It's even worse than it appears..
Sunday, October 1, 2023
Google kicked RSS's ass. I'm wondering if when that happened, I shouldn't have stepped up and tried to raise a great RSS reader from OpenSourceLand. But I don't think it could have happened. It's funny how people processed that event, I didn't see any anger at Google, which if my little old UserLand had done something like that, there would have been a huge shitstorm. I think they manage their PR well because there's no one identifiable as the personality of Google, neither of the founders are visible. They don't tweet, you never hear anything about them outside of the business press. Same with the two people they've hired as CEO. Anyway, they treated RSS like an unwanted litter of kittens, put in a shopping bag and dropped from a bridge over a river. No thought to cleaning up the mess they created. They treated their users and the standard they took over like crap. But people need a person to be angry with. I'm much less consequential from a business standpoint, or user-control for that matter, my products get ignored mostly, but I am outspoken. And this makes me easy to be angry with. Anyway, I didn't step up because 1. I didn't think anything would come of it and 2. I didn't want to get embroiled in all the anger again. The last time it had nearly killed me. #
Today would have been my uncle's 78th birthday. Happy birthday Uncle Vava, where ever you are. #
September's outline is archived. High hopes for Oct. Let's begin! 😄#
An old time MORE ad#
  • Steve Algernon found this MORE ad from the 80s and sent it along.#
  • I had been looking for it a few years ago, now I want to be sure next time, it'll be easy to find. Steve used to work at Living Videotext, where this product was made. He went on to Apple, where he did system software. He was the one who got XML-RPC and RSS into the Mac OS in the early web days. Thanks Steve for all of it. 😄#
  • "He's got three questions. You have two answers. You need MORE."#
  • PS: Steve also sent along an article from 1985 about me with my standard schpiel back in those days about how outliners came to be. The picture is funny, I was much younger of course, and my expression in the photo was as bewildered as often is. Oh yeah and I was wearing a suit and tie as people often did in business in those days. These days, it looks really funny. #

© copyright 1994-2023 Dave Winer.

Last update: Sunday October 1, 2023; 8:56 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! :-)