One of the nice things about Android systems was that you could connect them to another computer via USB and it would appear as a disk drive. You could just copy the files across with the Finder through the filesystem. You could write a script that copied files across. It was an essential part of Android's openness.

Now, I could be mistaken, but it seems that my Galaxy Nexus running the Ice Cream Sandwich release cannot be mounted this way.

I'm not going to editorialize until it's confirmed.

The reason I think it's this way is because when you connect, and pull down the menu at the top of the screen, you're not offered the option of mounting it as an external drive. The only two options are as a "media device" or camera. It doesn't explain what a media device is. I assume this is something defined by some iTunes-like software.

 12/18/2011; 11:38:30 AM.   .

Edd Dumbill says it's time for me to write a book.

I want to write a book. The reason to write a book is so that I can go on tour with the ideas. The system still caters to book authors, not bloggers. Really weird. But change comes slowly.

If I had a book I'd be able to go on NPR shows. Might even get an invite to speak at an O'Reilly conference.

Problem is that I am a blogger, not a book writer. I am spoiled by the interactivity. The immediacy. The fact that a post gets an immediate response -- or not. That gives me a lot of data, helps me work quickly, which is important. Because even though I can work quickly, change still comes at a glacial pace.

For example, the recent thread on apps got huge coverage. The stuff I'm writing now about oEmbed is getting very little. Should we conclude that there's little interest in oEmbed, or that it's politically sensitive, or perhaps that there are so few people eligable to have their content appear on Twitter that the idea is stagnating, and only being implemented at companies that Twitter deems worthy of partnership. (See how politics and tech are always deeply intertwined?)

So what I need more than anything is an editor and collaborator. Someone who can take the stream that I have created and continue to create, and find the ideas that have lasting value, and organize them into something coherent. I had a great editor when I wrote at Wired, but she's not available. Someone who reads my stuff, and has for a long time, and wants to make something from it.

I've tried this with a number of people, but it's never resulted in a book.

 12/18/2011; 9:39:49 AM.   .

Over the last year or so I've started a bunch of mail lists. Basically one for each sub-project of the big project I'm working on. And a few more.

Over the last few weeks, we've had a renewed interest in Frontier, in its most modern distribution, the OPML Editor. It's not actually all that new. I started it in 2005 when the Frontier-kernel list threatened to flame out. I was so tired of dealing with people's emotions. I just wanted to work on software. So I forked my own project, just to get some peace and quiet.

It turned out pretty well, I think. The software needed some peace and quiet too. Some time for me to look at each of the components, to rethink where rethinking was useful, and to re-code, where that was necessary. The result is a much more mature development and runtime environment.

http://hellofrontier.com/

Now there's confusion about which mail list users of the OPML Editor should join. I have an answer for that:

http://groups.google.com/group/frontier-user

It's a restart of a list that was very big in the late 90s. Lots of interesting people came through that list, and lots of interesting projects got done. It also was always on the edge of flaming out, which limited productivity. This time, however, there are excellent web-based moderation tools, and at the first sign of someone running a campaign to halt work, I'll just turn on moderation, and off-topic messages won't get through. So, in other words, it's fairly safe to join the list. And to would-be saboteurs -- it's not going to work this time. Find another place to vent your emotions.

The list is quiet. Mostly just announcements. And there aren't many subscribers, but the people who are there are nothing short of a brain trust. So if you have a legitimate problem with the software, you can use this list to try to get an answer.

Remember it's an open source project, so if people help you, they are doing it voluntarily, and without compensation. If you want a good response, provide a good question. If there's a file that has a problem, include a URL to it. Screen shots are a good idea too, because there might be a clue on the screen that you don't see that someone with expertise will. And remember to tell us what you were doing, what you expected to happen, and what actually happened. Saying "it didn't work, does anyone know why" isn't going to get you much help.

Let's have fun!

 12/18/2011; 9:12:54 AM.   .