With Weiner-Gate in full swing, the mainstream media is practically orgasmic about the alleged 'hacked' twitter account of Congressman Anthony Weiner. The so-called controversey has all of the presstitutes hornier than ever. They love a good boner story.

As usual, all the wrong questions are being asked. What I want to know, is just how hackable is twitter?

Was this a case of a guessed password, or is there some other way sophisticated computer engineers like Andrew Breitbart use to gain access to an account to send out rogue tweets. Could someone please get a statement from twitter CEO Dick Costolo on the matter? It's only appropriate the inventor of the #dickbar re-assure his product customers that their blessed twitter accounts are safe under his watchful eye.

If the hack is indeed the truth, as the congressman has staunchly stated, then how can we trust our National Treasure, NPR's reliance on the #arabspring tweets and pictures?

Where's boy wonder Andy Carvin on this topic?

Until this serious matter of hacking accounts has been cleared up, nothing on twitter can be trusted.

A note of disclosure. I was hired by CNN in sometime around 1992 (google didn't exist then, but I'd love to have a copy) to spend an entire day with then Brooklyn Councilman Weiner for a 30 minute special about him. I guess they thought it would be cool to have two young whippersnappers (he is 1 day younger than I am) to play the role of interviewer/interviewee.

I was way out of my depth politically at the time, which allowed me to observe the obvious snow job that was taking place. Anthony shaking hands with seniors, Anthony shooting pool, Anthony at the drug store. All complete bullcrap. As part of the special I was also flown to DC to speak with Congressman Chuck Schumer. Weiner was clearly his protogˇ.

My assessment at the time; both these guys are douchebag career politicians. I'm hopeful that has changed.

Anthony, should you read this. Repent. Your peers don't give a rats ass what pictures you tweet. We do care about liars. It's written on your face my friend. Admit it and move on, or at least ask the presstitutes to go investigate twitter's hackability.

And Anthony, I'm reliably informed chicks don't really get turned on by pictures of boners in boxers. Nor do they really think you're cool if you turn up your car stereo to max at the traffic light boomboxing 'lil wayne.

You're from my generation dude. Stop fucking around.

 5/31/2011; 8:12:37 PM.   .

I come from a family of 'service' personnel, I therefore take Memorial Day very seriously, as a day that commemorates the men and women who died while in the military service.

I still own my forefather's civil war sword, as well as other momentos of my family's service protecting this great experiment known as the United States of America.

As warned by Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 17th 1961, this patriotic service has been manipulated into a mechanism for private gain, with total disregard for human life and sacrifice.

I retch when I see our chosen and elected representatives spew their hypocritical rhetoric at wreath laying ceremonies and commemorative services on this day.

Vice President Biden even has the audacity to suggest helping families of our service men and women by mowing their lawn as a sign of gratitude.

There isn't much I can do against such egregious insults, but I can recommend we all do our part to ensure the America our brothers and sisters will (hopefully soon) return to, is one that they still recognize.

 5/30/2011; 12:42:28 PM.   .

No Agenda Show for Sunday May 29th 2011

Wiener-Gate

Shownotes at noagendaworld.com

Direct link to the show

Wiener-Gate

Executive Producers: Saint Nikola Kress, Sir Sean Conelly

Associate Executive Producer: Airstock

Become a member of the 309 Club, support the show here 

Knighthoods: Saint Nikola Kress

Art By: Nick the Rat

ShowNotes Archive of links and Assets (clips etc) 308.nashownotes.com 

New: Directory Archive of Shownotes (includes all audio and video assets used) nashownotes.com 

The No Agenda News Network- noagendanewsnetwork.com 

 5/29/2011; 1:58:36 PM.   .

No Agenda Show for Sunday May 29th 2011

Wiener-Gate

Shownotes at noagendaworld.com

Direct link to the show

Wiener-Gate

Executive Producers: Saint Nikola Kress, Sir Sean Conelly

Associate Executive Producer: Airstock

Become a member of the 309 Club, support the show here 

Knighthoods: Saint Nikola Kress

Art By: Nick the Rat

ShowNotes Archive of links and Assets (clips etc) 308.nashownotes.com 

New: Directory Archive of Shownotes (includes all audio and video assets used) nashownotes.com 

The No Agenda News Network- noagendanewsnetwork.com 

 5/29/2011; 1:57:32 PM.   .

The World Outline project never ceases to amaze me with the possibilities it brings to collaborative work with quick and robust results.

