Chat tab.#

Quick podcast. All you need to know about Game of Thrones. #

I wonder if anyone named their dog Alexa, and if any hilarity ensued thus.#

You know that old story about how first they came for the immigrants, but I wasn't an immigrant so I didn't worry about it? That's a good way to view the news from Alabama, imho.#

Yesterday Howard Weaver, a long-time friend, journalist, asked "What is an open identity server?" I was able to answer the question in a tweet. Briefly it's the part of Twitter that knows you're @howardweaver and I'm @davewiner. I need that in my software too. Rather than build my own, and make users establish a new "identity" for my apps, e.g. -- Little Outliner, I just use Twitter's. That's the open part.#

Syrio Forel: There is only one god, and His name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death: not today.#

I used to sit in my hot tub in Calif, looking up at the live oak trees, and tried to convince myself that I owned them. I said to one tree, "I own you." The tree laughed: "You just got here. I have been here a hundred years, and I will be here hundreds more after you're gone."#

One of my reasons for moving to the country was to have a real kitchen and to re-learn basic cooking. I used to love preparing meals. Last night I hit a milestone. A very simple dish, broccoli, carrots -- cooked lightly, then lightly covered in olive oil, soy sauce and Sriracha, over rice. Just perfect. Previous iterations were basically edible. Working my way up to a full dinner for guests, maybe by Thanksgiving. But for now I'm happy to be eating well. Living in NYC made it too easy to order delicious food that was too greasy and too much and made me unhappy. #

I'm watching the HBO miniseries Chernobyl. The USSR had a lid on leaks, but the world was figuring out what was going on because the radiation spread far outside the USSR. There was huge fear that this was the end of everything. I don't recall how we survived. #

I made the davefeedread package a little more robust. Under some circumstances the lower-level feedparser package will return a length for an enclosure of "None". This is not what my apps were expecting and as a result we missed a bunch of podcasts due to errors. Zero is much easier to handle, and there really is no correct value if the length is omitted, since it is required by RSS 2.0. But what can you do -- this is the real world, and it happens. Examples -- Radio Lab, Here's the Thing. I added a simple workaround. If the value is None, we set it to 0. Result: More podcasts to listen to. 💥 #

Twitter is a great open identity server. I use it in all my apps. If they added simple storage, we'd be looking at a new world of networked apps. This was Jack Dorsey's original idea for Twitter as a platform, btw.#

I gave in and ordered an Amazon Echo. No more WAMC in the morning. And whatever else comes along with the Echo. I welcome Jeff Bezos new overlord of my home.#

You have no idea how strange it was to see Jay Rosen in a comedy skit on Samantha Bee's show. If you had asked me to predict the probability that I would see that in my lifetime, I would have said infinitesimal, such a small number it's impossible to measure. Life is strange. And when people say things like "We all know X" -- remember this story. You never really know for sure what can happen. #

Someone please do an explainer on "Constitutional Crisis" because I'm not sure people get how serious it is. #

I searched for a 76ers logo this morning to decorate a post on my blog. Now everywhere I go on the web they think I'm a fan of the team. I'm a Knicks fan you suckers. Fuck off. #

I watched last night's Game of Thrones instead of Game 7 of the playoff series between Toronto and Philadelphia. No regrets, I had more invested in the GoT story than the story of either of the NBA teams, though I do have a thing for the Sixers and respect the hell out of the Raptors. When I came out from GoT the first thing I checked was the NBA schedule, and I could see that Toronto had won. But, like everyone else, I was struck to learn how they won. So many stories in this fantastic photo, taken while the stars of the both teams wait to see if the at-the-buzzer shot would go in. It would bounce four times before they knew the result. So much pent up energy in this, one of the greatest sports pictures of all time. Wonderful. #

Maybe FB should be broken up. The identity system (with storage) becomes an ICANN-like thing, and everything else is a for-profit company.#

My mother was in my dreams last night. I remember one part. She's in the other room lying down reading, something she did a lot, and for some reason I called her on the phone. We hadn't spoken in a long time. She said "an angel is calling" in a very sentimental way. She never said stuff like that. This morning I wonder maybe I was the one who died? Happy Mother's Day mom, where ever you are, or where ever I am. ❤️#

