Norm's musings. Make of them what you will.

This weblog is part experimental playground, part soap box, and part pleasant diversion for me. Here you’ll find opinions, technical and otherwise, photographs, and whatever interests me when I sit down to write. If you'd like to follow along, you can subscribe to one or more of several feeds.

XML FTW!, 25 Jan 2010

In Software and XML

On the serendipitous joy of finding XML.… 

GSD!, 25 Jan 2010

In OSX and Software

Our engineering department has a project management philosophy they describe as GSD. I aspire to GSD.… 

XML Prague 2010, 24 Jan 2010

In DocBook, XMLPrague2010, and XProc

See you at XML Prague! And a chance to plug some really excellent training.… 

NYMUG: Cloud deployment options, 24 Jan 2010

In MarkLogic

Denise Miura, Sr. Director of Product Management will be speaking about Mark Logic's new offering for the Cloud at our upcoming User Group in New York this Wednesday.… 

XProc: Back to Last Call, 28 Dec 2009

In W3C and XProc

Early in January, a new XProc draft will appear. It will be a Last Call Working Draft, a step backwards in the process, or maybe just a half-step. The reason is important though: versioning.… 

David Alfred Walsh, 26 Dec 2009 (modified 31 Dec 2009)

In People

9 June 1923 — 26 November 2009.… 

NYMUG Summary, 12 Nov 2009

In MarkLogic

Last night, I spoke at the inaugural New York Mark Logic User Group meeting. I think it was a crowd pleaser, or at least, the punchline at the end was.… 

NYMUG: New York Mark Logic Users Group!, 04 Nov 2009 (modified 05 Nov 2009)

In MarkLogic

The inaugural meeting of the New York Mark Logic User Group will take place on Wednesday evening, 11 November 2009.… 

DocBook V5.0, 04 Nov 2009

In DocBook and OASIS

DocBook V5.0 is an OASIS Standard!… 

Evernote, 01 Nov 2009 (modified 02 Nov 2009)

In Evernote

With a scanner and some Python, I'm an enthusiastic convert to Evernote.… 

Call for Vote - DocBook V5.0, 19 Oct 2009

In DocBook and OASIS

DocBook V5.0 is ready to become an OASIS Standard!… 

Micro-blogging Backup, part the fifth, 18 Oct 2009 (modified 19 Oct 2009)

In MarkLogic, Microblogging, and TheWeb

In which we clean things up.… 

Built my own..., 16 Oct 2009

In Linux and SelfReference

Another geekdom right of passage: builing my own box.… 

XML Calabash 0.9.15, 06 Oct 2009

In Calabash and Java

A new release at last. New features, fewer bugs, and test suite clean again.… 

XML Summer School ’09, 05 Oct 2009 (modified 06 Oct 2009)

In Photography, Travel, XML, and XMLSummerSchool2009

Open source and web technologies at XML Summer School.… 

Dominican Republic, 05 Oct 2009 (modified 06 Oct 2009)

In DominicanRepublic, Photography, and Travel

A long weekend in the Dominican Republic brings me to country number 15.… 

SQL to XML, 26 Sep 2009

In OSX and XML

A number of Mac applications store information in SQLite databases. Step one to do something useful with that data is to get it into XML.… 

RDFa for DocBook?, 22 Sep 2009 (modified 26 Sep 2009)

In DocBook, RDF, and XMLSummerSchool2009

Adding RDFa to DocBook would make it possible to add a class of semantic annotations to DocBook without changing the schema. But is that a good idea?… 

Micro-blogging Backup, part the fourth, 09 Sep 2009

In MarkLogic, Microblogging, and TheWeb

In which we get to see what our tweets and ’dents look like.… 

Micro-blogging Backup, part the third, 03 Sep 2009 (modified 05 Sep 2009)

In MarkLogic, Microblogging, and TheWeb

In which we peel back the covers on what's been built so far.… 

XML+XQuery+Google Voice+Python=WIN!, 01 Sep 2009

In GoogleVoice, MarkLogic, and RDF

It's finally possible to put all the pieces together.… 

Micro-blogging Backup, part the second, 28 Aug 2009

In MarkLogic, Microblogging, and TheWeb

In which we setup the database one screen at a time and then import our first status messages.… 

Micro-blogging Backup, part the first, 27 Aug 2009

In MarkLogic, Microblogging, and TheWeb

What started out as a trivial exercise in backing up my Twitter and Identi.ca posts turned into a little microcosm of XML Server application development. It's something you can deploy for free on your very own MarkLogic Server!… 

Using XML Catalogs and XProc together, 22 Jul 2009

In Calabash, XMLCatalogs, and XProc

XML Calabash, my implementation of XProc, is my go-to tool these days for manipulating XML documents. Adding XML Catalogs into the mix just makes it sweeter.… 

Not exactly XProc, 23 Jun 2009 (modified 24 Jun 2009)

In Calabash, W3C, and XProc

One advantage of being an implementor is that I can play with languages that the Working Group didn't approve.… 

Java vs. AJAX, 10 Jun 2009

In Ajax, Java, and MarkLogic

Watching the twitter stream from JavaOne go by, I was initially surprised by the apparent frontal assault on AJAX. It seemed like an odd target at first; on further reflection, not so much.… 

Building my own…, 03 Jun 2009

In SelfReference and Solaris

I've always wanted to pick out the components and build my own computer. Maybe the time has come.… 

Balisage 2009, 03 Jun 2009

In Balisage, Balisage2009, and MarkLogic

Bring out yer demo for free beer!… 

Miscellany, 29 May 2009

In Balisage, Balisage2009, SelfReference, VoIP, and XMLSummerSchool2009

On speaking engagements (two excellent conferences), anniversaries, and VoIP.… 

Perhaps the penultimate XProc draft, 28 May 2009

In W3C, XML, and XProc

Today, the XML Processing Model Working Group published a new working draft. Not the very last working draft, but possibly very close.…