I've got iTunes 10 installed, and have signed up on Ping.

My handle is "scriptingnews." You're welcome to follow me.

To be clear, they didn't give me a choice of name. That's the name I chose when I got my first iPod or whatever got me logged into their store the first time. (I don't remember.) I never would have chosen to be scriptingnews on a social network. Not at all obvious how to change it, if I can.

Here are their first recommendations. They bear absolutely no resemblance to any music I listen to or people I know. Obviously this is very very early days for Ping.

One thing I don't like about Ping is that it isn't in my web browser. I keep looking for the Back button. I keep wanting to find a URL so I can publish a link somewhere else. I think this is a big lose. It's the only social network I've ever tried that isn't in the web. Right now I think that's a deal-stopper.

So I played one of my current favorites thinking there would be an easy gesture in the iTunes interface to tell my Ping followers that I like it. After all why bother integrating it with iTunes if there is no integration? Well, there's nothing in the right-click menu for pinging the song. No menus, nothing anywhere in the user interface. What the heck were they thinking?? Hello, anyone home at Apple??

Conclusion: There's nothing, at this time, to do in Ping.

 9/1/2010; 10:32:42 PM.   .

This is really puzzling.

The OAuthcalypse came and went, and the apps that it should have killed, the ones that use basic authentication, are still running.

Two examples: dwcodeupdates and friendsofdave.

The only explanation I've been able to come up with is that they made exceptions for these two accounts for some reason.

I felt I had to document this.

So, it is documented. Any theories welcome. (That aren't paranoid or paranormal.)

 9/1/2010; 6:42:13 PM.   .

Ping is Apple's big announcement today. The one that they'll be adding new stuff onto for years and years. The other announcements are just continuations of threads they started long ago. This is a new thread.

They call it a social network "for music."

But it won't be "for music" for very long, if it even is just that at startup.

It'll be Apple's social network for PR.

It'll be Apple's social network for TV.

It'll be Apple's social network for developers.

It'll be Apple's social network for Steve Jobs.

All of Apple's stores will be on the network, so there will be a location angle. How long before Steve announces a new feature for the stores called (what else) "check in."

He said it's like Facebook or Twitter but for music, but that's just the opening-day positioning. It won't last.

Now the big question for the Scripting News community -- is there an API? Will developers get a hook into Ping? Will I be able to ping everyone when I advance a level in Angry Birds? (for example)

One more thing, great name, but they'll never register it as a trademark. Ping is a big word in this space. Long long before any of Apple's competitors were in the space.

 9/1/2010; 2:29:37 PM.   .

I can't imagine there are many people who read this blog who are not tuned in, with Safari running on a Mac or iPhone or iPad, wondering what Uncle Steve is going to pull out of his hat.

http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1009qpeijrfn/event

 9/1/2010; 12:51:52 PM.   .

I've never participated in a hackathon, so I can't tell whether they produce anything or not. I'm assuming that at least some of the readers of this blog have been to one or more.

What's it like?

What kind of software is produced?

Is any of it useful?

Were any commercial products hatched at hackathons? Were any of them successful?

My intuition says that they're pointless exercises. I have at times gone on retreats with the idea of emerging with something useful or marketable, but I have to say the big leaps in software that I've seen or taken part of, come with steady daily work, when you've built up a head of steam over weeks or months.

It seems to me that the hackathon idea is more a dream of investors or marketers, that they can get a bunch of programmers in a room to invent something they can make money with. But that's just my impression.

If you have a story of a hackathon, please tell it.

 9/1/2010; 12:14:42 PM.   .

Scorcha is NY-ese for "hot!"

Yeah it's the hottest summer in history.

A climate-change denier adds "that we know of."

Yes, there is a conspiracy. Back in the late 1800s some liberal limp-wristed Obama-lovers wiped a whole decade off the record. Why? Because it was much hotter than this summer was going to be. They just knew it. And they did it to piss off the idiots of the 21st century. Glad we got to the bottom of that one.

Anyway....

10.84 miles. 56 minutes.

When it's this hot, even if it isn't a record, you slow down and take it easy.

 9/1/2010; 9:48:29 AM.   .