If you need reading glasses and use a computer, these are great, because they are multifocus. Good for reading the screen (medium distance) as well as up-close.#

New feature in the chat tab, permalinks. If you roll your mouse over the time, next to the author's name, you'll see it's a link. Click the link to get to a page with just that item on it. It's a permalink to the story page for the item. That means you can point to a comment the same way you'd point to a blog post. It will continue to work even after there's a rollover of the chat stream (a fresh start that I'll do periodically). However story pages will not survive moderation, so this isn't a place to write a blog post. Respect the comment guidelines. 💥#

Doc Searls has an interesting idea. Ask the big search engines to add another category to search -- Podcasts. That would help make clear that podcasts are a thing of the web.#

I haven't listened to a podcast in two weeks, not even the Daily podcast. I plan to come back. But right now I'm reading an audiobook about Robert Moses and how power works. I had read it a long time ago, before I knew much about power myself. It's interesting in new ways at the other end of my life. 💥#

Mother's Day could benefit from being split in two, one holiday for people whose mothers are alive and one for those who aren't. For the latter, it would be a time of reflection and forgiveness. Holding on to the lessons and the love, and letting the other stuff go.#

In 1985, Apple did something bold and brave with the Mac, they included networking with every Mac they made. This meant that if the APIs were easy for developers to adopt, to build on, the Mac would have gotten a huge wave of Mac-only networking software. There's no doubt that in my mind that the web would have booted up on the Mac, possibly years before it did on the NeXT platform. But the Apple networking APIs were impenetrable, so only a few developers, who probably secretly got help from Apple, or who were especially good at reverse-engineering APIs, managed to break through. Too bad, because when the web finally came along in the early 90s it didn't have a GUI, it wasn't WYSIWYG, and since this was the basis of Mac software, it's why Apple was slow to adapt to the web, even if their developers, now liberated from Apple's lock-in, rushed to adapt and led the early web. Apple definitely benefited from their decision to build-in networking, but they could have hosted the web, and we all would have gotten the benefit of the Mac user interface. The web would be very different, and imho much better. This should be a lesson for Facebook. If they bend down to be part of the web instead of casting the web aside, long-term they'll own a huge share of the growth that comes from lots of independent developers working alongside them. #

Things have really changed politically in our country, but it doesn't feel that way. Maybe each of us should take responsibility for changing something really big about ourselves, how we present ourselves to the world, to mark the change so we all feel it more.#

We need Facebook to have competition from independent developers. Breaking it up organizationally or financially won’t help. Breaking their lock-in will.#

When I was a kid, my parents rented a ski house with a few other families in Great Barrington. We'd go up there via the Taconic Parkway, and would exit at Route 23, and that's where the Chief Diner is. I bet my brother and I, when we saw the diner, begged our parents to stop. It was the middle of the night (or so it felt to me, then) and they must've been tired. Kids are a pain in the ass. Anyway, I was driving on 23 today and passed the diner, remembered it from childhood, so I stopped and took a couple of pictures. #

People say Tuca and Bertie is the next level of Bojack Horseman and it is that for sure. For example, in T&B there are people and animals, as in Bojack, but plants also have intelligence and speak and have legs and can walk and go places (and are teenagers). Also they include little bits of non-animated human stuff in it. And the snarky Easter eggs are even better. But it's also got a bit of Studio Ghibli in it and trippy Spirted Away type stuff. I love the actors. I'm only on Episode 4 and savoring every moment.#

I've been saying this for many years -- I wish as part of the publicity materials for shows, movies, even products, they produced standalone images that have a transparent background, like this one for Bojack. I love putting them in the right margin when I'm writing about your product. It's good for you. #

I use Facebook the same way I use Exxon. I need their product to get where I want to go. I don’t like what the products do to the ecosystem or the crazy attitude of the people who run the companies. But I don’t have any power over that.#

