It's even worse than it appears..
Apparently Substack does not implement MCP, which is basically the XML-RPC of AI. According to ChatGPT they have a limited API that some independent developers have bridged to MCP. But as you would expect from a tight silo like Substack, the API lets you read but not write. They want you to use their editor, what they don't want is to be one of 20 distributors of your writing. They want an exclusive and they get it. #
BTW, I pointed to the Wikipedia page for XML-RPC, and noticed that they point to an archive.org copy of a very old version of the website, instead of the updated site which has new reference code written in JavaScript. The old version of the site used Frontier, which is where XML-RPC was developed, but it's not in wide use these days, JavaScript is. Could someone update the Wikipedia page to change the link to the current XML-RPC site? I'm reluctant to do it myself because that's somewhat against the rules. #
Welcome to May, the fairest month of all in the NYC area. Almost every day in May is delicious. And today is esp fair, the Knicks moved on to the next round of the playoffs with a record-setting decisive victory over the Hawks of Atlanta. The next opponent is either the Celtics of Boston or the Sixers of Philadelphia. I was already burned out on the playoffs last week, but I'm rejuvenated. Let's go. And I apologize about all the "realistic" things I said about Brunson. He caught fire in the last three games, and showed he has the determination we need to go all the way this year. The Knicks are great because unlike the Yankees or Mets, they unify the city. And as everyone learns, NYC is so huge that the fanbase can pack arenae all over the US, as they chanted the name of OG and MVP for Brunson and Dooooooce when McBride shoots. If they don't get to the finals it will not be for lack of talent or determination. There will be luck and Acts of God involved in the outcome. #
On this day in 2016 I wrote a screed on Facebook saying how I wanted to turn it into a blogging platform including the how and why. The arguments are roughly the same ones about how I want Bluesky to stop paying homage to the limits of Twitter and cozy up to the web and let's do writing for real, undo the damage caused by Twitter in its over 20-year life. The requests in both case fell on deaf ears. So we are where we were in 2016, we have to replace Bluesky with the writing system of the web. And there is a silver lining to Automattic's excursion into a mini-version of WordPress that looks and behaves like Twitter. They used RSS to glue the systems together. It was convenient, and that's one of the major selling points of RSS, it is convenient. It's supported everywhere (except the offspring of Twitter). So thanks for that. I'm still glued to this cause. I don't want to retire until writing on the web gets back on track. #
The backup of this blog for April in OPML format. #

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Last update: Friday May 1, 2026; 9:37 AM EDT.

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