Hey, why are we letting out-of-staters choose our California Quarter Design?
Some of these are hilarious. Apparently Davis will pick one from the top 5 vote getters.
categories: x-syndicate
3:20:29 PM 
say what []
Dean Allen announces that he is almost ready to release Textpattern, his long-promised web writing tool (or, if you prefer, CMS).
While I'm afraid it will not enable me to write as well as he does (his predictions for 2003 are microstorytelling at its finest), Textpattern offers a feature set that has me drooling, and I'm the last person on the planet who should be installing yet another blog tool / CMS these days.
While clearly blog oriented, Textpattern offers link-categorization features that seem designed to enable the web reader/writer to get a grip on her personal knowledge management.
It also includes some enhancements to the standard blogging experience, such as the very smart Textile HTML converter that takes much of the pain out of HTML tagging while delivering optimal typographical elegance, a master page for viewing and responding to comments, built-in referer tracking, and many of the other subtle features exhibited at Textism.
I suspect that the choices of stylesheet bundled with the tool will help even the design-challenged, like myself, generate blocks of type pleasing to the eye.
I've been meaning to try out the Refer tool that Textism had previously made available to the public but like so many things still have not got around to that. Now I'm going to see if I can get in on the final testing of Textpattern.
11:54:49 AM say what []
Dave Winer's First Essay of the Year sums up some of the themes he has refined over the last year, partly in discussion/debate with Larry Lessig. One passage that particularly caught my attention was a brief discussion of the ethical issues involved in software development:
I strongly believe there are ethical rules, we just have never written them down or even discussed them. It involves not locking users in. Giving them choice. Telling them what the risks are in using the software. Never installing persisting components without clear notice to the user.This resonated with a gut sense I have that a lot of software development has a machiavellian edge, especially around matters of lock-in. It seems that many software developers consider locking users in (usually without any explicit acknowledgement of the effect) to be a legitimate method of erecting barriers to entry from potential future competition.
The whole blogosphere is abuzz about Apple's new web browser, viewing it either as more lickable screen candy or yet another standards/implementation Tower of Babble. How would the response differ if Microsoft were launching a new free browser after a few years without one?
What are some of the other ethical responsibilities for those of us who provide software (products or services) to others?
categories: memewatch
10:54:54 AM say what []
Dylan Tweney reports that Stanford is re-publishing facsimiles of the original broadsheet serialization of Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations.
A new edition comes out every Wednesday. It's retro tech! Read it or subscribe on Stanford's Dickens site.
categories: x-syndicate
10:17:55 AM say what []
Have a favorite undiscovered blog you think deserves more recognition? Nominate it for a Bloggie. I've submitted my nominations.
I must say, though, the name of the award is terrible (as is Webby). I like the system used in the entertainment world, wherein the trophy is named after some luminary from the medium's exalted past (Oscar, Emmy, Tony). It seems like the lamely named Grammy award started this unimaginative trend of just sticking "-y" or "-ie" on the end of some stupid term of art.
Maybe the Bloggies should be called the "Jasons" or the "Jornies." Or if it's classier to go with someone who has already shuffled off this mortal coil, maybe the "Vandevars" or the "Jorges" (in honor of the author of The Garden of Forking Paths and other seminal pre-hypertext thingies).
categories: metablog
10:07:50 AM say what []
Warren Ellis announces SLEEPLESS PLANET in his die puny humans blog, calling it "a one-year-long nonprofit webmagazine about creativity and activism on the web and any other bloody thing I feel like. It pays no money. It provides only the opportunity to show what you do to a wider audience and, hopefully, connect you with other people."
He is seeking broadsides, MP3s, and Flash creations.
categories: x-syndicate
12:18:06 AM say what []
