Scripting News

Tue, 17 May 2005 02:33:19 GMT

Chris Pirillo has an interview with Nick Bradbury about the deal with Newsgator. I guess it's official now. I was briefed on the deal by Nick Bradbury a couple of days ago. I understand that the motivation was to allow FeedDemon to tie into the subscription-sharing network Newsgator is building. It seems inevitable that they'll buy a Mac news reader product, they would probably like to buy NetNewsWire, and it would be hard to imagine Brent wouldn't take a reasonable offer (I have no inside knowledge). This is venture capital at work, not sales revenue. I imagine that Newsgator will roll up with Feedburner (they share an investor), and Technorati may become part of this deal too. The goal? Get large enough to go public or merge with something going public (SixApart) or get bought by Microsoft.

Tue, 17 May 2005 02:11:36 GMT

Om Malik first has a rumor then confirmation that Newsgator is buying FeedDemon. "It's a cash-and-stock deal, and Nick will join Newsgator."

Mon, 16 May 2005 21:25:55 GMT

For ten points, where was the picture taken?

Tue, 17 May 2005 02:53:26 GMT

I get a yet another lecture from Boing Boing. I think they're even calling me names (kind of hard to tell). They say respect is not a loaf of bread, cool, but how long has it been since Boing Boing pointed to Scripting News with anything remotely approaching respect? I would absolutely plotz if they ever took a balanced view toward anything here. We share mostly the same politics, and many of the same friends, but boy the resentment is so damned thick. Anyway, Adam does take credit for work he didn't do. You might want to check on that Xeni, it might be more interesting than the cookie-cutter bullshit puff piece you just wrote. ";->"

Mon, 16 May 2005 20:06:29 GMT

I've been hearing from people who love their Elements.

Mon, 16 May 2005 19:04:31 GMT

The NY Times announces that they'll charge $49 a year for access to certain op-ed pieces and other stuff, including the archives. I don't get it. The op-ed stuff is well-competed with by blogs, which are free of course, and frankly there aren't any columnists that the Times has that I want to read, for pay or otherwise. I suppose others feel otherwise. Let's hope this doesn't affect their policy re the links in their RSS feeds.

Mon, 16 May 2005 19:00:01 GMT

Scoble: "Will I start my own religion?" Personally, I think that's a little premature. But I have suggested that Scoble start the Scoble School of Scoble, where Scoble teaches people who come how to be a scoble.

Mon, 16 May 2005 19:17:11 GMT

sco-ble, n, A person who blogs about an organization from the point of view of someone who works for the organization. Related verb: scobleize, to be influenced by a blog written by a scoble. Named after early 21st century blogger, Robert Scoble, whose disciples founded a religion, The Church of The Martyr Scoble, after he was violently murdered by Steven Ballmer, a destitute homeless person who was ruined by Scoble.

Mon, 16 May 2005 18:57:08 GMT

CBS Marketwatch: Podcasts go broadcast.

Mon, 16 May 2005 13:19:52 GMT

My mother thought buses in her neighborhood should turn off their engines while they're waiting at the depot, and she got what she wished for!

Mon, 16 May 2005 19:11:22 GMT

A couple of notes. Some bloggers complain that we don't point to women often enough. First, we don't hesitate for a nanosecond to point to worthy posts by women. And second, how many bloggers, male or female, can boast that they've pointed to their mother! Fact is, my parents are extraordinary people. I hear that every day about my dad and his podcast about outliners and President Bush (who he calls a snake, people really seem to like that). Well, I have a mother too, and she kicks butt.

Mon, 16 May 2005 16:19:18 GMT

Another disclaimer about KYOU, I did not "submit" my podcast through their form, and I never would, and I wouldn't recommend that others do. The legal agreement is too one-sided, it gives them all the protection, and gives you none. In the defense of the station, however, they are part of a media conglomerate, with very corporate lawyers, who need a serious education about how to relate to creative people with their own distribution system. In the past they could push us around because we had no voice, that's why we created this medium, so we could route around the lawyers and their bosses. The people running KYOU are the good guys, but they work for some people who seriously need a kick in the butt (with love).

Mon, 16 May 2005 16:30:48 GMT

I guess they did play mine first. Thanks for the honor.

Mon, 16 May 2005 15:55:25 GMT

Two signs that the world is either going crazy or getting saner, not sure which. There's blogging at the Gartner conference, by participants and by Gartner; and IBM is encouraging its employees to blog.

Mon, 16 May 2005 16:01:01 GMT

A sure sign of sanity, a German blogger has banned Google from indexing his site in protest over their web accelerator. I'd love to ban Google from modifying the content on my site, however Google has not offered us a way to turn that off.

Mon, 16 May 2005 16:03:46 GMT

It gets better. KYOU has an awful signup process, whether you want to submit (awful word) a podcast for broadcast, or just want to listen. Staci Kramer called it. "a process that almost dares people to listen." Also, to be clear, I am not being paid, and if they screw up, you'll hear about it here first.

Mon, 16 May 2005 16:42:03 GMT

Political Wire: "8 in 10 journalists said they read blogs."

Mon, 16 May 2005 14:04:22 GMT

I just figured something out. My view of podcasting really isn't that radical, it's just an application of the same philosophy that led to the Apple II, IBM PC and Macintosh. Computers are tools used by people to think, organize and communicate. Podcasting just follows naturally. Sure, the tools are also used by professionals, but our real market, the one that pays the bills, are the people. It seems the Young Steve Jobs would understand podcasting.

Mon, 16 May 2005 10:19:42 GMT

Gnomedex is right around the corner. It seems everyone is going this year, me too. I'm giving one of the keynotes, it's going to be BloggerCon-style, so I'll talk for 10 minutes, maybe do a demo, then lead a discussion. Are you going? What should we talk about?

Mon, 16 May 2005 11:47:02 GMT

PodNova is an interesting podcasting directory built on OPML and RSS.

Mon, 16 May 2005 11:17:46 GMT

I'm playing around with some ideas this morning, and I needed to have an enclosure on an item in my RSS feed for an experiment. It won't be very long, so if your iPodder downloaded it automatically, please excuse the intrusion. Still diggin!

Mon, 16 May 2005 10:33:55 GMT

Wired: "Inventive web developers are taking Google's online map service to a new level, layering in house sales and apartment rentals, real-time traffic stats and Flickr photo tags."

Mon, 16 May 2005 10:34:42 GMT

IE blog: "IE7 has tabs."