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Dave Winer Fights Puppetmaster Loren Feldman

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

Videoblogger Loren Feldman recently began mocking Dave Winer through the magic of puppetry:

  1. The Dave Winer Experience
  2. Happy RSS Awareness Day from Dave Winer
  3. Is Obama Black or Black?
  4. Dave Winer on Desensitizing Twitter

Winer responded by cybersquatting the domain names 1938media.net and 1938media.org on May 1, created an account on YouTube under the name evilmikearrington on May 5 and used it and the domains to promote his own puppet video, which shows he’d get killed in a puppet war.

One of these days, Winer’s habit of cybersquatting to fuck with people is going to bite him in the ass.

Posted in Dave, Domains, YouTube | 4 Comments »

Dave Winer’s Not So Good at Sharing

Monday, May 19th, 2008

In a post today about how sites should give users back their data, Dave Winer sings his own praises in this regard, complete with a lame claim for credit:

I’ve always believed that blogging and RSS tools should export their data so users can switch tools and the products at UserLand all did this. As a result, there’s a tradition among RSS readers that they import and export OPML subscription lists. It happened because Radio UserLand, the early market leader, did.

One thing he neglects to mention, which was pointed out several times by McD in comments here: In the entire time that Share Your OPML was running, the site never shared its OPML. Thousands of users shared their OPML subscription lists with Winer’s site, at his urging, and he never reciprocated.

As for the portability of data in Radio LuserLand and Winer’s other software, there’s a reason that Robert Scoble and most other LUserLand bloggers never moved their data when they abandoned the software, leaving years of work and all of their subscribers behind. It’s a giant nightmare to get the data out, because the software’s export capabilities are non-standard, XML support is a messy kludge, and there are character encoding glitches out the ass.

Even Donovan Watts, the author of Radio UserLand: The Missing Manual and the biggest expert on the software, never exported his blog when he switched to WordPress.

Data portability requires more than some cheesy “seal of approval” Winer is thinking about giving out. You have to do the work to fully support the standards that make data portable.

Posted in Dave, RSS | 5 Comments »

Dave Winer’s Hypocrisy on Rev. Wright

Sunday, May 4th, 2008

Dave Winer’s declaration that no one has the right to judge Rev. Wright provoked this exchange in his comments with a blogger named Marco:

Marco 18 hours ago

It will be hard to believe but this is not meant to be a shrill attack.

Posts like these are jarring in their inconsistency. I fully understand your point on Rev Wright and even sympathize with your position.

What I don’t understand is why you can’t see the hypocrisy in wanting to extend individuals like Rev Wright every possible explanation for their words or actions (“He was alienated”, “He was caught in a position non of us have ever been in”) but when someone you disagree with politically is automatically an evil person and each misstatement is borne of the most nefarious motives.

Its insulting to see you constantly deride others for sweeping generalizations and oversimplification of issues only to have you follow up with a string of posts casting sweeping dispersions and attacks based on 3 seconds sound bites addressing unbelievably complex topics.

I appreciate the perspective you bring which is why I haven’t yet unplugged from your feed but it would be great to see just a little of the balance you want to see in our political process displayed in your posts.

dave 17 hours ago

It’s pretty simple, I say what I have to say and it’s a function of what happens in the world. So when things change, my point of view may change too. If you disagree, go ahead and disagree. But all these charged words, hypocrisy, insulting, deride, attacks, etc — sorry, that’s your mind playing tricks on you. I’m none of those things. Usually I don’t let comments that require defensive responses (or else I admit to all the BS you accuse me of) through, but this time I wanted to restate this, that I’ve said many times before. My blog is my space to say what I think. You don’t have to agree, and if you want to, start your own blog to say what you have to say. That’s where comments like yours (above) belong, not here.

dave 17 hours ago

See how much space it takes to clear up your mess. But now that it’s clear I can answer your question.

BECAUSE MY MIND WORKS DIFFERENTLY FROM YOURS.

Which is so obvious it doesn’t even need to be said. All our minds work differently, we were all raised in different environments with different values. To say basically that I should see everything the same way you do is a waste of bandwidth. It’s ridiculous. It’ll never happen nor should it ever happen.

Marco 17 hours ago

That’s not even remotely my point.

Do you really think I would be interested in engaging you or anyone else who did not agree with my world view if that was what I believed? Of course not.

