Scripting News

Russell Beattie asks Obvious Question 2.0

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 04:20:28 GMT

Russ asks: Where's the OpenSocial container API?

I love Russ because he cuts through all the BS and gets right to the core, most basic question, and he doesn't care who he pisses off. That's my kind of developer. You can't lie to the compiler, when the bits hit the road, you gotta know what garbage goes in and what garbage comes out.

(Ahh programmer's humor!)

In other words, suppose I wanted to compete with Google, MySpace, Plaxo and LinkedIn, well, where's the spec that shows me how to do that?

Well, of course I don't know, they aren't communicating with riffraff like me, but I have some experience with this kind of stuff, so I can hazard a guess. If they publish a spec,all kinds of projects will likely get started to enable the API in (just for the sake of argument): Drupal, WordPress, Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, Scripting News (why not add widgets to a random blog), CNN, The New York Times, well you get the idea. There might be lots of implementations very quickly. And that would be it for changes. It would be frozen de facto, they'd have to live with what they have, which given how quickly it was thrown together, probably isn't very good. Not the kind of stuff you'd like to support for the next decade or two.

Or maybe they would break everyone, something guaranteed to make them a lot of enemies, much the way Microsoft did, and they were good at migration of APIs.

Google is good at doing AJAXy web UIs, they make users happy, but they're not very good at APIs. This one is a loser, for sure. That's the answer to Russ's question. It's probably not malice that keeps them from releasing details to everyone outside their club, it's pragmatism. They have to try to hold on to it to keep it from becoming even more of a mess than it already is.

Just my opinion, for what it's worth. I've been wrong many times before.

Google's phone should be good

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 22:46:57 GMT

While I think Google's plan to undermine Facebook was a bad idea that flopped, I think they should be able to design a phone that, like Apple's iPhone, is a necessary accessory for the future-minded geek.

One of the things we like the most about mobile devices is that they can be used to access Internet applications, but neither the Blackberry or the iPhone have hit the sweet spot with web access, imho -- but Google's design process should yield something not ony usable but uniquely powerful. Combining search with email, maps and news is something they should be able to make work better than their competitors because they've done it so well on the web.

When news organizations see what Google's up to, I suspect they will be more interested in what we've been doing with the NY Times.

And btw, I'm not selling my Apple stock.

Trying out disqus.com

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 21:19:08 GMT

I got an email a couple of weeks ago asking if I'd like to try out a new way to do weblog comments, from disqus.com. I thought about it, and decided to give it a try. Not sure whether I'm ready to provide an outlet for people's anger so easily, but let's see what happens.

To begin with the comments only appear on the story page, not on the Scripting News home page. Just click on the blue arrow to get to the story page.

What is it like to work at Google?

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 07:00:00 GMT

Sometime back in the late 80s I was invited to give a talk at Apple, along with John Markoff, who was at the SF Examiner at the time. I think he went first, they received him politely, then I got up and was shocked at the anger I heard back from the people in the room. It scared me, I was totally unprepared for it.

That was the first time that I experienced the disconnect with what it must feel like to be inside a big, famous, young, successful technology company, and what I thought it must feel like. It's taken a long time for the glamor to wear off for me. As recently as 2004, I thought it would be nice to work inside one of these big companies, believe it or not. Now I see it very differently.

Think about what it must have been like to work at Apple in the late 80s. People at the highest level of the company come and go, when they come they get beautiful offices, great benefits, unlimited expense accounts. They're quoted in the press as if they were gods, but you know better. When they show up at meetings they are fools, they have no idea how the products work, they avoid making the decisions you need them to, instead they throw all your cards in the air at will, and do it often. When they leave they get huge bonuses, golden parachutes, and another cushy job at another tech company. Meanwhile your options are worth shit, you haven't gotten a raise in two years, and they just had layoffs, and a bunch of your friends aren't there anymore, and you have to do their jobs too.

And then this developer asshole walks in and tells you how you're fucking up.

Don't get me started about the developers. They hardly do any work, they get quoted in the press all the time as if they're gods, and make millions of dollars, and I do all the work, and I don't get shit and no one cares what I think.

Okay that was what it was like to be at Apple in the late 80s.

I have no idea what it must be like to work at Google today, but I can see some things about it, and guess at why it is that way.

First, there's a sense that everyone, if they could, would like to be at Google. The food is good, they pay for almost everything you need in life. It's like a college campus, you get to do interesting stuff, and they take care of all the worries. In another way it's as if you never left your mother's house.

For some people, maybe many, just going to work is making them rich. Some of them are being made very rich. Who wouldn't want to be rich.

Therefore if you don't work at Google it must be because you're not good enough.

So one thing they don't have in huge supply at Google is humility.

The laws of software apply equally everywhere and the number one law of software, of course is Murphy's Law. And one of the big things it teaches is humility. Look everywhere for possible errors. Be completely paranoid about security holes, infinite loops, databases that crash, and things you may have overlooked

Yet, this latest episode from Google seems to completely lack humility.

