Sunday, October 31, 2004

Survey #1: Who will win the election? 

Survey #2: When will we know the result? 

On Tuesday at 9AM Pacific, we'll re-open enrollment for BloggerCon for 75 people. There's not much science to this, just a gut feel that our current registration list has at least 75 no-shows. We're getting a lot of requests from people about this, but I don't know many of them, and have no way to decide. So we'll add another 75, and then get on with the conference. 

An excellent six-day forecast. Lots of sun, warm, no rain. Whew.  

If Kerry wins on Tuesday, I have my headline written. 

Marc Canter doesn't want to do a podcast because there's no place to put metadata. He's right, it's a shame to not pass on the data, when we have it. Okay why does that happen? Because the people who could do something about it don't want to work with each other. Pretty simple. It took a lot of arm-twisting and patience to get the developers to even consider adding enclosure support to aggregators, and so far the only blogging tool that has it is Radio. Marc, you'd be a great podcaster. Get over it, worse is better, and let's add your voice to the conversation. Help the users, who are listening, figure out how to explain to the vendors why they need it. 

Newsweek: "The insurgents, by most accounts, are winning. Even Secretary of State Colin Powell has acknowledged this privately to friends in recent weeks." 

MP3 of the Australian podcast documentary. 

A very important post if you want to record or webcast BloggerCon. We have special support for people who want to tap into the audio stream.  

EVP: Kerry 283, Bush 246. 

The Boston Globe captures the history of the Red Sox win. "Pesky was the stand-in for all of the Towne Teamers who'd gotten to the World Series and fell short." 

Ed Cone: "On Wednesday I will wake up. No matter who wins, the dog will have insinuated herself onto the bed. The kids will need feeding before school." 

According to Johns Hopkins University, 100,000 Iraqi civillians have died in the war. If you're an American you know how we feel about the 3000 who died in the World Trade Center. 100,000 is a much bigger number. Is an Iraqi life is worth less than an American's? Give that some thought. 

The day after tomorrow is the one day we are not powerless. We don't have to stand by and do nothing. We can fix the problem.  

"thinkusaalignright"Richard Carter via email: "I think you should stop sitting on the fence and tell us which candidate Scripting News endorses." Good idea. Scripting News endorses John Kerry for President. To be fair, Richard put a smiley at the end of his request. But I thought it was a good chance to get in another plug for Kerry. I'm reading Seymour Hersh's Chain of Command. I don't think most people know that Bush has thrown out the Geneva Convention for dealing with prisoners of war. We think of ourselves as the good guys, but we're not the good guys now, if we ever were. Bush may make you feel good, but it's not real. And there's a practical side to it. Next time our troops are held prisoner, it would be a stretch to expect they would be treated humanely according to the Geneva Convention. That's one of the reasons we support it, it's a way of protecting our soliders from torture. Also last night on MSNBC, finally saw a recount of the faceoff between Kerry and Nixon in the early 70s. Kerry was proven right. The Calley massacre was uncovered while the controversy was going on, as were the Pentagon Papers. This should have been covered when the Swift Boat ads were running. An amazing lapse in journalism.  

Podcasting was discussed on Australian national radio. 

My Polling Site: "We offer a free nonpartison web based service to help voters find their polling site in four clicks or less." 

BTW, I didn't mention yesterday that it was one week to BloggerCon. That's when things start to get interesting! (As in the Chinese proverb/curse about living in "interesting" times.) So today it's just six days to BloggerCon (and two to the election.) The last big project for me to complete is the Food For Thought dinners at 8PM on Saturday night (November 6). We'll have eight tables of 15-20 people each, each led by a discussion leader, much like the daily sessions, but you get to eat too. Sylvia Paull and Enoch Choi chose the restaurants, all are adjacent to the Stanford campus and all are reasonably priced. If more than 150 people want to participate we can reserve more tables. The restaurants have all been very helpful in not requiring deposits. I'll put up a signup form later today. 

Also, did I say I'm driving to Silicon Valley? It's true. On Tuesday I vote, then hop in the car and head south. And Scoble-be-damned, I'm keeping my Streets and Trips with GPS, even though Microsoft did screw the Web by sucking up all the browser energy and locking it in a trunk. Why can't I have a nice toy? Yesterday I drove around Washington State, what a beautiful day (sorry no pics) with my GPS. It worked. Now I want to get a new car that has it built in. I can't imagine driving without it. You can be much more adventurous, no matter how hard you try to get lost, you just can't do it. Wow. That's for me.  

Saturday, October 30, 2004

Free idea: A BitTorrent screen saver? When your system goes idle, all the Torrents you've downloaded pop up and start serving.  

The day before Jon Stewart appeared on CNN Crossfire, he spoke for an hour on C-SPAN to an audience of media people. Of course it's available as a Torrent. Thanks to Ryan Tate for the pointer. 

Roland Piquepaille: Le Monde endorses John Kerry. 

Russell Beattie is hosting a copy of Farenheit 9-11. 

Cory Doctorow: "Apple's spending money seeing to it that features are removed from your iPod." 

Dowbrigade: "Boston awoke today to dark threatening skies laid thick on a cold, raw mist, a steady drizzle coating the streets with a slick shiny sheen. Despite that fact, up to five million long-frustrated Red Sox fans are expected to jam the streets of the city for the triumphant World Series victory parade." 

Adam Curry: "Being someone's wing-man goes beyond a partnership." 

Blogging tools and enclosures. "We've been trying to get aggregator developers to support RSS 2.0 enclosures, but I've never written a piece explaining how I think developers of blogging tools should support enclosures." 

Friday, October 29, 2004

"thinkusaalignright"I watched CNN and MSNBC this evening, two networks that seemed somewhat fair, and had to turn them off, in disgust. They're spinning heavy for Bush, basically saying he won the election with the Osama speech. No polls to back them up. Pure spin, pure manipulation, first by bin Laden, then by the TV networks. This reeks of the Dean Scream. Maybe much worse. 

For review and testing: Podcast debugger. 

Aaron Brown, on CNN, about the US: "Not exactly bin Laden country." 

Three years ago today Scoble rolled and totaled his car, and walked.  

Lots to think about in bin Laden's message. When he says we're responsible for what the country does, he's right, and that's something only one candidate said, and it wasn't Bush or Kerry.  

Excerpts of a translation of bin Laden's message by Aljazeera. 

Please read this piece, written in 2001, if you're planning on being at the Making Money session at BloggerCon III, eight days from today. "Dell Computer started in Michael's dorm room." 

I went for a walk today, of course; with my iPod, of course. I thought I was going to listen to a podcast, but I didn't. Instead I listened to some RIAA-owned music. It was like eating chocolate cake, with chocolate sauce, and whipped cream. I'll get back on the bandwagon tomorrow.  

US Department of State supports RSS 2.0.  

Okay it took a while to figure this one out, but the appearance of Osama bin Laden on TV so close to the election is a reminder that Bush went after the wrong guy. Osama is still free, and thumbing his nose at the US. How can Bush say he's tough on terror with a straight face with Uncle Osama hogging the news cycle, probably from now to Election Day. Now let's just hope bin Laden is just giving a stump speech and this isn't notice that thousands of Americans are about to die.  

Today's big political news, Osama bin Laden speaks to the American people. What does it mean? What a twist. October surprise. 

BBC: "Arabic TV station al-Jazeera has broadcast a videotape in which Osama Bin Laden threatens fresh attacks on the US." 

Survey: "Which of the two major party candidates will use the bin Laden appearance to score political points?" 

This site is a brainchild of Prof Larry Lessig at Stanford Law School. 

The new word for the day is enblogment.  

To the geeks -- what impresses users? Interop. 

Here's why we must throw Bush out of office. The big moment came when Colin Powell went before the UN to explain why it was time to go to war with Iraq. That's when the impeachment proceedings should have started, in hindsight. Unfortunately we didn't know then that they were lying. Blame us for believing that our President wouldn't unilaterally go to war based on a lie. That's criminal. He should go to jail. Sorry Republicans, you nominated the wrong guy. 

If we don't get rid of Bush, we've just ratified a new form of government for the US. What comes next on that road? Kerry is definitely the conservative candidate for President. No doubt about that. 

Our Department of Homeland Security is going after a toy store in Oregon. A bomb plot? Anthrax? Funding terrorists? Nah. "Agents went to Pufferbelly based on a trademark infringement complaint filed in the agency's intellectual property rights center in Washington, DC." 

Capsule review of this week's West Wing, which I was able to watch after getting the Divx codec. There's a surprise ending. A small amount of good acting, something happened to one character, but I wish they had all gone for that walk in the woods. The current WW writers don't understand their characters. They never say or do anything that isn't TV-tested crap. I didn't even shed a tear for the character who went for the walk. That's how poor the show is. I used to cry effusively at the old WW eighteen times per episode. Feh. I'll still watch it if only for the scenery, but it used to be such a great show, now it's so incredibly mediocre.  

Should we do this the old-fashioned way? 

Adam Curry is my friend, and that's not a small thing for me, but it's not true that he solely invented podcasting. We were doing it at Harvard almost a year before Adam's first podcast. I started doing regular podcasts myself in June of this year. I did a podcast from the T at the DNC, and from Interstate 25 in New Mexico. All this before Adam started the Daily Source Code in August.

Now that the buzz has grown so much, which is basically a good thing, the distortion level has gotten super-high and Adam is becoming the sole inventor of the art and technology. Part of me doesn't care, but some of the stories that are coming out are incredibly mean. That I mind, a lot. (Sorry, I'm not going to point to them.) There have always been a lot of hitchhikers, even hijackers, as a format or protocol or activity becomes popular, but Adam isn't one of those people. We've been working on this together since Y2K. He's supported everything I've done, and vice versa. We're friends, and I hope to work with him for many years to come.

There's another angle to this. The iPodder software was the first software to handle enclosures specially for iPods, but Radio UserLand had support for time-shifted enclosures in its first release in January 2002. So to say that iPodder was the first software to enable podcasting, would be taking a fairly narrow view of what podcasting is. Even though Adam gives me credit for the RSS work I did, he didn't actually give me credit for the software, or for the podcasts we did at Harvard in 2003, and my own personal podcast stream starting this summer.

So there's this question out there -- should we just overlook that the story being passed around is wrong, and getting wronger every day, or should the bloggers and podcasters care to have the real story get out there? I'm tired of fighting for credit, but I'm equally tired of inventing stuff and popularizing stuff, which is really hard work, and having other people make the money and get the credit. More than tired, exhausted. And I'm already getting trashed for the work I've done here, believe it or not. That's more than tiring, more than exhausting, that's harrowing.

Time to go for a walk and listen to Woz talk about the early days of hacking and Apple.

Thursday, October 28, 2004

A new Trade Secrets podcast.  

Economist: "As Mr Bush has often said, there is a need in life for accountability. He has refused to impose it himself, and so voters should, in our view, impose it on him, given a viable alternative. John Kerry, for all the doubts about him, would be in a better position to carry on with America's great tasks." 

I didn't get to watch last night's West Wing, but I hear it's pretty radical. Anyone have a Torrent I can download? (Got one. Downloading from TVTorrents. It's also available here, here and here.) Next problem, I've downloaded the file from TVTorrents, its name is ww.hdtv-lol.avi. I tried playing it in Windows Media Player, it can't find the codec. Same with every other player on my ThinkPad and my Sony Vaio. What am I missing? I really want to see what happened to Leo. A clue, I can hear the audio fine, just no video. 

Larry Lessig will lead a BloggerCon session on law and blogging. 

Minnesota Public Radio: "Former Minnesota Gov Jesse Ventura is silent no more on why he's supporting John Kerry for president." 

Inquirer: "Get ready, baby, it's The Dawn & Drew Show." 

Dawn & Drew will be at BloggerCon. 

Watching the Kerry rally in Madison, gives me goose bumps. They say it's the largest political rally ever in Wisconsin. Bruce Springsteen will play.  