On Thursday's No Agenda podcast, JCD and I discussed making a master list of all the domain names that our listeners producers have been forwarding to our main show site at NoAgendaShow.com

John threatened to set up a wiki, which I balked at. I like information to be managed, yet neither he nor I have the time to do this work.

Simon Reid popped me an email yesterday, with a meticulously maintained spreadsheet of exactly this information, inlcuding the name of each person who set up a forwarding domain. I pointed him towards the OPML editor, and he sent me a URL to a dropbox stored opml file this morning. I simply made it an inclusion in my World Outline (itself an opml file!) selected the 'map domain..' function and voila! domains.nashownotes.com was born.

Whenever Simon makes a change in the opml file that he maintains and owns, the results are relfected immediately on the web.

I Love This Shit.

 5/28/2011; 12:36:33 PM.   .

It's everywhere...

 5/28/2011; 7:59:17 AM.   .

It's been over 2 weeks since I swapped out my iPhone4 for the Nexus S running Android

The short story: I Love This Phone!

T-Mobile does bring some measure of joy to the experience, as it delivers connectivity in the Hollywood Hills and surrounding area that is superior to AT&T and Verizon, the only two choices available for the iPhone. It even works all up and down Sunset, as the No Agenda Stream usually would crap out near the Chateau Marmont, as the iPhone would switch to 2.5G, not enough bits to handle the 128kb stream.

As for the phone itself. I kept it pretty much stock, as it comes out of the box from Google. I disabled auto-synch of all google services, don't need them anyway. That switch makes all the difference with battery life. I get a full day on a single charge using primarily wifi. I've set the phone so the 3G isn't activated unless there isn't a wifi signal, yet I deactivated the wifi from switching off when the phone is 'locked', since that hinders reception of google voice text messages. The google voice service *does* run data synchs in the backround by my choice.

I'm using K-9 mail as my imap client, and it only grabs headers periodically and displays alerts in the top menu bar when a new message has arrived, yet doesn't suck in the content until the app is activated and the inbox accessed. Smart.

The phone feels nice in my hands, looks stylish enough for this 46 year old, and has proven reliable in every aspect of use.

What I like best of Android over iOS is that I can clear out all alerts in the top menu bar with one button. My favourite difference is how a double tap on a paragraph in a web page not only zooms in like the iPhone, but it actually re-formats that page for small device viewing.

I also like the 'breadcrumbs' path when backing up from a screen. Using the back button will cycle through all the screens you saw, regardless of application. This is a great way to utilize multi-tasking.

In all, still a winner in my book. I'll check in with another update in a couple of weeks.

 5/27/2011; 5:55:30 PM.   .

The World Outline project is progressing with leaps and bounds!

This is the technology behind the new Shownotes archive for the No Agenda Podcast shownotes.

A big corner turn this past week is the ability to apply CSS design and Stylsheets to the template for the directory.

The standard layout looks like this (note the album art is on the page as well). Here's a different example of layout and icons on the page for episode 305, and a completey kool old skool design from Southernbread for episode 306.

I'd love to have a new global look for the shownotes, but am also excited about the possibility of having a different design for each episode, similar to what we have for each episode's album art.

If you have a design, post a comment below with a link to your stylsheet and I'll give it a home here.

Update: 5/30/11; 1:16:00 PM by AC

We have our first theme entry and I've applied it to shownotes pages for episode 307 and 308 in observance of WWDC. Kudos to drkhrse!

 5/27/2011; 11:16:37 AM.   .

No Agenda Show for Thursday May 26th 2011

US-EU Framework Agreement

Shownotes at noagendaworld.com

Direct link to the show

US-EU Framework Agreement

Executive Producers: Sir Kent Zeiser, Dame Murasaki8, David Hoffman

Associate Executive Producers: Sir Dwayne Melancon

Become a member of the 308 Club, support the show here 

Knighthoods: Dame Murasaki8, Sir Mark Bodiford, Dame Shalomi

Art By: Thoren

ShowNotes Archive of links and Assets (clips etc) 307.nashownotes.com 

New: Directory Archive of Shownotes (includes all audio and video assets used) nashownotes.com 

The No Agenda News Network- noagendanewsnetwork.com 

 5/26/2011; 1:56:46 PM.   .

Leslie Daniels' first novel is great! We discuss this and more via Skype on this appisode of the Big App Show (books)

Buy a copy of Leslie's book in multiple formats from Amazon

This video has been rotated and formatted to fit a non smart-phone screen, it is best viewed in the free Big App Show app.

