The short-form week of 21–27 Apr 2008

28 Apr 2008; last modified 13 Mar 2011

The week in review, 140 characters at a time. This week, 78 messages in 66 conversations.

This document was created automatically from my archive of my Twitter stream. Due to limitations in the Twitter API and occasional glitches in my archiving system, it may not be 100% complete.

Monday at 06:43am

Have PDF. Has ToC with page numbers, but no hot text. Individual pages have no page numbers. FAIL.—@ndw

Monday at 06:20pm

the T-Mobile web site exhibits so much suckage that it's actually *easier* to type the data into my *phone*—@ndw

Monday at 06:29pm

I guess it's actually the Danger, Inc. website. And in fairness, the phone's got a full keyboard.—@ndw

Monday at 09:25pm

my s9api implementation of "process matching nodes" runs!—@ndw

Monday at 09:34pm

Norwich to Bristol Temple Meads by way of Sheffield?—@ndw

Monday at 09:36pm

Have been poking about with Hiveminder. Now trying Remember the Milk. GMail "plugin" looks like a win.—@ndw

Tuesday at 06:29am

who let the spam out?—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 06:35am

@Wrestlevania click & see :)—@danbri
@danbri the green isn't as effective, but I didn't even know what the green was *for* so I'm not sure it matters much to Joe Average Surfer.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 07:03am

the dopplr carbon calculator is now available to all travellers. and i honestly did not know it was earth day today when we planned it. yay!—@mattb
@mattb FYI, Dopplr assumes I go home between trips which isn't necessarily the case. Two trips to the UK next month, but only one flight.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 07:15am

about to write a blog post to explain better, but our "edit trip" form now includes a train/plane/automobile setting so you can get it right—@mattb
@mattb Ah, I see. Ok, I nudged them so they're overlapping. I had left the "travel day" between them out.—@ndw

Tuesday at 07:32am

wondering how I could better automate the "discard all bogus mail to such and such a SF list" without all the clicking by hand.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 08:31am

Upgrading Safari on MacOS requires a reboot?!?—@larsga
@larsga sad but true—@ndw

Tuesday at 12:56pm

puzzling over the occasional random "friend request" from one social site or another. Who *are* you and why do you want to be my friend?—@ndw

Tuesday at 12:57pm

Heh. This one describes himself as an "SEO engineer". Can you spell B L O C K? I knew you could.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 01:54pm

support.apple.com login page: super slow, incorrect error messages, asks to create a new account. FAIL.—@ebruchez
@ebruchez @avernet On dirait qu'Orbeon est une coquille vide: y'a personne pour prendre ma commande à 10 mio USD - pfffff—@jcoates
@jcoates @avernet La secretaire devait etre en train de prendre le cafe ;-)—@ebruchez
@ebruchez 2560x1600. Wow. Somehow I'll find the strength to resist. Deb will help, if I need it :-)—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 02:51pm

thanks @cypromis- avamagic goes in the hopper (in this case a Basecamp writeboard)—@monkchips
@monkchips Avatar Alcove?—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 03:53pm

Just got my new monitor. Wow, 30" is HUGE. And you won't need a lightbulb in your room now.—@ebruchez
@ebruchez Nice!—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 05:02pm

woohoo! 4th edition of Michael Kay's XSLT programmer's reference is coming: http://tinyurl.com/5ps6wg—@iTod
@iTod Fluid is very cool. Congrats.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 05:48pm

okay, it's the global virtual margarita party! Who's gonna DJ? Volunteers?—@mollydotcom
@mollydotcom What Tequilla are you using?—@jesterxl
@jesterxl: Cuervo gold. Nothing fancy but absolutely nice in a refreshing Margarita. Fresh lime juice/limes, one secret molly ingredient.—@mollydotcom
@mollydotcom I'd go for salt, but I'm makin' Pina Coladas instead :-p—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 06:03pm

what browser *does* muxtape.com work in? IE? FAIL—@ndw
@RussB Yeah. Ok, so that wasn't helpful. But we all get to be grumpy occasionally, right? I think *on balance* I'm more helpful than grumpy.—@ndw

Tuesday at 06:13pm

Heh. Doesn't work in IE either. I FAIL. (Is that better @RussB? :-) )—@ndw

Tuesday at 06:20pm

Weird. muxtape works as a Fluid app. Oh well, that's fine by me, I guess.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 08:25pm

We're going to soon have very nice Twitter clients for the iPhone: http://tinyurl.com/6r96dj—@avernet
@avernet will resist iPhone. Will resist 30" monitor. Will resist sleep. Oh, bother, something's gonna have to give. Zzzzz—@ndw
@ndw The question should rather be: for how long will you be able to resist, and which one will give up first? ;)—@avernet
@avernet You mean after sleep? Probably a new phone. I don't see myself coughing up a grand or more for a monitor anytime soon.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 05:13am

