Dave Winer, OG blogger, podcaster, developed first apps in many categories. Old enough to know better. It's even worse than it appears.
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I've never written a review on Amazon even though I shop there regularly. I was about to write a negative review for a product they can't seem to support, that I depend on, but got this message. Weird. I bought the product from the page I wanted to review it on. How else would they determine if I actually purchased the product? They don't say. They do offer to tell me a joke if I rate products I've bought. I've heard the company isn't doing that well now that Bezos has stepped aside. Hopefully this is just a bad set of coincidences.
Aaron Sorkin is like Ayn Rand. Reviewing his stories after you've grown up makes you wonder why you liked it in the first place. 😄
I don't understand using an email to send a code to verify the email address, that you then have to enter into a dialog. Why not just send a URL that the user can click on? What's the design rationale for making the user do the extra steps in remembering the number, switching back to your app, and entering the number by hand, when it could all be done with a single click?
I tuned into MSNBC this evening as one of their anchors was about to interview a CNN anchor who just wrote a book about an election in the 1800s.
And that my friends is what passes for news these days. Just passing the time waiting to see if there's anything left of journalism after the election.
Lalala.
In Boston a barber awaits the outcome of the election. Today, in 2024, AI cannot create art. But a human being can use AI to create art. It's a medium, like paint and canvas except it's not static. It gets new skills all the time. It gives me the ability to create in a way I've never been able to before. I can't wait to see what it can do in a few months or years.
The blogroll on scripting.com is a real breakthrough. It's actually a feed reader, but don't tell anyone. Actually go ahead and tell them. 😄
I have done this before, when a blog post I wrote became something I wanted to add to over time. Two examples -- Rules for standards-makers and Trolls.
I started a new this.how doc on how podcasting got its name, so I could include new information. It links back to the piece I wrote in 2014. I have done this before, when a blog post I wrote became something I wanted to add to over time. Two examples -- Rules for standards-makers and Trolls.
And the show notes for the podcast from Sept 2, 2004, and now we are fully caught up.
WordPress and GitHub fit into similar niches, but one is for writers and the other for developers.
Random thought. In hindsight Medium chose the wrong business model. They could have done what Automattic has done with WordPress. It's a private company so I don't know how much it's growing or how profitable it is, but from outside it's growing, and generates lots of cash. Basically, charge writers for the service. I think they would have done well. And open source the Medium editor, and offer it to Google to bundle with Chrome, and upgrade the whole web while you're at it. With billions of windfall from the success of Twitter, why argue over nickels and dimes. Ev had the ability to change the course of the industry, and make the same kind of money Google and Microsoft make. And yes, I did urge him to do this at the time, publicly (didn't have access to him privately, if you can believe that).
Here's the show notes page for the podcast from Sept 1, 2004.
The networks should put Trump on time delay and when he says you can legally murder babies in some states, that should be treated as if he said fuck or shit. Put up a screen that explains why he was cut off, then go to commercial, esp during the debate on Sep 10.
Dear NY Times, before we get rid of the penny, let’s open up your op-ed page to include criticism of the NYT. You can handle a little pushback, you need it desperately.
And for some companies, the founder of a company they acquire might make the best CEO when the founder of the original company isn't available. Again Apple is a great example. Steve Jobs ultimately replaced Gil Amelio, after Apple bought NeXT.
Wordle Kitty is watching TV along with 80 other convicted house pets serving life sentences at Attica high security prison. They’re watching a mushy political psycho drama starring Wordle Kitty herself, the cutest most adorable kitten known to mankind. The NYT headline reads “Cushy kitty crushes mushy melodrama in prison laugh riot.”
Cushy kitty crushes mushy melodrama in prison laugh riot.Graham uses Steve Jobs as an example. He knew what was and wasn't an Apple product. A hired CEO would have to have that explained to him. Sculley, who Graham cites, is a perfectly nice person in my experience, had no idea how to deal with Windows. Very different from a consumer product like fizzy water. Who but Steve Jobs would have thought that an iPod was a proper product for a company that made PCs. I think he himself wanted it, and that's what made something an Apple product. It's probably why post-Jobs Apple is pretty much stuck selling only the products Jobs created for them. He told Cook to innovate on his own vision and timetable, probably knowing full-well that nobody would be able to do it. 😄
Another rule for whoever runs a tech company, they must themselves be a fanatical user of the company's product. They must love it the way a founder loves it. They must think the users are the smartest people in the world because they love the best product in the world. As a founder, I could not visualize the day I left the company for the last time. In hindsight I felt that was the one factor most responsible for the success of the company.
August is archived. Let's start September.
It's worth reflecting that the press took its best shot at Kamala Harris, and it was a big puff of smoke, she just cruised right through it.
Thread: Blogs and the social web will merge.