Someday someone will write the Microserfs for Google and then the rest of us (who don't work there, and don't want to, and never will) can have some idea of how they got to be this way.

In the meantime I'm very interested in real human stories of what it's like to be at Google today.

Update: A thread with some interesting comments about this piece on ycombinator.com.

Netflix is driving me crazy!

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:23:48 GMT

I don't have an HD-DVD player.

(Actually I do but it never works.)

So when I order a movie from Netflix, I don't want the HD-DVD format, I want the DVD format.

They actually tell you what formats each movie is available in, but I can't find a way to tell it I want the regular DVD, not the HD one, so guess what, I always end up with the HD one.

Arrrrrrrrrrrgh.

Here's a screen shot.

Please tell me what I'm missing.

TIA.

Update: Bradc found the pref that was set wrong.

This says it all

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 03:55:44 GMT

Dare Obasanjo, who works at Microsoft, says that Google has transformed itself into "Microsoft of Old."

It seems true, with a bit of Sun and Java thrown in as well.

It's the hurt of the software industry, moving away from serving users, and getting spun in its own drama.

It's not much longer before something totally new sprouts, quietly, out of sight, and re-energizes the people who care about the purpose of technology, which is to enable and empower, not limit and cripple.

We lifted Google on our shoulders as our vision of what was good about the web. They're so far from that ideal these days.

MySpace and Google, where's the beef??

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:50:15 GMT

I had a lunch in SF, so I missed the rush of news today.

Scoble called while I was driving east on the Bay Bridge. Apparently he was the only blogger at the press conference. He channeled inquiries from people on Twitter to the participants in the conference, while he captured video live on Kyte. I know a lot of "real" journalists and academics who study journalism don't use Twitter, they should, it's an amazing tool for exchanging fast-breaking information, in other words, news.

Anyway...

Mike Arrington posits: "Google may have just come out of nowhere and checkmated Facebook in the social networking power struggle."

Hmmm.

Imho, Google has a long way to go to build the base of users and developers connected using the new protocol that is the subject of all this chest-thumping. Do they exist in any tangible form? How much of a moving target are they? It's like proclaiming the new owners of A-Rod's contract as the winners of the 2008 World Series. Only in tech, a persistently immature industry, could such an idea be aired seriously (assuming Mike is actually serious).

I hope that the Facebook people, many of whom have never been in the middle of a tech PR war, don't overreact. Me, I've been around this block so many times and it's boring. Let's see some software then I'll let you know if this means anything. But Google is keeping people like me far away, which suggests that there may actually be no "there" there.

Lack of updates disclaimed, explained

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:28:56 GMT

I've been head-down on a test version of some new software, really serious about it, and if I do say so myself (Murphy please forgive me) I love the way it works.

Meanwhile...

Jay Rosen is onto something. Beat reporting and social networks of people who know the beat and want better reporting. Please help him if you can.

Want to see a great movie? You're in luck. One is playing at a theater near you. Went to see Michael Clayton yesterday and was thrilled. George Clooney is becoming a really great actor, getting parts that refine his skills and make me look forward to see what's coming next. Pay attention as the plot unfolds, at first it's confusing but it intrigues. Eventually it all comes together, maybe just a bit too neatly.

Trying to figure out exactly who Clooney is like. The Times reviewer said he's like Warren Beatty, another actor who really delivers, but I was thinking bigger -- perhaps Clark Gable or Cary Grant. He has that kind of presence. Michael Clayton might be his North by Northwest.

Using Wordpress as an OPML Manager

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 17:36:09 GMT

Panayotis Vryonis sent an email saying I might be interested in what he's doing. He was right about that!

He's got Wordpress serving OPML to Nokia's podcatcher, apparently it supports dynamic OPML (what we call reading lists), a very powerful and useful feature.

Well, well, well..

Look at how well all these things work together!

Wordpress, Nokia, OPML, podcasting, and a developer out there where ever he is.

We didn't have a big press conference, or leak something to the NY Times or TechCrunch There was no grand announcement of an alliance. We didn't threaten anyone, or undermine anyone, or any of that. We all just said Hey this might be useful why don't you give it a try.

Gotta love it.

PS: We need a logo for loving OPML like the ones we have for RSS. Anyone want to give it a go?

A bit about Open Social

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:11:38 GMT

Standards devised by one tech company whose main purpose is to undermine another tech company, usually don't work.

In this case it's Google trying to undermine Facebook.

And I don't think it's going to work.

What would be exciting and uplifting, a real game-changer -- Internet companies giving users full control of their data.

When Google makes their announcement on Thursday, the question they should be asked by everyone is -- How much of my data are you letting me control today? That's pretty much all that matters to anyone, imho.

1996: "How much happier we would be if instead of crippling each other with fear, we competed to empower each others' creativity."

Think about all the frees and opens and what they reveal

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 15:59:03 GMT

Okay now we have Open Social to add to a long list of Opens and Frees.

Open Source -- let's see your source code.

Open Doc -- let's get rid of Office.

