I'm really happy with the way WordPress News is shaping up. Every community should have a news site like this. #
Also after last week's conference we're starting to get help from the open source developer community around WordPress. Really friendly people, excited about what we can all do together.#
Tell the people who make AI's -- I want a way to have apps run in your browser that has direct connections to the AI engine, and it connects via the user's credentials, not the app devs (though you are entitled to know who the developer is). When I explored the idea of making apps for ChatGPT, this was the roadblock, I have to become a reseller of your service. Can't you figure out how to let the user pay directly? I just want to make tools, not be in the retail AI business. Feh.#
This is the same problem web devs have, we have to become resellers for Amazon S3. Why can't Amazon, who already has an account for every freaking person in the world, let the user own their own data, which I believe they would reallllly like. I don't want access to it, I just want to make great tools for them to use. And they're free to use other products with the data. This helps encourage data format standards. It's why the PC software market was so much more vibrant than the web developer market. #
I keep trying to explain this to people who aren't web devs, but in a position to help, and make a shitload of money, but all I get is blank stares, and "we don't do that."#
Yesterday I did some research into how weblogs.com, in 1999, tracked changes in the blogs it was following. This was a precursor to feed readers. There was a main output file called changes.xml, a reverse chronological list of sites, not feeds, feeds didn't exist yet. #
What the home page of weblogs.com looked like in June 2000. #
You can ask ChatGPT to tell you about changes.xml. I did, it was able to put together all the random bits that are now gone, it found them somewhere and I got a much better answer than I would have gotten if somehow all my docs had survived, and most of them did not. This btw is one of the great features of ChatGPT. Truly a miracle. #
BTW, here's a transcript of my talk with ChatGPT about this stuff. Sometimes these links don't work for everyone. I wish they would get that working, dear friends at OpenAI. This is how your word of mouth builds. #
Last update: Thursday October 23, 2025; 5:08 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! :-)