Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

scriptingNews outline for 7/16/2000

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:7/16/2000; 2:05:24 AM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 7/16/2000
Msg #:18705
Prev/Next:18704 / 18706

The TranceFest™ continues 

Thanks for all the creative trances posted yesterday.

Now the trail gets even weirder. Why were there no women in the picture? What story pops into your mind?

Share your dream with us. The more fantastic the better.

Then as if by magic, a woman appears in the scene.

Postscripts 

PS: If you like this trance stuff, check out this site. Lots of exercises you can do to stretch the pov muscles.

PPS: Another pov experiment, look at the split on yesterday's TLD survey.

PPPS: Don't forget Don's Amazing Puzzle.

Basic Blog Theme 

This morning I asked Brent to write an "RFC" for a new Manila theme, called Basic Blog.

It's like a basic black dress, simple, but still offers a chance to express individual style.

Themes are cool. They're simple but still offer a chance to express individual style.

Dot-Net, through different filters 

I stumbled across a press release that UserLand ran for SOAP's submission to W3C on 5/9/00.

There is a companion quote sheet.

Taken together or separately, the quotes provide different but valid ways to look at Dot-Net, through the filters of independent (ie non-Microsoft) developers, in content management, writing tools and open source. Each of them offers an opportunity for follow-up, a deeper investigation, exposure of new ideas. This world is bristling with them.

So far, these points of view have not been reflected in the general press.

A distant memory. There was a time when the press reported on the lack of Mac developers as a major liability for Apple, but never talked about Mac developers. In other words they were reporting on their filters, nothing deeper.

A similar thing is going on now. Like VCs, the press mostly writes what their competitors write. Fortune reporters read Business Week; ZDNet reads News.Com. This can make it non-fluid, it's hard for different ideas to circulate or mingle. What if Dot-Net is both a Microsoft and open source story? (It is.)

Is there room for curveballs like SOAP, which is also supported by Sun? How do you explain that? I haven't seen any stories on this, other than the initial one at News.Com, which was pretty superficial.

Dot-Net is a curveball. It doesn't fit it into one of the standard templates, that's why the press is having so much trouble with it. (BTW, Microsoft has a terrible track record for creating sticky visions in the minds of the press. It's a meta-story for sure, but more to the point than most of the coverage.)

Dot-Net is even broader than it might seem. P2P, which is the rage in VC-land is the same thing. As are Napster and Gnutella. They all use incompatible payload formats, but the concepts of distributed computing, fractional horsepower HTTP servers, and leveraging the desktop are same elements that make up Dot-Net.

Also, don't miss the importance of Web Apps. Dual interfaces, both browser-based and tool-based are essential. I want to update my site whether I am using a public terminal or writing at my desktop. This goes back to Gates's statement at Davos that the desktop is still central. So true. But so is the browser.

Speaking of filters 

I have them too.

Why don't I devote more energy to MattG's music site?

It's always the top item on this list.

Today's songs 

Sting: "If you want to hold onto your possession, don't even think about me. If you love somebody, set them free."

Queen: "This thing called love, I just can't handle it."

Falco: "Babe, you know, I miss my funky friends, wie meint: Jack und Joe und Jill."

A prediction 

Washington Post: "The station is the first to pick up and move everything--deejays, music, commercials--from an over-the-air frequency to the Internet."

Prediction: Scripting News will be a radio station in a year.

Paranoid vision 

Cringely: "The FBI, through the use of Carnivore, is trying to grab a little more power."

He suspsects a devious plan. We don't know what's inside Carnivore. He postulates that it's a way for the US government to shut down the Internet in the US, in case of national emergency, presumably. A hook for fascism?

Links 

Webzine 2000 is on the 22nd in SF.

"curly"



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