RSS 3.0: Please Pass the Fork

Jonathan Avidan has announced RSS 3.0, a one-man attempt to fork RSS 2.0.

As far as I can tell, this is Avidan's first involvement in syndication. He's passing over three groups -- the developers of RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, and Atom -- without making an attempt to work with any of us.

RSS 3.0 is pitched as a better-specified version of RSS 2.0, but it drops a bunch of elements and makes changes to several others, so it's more than a spec rewrite.

Avidan also claims it will make Atom better, which would be a neat trick, since that format just became a proposed Internet standard after an arduous, two-year development process. I'm guessing that its creators would burst into tears at the slightest mention of a second version.

I don't know why RSS offers more forks than a picnic, but I wish I could use the RSS Advisory Board to simplify the situation. A new person trying to figure out syndication shouldn't have to learn three formats just to make an educated decision about which one to support. Correction: Four formats.

Slashdot founder Rob Malda thought RSS 3.0 was front-page news yesterday, which gives me hope. I've been working on an incredible new format I call HTML 5.0.

Rss · 2005/08/19 · 4 COMMENTS · Link

Never Wrestle with a Pig

One of my friends is looking for archived versions of Rush Limbaugh's show from the years he was abusing Oxycontin. He figures there has to be comedy gold in the shows where Limbaugh was pontificating under the influence.

Earlier this week, Limbaugh made a statement about Cindy Sheehan that's so bizarre we should be talking relapse:

Cindy Sheehan is just Bill Burkett. Her story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's real, including the mainstream media's glomming onto it. It's not real.

He subsequently denied calling her a liar, in audio that Rachel Maddow gleefully broadcast on her Air America show this morning (two-minute clip attached). Jerry Springer broadcast it also, Media Matters is doing the same, and Al Franken will undoubtedly air the same clip at noon.

Liberals spend a lot of time debunking false statements by over-the-top conservatives like Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, and I sometimes worry that we're just making them stronger. Anyone who cares already knows that they have an estranged relationship with the truth.

Whenever someone on television angrily denounces Coulter, she visibly brightens. Check out her reaction to Alan Colmes on Crooks & Liars. It's the Seinfeld dirty-talking episode all over again, prior to the point where Jerry kills the mood by asking, "you mean the panties your mother laid out for you?"

The laboriously detailed corrections that Franken devotes to Limbaugh remind me of the days when I would get into flamewars on Usenet. I can recall spending hours drafting a point-by-point rebuttal to someone's post, believing that the information I had gathered, coupled with the strength of my reasoning, would prove to everyone that my antagonist was a total stupidhead who sucks big rocks.

Podcasts · Politics · Radio · 2005/08/19 · 35 COMMENTS · Link

Katherine Harris Sways Florida Voters

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris announced her Florida Senate bid on Hannity & Colmes last week in one of the most bizarre interviews I've ever seen a politician give on television. She's sitting awkwardly in three-quarters profile, sways back and forth, and keeps moving her facial muscles around as if she's forgotten how to keep them still.

Harris spokesman Adam Goodman has attempted to explain her conduct as fatigue from a long first day of campaigning. "She was just a little tired," he told a reporter.

I think we're in for an entertaining Senate race.

Florida · Politics · Television · 2005/08/17 · 9 COMMENTS · Link

USA Today is running a cover story on Patrick Cobbs and Jamario Thomas of the University of North Texas Mean Green, the NCAA-leading rushers in 2003 and 2004.

They'll become the first season leaders to ever share the same backfield when my alma mater loses by several touchdowns to LSU on Sept. 3.

Sports · North Texas · 2005/08/15 · 2 COMMENTS · Link

Buzzword.Com Runs Manila 9.5

I've upgraded to Manila 9.5 on Buzzword.Com, the free weblog service I'm running for Manila and Radio UserLand users.

The server's having problems staying online lately, to the chagrin of Craig Jensen of BookNotes and other bloggers trying to publish there.

I think the problems are caused by the huge number of weblogs on the server -- somewhere around 5,000 at the moment. I'm going to move every weblog that hasn't been updated in 2005 out of Manila, which should leave fewer than 500 sites on Frontier.

Manila · 2005/08/15 · 1 COMMENT · Link

In the early '90s I was an editor of StarText, the pre-web online edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

One of the most popular features I introduced on StarText was goodnews, a keyword where readers were always guaranteed to find a non-depressing news story.

A wire story today reminded me of that keyword -- a 400-foot tall waterfall has been discovered in a northern California recreational area:

Until recently, very few had seen the roaring water that tumbles three tiers before pouring neatly into Crystal Creek. That such a spectacle should evade even park officials for nearly 40 years is remarkable, said park superintendent Jim Milestone.

"It wasn't on a map, no one on the trail crew knew about it. People who been here 27 years had never seen it," said Milestone, who is leading an effort to clear a trail to the newly named Whiskeytown Falls.

2005/08/13 · 1 COMMENT · Link

Air America Addresses Loan Issue

The New York Times reported today on the questionable loans that Air America Radio's former director Evan Cohen gave to the network from a New York children's charity.

A spokesman for the charity told the Times that Air America has placed $875,000 in escrow as part of a repayment agreement. Al Franken addressed the subject in detail on his program earlier this week.

This should take the wind out of the sails of the conservative bloggers who have been riding this story for weeks, inflating its importance with grandiose names like "Air Enron." But a quote from Brian Maloney's analysis of Franken's program shows they plan to keep right on rowing:

The Radio Equalizer analyzed this audio in great detail.

After repeated listening ... the laughter seems nervous in nature, coming at odd times. It's used to cover up the particularly touchy aspects of this, toward the end.

This isn't the first time that Maloney's finely tuned hearing has picked up the sound of a conspiracy. In 2004, when his weekly Sunday afternoon radio show was cancelled by Seattle station KIRO because of Seahawks coverage, he claimed the real reason was his on-air criticism of Dan Rather.

Politics · Radio · 2005/08/12 · 8 COMMENTS · Link

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