To view more interviews, app and book reviews, get the Big App Show app for free on Android and iPhone

 5/25/2011; 8:02:14 PM.   .

The New Ruler of EURO-pe

 5/25/2011; 2:09:53 PM.   .

Yesterday I watched the premier of HBO's dramatic television interpretation of Andrew Ross Sorkin's "Too Big To Fail". It was hard to miss, the marketing budget in the greater Los Angeles area must have been huge. While certainly entertaining to watch and chockerblock with good actors like James Woods, Paul Giamatti, Matthew Modine, Ed Anser and Willam Hurt, I can safely say that this 'movie' is a piece of shit.

A total whitewash of those responsible for the financial crisis.

The message: your government is really good, on your side and saved us all from armageddon. Banks are now really too big to fail (the movie ends with this message)

Treasury secretary Hank Paulson is portrayed as a hero, Ben Bernanke is the voice of calm and reason. Neel Kashkari is the genius, Timmy Geithner is a straight shooter.

Give me a break.

I know times are tough in Hollywood, work is hard to come by and money up front has been replaced by points on the "back-end", but these actors should be ashamed of being complicit to this ficticious account of history. The three days when Paulson, Bernanke, Geither et al literally threatened US representatives in secret meetings into passing a three page bill are conspicuously missing from the entire account.

Throughout the piece there's an interesting subtext of how these 'complicated issues' need to be communicated to the American public, because we're apparently too stupid to understand the lingua franca of criminals.

Luckily, President Obama's European Tour 2011 has distracted a lot of attention from this blatant broadcast from the Ministry of Truth.

The creators failed to draw in the big audience they wanted because of a rookie mistake; the didn't cast Kim Kardashian.

 5/25/2011; 1:20:51 PM.   .

No Agenda Show for Sunday May 22nd 2011

We Live!!!

Shownotes at noagendaworld.com

Direct link to the show

We Live!!!

Executive Producers: James Irvine, Gavin Warren, Baron Steven Pelsmaekers, Simen Field-Olson

Associate Executive Producer: Janice Kang

Become a member of the 307 Club, support the show here 

Knighthoods

PR

Art By: Thijs Brouwers

ShowNotes Archive of links and Assets (clips etc) 306.nashownotes.com 

New: Directory Archive of Shownotes (includes all audio and video asstes used) nashownotes.com 

The No Agenda News Network- noagendanewsnetwork.com 

 5/22/2011; 1:47:12 PM.   .

Having never lived in California until this past year, I was never affected by the the state's economic disrepair and outrageous taxes, fees, usage levies and licenses. I similarly ignored Arnold Schwrzenegger's governorship as just mere Hollywood folly.

I similarly diregarded the news of his apparent 'love child' as just more private crap the mainstream media passes off as news to distract the citizens from actual issues and facts.

Admittedly, I always found it perculiar that this republican was married to one of, if not the most powerful democratic legacy; the Kennedys. A news reporter for NBC to boot.

While watching Don Lemon tease a CNN Special slated for broadcast this evening entitled "Sex. Lies. Arrogance.", undoubtedly thrown together to capitalize on the Schwarzenegger and Dominque Strauss-Kahn revelations, it hit me.

Why are we being told to assume that der Arnold kept this family drama a secret all these years? Are we really to believe that this secret was closely guarded inside the man's very own castle? That Maria Shriver never had a clue?

Sexual trists, extramarital affairs, illegitimate children and a plethora of other thinkable trouble a man's penis can get him into have been used as political blackmail "leverage" for centuries.

Looking at his record as governor, as well as articles I'm coming across in my research, I think I can make a case that Arnold Schwarzenegger was a mere puppet of the left, forced through family channels to make decisions not nessecarily his own, under threat of political ruin, and as we now see, similar demise of his movie career.

After leaving office earlier this year, he might have just gotten so fed up with the pressure that he decided to blow up his schackles, career be damned. The marriage had probably been a charade for more than a decade anyway.

I would like to see at least one mainstream journalist investigate this angle of the story.

I certainly will tomorrow on the No Agenda Podcast, In The Morning.

 5/21/2011; 3:04:55 PM.   .

Micky took me on a 'hike' in Runyon Canyon this morning. I snapped this from the highest peak possible in the Hollywood Hills

 5/20/2011; 3:05:09 PM.   .

A couple weeks ago I decided that I was really bored with the iPhone4.

