7 ms·

Zed Shaw is angry about feed readers

59 points by henning 18y ago

edw519 18y ago
Q: What's the difference between reading an angry blogger at work and listening to a loud mouth drunk in a bar? A: They're both irritating, but in a bar, you can be drunk too, so it seems less irritating.
- menloparkbum 18y ago
  Angry rants can be hilarious but he's veering into net kook territory with reviews of console based feed readers. I'm anxiously awaiting the next article where he gives us his Ham radio call sign, rips the authors of various Amiga emulators a new asshole, and then reveals his latest project - an album of bird calls he performed on the tenor recorder.
  - bootload 18y ago
    "... Angry rants can be hilarious but he's veering into net kook territory with reviews of console based feed readers ..." The problem with limiting your repertoire is your response becomes one dimensional and tired. Maybe "Angry Zed" is following the Joel Spolsky "Rule 1" in Painless Functional Specifications Pt4, "Be funny" ~ http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000033.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000033.html The only thing is Zed is not funny. Now if you want Angry try emulating "Angry of Mayfield" (Kenny Everett)~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXkxJkjCk-c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXkxJkjCk-c or how about Mr.Gumby (Monty Python) ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIlKiRPSNGA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIlKiRPSNGA or if you want a quick essay read the "Argument sketch" (Python again) ~ http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/jokes/monty-python-arguement.html http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/jokes/monty-python-arguement.ht... Once you have made your "Angry" point you should move to a different style. Unless of course you want to be a "blub" blogger like Jed.
    - LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
      The only thing is... I thought it was funny. I wasn't offended in the slightest by the rant. I know I have a bizarre sense of humor but he's doing something right.
- mileszs 18y ago
  A: You can stop reading the angry blogger at any time, but while in the bar you have to listen to it.
bprater 18y ago
Zed is always angry. That's why we love Zed!
- champion 18y ago
  You beat me to it -- I feel like the "is angry" is implied.
  - alex_c 18y ago
    Now, I’m sure tons of people will scoff at the idea of not having graphics in their feed. They’ve gotta have that curvy candy coated interface with the flash video about Steampunk Buttplugs posted by BoingBoing blaring right in their fucking face or else they don’t feel alive. They don’t feel young. Dammit, they want to augment that Nerd ADD with a feed reader that goes to eleven! Rock on, Zed.
- rit 18y ago
  I sense a new startup idea. A form that reads: Zed Shaw is angry about [textbox]. [textbox for link]. Posts to all the aggregation sites like reddit and HN ;)
  - michaelneale 18y ago
    Great idea, but please not HN.
  - Tichy 18y ago
    That's not a startup idea, that's a joke.
  - Xichekolas 18y ago
    Really since the 'is angry' is implied by the 'Zed Shaw', you could get away with just 'Zed Shaw - [topic]' (Edit: I love Zed, just so we are clear. Of course, I loved Maddox too, and I don't expect everyone else to like him just because I do.)
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
kingkongrevenge 18y ago
I don't understand the bit about Mutt not having folders. I use Mutt and have folders. Is he talking about using it with IMAP or something?
- there 18y ago
  yeah, i'm not sure what the hell he's complaining about. i use mutt with maildir and imap folders, even nested imap folders. my mutt is compiled with the 3rd party sidebar patch and i have a view just like gui mail programs with a list of all my imap folders showing me which have new mail and how many.
johnyzee 18y ago
I can't wait for angry ranting to go out of fashion.
- henning 18y ago
  For now, it's an easy way to get traffic. People like it when you're willing to call it like you see it and skewer the mediocre things that surround us. As an alternative, what's a forceful way to critique the central problem Zed discusses in his rant, namely the practice of blindly copying a (questionable) UI metaphor from another application category, email, without resorting to ranting? In general, lengthy writing on the web works best when you have a story with a conflict and resolution -- Zed is frustrated by all the products he encounters, and he finally finds one that matches what he wants. Joel Spolsky uses this heavily. The way to promote a product these days, I guess, is to make the story about you, the potential customer, who has a problem the product solves (hooray!). An angry rant fits into that well enough that it's a tempting, easy route.
- pchristensen 18y ago
  Do you have a comfortable chair and an umbrella drink?
- icey 18y ago
  Since the day man discovered how to string the letters "F, U, C and K" together to form a word, angry ranting has been in fashion. Historical trends are against you here, I'm afraid.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- jazj 18y ago
  u mad? Respond to the content, not the form.
mikeryan 18y ago
My favorite line: "That should be a 2 minute job finding something someone else already wrote on CPAN and another 2 minutes writing a single line of Perl nobody else will have to read again (because they can’t)."
ivank 18y ago
Wouldn't you want to read feeds in your browser, where you can follow the links without switching windows?
- orib 18y ago
  What makes you think I have a browser open all the time? At least on my system, I'm far more likely to have a terminal open. And no, I don't want to read feeds in a browser. (Actually, ideally they'd show up in my inbox as emails, but that's a different topic)
cypress-hill 18y ago
use rss support in gnus for emacs. tada it can read email too. so he can get rid of mutt. not sure how much more minimal you can get than rss-as-news-articles and what is with this trend of people buying core2duo boxes to run dvtm? top won't bother reporting idle of greater precision than 99.9 % anywho, it seems emacs can give him his console orgasm while dropping a dynamic runtime that ties it together. news, email, irc, im (via bitlbee), web, and of course editing text now and then
- avinashv 18y ago
  He states he uses Vimperator and listed Vim before Emacs at the end of the article--he uses Vim, not emacs.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
pistoriusp 18y ago
It seems a bit odd to me that he would go on about the functionality of feed readers but he wasn't willing to try google reader based on a completely different merit?
river_styx 18y ago
Come on you retards. Fucking mother fuck... You know, I think these guys have grown up watching people like George Carlin and come to think that throwing around petty insults and profanities randomly is somehow funny in itself. There's an art to it, you guys. Carlin knew what he was doing. You don't.
gunderson 18y ago
Just use Google Reader, Zed, but only read encrypted blogs that are available via encrypted URLs.
- gunderson 18y ago
  Of all the wise ass comments, mine gets modded down...
pkrumins 18y ago
Perhaps he wants Hacker Top: http://www.catonmat.net/blog/follow-hacker-news-from-the-console/ http://www.catonmat.net/blog/follow-hacker-news-from-the-con...
rapind 18y ago
Seriously though. What's with Obie's pictures?
dmm 18y ago
Try Canto! It's a curses based reader that is fast and easy to use. http://codezen.org/canto/ http://codezen.org/canto/
moss 18y ago
Besides being angry, Zed is posting some very useful information. "The mutt of feed readers" isn't something I'm looking for right now, but for the handful of people who want it, it's a great thing to find.
quellhorst 18y ago
Zed Shaw has mastered link baiting.