Is there anything more annoying than someone interrupting you in the middle of a job so that they can nag you to get that job done?—@ceri
@ceri Fair enough. But I'm still not ready to browse the web without extensions.—@ndw

Wednesday at 08:19am

Am I overlooking the search functionality on muxtape, or does it really not have one?—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 10:57am

With Skype Unlimited plans, "unlimited" means max 10,000 min/month. That's not unlimited in my book. But OK, it's a lot; fair enough.—@avernet
@avernet Ha! That's only *one week*—@ndw

Wednesday at 11:08am

Finally banged out a "print an envelope to this contact" stylesheet in the background—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 12:19pm

Have been refamiliarizing myself with "The Design of Everyday Things" -- it' all still holds true today...—@xmlgrrl
@xmlgrrl It's a great book, mine is so old it's called "The Psychology of Everyday Things"—@ndw
@ndw Oh, so you have the hardcover! My original softcover is in storage so I re-bought the 2002 edition. Great stuff in new preface.—@xmlgrrl
@xmlgrrl No, it's just an old softcover.—@ndw

Wednesday at 12:33pm

Ah, closer inspection reveals that it's a "Book of the Month Club" edition.—@ndw

Wednesday at 02:18pm

@mmealing according to Wikipedia about 694l—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 02:21pm

These people (http://us.cision.com//) just called me and asked me how I use my blog at PeopleOverProcess.com. Are these some data overlords?—@cote
@cote In the same house, or in the same room? Or next to you on the couch?—@ndw

Wednesday at 02:29pm

@mmealing Google took me to the Wikipedia entry for Nitrogen which took me to the entry for Liquid Nitrogen which quotes a 1:694 ratio—@ndw

Wednesday at 02:55pm

Good grief. Repeat after me: DRM is evil. http://tinyurl.com/4pkz67—@ndw

Wednesday at 03:21pm

the ambient temperature goes up a few degrees and even my AL cooling rack isn't keeping 'traytable' cool to the touch.—@ndw

Wednesday at 03:22pm

anyone fancy a fried egg?—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 08:19am

Hmm. The Stephen Fry and the Gutenberg Press torrent vanished before it finished. Drat.—@ndw
@ndw, i have it.—@briansuda
@briansuda Cool. Thanks!—@ndw
@ndw I was just watching that this w/e! Try: http://tinyurl.com/4ktbr5 maybe—@amyvdh
@amyvdh Thanks!—@ndw

Thursday at 08:59am

Today is my 8 year anniversary at Sun and coincidentally 8 days before my termination date. That's just a little weird.—@ndw

Thursday at 09:01am

I wonder if apt-get dist-upgrade will do the right thing on a Gutsy Gibbon box. Let's find out!—@ndw

Thursday at 09:12am

Gutsy to Hardy update instructions seem to require the GUI update-manager. VNC FTW!—@ndw

Thursday at 09:13am

Bah. The update manager notices I'm running it over SSH and warns against it. Time to walk down to the closet and use the console, I guess.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 09:41am

I've been laptop-based since 2005; maybe time to switch to POP mail habits?—@danbri
@danbri Why even POP? Why not just leave email in the cloud on Google? Their UI is better than desktop mail, & you can get it from anywhere.—@markbirbeck
@markbirbeck can't get it on a plane or anywhere else off the net.—@ndw
@ndw I always thought that too. So I ran Mail on my Mac, & sync'd Google. But after never needing an email in flight, I dropped even that.—@markbirbeck
@markbirbeck I rely on email on almost every flight. It's the only time I get a chance to catch up :-)—@ndw

Thursday at 01:37pm

demolished a closet over lunch. Drywall patching this weekend.—@ndw

Thursday at 05:40pm

@markbirbek I combat the last mail problem by bcc:'ing my gmail address—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 06:24am

eyeing Cafepress generated schwag with undisguised distain—@psd
@psd ... because?—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 06:39am

home finally - now to pack things up and move to Brisbane. Interesting week ahead.—@footloosemoose
@footloosemoose Welcome home, mr married man :D—@bmn
@bmn you should have 10 now, or just have him dm me. I have 8 left.—@duck1123
@duck1123 hey mate, got any left?—@bmn
@bmn yeah, I have 8 left, have anyone dm me, or IM at duck{shift-2}kronkltd.net—@duck1123
@duck1123, eight what?—@ndw

Friday at 06:44am

we're so close to a new public working draft of XProc, I can taste it.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 08:20am

What do my followers think of the semantics of Iterator.hasNext()? It should be idempotent, right? I don't find the JavaDoc deeply clear.—@ndw
@ndw: if you're not modifying the collection elsewhere, then repeated calls to hasNext should respond the same—@ldodds
@ldodds, "live" iterator?—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 08:25am

