Andy's Old School Blog

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 15:59:30 GMT

Based on the recent Twitter news from Dave Winer, I have downloaded my Drummer files. It would be nice if there was a way to download my Old School weblog - any ideas, lazyweb?

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 16:14:37 GMT

Earlier this week, Ken Smith wrote about redlining and segregation in South Bend, Indiana, where he lives. I have started reading a book about the history of the Black Panthers in Portland, Oregon. There is a section which describes the same practices, and how the Albina neighborhood and the former town of Vanport were the only places where Blacks could live.

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 17:04:48 GMT

Dave Winer writes today about his Morning Coffee Notes podcast as a place that documents the history of podcasting. In my links zettlekasten, I also have a section on podcasting history (go to Podcasting, then History).

Update on MyStatusTool development

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 21:34:47 GMT

Recently I published a roadmap of the major features for a "Twitter using rssCloud" tool that I am calling MyStatusTool. As of this weekend, I have the major pieces in place (have a text box to enter a short post, to create a RSS feed based on the posts, for each post to have a page, to ping a rssCloud server when a post is live, to have the posts be displayed in reverse-chronological order, and to display posts from other tools that create RSS feeds supporting rssCloud). I spent some time looking at integrating Passport.js to provide multi-user capability, but it turned out to be more than just a day's worth of work. As a result, I am going to push my current version to Github this weekend after writing some docs. More news to come!

Blogging at the Oregon coast

Wed, 25 Jan 2023 22:18:09 GMT

My wife and I are on a mid-week getaway - the weather is nice!

Some resources for thinking

Sat, 21 Jan 2023 01:04:52 GMT

Zettlekasten.de - How Richard Feynman achieved brilliance

Farnam Street - How to Think Better: The Skill You've Never Been Taught

Foundation for Economic Education - How To Create Like A Bastiat: Study To Create, Capture Your Ideas, Write Out Your Ideas, Share Your Understanding

A roadmap for MyStatusTool

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 00:30:42 GMT

Yesterday, I mentioned that I was working on a blog tool not ready to show off yet. Since then, I thought I should follow Colin Walker's lead in describing some of what I am developing. The working title is MyStatusTool, you can think of it as "Twitter using rssCloud". The minimum functionality I am working toward is to have a text box to enter a short post, to create a RSS feed based on the posts, for each post to have a page, to ping a rssCloud server when a post is live, to have the posts be displayed in reverse-chronological order, and to display posts from other tools that create RSS feeds supporting rssCloud. This pretty much describes the "Read user feeds..." functionality in FeedLand (link works if you have a FeedLand account). You can also think of the Twitter web user interface as an example. I will probably create a temp Github repo soon to start putting the app under version control. Stay tuned for more updates!

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 02:03:11 GMT

Wired has a feature on Sam Zeloof, who has created his own IC chips in his parent's garage - amazing!

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 01:58:44 GMT

Added a post on COBOL resources on my main blog.

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 01:20:23 GMT

Colin Walker is working on a new blog tool, it’s fun to read his posts narrating his work. I am working on a tool as well, still not ready for public view, but looking forward to completing my MVP.

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 23:39:46 GMT

I have posted a remembrance of the January 6th Insurrection at my main blog.

Tue, 03 Jan 2023 00:55:18 GMT

This weekend, I learned that Mastodon provides at least two types of feeds, your toots (Your feed URL is [instance]/users/[username].rss or .atom, for example https://mastodon.social/users/brownpau.rss), and your toots with replies (https://zirk.us/@bsigmon/with_replies.rss). In addition, there is a service called OpenRSS which can also generate RSS feeds for different Mastodon activity.

Fri, 30 Dec 2022 18:16:37 GMT

In the spirit of federation and the lack of need to review posts for standards (unlike this instance of editorial discretion), I present two new newsriver apps for collecting FeedLand user feeds and Mastodon user feeds that I am interested in. By the way, I decided to take feeds from two other products as an input to my products, and RSS said "yes!"

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 16:59:05 GMT

Had a great conversation with Ron Chester this week (long time 1999.io blogger on Thailand and ham radio topics and also on micro.blog). Ron is a great follower of Bob Dylan and ham radio, and I have set up two news rivers for Dylan and ham radio topics. Ron has a bunch of new low power rigs that he is going to try out in the new year...

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 17:39:47 GMT

Somehow my first train post was on December 25 - grr

Mon, 26 Dec 2022 00:41:31 GMT

Blogging on the train from Portland to Seattle, wifi is poor, but making do

Fri, 23 Dec 2022 23:44:41 GMT

I finished reading this Wired article on RSS revival via a Hacker News post. The two interesting things to me were the subscriber base of Feedly (13 million) and The Old Reader (1 million) - sounds like there is a market there. The other thing is that this story was written in MARCH 2018! And it's getting this much traction on Hacker News? 50 comments? Give me a break - this is ridiculous! To me, this shows that RSS is a hot topic among Hacker News readers.

