Friday, February 06, 2004

A new app for people who want to be sure their feeds are in good shape. You enter three bits of info, the URL of a feed, your email address and a subject for filtering. Periodically (at most every 24 hours) the app checks the feed and sends an email saying whether or not it validated. I have it set up to check the Scripting News RSS feed. This is mostly for technical people who are actively working on their feeds. 

Jeff Jarvis asks a question that was behind much of the discussion last night. If the Dean campaign winds down, what becomes of the Dean weblog? Should it become a movement? Will people keep giving money? If so, what should the money be used for? 

Greg Reinacker: "Our system is indeed standards-based -- except in those areas where there are no standards." 

First there was a Cup of Joe, then Joe-Mentum, and now the Joe-Bitchuary. One can only hope that this is where it ends. 

Jim Louderback: "This newsfeed service could turn RSS into a nasty walled garden." 

Goddard: Dean Loses Grip of Washington. 

Ryan Lizza: "I spent a couple of days at Dean headquarters to get a feel for how the campaign was dealing with this stunning turn of fortune." 

Don Hopkins: "I hope these ideas will inspire more tool developers to contribute their programming skills to the Sims community." 

Winter beauty 

They forecast sleet and freezing rain today. A few minutes ago I took a look and sure enough, that's what's going on. So I got my coffee, and continued work on my latest programming project, but then glimpsed out of the corner of my eye that the nasty weather had turned beautiful. Huge flakes of snow falling slowly, with almost no wind. The street just beginning to turn white. What a nice surprise. I had to get up and take a look. I wanted to tell someone about it. So I told you.

My friend Betsy 

We had a fantastic meeting last night at Berkman. I'm sure a lot of people who were there will write up various parts of it.

Here's one little bit. We were talking about the money that Dean raised yesterday, Betsy Devine volunteered that she had given money yesterday. She gave for two reasons. I don't remember the first, but I do remember the second. Dean said either he wins in Wisconsin or he retires from the race. Betsy, an early Dean supporter said it's important that he bow out if he loses. Makes sense to me. One last push, if it works, great, if not, that's the end of the fight.

But this morning Dean is on the radio saying he didn't write the email, and while it was a great tactic to raise money, he's not personally pledged to get out of the race if he loses Wisconsin. While I'm not a lawyer, I think he either has to return the money or honor the pledge. It seems fraudulent not to.

BTW, the cool thing about Presidential politics is that unlike politics in the tech business, there is an end to it.

Last night Betsy told another story about the #joiito IRC channel, which I have never participated in because a lot of what they talk about is me, and they aren't fans, to put it nicely. Last night Betsy told us how, just once, on Joi's channel, she said "Dave is my friend and I don't want you to talk about him like this." It stopped. I'd like to see more of this, honorable people standing up for other honorable people. When you're cornered and alone there isn't much you can do. But if a friend will come and stand beside you, then the cowards melt. If you won't you can't say you're a friend, and in all seriousness (say this in a Worf-like voice) you have no honor. There's not much honor in the world of 2004, but the concept isn't totally dead yet.

Guardian: "To underline the point, Dean staffers abruptly halted campaigning in Michigan yesterday and relocated to Wisconsin."