Scripting News: Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Two-way RSS is a big idea that's got to happen if we want a silo-free web. Imagine a newsletter publishing app that let you feed stories to it from your favorite editor via RSS for publication to a list of subscribers. I'm thinking of a future Substack competitor that doesn't force writers to use their editor. It simply provides a service to any writer who uses an editor that can produce an RSS feed as output. Another example, if Mastodon handled inbound feeds, you'd be able to follow someone on Bluesky from within Mastodon. I would love to see this connection made asap. #

I am working with John Spurlock on RSS 2.0 feeds for Bluesky. Here's the feed of my Bluesky posts. You should be able to subscribe to it in any feed reader that understands RSS, even if you don't have a Bluesky account. #

Here's an OPML subscription list of the feeds of the people I follow on Bluesky. You should be able to import this into any feed reader.#

Also if you have a Bluesky account you also have an RSS feed. For example here's the feed for the NYT. #

If you have any questions about the RSS format we're using for Bluesky, I opened a thread on the repo we set up for this work. #

The newest 500 Songs podcast is Dark Star by the Grateful Dead. #

LeBron James says he might retire. Good move. He also says he isn't into basketball if he isn't in the race for a championship. See there's the problem, right there. There are 30 teams in the NBA. In any given year 29 of them will not win the championship. 28 of them won't even make the Finals. Yet their fans felt their seasons were worthwhile if they played the game with heart, if there's hope for next season. This is why I am not a Yankees fan or a LeBron James fan. I love my team even when they lose, especially when they lose. #

BTW, I understand where LeBron is coming from. When I started a software company in the early 80s, the business was tough and we almost went under quite a few times. But I couldn't lose. I couldn't face myself if it didn't work. So I made it work. But, after winning once, I relaxed and focused on the art of it. I've already won, now why did I get into this in the first place? I had something to say, which was more than about how I can win. I can also make beauty and break through and do new things with the medium I chose. #

Me, as a kid#

I was actually pretty cute when I wanted to be. 😄 #

Last update: Tuesday May 23, 2023; 10:35 PM EDT.

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! :-)