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 22:58:00 GMT

I have written a summary of my recent work on rssCloud on my main blog (titled rssCloud, WordPress, FeedLand and Dave Winer) - check it out, it's a good read...

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 23:37:36 GMT

Great video of the Boeing 787 HUD!

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 18:14:53 GMT

Simon Willison's recent talk at Django 2022 (Comping strategies for the serial project hoarder) is fascinating! His proposal is to ensure that every project has comprehensive documentation and automated tests. I am going to seriously look into this! (via Roland Tanglao)

Using podcasting as a teaching tool

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 23:20:08 GMT

Earlier this month, John Johnston wrote about his experience with student podcasting:

We are trying to give our class motivation to practise their talking, listening, reading and writing. Communication with their peers and an audience. For me simple podcasting provides a great opportunity for that.

I think this is terrific – more teachers should use podcasting as a technique to increase literacy skills.

Test results for rssCloud app from Dave Winer

Sun, 18 Dec 2022 05:44:48 GMT

I couldn’t leave a comment on the reallySimple repo for clouddemo.js (it is locked), so I am writing a blog post. I was able to run the app on port 443 and successfully register a WordPress.com site and a WordPress.org site using version 0.5.0 of the WordPress RSS Cloud plugin. When I ran my separate test script on the WordPress.org site, it worked, but I figured out that the WordPress.org site is caching the RSS feed, which explains why feed updates were not seen by FeedLand.

The code for clouddemo.js looks good, I am pleased that it could run on port 443, since I already had an app running on port 80 on my server and did not want to change it.

Sun, 18 Dec 2022 05:25:34 GMT

After some testing with opmlPackage, I figured out that I needed to get the OPML of my Zettelkasten file using this URL and then selecting View Source and copying. Once I did that, I was able to process it using Pandoc.

Sat, 17 Dec 2022 03:41:28 GMT

Lazyweb request - I tried converting my OPML Zettelkasten file into Markdown using Pandoc, but got an "Invalid XML" error, because I have URLs within the outline elements. Any suggestions for fixing this? I am looking at opmlToJs to get the OPML in JSON, then use sanitize-html to escape the URLs, then write it back out using opmlToJs. Other suggestions welcome!

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 20:38:38 GMT

I was able to confirm this morning that rssCloud support in FeedLand worked for my WordPress.com test site - hurray! Many thanks to Andrew Shell and Dave Winer for working things out, along with support from Joseph Scott at Automattic. Joseph Scott released a new version of the RSS Cloud plugin today for WordPress.org sites, I did an initial test, but FeedLand did not get a rssCloud update from my test site. I got some debug ideas from Joseph Scott, working on those now.

Tue, 13 Dec 2022 00:50:35 GMT

Update: I figured out that Gary Teter's post I referenced on December 10 was not deleted from the FeedLand user view, so looks like it was my post that brought in the comment guidelines. I apologize for the error.

Sat, 10 Dec 2022 18:47:50 GMT

Well, here we go again - Dave Winer deleted a post I made on FeedLand comparing the User feed view and the Old School Drummers river, then posted comment guidelines. Really? Was that necessary? I will have more to say on this later today.

Sat, 10 Dec 2022 18:58:39 GMT

Apparently Gary Teter has also fallen prey to deletion in FeedLand

Sun, 11 Dec 2022 00:25:24 GMT

I have summarized my recent FeedLand experience regarding the user feed view in this post on my main blog.

Fri, 09 Dec 2022 16:25:24 GMT

Lazyweb request - does anyone know of other feed readers besides FeedLand and River5 that support the rssCloud protocol? I am trying to collect data regarding the WordPress rssCloud implementation. Thanks.

Wed, 07 Dec 2022 19:51:31 GMT

I have been collaborating with Andrew Shell on the WordPress.com rssCloud issue. Andrew added a note to my support forum post that WordPress.com and the RSS Cloud plugin only accept aggregators running on port 80, 443, and 8080. I have confirmed that the RSS Cloud plugin will accept a registration from an app running on ports 443 and 8080 and provide the correct rssCloud response when the source feed updates. Andrew will be contacting Joseph Scott (plugin developer) at Automattic with this information.

Mon, 05 Dec 2022 00:23:12 GMT

I am looking into rssCloud support from WordPress.com, and I think it is having a problem. I made a post to their support forum, but the details are in this post on the test WordPress.com blog I created. I also copied the bug report post to my WordPress site and added links to the rssCloud issue on the reallySimple Github repo.

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 17:41:19 GMT

Did a test of feedToMasto app from Dave Winer, it worked!