Political Wire: "What if you show up to vote next Tuesday and election workers say you are not registered?" 

Boston Globe: "A sprawling Nation of fans can finally exhale." 

BBC: "The official re-election site of President George W Bush is blocking visits from overseas users for 'security reasons'." 

Netcraft: "Many thousands of people living outside the US who were previously unaware of the site are now earnestly seeking out ways of accessing it." 

Russell Beattie offers a theory why Apple isn't running movies on iPods. 

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

A note of congratulations to our brothers and sisters in Boston. May the Bambino rest in peace. Philosophy rules! Love, Dave 

Northwest Public Radio joins the podcast community. 

BBC: New Florida vote scandal feared. 

Today I got a postcard, an official notice of voter registration from King County, State of Washington, USA, telling me where to vote next Tuesday. So it worked -- I get to cast a vote that counts in the Presidential election. 

NY Times: New food for IPods.  

Earlier today I had a note here asking why I wasn't interviewed for the NY Times piece above. The reporter contacted me, said he had tried to reach me. I apologized for not getting back to him. Overall the piece was pretty good. They use the word podcast without remark. And it was one of the first Times pieces to mention RSS.  

Slate: XM vs the IPod. 

Many thanks to Bradbury Software, makers of the FeedDemon aggregator, for a $1000 donation to BloggerCon; joining Adam Curry, AP, Google and Bloglines as primary sponsors of the conference. Thanks to all!  

Netcraft: "The official campaign web site for US President George W Bush appears to be rejecting web requests from outside the United States." 

Paolo: "It's true. I can't get on the site." 

BBC: "The blocking does not appear to be due to an attack by vandals or malicious hackers, but as a result of a policy decision by the Bush camp." 

NY Times piece on blogging on Madison Avenue. 

BBC: "A US airline attendant is fighting for her job after she was suspended over postings on her blog." 

Morning Coffee Notes, Day 2 

In this crazy mixed up day and age, Kerry is a gun-totin liberal, and Bush is a tax-and-spend compassionate conservative.

"thinkusaalignright"BTW, when Bush says he's a tax cutter, there's a little bit of sleight of hand going on there. A deficit is a form of tax. A rising deficit is a rising tax. At some point, unless he's planning on going bankrupt, we're going to have to pay back all the money we're pouring into Iraq. And unlike spending on education, health care, or infrastructure, there's no resulting growth to fund the payback. The money for Iraq is coming out of our pockets, one way or the other, sooner or later. I have a feeling it's not going to come in the form of higher taxes for his patrons. And when they say deficits will be paid for by our children and grandchildren, that's wishful thinking. Many economists believe the bill will come due while you and I are alive.

I remain skeptical of Kerry. Given the huge problems caused by Bush, wouldn't it be something if he had proposals that had a chance of making sure those problems don't plague a Kerry Administration. Some form of extra accountability if he should break a major commitment, as Bush did about going to war in Iraq. (I agree with Kerry, I remember the spin at the time the Senate voted to authorize the war, the President was clear that this was just an option, not a plan.) How can we make sure we're not just replacing one bad actor with another? Really, Kerry hasn't offered us anything substantial here.

The comedian Dennis Miller, who has turned into a Republican (amazing) was on some talk show yesterday and said something pretty reasonable. If Kerry is elected, he's going to get behind Kerry, because he'll be the President. Since I'm voting for Kerry, I can balance his promise, by saying if Kerry is elected, I plan to get on his case and stay on it all through his term. We've had enough horrible government. We must be suspicious of these guys, no matter what party they're from. Now, to be perfectly straight, I don't think I could support a re-elected George Bush. I stood behind him after we were attacked, this is the American thing to do, it's one of the reasons our country is so great. But enough already. We're so divided because of Bush that people are actually talking openly about civil war after the election. This is no good. I find myself ready to say to our friends in Europe and Asia, it's time for you guys to plan your invasion of the US. We need a lot of help here. One more time, we can solve this problem ourselves, but so far we've missed every opportunity to do so.

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Forrester Research RSS feeds.  

Got an email tonight from a Republican reader noting that I hadn't had much to say about the election in the last 24 hours. Okay, let's fix that. Remember when Bush and his spin-meisters were nailing Kerry and his team for not showing enough respect for the puppet government of Allawi in Iraq? Well, from the department of biting the hand that's up your butt, Allawi today blamed the Bush administration for failing to protect the fifty Iraqi soldiers who were massacred a couple of days ago. Now, Dubya, do you mind if we join you in wondering if Iraq is worth the grief? 

Five years ago Dan Gillmor's blog started. That was a happy day here too, finally we had recruited a real ink-stained ree-por-tuh to help give credibilty to this new medium. Five years. Man, time sure flies! Regret: We don't have an archive of the first couple of years of Dan's blog. 

Marc Nozell sent an audio message confirming that MS is using a descendent of a DEC voice syntheizer on its voicemail system.  

Schedule update: I'll be in NYC 11/22-27. Then in early December I'll be on the road again, not sure where I'll be headed this time, maybe back to Canada, maybe south, maybe both. I have to be in Cambridge for a conference at Harvard on 12/10. Where will I fly out of? No idea.  

Watching Game 3 of the World Series, man the Red Sox look like the new Yankees. Even when there's an error that puts Cardinal runners on second and third with no out, they shut them down. However, even if they win tonight's game and go up 3 games to 0, we can't say it's almost over, that would be asking for it, the way the Yankees asked for it in the ALCS. 

Geek News warns not to use an aggregator at a Hilton hotel. Interesting story. Usually those problems seem to be limited to one hotel, not a chain. I've used aggregators at a few Hilton Garden Inns without problems. They're actually some of the best-wired hotels. 

New geekish feature on ipodder.org. 

Capsule review of Feedburner. The cool thing about RSS is that it decentralizes news flow, it levels the playing field so bloggers and pros can compete. Feedburner centralizes RSS without any apparent business model. This is scary because at some point they will need to have a business model, and then what. Will they put ads in your feeds? (Ole Eichorn says they already put ads in the feeds.) What if you don't like them? How do you opt out? Have they said they will redirect users where ever you want them to go? If so, do you really trust that? I've read their terms of service, have you? It seems to say they can discontinue serving your feed at any time, without notice. No guarantee that you can opt out without losing all your subscribers. This is what's wrong with building a network around a centralized node. What are you getting in return? Statistics. That's cool. But we can figure out other ways to do that. They route around the format wars. Yuck. What we need is for the format wars to end, not for profiteers to monetize them. 

FutureTense: "Researchers with the National Cybersecurity Alliance and America Online have found most consumers perceive themselves to be safe online, even when they have no firewall protection, outdated antivirus software and dozens of spyware and adware programs secretly running on their computers. 

It's still raining at Stanford, a little more than 1.5 weeks before BloggerCon. I haven't ordered the lunch yet, because if it's raining, we don't have any place to actually eat it. Everybody, think dry. Think sun. Rain rain go away, come again any time after November 6! 

An old-style Morning Coffee Notes 

BBC says the "search wars" are coming to the desktop. It's hard to believe I was so excited just a couple of weeks ago, fully expecting there was a goldmine of data to be found on my local hard disk, only to find that most of the stuff Google could find was either spam or virus email. I don't use Office, I'm religious about that, I won't use any non-Internet Microsoft product until they start investing again in MSIE. I don't hold out much hope, but it's the least I can do for the Web. Seems Google is just as fixated on Microsoft as Microsoft is, because not only don't they index Radio's object database, they don't even provide a way for me to write a driver to help them index it. Since most of my content is in that format, that's probably what's holding me back from getting any real value from GDS.

But Google, don't rush, because I've already learned, long ago, if I want to be able to search something I just need to publish it, and eventually it'll show up in Google. I just have to be willing to share it with the world. In a way this is a Lessig-like scheme to get me to CC my content so it can be part of his cool new website. But of course the website we all want to be part of is... Google (not the one on my desktop by the way). So basically search is just where it needs to be, after all. We didn't really need it on our desktop where it potentially exposes all our passwords and secret desires, which of course we don't want exposed.

I'm on a roll. This is an old-style Morning Coffee Notes, the kind we did before we were doing audio blog posts, before they were called podcasts, back when we couldn't find any software to record our voices (seriously, PCs came with microphones, but search high and lo, hither and yon, there was no software to actually use the microphones in a most basic way).

[Kevin Marks says I could have found a software tool to record from a mike on Windows, dating back to 1992, by asking instead of searching.]

Anyway, in the podcast with Scoble (rhymes with noble) I noticed he was telling a story about Microsoft (his employer) differently for the public than he had told me privately. I called him on it. Then I observed that I do that sometimes myself. He laughed, he knew what I was talking about. There's a certain book publisher in Sebastapol that you're not supposed to criticize. I've done that too many times, and as a result am not invited to participate in their confabs. They've used this tactic to go into areas I care very much about, sometimes even claiming that open work comes out of these exclusive events.

Now there's no good reason for me to accept a conflict of interest here, it's not like they're offering me a life-saving medical treatment in return for my silence, and even if they were, I would be required to disclaim that. So, no more of that. If you go to their conferences, and don't mind that they're closed events, only O'Reilly friends welcome, well, then you and I belong to different Webs, that's about all there is to say about it. But if they excluded you, I'd stand up for you, by not going, and saying clearly why I wasn't. Too many people who think of me as a friend look the other way. That hasn't been cool for quite some time, now it's not cool publicly either. I'll sleep better knowing I've leveled with you all, and I really don't care if O'Reilly, Dougherty and Dornfest don't like it. They obviously don't care what I think (or maybe they care too much).

Scoble stays up late 

He sent me an email, reminding me that I had ordered a copy of Streets & Trips with GPS for my new Sony laptop (which runs Windows XP). Okay, like you, like Scoble, I'm full of shit, but at least I'm honest, so I'll return it as soon as it arrives. He's right, I can't support Microsoft and as much as I'd like to have the new toy, it'll be better for the Web if I don't have it.

He also says they're upgrading MSIE, but it takes 12 months for the work to complete. I've been led down that path so many times before, no matter how much I like Scoble, I just don't believe it.

Which leads me to the next, probably most important, point. One of Scoble's bosses, Vic Gundotra, once asked me why I'm so harshly critical of Microsoft but generally stay away from criticizing (his example) Apple. I gave him an honest answer, but a coward's answer. It's because there's no support for being critical of Apple, and there's all kinds of support for being critical of Microsoft.

Well, this is about as dishonest as you can get, and we've got to stop this if we have any hope of creating a useful medium here. The medium we've set up is far too easy to control through intimidation. If we ever tread outside of the safe territory of trashing Microsoft, we lose all support, at a time when we need much more support.

And Scoble can do his part to help his employer. When I read his glowing reports from O'Reilly events, it's really hard to think of him as a friend. Sylvia Paull, who's helping with BloggerCon, and has been a friend for 20 years, once said this: "I don't go to parties my friends aren't welcome at." This is a good principle, and as good a definition of the spirit of the Web as I've ever heard. And if Microsoft wants to be treated fairly, and who doesn't, they have to start by treating other people fairly.

And there's a practical side of it. If we agreed that no one is above examination, then we'd see more truth, and we'd get somewhere instead of just looping around and around. Doc Searls is both a proponent of the Cluetrain, and a big looker-in-the-other-direction. At BloggerCon, one of the things I'd like to talk about is meaning what we say and examining our own bullshit. If someone says "Look I found a bug in your software," is that good news or bad? The Cluetrain says it's good news. So does programming culture. So does Microsoft's old culture (one which almost doesn't exist anymore). We have a few among us who don't want to be talked about, yet want to dominate the conversation. We must tell them no.

Further, when they tell you there's more to it, there isn't. And when they say there's a flaw in my personality, perhaps they're right, but listening to Air America yesterday for the first time, I heard a caller say that Jesus was a liberal. She provided a few quotes, including this one. "Let the one without sin cast the first stone."