Adding to my misery is the apprent 'upgrades' AT&T is doing to their infrastructure in Los Angeles. I even received a letter from VP and General Manager Andy Shibley about the so-called improvements. Well, not so great for our shack in the Hollywood Hills. I also think something weird is going on when the iPhone4 has to choose between multiple transmitters. We're at about 900 feet elevation here, so I presume that is what is happening.

The result is the phone often just won't ring, and I also am missing tetx messages.

I had a spare AT&T sim card that I popped into my Google branded Nexus S phone that was sent to me from a friend inside Google. I really hadn't used it much, just played aroundwith it a bit. I immediately noticed two things: I received calls and text messages reliably and I only got 2.5G connections, which is because of the radios the Nexus S has. It really wants a T-Mobile sim card.

So I ordered one, pre-paid with 2GB/month of data and set out to configure it with all the apps I wanted, but nothing else. Just wanted a functional example.

I must say I am pleasantly surprised. I was able to find Android versions of my favourite apps; Taxi Magic, TuneIn Radio and settled on the K-9 client for my email, which also does PGP (not available on the iPhone) and connected to my OSX-email server, a feat not possible afaik with the built in Android email client. I disabled all google services, which drain the battery anyway, and have been completely enjoying this thing!

I especially like the interface. I know, that's suprising coming from a Mac/iPhone guy, but then again, I was bored.

I'll be using the Nexus S for the forseeable future and will let you know if I decide to switch back or if I run into anything completely annoying.

I *do* miss the push notifications for certain apps. But that is acceptable, for now.

 5/19/2011; 6:00:34 PM.   .

A couple weeks ago I decided that I was really bored with the iPhone4. Adding to my misery is the apprent 'upgrades' AT&T is doing to their infrastructure in Los Angeles, I even received a letter from VP and General Manager Andy Shibley about the so called improvements. Well, not so great for our shack in the Hollywood Hills. I also think something weird is going to when the iPhone4 has to choose between multiple transmitters. We're at about 900 feet elevation here, so I presume that is what is happening.

The result is the phone often just won't ring, and I also am missing tetx messages.

i had a spare AT&T sim card that I popped into my Google branded Nexus S phone that was sent to me from a friend inside Google. I really hadn't used it much, just played aroundwith it a bit. I immediately noticed two things: I received calls and text messages reliably and I only got 2.5G connections, which is because of the radios the Nexus S has. It really wants a T-Mobile sim card.

So I ordered one, pre-paid with 2GB/month of data and set out to configure it with all the apps I wanted, but nothing else. Just wanted a functional example.

I must say I am pleasantly surprised. I was able to find Android versions of my favourite apps; Taxi Magic, TuneIn Radio and settled on the K-9 client for my email, which also does PGP and connected to my OSX-email server, a feat not possible afaik with the built in Android email client. I disabled all google services, which drain the battery anyway and have been completely enjoying this thing!

I especially like the interface. I know, that's suprising coming from a Mac/iPhone guy, but then again, I was bored.

I'll be using the Nexus S for the forseeable future and will let you know if I decide to switch back or if I run into anything completely annoying.

I *do* miss the push notifications for certain apps. But that is acceptable, for now.

 5/19/2011; 6:00:11 PM.   .

No Agenda Show for Thursday May 19th 2011

Last Show Ever

Shownotes at noagendaworld.com

Direct link to the show

Last Show Ever

Executive Producers: James Brewis, James Sutton, Nikola Kress, Random Hillbilly

Associate Executive Producers: Craig Porter, Michael Miller

Knighthoods

Become a member of the 306 Club, support the show here 

PR

Art By: Jesse Anderson

ShowNotes Archive of links and Assets (clips etc) 305.nashownotes.com 

New: Directory Archive of Shownotes (includes all audio and video asstes used) nashownotes.com 

The No Agenda News Network- noagendanewsnetwork.com 

 5/19/2011; 1:48:01 PM.   .

Pulitzer Prize winning author and journalist Jennifer Egan connects to the Big App Show studio today to talk about her latest novel "A visit from the goon squad" as well as about the future of the music industry and journalism.

Buy a copy of Jennifer's book in multiple formats from Amazon

This video has been rotated and formatted to fit a non smart-phone screen, it is best viewed in the free Big App Show app.

To view more interviews, app and book reviews, get the Big App Show app for free on Android and iPhone

 5/18/2011; 5:06:00 PM.   .

I love a good constitutional debate.

This article from the Atlantic is being linked to and blogged quite a bit. It is a mock speech by President Obama, in which he uses his constitutional executive powers to order the treasury to create debt instruments in order to satisfy the debt of the United States.

