|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DaveNet: Scientology and Google.  Great links tonight on The Shifted Librarian. Wired: "The Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act prohibits the sale or distribution of nearly any kind of electronic device -- unless that device includes copy-protection standards to be set by the federal government" South China Morning Post: "Ironically, the concept of blogs in the next few years may see its full expression not in the West, but in China, where community, relationships and reputation can sway a highly literate population." News.Com: Google pulls anti-Scientology links. Wired: "The Church of Scientology has managed to yank references to anti-Scientology websites from the Google search engine." John Robb: "Germany treats Scientology like a cult and they outlaw it under the same laws that prevent distribution of Neo-Nazi propoganda." Microcontent News has an RSS feed. Click here to subscribe to it in Radio 8. Advogato has an XML-RPC interface. Coool! 802.11b: "In a move that surprised me, at least, Apple offers up a Bluetooth technology preview, working with D-Link's USB-based Bluetooth adapter, which Apple will offer for $49 through its Apple Store starting in April coupled with some OS X 10.1.3 software." Welie.Com: Interaction Design Patterns. Very interesting. A concise taxonomy of Web UI techniques. Thanks to Manton Reece for the pointer. John Dvorak: "This Web-service stuff is purely wishful thinking. Nobody knows what the heck is really going on." Radio UserLand 8.0.7. Russ Lipton's Learning HTML cheat sheet. Web Pages That Suck is a Radio weblog. Yeah. News.Com: "Beginning April 24, Yahoo's Mail Forwarding service will cost $29.99 a year, according to a message posted on Yahoo's site." Here's something recursive and Googlish. I have one of the most authoritative links to Google according to Google. It makes my brain hurt to think what this means. Bull Mancuso: "Just got a call from Joey saying that I left my cigarette burning in the ashtray of his car last night, and the place stinks. He says if I do it again he's going to blow my head off." Washington Post: "We do still have Dick Nixon to kick around. Apparently, thanks to his tapes, forever and ever and ever." Bob Crosley: "I think the news aggregator is the key. It does a great deal of my surfing for me."  I admit I have been procrastinating on the OPML Coffee Mug. Not to worry. Carlos Granier is pushing me along. He has an OPML Coffee Mug on his site. I click on it and I get a dialog. I had to look twice. How did he do that? Then I realized that I have been leaking, on DHRB. He just connected up to the code I've already written. Hehe. I love you guys. What a sweet reminder. Hey Miguel de Icaza has a weblog. Nice. Jennet's first Radio theme. Everyone wants to know -- what's become of Daypop? The Top-40 page has been empty for the last day. I miss it. Why the Times?  Reading the blogs this morning I see questions about why we wanted to work with the NY Times to get their content flowing through Radio's news aggregator. I'm going to try to answer them, but understand this is an ongoing thread, there will be more to say about it as time goes by. First, take it as a given than I personally like to read the Times. Hopefully I've explained that. I think, but I don't know for sure, that we're getting links to stories that don't appear on the index pages on the Times' site. Second, they are a leader in their business, so it's likely to pry loose other XML-based feeds. We are already see evidence of that. Third, it's a first step down a road that will inevitably lead to, imho, an integration of amateur and professional journalism. The practices of each should be adopted by the other. My stake in the ground -- in a few years the home pages of the surviving professional sites will be weblogs. And in a few years, the art of writing for the Web will focus on domain expertise. Having NY Times stories on an equal footing with those written by bloggers will, imho, elevate the writing of the bloggers, it will tease out quality that today is possible, but give it the push that it needs to get to the next level. At the same time, some of the reporters at the Times may be inspired to check out a few of their new cousins to see what they're doing. Instead of a superficial dismissal, perhaps they'll see that there are some new tricks they can learn to liven up their writing and create bonds with their readers. Just as this process makes for better software, a two-way relationship based on respect between writers and readers improves the quality of writing. So it's a blending. And just a first step. And, as with all first steps, it's hard to see exactly where it's going. But it's certainly better to have the Times syndicating through XML, than not. Morning coffee notes Good morning Vietnam! (I always wanted to say that.) There isn't anything stunning or exciting happening right now. Yesterday Tori brought me a new coffee cup. It's very huge. In a few moments I will drink my first coffee from that cup. Like a Slashdot member saying First Post! I will say, out loud, First Coffee! Tori says she would like me to write more pieces about life and love, bodies and struggles. I told her that I had been reading old stuff I wrote a few years ago and finding that it was pretty good, better than what I'm writing now. I suggested that perhaps I had a talent that had slipped away. After all, my eyes had talents that have slipped away. They don't work so well anymore. So maybe my writing about deeper and more abstract things has fallen too? It's possible. Or another possibility. Maybe I learned what I wanted to teach myself. I still seek out younger people, and ask them questions, to try to explore my own past and maybe give them a boost in their path through life. I think it's hard to find shortcuts for others. But at least I listen to myself. That's cool. The other day, talking with Chris and Gretchen Pirillo and The Scoble Boys, I said something quotable that I'd like to share. Control is not possible, but power is. I asked Chris some broad questions, and he had answers. He's a very smart and talented guy, so that's not too surprising. I asked what he wanted to do with his life (he's in his 20's). He talked about leaving a legacy, making a difference, changing the world. Ahhh I recognize that. That's what I wanted when I was in my 20's. Today, in my mid-40's (I'll be 47 in a few weeks) -- these things matter almost not one whit. I never wake up and say I want to change the world. My inner voice isn't interested. Nope. What does it want? To feel good now. I suppose that makes sense, as you get older you want less. Smaller things make me happy. I'm easier to please.  Chris asked what it's like being in my 40's and after I explained he said "Wow I guess I don't have much to look forward to." This puzzled me. I said that's not true. It's cool to not have the struggles. It's good to feel defined, to know who you are and why you are that way. It's good to know what you can and can't do. That I control nothing, to really believe that, makes relaxation possible. These are the things I say that make people uncomfortable. But there you go, I still can write, even though my eyes are weak and my feet hurt. Now I'm going to go trolling for trouble. Seeya in a bit. |
 
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
© Copyright 1997-2005 Dave Winer. The picture at the top of the page may change from time to time. Previous graphics are archived. Previous/Next |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