59 points by henning 18y ago

Q: What's the difference between reading an angry blogger at work and listening to a loud mouth drunk in a bar? A: They're both irritating, but in a bar, you can be drunk too, so it seems less irritating.

menloparkbum 18y ago
Angry rants can be hilarious but he's veering into net kook territory with reviews of console based feed readers. I'm anxiously awaiting the next article where he gives us his Ham radio call sign, rips the authors of various Amiga emulators a new asshole, and then reveals his latest project - an album of bird calls he performed on the tenor recorder.
- bootload 18y ago
  "... Angry rants can be hilarious but he's veering into net kook territory with reviews of console based feed readers ..." The problem with limiting your repertoire is your response becomes one dimensional and tired. Maybe "Angry Zed" is following the Joel Spolsky "Rule 1" in Painless Functional Specifications Pt4, "Be funny" ~ http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000033.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000033.html The only thing is Zed is not funny. Now if you want Angry try emulating "Angry of Mayfield" (Kenny Everett)~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXkxJkjCk-c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXkxJkjCk-c or how about Mr.Gumby (Monty Python) ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIlKiRPSNGA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIlKiRPSNGA or if you want a quick essay read the "Argument sketch" (Python again) ~ http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/jokes/monty-python-arguement.html http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/jokes/monty-python-arguement.ht... Once you have made your "Angry" point you should move to a different style. Unless of course you want to be a "blub" blogger like Jed.
  - LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
    The only thing is... I thought it was funny. I wasn't offended in the slightest by the rant. I know I have a bizarre sense of humor but he's doing something right.
mileszs 18y ago
A: You can stop reading the angry blogger at any time, but while in the bar you have to listen to it.

bprater 18y ago

Zed is always angry. That's why we love Zed!