Judith Miller 

Don't be shocked, there's more!

A couple of weeks ago, Martin Nisenholtz at the NY Times asked me and a few other bloggers to look at the case of Judith Miller, a reporter at the Times, a famous one, who may go to jail to protect a source. He asked me to read an editorial, written by the publisher of the paper, and say what I think. I only told half the story then, wanting to think before presenting the other side.

Last night on the CNN program NewsNight, Aaron Brown, the host, interviewed Miller in a very long segment. I didn't time it, but I think it was probably ten minutes. He said at the outset that he and Miller are friends, and judging by the friendly nature of the conversation, it's a good thing he disclaimed it, because it was completely apparent.

I've been watching a lot of CNN and MSNBC lately, with the election so close, and this presentation was striking in its calmness, and thoughtfulness. Two intelligent people, talking about an important issue with big implications, with plenty of time, talking slowly, explaining themselves carefully. There was something disturbing about it, they weren't shouting. There was no opposition. No one was disagreeing with her. How unlike CNN. How wrong of CNN. How wrong of the the Times to support this.

On examination, where does the Times derive its right to deny the court order? Does the Times feel that I, an ordinary citizen, would have to comply with such an order? If I would, then what's the legal difference between a Times reporter and a blogger? Does that mean that Times reporters would have to be licensed by the state? Does the Times really support this idea? I hope not.

Fact is, sometimes the public need for information trumps a writer's guarantee of privacy to sources. Why should Miller be able to offer anonymity if a blogger can't? The Constitution does not give special status or protection to reporters. The First Amendment applies to all, not just people with a press badge. They were right to bring this to the blogosphere, but they were wrong in assuming we wouldn't probe and ask the questions they likely don't have answers for. They should join this discussion. They haven't so far.

And even now there's more to it, but this is where I want to stop and see if there's a response.

Monday, October 25, 2004

Eric Rice is exploring using Skype for podcasts. 

It was great to see Bill Clinton campaigning for John Kerry today. For so many reasons. First, he's the most skillful political speaker we have, in either party. Watching him at work is like watching a skilled artist, when we've had to tolerate such second-stringers, in Bush and Cheney and yes, Kerry and Edwards. Second, it's great to see him look so well! I have some idea what he's been through. This particular disease and its treatment help deepen people and bring on a sense of purpose and impatience. Let's get it done, now. Third, he will help the cause and raise the level of the debate. It's good to see him standing up for and behind John Kerry. In the early days of the Edwards partnership, Kerry was awkward, but you can see how he has grown as a leader. And Clinton's frailty, his vulnerability, works. Kerry, who actually is older than Clinton, can be seen as relying on and at the same time supporting the weaker but more experienced man. I like it because it works. Finally, so many years after Clinton's scandal, it's time to forgive the man. Enough time has passed, he's suffered enough, he's good enough. As they say, when Clinton lied no one died. Those were simpler times. It feels good to see Clinton doing so well because it feels so good to forgive. 

The world's oldest man is a Red Sox fan.  

If your desktop aggregator supports enclosures, you can subscribe to this feed to get a pretty healthy percentage of the new podcasts. And if you're a thick-headed PC columnist, you might try the HTML version as a fairly idiot-proof user interface for finding the new MP3s. You can even copy them to your iPod or iPod-alike using the Windows file system. One more thing, it's not just for Mac users, I only use Windows machines, but if Kerry wins the election I'll get a nice new Mac.  

Computerworld: "The biggest challenge for the open-source community is that there are too few open-source developers, according to Michael Tiemann, vice president of open-source affairs at Red Hat Inc." 

CBC is doing a podcast of Tod Maffin's radio show. Here's an episode he did explaining RSS.  

A podcast feed for Air America's Morning Sedition show. AA doesn't have very broad distribution in the US, but this feed solves the problem for people in cities that don't have a local station. Coooool.  

NY Times: Clinton Gets Rock Star's Welcome in Philadelphia. 

Adam Curry sends a screen shot of the OPML directory from iPodder.org integrated with the new iPodderX app.  

SF Chronicle article about RSS. Apparently RSS was a big topic at the Web 2.0 conference earlier this month. "At Web 2.0, a recent Internet conference in San Francisco, the acronym was omnipresent, referred to countless times on the stage and in the hallways." I think perhaps it's time for an open conference about the future of RSS. The Web 2.0 conference was exclusive. You had to be friends with a few rich and powerful people to be on stage there. This is not a good way to run an open standard, I think every reasonable person would agree with that.  

Scoble comments on yesterday's podcast in a blog post.  

ABC: "A gaunt former President Clinton does not think he is taking a risk by hitting the campaign trail for Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry so soon after undergoing quadruple heart bypass surgery." 

AP: "A smiling, energetic former President Clinton campaigned for Democratic Sen. John Kerry on Monday just seven weeks after undergoing heart surgery, telling a cheering crowd of thousands that Kerry 'is going to make America the comeback country.'" 

Eight days before the election, who would you vote for? 

Want a podcast with bite-size enclosures? Pete Prodoehl fills the bill. 

I'm doing some work on audio.weblogs.com this morning. This post has an enclosure attached, which you can see in the RSS feed. 

Sunday, October 24, 2004

Since arriving in Seattle I've wanted to do a podcast with Scoble. Today, before World Series game 2, we recorded a one hour six minute show. 

Geek News: "This is the best Podcast I have listened to yet." 

10/2/04: Anatomy of an iPodder. 

Sounds like a breakthrough in Adam Curry Land. 

The OPML blogroll of people participating in BloggerCon.  

Julie Leung: "Diaper-changing is one of my areas of expertise." 

Des Moines Register: "Yes, Kerry is liberal. But what's to fear from a liberal president? That he would run big deficits? That he would increase federal spending? That he would expand the power of the federal government over individuals' lives? Nothing Kerry could do could top what President Bush has already done in those realms." 

Rory Blyth: "A song isn't just lyrics." 

Saturday, October 23, 2004

Excellent first game of the series. Red Sox win 11-9 on a two-run home run in the bottom of the 8th. Lots of errors, lots of hits, base-running; even an injury. First post-curse Red Sox game, it's got a nice feel to it. The Yankees are sittin this one out. Happy about that!  

Schedule for the World Series. Go Red Sox! 

NY Times: Identities Stolen in Seconds. 

Dave Slusher on dim lights in the blogging world who stand "so close to the tree they fail to notice they are in a forest." 

In today's Daily Source Code, Adam ran a segment from KOMO about the homeless in Seattle. At the exact moment this was on, I was walking through Pioneer Square, which is ground zero for the homeless. 

Phishing has reached new levels of sophistication. Everything about this email looks real, and it gets your hackles up because it appears someone is taking money from your Paypal account to buy a game. The link that suggests you report fraud looks like a Paypal link, unless you mouse over it, and notice that it's not. I don't think I will ever give my PP password to a site without manually typing in the URL into my browser. Maybe I could create a rule like that for the browser to obey. Maybe now that Microsoft's ambitions with Passport have waned they can have an architecture in their browser for identity, something that Paypal and other Internet financial entities could tie into. Just a thought. 

David Weinberger: "I am a social putz." Me too. Great story.  

Carl Franklin defends podcasting as a medium.  

Another thing you can do at BloggerCon -- meet someone special, fall in love, get engaged...  

AKMA: "I’m available to make matches and read aloud from analyses of copyright law at weddings, funerals, and bar mitzvahs." 

Mary Hodder: "...the seller of the wedding invite doesn't want to attend because she doesn't like the bride and hasn't seen the groom since he started seeing the bride two years before." 

Is the White House is revising the record on the website that we (the taxpayers) pay for? 

When I signed on to the group phone call for The Gillmor Gang yesterday, Steve said they had three special surprise guests, members of The Firesign Theater. They were my high school heroes, but that was a long time ago, a really long time ago. Had the Firesign guys kept up? Well, apparently so. It took a few minutes to get going, they talked about underground radio in NY and LA in the 60s, Adam and I talked about podcasting today. Then we all joined in a chorus of The Good Days Are Back Again, with a refrain of For Now, For Now, For Now, For Now. I haven't listened to this show myself, yet, but I bet it's pretty good. 

I bought 100 shares of Google when it was $100. Yesterday it closed at $172.43. Paid all my rent in Seattle so far, and then some.  

Friday, October 22, 2004

Who do you vote for? You don't have to be a US citizen to vote here. 

CBS Marketwatch reviewer says iPodder ain't ready for real users.  

Lance Knobel feels a Kerry victory, but EVP has swung back to Bush. Adam and I recorded a Gillmor Gang episode today with three surprise guests, childhood heroes of mine, who got the podcast concept, totally, in less than an hour. Dit dit dit. This just in. More rain in California. The lunch on November 6 is still scheduled outdoors. When planning the event we thought luck would be on our side, the rains don't really start until December, right? Hmmm. Don't bet on it, especially in a year when the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees in the post-season. Huh? Did that really happen? 

Sign up page for the Friday night dinner. You must be a registered for the conference and signed on to the site. The cost is $25 per person. 7PM, Friday November 5 at Ming's in Palo Alto. If you have questions or comments please post them on the sign up page. 

CBS: "Will Google reach $200 in a month?" 

Check this out. There's a new aggregated blog page where the leaders of Microsoft's developer division post. That's interesting in its own right, but there's something else that caught my eye, an OPML file listing all the execs blogs. What's cool about this is that Adam could include a link to this in his directory and it would automatically recalc when Microsoft added or removed a blog from their OPML doc. And his directory would reflect any hierarchy in the Microsoft OPML document (it doesn't have any now). Finally, I can comment on other people's use of OPML, and show how it can be used to create a distributed directory with multiple authors and no bottlenecks. Folks, this is the way directories will become useful, we just have to get the MSN guys to tune into this. (And Google.) 

According to Greg Linden, Google is opening an office in Kirkland, right down the road from Redmond.  

The third $1000 donor for BloggerCon III is Bloglines. They run an excellent centralized aggregator that combines the feeds of the weblog world with the feeds of the pros, allowing users to create a customized news flow. They've grown quite a bit in the last few years, and it's great that Mark Fletcher, the creator of Bloglines will be at the conference, and has been so generous, along with the AP and Google, in supporting it. Thanks!  

Enoch Choi will lead the Medical Bloggers discussion at BloggerCon. 

Is editorial independence a core value of the Web? 

Voices of Iraq is a movie filmed by the people of Iraq. 

This feed from the Internet Archive is almost a podcast feed. If it had an enclosure element for each song, an iPodder app would be able to subscribe to it and keep an iPod in synch with the feed. All the content in the feed is available under a Creative Commons license. 

Dowbrigade: "Last night 21-year-old Emerson College journalism major Victoria Snelgrove was killed when hit in the eye by a pepper spray ball fired by Boston Police." 

Microsoft PC enthusiasts are rebuilding their cars with Windows XP computers in their dash. Scoble has a video report on the Channel 9 website. DVD player, wifi, GPS, hooked up to the car sound system, all digital until the sound comes out the speakers. A microphone on the steering wheel. No aggregator, yet. Touch screen. 

The Channel 9 report reminded me that I wanted Microsoft Streets & Trips with GPS, so I ordered it today. It'll go well with my new ultralite laptop. I'm driving to BloggerCon, the day after the election.  

Thursday, October 21, 2004

Today's audio blog post about music, baseball, music, downtown freeways, Steve Wozniak, indie music and the Grateful Dead.  

In today's podcast I said the Houston Astros have to win. I was wrong. The St Louis Cardinals had to win. It's an old-time World Series, Boston vs St Louis. I guess that means Texas ain't in it. Okay with me.  

John Kerry killed a poor defenseless goose today to show that he likes guns. I'll vote for him anyway. And I like the way it routes around the NRA which has shown its colors. It's not about protecting the 2nd Amendment, because Kerry supports it. They're using their members for something else. Good for Kerry for calling their bluff. If Bush can run as a compassionate conservative, no reason Kerry can't run as a gun-totin liberal. It's about time the liberals started kicking some butt. Or shooting it.  