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 22:49:05 GMT

Lazyweb request - I am trying to make sure WordPress is not caching RSS feeds, I tried these things but it did not work. WordPress devs, please get in touch if you have any ideas! I am trying to test a RSS Cloud plugin I developed.

Feedback on my zettelkasten experiment

Fri, 11 Nov 2022 01:23:25 GMT

I have decided to slow down my updates on this project, but I do have a few observations. Adding links to the OPML file was pretty easy in Drummer. I missed adding tags to some links, but will make a sweep of the over the next week. I did some re-arranging of categories, as well as added a lot of categories after the start. In the rendered file, I noticed (as well as a reader) that all the entries are fully expanded. I may experiment with trying to flatten the categories. Also, I have not explored using XSLT style sheets to render the OPML file. Still, my biggest benefit so far is that I am now entering links into the OPML file that I would have pasted in some other file, and they are categorized, which helps in navigation.

My Hugo-based zettelkasten site is lagging in updates. I chose to create a single Markdown file for each entry, and I found that it was a significant amount of typing, even though I was starting with text from the OPML file. My favorite feature of the site is being able to view links by tag. I will continue working to get this caught up with the OPML zettelkasten.

Final note: there are lots of good tools out there, this is what I chose to start with, so far it is working for me!

Demo of rssCloud protocol and reallySimple NPM module

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 22:19:08 GMT

In this era of moving away from Twitter, I have been reviewing the rssCloud protocol and think about its potential. I had not done anything about it, but saw this Twitter thread and really liked this comment by Preslav Rachev regarding building on RSS: "And best of all, everyone is free to build their own apps and tooling on top of it without restrictions, or stepping onto each other’s toes.". I then decided to start playing around....

I read through the walkthrough document on the rssCloud site and decided that the simplest test would be to create some RSS feeds that have rssCloud elements, register them with a rssCloud server, then get the server to contact a server when the feeds updated, then display some information from the feeds. I started with this script from Dave Winer, updated it to provide web output, then ran the script twice to register two different feeds. I then made a video of running the script, posting to feeds using Drummer and FeedLand, then displaying the title or description of the most recent item in the feed, along with the feed name. The video is shown below. Source code and more instructions are available on Github. Let me know what you think!

Pooping is the secret to weight loss

Sun, 06 Nov 2022 22:45:55 GMT

I apologize for the crude and crass nature of the title of this post. However, it is an aspect of diets/weight loss programs that I think has been overlooked. I have noticed that when my weight has been somewhat stable, and then I eat a fair amount of fiber (beans, greens, etc), the next day, I usually have a bigger bowel movement than in the past two to three days, and reach a new low in my weight. It seems like it "clears out the backlog"! Thanks for listening, and keep eating that fiber!

OPML Zettelkasten Update - Day 13

Sun, 06 Nov 2022 19:35:57 GMT

Added over 10 links today for my ZK file, new links in Mastodon, Blogging, and Writing, and added Agriculture and Directories categories. I reorganized the Podcasting section into Resources and History subsections to group the links better. There are 143 links in the OPML ZK, more than 10 links a day on average - wow! I also updated the Blogging category on my Hugo ZK site, still need to finish migrating the OPML content over. Also on the to-do list - playing with XSLT style sheets to view the OPML content by tags. However, the full ZK file list still looks pretty good.

OPML Zettelkasten Update - Day 12

Sat, 05 Nov 2022 22:32:44 GMT

Added over 10 links today for my ZK file, new links in Mastodon, and added Software Engineering, Programming, and Music categories. I am really working on trying to clear out tabs from my daily browsing by using my ZK, so far I am keeping up!

OPML Zettelkasten Update - Day 11

Fri, 04 Nov 2022 23:21:59 GMT

Added over 10 links in today for my ZK file, new links in Tools and Zettelkasten, and added a RSS category.

OPML Zettelkasten Update - Day 10

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 19:35:51 GMT

Added over 10 links in today for my ZK file, enhancing the Podcasting section with a list of links making a start of documenting the historical record of podcasting (more info in a new post today).

The historical record of podcasting

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 17:58:57 GMT

As I was working on my Podcasting category in my zettelkasten file, I realized that I did not have a link to the history of podcasting. I started doing some searching, and decided that I should try to collect "original sources", as they say in historical research. Here, then, is a start at a chronological collection of links to pages on podcasting from original sources and some versions of documenting the historical record. Feedback is welcome!

