Sunday, February 08, 2004

I'm also speaking at the .NET Developer's Association tomorrow night along with Scoble. Should be interesting. I might sneak in a little demo of my development environment, maybe show them SCNS, the object database, how I edit scripts (and my weblog), how the CMS works. Let's see how it goes. Maybe RSS will be enough. I'm also meeting with the other half of MS, but I can't talk about that one. You might figure it out. These guys are so much cooler than Silicon Valley companies. They're all full of who-does-he-think-he-is, and why-should-we-listen-to-him's. Microsoft culture, even though it's PFU, has always been open to other points of view. It's part of the genetic coding. You want to give us free ideas? Sure thing, says Billg's guys and gals. 

Seattle weather for the next few days, highs in the low 50s, lows in the high 30s. Partly cloudy, no rain. That's good weather from my pov. 

Reviewing the schedule for the MS trip, I see I have an hour with the head of the MSIE team. I asked for the meeting. I want to talk about how the browser can be made more useful to people who use RSS and who write weblogs. I'm going to ask for features that work for all blogging software and all aggregators, foolish me, maybe I'm the only one who thinks we all do better if everyone has a chance to compete. Send me email if you have ideas how the browser could work better for what we do.  

New feature this morning allows you to cancel a scheduled validation. 

Yesterday's Dean-Soapbar DaveNet is the outline for my talk at Microsoft Research tomorrow afternoon. Let's focus on applications of technology. For the last N years developers have been far too focused on technology itself. As a result we spend time arguing and spinning wheels over various engineering visions of the plumbing, missing that the revolution ain't at that level, it's in how the tech is used to revolutionize all aspects of the world we live in, and even better, to solve problems and make the world better. Yes, even after all the control freaks have taken their pound of flesh, I'm still an idealist. Takes a lickin, keeps on tickin.  

BTW, I am told that tomorrow's talk will be available on the public Internet, if not as a webcast, afterwards. I'll be Seattle through Tuesday night. 

Don Park: "Engineers are like blacksmiths without a hobby." 

Dare Obasanjo: "This is the first step in fragmenting the interoperability on the Web gained by XML." 

UN weapons inspector Hans Blix's quote of the day. If you're on a witch hunt, he says, "every broom in every corner is evidence of witches." 

The Holy Bible is now available as an RSS feed.  

Dave Pollard: "O Google, why have you forsaken me?" 

NY Times: "Voters have wiped out several decades' worth of conventional wisdom about presidential primaries."