NY Times: "Eliot Spitzer, the New York State attorney general, has recently taken on a procession of corporate powers from Wall Street analysts to mutual funds to insurance brokers. Now he is casting his eyes on the music industry, particularly its practices for influencing what songs are heard on the public airwaves." 

We got another $1000 donation today. As has become customary, the announcement will come tomorrow. The Friday night dinner, Nov 5, will be at Ming's Palace in Palo Alto at 7PM. We'll have a signup page tomorrow. The cost is $30 per person but we may subsidize it to get the cost down so more people can come. We have room for 80 people.  

BBC: "The Iranian journalists' union has held a meeting to protest at the arrests of eight webloggers and reformist newspaper journalists in recent months." 

Now for the surprise. Yesterday we got a $1000 donation from Google. This is great because there are so many ways the weblog community and Google can cooperate to make the World Wide Web work better, and help people get the information they're looking for, faster and faster. Bloggers create the knowledge on the Web, and Google helps us find it. We've had our differences, mostly about technical issues, and for now, we still do -- but when it comes to learning about and supporting the blogosphere, we're on the same side. So it's with great pleasure that I thank Google for their financial support of BloggerCon, and look forward to their participation in the event. 

Some further comments about the Google donation. 

Thanks to Ross Rader, Doc Searls, Frank Paynter, Hank Barry, Jay Dedman, Scott Owens, John Furrier, Kona Cooker, Patrick Ritchie, Zoltan Der, Doug Kaye, Aldo Castaneda, Alex Williams and Mark Fletcher for their generous donations to BloggerCon.  

NY Times: "Real anger is as rare on television as real discussion." 

When I see Dick Cheney on TV I wonder if he's really running for vice-president of the United States, or vice-president of the sixth grade. With his wife laughing in the background as he takes cheap personal shots at a man who very well might be President of the United States shortly, I feel sad for my country that this is the best we've been able to elect to the second highest office in our country. Shame on Cheney, shame on the Republicans, shame on us. 

Jon Gordon interviews Mitch Altman, the designer of TV-B-Gone. 

The Wall Street Journal explores the world of Iraqi weblogs. 

I went to an interesting blogger's dinner last night at the Pike Brewery. We watched the end of the Red Sox game, met some Republicans (arrgh), a Libertarian candidate for Secretary of State, and a father-son podcasting team. Listening to their review of the Clusty search engine right now. 

Today's Scripting News is dedicated to miracles. When you live long enough you learn that miracles happen; in fact they happen all the time, you just have to keep your eyes open, and be willing to see them. Today in Boston, even a small child in kindergarten has lived long enough to see the Boston Red Sox defeat the mighty Yankees, something I never thought I'd be able to write, not in this lifetime. And who could not see the miracle in last night's victory? The Red Sox did what the Mets could not do, and they did it with such style, such force of character, and in the end, so decisively. Hats off to the Sox. Now it's okay, for a moment, for the fans to think that victory in the World Series will be theirs. Having disposed of the terrible foe, wouldn't it be something to see them face their former ace, Roger Clemens, in a cold, snowy game 7 in Boston? Could they win such a game? Could they? That's the amazing thing about baseball, you won't know till it happens. We could live to see that. And you'll see that there's another miracle, much smaller, that we can celebrate later today. The next big donor to the BloggerCon cause. 

Speaking of miracles, Lance Knobel notes that former US president Bill Clinton is well enough after heart surgery, to make a campaign appearance with John Kerry on Monday in Philadelphia. Lance also notes that President Bush is scheduled for a day of rest on Saturday, fueling speculation that the long-expected October surprise will be a Bush visit to Iraq or Afghanistan.  

UndergroundClips links to and reviews the CBC's unauthorized biography of Dick Cheney. (346MB) 

Another miracle on this day of miracles, Julie Leung and Adam Curry discover they have many things in common. 

Yesterday, talking with Marcus Mauller, we figured out how to integrate BitTorrent with Manila. The key is to do it through Gems. In a special Manila site on a server running the BitTorrent software, when you upload a Gem to that site, it automatically generates a meta file, and links to it in the Gems table listing. It's the perfect user interface. The content creator needs to know nothing about the difficult process of Torrent-izing a media file, the URL is handled the same way the non-Torrent URL is handled.  

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Some great news! We got a $1000 donation today from The Associated Press. This is very welcome, both because we need the money, but also it's great that AP wants to help the bloggers. We have another $1000 donation in process from a big tech company, one which I think people will find surprising. I know I was surprised and pleased that old wounds are healing, and the blogosphere is uniting, in a very nice way. BloggerCon is that kind of event. It's so open, it makes people want to come in. Another cool thing is that we're getting these sponsorships without making editorial concessions. At the second BC, we went looking for financial help from the big tech companies (because we did away with the admission fee), and found that we would have to give them speaking slots, without telling the people they were paying for the slots. I wouldn't do these deals, although I had learned this is standard practice for tech industry conferences. These contributions are coming without any concessions. There will be people participating from AP, and other companies, and they participate like anyone else (no commercials, though), and they get our special thanks for helping the bloggers. That's the way it should work, imho. 

AP: "Boston blew away decades of defeat with four sweet swings." 

History was made tonight. The Boston Red Sox beat the NY Yankees in the seventh game of the ALCS. It's the first time the Yankees have lost a championship series. And the first time a team has come back from a 3-0 deficit in post-season play. And for Boston it's a major step in reversing the curse. Congrats to the Red Sox and their fans. 

Tim Madden has created podcast buttons for people to use.  

KGW, a television station in Portland, Oregon, has RSS feeds. 

And KPTV, the Fox affiliate in Portland also has RSS feeds. Amazing. 

WAGM, a television station in Presque Isle, Maine, has an RSS feed. 

Henry Earl is jail. How do I know? His RSS feed says so. 

MPR has a podcast feed of Jon Gordon's Future Tense. Bing! 

Marc Canter: "...I hated the idea of buying your way onto a panel." 

New feature: If you do a search on the Baltimore Sun website, you'll see a beautiful white-on-orange XML icon providing the search results in RSS. Subscribe to the feed to peform the search every time your aggregator updates. Don't you wish Google did this? 

Tonight is the season premiere of The West Wing, and the previews look good, but I won't be watching it. Game 7 of the ALCS is on at the same time, but I won't be watching that either. There's a political bloggers meetup at Pike Place Market tonight. I'll be drinking beer wondering what I'm missing as the Red Sox put the Yankees in the history books as the first team to ever lose a series after going up 3-0. And if you believe that, you don't know the Red Sox.  

NY Times: "The Yankees are one loss from sinking to an inglorious place in baseball history. Their fans beat them to it last night." 

EVP: Kerry 291, Bush 247. Deee-lish! 

Bob Stepno explains podcasting. 

Yesterday I tried an experiment, and included an enclosure that points to a QuickTime movie, to see what would happen. Mark Woods has a report. iTunes sort-of understands QuickTime, but iPods do not. 

Jeff Walsh writes, re Band of Citizens: "A lot of multimedia pros got together to create a positive site focusing on why they feel Kerry is the best candidate. The best thing is that anyone can send in a video, and it will appear on the site, just has to be positive about why someone is voting for Kerry, no Bush-bashing allowed." 

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Watching the American League playoff with the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, who were down to their final three outs at one point in the series and could tie the series 3-3 with a win tonight. They're up 4-0 in the top of the fourth. Just tuned in. Hope to bring them good luck. I hate the Yankees who have two on with no outs and their slugger Matsui coming to bat. Are you watching? Red Sox win. Game 7 tomorrow. 

Over the last couple of days I've helped a bunch of people debug their podcast feeds so they will work with audio.weblogs.com. Here are a few common problems and the cures. 

Thanks to Jeff Clavier, George MacDonald, Lance Knobel, Lisa Williams, Jack Mancilla and David Sifry for their generous donations to BloggerCon III.  

Announcing: Audio.Weblogs.Com. It shows the newest podcasts, in reverse chronologic order, the same way weblogs.com shows the most recently updated weblogs. Now you can sample the work of the podcast community before installing an iPodder app. Podcasters, you can ping via XML-RPC, the same way you ping weblogs.com (all the major weblog apps are compatible) or through a Web form. There's even an RSS feed that contains the most recent 100 podcasts, and if your desktop aggregator is enclosure-aware, you'll even get all the podcasts (but watch out it can add up to quite a bit of disk space). 

Since the Friday dinner and Saturday lunches will be outdoors, we'd appreciate it if it would stop raining in California as soon as possible.  

Orlowski: "The living room TV of the future will look a lot like Google." 

A classic Scoble corporate blogging rant. These days when I say his name it's Scahhh-bulll. That's because when you call his office and he's not there, his voicemail mispronounces his last name. An obvious opportunity for Microsoft to write some hard-core software.  

We're getting a new kind of fan mail these days, and it's most welcome. It's great to hear the voices of people who like our work! 

For those who think podcasting is brand-new, consider this. A year before my June audio posts, a year before Daily Source Code or Trade Secrets, Chris Lydon was doing what we called a weblog for the ears. It had all essential ingredients of a podcast, a studio that fit in a knapsack (designed by Bob Doyle) an RSS 2.0 feed with enclosures, and an inspired amateur on a mission from god. Let's not overlook their contribution.  

Russ Beattie forgot to mention podcasting when he was interviewed about the future of RSS. He also says that RSS was mentioned a "gazillion times" at the Web 2.0 conference. That's so funny becuase John Battelle, the conference emcee, told me RSS wasn't on the agenda at all!  

Doc Searls will lead the sure-to-sell-out How To Make Money session at BloggerCon, 17 days from now. It isn't going to be as linear as you might think, remember he's the "Markets Are Conversations" guy. Anyway, I have a feeling this session is going to be a good podcast.  

Kottke: "Out of Technorati's top 100 most-linked weblogs, only 16 don't feature advertising or are otherwise noncommercial." 

My opinion: I use my blog for strategies, not tactics. I make a lot more money (and lose a lot more too) than the blogs that run ads. Orders of magnitude more money.  

Salon reports that Sinclair stock has lost over 20 percent of its value as liberal voters organize on an ad boycott of the conservative network. 

Jay Rosen: "Even if Stolen Honor were judged fairly to be news -- even if we bend over backwards to give Sinclair the benefit of the doubt -- it still wouldn't explain what the company is doing by pre-empting regular programming to run the special in prime time." 

Pioneer Press article on Podcasting. 

Chris Sells' XML developers conference starts tomorrow in Portland.  

10/19/00: "How much money do you need to feel secure?" 

The always quotable Paolo on the weird dynamics of podcatching: "I'm kinda looking forward to be stuck at the airport or on the airplane in order to be finally able to listen to all this stuff." I had the same feeling, driving across the prairie, where I caught up with the Daily Source Code. 

How much you want to bet that the iPod that Apple introduces next week will play this video I recorded in Brandon, Manitoba in August? 

Monday, October 18, 2004

Audio blog post with a sneak preview of a new site.  

David Czarnecki announces a new podcasting plug-in for Blojsom. Bing! 

Business Week RSS feeds.  

Time: "Republican pollsters have long warned that Bush cannot allow his approval ratings to fall below 47% and still expect to win a second term." 

John Palfrey: Electoral-Vote seeks backup. 

LA Times article on podcasting. "They follow in the footsteps of blogs, from which podcasts were born." 

Shaking the tree for BloggerCon 

Just 18 days to BloggerCon III at Stanford Law School. We're still short on money for food, facilities, refreshments, wifi and webcasts.

Thanks to John Miller, Peter Blackshaw, Scott Mace, Doc Searls, Matthew Mullenweg, Betsy Devine, Don Park, Robert Sayre, Paul Boutin, Mike Liveright, Scott Rosenberg, Susan Mernit, Cole Jolley for their generous and spirited financial contribution to the success of the upcoming con!