Tuca and Bertie is changing my life. #

At least we know one leading Democrat won't compromise. Elizabeth Warren said it so clearly last night on MSNBC. Our moment of compromise will come when we are forced to take a loyalty oath to Trump. You may be sure you won't do it, but in the moment you will have a conundrum as to whether or not you sign the pledge.#

New chat feature. Ted posted a chat message yesterday that I didn't see for many hours. Not good. Disqus used to send me an email message when a new comment is posted. So I added that feature here. I now get an email when a message is posted. So I should be responding more quickly, if I have a response that is. 🚀#

Meddled is the wrong word for what the Russians did to the 2016 election. The proper word is hacked. The Russians hacked the 2016 election. I'm a longtime software developer and know what hacking is. This was hacking.#

Paul Krugman has been writing for decades about how Repubs are wrong and hypocritical about economics. He's very persuasive and of course I totally agree. Now the Dems have been wrong too, also for decades, about not standing up to the Repubs breaking our system of government. At every step they choose to ignore and overlook instead of investigating and fighting. It happened regarding torture in Iraq, the financial crisis, the Merrick Garland nomination, etc. It'd be interesting if Krugman could write one of his famous pieces about the Dems. Repubs aren't listening to him, but Democrats are. There is no option now but to stand up for the Constitution, or there will be no election to win in 2020. They can't put it off any longer, this is the end of Congress if they don't. Someone outside of government who people listen to, needs to say this. #

Living in Manhattan, with no car, I got used to FreshDirect where you order groceries via a website, and they deliver what you ordered the next day. You develop a list of items you buy regularly, and shopping is a matter of reviewing that list, and re-ordering the things you need more of. Very efficient, and I rarely forgot basic items, because they floated to the top of the list. Now I'm shopping in grocery stores, basically walking around through their warehouse in realspace, doing the job FD employees do in NY, and while I like the experience in general, I often forget to restock things I've run out of. Which makes me wonder why stores don't adopt the FreshDirect user interface, let me shop for basic stuff from home via the web, even if they can't deliver. #

Political cartoon of the day. #

My organization tool should help me be organized even if I am very badly organized at the moment.#

With the help of ouchiko, jmgs and tommy-carlier, yesterday's JavaScript challenge is solved. I learned that there's a built-in browser function that does exactly what was called for, scrollIntoView. Makes sense, in 2019 this is something every app shouldn't have to do itself. This will be part of a new app I'm working on. #

My friend NakedJen who to me is the Mother of Dragons, a magical person who can do the stuff only Daenerys Stormborn can do (and more), is now watching Game of Thrones, finally. She's in season 1. I can't say any more (here) because I know she reads this blog. I envy her, I would love to never have watched the first few seasons so it could all be new again. Also I expect to be able to hear her shriek at certain points even though she's in Salt Lake City and I'm in the Catskills. #

A browser JavaScript challenge. Here's a demo app. Use the up and down arrow keys to move from card to card. When you get to the bottom of the screen the cursor moves to an object that is not visible. I want to scroll the window vertically to make the cursor object fully visible. If you look at the code, you'll see a routine named scrollToMakeVisible. The goal is to fill in the body of that routine. I've opened a thread to discuss. #

BTW, if the House doesn't impeach Trump we've established a precedent that will be hard to undo. It means an end to co-equal branches. It's a license for the executive to do whatever it wants. I wonder if people who think there's a good outcome possible from non-impeachment have thought this through. Trump may or may not be a bumbling fool with evil intent. But it's not hard to imagine a more competent fascist taking his place, and then what.#

I find GORKA! fascinating because of his utter depravity and smarminess and the fact that some people obviously feel he is educated and sophisticated. I like GORKA! even better when he is being humiliated to his face.#

I tried cross-posting but it doesn't work. I wrote it up. The problem is that the silos don't support cross-posting in any direction. They really want to be worlds unto themselves. The web, as far as they're concerned, isn't worth supporting, even though they couldn't exist without it. #

Facebook is to the web what a text editor is to a spreadsheet.#

The Netflix documentary, Knock Down the House, is very good. I'm only half way through it, but it's opened my eyes.#

