FeedCity

TBL's links are one-way. This was actually a major innovation, at the time people understood there was something called hypertext, it had been written about in Ted Nelson's almost biblical book of the pre-web, Computer Lib/Dream Machines. Previous attempts at hypertext assumed links had to be two-way. By limiting the links to one direction, the technical problem became trivial. You could do two-way links today because relational databases are mature and inexpensive to operate, perform very well on today's hardware, and the internet of 2025 is much faster than the internet of 1990. But the one-way limit was necessary for the web to achieve its simplicity, and the non-existence of a platform vendor, which may have been its most important feature. It could still be done, but it would require a lot of cooperation and backfilling.

This is what the term "the web" means to me. First, I defer to Tim Berners-Lee who originally coined the term to mean the data structure that connects the documents displayed by the software he introduced in 1993. He called it World Wide Web, which was eventually shortene...

The above links to an Instagram reel with Colbert breaking the news at the start of his show airing tonight. Here’s the same clip on X, if you prefer. He, apparently, was as surprised as anyone. Here’s Jed Rosenzweig’s story at (the excellent) LateNighter: “The Late Sho...

Podcast: Do blogs need comments? A return to a blog post by Joel Spolsky in 2007, posted by the WordCamp Canada people in 2025.

Life has been chaotic for me lately. I’ve been busy with family stuff in Portland most of July. But I did get back to the coast for a very misty morning, and wanted to to share some chaotic wave footage with the Pacific Wave Appreciation Society, plus a seagull who also appreciates the waves.

Uber plans to make “multi-hundred-million dollar investments” in both Nuro and Lucid as part of a massive new robotaxi deal that was just announced. The three companies are linking up to deploy “20,000 or more” robotaxis in the US over the next six years. The vehicles will be Lucid’s new Gravity SUV, equipped with autonomous technology …

Mom and dad and the kids are having a picnic in the park of their small town. You can see the bank and hardware store, church and grade school around the park in the distance. The kids are eating salad and corn on the cob with mom, and dad is preparing a BBQ on the grill. It's a standard American family picture, in the style of Norman Rockwell or Edward Hopper except each of the family members are wearing a black balaclava style mask as seen in the image. You may see other families around enjoying a beautiful day in the park, but every one of them is wearing this kind of mask too. A typical American family enjoying a family picnic on a beautiful summer day.

I found another thing that's possible in the age of ChatGPT. A few years ago I wondered if a product existed. I wanted a small footprint audio amplifier, with that could control a pair of high-end tower speakers I've had for a long time. I was tired of huge receiver boxes wi...

This is what I want to do next to solidify the position of Mastodon as a blogging platform.

I want a REST version of what the MetaWeblog API has been doing since 2002, to hook into the ActivityPub interface supported by Mastodon.

Then we'll put together a simple demo app, a Markdown app in a browser window that writes and updates posts to a Mastodon site.

When that's running, I'll pitch Rich Siegel at BBEdit to make it work with Masto.

With that, and the WordPress connection, we'll be well on the way to restoring the web we had before Twitter rewrote the rules. ;-)

Spencer Kimball, reporting for CNBC one week ago: The Defense Department will become the largest shareholder in rare earth miner MP Materials after agreeing to buy $400 million of its preferred stock, the company said Thursday. MP Materials owns the only operational rar...

Jason Snell: If you find yourself walking down the street in the 1980s and you see someone coming who prefers the VIC-20 to the Apple II, cross to the other side of the street. (That said, the VIC-20 really was revolutionary. It was by far the most affordable home comput...

I wish ChatGPT would listen when I say "Just answer the question." I've tried, but when it can't figure it out it ignores the request and dumps a lot of bullshit at you. Maybe Trump can address that in his keynote to the AI conference in DC. Just kidding.

Today, I met a nurse from Millbrae. She helped me with a few medical things. She is very good at what she does. However, that’s not why I am sharing her story; it’s because of her story that I am retelling it.  Her dad was born on USS Cleveland. In 1948, when his mom (the nurse’s grandmother) was coming from China (Canton) …

We should all wear masks like the ICE cops wear. They deserve recognition for blazing new fashion trails.

Someday Manton and I will make a very nice Markdown editor for Mastodon, and it'll work very nicely, and then I'll pitch Rich Siegel to do the same for BBEdit. That will nail it once and for all that Mastodon is a blogging platform. He's the right guy to do it, he has all the protocols implemented on micro.blog. All I want is a REST version of what the MetaWeblog API has been doing since 1998 or so. We're turning the clock back to move forward. Trying to undo the damage Twitter did to the web.

This comment makes my day. Some features you develop and never use. I poured a month or so into the blogroll software last year, and it turned out to be a total win. All the new stuff floats to the top. I can quickly find out what they posted. It's a portable version of my fe...

Drew Saur, pushing back on my post slagging on the Commodore 64: I cannot argue with your nostalgia. It is uniquely yours. That said: The Commodore 64 as cheap-feeling and inelegant! Oh my. I was fourteen when the Commodore 64 came out, and I want to convey — in as bri...

Part of the reason I don't like it is that I pay for the NYT and read very little of it, and most of what I read I think is bullshit. But there still is a bit of credibility in it. So even though I'm over-paying for this, they still want more money. Every fucking time I go to the site they stop me to be sure now isn't the time I'm going to go for the "full package." Even if I did, I'm sure there would be an even bigger package that I could pay more money for and not read like the rest of their bullshit. I hate them more than I usually would because I used to trust them, when I was a kid, I trusted them blindly. Being betrayed like that, ugh. BTW the NYT is my hometown paper, but you know what they don't even cover the Mets and Knicks. Fuck that shit. (Said in the NY fucking dialect of English.)

I really like the Wikipedia slogan, "The internet we were promised."