renaissance poisson

I think LJ's threaded comments on a single page are the best on-line venue for not-quite-realtime conversation I've ever used, for immediately active topics.

usenet and a good newsreader (such as gnus) are several steps beyond LJ's mechanism, and way faster as well (there's always too much clicky-clicky for me with web-based apps, and they never let me configure anything different, like "unfold all comments @ 100 comments to a page"). i know i can't get the access speed of a newsreader on the web (because the content isn't local), but i would just like the functionality. heck, just SOME of the essential functionality.

it's really a crying shame that apps written 25+ years ago are STILL more powerful than anything new. they're not even reinventing the bloody wheel, they've made square wheels instead.

fuck. i wish i were still capable of programming something complex.