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A Day of Outages or Why I’m Sticking with RSS

I’m becoming more and more convinced that the best way for the web to work is for us all to have our islands of identity that are linked via coral reefs and communication channels.

Today has been a heck of a day for the web.

First Twitter.

Now Charter.

Mediums that we normally associate with stability and user interest continue to disappoint and disgust.

I’ve often talked about how I want to “Bring it All Back Home,” but I’m really close to pulling that trigger and relying on tried-and-trusted RSS as the vehicle to deliver that information rather than a walled island that I have to (or will have to) log in to such as Twitter or Facebook.

RSS – Wikipedia

I don’t trust my identity and my content to 3rd party islands anymore. This is me and for me and hosted by my dollars.

So here’s to a free, open and federated web.

If you want me, I’m here. Grab the RSS.

Twitter APIocalypse

And here we go…

Changes coming in Version 1.1 of the Twitter API | Twitter Developers: “At the end of June, I wrote about how we’re working to deliver a consistent Twitter experience, and how we would soon introduce stricter guidelines about how the Twitter API is used. I’d like to give you more information about coming changes to the API and the migration plan while offering insights into today’s Twitter ecosystem and why we’re making these changes.”

Sad to see awesome apps get called out:

That upper-right quadrant also includes, of course, “traditional” Twitter clients like Tweetbot and Echofon. Nearly eighteen months ago, we gave developers guidance that they should not build client apps that mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience.” And to reiterate what I wrote in my last post, that guidance continues to apply today.

This is not your parent’s twitter.

“People are crazy and times are strange, I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range, I used to care but things have changed.”

Hope this is true…

https://twitter.com/parislemon/status/236239840792952833

Wow, what a day.

Sublime Kicking and Screaming

I didn’t think I could ever use another text editor besides TextMate, but I’m learning to like Sublime Text 2 and its tabbed goodness:

Sublime Text: The text editor you’ll fall in love with: “Sublime Text is a sophisticated text editor for code, markup and prose.
You’ll love the slick user interface, extraordinary features and amazing performance.”

I do everything in a text editor that I save up to a sync’d Dropbox file.

This is a big big transition for me. Time to do it, though.

Kicking and screaming.

Spotting Pyramids from NC with Google Earth

Fascinating story for the history and archaeological aspects, but also interesting to note that Maiden, NC is where Apple’s iCloud lives.

Lost Egyptian Pyramids Found? : Discovery News: “Two possible pyramid complexes might have been found in Egypt, according to a Google Earth satellite imagery survey.

Located about 90 miles apart, the sites contain unusual grouping of mounds with intriguing features and orientations, said satellite archaeology researcher Angela Micol of Maiden, N.C.”

More here.

I’ve Been Reading Too Much Dave Winer

So why start over with this site and make it a micro-bloggy RSS based thing after almost eight years of blogging?

Because I’ve been reading too much Dave Winer.

I agree… I want to own my space and make the federated and open mouthed web work. I believe in the ideal that a non-centralized web is the one that works best. It is the promise of all this stuff.

Time for me to do my part.

I’ll be tweeting, facebooking etc, but this is my hub where all that will come from… my coral reef.

App.net as Dud or Savior?

Can’t wait to see how this turns out…

Think App.net is just a Twitter clone? Then you’re missing the point — Tech News and Analysis: “What Caldwell wants to do is create what he and others think Twitter could have been before it decided to become a global media entity: namely, a unified message bus for the social web, or a way of tying together multiple apps and services into a single real-time information delivery system.”

The Value of Starting Over

Sometimes, it’s better to knock things over and start again.

I’ve been actively blogging on this domain and using it as the home base of my business since 2004.

However, it’s time to clean up and start again. I’m still notebooking things over on my beloved Shareist site, but it’s time to make this a serious focus of my marketing and social media consulting business while I do what I do elsewhere.

I’m excited.

Revenge of the Podcast on iOS6?

I, for one, love the sound of this…

Starting In iOS 6, Apple Might Introduce Paid Podcast Subscriptions | Cult of Mac: “With iOS 6 this may all change. The new Podcasts app that Apple has released today contains a strange ‘Redeem’ button, similar to that found in the iTunes and App Stores, present only on devices running iOS 6. Currently, this makes no sense. All iTunes podcasts are free, and don’t require any sort of payment method. The presence of this button in iOS 6 could, however, point to a paid subscription model for podcasts starting with the release of the operating system in fall.”

I’ve downloaded the app on my test iPhone running the iOS6 beta and I’m very happy to say the least. Fantastic app and if these rumors are true, it could mean very big things for the world of performance marketing podcasts.