Scripting News: 9/12/07

Archive > 2007 > September > 12

Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

Bravo to MoveOn

I got to watch much of the testimony of General Petraueus in Congress early this week.

The Republicans kept showing off a MoveOn.org ad in the NY Times that asked if General Petraeus was really General Betray Us. It worked. Now every time I hear his name I hear the MoveOn slogan.

Betray Us Betray Us Betray Us.

Goodbye Bush.

I think the next MoveOn ad should be a straight FAQ on Iraq.

Q: Is it making American safer?

A: No.

Q: Could the money we're spending in Iraq be put to better use?

A. Yes, of course. To say nothing of the American and Iraqi lives that are being wasted.

Q: Did the President commit impeachable offenses in selling the war in Iraq?

A: Yes, of course.

Q: Will we win or lose in Iraq?

A: No. We are occupying Iraq. There's no enemy that we're trying to depose. There's no victory possible, as there is no losing possible.

Key point: Nothing any of us could say would get Bush to say "Oh geez, you're right, we really fucked up. Let's fix this as soon as possible." So stop arguing with him as if this could possibly happen.

Just focus on what we believe.

Last update: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 at 4:31 PM Pacific.

Dave Winer, 52, pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in Berkeley, California.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

Dave Winer

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On This Day In: 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997.

Aug Oct

Things to revisit:

1. Microsoft patent acid test.

2. What is a weblog?

3. Advertising R.I.P.

4. How to embrace & extend.

5. Bubble Burst 2.0.

6. This I Believe.

7. Most RSS readers are wrong.

8. Who is Phil Jones?

9. Send them away.

10. Negotiate with users.

11. Preserving ideas.

12. Empire of the Air.

13. NPR speech.

14. Russo & Hale.

15. Trouble at the Chronicle.

15. RSS 2.0.

16. Checkbox News.

17. Spreadsheet calls over the Internet.

18. Twitter as coral reef.

19. Mobs of the blogosphere.

20. Advice for Campaigns.

21. Social Cameras.

22. The Next Big Thing.

23. It's time to open up networking, again.

24. Am I competing?

25. Time to shake up conferences?

26. Bloggers working with journalists.

Teller: "To discover is not merely to encounter, but to comprehend and reveal, to apprehend something new and true and deliver it to the world."