Scripting News

Mon, 03 Feb 2003 16:59:06 GMT

If you're in Boston, please mark your calendar for Tuesday evening, February 11, 6PM. We're going to do a live version of this weblog in a classroom at Harvard Law School (details to follow). It's open to anyone who has a weblog, not just people from Harvard. I'll start with a few comments, basically the kind of stuff you read here, probably something about how cold it is, and how thin my blood is. Let's figure some things out. How should we do weblogs at Harvard? Will the Red Sox ever win the World Series? How to use the technology in law, medicine, education, government, business. These sessions are always fun, they last about 1.5 hours or so, sometimes not so long, sometimes longer. No one falls asleep.

Tue, 04 Feb 2003 02:14:17 GMT

Don Park says the Dow will soon test 7500. Maybe so. But the day the war with Iraq is behind us the market will go up 2500 points. The market bearing a heavy weight of uncertainty due to the looming war. Alternate theory. The market, anticipating a resolution, will creep up, and go down by 1000 points when peace is achieved. Yeah that's probably what'll happen. Either way, I'm getting a feeling it's time to start buying again, soon.

Mon, 03 Feb 2003 18:26:35 GMT

Rich Karpinski: "I'm working on a story for InternetWeek on the recent activity in the browser 'market.' I'm most interested in what the browser has the potential to become. Clearly, it's an area that's been fairly stagnant the past few years."

Mon, 03 Feb 2003 17:16:51 GMT

Mark Frauenfelder almost fell for an eBay identity theft scam.

Tue, 04 Feb 2003 00:39:33 GMT

Hey for the first time in a while a DaveNet piece is getting position on Daypop and Blogdex. That feels good.

Mon, 03 Feb 2003 17:24:29 GMT

Chris Gulker took a picture of a sheriff's funeral in 1981 that was used in the opening sequence of Dragnet last night.

Mon, 03 Feb 2003 21:37:03 GMT

News.Com: "Hiptop developer Danger collected another $35 million in funding."

Mon, 03 Feb 2003 16:02:24 GMT

Wired: "Disney has invested in Sonicblue, even though it is also one of the outfits suing the firm."

Mon, 03 Feb 2003 21:31:39 GMT

Motley Fool: Quattrone Has Left the Building.

Mon, 03 Feb 2003 15:05:23 GMT

Entertainment industry perspective on FCC chairman Michael Powell's public love affair with TiVO. When I write about technology for entertainment, I often get emails like this, from people inside Hollywood's reality distortion field, accusing me of being stupid, immoral, or complicit. This is what happens when users talk back. And sometimes the head regulator is a user. I don't think there was anything more to Powell's comments. How refreshing. Thanks to Kevin Werbach for the pointer.

Early morning rants

Mon, 03 Feb 2003 14:35:07 GMT

I'd gotten out of the habit of venting my spleen first thing in the morning. The last few days have been different.

Catch up on Web Services

Mon, 03 Feb 2003 14:35:33 GMT

NY Times rah-rah piece on Web Services. Except Works With Microsoft as the metric for interop isn't the way it's shaking out. This is a perfect example of a BigPub letting a small group of BigCo's define a new technology, or so they think. In fact, new technologies are already shaped when we discover them, making it a puzzle. The Big Guys were guessing wrong almost from the start. They need new windshield wipers on their glasses. Web Services are technology for gluing desktop applications to each other and to centralized servers over the Internet. It's the next layer on the Web, a little higher level than XML and HTTP (on which it builds). To see the furthest development of Web Services look no further than the weblog world, where new tools are being created in just this model, actually for quite a few years. I'm using one right now to write this. Even better, it's something a reporter can understand, because it's about what they do, research, writing and publishing. But a guy like Steve Lohr doesn't trust himself enough to break out of the grip of the BigCo's. He lets their PR people frame the article. So all the articles are cast the same way, and they're all wrong.

Maybe they're just lazy

Mon, 03 Feb 2003 14:35:59 GMT

The way reporters cover Web Services is exactly the way they cover space, as a political thing. This morning on NPR they're still doing round the clock "coverage" of the Columbia disaster. They're talking about whether it hurts or helps Bush's planned war on Iraq, they looked at it from both sides. Then they had interviews with people at the "Ground Zero" in Houston. One woman said how great it felt to share her feelings with other people, to get and give hugs, etc. I thought to myself, that's true, I'm sure it does feel great, but what does this have to do with the story? I think they missed the big one. How about teaching us something about space and the universe. Seems like the perfect opportunity. They say we wouldn't understand, but I'm not sure they're right. I think maybe they're just lazy.