Monday, August 02, 1999

NY Times discovers Scripting News! "Rosenberg relies on about a dozen digests of links to technology coverage. These sites include Scripting News, which is published by Dave Winer, a software developer who has written for Hotwired." Nice!

We got permission from Symantec to release early versions of ThinkTank, Ready! and MORE. We're working on the release site now, expect it to come on-line tomorrow. We're going to start with MORE 1.1c for the Macintosh, released exactly twelve years ago today on 8/2/87. Thanks Symantec!

Dan Bricklin: How I Got Permission to Post VisiCalc.

Dave Winer: How I Got Permission to Post the Outliners.

AskTog: How Programmers Stole the Web. A throwback to the hype that surrounded HyperCard. Tog is perhaps a bit more charitable to programmers than they were back in 1987, but notice how, even after all these years, you still have to be a programmer to write programs. It will always be that way. It's tautological.

The Genius Behind HyperCard (1987): "First, he gave all of us the power to create sophisticated graphics on a computer. Now, he's given us the power to become software developers without having to know a single word of programming code." Sounds like Moses.

Tom Christiansen: Far More Than Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know about Prototypes in Perl. "The major issue with 'prototypes' in Perl is that the experienced programmer comes to Perl bearing a pre-conceived but nevertheless completely rational notion of what a 'prototype' is and how it works, yet this notion has shockingly little in common with what they really do in Perl." Maybe Tog was right after all??

PythonWare: Python Imaging Library.

InfoWorld reviews Scriptics Tcl Pro.

My.UserLand.Com now has preliminary support for RSS 0.91. The first new channel it can read is Chaos Network. Note that with item descriptions, RSS is approaching the expressiveness of ScriptingNews format. Which is still supported.

Ooops! The Chaos Network seems to be down. (Too chaotic?) So the runner-up, Internet Alchemy, wins the prize for first with a running RSS 0.91 My.UserLand.Com channel. 10 points for Ian Davis!

10 points for the Pigdog Journal, another RSS 0.91 site. (BTW, the easiest way to upgrade is to start writing 0.91 format text in your already-registered channel file. My.UserLand.Com will pick up the format change automatically in the next hourly scan.)

MozillaZine is coming online any minute now.

Netscape now has a RSS channel validator app. The page says it's looking for RDF text, even though RSS 0.91 is not RDF.

Amy Wohl on Instant Messaging. "We could get away from the idea (which has nearly destroyed television) that everything on the Internet is about making money."

NY Times: Showdown on Messaging. "America Online did nothing to prevent someone from mimicking its software, as Microsoft has. Microsoft's own message program, by contrast, encrypts messages, so that no one can create backdoor links to its system, as it has done to America Online's."

Attention: Fat Corporate Bastards!

MSNBC: Build Your Brand with E-mail. "E-mail newsletters provide an even playing field for online marketing. With virtually no production expenses, except for existing costs like Internet access and the writer’s time, all companies can use e-mail newsletters to bolster their brand, experts say."