champion 18y ago
You beat me to it -- I feel like the "is angry" is implied.
- alex_c 18y ago
  Now, I’m sure tons of people will scoff at the idea of not having graphics in their feed. They’ve gotta have that curvy candy coated interface with the flash video about Steampunk Buttplugs posted by BoingBoing blaring right in their fucking face or else they don’t feel alive. They don’t feel young. Dammit, they want to augment that Nerd ADD with a feed reader that goes to eleven! Rock on, Zed.
rit 18y ago
I sense a new startup idea. A form that reads: Zed Shaw is angry about [textbox]. [textbox for link]. Posts to all the aggregation sites like reddit and HN ;)
- michaelneale 18y ago
  Great idea, but please not HN.
- Tichy 18y ago
  That's not a startup idea, that's a joke.
- Xichekolas 18y ago
  Really since the 'is angry' is implied by the 'Zed Shaw', you could get away with just 'Zed Shaw - [topic]' (Edit: I love Zed, just so we are clear. Of course, I loved Maddox too, and I don't expect everyone else to like him just because I do.)
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]

kingkongrevenge 18y ago

I don't understand the bit about Mutt not having folders. I use Mutt and have folders. Is he talking about using it with IMAP or something?

there 18y ago
yeah, i'm not sure what the hell he's complaining about. i use mutt with maildir and imap folders, even nested imap folders. my mutt is compiled with the 3rd party sidebar patch and i have a view just like gui mail programs with a list of all my imap folders showing me which have new mail and how many.

johnyzee 18y ago

I can't wait for angry ranting to go out of fashion.

henning 18y ago
For now, it's an easy way to get traffic. People like it when you're willing to call it like you see it and skewer the mediocre things that surround us. As an alternative, what's a forceful way to critique the central problem Zed discusses in his rant, namely the practice of blindly copying a (questionable) UI metaphor from another application category, email, without resorting to ranting? In general, lengthy writing on the web works best when you have a story with a conflict and resolution -- Zed is frustrated by all the products he encounters, and he finally finds one that matches what he wants. Joel Spolsky uses this heavily. The way to promote a product these days, I guess, is to make the story about you, the potential customer, who has a problem the product solves (hooray!). An angry rant fits into that well enough that it's a tempting, easy route.
pchristensen 18y ago
Do you have a comfortable chair and an umbrella drink?
icey 18y ago
Since the day man discovered how to string the letters "F, U, C and K" together to form a word, angry ranting has been in fashion. Historical trends are against you here, I'm afraid.
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
jazj 18y ago
u mad? Respond to the content, not the form.

mikeryan 18y ago

My favorite line: "That should be a 2 minute job finding something someone else already wrote on CPAN and another 2 minutes writing a single line of Perl nobody else will have to read again (because they can’t)."

ivank 18y ago

Wouldn't you want to read feeds in your browser, where you can follow the links without switching windows?

orib 18y ago
What makes you think I have a browser open all the time? At least on my system, I'm far more likely to have a terminal open. And no, I don't want to read feeds in a browser. (Actually, ideally they'd show up in my inbox as emails, but that's a different topic)

cypress-hill 18y ago

use rss support in gnus for emacs. tada it can read email too. so he can get rid of mutt. not sure how much more minimal you can get than rss-as-news-articles and what is with this trend of people buying core2duo boxes to run dvtm? top won't bother reporting idle of greater precision than 99.9 % anywho, it seems emacs can give him his console orgasm while dropping a dynamic runtime that ties it together. news, email, irc, im (via bitlbee), web, and of course editing text now and then

avinashv 18y ago
He states he uses Vimperator and listed Vim before Emacs at the end of the article--he uses Vim, not emacs.
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]

pistoriusp 18y ago

It seems a bit odd to me that he would go on about the functionality of feed readers but he wasn't willing to try google reader based on a completely different merit?

river_styx 18y ago

Come on you retards. Fucking mother fuck... You know, I think these guys have grown up watching people like George Carlin and come to think that throwing around petty insults and profanities randomly is somehow funny in itself. There's an art to it, you guys. Carlin knew what he was doing. You don't.

gunderson 18y ago

Just use Google Reader, Zed, but only read encrypted blogs that are available via encrypted URLs.

gunderson 18y ago
Of all the wise ass comments, mine gets modded down...

pkrumins 18y ago

Perhaps he wants Hacker Top: http://www.catonmat.net/blog/follow-hacker-news-from-the-console/ http://www.catonmat.net/blog/follow-hacker-news-from-the-con...

rapind 18y ago

Seriously though. What's with Obie's pictures?

dmm 18y ago

Try Canto! It's a curses based reader that is fast and easy to use. http://codezen.org/canto/ http://codezen.org/canto/

moss 18y ago

Besides being angry, Zed is posting some very useful information. "The mutt of feed readers" isn't something I'm looking for right now, but for the handful of people who want it, it's a great thing to find.

quellhorst 18y ago

Zed Shaw has mastered link baiting.