Want to run against Trump and win? Nominate a great comedian, because that's Trump's schtick. That's why he wins. #

The open web still needs a great for-the-record writing system. #

God bless William Barr. #

Poll: If the final three episodes of Game of Thrones leaked tonight, would you stop everything and watch them or would you wait?#

Lots of people were working on classified ads on the web in the 90s. I had my own project, the archive is still there. Journalists should stop saying Craig Newmark is responsible. Progress happens. The web is better at classified ads. That's the story.#

The Trump obstruction has gone meta. It's now layers deep, like Inception. First Trump obstructed. Now Barr is obstructing Trump's obstruction. #

As the Airplane used to sing, one pill makes you larger... #

I've been taking pictures of my countryside explorations, and found that my top of the line iPhone isn't doing a good enough job, so I thought I'd try dusting off the old Canon EOS 5D my father left me, and see what it can do. I went though some of the pictures, the quality is amazing, esp for a camera that's over ten years old. Here's a small bit of a picture I took on Lafayette St in NYC. It does beautiful work. #

A longtime blogging friend Dan Conover is writing on Facebook these days, which is a shame, because his best pieces get me thinking enough that I want to write my own post that expands on his thinking, like the one he wrote the other day about splitting the US in two. Dan lives in South Carolina. Former journalist. I met him on my visit to Spartanberg in 2005, as part of a great auto tour through the south. I learned a lot at every stop. So Dan wrote that the problems of the US are much bigger than a terrible choice for president in 2016, it has to do with the compromise that was made at the beginning of the country when it was just 3 million people (today's population of Oklahoma) because they built a country around two very different economies and cultures -- agrarian and urban. It's only grown more pronounced in 2019. We just can't live together. The US needs a Brexit. Of course we aren't going to get one (it's impossible). I wish you could read his whole piece. #

New version of davefeedread with simple support for rssCloud.#

A new demo -- a realistic feed polling app, gets realtime updates from feeds with <cloud> elements as spec'd in RSS 2.0. #

The Attorney General is not the people's lawyer, he represents the United States. The whole thing. The history of the US, the future, the international interests, it's laws, the justice system, and on and on. It a huge job.#

The Globe and Mail are starting to re-introduce RSS feeds. #

I wrote: "If I were the CEO of a news org I would change priority from collecting members to collecting sources." I was asked to expand on this. Why would sources want to affiliate with a news organization. What would the benefits be? I said there were three. 1. To have his or her point of view reflected in news stories. 2. To network with other experts, learn from them, discuss, advance the art. 3. Prestige, validation. #

My new ringtone. #

TheC just posted this. #

I just did some factoring on feed reading in Node. It was too hard to add rssCloud support to a simple utility. Too many moving parts. Every time I do it, there are lots of errors and it takes too much time. So I updated the davefeedread package to make adding realtime notification one call. Now I get to find out if it worked (if it does this post will appear in the chat tab). Then it's time to do some more testing and doc writing. Doing this very slowly. Country living has made me a slower developer. Weird. ;-)#

Free shrugs. #

How to create a list in the Chat tab on Scripting News.#

Just re-watched last night's Game of Thrones. It's even better when you know what's coming. #

My AppleTV says it’s been deactivated. What?#

If I were the CEO of a news org I would change priority from collecting members to collecting sources. Develop relations with sources the same way PR firms develop relations with reporters. You want lots of direct connects. And want the sources to value a relationship with you. That means providing lots of benefits for sources. Think creatively about that. What do sources want most. Not talking about money. #

Doing more work on the Chat tab today.#

Watched a bit of Reliable Sources — Trump has to escalate the outrageousness of his trolling or it doesn’t penetrate. That’s why there was so little coverage of his abortion story. He’s become boring, predictable. There's a math to trolling. #

Every time I see a for-the-record post on Medium, I think about how we've failed to solve the easiest most basic problem in 25-plus years of blogging on the web. How to put something on the record with at least an attempt at longevity.#

Here's a test post. Now that my chatbot has a ping handler it should show up in the Chat panel immediately. Yeah I'm sure. ;-) #