It is being touted as an instrument to force the raising of the debt ceiling, which in turn is being used as a WMD.

The article cites the Article 4 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. The full article reads as follows:

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Seems pretty clear to me. All that is needed is a full accounting from the pentagon as to exactly how much of our national debt is owed due to "bounties" paid to the Military Industrial Complex. Specifically, for "insurrection" or "rebelion". The question is of course if you interpret these acts of violence as acts by the peoples of America, or of peoples from outside our borders. Does the 'threat' of terror count towards this as well?

Regardless of what side of that debate the decison falls, I believe the taxpayers and debtholders of the United States would be horrified to see just how staggering the number is and what percentage of our national debt it entails.

Perhaps this very passage from the constitution is why the Department of Homeland Security was created in the first place, and why we must "See Something and Say Somthing" to protect our 'homeland' from Lone Wolf attacks.

Hard to argue 'homeland security' isn't intended to supress insurrection and rebellion. But we certainly deserve to know how big our credit card bill is for these 'services', and if we feel we're getting a good deal.

Additionally, it would interesting to understand how the US's funding of Lybian rebels with links to al-Qaeda doesn't violate Article 3 of the 14th Amendment, for that certainly is an impeachable offense by this administration.

 5/16/2011; 5:24:42 PM.   .

I've been working with a lot of developers recently and am reminded by my 'inside view' of the work they do just how amazing that work really is.

If you've ever looked at the code that makes your 'stuff' 'just work', then you know what I'm talking about. If not, try a google search or two to look at some code.

I like getting paid for my work, and I like paying for software I use. It gets me support when needed, and helps further the development of the products I use. A lot of the software I use is built by one man shops, filling a void that bigger companies can't or won't.

The biggest hurdle for these developers is the cost of marketing. They can't buy mainstream advertising, hire PR firms to in turn hire convince bloggers or Mike Arrington to write about them, and google has gotten progressively worse at helping find these gems. So I am reminding myself that the best marketing assistance I can provide is a blog post sent out to 'my world' about their products.

Today's Happy User post is about MailSteward Pro.

Late last year I decided I would move my email 'off the cloud' onto my own server in-house. This was a lot easier than I expected it to be, with the help of OSX-Server running on a Mac Mini.

The real penalty would come from having to say goodbye to GMail's excellent search functionality in their product.

Not willing to give this up easily, I went hunting for a solution and found MailSteward. The "Pro" version allows you to automatically store all your email into an mysql database, which was easily set up on my Mac Mini.

The program has a nice and understandable interface (screen shot) that lets me search for any message, attachment, sender etc. in a very logical way. Results are returned as fast, if not faster than a search in GMail and here's the kicker; the results I get are better than GMail. This is because I am interacting directly with the application in a logical fashion, GMail would at times try to be 'too helpful' in my queries, undoubtedly anticipating people I've emailed in the past and other smoky parameters only the GMail team knows about.

Now, before you start commenting about how you *can* query GMail to get better results, the point of my happiness is that I'm able to do this at home, on my own machine, without a BigCo between me and my data. Quite simply, this product works for me and I Love It.

So, my thanks today go to John Seward and his MailSteward Pro product.

(disclosure: I was not paid to write this, I have no interest in the company, product or developer's business, and I paid for my copy of the software. I'm just a happy user :-)

 5/16/2011; 12:33:19 PM.   .

Poster from 1968, during a similar socio-economic period in time to today.

 5/16/2011; 11:26:47 AM.   .

John and I received a nice bit of PR for the No Agenda podcast today in the mainstream German media. Handelsblatt closes out their coverage of what they are calling "Facebook-Gate" with our take on the PR smear;

Doch Facebook-Gate stellt das alles in den Schatten. Oder wie es die New Media-Pioniere Adam Curry and John Dvorak in ihrer Radioshow feststellten: "Das ganze stellt eines klar: Google ist bose. Facebook ist bose. Die in Wahrheit schmeissen langst die PR-Agenturen die ganze Show."

Google translate really doesn't know what to do with this paragraph. I think the essence of it is:

Google is evil, Facebook is evil. As the show always makes clear, it's what PR agencies do.

I'd love a better contextual translation if possible.

 5/16/2011; 10:30:44 AM.   .

Daily Source Code for Friday May 13th 2011

The FUBAR Friday Bit Coin Blast Off

Art By: Ray On The Charlie

My BitCoin address: 14kU4cqTvGHNJ2gcvefyw7LSUbLp9Bf378

Next show when another 100 BitCoins come in!

