Scripting News archive for June 2012

I almost put a question mark at the end of that. Because so many people were so sure that it wasn't ours, rather it belonged to the part of the American political system that had lost its mind.

After reading a few thousand words in the last 24 hours on the decision, and the history of such decisions, it's clear that the Chief Justice of the United States is thinking long-term, as I thought he would be. Or hoped he would.

Whether the place he wants to lead us is where I would like to go is another matter. But at least he's got a sense of time that's got some maturity to it, a sense of history, and an appreciation for the responsibility that has been given to him.

So maybe it is *our* court. It was supposed to be our government, but so many people don't see it that way. I'm stubborn, because I still do.

BTW, the cable news coverage last night on CNN on Piers Morgan was really good. Maybe it's just that they need a meaty story that's actually new to create a news program that activates the mind?

Posted: 6/29/12; 11:51:24 AM.

I've read a few thousand words today about the Supreme Court decision, but haven't heard anyone observe that it was bipartisan. That's why it's so powerful. We have two branches of government led by people who take their jobs and legacy seriously. That's a place to start. Maybe this will embolden the Chairman of the Federal Reserve to take more risks (he's also a Republican).

Posted: 6/28/12; 10:14:59 PM.

I'm a Chrome user on Mac and Windows, so of course I wanted to try it on the iPad, and I liked it immediately.

But I don't think I can switch from Safari. One reason is the toolbar bookmarks don't work the same way they work in the desktop versions of Chrome and in Safari on the iPad. It's three steps to click on a bookmark, and in Safari it's just one. That's a huge difference, where there are a set of pages I visit regularly.

Also Twitter for some reason gives me a mobile interface on Chrome and on Safari gives me the normal interface. Why sites keep treating iPads differently from desktops is a mystery to me. It's got a full-size screen. Don't be so fancy, "different" is not better.

However, I'd like to be able to switch to Chrome to have everything all synched up across all my platforms. Maybe they can address the bookmarks question in an update, or maybe I'm missing something??

Posted: 6/28/12; 8:26:29 PM.

How I'm following the SCOTUS decision: I'm watching Twitter and listening to WNYC-FM. How are you following it?

Posted: 6/28/12; 10:00:14 AM.

With Apple shipping a new podcasting product, maybe it's time to try out some new ideas. I've been thinking about a server-based app for subscriptions that hooks into Dropbox. All the shows you're subscribed to show up in a folder. And they have clients for all the mobile devices. A podcast service that doesn't have pictures of tape decks from the 20th century. How does this sound?

Posted: 6/26/12; 7:27:58 PM.

Q: When Google is the registrar of the .blog top-level domain will I be able to buy a .blog address for my site, even if it isn't running on their server. A: No.

Posted: 6/25/12; 12:33:22 AM.

I was content to pretty much ignore ICANN. I have plenty of things to worry about. I know I should care. The gTLD changes really woke me up. Now I need to know what they actually do. How does the Internet depend on them? I know the registrars are one level below ICANN, and I understand what a registrar does, I think. What does ICANN do??

Posted: 6/23/12; 11:43:00 AM.

A couple of days ago I asked for links to New Orleans news sites, and got back enough to start a river.

http://nola.newsriver.org/

If you have other ideas for feeds that should be in the river, enter the URL of the feed here.

It's been a long time since I lived in New Orleans (Tulane 1976), but I'm really getting the flavor of the city through the river, which I guess make sense since it's the river city!

Posted: 6/19/12; 10:57:14 AM.

I admit to being an Angry Birds addict, in all its flavors. I've at times been very high ranked, even for a brief moment (shortly after release of one of the installments) I was #1 on the leaderboard. Anyway, I've been puzzling over the choir in the newest scenario in Angry Birds Seasons, called Piglantis, when the choir starts singing. WTF does it mean?

Posted: 6/18/12; 9:15:21 AM.

I'd like to start reading blogs that are specifically about New Orleans. I have a link to Uptown Messenger. Please, if you know of others, drop a note here. If there are enough I will start a river, along the lines of the one I did the East Village.

Posted: 6/17/12; 3:13:16 PM.

I caught just a bit of Wallenda's daredevil walk across Niagara Falls last night.

But there's something that confuses me.

What's this cable connecting his body to the wire? Is it a safety feature?

I must have missed the part where they explained what this is for.

Posted: 6/16/12; 10:11:45 AM.

It's not new after all!

Posted: 6/15/12; 9:42:58 PM.

A new screencast that shows you how to get started with Radio2. You need someone to give you an account on a server, or set up your own.

Posted: 6/13/12; 3:30:33 PM.

When cycling in NYC, count the number of times you say "asshole" under your breath. How many times out loud. And finally, yelling.

Posted: 6/12/12; 10:58:00 AM.

Apparently Chrome on Windows lacks DDE support.

This makes it fairly useless in a content management context.

Posted: 6/9/12; 2:27:48 PM.

What happens if someday the Internet goes down for all of NYC. How lost will everyone be?

Posted: 6/8/12; 5:04:13 PM.

It begins: "Users must have a consistent experience wherever they interact with Tweets, whether on Twitter.com, a mobile client, website, or in an application developed with the Twitter API."

Posted: 6/6/12; 4:18:01 PM.

Update: I punted on this method of doing it, instead going with a non-Ajax approach. I realized I was putting too much effort into functionality that wasn't that important. Happens often with easily-distracted geekoids. :-)

I'm trying to do something fancy with Disqus. Possibly too fancy. But the idea is very compelling. So I'm struggling to make it work.

Here's the situation:

It's probably something I broke (I hope!) but I'm pulling out what's left of my hair trying to figure this out.

Be a Javascript hero today, and help me figure this out. I will be eternally grateful! :-)

Posted: 6/5/12; 8:39:26 AM.

A new screencast for outliner users. And if you like to see the end before the beginning, here's the outline I created, on the web. Look in the right margin for the new feature. I think it's pretty hot! :-)

Posted: 6/4/12; 4:57:20 PM.

If blog posts were motor vehicles, a tweet might be a motorized bike, and a WordPress blog post is like a RV. In between there are other sized bits of text that are blog-like. Tumblr, Posterous are famous. Disqus is for comments. But what other kinds and sizes of messages are good?

Posted: 6/1/12; 2:22:24 PM.