Plumbing isn’t glamorous, but it’s a critical piece of modern infrastructure. Regardless of the design of a house, the landscaping, or it’s location…it needs plumbing under the covers, and reliable plumbing to boot. And the analogy holds in other realms; I often consider sysadmins and DBAs (my tribe!) the plumbers of the IT world, keeping things working behind the scenes. This scales even to large-scale infrastructure as well, and on multiple levels.

In one sense, you can consider (of course) the backbone IP providers and such the true plumbing of the Internet. That’s valid, but limiting. If we pop up the stack a bit, you can see that “cloud computing” providers like Amazon, Google, etc. will be the plumbing providers of raw “service” (storage, db, etc.) to developers. It’s a great step in simplification…but we can go further.

Another level up, and things start to get really interesting. Many web sites and services have been about providing a real-world service (everything from Amazon and book sales, to Basecamp and project management, to muxtape and playlists)…but more and more interesting services are popping up that are, for lack of a better term, plumbing.

Everything from open protocols (like OAuth for authentication, OpenID for identity, and microformats for data) to full-fledged services that you can wire into your app. Twitter was (and is…it ain’t dead yet!) both a microblogging app and something more; a prototype messaging bus for the web. Tweets have been remixed and consumed in ways that no one could have imagined at the start. And that’s a good thing; as painful as the Fail Whale can be, Twitter certainly has been driving innovative ideas.

And now, a new crop of plumbers appears, learning from the old. Gnip is here to try and re-architect the message bus into a scalable and manageable model, Identi.ca makes microblogging open, federated, and Free (Software), and FriendFeed is flat-out the next level of meta-conversational tool.

The fact that plumbing is hot right now makes me very happy. Good tools enable great ideas to be born. I think we’re getting ready to see some great stuff. Vive la plumbing!!

So with all the FISA fun and such going on, I’d normally be making more posts. But home has been hectic, and my neck is still sore from my basal carcinoma removal (not sleeping well)…but mainly, I spend my energy right now worrying about our cat Thomas. He’s almost 16, and dealing with either hepatitis or the onset of liver cancer. The past several weeks have been vet visits, exams, tests, and such. We decided last week NOT to biopsy his liver; it requires general anesthesia (which is a risk), and we’re not going to put him through chemo even if we did determine that is cancer. So he’s on another medication that will treat both hepatitis or cancer (though for cancer, it’s not as effective as chemo), and we’re dealing with all that.

He’s just about the friendliest and most people-loving cat I’ve ever met (even non-cat people like him; they say he acts more like a dog), and it breaks my heart to see him all shaved from tests, losing weight, and generally tired. He’s been acting more aloof the past few days as well, which has really worried us…it’s just not his nature. Today has seemed better, though. I just want him to feel secure and loved, and know that he’s cared for. I want him to live another 10 years, of course…but I’m not going to let him suffer. He’s been too good a friend.

We’ve been together about 14 years, and he’s been a faithful and loving pet through some of my darkest days. I hope he makes it through this. Here’s to you, Thomas!!

UPDATE: Thomas passed away on August 3rd. He was a great cat, and will be missed. I love you, Thomas. Rest in peace.

Well…THAT sucked. H.R. 6304 passes with little problem today in the house; the vote tally is here, if you’re interested. In one sense, I’m not too surprised (though bitterly disappointed)…but in another I am. The Democrats in the House have fought this for months, only to capitulate today after holding out for so long. And to suggest this was a carefully crafted compromise is simply disingenuous; there is no question that the judicial overview described in this bill is simply a rubber stamp for anyone with a note from the President, which we already know the telecomms have.

Sad. Still, we’ll have to see how things go in the Senate next week, I guess. Much thanks to the EFF, ACLU and others who worked so hard on this.

I’m in the middle of prepping for a podcast…but I stopped for a quick, blatantly political post, because time is short. Congress expects to vote on H.R. 6304 probably tomorrow (I just spoke to my Congressman’s office, and they said they expected the vote on Friday), and telecom immunity for warrantless spying just scratches the surface of the problems with this bill. It basically takes judicial review completely out of the loop on surveillance of phone calls, emails, and all sorts of communications by the American public. There’s a judicial process described, but it’s been completely defanged, and leaves the government basically able to do what it will. It’s blatantly unconstitutional, but the judicial review of the legislation itself will take years to work out.

