15 years of Scripting News

  Sometime in the spring of 1997, the date is subject to discussion, a blog first appeared at www.scripting.com.
  The one you're reading right now, Scripting News.
  You'll find that no other blog has yet claimed 15 years on the planet. Just as five years ago we were first to reach the ten-year milestone.
  It's tough being first because people don't know what to make of it.
  Whether you think the first day was February 1, as Rudolf Ammann does (and he has done the research) or if you think as I do that it's April 1 (maybe because it gives me something non-idiotic to do on one of two blog holidays), the fact is this blog both has been here for a long time and has (the thing I'm most proud of) inspired many others to open their veins on the Internet for all to see!
  BTW, my first blog-like site was DaveNet, started in October 1994. And there was also the Frontier News page, and the 24 Hours of Democracy site, all of which led to Scripting News. In terms of blogging tools, there was a parade of those as well. AutoWeb, Clay Basket, NewsPage, the website framework, Manila, Radio.
  Dewey Defeats Truman
  The random rotating header graphic for today is one of my favorites. Harry Truman holding up a newspaper saying he had lost the election, one that he had just won. I love it for so many reasons. First, don't be upset when everyone counts you out. I've had people say that my career was over, so many times, and so far they've always been wrong. You'd think by now they would stop predicting it, but nope -- they still think you can't be innovative, even when you've spent a life studying and practicing innovation.
  They also said Truman was a shit president, but what did they know. Turns out he was one of our best presidents. He got us through all kinds of tough binds, and did it with an understated purely American grace. He looked meek, but he also gave em hell, and had something funny to say about it.
    He said "I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell."
  No one thought he could follow the great Franklin Roosevelt, who was indeed a great president. But he held his own and gave geeks all over America hope.
  PandoDaily needs a clue
  Read this piece if you're suffering from low blood pressure.
  This is what a company town looks like. What matters is what the money people want. Our private info? Oh come on, lighten up.
  Well, the problem is they're users too, in Silicon Valley, and their competitors, now that they know it's open season on contact info, photos and calendar info, are probably going to start going after it, if they haven't already done so.
  Can't wait to see their tune change when they finally get a clue. Unless they're all willing to publish their address books now, in entirety, without editing? If they were willing to do that, well I'd eat my words. :-)
  Funniest picture ever?
  I think this might be the most funny picture ever posted to this blog.