Happy new year and welcome to 2023. In tech we talk a lot about interop in software, but there is no interop in software without lots of interop between people, so start there. Open an invite to anyone you want to interop with, no matter what the history, let's work together to remove barriers to interop.#In that spirit, here's an open invitation to developers at Automattic to learn how blogging works in Drummer. It's very fluid, designed for writers. Does small and large posts easily, in the same data structure. I'll help. #
My wish for us, in the blogging world, for the new year. We'll know it's working if most people feel their best place to write is their blog, where the editing tools work just as they like them to, and there are no boundaries to where those ideas can be published.#
My blogger of the year is Heather Cox Richardson. Every day she teaches us something about what's happening, in a historic context. This is blogging at its best. If she has a business model it isn't in your face. She has something to add and she does it generously and with great expertise and sass. A role model for us all, and a perfect example of the blogging ethos and a perfect choice for my 2022 BOTY.#
Mastodon has a cute way to validate sites as being yours. If you put your masto address in the text of the site that's good enough. But it has to be HTTPS. Oh well. I think they get most things right at Masto, but the trying to force people to adopt HTTPS is selling out to Google and their thirst to own the web, which is imho not theirs to own. #
If you run a blog or other site, check your copyright notices. We're in a new year folks. For example the copyright notice on this blog should've changed. And then I realize there is no freaking copyright notice. I better fix that. Today is a day of fixing things. #
A new application for AI. Rate the humor level of a tweeted "joke" response. If people knew how unfunny their supposed jokes were they might think again before inflicting them on others. Better yet, score people on the quality of the jokes they actually post. Publish that score next to their number of followers. #
Requiring people to use one uppercase, one lowercase, one number, one special character in a password is bullshit. It doesn't make your password more secure. What it does is make it impossible to remember the password. #
I remember when I saw a product that expired after 2000 and thought that I had arrived in the future. Hah. It's 2023 now. That's just ridiculous. It's impossible that I actually have lived this long. It's all bonus from here-on-out.#
- Reading back over the archives of my Facebook posts, the On This Day In posts, it's the biggest gift when I can tell a joke to my future self and make that person who I would become happy all over again. #
- I think I enjoy my own writing more than anyone else, anyone that is, except my mom. #
- I'm sure she thought I wouldn't miss her when she was gone, but she was wrong about me in so many ways, so why not one more? Every time I look back on some event I measure it by whether or not she was still alive when it happened. It permeates everything I do. I wish it were otherwise, I really do. #
- All I can say is if there is anything left of her, almost five years after her passing, I hope she's reading my blog, and I hope she's proud of her son, after all is said and done. #
