I went for a ride today in Jackson Heights, where I was a small kid, from pre-school to fourth grade. In most ways the neighborhood hasn't changed at all. It still has all the same basic features. There are some new buildings, and everything is a lot smaller than I remembered, when I was a very small person. #

What an interesting contrast to Doc's story of visiting the town he grew up in, Fort Lee NJ, which basically doesn't exist, having been replaced with superhighways and shiny huge buildings. It's not a neighborhood at all. #

Used to be we'd have to wait, at live sports events, while they played commercials for the TV audience, but now they play commercials for us at the stadium too. Even when there was a great play in the previous inning, they have the same commercially-sponsored "stupid fan tricks." The Mets had just pulled a double steal. We couldn't see the replay because they were playing Simon Says with kids, with an insane dancing life-size Dunkin Donuts guy. I guess it worked cause I stopped in at a Dunkin Donuts to get a corn muffin before I went home. But man, we paid a lot of money for those tickets. Do we really have to have commercials too?#

Pretty soon my linkblogging will be cross-platform. Meaning the links will go to Facebook, Twitter (as before) and a new feature-full RSS feed that will make it possible, if enough people linkblog this way, to build new experimental networks on the open web web we all love so much.#

The name of the new product, coming soon, is Radio3.#

And it's not such a "snack" it's actually a fairly beefy piece of software.#

Still diggin! #

PS: The first Radio was Radio UserLand released in 2002. The second was Radio2 a server-based linkblogging tool that ran in the OPML Editor environment. Until today I did all my linkblogging in Radio2. Radio3 is a browser-based JavaScript app with a thin server that runs in Node. The 3rd Radio is by far the best, but of course I'm biased.#

I hate it when people say condescending stuff, and I know what I'm about to say *sounds* condescending, but it's really an observation, in a strictly academic sense. Something I'm learning from watching @JayRosen build up his Facebook juice. Which is a technical term for basically seducing the algorithm, in a way that is fair, ethical, and actually makes sense if you take time to get to know it.#

I just read something by Jay, who I have re-engaged with, now that he's no longer spamming. It was fantastic. Pure Jay, and it contained a link to a video from Jon Stewart, which I will watch, because it comes recommended by Jay, for sure, and also because he introduced it in such a compelling way.#

I also will share it. But I notice that it's already been shared. Less than two minutes after it's been posted. What Jay is doing is talking to his friends now, not over our heads, and we will take care of telling the algorithm that what Jay is saying has value. That's how Facebook works. It's like arguing with the post office, saying they should work differently. They do what they do, and it's different from Delta Airlines, which is different from Penn Station, even though they're all involved in communicating packages of information. Like Twitter and Facebook.#

I much prefer, as a friend of Jay's and a user of Facebook, if he works with the algorithm instead of gaming it. This is a very basic concept, this one seems to apply across all communication media. It's why I don't like the musicians who play in a crowded subway car whose doors are closed. It's why I don't like email spam or Twitter spam. Spam seems to be universally disliked. But hearing genuine ideas from people we admire? Bring it on!#

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I used Hyperlapse to record a segment of my bike ride down the Hudson River this afternoon. It was a perfect day, in the low 80s, a light breeze, and bright sunshine. Not too many tourists out on the trail. #

Next one I'll record with the phone horizontal instead of vertical. #

A while back I asked my friends on Facebook for recommendations of a TV series that's binge-worthy. I got a bunch of recommendations and acted on some of them. I tried watching Tyrant, and while I despised the show, I got through all 10 episodes. If I had to sum it up: Hurts so good. The first and last episodes were good. The in-between ones were crap.#

I tried watching Halt and Catch Fire, but I lived through those times, in the PC industry. I know all about the clone market. I did deals with a bunch of near-clones. Funny how there was no need to do deals with the cloners. No wonder they won! Anyway, I made it through two episodes, and just couldn't take it. It's such bullshit! Esp the scenes with the marketing guy giving shit to the programmer. Please. Read my piece about coders and PHBs. I was thinking about this show when I wrote it.#

