Scripting News: Programming with love

Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

Programming with love

With all the talk about My.Yahoo today, I happened to trip across another app on Yahoo that is so much nicer than anything like it I've seen. It didn't get big headlines today, maybe it was announced some time ago and I missed it, maybe not.

Their stock analysis tool is beautifully crafted, very usable.

I think the problem with browser-based RSS software is that the people who write the apps aren't news junkies. If they were, they could, with much less effort, create something far more powerful and far more usable.

When Steve Rubel says they've abandoned the geeks this is what I imagine he's saying. There are people who hook up to news intravenously. Make news software for them, and magically, it will work for everyone else too. That's the time-tested way to make software.

It really isn't so hard. Find a programmer who lives for news.

Last update: Thursday, June 3, 2010; 4:00:33 PM

~About the Author~

Dave Winer, 55, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

Mail: scriptingnews1mail at gmail dot com.

Feb Apr