#

They feel like really cheezy Wes Anderson plays. #

Love! #

Well they got me to root for the Nets, just a little. But it would have been embarrassing if the Nets had somehow won the series. Then what? The Wizards vs the Nets for the Eastern Division of the NBA, or the title of the D League? Maybe after this the two ex-Celtics will go back to Boston or somewhere else they're wanted, if they can find such a place, maybe then we can take another look at the Nets. #

On the other hand, at least they have a coach. #

It's really exciting that Dropbox announced a new Webhooks feature. #

What it does: It allows an app developer to register to be notified when any of its users creates, updates or deletes a file. #

You could now write an app that had no code running on the desktop or in the browser that performed a drag-and-drop function on a folder in Dropbox. For example drop a text file with Markdown in it, and it's rendered in HTML by a centralized app, and published to the web.#

At first I thought it might enable new functionality for Fargo, but I think we've already got notification covered, we had to, because the CMS was implemented before this Webhook existed. #

Even so it's really nice that Dropbox is pushing new ideas out to developers.#

The idea of outlines-in-websites is starting to get some interest, after many years of development. What it took was people with an open mind, a will to experiment, to innovate -- in other words the team at Quartz. The result got people saying things like this: "Finally a digital journalism innovation which is actually that." #

The innovation is this: The Quartz editors are using outline structure to write their blog and we're using it to read. They took the first step. I want others to do the same so we can put our heads together and do more. There's lots of room to grow here. #

If you work at in journalism, whether it's a startup or an established organization, a blogger or a well-funded publication, I don't care. If you have a will to invest here, let's go. #

The first step is to use an outliner that generates OPML. #

Fargo does, but so do most other outliners. We're not by any means alone in this category. It's been around for a long time, going all the way back to the Mother of All Demos. I shipped my first commercial outliner, ThinkTank, in 1983. Since then everything I've done, blogging, podcasting, programming -- all of it, has been built with and around outlining. The blogosphere was originally conceived and implemented as a structure of outlines. So even though what we'll do will be new, the ideas are not. But they are potent. #

Getting started on the path that Quartz went down is easy. Here's the checklist. If you need help post a question on the Fargo2 list. We'll get you going quickly. #

There is also a really good connection with WordPress, although expanding and collapsing does not go across this link. OPML is an open format. You can see what we do by looking at the files we store in your Dropbox folder. Drag them into a text editor and look around. Nothing is hidden from you. This is one of my strongest values as a developer. It's like a doctor's oath of "First do no harm." Or attorney-client privilege. In software the rule is you get your data. a#

Continuing yesterday's rant re using images to work around for Twitter's 140-char limit. #

Here's something Twitter could do to accommodate those who feel the limit is a hindrance and those who think it's perfect.#

1. Add a new preference saying you want to see messages that contain more than 140 characters. Make the new limit 1024 characters users of this new feature.#

2. If you don't check the box, you'll still see all the messages, but ones that contain more than 140 will be abbreviated and will include a link to a page where you can read the rest. #

3. My guess is almost everyone checks the box. And those who don't, soon will.#