Your response is a wonderful defense of your desire to remain ideologically isolated. “I see things the way I see things and I have no need to try and understand your position” is a great way to stifle true debate and a horrible way to effectively change the way we approach issues in this country. As I said before – it wouldn’t matter to me if you wouldn’t insist on standing on your soapbox and donning sackcloth and ashes to mourn the death of honest debate.

dave 17 hours ago

Okay you get the last word, the rest of it, if there is more — in your space.

Marco, like every well-intentioned person who responds to Winer, hasn’t learned yet that he can’t handle criticism. Winer’s statement, “Usually I don’t let comments that require defensive responses (or else I admit to all the BS you accuse me of),” is one of the clearest explanations he’s ever given that explains why: He thinks that if he doesn’t delete critical comments, it means they are true.

Open and honest dialogue is not possible on any forum that Winer controls.

Posted in Dave, Microsoft, Politics, Projects | 13 Comments »

Dave Winer’s Hogging Bandwidth

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

Dave Winer’s rant against Comcast, which cut off his high-speed Internet service without warning over excessive bandwidth use, neglects to tell Scripting News readers that he was consuming a gigantic 450GB a month of bandwidth.

On Digg, a former Comcast rep made this comment on the situation:

It pains me to defend Comcast but… I think this user is obviously breaking the ToS of his contract. First the whole 3 years I worked there I only received maybe 3 or 4 users that have disconnected due to bandwidth violations. Take in mind I took close to 200-300 calls a week, 15,000k a year and I only got one out of 1/15000 a year that hit this problem. Second, the fact is the Comcast infrastructure sucks, and isn’t setup for these super downloaders. This guy was downloading so much crap (most likely terabytes and terabytes a month) that it actually effected his neighbors download speeds. That’s the only time you get this notice when you are using so much bandwidth that you are capping your neighborhood node. The tier 2.5 will get notifications that a node in a neighborhood is hitting unacceptable numbers and when it’s mostly one user there is a problem. Instead of capping everyones download speed (i know except for bittorent) they view these on a case by case basis which is why there is no set limit. If your not ***** with your neighbors or download in off-peak times no problem. Third this guy was stealing terabytes of pictures for websites? Why? It’s obvious he is running some sort of business which is a violation of the terms of agreement by comcast. If the guy has DSL and Comcast as a backup he’s running a home business. The fact that he thought DSL was faster than Comcast proves this guy is an idiot.

Comcast is a terrible company that’s infamous for mistreating its customers, but it’s also clear that Winer’s a terrible Internet user. ISPs have struggled for years with bandwidth hogs like Winer, who degrade service for everyone else who has the misfortune to be their neighbor. There’s no way to offer residential high-speed Internet access that won’t suffer when your neighbor’s pulling down that much data. Blogger Jay Cuthrell points this out in a post titled Comcast vs. Dave Winer vs. Everyone Else in His Neighborhood.

Although Winer believes his use of FlickrFan is the cause, most people who scarf down that much bandwidth are downloading pirated movies and TV shows on BitTorrent. ZDNet’s Russell Shaw said as much last year in an item about Comcast’s hog problem.

So now I am thinking how anyone could download 550 gigabytes in a month.

Hmm. Maybe torrents of movies?

If that’s the case, these bandwidth hogs are abusing the system. Maybe Comcast shouldn’t suspend their service, but hit ‘em with a surcharge.

Winer’s a BitTorrent user who’s been obsessing lately about watching entire seasons of Battlestar Galactica. Now that media outlets are starting to take an interest in this situation, reporters should pin Winer down on exactly what he’s been downloading.

Posted in Comcast, Dave, Ethics | 2 Comments »

Dave Winer: Christianity is ‘Nutty Shit’

Saturday, April 12th, 2008

Now that Dave “I am a racist” Winer has settled the long-standing problem of race in America, he’s turning his attention to religious discord with a series of tweets:

Okay next subject. I find it weird that any candidate believes in a Christian god. Do they really think the world was created in 7 days? 02:20 PM April 10, 2008

When their preachers start saying that nutty shit, why don’t they walk out? 02:20 PM April 10, 2008

Come on, everyone knows that Jesus was just a random guy, not the son of god. 02:21 PM April 10, 2008

Y’all know what I’m saying. How loony toons is it for people to ask why Obama didn’t quit Wright’s church for saying nonsense about the US. 02:35 PM April 10, 2008