Direct Link to the mp3 file

 5/15/2011; 2:10:08 PM.   .

Daily Source Code for Saturday April 16th 2011

The SNAFU Saturday Edition

Direct Link to the mp3 file

 5/15/2011; 1:52:58 PM.   .

No Agenda Show for Sunday May 15th 2011

Chimp in Heat

Shownotes at noagendaworld.com

Direct link to the show

Chimp in Heat

Executive Producer: Equinox Publishing

Become a member of the 305 Club, support the show here 

Art By: Nick the Rat

ShowNotes Archive of links and Assets (clips etc) 304.nashownotes.com 

New: Directory Archive of Shownotes (includes all audio and video assets used) nashownotes.com 

The No Agenda News Network- noagendanewsnetwork.com 

 5/15/2011; 1:03:07 PM.   .

I received an interesting email from Amazon yesterday:

Hello,

We're writing about your past Kindle purchase of Eighteen Acres by Nicolle Wallace. The version you received had missing content that have been corrected.

An updated version of Eighteen Acres (ASIN:B003VPWYNC) is now available. It's important to note that when we send you the updated version, you will no longer be able to view any highlights, bookmarks, and notes made in your current version and your furthest reading location will be lost.

If you wish to receive the updated version, please reply to this email with the word "Yes" in the first line of your response. Within 2 hours of receiving the e-mail any device that has the title currently downloaded will be updated automatically if the wireless is on.

You can find more information about Kindle related topics here:

http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport

We apologize for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your business with Amazon.

Sincerely,

Customer Service Department

Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/

Even though Amazon is giving me an 'opt-in' choice here, they clearly have the capability to change the content of any kindle book I own. Could Will this possibly be used for censorship in our future?

 5/14/2011; 4:28:26 PM.   .

No Agenda Show for Thursday May 12th 2011

Starship Troopers 4

Shownotes at noagendaworld.com

Direct link to the show

Starship Troopers 4

Executive Producer: Snorre Steen,

Executive Producer and 303 Club member: AJ Rystad

Associate Executive Producer: Joseph Frost

Knighthood: Craig Peters

Become a member of the 304 Club, support the show here 

Art By: SiliconSpin

ShowNotes Archive of links and Assets (clips etc) 303.nashownotes.com 

New: Directory Archive of Shownotes (includes all audio and video asstes used) nashownotes.com 

The No Agenda News Network- noagendanewsnetwork.com 

 5/12/2011; 3:14:02 PM.   .

A major corner turn today on a service that is a part of the EC2 For Poets project. This is the same server and underlying software that runs my Blork setup.

As a manager of high volume fast flowing data, specifically, information for the No Agenda Podcast, I learned long ago that the best way to manage this is in an outliner.

The connectivity and scriptablility of the OPML editor delivers what I need, and sits firmly above all other products in it's own master category.

I became interested in outlining as an information management and programming (scripting) environment when an earlier incarantion of the OPML editor was producing blogs, feeds and functioning as a personal rss aggregator the UserLand product Radio8.

Of particular grooviness is that the same software I use on my desktop, runs on the server, so I already know how to use and administer it.

On the back-end of the Blork system that the No Agenda producers use to gather stories, leads and infromation that flows through NoAgendaNewsNetwork.com, I have the same information flowing into an outline (screen shot).

I can copy/cut/paste from here and organize as I prepare for the next show. This 'ShowPrep' is automatically made available in html for those who want to follow along with what I'm collecting.

A couple hours before showtime, I arrange everything into relevant categories so I can easily find things while I'm on-air.

After the show, I simply save the cleaned up outline to the server and it automagically turns into ShowNOTES for that episode. (screen shot)

You can also think of an outline as a directory, with nodes containing other nodes.

We had a cool implementation of this back in the early days of podcasting with a directory of podcasts around the world, with 'node managers' who each maintained an outline of shows for their region. They all got linked together on the server to create a dynamic, human powered directory.

So I now maintain one single outline for all the showprep and shownotes, as well as an automatically genertaed list (with links!) of the assets (audio clips etc) used in each episode (screen shot). The server renders this nicely into html for conumption.

My outline starts with a top level of 'Shownotes' --> 2011 --> 06 --> episode numbers.

Under each episode I now am able to display a subdirectory of each story, containing a snyopsis of the link included, as well as a directory of the assets and even a webpage that includes a plyer and the album art.