Open ID -- let's see your users.

Free Beer -- Web 2.0.

Free Software -- no code-level lock-in.

These aren't good or bad, they just serve someone's interest without thinking about the users' interest (at best) or counter to the users' interest (at worst).

Which suggests maybe it's time to get to the point.

Free Users.

Let my people go!

A milestone for nytimesriver.com

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 00:38:26 GMT

nytimesriver is on the first page of results when you search for "NY Times" on Google.

http://google.com/search?q=ny+times

I find that amazing. Maybe because we don't sell links (or take ads).

Marc Canter isn't disclosed

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 23:14:47 GMT

Google hasn't sworn him to secrecy so he can speculate on what Maka Maka is.

Okay the new Wii works better, but...

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 20:44:04 GMT

I got past the initial screen this time...

http://mp3.twittergram.com/davewiner/gram02286.mp3

Any help on how to get a stuck disk unstuck in a Wii would be much appreciated.

Look: You can open it and push the disk out manually!

First look at Pownce's API

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:26:43 GMT

A twit last night from Scoble points to a page of docs on a new API for Pownce. Of course I want to check it out, since Pownce is roughly comparable to Twitter, which I use every day, and there is some functionality I'd like to see in the Twitter API. If that functionality is present in Pownce's API, it seems more likely that it will show up eventually in Twitter's.

First, the API is maybe 1/3 complete. If you scroll to the end of the page you'll see a list of areas that haven't yet been covered. The ability to post and read friends-only notes are very important, you can't implement a client without those interfaces.

Examples of things you can do with the API, right now. Click on the link to see the XML that Pownce returns.

1. Get the most recent 10 public notes.

2. Get the most recent 10 public notes from Veronica Belmont.

3. Get my public profile.

4. Get my "first" 100 friends and fans.

Steve Rubel lets one rip!

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 05:35:41 GMT

He had some Wheaties this morning for sure.

My advice...

1. Remember to have fun.

2. We're all bozos on this bus.

3. We're all barking farting chihuahuas.

4. I make shitty software and so do you.

5. It's even worse than it appears.

6. You never learn anything hanging with the same people.

7. Thank heaven for little girls. (A repeat of #6.)

8. It's later than you think.

9. It's not like anyone gets out of this alive.

It's all about context

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:03:11 GMT

A comment by Lane Becker on Scott Rosenberg's blog...

"I've been using Winer's nytimesriver on my iPhone screen for weeks now, and it¹s far and away the best interface when you're reading on a mobile device."

"Which is the point: it's all about context. It's not either/or, and it's not just different readers wanting different things. sometimes it's the same reader wanting different things at different times, in different situations."

Exactly right. I use nytimesriver on my iPhone or Blackberry, but I don't use it on my desktop, where I prefer an interface with more controls. The small screen of a mobile device demands something simpler.

Slowly the word is getting out. I'd like to do it faster. It would be great if the TImes itself looked at this. If they can write about installation art in their lobby, why not tell their readers about a new way of reading Times news on a mobile device?

The Times was a leader in RSS too, but never reported on it. Perhaps there's a blind spot.

And it's also all about point of view

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:31:02 GMT

Good software designers get out of their bodies and become users of software. Because ultimately you don't design software to express yourself, you design it to be useful.

The point of news, as with software, is to be useful to the person using it.

Sorry, it's not about employing editors. Scott Rosenberg, a writer and editor of news can be forgiven for seeing it from his own point of view, but we users of news don't share that point of view. To me, as a software designer, it's no surprise that there are lots of ways to view news. That there used to be one main way to do it is also not a surprise, there were technical limits, that aren't there anymore.

The skill of laying out a paper presentation of the day's news on a big sheet of paper is now an obsolete craft. The only reason we needed people to do that in the past was that was the only way to get written news to massive numbers of users of written news. Now that computer monitors are cheap, and we have little computers that can get us news that fits in our pocket, we can try out lots of ways of arranging it, and maybe we'll even discover something new.

Newly rescued Morning Coffee Notes

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 17:56:01 GMT

http://mp3.morningcoffeenotes.com/rescued/cnOct5.mp3

http://mp3.morningcoffeenotes.com/rescued/cnOct6.mp3

http://mp3.morningcoffeenotes.com/rescued/cnOct7.mp3

http://mp3.morningcoffeenotes.com/rescued/cnSept11.mp3

http://mp3.morningcoffeenotes.com/rescued/cnSept27a.mp3

Geek dad and Junior the geek

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 03:48:23 GMT

At Fry's this afternoon, where I bought two 500GB Firewire drives for $169 each.

Which it turns out I needed because after I got home all three external drives attached to my desktop were reported as damaged beyond repair by the new Mac OS. Coincidence? Lucky that I had exactly the hardware I needed to dig out of the mess? Who knows!

Funny thing is it's taking over 10 hours to do the copying. It won't finish until tomorrow morning, Murphy-willing. When the disks got big, all of a sudden restoring from backups takes a lonnnng time.