The bill is so new that I can’t even link to it’s text above via Thomas, the Library of Congress’ legislative repository. Enacting legislation in this fashion isn’t deliberative…it’s an arm-twisting, secretive attempt to increase executive branch authority, and gain immunity from prosecution for the telecommunications companies that need to instead have their day in court. You may or may not agree with me 100% on this, but I urge you to call your Representatives to vote ‘No’; this is wrong. This is not a compromise.

Some links:

• ACLU Condemns FISA Deal, Declares Surveillance Bill Unconstitutional
• Opencongress Blog: Huge Opposition to the New FISA Compromise
• NYT Editorial: Mr. Bush v. the Bill of Rights
• EFF Urges Congress to Reject Final ‘Compromise’ on Telco Immunity

UPDATE: The EFF guys are on it; they’ve got the text of the bill available (http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/att/FISAINTRO_001_xml.pdf), as well as an analysis piece (http://www.eff.org/files/AnalysisHR6304-v5.pdf). Thanks, EFF!!

My buddy Dave Slusher just posted a well-written, thorough overview on leaving Twitter for FriendFeed with the minimum of fuss, and the maximum of your Twitter network.

I watched Dave start this process a few days back, and traded thoughts with him as he pieced together this workflow. I’m 100% on board with him here…in fact, I’m dropping my own half-written post on the same subject, and just referring to his post instead. Twitter was nice, and a great proof-of-concept, but FriendFeed is flat-out superior. Just move…and Dave gives you the scoop on how. Thanks, Dave!

So I’ve been playing with FriendFeed for a couple weeks now, after my initial total dissage. I’m liking it, I’m liking some of the tools and API functionality I’ve found, and some of my online compadres are coming to the same conclusion I am: Twitter was Round 1, but it’s time to move on.

I’ll keep my account, of course, and I can probably even sync some updates over there…but I expect my @replies there will drop off. Picking up your friends and connections to move can definitely be a PITA, but the fact that FriendFeed is in one sense an aggregator of other stuff (like Twitter) helps with that quite a bit. Incrementally moving over becomes a bit easier…and even if a Twitter buddy doesn’t have a FF account, there’s a nifty imaginary friend feature that lets you create a stand-in account. Good idea; it further reduces the cost of jumping on board.

However, I also struggle with the centralization these sorts of services do; the way in which they pull the conversation away from the primary source. I saw the notification for Dave Slusher’s decision to move in FriendFeed, for example, but I deliberately chose to respond at his blog instead of in FF (and then steal shamelessly from my comment there for this *grin*). I think both styles can work, but I don’t want to lose commenting directly at blogs b/c we’re all interacting in meta-meta-meta services. I guess it’s just a balance to be aware of.

Come on in, the water’s fine, all.

Court gives detainees habeas rights – Wow. Joy. Awesome.

I realize this freaks a lot of people out and makes them see red…but really, this is right the right thing to do. It doesn’t mean that bad people go free. It means bad people get a trial, and then (if guilty) punished…which is the bedrock, the very foundation on which our freedoms rest. You can muddy the waters all you want with danger to the troups, and people will die, and whatever protestations you want. But when you hit rock bottom, our Constitution doesn’t say do whatever it takes to keep people safe. It, in fact, constrains the government’s ability to arbitrarily defend you, in order to preserve the more basic rights. Without freedom, you don’t have anything. Without law, you don’t have freedom. You just have to hope you stay on the King’s good side.

Thanks very much to all the groups and people that worked so hard to argue this. Don’t forget to support them. And don’t forget…our next President will very likely replace some of the Justices that voted in the majority in this decision. In my opinion, SCOTUS appointments are probably the single most important thing to consider in upcoming election. (Note: I didn’t say the only thing; I said single most important thing. *grin*)

I’ve (mostly) stayed out of direct political discussion during the primary period; though I’ve made notes to myself in my outboard brain. Not that I’m secretive about my political views…but the general election is really the place where one makes their case to everyone. So I’m planning some discussions of who I’m voting for, and why, because I think it’s important to talk this stuff out. We all say our minds won’t change…but sometimes they do. I’m an existence proof of that! *grin*

A good starting point, I think, is Doc Searl’s post Meet the new boss, nothing like the old boss, which discusses and links to a post by Dave Winer: Blow up the Beltway. Both of them make excellent points that I hope we take to heart this election year. I hope BOTH parties take this opportunity to blow up the Beltway, shake things up, point off-site, and try some new ideas on for size. Here’s to hoping.