Best of all, I can map a subdomain name to it for easy reference, i.e 302.nashownotes.com

Oh, and since this entire file is in a structured xml format (opml), it is perfect for parsing and searching, but it can easily be expanded to include other outlines of news and information relevant to the show by other people. I can just 'click' the outline in and it becomes a part of the web directory.

This stuff is so powerful, I feel we're only beginng to scratch the surface of what it can mean for the future of news. Real news.

 5/11/2011; 3:53:00 PM.   .

Great piece from Dave this morning about information flowing in and out of twitter.

Have you heard the one about the guy in a bar bathroom who sees another guy pouring his beer into the urinal?

He says: "I'm tired of being the middleman"

I guesstimate that 90% of all NEWS that is available on twitter flows in via rss feeds.

Here's the feed I publish to flow my news into twitter. (and there's an html version too!)

 5/10/2011; 1:56:48 PM.   .

If you've listened to my podcasts, dating back to late 2007, you know that I'm a true believer in gold. Physical gold that is, not the digital equivalent that is traded through Wall street exchanges.

I purchased multiple ounces back then at about $850 an ounce and have kept it in my posession ever since.

Genrally speaking, throughout hundreds of years, this metal has kept it's value and in fact has increased in value against so called 'fiat currencies' like the dollar.

Any currency that has a central bank is by almost definition prone to inflation by those who control the central banking authorities and can 'print' money, by creating debt or by other means.

I don't intend to have a philisophical conversation about these currencies versus gold metal, but I have become quite interested in BitCoin, as it releates to the aforementioned.

BitCoin is being heralded by some very smart people as a true virtual currency, that has safeguards against all the pitfalls of money.

I've listened to the experts, done my research and it appears to be very real.

Pretty crazy for a gold nut like myself to be saying this, but I'm open to giving it a try.

So I've set up my machines in the hopes they will create some coin for me, and hereby solicit my readers to 'send me some BTC's' so I can try it out.

You see, the downside to this new 'money' is that I can't acquire any with my dollars at the moment, at least not easily, like by initiating a paypal transaction.

I hope to eventually acquire enough of it so that I can disprove my doubts and buy some food or pay my rent with BitCoins. Granted I can't walk into a store and slap down an ounce of gold either, but at least there is an active market that I can access to exchange it for paper. The idea of having something I can soend digitally in it's original form is interesting and in many ways appealing.

Holding onto my gold in the meantime, just in case :-)

My BitCoin address is :1K9zgjrjWq17LD7uSMvziTjtnHQ6Un69av

I must add here that analogous to the early gold prospectors, BitCoins can be 'created' or 'mined'. Long story, but the bottom line is that I know a lot of my readers and listeners have access to extremely big iron processing and probably can do a better job at creating BTC's than my MacBook :-) A great use of 'your' resources to support No Agenda!

Fuck you Ben Bernanke!

(postscript) I'll up the ante here. Upon a total receipt of 100 BTC's, I will do a new episode of the Daily Source Code podcast. Value for value!

5/10/11; 1:15:30 AM by AC

Update: I've received about 35 BTC so far, and to complete the loop I've placed a few orders for 'real world' products that will be delivered to my home. Bath soap and coffee. Payments worked as easily, if not easier than paypal or a credit card. Virtual goods and services is probably a better way to bootstrap this.

My podcast, The Daily Source Code is a 3 hour show. It's quite intense for me to produce it and takes real time and effort. Receiving BTC for this is ok with me, since there appear to be enough online services I can use BTC to pay for. ideally I'd like to use it to pay for a Windows 2003 Server instance and bandwidth. I use other vendors like push.io for my Big App Show pushes that would also be cool to use the BTC's for. I'd consider it a real confirmation of the system working if I could use the value I put into crerating my virtual product to pay for other virtual products I use. TIme will tell, but so far... promising!

5/10/11; 1:06:26 PM by AC

So far the experiment has stalled.

I *know* that there is an audience that will pay for me to produce a show. They have funded $500 for an episode previously through kickstarter.

Incoming BTCs has stalled out at 35 BTC, so only 33% (!) of the value needed to get my ass into the studio.

What's the problem? Assuming the audience does want me to produce a show I can only conclude that there aren't enough BTC's to go around. Not enough value in the chain. Yet.

5/10/11; 1:11:36 PM by AC

Update: As I posted this, another 10 BTC came in.

5/10/11; 1:33:34 PM by AC

Another possible roadblock: The first and only order I made with BTC's yesterday still shows as being 'processed'. If I can't buy real-world goods reliably, what value does BTC have for me?

