So I joined Bluesky. And what do I see? Well it looks just like Twitter. The colors are the same, as is the layout of the entire window, and the formatting of each message. In the 90s lawyers would have gotten involved in violations of look and feel, it's that close. I don't follow very many people there, and I don't know how I would do that quickly enough for it to color my impression. There's so much more on Twitter. As much as insiders are repelled by the new Twitter management, and I'm one of them, I think most people who use Twitter are far above that, to them it's just noise, and life goes on as always. There was a very interesting episode of Succession last night, and there are lots of good memes on Twitter. I haven't seen anything on Bluesky. But as quiet as Bluesky is, it makes Mastodon look even quieter. Ultimately we join these networks for companionship, it's a trip to the water cooler, or a walk around the block during a workday, or while watching a sports game. The new services have a steep hill to climb. The focus on technology has largely been a distraction in that context. What matters, as always, is not the tech -- but the people. And Twitter is still far ahead of the others, despite all the wishful thinking to the contrary. #
BTW, I pronounce the name as if it were Blue Ski.#
My Hello World for Bluesky works. Here's the evidence. Thanks to Manton Reece for the great exampleware and support. I will publish the Node.js source so others can follow. Here's the initial query.#
It's great to see people using the JavaScript implementation of XML-RPC, released in 2019. There appears to be a problem with integer parsing in Java on Linux vs Windows. I'm ready to update the package if we can get to the bottom of what the issue is. #
I wish GitHub would let me write an OPML renderer for them, so when it encounters a file with a .opml extension, it gets the HTML text from my driver. There's at least one OPML file in every one of my repos, containing the full project source. I edit all my code in an outliner. This is an art that should get exposure. It'm not exactly a nobody in software development, I've been developing this style for a long time. And tools to go with it. Anyway, back to work 😄#
One thing I don't like about Mastodon is that I get so many comments from people who feel superior to those who use other systems. It's always bullshit. Just like people who used Macs felt superior to Windows users. Just an example. The world likes to judge the quality of people based on superficial bullshit like that. If you reply to something I post saying you're superior because you use (whatever) I will think you're an asshole, so just skip it. I might even say it to you. 💥#
You know those obnoxious sites that pop up dialogs when they think you're about to leave, asking you to subscribe to their email newsletter? Well that won't do for Scripting News readers who are a discerning lot, very loyal, but that wouldn't last long if I did rude stuff like that. So here I am at the bottom of the page quietly encouraging you to sign up for the nightly email. It's got everything from the previous day on Scripting, plus the contents of the linkblog and who knows what else we'll get in there. People really love it. I wish I had done it sooner. And every email has an unsub link so if you want to get out, you can, easily -- no questions asked, and no follow-ups. Go ahead and do it, you won't be sorry! :-)