Saturday, January 10, 2004

This last week has been incredible. I put up a new application, so many cool people contributed their subscriptions to create a "commons" of unparalleled utility. I found at least 20 good feeds through this community. And even better was developing something that users loved. It's been a while since I've been there. This is the best thing for me, that connection, where I roll out a feature, get feedback, roll out another, etc. Today I tried to write some more stuff, but I was too tired. But it has been an incredible collaborative week. Thanks to all who participated!  

Blogger's Dim Sum tomorrow at Chau Chow in Boston's Chinatown.  

Feedster: "Think of RSS as Tivo for the Web." 

MIT weblog: "Psychology Today tells us that a growing number of people are using The Sims to make sense of themselves and the other folks in their lives." 

Bloomberg reports that SCO has a claim with Google re Linux. 

Howard Rheingold: "Thanks Dave!" Nice. 

Joi Ito's subscription list. 

Boston Globe: Clark makes inroads on NH trail. 

NY Times on John Brockman's Edge.org. "Last year he asked what sort of counsel each would offer George W. Bush as the nation's top science adviser. This time the question is 'What's your law?'" I wrote one. "We should all collectively be conservative in what we send." 

I've heard it said that "He who is most liberal in the formats he accepts wins." I say a couple of things in response. 1. He who says that is probably getting consulting money from a BigCo. And 2. He who has the most happy users wins (and goes to heaven). Users love features, and developers who spend time supporting the most arcane buggy formats aren't spending time on features that delight users. Formats are there to get the job done, not be pure, not be wonderful, just work, and shut up.  

Proposed namespace: rssHints. "Adds elements to an RSS feed that help an aggregator process them." 

Two years ago Google won a Scripting News award. "If you knew you were going to be stranded on a deserted island and could only take one website with you, which would it be?" 

On this day in 1999: "Get off your butt and start writing." 

Weather.Com: -1°F. Fair. Feels Like -21°F.  

Wired: "Apple's CEO Steve Jobs and the Macintosh are inextricably linked in the minds of most people. So it may come as a surprise to learn the Mac wasn't his idea at all." 

Don Hopkins: "I'm designing an RSS 2.0 module for describing The Sims objects, which will make it easier to advertise and distribute Sims objects online, and enable the development of automated tools for assisting in this process." 

I'm forming a new corporation to own the software I'm creating around Channel Z, including weblogs.com and scripting.com, and the new Feeds site. Talking with the lawyer yesterday he asked what the name of the new corp would be. "Can I get back to you on that?" I said.