When (to lots of people) the whole gospel stuff is loony toons. Ignore the elephant in the room. You’re all talking about fairy tales! :-) 02:36 PM April 10, 2008

We’ve lost our fucking minds. 02:36 PM April 10, 2008

@AndruEdwards — I’m tolerant of people with beliefs other than my own. I have to be, every candidate has to say he or she loves christ. 02:56 PM April 10, 2008 in reply to AndruEdwards

I happen to think that’s lunacy. But I look the other way. It’s time for people who don’t like Rev Wright to learn a little tolerance too. 02:57 PM April 10, 2008

You Jesus-lovers are real bullies. You need to take a look at how you push everyone else around. I, for one, am tired of it. Fed up actually 02:58 PM April 10, 2008

@chicofelipe “The bullies are the ones who call themselves Jesus-lovers in order to excercise power and control.” Amen brother. 03:07 PM April 10, 2008 in reply to chicofelipe

can say Amen. It’s not owned by Jesus Christ. The point is Rev Wright’s religion is what it is. No nuttier than your religion or mine. 03:08 PM April 10, 2008

But if the Christians make an issue of Rev Wright, I’m going to make an issue of Jesus Christ. 03:09 PM April 10, 2008

That’ll at least get all you Christians on the same fucking page. 03:09 PM April 10, 2008

For more on Winer’s contempt for Christians, read his Christmas rant fueled by a 30-minute wait at a Berkeley post office during the holiday season.

… I’m a pretty friendly guy, and that’s 365 days a year, and most of these people are bastards most of the time, but could they really be this nice for a few days a year? … Why are they so happy for one week, and so pissed off the rest of the time? And for what it’s worth, I don’t believe the happy bullshit for one second. I’ve had the privilege of being inside on a few of these Christian Christmases, with shicksa women I was dating, and let me tell you, if you haven’t had a chance to see the inside of the holiday, it’s pretty pissy and angry, you know, like people really are, not like they pretend they are.

Check out TweetScan to see how some of his followers on Twitter received the attack on their religion. Winer sees himself as friendly “365 days a year,” unlike Christians whose phony holiday cheer masks their true anger and unhappiness. Since of course, friendly people often start unprovoked arguments by mocking the religious beliefs of other people as “fairy tales.”

Posted in Dave, Religion, Twitter | 4 Comments »

Dave Winer Spreads More Atom FUD

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Dave Winer tweets:

Yes. Once the permissions are set correctly it appears in the feed. Of course when I clicked on the RSS icon I got an Atom feed. Broken.

Twitter launched a redesign yesterday that adopts Atom in preference to RSS. If you visit a user page and click the RSS autodiscovery icon in the status bar, you will see two Atom feeds as the available options. Previously, you’d see two Atom feeds and two RSS feeds offering the exact same data.

This change is, of course, an improvement.

Winer is, of course, wrong when he describes this as broken. The only breakage here is in his thinking.

Posted in ATOM, Dave, Feedburner, Twitter | Comments Off

Dave Winer vs. Michael Arrington, Round 3

Monday, March 31st, 2008

Looks like Jack Michael Arrington Jr. and Dave Winer are fighting over TechMeme again. Arrington posted these comments on Twitter:

A periodic reminder that Dave Winer is just a jerk. http://snurl.com/2300s about 17 hours ago

and he wonders why i don’t respond to his emails. about 17 hours ago

A site about hot geeks, from the founder of zivity. http://sexiestgeeksalive.com/ just launched about 17 hours ago

I wonder if Dave Winer will bless it as a real blog? about 17 hours ago

It’s hilarious to see two Internet VIPS with a combined age of 90 end a friendship because of a link aggregator.

Posted in Dave, Twitter | 8 Comments »

Dave Winer’s Garbage-In, Garbage-Out Politics

Thursday, March 27th, 2008

Dave Winer’s latest post borders on self-parody:

Mozilla engineering VP, Mike Schroepfer explained that Microsoft tends to implement technology already approved by the standards working groups, in a different way, and then says their implementation is the standard. Sounds like something Hillary Clinton would do …

This is a nice example of how A-list techbloggers often have Z-list minds when it comes to more intellectually demanding subjects than, say, Flickr-to-Twitter. We’ve been encouraged lately to say more about Winer’s foray into U.S. politics, but the vapidity of the above comment shows why it’s difficult. He’s the kind of political advocate who gives comfort to the other side by living down to their expectations.