In particular, I"m looking at some code where hasNext() consumes an event and I think that's a bug.—@ndw
@ndw: note should, not must—@larsga
@larsga Yep, I can see why it's a "should". Anyway, I think it's a bug and I've reported it. I've also munged my code to avoid it. Onward!—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 08:26am

Hrm, sounds like they need more, or just more active ones? Columbus ppl are spoiled.—@pandamonial
@pandamonial Heartland is a big place for so feww people.—@mikewo
@mikewo Oop! Disregard my tweet! Thought you meant VPC for Mac! VPC for Windows is a virtualization product. Sorry!—@vmwarefusion
@vmwarefusion That was an unexpected reply. Interesting PR tactics. Cheers though =)—@exmosis
@exmosis We're just here to answer questions and make helpful suggestions ; ) Enjoy the software.—@vmwarefusion
@vmwarefusion How about that Parallels trade in rebate in the UK?—@daveverwer
@daveverwer I wish Dave. Sadly only US and Canada now. Legal stuff. Sorry to disappoint.—@vmwarefusion
@vmwarefusion vmware-config0/vmmemctl-only/compat_wait.h:55:5: warning: "VMW_HAVE_EPOLL" is not defined ?—@ndw

Friday at 10:27am

I can haz Hardy Heron. Took a while to upgrade though!—@ndw

Friday at 10:55am

Ordered kit from Solarbotics yesterday with shipping guaranteed for 6 May. It arrived today. Sweet.—@ndw

Friday at 11:00am

I wonder what the TSA is going to say about a robotics kit. Better put that in my checked luggage, eh?—@ndw

Friday at 12:08pm

Flickr: "Hey Norm Walsh... Your Pro Account is going to expire on 26th of Apr. That's today!" I guess today is the 26th *somewhere*.—@ndw

Friday at 12:13pm

forking over another $25 to Flickr. I'm going to feel like that was wasted if they get bought out by MS—@ndw

Friday at 01:34pm

Anyone managed to get vmware tools built under Hardy Heron?—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 01:40pm

lunch at Miracle of Science—@laughingsquid
@laughingsquid: how far is that from moscone west?—@Viss
@kevinmarks only 1 day 21 hours ... if you can *average* 68.78mph!—@ndw

Friday at 02:35pm

Calling my XProc implementation "xproc" is boring and will eventually cause confusion. I need a better name.—@ndw

Friday at 02:49pm

Several days in, Remember the Milk is still winning—@ndw

Friday at 03:56pm

OH in the liquor store "but will we have enough money for food"—@ndw

Saturday at 03:02pm

finished closet demo, re-framed corners, cut and installed sheet rock, taped, and applied the first coat of mud. Finished. Now haz beer.—@ndw

Sunday at 04:06pm

I really do need a "save tabs to a file" extension for FF—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 04:08pm

interested by the talk of Current Cost electricity meters, but bemused that their site doesn't tell you where to buy them, or cost. anybody?—@mattb
@mattb Still running a places amnesty program? How about 3533116?—@ndw
@mattb For bonus points 6499643 :-)—@ndw
@mattb Thanks!—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 04:38pm

Personal blog: Norwegian Music: Sitting in the hotel (right next to Herr Nielsen's Jazz Clu.. http://tinyurl.com/5lwxmg—@webmink
@webmink you could always try syncing each mac up to plaxo. Why not .mac ? WFM.—@dxmitche
@dxmitche Sorry, plaxo is on my 'evil' list. And whatever solution I pick, I want to prove it works for us all before buying, so no .Mac—@webmink
@webmink plaxo evil?—@ndw
@ndw They have only the slightest grip on privacy. I would never trust my data to them, let alone encourage my family to do so.—@webmink
@webmink Ah. Good to know. Thx.—@ndw

Sunday at 04:41pm

bashed thumb with hammer. Ow! Ow! Ow!—@ndw

Sunday at 04:45pm

Some loose dog ripped the vinyl siding corner off the house, probably trying to get a chipmunk or something. Color me furious.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 08:39pm

approaching Logan airport, we'll be landing in Boston soon, tail winds of 60mph made this a very fast trip across the country—@afalk
@afalk welcome home. Bundle up. It's cold and the Sox are on a losing streak.—@mainelife
@mainelife thanks! we are still wearing shorts and T- shirts. I guess we are in for a chilly welcome...—@afalk
@afalk tweeting during a flight. Tsk tsk. :-)—@ndw
@ndw it's only forbidden on commercial flights, not on my own jet :-)—@afalk
@afalk. Ah. Fair point, I guess. Utterly illogical, perhaps, but a fair point :-) ... (your own *jet*!...)—@ndw