I will watch Firefly. I'm very optimistic about it. Sounds like a great show. That's why I wallowed in BattleStar Galactica today. I even watched the last ten minutes of the last episode on YouTube. It was so beautiful. I know a lot of people didn't like the ending, but I did.#

Anyway, switching to a different angle.#

It seems Facebook has the ability to do recommendations of shows. If I tell it I love The Wire and Six Feet Under and didn't care for Boardwalk Empire and liked the first seasons of Dexter but couldn't get into later seasons, that a recommendation engine could determine with a fair degree of confidence that I would like Breaking Bad, for example (I do, I loved it). They do ask for that kind of info. Maybe not enough people do it? Or maybe they have the recommendation engine and I haven't seen it??#

There's also a need for a moderated discussion system that's attached to episodes of shows. After I watch a show that aired 5 years ago, I'd like to go back and read what other people said about it, and also meet people who are watching it now. Moderation keeps the spoilers out.#

Cross-posted on Facebook.#

Fred Wilson wrote about the importance of a personal blog. #

A comment I posted on his blog follows..#

#1: Thanks for this Fred. Blogging is important, and doing it in someone else's namespace doesn't cut it. You're a guest. On your own blog you are The Boss, and the buck starts and stops with you. And if you don't like what the technology is doing to you, you can move. If you're writing under someone else's name, you're stuck with them. #

I had some comments here about Medium but didn't think they were well-written and I don't have time to edit, so off to the bit-bucket! :0#

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I keep telling the Product Hunt guys to get on board and give me a feed. I'm not saying it because I want it for myself (though I do), I'm saying it because it will fit into something I'm working on, and it will drive exactly the kind of people they want to use their service and contribute to it. It's a great fit. And the cool thing about doing a feed is you never know what someone will do with it. And maybe that's also why people are scared of doing a feed.#

Imho, the only reason not to do it is if you're not hot and you know it. Somehow you're going to scam your way through and before anyone discovers your product is a thin veneer on something trivial you'll squeak by, whatever that means to you. If you're confident that you're building equity, however you determine that, via flow, brand name recognition, position, market cap -- you do the feed, because it helps you build. #

Fear is just frozen fun. Now give me the feed. #

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Why can't we live a generous sharing life 52 weeks a year, all around the globe, without burning prodigious amounts of fossil fuels to get to a remote place in the middle of the Nevada desert, one of the most empty places on the planet. #

It's relatively easy to live in a cooperative way if you remove all the noise and distractions of our lives. Things need to work a lot better if we're going to survive. And we lose so much time and evolution because we have our individual priorities so wrong. #

Maybe it's time to live a different kind of life the whole year round.#

Today was one of the few truly hot days this summer. We had hot weather in May, but then it's been very temperate the rest of the summer. Usually you have a few 100 degree days. I don't think we have had any this year. #

At the turnaround point on today's ride I was sunning, a few blocks north of Stuyvesant High School, looking out over the river, soaking up the warmth and realized things are about to change. In Central Park, the roads are already covered with fallen leaves. There are hints of yellow or orange in the canopy. And the forecast is for things to cool off tomorrow.#

If I get a say I vote for at least one major hot spell before we start wearing our fall clothes. Let's have one fling with summer.#

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The reason you get links to Scripting News articles instead of the full text is that they're on a different site in my CMS. Sorry about that. My sites are always the bleeding edge, the place where I experiment the most. So it's always all just barely working. Be glad you get the links! :-0#

It's even worse than it appears.#

There's a lot of cynicism in tech. I'm a believer. I know users are supposed to be lazy and not care about freedom. But I think enough of them do to make a market.#

Products have to be easy. But they don't have to be effortless. We use lots of products that require effort, some specifically because they require effort. My bike for example, which is one of the best purchases I've ever made. If you get a dog, you're going to buy lots of stuff that requires effort (ask Chris Voss). Effort isn't the issue.#

