I make software to interop. Working on a new web designed for writers and readers and in place of HTML we use Markdown. Keep it super simple. The big undo.
Ulster County, NY
Joined August 2006
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The sound on my TV is a fraction of a second faster than the picture. Just enough of a delay so I know a shot is going in before I see it go in.
Dave Winer retweeted
Today's scripting news in bonbon-land.
demo.bonbonweb.org/?url=http…
This is even more fun than the early days of the web because I get to work on the middle of the whole thing.
Dave Winer retweeted
THIS is the young man who is the first Texas Democrat in 38 years to win a seat in the US Senate. Elon Musk poured over $200 MILLION into preventing this from happening and he FAILED 💙 James Talarico, ladies and gentlemen.
Dave Winer retweeted
Thanks for asking, I've wanted to discuss this.
It could. It's all simple formats that are well understood.
1. Markdown
2. HTTP
3. RSS 2.0.
4. OPML
5. WebSockets
My own opinion, AT Proto bites off way too much. They should be part of the web, not The New Web, as they have been trying to do for a long time now.
I don't think they control it, I think they can't afford to control anything beyond differentiating their service and helping to inspire discourse. It's a very quiet place compared to Twitter. That has to be their #1 challenge. Creating a new ecosystem is kind of an indulgence when you haven't got the big thing working yet.
All that was before AI swept the entire software stack aside and we're sticking to the old standards. Amazing how much things in the AI world have turned to Markdown. And I think that's a very good thing. It's a perfect answer to the slop of the HTML web. The whole thing is a junkyard.
What I want to do is create a writers web out of Markdown. Yes, Bluesky can and should be part of it, but I don't see AT Proto helping in that way.
Today's scripting news in bonbon-land.
demo.bonbonweb.org/?url=http…
This is even more fun than the early days of the web because I get to work on the middle of the whole thing.
Dave Winer retweeted
it's been the problem inside tech, google right now is taking over control of the web, and no one outside of web developers even knows it's happening.
this.how/googleAndHttp
Here's why I think the web of Markdown will not be taken over by silos. Short version, the same reason podcasting has never been absorbed that way. We are setting user expectations right from the beginning.
1. Users control appearance.
2. Writers control the words and punctuation. And of course links.
I wrote a piece summarizing what we accomplished yesterday, please read it if you're following this.
demo.bonbonweb.org/?url=http…
And I have another big thing to demo today. If you liked what we did yesterday, you're going to like this too. ;-)
BTW, this is what the Markdown version of yesterday's scripting news posts looks like.
dave.writersweb.org/scriptin…
If we want democracy we have to have a web that isn't controlled by the big tech companies.
98%Agree
2%Disagree
42 votes • 2 daysThis is so heartening. America never disappeared, it just was asleep, lulled into naivete by the dashing figure Trump cast on his TV show, and he said some of the right things in his 2016 campaign.
People from NY, such as myself, saw right through him. A typical bully -- we knew these people in grade school. If you stand your ground they go away.
Well now we've gotten together -- that's all we ever had to do -- work with each other -- and remember the greatness of the country that gave a home to our ancestors. We have not only got a big heart but we're also collectively smart enough to know that we always need to be growing, and for that we need fresh new citizens from around the world to keep things interesting.
I grew up in Flushing, NY -- party of NYC -- which was a sleepy neighborhood made up of mostly Catholic and Jewish families. Over the years, it became Chinese and Korean. And it now has one of the best bagel places in the city. Everything is more alive there now.
My mother, a refugee from the German Nazis as a child, didn't like that the neighborhood was changing, but I think it's fine, that's what makes the US and NY in particular so great. And while I still love a NYC diner, the Chinese and Korean food in Flushing is world-renowned. It still freaks me out that Flushing is famous for something so totally un-Flushing! ;-)
This election was like the 2008 election on steroids. We saw the election of Obama as a turning point. It was, but it appeared at first that we had snapped back to our slavery roots in reaction. Well, re-asserted our love for our country, not wanting to deprive our country of the fresh inspiration of immigrants. And once we, collectively, saw the aftermath of our turn toward fascism said, passionately -- no way, not here.
No one knew until Tuesday whether the old America of our parents and grandparents was still here, thankfully it was.
Now we have to continue to work together, to acknowledge our differences but also celebrate what we agree on. We are a democracy. We elect our leaders but it is OUR country. The Trumps are still struggling with that, but don't ever forget it. This is the country that works.
Added a link to the demo of the new web of Markdown on my Twitter profile. It is really important, been working on this for a couple of years. Everyone who writes or reads on the web should know. Esp important in the age of AI, which has built extensively on Markdown.
Dave Winer retweeted
One thing she didn't get -- we don't want -- a secret police rounding up people who live here, many of them legally, that help our economy and are nice people, our freaking neighbors for crying out loud. It's so freaking un-American, and in the end -- American voters have a pretty strong idea of America as a good, fair and generous country.
And we sure as hell don't want them murdering American citizens in cold blood, with no accountability. We don't even know their names.
Dave Winer retweeted
🍴 A license lets you fork the plugin. It does not let you fork the name, the directory listing or the vote. Open source licenses, read for what they leave out. #opensource #WordPress
Dave Winer retweeted
Zohran Mamdani just did what most Democrats and Republicans are too gutless to do.
He looked straight into the camera and said the quiet part out loud:
Republicans called Obama a socialist every single day for 8 years. It didn’t stop him.
Now they’re trying the same tired red-baiting on anyone who wants a New Deal instead of the raw deal working people have been force-fed for decades.
People are hungry for something real. Not more corporate welfare dressed up as “moderation.” Not more “public-private partnerships” that somehow always privatize the profits and socialize the losses.
Mamdani is right. The socialist smear is a dead tactic.
The only question left is whether the Democratic Party has the spine to actually deliver for the people who keep electing them… or if they’ll keep protecting the same donors who’ve been extracting wealth from this country for 40 years.
Keep going, Mayor.
The old guard is terrified for a reason, the midterms have certainly proven a new worth. – at District of Columbia, USA
This is what America does not want. Jeffries and Schumer don’t understand America.
One thing she didn't get -- we don't want -- a secret police rounding up people who live here, many of them legally, that help our economy and are nice people, our freaking neighbors for crying out loud. It's so freaking un-American, and in the end -- American voters have a pretty strong idea of America as a good, fair and generous country.
And we sure as hell don't want them murdering American citizens in cold blood, with no accountability. We don't even know their names.