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My 1988 driver's license
Found this in my desk drawer today. Amazing the things you carry with you over the ages. I lived in an apartment building on top of a hill in the middle of a golf course, smack in the heart of Silicon Valley, if it actually had a heart, and that's debatable. All the Sand Hill Road VCs were on the other side of the hill. And one exit south on 280 was Xerox PARC, and where NeXT had its startup offices.
This was the place where I started development of what became Frontier. I always wanted to do a great system level scripting thing, based on what I learned from Unix and what I loved about the graphic user interface.
It became a lot bigger than I anticipated. In the beginning it was meant to be a replacement for the Macintosh Finder, with an outliner for a file system browser, and of course a fantastic scripting ability, of the OS and of scriptable apps. I wish Apple had supported this effort but I didn't understand at the time that they couldn't. They weren't set up to let anyone but Bill and Andy make great products, even if their products weren't all that great, imho of course. You have to live with the mythology you create.
A lot of people got their first programming experience with Hypercard. I would have loved if more of them get their first experience with Frontier. Even better would have been if our products worked together, but that wasn't in the cards either.
The end of podcasting, chapter 63
More recent news items this month about layoffs at Chicago Public Media (WBEZ) and Colorado Public Radio, both affecting their podcast units. Key quotes:
The move to terminate nearly 15% of the 62 unionized content creators at Chicago’s National Public Radio affiliate comes amid a worsening financial crisis for the news organization marked by declining fundraising, listenership and philanthropic support.
https://www.wbez.org/stories/chicago-public-media-lays-off-14-staffers/451b3f28-338c-45bc-98c2-742a7106ecf2
In recent years revenue has grown but has not kept pace with expenses. CPR lists on its website that expenses had exceeded revenue by $1.3 million in fiscal year 2022 and $2.3 million in fiscal year 2023. Member giving has remained strong, but corporate sponsorship was down. Meanwhile, programming and fundraising expenses – driven in part by employee costs – have risen by millions of dollars.
https://www.cpr.org/2024/03/06/cpr-institutes-layoffs-in-audio-production-podcast-units/
Looks like my analysis from chapter 60 is still accurate:
If an organization is spending more money than it brings in income, they either figure out ways to increase revenue or cut expenses, or say goodbye! The technical term, I believe, is called “business”.
https://andysylvester.com/2023/11/24/the-end-of-podcasting-chapter-60/
On the flip side, an informally produced podcast by Nick Hilton featuring people sharing their experience with Parkinson’s disease has won an award at the Broadcasting Press Guild in London, UK. A nice pull-quote from Nick’s post:
Podcasting has proved the perfect home for Movers and Shakers. It’s allowed us to access an audience of many, many thousands of people who either live with the condition, have loved ones living with the condition, or are fascinated by the banter between some broadcasting legends. It has allowed us to dive into a level of detail that makes people feel seen and heard. These are people who often feel let down by the health service, by their doctors and nurses, employers or benefits assessors. It is an entertainment product, first and foremost, but it’s also a support group. That’s why, despite the fact it’s a technical nightmare, we still record the show down at the pub: so that people feel like they’re having a pint with the gang, joining in with a laugh and a moan, and the sharing in the experiences of living with Parkinson’s.
https://nickfthilton.medium.com/what-an-award-winning-podcast-taught-me-about-podcasting-f83544fd34a7
Perhaps this is a better model for many podcasts that are trying to be money-makers – just sayin….
Postscript: NiemanLab says ” more people are listening to podcasts than ever before” – I guess the advertisers aren’t listening….
Next step in my DRM removal quest: You can remove DRM from Audible books via ffmpeg!
ffmpeg -y -activation_bytes <your-activation-bytes> -i audible_drm_file.aax -codec copy drm-free-file.m4b
Freakout Day on the internet
I have a suggestion for an internet holiday.
Call it Freakout Day.
Works like this.
When you think of a pronouncement you'd like to make, write it in your favorite tiny little text box, but before you send it, add the word "freaking" between every word in the punchline.
Like so --
The Arizona court decision won’t just have an effect on the politics of Arizona. It will have effect on the politics of the entire freaking United freaking States of freaking America.
Really impresses people. 😀
Good and useful writing
Writing is often seen as a tool for teaching or informing, lecturing atop a golden soapbox. But all the best writers I know don’t care much for writing as communication as much as they do writing for just heckin’ figuring things out or for learning how they feel about something in the process of angrily clacking on keys.
The most important lesson that blogging taught me is that writing is for thinking first, communication last.
We all get stuck up on whether our writing is novel or unique or adding back to the Grand Conversation or the Discourse taking place all around us but absolutely eff all that. Writing doesn’t have to be Important or Impressive. It doesn’t have to be Novel or Exciting. You certainly don’t need to anxiously watch your spelling or make sure that every word is precious. You don’t need to consider every point in meticulous detail, you don’t need to make it poetic, you don’t need to make every word sing (yet).
You just need to write.