news.scripting.com continues to grow. There must be some word of mouth. Or perhaps people are refreshing it more often. I have no analytics except for a hit counter. Maybe I should do a little work on the site. Let me know if you have any feature requests. #
The last few days we've been exploring the ideas behind the web, to decide what, if anything that we're doing today is either on the web or of the web. On the web seemed relatively easy. But of the web is a bit more elusive. Until Ken Smith found this quote of Ted Nelson in the original 1989 proposal by Tim Berners-Lee for what would become the web. "Human-readable information linked together in an unconstrained way." I like this, because it, like the definition I came up with for weblog, talks about the activity as opposed to the technology. Human-readable is essential. And most essential is "unconstrained." If something requires a link, you should link to it. If you don't it ain't the web. #
I want a ChatGPT pref that lets me turn off human impersonation. I want it to behave like a search engine. I ask questions, it answers. Period. #
It's the future, and the great power of the X galaxy, on the planet Y of star Z, has accidentally elected a despotic prime minister who also happens to be an excellent standup comic. Kind of like Robin Williams, from the planet you come from, but he's a centipede and only breathes what you would think of as Chef Boyardee lasagna, but it's not really that, it's different. #
Anyway, he's old, 757 centuries give or take, and they're expecting him to die soon, and they can elect someone boring so they can forget about politics. Everyone is looking forward to the relaxation. #
And then one day he does die, and everyone breathes a huge sigh of relief, until later that night, on the 10-screen equivalent of what you would think of as TV, hilarity ensues when the "dead" PM showed up, looking fit, young and dashing, doing slapstick and talking about how he's going to make a mess of something. #
Everyone was furious and then puzzled, we thought he was dead -- until the rumor started going around that the scientists had invented a sort of "artificial" thing that could perfectly emulate anyone or anything, including a Lasagna-breathing centipede comic despot from planet Y of star Z in the X galaxy. Everyone was pissed, but mostly agreed the PM was still pretty funny.#
Last update: Wednesday August 27, 2025; 5:47 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! :-)