We need a few more generous souls to part with some of their hard-earned cash so we can have the great time we all deserve. That, and good weather, and spicy noodles!

Should reporters listen to users? 

Jon Stewart's appearance on CNN Crossfire was a big hit in the weblog world. His wasn't a Republican or Democratic point of view, it was a passionate plea for reporters to do better work. They couldn't hear what he was saying, wouldn't even let him finish a sentence.

We've seen the press take control of our political lives, as a result we went to war without deep support from the people. The Dean candidacy was swamped with coverage of a scream, and shortly after he was out of the race, some of the reporters acknowledged that the story was based on poor reporting. They control us, and as a result we're confused, voting for candidates based on very incomplete, even incorrect, information.

I asked some people who are participating in BloggerCon, or who have participated in past BloggerCons, to comment on what I thought was a very simple proposition, that reporters should listen to their customers. A similar idea gained some traction in academia, that students' success should be considered as a goal of the university's work. In journalism, an equivalent goal would be to provide the customers with good information on which to base a decision. Maybe if the reporters thought of us as customers they would care more about serving our interests.

This issue is at the core of Stewart's dissatisfaction with the press, and mine, and maybe yours. They tolerate lies, even lie themselves, we know it, but they seem to have lost sight of this, and we stopped caring, if we ever did. Do you care now? Could a news organization that really listened to its customers provide better service? Or would you just ask for more Lacey Peterson coverage, or Kobe Bryant, or the Dean Scream or (the latest) Marygate.

Should reporters disclose conflicts of interest? 

I watched a CNN reporter this morning say over and over that newspaper endorsements don't influence voters.

Should she express a personal opinion on this, without reminding the viewer of her conflict of interest (she works for a television network).

Interestingly, they omitted that Kerry had gained endorsements from all the major Florida newspapers. Pretty remarkable. Not newsworthy? Why?

A famous puzzle 

I was struck, in the first N comments, at how few people even tried to answer the question I asked.

Instead people respond with their favorite story, even if it was completely not responsive. It's as if they were on Meet The Press, spinning, fighting to say nothing that could be used against them in an attack ad run by their political opponent. In other words, the sloppy discourse of television is the discourse of daily life, even among intelligent, accomplished people.

My goal for BloggerCon is that for one day we all get out of that bubble, that we question what we believe, and see if another point of view might add something to our intellectual lives. That BloggerCon, by making speech easier, lets us relax a bit about listening, so some of it actually happens.

Anyway, if you want to see how good your intellectual vision is, here's a puzzle that's works for many people. I only know two people who got it right the first time. Most people don't get it right even when they know the correct answer! (I am one of those people.)

Nicely designed site for sharing commercials 

A new site, p2p-politics rolls out today.

Nicely designed, easy to use, it lets you send links to political ads that are released under the Creative Commons to anyone you like.

So far they only have Kerry ads.

Larry Lessig, who is promoting this project says: "We've gotten lots of cooperation from the Kerry people. Can't seem to get a response from the Bush or Nader people yet.

"The content can come from anyone, so long as they donate a copy to the Internet Archive, which makes it available under a CC license."

Sunday, October 17, 2004

Undergroundclips: George Bush on Meet the Press. 

Lots of new podcasting infrastructure will be announced tomorrow.  

Congratulations to the Red Sox and their fans. A great game. 

I gotta say this -- AOL is running some kickass ads. They'll have a hard time living up to the promise they make, but why not challenge the people who work there to actually listen to customers? It can only make the company stronger. I think that's basically what Jon Stewart was saying to the CNN Crossfire guys. Owned by the same company too. Also getting their ass kicked in the market. Something to think about.  

Markoff: "Google's urgency in releasing a desktop search program shows that it knows the fight over search is moving to new ground." 

I just listened to my first Dawn & Drew podcast. They're awesome.  

If endorsements were votes, Kerry wins Florida in a landslide. 

"thinkusaalignright"Watching Bill Frist, Senate Majority Leader, blame Kerry and Edwards for the failure of the Congress to pass tort reform. I thought I was hearing Bush do the same thing in the last debate. I wonder how many Americans know that Congress is controlled by the Republicans. They talk as if there were an adversarial relationship between the legislative and executive branches, which would lead people to draw the incorrect conclusion that the Democrats are responsible. I think today we got a preview of the final onslaught of ads the Republicans are going to run, and there won't be an opportunity to explain that the Democrats don't run Congress. Like the lie that Saddam Hussein was in league with Osama bin Laden, the Republicans don't mind if you draw the wrong conclusion, in fact, they'll help you do it.  

NY Times Magazine, quoting a senior White House official, in 2002: "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality." 

Adam Curry: "A lot of people have been questioning the use of licensed music in Podcasts and I too feel that the time has come to face any legal ramifications of this audio wave we're riding now, and not let it take us by surprise." 

Mitch Kapor: "We were never meant to have a highly centralized government." 

Emailing with Larry Lessig today, he said something surprising about Creative Commons. "No author gives up his copyright when putting content under a CC license. A CC license is just permissions given up front. It rests upon a copyright (without the copyright, you couldn't impose the permissions). But the copyright owner holds the copyright, and just says, 'here's how you're free to use my work.'"  

Doug Kaye interview with Adam Curry. 

RSS news feeds from South Africa. 

This is a test. For the next sixty seconds this station will conduct a test of the Emergency Podcast System.  

I got another test blog post. An audio test blog post. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. 

Editor & Publisher has a list of presidential endorsements. 

Undergroundclips has the 60 Minutes interview with Richard Clark. 

Frank Rich: "Like the Nixon administration before it, the current White House has kneecapped with impunity any news organization that challenges its message." 

The Boston Globe profiles Jack Meyer, the investment banker who's in charge of Harvard's $22 billion endowment. 

In a speech yesterday Bush said we will not have an all-volunteer army. A few in the audience shouted, and he flipped it around. They chuckle when Bush makes a mistake, but what if Kerry had said it? Do you think the Republicans would have mocked him? Yeah, I think so. I think the Dems should run that flip-flop as an ad. Fair is fair. And unfair is fair in this election. 

Jeremy Zawodny, who works at Yahoo, says MSNBC ripped them off.  

Saturday, October 16, 2004

The NY Times endorses John Kerry for President. 

Watching the Yankees clean the Red Sox's clock. My heart goes out to my brother, Michael Feldman, the Dowbrigade. I know it's not a good day to be a Red Sox fan, but let me leave you with this thought. If the Red Sox were to someday get by the Yankees, they would no longer have a philosophy. They would no longer be the Red Sox. They might as well tear down Fenway. The Curse of the Bambino defines the team. It's not a pretty sight. It couldn't be any other way. 

Today's audio blog post on audio pings and Jon Stewart.  

Where to stay at BloggerCon III? I'll be at Rickey's Hyatt. Yeah the reviews aren't very great, but it's a cool place with tons of history, a great pool, garden and patio. A perfect place to do our podcasts before and after the Con. And the price is pretty good too, for central Palo Alto.  

Following up Jon Stewart's appearance on CNN Crossfire yesterday, wouldn't it be great if we had a TV network whose only job was to explain what was really going on on the other networks? For example, when Chris Matthews interviewed John Edwards yesterday about the bullshit about the Cheney daughter, the new network would point out that Matthews was doing exactly what everyone was so upset with Kerry about, and by the way, so is Mr Cheney and get this -- so is Mrs Cheney, who supposedly is so upset. Well if she were really so upset about the exposure of her daughter wouldn't she try to make the controversy go away? Come on really. The hypocrisy is so thick, and everyone knows it. Anyway, if there really were such a network none of the current crop of politicians would appear on it for fear of having to say what they really think about stuff. But maybe a new crop would develop. 

Mary Hodder: "You can refer to me as Bobo-at-Large." 

John Palfrey: "Berkman is hosting a conference in December to consider, from a skeptical viewpoint, the impact of the Internet on politics." 

Nick Robinson says, via email, that Al Gore is launching this network. 

Two years ago today, evangelism for RSS enclosures. 

Interesting comments in this post re the Plame/Novak/Miller case.  

Dave Carroll illustrates a modern well-equipped dashboard.  

Doc Searls: Why Podcasting isn't Radio. 

Brandon Fuller wrote a Movable Type plug-in that pings audio.weblogs.com when it publishes an item with an enclosure in category "podcast."  

This is the first mention of the new audio weblog ping-center here on Scripting News. With the release of Google Desktop Search and then the MSNBC feeds, and the coverage of the Valerie Plame debate, there hasn't been a good time to talk about it until now. Basically Adam and I each bought a new server, we're working to get the first one fully functional. It's now responding to pings, producing a changes.xml and a shortChanges.xml, and developers in the podcasting community, such as Brandon Fuller, above, are starting to ping and some are starting to build apps off changes.xml. It's good to hear that generic pinging is working. Honestly I hadn't claimed it does, because I wrote the code when I was pretty tired and hadn't yet had a chance to test it.  

Here's a page of notes on how the audio weblog ping-center works.  

Friday, October 15, 2004

Here's something that doesn't happen every day. On Tuesday, Cambridge blogger Betsy Devine's husband got a phone call from Sweden. Frank Wilczek, who I met at Betsy's house last year, shares this year's Nobel Prize for Physics. What to say but wow, congrats and much love and pride to Frank and Betsy! Way to go! 

MSNBC's all-new RSS support. Excellent! 

Earlier this week I was emailing with Martin Nisenholtz, an executive at the NY Times, about various technical subjects involving RSS and podcasting, when he suggested we talk on the phone. He asked if I was up on the Valerie Plame case. I said I was. I found out that I wasn't. 

Jon Stewart is on CNN Crossfire, he's taking them apart. They won't let him finish a sentence. He keeps saying "we need help." This is must-watch stuff.  

Transcript of the Stewart appearance. A discussion on BOP, and (bing!) BitTorrents in WMV and AVI formats. Russ Beattie has an MP3. 

Greenspun: "George W. Bush attracts all of the hatred." 

AP: "President Bush's top political adviser has testified today before a panel looking into who leaked the name of an undercover CIA officer." 

Old-time political reporter Hal Bruno was on CNN today. He predicts something ominous. "Last time there was one Florida, this time there may be many." Brrrr.  

I was interviewed by Jon Gordon at Minnesota Public Radio about podcasting. 

Dave Massy: "We feel it is vitally important for web sites and applications that worked with yesterday’s IE work with today’s IE, and continue to work with tomorrow’s IE." 

Don Park reviews Google Desktop Search. 

Jon Udell: "Everybody seems to have a different reason to care about Google's desktop search tool." 

PC World's Tom Spring raises a totally legit security concern re GDS. 

A coincidence? 

Heads up, with a grain of salt. Yesterday, as you know, I installed Google Desktop Search. It spent the whole day indexing my system, and when I retired for the day, it wasn't done, so I let it run all night. Arriving at work this morning, it was still running.

Now, perhaps independently, my computer was almost totally unusable yesterday. It would disappear for a few moments, even the mouse wouldn't work. Listen to the audio blog post I did for an idea of what it was like.

When it was just as bad this morning, I decided to exit Google Desktop Search. Now I'm sure it's a total coincidence, but all of a sudden my machine is quite zippy. All of a sudden it's as if it never lost its mind.

Anyway, being the superstitious sort that I am, I'm going to leave it uninstalled as long as I'm in crunch mode on various projects.

Evangelism 101 

Don't tell the girl you want girls.

Tell her you want her.

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Red Herring: Wiki Wars. 

The Paypal outage is cleared so we can resume fund-raising for BloggerCon III. If you've been waiting to make your contribution, you can now go ahead, and please do.  

I've installed Google Desktop Search.  