DaveNet - Initial description of early meeting with Adam Curry at a Scripting News meetup, includes description of "the last mile" (2000)

The Two-Way Web - Payloads for RSS - Initial description of podcasting technology (January 2001)

Grateful Dead Podcast Feed - Creation date of May 18, 2001

Adam Curry - Description of podcasting for a session at BloggerCon in 2004

Scripting News - More info on early podcasting (people/timeline) (2005)

Scripting News - The origin of podcasting (2010)

References the meeting with Adam Curry, and also this post on "virtual bandwidth", which has more detail on the Adam Curry meeting in 2001

Harvard/Berkman Center - Essay on Dave Winer/Chris Lydon collaboration (2010)

Scripting News - No silos - comments on the rise of podcasting companies trying to lock in users (2017)

Scripting News - An addendum to the creation story of podcasting (2017)

Mentions Adam Curry, Doug Kaye, Chris Lydon among others

Scripting News - Podcasts are feeds. If there is no feed, it's not a podcast (2018)

Scripting News - CBC podcast on the origin of podcasting (2017)

Andy Sylvester - Comments on "Alternate Histories of Podcasting" podcast (Radio Survivor), pointing out that Andrew Bottomley's research on audio file usage on the Internet was not podcasting (no RSS feed! see Podcasts Are Feeds item) (2018)

Scripting News - Twenty years ago in podcasting (2021)

Dave Winer's side of the story in how podcasting got started, also references Podnews story on first podcast feed

Podnews - The story of the first podcast feed (2021)

Covers first meeting between Dave Winer and Adam Curry in 2001 and first feed using Grateful Dead songs

OPML Zettlekasten Update - Day 9

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 23:27:14 GMT

Again, did not get 10 links in today for my ZK file, but added a Podcasting section and a new link in the Zettlekasten section.

OPML Zettelkasten Update - Day 8

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 23:31:57 GMT

Did not get 10 links in today for my ZK file, but did a subsection in Tools category for rssCloud, Dave Winer's RSS-based real-time communication protocol. With his recent work on FeedLand and TweetFeed, I think something may be coming soon in this area....

OPML Zettelkasten Update - Day 7

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 23:28:58 GMT

Added over 10 links again to my ZK file (added several to Activism, created an Elections category, added one item to History). I updated the Hugo-based ZK site with the latest Activism links and added the Blogging category (see it in action here). Making progress!

OPML Zettelkasten Update - Day 6

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 02:16:41 GMT

Still managed to add over 10 links again to my ZK file (open tabs and some old links). As I have been going through my old links, I find that not all of them are worth saving - I guess that is a consequence of review/curation. I was able to get a start on a Hugo-based ZK site (see it in action here). I was able to get the Activism section added, will probably migrate one section a day. I will be creating a document soon on the setup.

A reader suggested another ZK tool - Zettelstore - I will take a look at that soon.

OPML Zettelkasten Update - Day 5

Sat, 29 Oct 2022 22:04:29 GMT

I was able to add over 10 links again to my ZK file (open tabs and from some searching to answer a question). I created two sub-categories under the Tools category, will see how that goes. I thought some about social bookmarking site Pinboard, and did some searching to see if there were other sites like it (that maybe I could use as a model or example), but this page was typical (Twitter/Pinterest/etc). That was not the thing I had in mind - oh well. I am still planning on duplicating the ZK OPML file using Markdown files and Hugo, will keep you posted.

Got a "Busy Developer's Guide to ActivityPub"?

Sun, 30 Oct 2022 03:02:53 GMT

Earlier today, Dave Winer said on Micro.blog that there should be a "Busy Developers Guide to ActivityPub". In 2001, Dave wrote a "Busy Developer's Guide to SOAP" to help provide a "cookbook" for the SOAP protocol. I took a look around and sent Dave some links, but thought I would capture them here as well (I included them in my OPML Zettelkasten file as well)

ActivityPub Rocks! - An introduction site to the ActivityPub protocol
Github - ActivityPub tutorial
Social.ActivityPubRocks! - An introduction to ActivityPub
Aaron Parecki - ActivityPub and OAuth 2.1 (presentation at ActivityPub Conference 2020)
IndieWeb.org - ActivityPub page
JoinMastodon.org - How to implement an ActivityPub server

OPML Zettelkasten Update - Day 4

Fri, 28 Oct 2022 21:36:50 GMT

I was able to add over 10 links today to my ZK file (today from my big link list and some open tabs). I created at least two more categories, and I like seeing my ZK growing. If I keep up this pace, I will have over 300 links in a month organized by categories and tags. Still ahead: duplicating the ZK using Markdown files and Hugo, and also playing with XSLT files to transform my OPML ZK into a tag-based ZK. I hope to make some progress on this during the weekend!

Another thought: when I started a work weblog, it was work at first. Once I got into the swing of things (adding more content), it became more and more useful. As I have been blogging more over the past two weeks, I find I am linking back to previous posts where I have "done some digging" in the past. My point is this - what you get out of something depends on what you put into it. Adding 10 links a day to my ZK seems doable, and I am creating a resource for myself (and others) that will be useful in the future.

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 16:07:50 GMT

Tried playing with Hugo yesterday, I forgot that the out of the box performance sucks (configuration hell) - arrgh! I will write more in my zettelkasten update today, but had to get this out of my system....