I think people care. You see evidence of it everywhere every day. But they have to be excited! And that's cool. I want to be excited too.#

Now a song to sing along with!#

PS: Cross-posted on Facebook.#

Here's the feed for my Little Card Editor flow. I'm glad these little word-and-graphic creations now have a life outside of Twitter and Facebook. Don't get me wrong, they belong as part of the Twitter/Facebook flow. But we'll be able to do more experimentation and innovation on the open Internet. And in turn may help create features in those services. That's my hope. #

Right now, the card graphic is only represented as an enclosure element. I plan to have a landing page for each card, and the feed will likely link to those pages, in addition to linking to the Twitter and Facebook pages. But first I wanted to get the feed implemented before tweaking it up, and then of course releasing a new version of LCE that gives feeds to everyone using the product.#

And after that, a version of River4 that's card-aware. #

A new version of Happy Friends is coming that stores your outline and prefs on a server, instead of locally. Expect all my software snacks to get revised this way, because I now have storage as part of the functionality of my Twitter server software. I can store public and private stuff. And for now I'm willing to foot the bill for storage myself. Just to see what happens. At some point though, if it's successful, I will have to figure out how to get the cash to flow. #

I have started so many threads in my software, I have to do some sorting out and figuring how they fit together. #

One common theme is that there are lots of tools for creating bits of text that are bigger than a tweet yet smaller than a blog post. Consider the paragraph about Oliver Stone's movie, above. That's a very common size idea. A few sentences recalling a movie. Something to link into other instances where the movie is mentioned. Also consider it as part of my list of movies that I think are notable.#

And that's another common thread -- lists! They're huge right now, with the online pub world making all kinds of interesting listicles that fit into the flow at Facebook. #

And there are images. I can put images behind days on Scripting News, as with the picture of Nixon today, and Lincoln yesterday, and I forget what I had the day before that, but it was part of a thread. And what about Little Cards! Oy, they only flow to Twitter and Facebook, clearly they have to flow to RSS too, and they're not showing up on the Scripting News home page, yet they totally should be.#

I have a lot of things to figure out.#

I was saying to a friend the other day who works at a large company you've definitely heard of that the online landscape is basically smoking ruins. There's a city under there, one with a subway system and helicopters, bike trails, convention centers, schools -- every structure humans create. But it's as if a war had just been fought and nothing is working.#

Somehow all three of these threads come together into something fantastic -- short rants, lists and pictures. #

On a recent trip, I got a chance to ride on the bike trails in Boulder. Fantastic experience. It almost seems they built the city around the trails, the same way NYC built its subway system in advance of the city. #

Today I'm going to lunch in Manhattan, would love to ride my bike there. Instead I'll grab a CitiBike which is almost as good. Why, in a city as large as NY, are there not yet shopping places that provide excellent access for bike riders? A safe place to store your bike while doing your business.#

A few weeks ago I went on a bike ride with friends from Nashville on the Hudson River path, and we stopped for lunch at the 72nd St pier. Lots of bike riders stop there, but there isn't even an obvious or easy place to park a bike there. And this is on the most heavily traveled bike trail in the United States. #

We're still in the early days. Imagine whole malls designed to attract bike-riding shoppers. The same way shopping malls are building up around the cell phone lots at airports. I think there's a real investment opportunity here. #

Tweets are ocean liners#

Limits we've gotten past#

Plea..#

We need critics#

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Everyone said you should get this book in paper or you'll miss all the funky footnotes. Let me tell you. Paper books SUCK. Especially 700-page paper books. When you're starting the book, one side has 699 pages and the other has one. Try to hold that while lying down. Plus you need a reading light. How barbaric. It just doesn't fit my lifestyle. I think I'm going to get the Kindle version and fuck the footnotes. Plus I don't like his style. He uses too many words, and never gets to the point. While he's being all folksy and stupid, my arm is practically falling off. Have a little mercy. All I can think of is why didn't they edit it down to 200 pages so it would be manageable. Or I'll just get the freaking Kindle version. Is there a Cliff's Notes version?#