In the same post, Winer falsifies the history of RSS:

When Netscape, the company that spawned Mozilla, wanted to implement a format for content syndication in 1999, they did it outside of the W3C because they were sick of the dirty politics bigger companies that felt more significant had been using against them. There was prior art, but they trampled it, because (you guessed) they felt more significant than those that came before.

When Netscape created RSS, the project was led by Dan Libby and Ramanathan Guha. The prior art was the Meta Content Framework and RDF, two formats cocreated by Guha. Winer thinks that his scriptingNews XML format was the prior art for RSS (and thus justifies his retroactive claim to have invented somebody else’s format). ScriptingNews wasn’t implemented outside of Winer’s company when Netscape launched RSS.

Another premise of Winer’s comment is just as dubious. Guha and Netscape were working with the W3C on RDF at the time RSS got started. Winer’s projecting when he claims Netscape was thumbing its nose at the W3C.

Posted in Dave, RSS | 1 Comment »

Jason Calacanis on Dave Winer

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

Irish podcaster Tom Rafterty recently interviewed Jason Calacanis, saving his last question for the Mahalo founder’s feud with Dave Winer.

Rafterty: Have you kissed and made up with Dave Winer?

Jason Calacanis: No, we haven’t. He is famous for not making up with anybody. He’s also famous for having big fallouts to people. We were friends for a couple years then he heckled me at that show. He apologized, I accepted the apology but he felt that I needed to apologize and I just didn’t, OK, what am I apologizing for? Oh, I’m apologizing for you heckling me? It just didn’t make any sense to me. He’s a certain type of individual and I think sometimes — there’s a reason why Adam Curry didn’t work with him on the PodShow thing. There’s a reason why Tim O’Reilly disinvited him from all the O’Reilly events. I don’t have to go down the list, but there’s a huge group of people who are well-respected who told me ahead of time, ‘Hey, don’t engage this guy because it will end’ — and I was like, I don’t know, he seems like a nice guy. We had dinner a bunch of times then he turned on me. I’ve been speaking at events for 12 years. People invite me to go all over the world to talk about what I’m doing. I get paid sometimes five or 10 thousand dollars to speak for half an hour — I donate it to charity, anyway — but how would you ever heckle somebody from the audience? It doesn’t make, it’s against the common, take me on in the question-and-answer session, of course, I’ll take on anybody — everybody knows that — but let me finish my point. I’m invited to speak –

Rafterty: Unless you’re Mark Canter. He’s got his own set of rules.

Calacanis: He’s stoned half the time. He comes in, he reeks of pot, ‘Hey dudes, let me ask you a question, like, with these billions of dollars.’ He’s funny but he actually has some good questions. I don’t mind anybody, I’ll answer any question. I’m not afraid of anybody’s question [...] Life is short. But the weird thing is, he keeps obsessing about it. He keeps writing about me. I disengage for three months — OK, well I’m gonna fight back. I’m gonna engage ’cause I kinda find it funny when somebody engages you in this tit-for-tat stuff. Then I was like I’m CEO of a company. It’s one thing for him to act like a jerkoff. He’s individual blogger/curmudgeon/angry old guy, but I’m the CEO of a company. I gotta act a little bit more professional. Now I’m trying to let it go and not engage in it because I’m supposed to have a little bit more stature than that now. I’m supposed to act more professional.

Posted in Dave, Friends | 3 Comments »

Dave Winer Invented Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0

Friday, March 14th, 2008

Andy Cowl calls out Dave Winer for his latest boast:

I hate the way Dave Winer always claims he invented Web 1.0, 2.0 and now 3.0, ten years ago – http://tinyurl.com/2best3.

Here’s what set him off:

Network apps are getting really interesting, and it’s all different variants on the River of News aggregator and RSS, going back to My.UserLand in 1999, almost 10 years ago. :-)

I love to see this stuff finally take root so virally.

Like Cowl, we marvel at the washed-up assclown’s ability to jump into fields and take most of the credit for them, regardless of how late he came to the party. What has Winer ever had to do with social networking or attention data, the two areas FriendFeed is mashing up? In Dave’s world, he’s the direct inspiration for anything on the web that aggregates data and offers a feed.

Posted in Dave | 7 Comments »

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