Mark Pilgrim Monkeys Around

Mark Pilgrim's half-year search for a hobby that doesn't involve electricity appears to have been as fruitless as O.J. Simpson's hunt for the "real killers."

Pilgrim, who's being Michael Corleoned back into blogging on IBM's new PHP weblog, has recently released a script for GreaseMonkey, the Firefox plug-in for editing web content a la autolink.

The script removes everything but links on sites published by Robert Scoble.

Pilgrim also has released a new open source beloved butler that does to Google what it wants autolink to do to the rest of the Web (screenshot).

Like Winer Watcher, Pilgrim's new ScobleFucker is another meticulously programmed fuck-you that could be rewritten to serve a useful, non-malicious purpose.

But as he'd probably ask, where's the fun in that?

Publishing · 2005/03/14 · 10 COMMENTS · Link

Comments

Where'd you hear about this? I get the sense that ScobleFucker is for his own personal use, since it's not documented like Butler.

#1 · Aaron Swartz · 2005/03/14

Heh. Even in blogging retirement Mark can't resist jabbing at people; although it'd be nice if he'd do it publicly rather than slipping stuff out by backchannel.

(Note that Butler isn't linked from anywhere on his site; it's others, like Sam Ruby, linking to it that has got the word out.)

#2 · James Kew · 2005/03/14

The AutoLink "controversy" is such a yawner. Butler make sit patently clear that it's a non-issue and that I should be able to *view* the HTML that ends up at my browser however I want.

#3 · pb · 2005/03/14

I'll be interested to poke around and see how he killed the ads; I've been working for a while on rules for my user stylesheet to strip out sponsored results, and Google's proving a tough nut to crack (mostly because the different datacenters serve subtly different HTML, and there are so many of them).

#4 · James · 2005/03/14

Until you pointed out ScobleFucker I'd not seen it, but had previously run into numerous links to the (helpful) Butler. Apparently more folks dwell on the positive, although not Dave who a) did not read the simple code and b) lets the facts get all mushy like some of the journalists he enjoys spearing from time to time:

Not sure exactly what Butler is, is it just for Firefox? ... I read on Scoble's site that it [BUTLER, incorrect] removes links to his blog, I imagine (since it comes from Mark Pilgrim) that it performs the same service for this blog. - Winer

Is Winer being "malicious" by suggesting that 'Butler' does something it clearly does not? Yes. Could his post be re-written to serve a useful non-malicious purpose? Sure. He rewrites things constantly during the day, why not correct the correctable?

And then there's Rogers Cadenhead, apparently pulling a Winer but perhaps you can correct me:

Pilgrim ... has recently released a script ... is another meticulously programmed fuck-you that could be rewritten to serve a useful, non-malicious purpose. - Cadenhead

Released? I see tons of talk about Butler and Greasemonkey. I see specific links to Bloglines related scripts. I don't see a "Release Announcement" for ScobleFucker from Mark. Perhaps you've taken on that marketing role yourself?

Very curious.

#5 · Mike Watkins · 2005/03/14

What are you suggesting, Mike? He put the script on a public web server and someone called Scoble's attention to it, as I linked.

If you have some weird quibble with the word "released," take it up with Mark, who uses it in the script's source code: "Released under the BSD license."

#6 · Rogers Cadenhead · 2005/03/15

Your post implies that Mark publicized the code yet I see no evidence of that; you criticize him for not spending his time on more worthwhile endeavours yet fail to recognize him for actually performing same (Butler).

A template shoves "released under BSD (sometimes Python, occasionally GPL) license" in every source file I write, but I don't consider leaving a file directory exposed to the web my "release process". Most developers would not. A "release" is a conscious act implying a desire for distribution. So far, near as I can tell, you've made yourself the release and marketing manager for this project.

;-)

At any date, what's more interesting (to me) than ScobleFucker is the power that "piping" web content through a filter mechanism like Greasemonkey gives to ... users.

#7 · Mike Watkins · 2005/03/15

I deleted my original obnoxious reply, because I don't want to play dueling dictionaries. Regardless of what word you prefer, ScobleFucker's out there and should be appreciated.

Mark's the world's foremost practitioner of obnoxious-oriented programming, and I think Butler's funny.

I'll bet there are a bunch of other people who only tried Greasemonkey to see what he was doing to get Google's undies in a bunch, and now we have this cool Firefox plug-in in our browser where its potential for mayhem is great.

#8 · Rogers Cadenhead · 2005/03/15

Rogers, thanks for mentioning the new IBM developerWorks group PHP blog. I don't think Mark saw this as offer he couldn't refuse -- at least not any such offer coming from this Michael. (I encouraged him, yes, but Mark seems quite independent. I think you'd agree given the nature of some of his projects.) Perhaps it's the association with the other folks who make up this group of PHP bloggers, combined with the desire to support PHP, that drew him out of blogging retirement.

On an unrelated note of great importance: Who's in your March Madness brackets? Predict any first-round upsets? (As a UNC fan, I'm glad Rashad McCants won't have to play in Taco Bell Arena or The Pit.)

#9 · Michael O'Connell · 2005/03/15

Mark has produces some great software! I think the first contribution was obnoxious tetris. Mark was kind enough to include a copy of MBDF virus with every download!

#10 · Phil Markhaw · 2006/02/10