My grandfather warned me about this. I didn't believe him at the time, when I was a child. He used words I thought were old-fashioned, but now we use them all the time. I represent him the best I can in the world he predicted so well.#
Apparently the question of an Edit button came up in Twitter corporate presser yesterday. They said it isn't a high priority. I've often wondered about this. Facebook lets you edit everything you write, and it hasn't seemed to affect the community in any way I can perceive. I use it all the time. Maybe the question is a technical one for Twitter. Perhaps they built their internal server network around the assumption that content can't be modified. Then it might cost a lot of money they don't have to rebuild their server setup. If this were the case I could see why they wouldn't want to disucss it publicly given how little most reporters and users are aware of how the tech works behind the curtain. #
I saw Quentin Taratino's latest (no spoilers). If you love his movies as I do, you can see how an artist can play with our perceptions of the past, and how important it is to see directly what happened. #
I've been on a private email thread among tech experts discussing how to preserve the Linux Journal site. It's mostly general ideas because none of us has the power to move the domain or the content.#- The site is still accessible through the original URLs, but there's a big question about whether it will remain there much longer. Here's the background via Doc Searls. #
- There's a consensus that porting the sit to archive.org is the answer. Jon Udell, a highly respected developer says on Twitter that redirecting to archive.org, as Doug Kaye does, is the "gold standard" for preserving sites. #
- I've always resisted this, instead preferring that we take steps to make the web itself more permanent. An analogy. Recently I visited the Vanderbilt Mansion on the Hudson River. I didn't visit an archive.org snapshot of it in 1940 when it was given to the government by the Vanderbilt family. There was value to me that it was in the original location, with the same view of the river and the mountains off in the distance. That it wasn't air conditioned. That the same roads that went there when the Vanderbilts were in residence still go there today. It was the same place the elite played on Saturday nights in spring and fall during the Gilded Age. #
- I feel the same about the web. But people seem to feel that an archive.org snapshot and redirected URLs is the best we can do. Maybe we should change our idea of what the web is. Maybe archive.org is the permanent version of the web. And then of course the next question is why not just publish originally to archive.org? I'm sure they've thought of this at the Internet Archive. #
- True story, Word of Honor:#
- Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer now dead, and I were at a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island.#
- I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel Catch-22 has earned in its entire history?”#
- And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.”#
- And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?”#
- And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”#
- Not bad! Rest in peace!#