The excitement about Google Desktop Search is giving way to the reality. Their choice of file formats they will index is weird. And I don't care what everyone else uses, most of my valuable content is in the CMS I use to edit my blog, and they don't index that, and I doubt if they ever will. An open architecture desktop search app is a requirement. I must be able to write a plug-in that teaches it how to index formats it doesn't understand. 

Erik Speckman: "Google desktop search is a disappointment." 

Erik makes a good point. It only indexes Microsoft mail data. I would like it to index my object databases, that's where all my content is. This could all be solved if they had a driver architecture that allowed us to teach it how to index file formats they don't understand. Now that we're on the desktop this becomes possible, as does a richer API. Google's concern for server bandwidth goes away when the software is running on my desktop. 

I tried a search for Nigeria. Yup it indexes the spam too. 

Kottke: "But then there's the privacy issues." 

Very cool. It's a Fractional Horsepower HTTP Server, running on port 4664. This is the only way to go. It's conceivable they could have done it as an ActiveX component, but that would have been a huge mistake. You can use it with any browser. Right on. The fact that it's only available for Windows XP and 2000 is going to be a problem with Mac users, of course. Having waited so long, I'm very excited to be using this.  

Holy shit this thing is amazing. I just did a search on Global Google for Desktop Web Server, and at the top of the screen my eye caught a special reference to Scripting News. Wow, my subconscious said, I get a lot of rank for that. Bzzzt. Wrong. It included a result from my local hard disk and one from an email in Outlook Express. Okay, we're in another age here folks. The Web just got a major upgrade. Wow. The crazy thing is, so did my desktop.  

Other reviews: John Battelle, Danny Sullivan, BBC. 

Three DaveNet pieces anticipating this technology. 

Special audio blog post on GDS, what it means, how exciting it is, etc. 

Moral of the story: don't record an audio blog post while Google is indexing your hard disk. Oy. Basically that post is useless. File this as a bug report. A microphone is an important input device.  

Summary: Bing! Bing! Bing! Bing! Bing! 

The Age covers podcasting. "A tidal wave of sound for surfers." 

Lenn Pryor is hosting a Podcasting session at O'Reilly's Mac OS X conference, in Santa Clara on October 28.  

Here's what the new ads in the Engadget feed look like in my aggregator. At first I barely noticed them, then they looked like big glitches, but now that I see them in every post and I am starting to think about unsubbing. That says a lot, because it's become one of my favorite feeds. I honestly don't see why they need ads in their feed, because the feed itself is an ad for Engadget. Every time I read an item there's a (let's say) three percent chance I'll link to it and deliver several hundred readers. There's got to be a better way to pay for the feed.  

The obvious reason Lynne Cheney is upset that Kerry talked about their gay daughter in last night's debate is that their love for their daughter contradicts the Republican policy of limiting the rights of gay people. They'e willing to sacrifice their integrity for the votes of some bad people (following Ms Cheney's judgement re Kerry). The problem is with the Cheney philosophy, not Kerry. They have a gay daughter. That's a known fact. They also contribute to the oppression of gay people. That's the problem.  

Dick Cheney is the first veep since Nixon whose name is Dick. 

Dick Cheney: "Fuck yourself." 

Two years ago: "Now of course there are non-hierarchic links, that accounts for serendipity or daydreaming, but when you want to get a job done, hierarchies do the hard work of organizing for quick retrieval." 

Sounds like Adam is going to Starbucks to upload the next DSC. 

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

NY Times editorial: The Promise of the First Amendment. 

MP3 of tonight's debate, thanks to Replay Radio and KUOW.  

I have a question about IIS on Windows 2000 Server. 

Re the post below, one of the two servers is up, not the one with unmetered bandwidth. But the MP3 of tonight's debate is recording, and I will upload it after the debate is over. Also, I have an email from Martin Nisenholtz at the NY Times, re the editorial above. I'll run that email with my blogger's point of view, tomorrow morning. I think this is a ripe moment in the relationship between professional and amateur journalists.  

Join us on a trip through the mind of Ethan Zuckerman. It's a fascinating place! I live across the street from a containerized seaport. It's something else to see one of the huge frieght ships navigating Puget Sound, with thousands of containers. I'll take a picture of one for you, maybe later tonight. And when you drive in from the airport you drive through what seems a storage yard for millions of containers, all with Asian names on them, some in Asian scripts. Where I live it's impossible to miss that we're part of a global economy. The evidence is everywhere you look. Hey it's cool to collaborate with a Berkman colleague. Say hi to everyone for me Ethan. I miss you guys!! Tell them to check out podcasting, I think they'll love it. 

Tod Maffin: "Following Eric Rice's idea of 'open-source promos,' I'm offering my time to produce a limited number of intros for podcasters. 100% free." 

I was interviewed today on Minnesota Public Radio about podcasting. Yes, they're working on a podcast feed. They asked why is this growing so fast. I thought for a second and said: Blogs. A new idea can flow much faster now that we have mobilized word of mouth in a network of weblogs. It's all part of the same bootstrap. Blogs are used to inform people of the next blog-like thing. It's at times like this that I say: Bing! 

I called Adam today on Skype and said "It's time to buy the new server." So we talked about it and agreed to buy two new servers. One to run more Web apps, and another as a pure bandwidth hog. It has 20Mbps unmetered. We can fill the pipe and pay nothing extra. Weeee-ohhh. We're betting on lots of growth in podcasting and want to make sure our infrastructure, which we're furiously developing, can grow to handle the demand. To test it out, I'm going to record an MP3 of tonight's debate, and I'll upload the MP3 as soon as possible. I'm also going to do a rush-study on BitTorrent. Looking for a good how-to. 

The Public Radio Exchange is experimenting with podcasts. 

5 years ago Edd Dumbill wrote a kind article about XML-RPC and UserLand. "What Userland opened was not the source to its servers or content management system, Frontier, but its ideas, protocols, and bandwidth." Exactly right. That was the philosophy. Now of course the source is open too.  

Operation Truth is a "nonprofit, non-partisan organization whose goal is simple and straightforward: to support our troops and spread the truth about what conditions are like in Afghanistan and Iraq." 

They're running an excellent ad on CNN, that answers the Swift Boat guys, without making ad hominem attacks on President Bush. It's about time.  

Engadget: 92% of new hard drive-based MP3 players sold are iPods. 

Ann Petigrew: "Secretary Rumsfeld and President Bush, you are responsible for the inaccurate intelligence assessments, inadequate troop strength, Iraqi prisoner abuses, inadequate logistical support for U.S. forces, and fraudulent contracting billing for the Iraq reconstruction." 

To the Democrats: Don't let Bush get away with passing the buck. He's solely responsible for the military of the US. The commander-in-chief can't pass the buck.  

Remember what Harry Truman said. "The President -- whoever he is -- has to decide. He can't pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That's his job." 

Adam Curry: "We now have 7 people maintaining nodes." 

Every time Bush says "He can run but he cannot hide," I think of Dale Gribble on King of the Hill. A chain smoker, conspiracy theorist. I swear they taught Dubya how to talk like Dale, who comes from the fictitious town of Arlen, TX. Believe it or not there's a Dale Gribble doll. 

Scoble spots a $1900 tiny XP machine that does audio and video. 

Chris Pirillo does a mini-conference in a podcast. 

This blog has proof that Bush was wearing a receiver at the first debate. 

I'm happy to see Morning Coffee Notes in the Pioneers section. I have very fond memories of the early days of podcasting. Last month.  

David Weinberger article on metadata.  

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Today's Trade Secrets podcast with Adam and myself, recorded at 5AM Pacific. No wonder I don't remember much of it! 

OJR: "With the sorry state of radio journalism -- a victim of massive corporate buyouts -- can these new technologies bring a broader range of audio reportage than just public radio, local AM news and repurposed Big Media fare like ESPN Radio? The jury is still out, but radio junkies are filled with hope." 

Listening to the audio from the blogging session at Gnomedex. I only recognize a few of the voices, the speakers aren't saying their names. I'm forming opinions of what people are saying without knowing who they are. 

eWeek columnist David Coursey says podcasting is cool for commercial content, and silly when used by "egomaniacal" bloggers.  

I started a FAQ for BloggerCon III. 

We're hearing from people asking if we can re-open the wait list. 

Gizmodo: "Networks Solutions is fucking up my livelihood." 

The Engadget podcast feed. 

Alex Cohen posts the CBC's unauthorized biography of Dick Cheney. 

Adam Curry's history of podcasting.  

Airplane politics 

On the plane last night I lucked out and got the middle seat between a couple from Canada, and they wanted to sit together, so I got the aisle seat and this morning my back feels just fine.

We talked about US politics and eventually it turned to Bush-bashing, and they wondered if there were any Republicans on the plane because we were talking really loud.

A white-haired woman in the seat in front turned around and passed back a political cartoon which seemed to say Bush was the right choice. I said I don't understand, does this mean you're voting for Bush? She just wanted us to know there are "other points of view." I handed it back and said I know, half the people are voting for Bush. Then I turned to my Canadian friends and said "But I have no respect for them."

Seriously, if you vote for Bush and he wins, we're going to blame you for what happens in the next four years.

Volcano webcam 

Monday, October 11, 2004

Tod Maffin on what radio can teach Podcasting. 

Jake Ludington: Podcasting with Windows Media Player. 

Washington Post reviews MSN's new music store. "...for this store to start winning market share from iTunes, Microsoft has more work to do." 

Problems with PayPal today. Please hold the thought.  

Murphy's Law in action. PayPal is working "furiously" to fix the problem.  

They have a RSS feed for system announcements, which is chock full of updates about the outage.  

And then I blogged for an hour while waiting for my flight. This is a first. I have a laptop that's both comfortable in the lap and has the battery life to support such casual away-from-desktop writing. Not bad. However the flight is completely full and I have (arrgh) a middle seat. It's reasonable to assume my back will ache for a full 24 hours starting tomorrow morning. 

I was listening to Adam Curry's latest Daily Source Code as I was getting off the tram into San Francisco Airport. As I got on the escalator he announced the song, a Frank Sinatra oldie, that was exactly the right song at exactly the right moment. 

Frank Sinatra: Come Fly With Me. 

Steve Hoffman: Medscape tries Podcasting. 

Bob Herbert: "If Mr. Bush has a plan to clean up the mess in Iraq, he should say so. If he has a strategy -- besides more tax cuts -- to bolster employment in the U.S., he should tell us. If he's in touch with the real world in which these and other very serious problems exist, he might consider letting us know." 

I Love Radio: Interview your grandmother... for $10. 

Last Thursday we put up a Paypal page asking for donations to help buy food, refreshments, pay for cleanup, networking, webcasts, and other expenses. The response was fantastic. Many thanks to the following people who gave generously: Scott Loftesness, Dan Gillmor, John Rhodes, RDS Strategies LLC, Craig Cline, Jason Cosper, James McGee, Fred Ballard, ES Designs, Henk Doornbos, Pito Salas, Bret Fausett, Roland Tanglao, Gene Becker, Lawrence Bouchie, Todd Sattersten and Danny Sullivan. And the first people to give: Adam Curry, Britt Blaser and David Czarnecki. We could still use more help, we've cut corners putting together BloggerCon, so every dime we spend will really help make the conference better. 

Here's the final list of people participating in BloggerCon III at Stanford Law School on November 6. Basically we were able to accomodate everyone on the wait list. Looking forward to seeing you all in just 25 days! 

Please, if you can't make it, that's okay, we appreciate the heads-up. It's much more useful if you enter that into the database yourself, by clicking on the checkbox on this page (after logging on) and click on Submit. That way everything automatically recomputes, without any extra administrative work.  

Next on the agenda will be signup for the Friday night dinner-party and for the Saturday night Food For Thought dinners. Both events will take place in the Palo Alto area. 

A plane landing at SFO last night at sunset. 

Sunday, October 10, 2004

Actor Christopher Reeve dead at 52. 

Adam has reviews of the KOMO and WGBH podcast feeds. 

