Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Holy Hanna -- it's podcast #2 for the day, in which I sum up the NHPR show, and briefly talk about my conversation today with Marissa Mayer at Google. It was kind of a no op, we totally don't see eye to eye, they're clearly going to go ahead with the adware feature, and unless a lot of other people make it an issue, there's nothing we can do about it. I have some ideas about creating a safe environment that's not print, one where ideas can make it through from one end to the other without being messed with, I'm exploring those ideas privately with technology vendors who can help. Anyway, the purpose of this brief podcast is to bring a small amount of closure to this discussion. Google owns the Web now, at least until Yahoo and Microsoft fight them for it. Bad day. 

Today I was on New Hampshire Public Radio with Laura Knoy and Dan Gillmor, talking about blogs. It was a one hour call-in show and it was a lot of fun. The callers all had interesting stories to tell about their weblogs. It made blogs seem nice and interesting, like New Hampshire. Here's an MP3 of the show for your podcatching pleasure. Note this podcast is also available on the Morning Coffee Notes site and in its RSS 2.0 feed with enclosures. 

Major news: Yahoo Has an API. Coool! 

Adam Mathes: "A few years ago Meg Hourihan wrote that there are web people, and there are dot-com people." 

2WW: An open letter to Cory Doctorow, cc'd to Larry Lessig. 

Can you believe Republicans defend the idea that states should kill children, in the name of justice? If ever there was proof that we need help. And the Republicans talk about values. Feh. Values to kill children.  

Cory Doctorow responds to some of the posts about Google's AutoLink feature, calling it a "beloved butler." Something else to consider. In May, Google posted a set of software principles for desktop applications and spyware. It was a curious document, because at the time Google didn't have a desktop app. Six months later, of course, they did, desktop search. Today, Google could allay our concerns by producing similar guidelines for content modification to protect the integrity of the web. Of course such guidelines would make no difference unless Microsoft and Yahoo also agreed to them. 

The cowbell guy asks if Google isn't violating Cory's Creative Commons license that prohibits commercial use of his work. 

But Fred, what about people who write websites?  

Yesterday the new Morning Coffee Notes feed was unveiled. There's more, an OPML version and an HTML rendering. I edit the OPML version, using an outliner of course. The other forms, RSS and HTML, are generated from the OPML. Then, because there's an OPML version of the feed, it can be included in an OPML directory. I love it when things just work, like this.  

Lisa Williams tells a story of Best Buy and RSS.  

Beach pictures on a windy day. (Yesterday.) And a movie. 

Basic requirements for a place to live: Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, an NPR station within range. Now, living in Florida is geographically strange. I'm programmed to do a time-zone calculation for people I communicate with. I keep wanting to think that people in Boston and NYC are three hours earlier than me, but in fact, they're in the same time zone. I feel like I'm tucked away in a weird corner, it feels sneaky! 

About ad hominems 

I tune out the ad hominems. Try to argue, instead, by complimenting the intelligence and ethics of the person who opposes your viewpoint. Try to understand where they're coming from, and show that you understand. This one change would elevate discourse in the blogging community more than anything else. Matters like AdLink are always subject to judgement. Each of us has a different point of view. That someone sees it differently is a good thing, emphatically, it is not a personality flaw.