5/11/11; 4:52:07 PM by AC

OK, time to circle back. As of today, I have received a total of 109.46 BTC in 'value for value' support for me to produce a new episode of the Daily Source Code Podcast. SO clearly there's enough BTC out among the audience to use this currency for a product they want, I in tunr got a confirmation that my coffe and bathsoap payment has been confirmed and products shipped. Conclusion: BitCoin works!

Now to figure out what I will spend my remaining 107 BTC's on :-)

Look for a FUBAR Friday podcast live on the No Agenda Stream

 5/9/2011; 6:43:09 PM.   .

Yesterday I realized that I've become a new category of internet user. A Blorker.

To understand what a Blorker is (and how to become one) you have to understand what Blork is;

"Blork" is Dave Winer's product that I've been helping build with a growing number of developers and users. He explains why it is called this here.

As I was pondering writing this piece, I looked at the name as an acronym, and was surprised how easy it was to reverse it into one:

Blog Linking Outlines Rss Karma

Blork is built around the notion that just about every information source on the internet has an rss feed (even twitter users), and that there is a plethora of applications and devices that understand how to read and display an rss feed.

Blork combines these two functions into one interface, allowing for a flow of feeds that I follow to be displayed, which I can RT, or add my own item. These items are typically a link to something I find interesting, along with a description of what the link is and often a short synopsis.

Sound familiar? It should, because what I just described is 'Twitter for News'. Only, as Dave explains, it doesn't have the company Twitter Inc. in the middle. This is all direct from the sources, and from me directly out to the people following my feed. This includes people who follow me on twitter. Blork has a feature that posts my feed items directly to my twitter account, so I don't lose my followers there, they still see what I'm blorking, they just risk twitter failwhales etc that could disrupt the flow to them.

My Blork experience brings me fresh news 24/7 on my terms. I have a mix of mainstream news feeds I'm following, alternative sources, tweets I care about, new CSPAN videos, Whitehouse press releases.. the list goes on and is obviously endless. (screen shot)

If I want to route a story out to my followers, I just click 'RT' next to an item and it prepares my writing area with the information pre-populated. (screen shot) The best part about this 'Twitter for News' is there's no 140 Character limit :-)

Now, here's the beauty part, besides any app or device that can follow my rss feed, Blork is designed to be a community server, I can create accounts with the click of a button. I have 80 other Blorkers on my server already. Since Blork also fully integrates OPML, I can follow feeds from an other Blork servers, and automatically get new feeds when they are created there. If there's something I'm not interested in I can unfollow of course.

Recently I did an experiment that resulted in the realization that 95% of the people I follow on twitter have no news value to me. I of course follow the relevant 5% in my Blork.

So there you have it. I'm a Blorker. What are you?

 5/9/2011; 11:18:26 AM.   .

No Agenda Show for Sunday May 8th 2011

Web Savvy Wolf

Shownotes at noagendaworld.com

Direct link to the show

 5/8/2011; 2:04:55 PM.   .

 5/7/2011; 5:32:31 PM.   .

Dallas Clayton is in the studio to talk about his career, his 'awesome' books and education. A truly great American entrepreneur!

Buy a copy of Dallas' books in multiple formats from Amazon

This video has been rotated and formatted to fit a non smart-phone screen, it is best viewed in the free Big App Show app.

To view more interviews, app and book reviews, get the Big App Show app for free on Android and iPhone

 5/7/2011; 5:30:17 PM.   .

No Agenda Show for Thursday May 5th 2011

Code 33

Shownotes at noagendaworld.com

Direct link to the show

 5/5/2011; 2:33:56 PM.   .

There have been many calls to action in the past 12 hours to convene a 'special' or 'emergency' episode of the No Agenda Show in light of the latest news.

Doing this would be senseless and you should expect more from the best podcast in the universe.

For now is not the time to huddle and point fingers outwards. Now is the time to spread all our resources, follow every lead and observe all the puppets in this brazen theatrical performance that is just another attempt at keeping us happy and distracted slaves.

Keep your eye on NoAgendaNewsNetwork.com, keep the information flowing. Share ideas in the No Agenda Chat and IRC channels.

Instinctively you know you are being conned, every bone in your body feels it.

JCD and I have work to do, as do all of you. We'll compare notes during our regularly scheduled thursday congregation. In The Morning.

 5/2/2011; 9:07:43 AM.   .

No Agenda Show for Sunday May 1st 2011

Show 300!

Shownotes at noagendaworld.com

Direct link to the show

 5/1/2011; 2:12:13 PM.   .