Taegan Goddard reports that Kerry got endorsement from Atlanta, St Louis and Philadelphia newspapers over the weekend. 

Zawodny: "RSS 2.0 is something you should see reflect in most, if not all, of the Yahoo RSS feeds." 

Ethan Zuckerman has developed a new way to tap my brain.  

New pics: Don Park, Scoble, Stanford AV, Dave J, Cassidy, Amy. 

The BBC now has an Arabic feed. 

Today's movie: Cassidy Says Hello. Play it several times for full effect. 

Venture capital conferences about weblogs and RSS are like Republican conferences on the environment.  

Kerry missed several chances to nail Bush in the second debate. For example, when Bush listed his excuses for Iraq, he blamed the problems on the generals. He said he asked them if they had enough troops. They said yes. He asked if they were sure they had the right plan. They said yes. Long and drawn out. Kerry said it's the job of the generals to win the war, and it's the job of the President to win the peace. Aside from being nonsense (the President is the Commander-In-Chief, he's the highest military officer, the generals report to him); it was far from the strongest response. Try this instead. "Mr President, the American people hired you to keep them safe. Iraq is your responsibility. President Truman, who made the fateful decision that ended World War II, who stood up to General MacArthur and Senator McCarthy, had a sign on his desk that said The Buck Stops Here. America doesn't need a President who passes the buck and doesn't take responsibility. That's why we're in so much trouble in Iraq. We've had enough. It's time for you to go."  

Harry Truman: "The President -- whoever he is -- has to decide. He can't pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That's his job." 

When a new activity is bootstrapping, lots can happen in a short time. Just one week ago I posted Anatomy of an iPodder, a technical document that helps aggregator developers add iPodder funtionality to their programs, making it easy for their users to subscribe to audio feeds. It's worth pointing to again, because in the last week the user base has grown and lots of new feeds have come online. 

Saturday, October 09, 2004

Adam was recording a Daily Source Code, caught in traffic, a horn honks, he rolls down the window, it's Raymond and he's got an iPod and he's listening to the Daily Source Code. It's quite a moment.  

I've been watching Fox News today, and guess what, they're critical of Bush, and speaking favorably of Kerry. Could they smell a change, and now will start serving a new boss? 

NY Times: "What was that bulge in the back of President Bush's suit jacket at the presidential debate in Miami last week?" 

Atlanta Journal-Constitution endorses Kerry. "It's time to give competence a chance." 

Adam Curry was interviewed today by Leo Laporte on KFI in LA.  

One of the ironies of the GG as they're recording talk about the downfall of Microsoft, in the background you hear the characteristic sound of Windows checking email. It's sweet. I laugh every time. Seems the revolution will have to wait for the email.  

Kim Polese is the guest on this week's Gillmor Gang. I listened to it on a walk on San Francisco Bay by the airport in Burlingame. Her new company, SpikeSource, in stealth mode for 16 months, will develop and distribute free "stacks" of open source applications, and offer validation, certification and support to corporations who are currently doing this for themselves.  

Jeremy Zawodny's writeup of her talk at the Web 2.0 conf this week. 

No matter what, the day after flying, I have a back ache. Yesterday's flight was full, at least I was in an exit row, so I had lots of room for my legs, but no room for my shoulders. I was squeezed into a very cramped position for two hours. Net result -- back ache. Arrrgh. 

I had breakfast today with a longtime friend, Alex Cohen, who's current passion is a clips site for this year's politics. He's a brilliant guy, I've brainstormed many technical projects with him between 2000 and 2002 or so, when we lost touch. Alex was a tech exec at Netscape at the time they were doing RSS, one of the unsung heroes, IMHO. We talked about podcasting, and tried to figure out, aside from the world being ready for it now, what's new about it, and I said it's XML, which allows a variety of processors acting as user agents. This had come up in the meeting at Microsoft earlier this week, I was singing the praises of RSS, and the lights didn't come on until they realized how much of the work of RSS was done on the client. It looks deceptively simple from the server or content p.o.v. until you realize that the client can run software, and not just a browser. I do my best thinking with smart people like Alex, and Adam, and some of the new people I've met at Microsoft. And don't forget Scoble. He says he's just marketing slime, to which I said, if you're marketing slime, well so am I.  

Yesterday at Stanford we talked about the rooms, AV, wifi, staffing and the wait list for BloggerCon on November 6. On Monday we'll have word on the wait list, so people who need to know can make travel plans. 

Dowbrigade pic of Mac users at BloggerCon I. 

Formats for podcasting 

Talked with Adam before the debate yesterday (it was 1AM in Europe) about formats for podcasting. I want to use OPML, as we do with non-audio RSS, for lists of podcasts.

The iPodder directory already is available in OPML, which means if you want, you can include the directory in yours. Please cache it for an hour, and expect more attributes on each feed as we work on the back-end.

Also, per Steve Kirks' request, I plan to do a weblogs.com ping center for podcasts. In other words, a simple infrastructure is needed to cope with the new flow, which is a great problem to have, and one we know how to deal with after experience with weblogs.

Developers and users party together!

Friday, October 08, 2004

KOMO in Seattle on Podcasting: "We are SO excited about this." Bing! 

Can you believe it, the hotel I checked into doesn't allow you to send email via SMTP. I called their support number and they confirmed it. They're blocking port 25. Why? I don't know said the support guy. But I chose this hotel because they advertised complementary Internet access. Anyway if I haven't responded to your email, that's why. Getting ready to watch the debate. I'll worry about it tomorrow. 

Had a meeting about AV at Stanford today. The three main rooms for BloggerCon will have one wireless lav mike for the discussion leader, and two wireless hand-helds for the monitors to bring to participants. We will be able to tap into the line-out, as well as drive a webcast (fingers crossed). The main room also has several built-in video cameras, very nice quality. Each room has a projector for laptops, the discussion leaders should bring their laptops. Next step is to get Doug Kaye in the loop. (Can't send email, arrrgh.) 

Arrived safely. Weather report -- Seattle: Rainy. California: Sunny.  

Kristi Helm, via email: "Sun is so overrated." 

Today's a travel day. Weird feeling getting ready. In my head I plan my route to and through Terminal B. At Logan! Ooops. My poor brain hasn't caught up with all the travelling I've done. This trip doesn't involve Boston or NY. Damn that's really strange.  

EVP: Kerry 280, Bush 239. 

Engadget: "Besides playing MP3s, Auvi’s new 256MB USB-style flash memory has an FM tuner, a built-in voice recorder, and can record MP3s from radio broadcasts." 

If you want to understand podcasting, get an iPod, get the software, subscribe to some feeds. Then go for a drive, ride a subway or an airplane, take a walk, do something away from the computer and take the iPod with you. Listen to one of the new programs. Then let me know if it works. Fact is, you can't use your eyes when you're driving, they're busy. Same with walking. It's pretty hard to type on a subway. Annotation, if it's going to happen, will be in voice, and implemented in the iPod. It's easy to see if you just use it. Use it. Use it. Nike says just do it. The iPod commands: Use it. 

Scoble says you don't have to use an iPod to podcast. I hear that's true. I have an iPod myself. Works great.  

Thursday, October 07, 2004

Bootleg RSS: TV Edition. Wowowow! 

Okay Matt, here goes: Kerry 51%, Bush 46%, Nader 3%. 

Tenth anniversary Morning Coffee Notes. A new innovation, a ratio that tells how hated a tech leader is, and suggests how both Google and Microsoft can be as loved as Apple; and George Bush's equivalent of "it depends on what is is, means." Maybe we can start to value integrity in our political leaders? We'll find out on November 2. 

Tod Maffin's CBC report on Podcasting.  

If John Lennon had lived, he would have been 64 on Saturday. 

Yesterday I did a MCN but there was a glitch. The beginning was quite good, so I thought, so here it is. Dedicated to Bruce Springsteen, Huey Lewis and Jonathan Schwartz. It ends quite abruptly. Sorry! 

Hackaday: Add RSS feeds to TiVOs. 

BloggerCon news 

Why you should give money to support BloggerCon III.

Adam Curry is the first donor, with his customary $1000. Thanks!

Britt Blaser, who was at the first BloggerCon, just donated $100 for the third. Very cool. Thanks Britt!

David Czarnecki donated $100. He says: "I don't make money off of blojsom or blogging, but I'm happy to support BloggerCon. Best of luck with the conference. Sorry I'll miss it this year." Thanks David!

BTW, please send an email if it's okay to thank you publicly on Scripting News, and let me know what link I should use for your name. I will mention the amount you gave unless you tell me not to. And thanks to everyone who is giving so generously. I think this might just work.

Jay Rosen will lead a discussion about blogging in academia.

And Julie Leung will lead the emotional life of weblogs.

The schedule is filling out nicely. I put the Academia session (above) in the first time slot, and moved the Newbies session into that time as well. This will allow us to increase the number of people who can participate.

Ten years! 

Ten years ago today I sent an email to the software industry, about a Marc Canter product rollout. That was followed by a series of emails, many hundred of them, most written by me, but some written by others. In 1997, the email flow spawned what I called a news site which eventually became known as a weblog, and then shortened to blog. That first email, as sloppy and weird as it was, pointed in the direction of free publishing for the people. If I could do it, so could you. In hindsight, it seems so obvious, but nothing really is until it exists. It was a bootstrap then, even more raw than the podcasts of today. But it led to many coooool things, and hopefully many more! Thanks to everyone for the support and encouragement, and most important, thanks for doing your own blogs, that was always the goal, Billions of Websites, a chain of cooperation, working together in cyberspace, exploring with our minds and bodies. Here's a toast to another decade of fun, risks and learning. Namaste y'all!

10/7/01: Seven Years of DaveNet.

10/7/99: Five Years of DaveNet.

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

iPodder 1.0 is released. Bravo! 

And to celebrate, there's a new Trade Secrets podcast. 

If you registered but are not able to participate in BloggerCon III on November 6 please check the box on this page, and click on Submit. This will help make room for people who are on the wait list. Thanks! 

Adam Curry's list of podcasters. 

Just bought the tickets, rented a car. I'll be in San Francisco, Friday morning through Monday afternoon. I'll be at Stanford on Friday, but will be up for a schmooze on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Friday night, of course, I have to watch the second Presidential debate.  

Slate: "The fact that, under the circumstances, Bush didn't deliver a major policy address after all, despite his advance word, should embarrass not only CNN and MSNBC but, still more, President Bush." 

Blah blah browser blah wars blah one blah two blah punch blah blah. 

Jason Kottke burns out on Silicon Valley in record time. It's like living on life support, for your mind and spirit. Tethered to the need to make venture capitalists rich and win the approval of reporters, there's no place for an honest boy or girl. Luckily for Jason, who lives in NY, getting out is simple. Check out of the hotel, take a cab to the airport and get on a plane.  

Jason Calcanis is really happy that Yahoo is going to support ads in RSS via Overture. I guess that's pretty good news, but I wonder if I put ads in my feed if people would think I'd sold out to The Man? 

BBC: "Controversial US radio DJ Howard Stern is ditching his syndicated morning show to join a subscription network which is free from regulators." 

CSM: "Spammers and virus writers are starting to work together." 

Motley Fool: "It's certainly a risk that young programmers, suddenly worth in excess of $5 million, would prefer the beaches of Bali, the mountains of Nepal, or the strip malls of Bakersfield over the daily grind." 

Last year on this day: If the Gray Lady Could Blog. 

Taegan Goddard: "Cheney's assertion that he never met John Edwards is already disproven." 

John Palfrey: Cybersquatting as political activisim. 

Tod Maffin: Why Podcasting will Save Radio. 

O'Reilly posts pictures from the Web 2.0 conference in SF. 

NY Times: "With a rumpled suit and one hand perpetually loosening his trademark red necktie, Mr Dangerfield took the stage as a hapless, self-deprecating Everyman slapped around by life and searching in vain for acceptance." 

