I try and avoid direct personal attacks in public (Anonymous postings to satire web sites are much more fun), but I feel I have to say something. Over the last year or so I've been reading Dave Winer's Scripting News, mainly because he is widely read and posts interesting links.  Every so often Dave says something on this site or on one of the many mailing lists he frequents, that make me want to scream and shout. But unfortunately there's rarely an appropriate forum to say anything. The discussion forums on his own site have been turned off; he has a habit of chucking awkward people off the mailing lists he moderates; and the weblog world is not very effective for dialogue. At times, I've seriously thought about chucking him in the kill file and avoiding his website, but this is cutting my own nose off to spite my face. I think what I find most irritating is the thinking time I waste constructing cutting replies in my head. This is perhaps a reflection on me rather than him and maybe I should just not care. But like it or not, he has a big voice that many people listen to, and so is a touchstone of a particular groups of people, for many of whom I have a great deal of respect. As such, what he says does actually matter. And just as when a respected journalist sticks his foot in his mouth and you feel the need to pick him up, so too with Dave.

So what's wound me up this time? Well Dave often has an air of moral superiority about him, especially when he's talking about the software community and especially when it relates to Microsoft. But the reality is that he and UserLand use FUD in a very BigCo manner, taking cheap shots against potential competitors or others in the industry. A classic example of this has just appeared in the last few days. Dave criticises Joel for a very well argued piece that Joel published on software design choices in Joel's latest product. Specifically, Dave says "If Joel doesn't support XML, his users are going to suffer at least a little lock-in."   This bit of received wisdom is then picked up by another site and repeated, and Dave then links to it pulling out a quote to support his own position. "By not supporting XML or any similar means of communicating with other apps they have created their own little Galapagos". So far this looks like valid criticism. At least until you actually read Joel's article. Then you find that Joel only actually mentions XML in one paragraph. "XML is a Dumb Format For Storing Data". The paragraph is actually about using XML as a data store as opposed to using a relational database or some other well developed data storage system. But then of course, he's right. And in fact Radio and Manila (Dave's products) use their own proprietary object oriented data store and not XML for internal storage.

So what are we to make of this. Is Dave being hypocritical for criticising someone for making a design choice that he made himself? Is he just being stupid in that he didn't actually read the article before commenting on it? Well given that Dave's not completely stupid, it looks to me like he's using his platform to spread FUD about a competitor. And that is hypocritical, given his long history of rants about BigCos doing that to him.

So what? Well I suppose I'll continue to read his stuff and I'll continue to get irritated by it. And in a few months I'll probably post another entry like this. Well more fool me.

John Robb says : With copyrights extended well past our lifetimes (up from 14 years a century ago), it is a moral imperative that people borrow music. Why? It creates a broad culture not defined by the narrow cultural managers in Big Co land. In my mind, anything over 14 years old is free game. No guilt. I'd take this further and say anything that has been remaindered. You'd be surprised just how many titles get taken off the production line and just how quickly. In the TV/Movie world you could take an equivalent point in time when the movie goes to video. But this is all just splitting hairs, because any moment now, I'm going to go and use Grokster to find something new that I haven't heard before. I've said it before and no doubt I'll say it again. Copyright of digital materials is impossible. This has already been known for 20 years and it'll take us another 10 years to come to terms with this. In the mean time, relatively innocent parties will be hurt and the only winners will be the lawyers.

Napster to ask court to reaffirm Appeal Court ruling - Music biz must help us fight unauthorised sharing, service demands [The Register]
Napster's dead, why don't they realize.

ZDNet |UK| - News - Story - Crashing computers cost £38bn a year : The survey said computer problems also lead one in 10 people to say that they had hit their personal computers. Nine percent of respondents said that they had thrown down their phones, and eight percent had hit their keyboards in frustration, it said. Well Bill? What do you say to that? I don't hit my PC much these days. But I have developed this habit of hitting CTRL-S after EVERY burst of typing. Many years ago I lost it with a business partner and slapped my IBM keyboard really hard. It was very embarassing having to pick up all the little key tops off the floor afterwards! Getting back to the article, where do they get these £38B figures from? If our PCs worked perfectly, would the UK GDP really be £38B bigger?

Dotcom Scoop : An Open Letter to Ted Turner Impassioned plea from an independent Journalist to Ted Turner. I guess the chances of Ted dipping into his pocket to save another website are slim, but I don't think that's the point. If nothing else, Ben Silverman has written a great piece of satire on the current state of meedja.

Adequacy.org || Is Your Son a Computer Hacker? The full text of the piece along with assorted commentary from the unwashed. Ev Williams asks if there's a worrying growth in Irony Detection Deficiency (IDD) on the net. I prefer to see the whole, including both article and comments as a performance piece. I can't really believe that any of the posters took it all seriously, but there again, didn't PT Barnum say something about this 75 years ago?

get your war on Dangerous subversion in the form of comics.

Sufi renaissance after Taleban fall : Only then, when the nation's people are free to live as their needs tell them, will 23 years of trauma and battle belong to the past. It's that 23 again.

Got 5 minutes? idleworm has some extremely silly Flash games and clips.

Che Linux! Thanks BlackHoleBrain.

ABCNEWS.com : Building a Bionic Fly More research into building little teeny tiny robot flies.

We haven't had a Today's CD for a while so here it is.
Today's CD: Sasha And John Digweed - Communicate.

BTW. Sad obituary yesterday for Can's lead guitarist. For anyone who doesn't know them, Can were an early electronic band somewhat similar to Tangerine Dream but more interesting. Especially recommended is the '74 album "Soon Over Babaluma". It could easily be a piece of late 90s Ambient from someone like Aphex Twin. 

Wired pick up the story about KPMG, their song, and their absurd link policy.

Little tiny flying robots for mars exploration. [thanks, Slashdot] Luvely!

Now thats what I call global strategy. [thanks, Swhack Weblog] MP3s of Corporate Anthems in a Big Love Stylee.

The Doc Searls Weblog : Fulfilling the Promise of online journalism. Truly excellent think piece that pushes back against an article suggesting that mainstream news owns the web.

2700 images from RSS files.

We seem to be having a seriously heavy blogging day today. But I couldn't pass this one up. "Pentagon Recruiting Bees, Cockroaches and Wasps "  Scroll down and see the artists impression of a "bee with an electronic backpack and a helmet ". [A tip o'the hat to Bruce Sterling for snarfing these.]

Some extremely strange stuff to lighten the heart of anyone. FlipFlopBoy and The Critter Corporation

Project Grizzly Suit Buzz Light Year meets Super Gundam. A protective suit for getting up close and personal with a Grizzly bear. uh-huh.