Scott Rosenberg on the Edwards-Cheney debate. 

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Pre-vice-presidential debate audio blog post. 42 minutes. 

Rodney Dangerfield dies at 82. Maybe he'll get some respect now.  

Cheney denies that he's made a connection between Iraq and 9-11. He's been doing it all along. That's a huge flip-flop.  

Wikipedia page on podcasting. 

Infoworld: Google lays out lofty plans for Search Appliance. 

Engadget has a howto for podcasting.  

I'm working with Adam on deglitching the ipodder.org site. It's time to start doing this stuff like we mean it. I'm also way overdue for a Morning Coffee Notes. I don't know where the time goes these days. The Daily Source Codes get better every day. Adam is doing for this medium what he did for music videos on MTV in the eighties. He's listening to huge amounts of art, and passing on the interesting, new and eclectic stuff, and showing us the roots, how we got here. And there's a little bit of my art in here as well, the evangelism, the teasing, being a good pied piper, giving people something to copy, a place to steal good ideas.  

I had a great time hanging out with the Microsoft people who were our hosts these last two days, but I especially enjoyed talking with Chris Pirillo and Don Park. Chris is a really smart, enthusiastic True Believer type. I'm glad we got back in each others' loops, it's been way way too long. And a funny thing happened while I was interviewing Don on my cute new sPod (it plays audio and it almost fits in my pocket). It just occured to me to ask if he was born in the US, and it turns out he was actually born in Korea. He came here when he was 14. So I asked about his family, and it's quite a story. Now there's a lot of noise on the interview, but I'm going to post it anyway. If you read Don's blog, as I do, you can really get a whole new sense of who he is. 

My heart goes out to Shelley Powers, whose father is near death. I almost lost my father a couple of years ago, and I'm thankful every day that he pulled through. I know that losing a father, no matter what kind of relationship you had with him, is like ripping out the foundation of a house. Somehow you're supposed to keep functioning, but whether you're aware of it or not, this relationship is central to who you are. We've sure had our differences in the past, Shelley and I, but this transcends all that. God bless, and prayers to the Powers family. 

Doc Searls will lead the How to Make Money session at BC on November 6. He's an excellent choice because he has passion for integrity in business. Jeff Jarvis led this session at the last con, and Doc was a "speaker" at the first (back when we had speakers). We have a good mix of new moderators but we also have lots of repeats. He wasn't at BC II, where we defined the unconference concept, but I'm sure he'll do very well with this format. 

And now, for the first time, the preliminary grid. It's for discussion only, don't plan your travel around this schedule. Why is the podcasting session up front and alone? Because it's hot and any session scheduled opposite it would probably be empty. No matter what I couldn't find a discussion leader to go opposite podcasting.  

Mount St Helens blows? The picture below updates every ten minutes. 

Davos Newbies: "The reporter who wrote the striking email about conditions in Iraq has been shunted aside by her editors." 

Reuters: "Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday he was misunderstood when he stated hours earlier that he knew of no 'strong, hard evidence' linking Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda." 

Paul Bremer: "We never had enough troops on the ground." 

Evan Williams, a founder of Blogger, is leaving Google. 

Monday, October 04, 2004

4/13/02: What's next after the Google API? 

5:30PM -- back from the Microsoft briefing. I signed a NDA along with about 30 other bloggers including Chris Pirillo, Don Park, Elizabeth Lawley, Dave Weinberger. It was a lively bunch, but geez, it felt like we're talking totally different languages. I can't say what area this is in until they announce the service, wish I could. I can say that from what I could tell, everyone in the room wanted them to be successful, that's how much we need competition in the area they're working. To many of us the way to be competitive seemed obvious, but we had a lot of trouble convincing the guys from MS. Anyway, it's not over yet, there's a dinner tonight and sessions tomorrow morning. 

Danny Sullivan gathers links to the blog posts. He's waiting for my post, but I'm NDA-constrained. 

Thursday is the 10th anniversary of DaveNet, the beginning of my online writing, and in a real sense, the beginning of blogging. 

Don't miss the new Trade Secrets podcast and the remix of Bush at the debate, but be sure to put down your coffee cup before listening to the latter. I mean it. You don't want to be around any sharp objects either. 

Doc Searls is tracking the podcast meme. "The station has a 100% share of the local audience." 

On 60 Minutes last night a college student said iPods are "required by law." And then Gizmodo reports today that hotels are providing iPods to guests, presumably so they can comply with the law.  

Taegan Goddard on the 50 percent rule. 

NY Times: "McCurry acknowledged later that in debate practice sessions Mr Kerry had shown himself to be especially adept at keeping his answers succinct." Yup. 

Pete Hamill: "Clear, declarative sentences, unencumbered by evasive qualifiers and legalese, were the sinewy muscles of our democracy, and like muscles, they grew flabby and weak if they were not used." 

Tomorrow the Web 2.0 conference begins in San Francisco, it goes through Thursday. We'll be looking for reports from bloggers in attendence. It's an expensive conference, I really couldn't justify spending the $2400 it would have cost for me to participate (plus travel and hotel). Instead, I'll spend the day at Microsoft, part of a group of bloggers, being briefed on a new service. This event is free, in fact, if I were coming from out of town (I'm not) they would have paid my expenses. Now that's affordable!  

Sunday, October 03, 2004

Have we got a new Trade Secrets podcast? Yes we do.  

Oh my god, this is sooo funny. I was laughing so hard. I couldn't get all the way through it. Make sure you have an empty bladder before you play it. 

Today I listened to Thursday's debate on my iPod, it's a free download on Audible. Bush was a little better than I remembered, but Kerry was absolutely perfect. The debate is his medium. Some of the things we thought were stupid, like making a big deal out of his military service at the DNC, were probably brilliant. It didn't matter what we thought at the time, he knew that by now it would be a distant memory. It's the background he needed to be believable as someone who cares about what happens to the people in Iraq. It's almost as if he were laying the groundwork when he was testifying on coming back from Vietnam. It all fits together, and he skillfully put all the pieces together in the debate. Thanks to the Swifties for running the footage. Bush looked pale in comparison, with just one idea to repeat over and over. Net-net the Republicans totally underestimated Kerry and Bush paid the price. 

Taegan Goddard: Do they just make it up? 

Listening to the Republican spin on CNN. One-word summary: Desperate. Three words: Clutching At Straws. They have nothing substantial to argue with Kerry about so they make up stuff. One more word: Pathetic. It's a failed presidency, now that's being uncovered.  

BTW, about whether or not Allawi is a puppet. I keep wanting to interrupt and say "Oh come on of course he's a puppet." Geez Louise. We appointed him. Without our army the guy is dead. Do you think Bush calls him before he makes a decision about Iraq? Come on, get real. And by the way, suppose for a minute that he does. Isn't that a global test? Why is some random puppet in Iraq more important than France? Quest-que c'est la difference? (In pigeon French, pardonnez-moi.) 

John S Rhodes: Google Audio Search. 

Dowbrigade: "But back to bed." 

I got my new laptop yesterday. These days, setting up a new computer takes a lot of time. First reactions. It's very light, and small. The keyboard is tough to type on because the keys are so close together. I suspect I'll be okay with that. The screen has a lot of pixels but physically is very small. Great for watching movies. I got some water on the screen, and wiped it off and it left a streak you can see. I tried rubbing it with a dry cloth, but it didn't go away. I'm afraid to do what I usually do with a dirty screen, wipe it with a damp cloth. The most amazing good thing about this laptop is the battery life. The battery that ships with it is good for 3.5 hours. I'm charging the 7-hour battery right now. This is the first laptop I've owned that had a multi-hour battery.  

Evhead: "When you boot up a new Mac, it asks you if you're moving from an old Mac. If so, you plug a Firewire cable in, which you borrow from your co-worker, and it just copies everything over." 

Don Park: "...more effective than infomercials and brainwashing." 

One year ago today: "I don't sacrifice the truth in furthering my cause. In fact, if you accept the Rule of Win-Win, the truth is your first cause, it comes before all others." 

Scott Rosenberg: "Bush abused and insulted those foolish enough to think he is actually the 'uniter' he once claimed to be." 

NY Times: "Fox News's Web site posted a fabricated news item on Friday with quotations attributed to Senator John Kerry that the cable network later said had been written in jest." 

Leonard Rosenthol remembers menu sharing.  

Saturday, October 02, 2004

RFC: Anatomy of an iPodder. 

Newsweek: "The president’s lead in the race for the White House has vanished, according to the latest Newsweek poll." 

NY Times: "Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, asserted on CNN on Sept 8, 2002. 'We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.' Before Ms Rice made those remarks, though, she was aware that the government's foremost nuclear experts had concluded that the tubes were most likely not for nuclear weapons at all." 

Joshua Allen: "History is written by people with agendas." 

Now this is something. The Lone-Star Iconoclast, based in Crawford, Texas (President Bush's hometown) is endorsing Kerry for President. 

Fantastic movie that summarizes the RNC in less than three minutes. Saddam Saddam Saddam. Terrorist. 9-11. Over and over.  

Russ Beattie: "I don't care if you have a 'tech blog' or a 'art blog' or whatever, you need to start making your voice heard." 

Okay Russ. Here goes. I'm voting for John Kerry. I believe in this so strongly that I relocated to a battleground state, so my vote would mean something. The war in Iraq is a very poor use of the US military. The Patriot Act should be repulsive to any American, this is not a Republican or Democratic issue. I think he has either very sinister motives, or a terribly poor appreciation for freedom. When I hear Bush talk about bringing freedom to Iraq I keep thinking about the freedoms we're giving up here. For what? And I'm sure that we are missing huge opportunities to prevent the next 9-11, which will probably involve nukes, and will probably target all of Manhattan, not just one skyscraper. 

NY Times: "Official corporate blogs are still rare, said John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School." 

Rogers Cadenhead: "Kerry shredded Bush, who spent the entire debate crouching behind his podium in a defensive Nixonian scowl, fumbling for words to defend his record in Iraq and the war on terror, two subjects that were supposed to be his strengths." 

Scoble via email from Gnomedex: "Everyone is talking about Podcasting here. It's a big deal."  

Next week is going to be pretty busy. On Monday and Tuesday I'm at Microsoft, along with a bunch of other bloggers being briefed on a new service. Then on Thursday morning I fly to San Jose for a couple of days of meetings about BloggerCon at Stanford and elsewhere. I'll fly back to Seattle (first time for that) on Sunday.  

Today's song: "La! La! La! La! La!" 

Friday, October 01, 2004

A new Trade Secrets with Adam. It's funky! 

A puzzle in a billboard in downtown Seattle. "First 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e." 

Today's movie: Puget Sound at sunset, a train, the Space Needle. 

Today would have been my uncle's 59th birthday. A little over a year after his death, I miss him as much as the day he died. Some hurts don't go away, or even fade away. I hesitated to mention his birthday here, but then realized that was wrong. Hey Ken, happy birthday. 

Geek News: "I predict within 90 days we will see a commercial product launched that has all of the tools built in and makes it simple for the average Joe to begin Podcasting." 

NBC4: "'Podcasting' is a term that is probably unfamiliar to most people, but it represents a real potential change in the radio landscape." 

Trade Secrets: What is Podcasting? 

Rebecca MacKinnon will lead the discussion for and about Newbies.  

Boston Globe: "In a refreshing change of pace, this week's anti-Bush documentary, 'Bush's Brain,' is not really about George W Bush at all. It's about his senior political adviser, Karl Rove, who, the movie would have you believe, is Waylon Flowers to Bush's Madame." 

Halley's Comment: "Abe Lincoln debating Alfred E Newman..." 

Scott Rosenberg: "Kerry stuck to the rules and confined his responses to the allotted time, those dumb lights only ended up emphasizing the multiple occasions on which George Bush ran out of things to say before his lights had flashed." 

The Nation: "Bush only arrived with 30 minutes of material for a 90 minute debate. And he had a very hard time stretching."