The short-form week of 3–9 Aug 2009

10 Aug 2009; last modified 13 Mar 2011

The week in review, 140 characters at a time. This week, 65 messages in 55 conversations. (With 2 favorites.)

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.

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 06:34am

I am annotating the #XProc Relax NG schemas to add documentation that will be presented by oXygen next to the content completion proposals.—@georgebina

@georgebina Feel free to contribute those back to the WG :-)—@ndw

@ndw Re #XProc schemas: I finally managed to annotate them :). They are available from our website, see my message on the dev list.—@georgebina

@georgebina Fantastic. Thanks, George! My plate's overflowing until after #Balisage2009, but I'll take a look after that.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 01:34pm

Just out of curiosity, who is attending Balisage? #balisageConference09—@fgeorges

@fgeorges Moi, for one. :-) I hear registration is up, so if you haven't, now would be the time! #balisageConference09—@ndw

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

So I pull out a spare wifi keyboard from supply closet, go to replace batteries, and now my hands are covered in battery acid. Not fun. :)—@kendall

@kendall battery acid? Wash first, tweet later!—@ndw

Monday at 02:53pm

Obfuscated Python is an oxymoron. Obfuscated Perl is redundant.—@elharo

Monday at 05:19pm

Leaving MSY. Home by ... 1am-ish. Ugh. And a mountain of work this week so no sleeping in for me!—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 06:01pm

Please, tell me there are 50 episodes of Twin Peaks I am not aware of, just to explain the questions raised in the last episode...—@fgeorges

@fgeorges I wish! What a fun show.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 10:08pm

What to do whilst IDEA reindexes? Start Netbeans thats what! Heh.—@talios

@talios Heh, indeed. Given that Apple's Java update 4 makes IDEA crash about once an hour, I'm all too familiar with those 10 minute pauses.—@ndw

Tuesday at 03:09pm

Simply unacceptable. RT @burningbird: thread demonst. the sexism that exists in the HTML WG. http://tinyurl.com/m9rbqe ...women ignored.—@ndw

Tuesday at 03:50pm

There may be lots of things wrong with Time Machine, but it just saved my sorry butt. Time Machine FTW!—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 04:24pm

Brilliant, that dickhead that plants himself in the wilds and has to eat maggots is on. Feeling superior.—@danja

@danja lol—@ndw

@ndw was that a lol on anything specific or just a random..?—@danja

@danja Just random is a safe bet, but in this case it was a reply to http://twitter.com/danja/status/3132136893—@ndw

Wednesday at 09:18am

First, do no harm? Evil bastards. RT @elharo: RT @dangillmor: NYT details pharma-industry ghosting of med sci papers http://is.gd/22WJd—@ndw

Wednesday at 09:21am

RT @denyreligion: Is it really that hard to understand? #atheism http://bit.ly/fIZkP—@ndw

Wednesday at 09:57am

@burningbird I've definitely noticed that using satnav to get somewhere means I have no idea where I am.—@ndw

Wednesday at 10:01am

Generating 8.5x11 covers (front, back, spine) at 600dpi is p-ah-ain-ful.—@ndw

Wednesday at 10:02am

@edd I have full ones as well, but historical point-in-time backup saved me. Don't, alas, know how I lost the file that Time Machine found.—@ndw

Wednesday at 11:34am

Wow. Very, very legitimate looking comment but from an online casino. I'm calling it spam.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 11:48am

Saxon 9.2 build now complete. Next stage is release formalities, web site updates, etc.—@michaelhkay

@michaelhkay Congratulations! Looking forward to it, though with some trepidation as far as updating XML Calabash goes.—@ndw

Wednesday at 12:43pm

RT @MarkLogic: will [be] at Balisage next week. Will be hosting a "Beer and Demo Jam" evening there. http://bit.ly/DttGM #Balisage2009—@ndw

Wednesday at 01:35pm

Public speaking, even over webex still gives me butterflies.—@ndw

Wednesday at 02:27pm

Q and A is somehow simultaneously more exciting and less stressful. Go figure.—@ndw

Wednesday at 02:48pm

Presentation done. Questions answered. Stick a fork in me, I'm done.—@ndw

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

#XML Parser flaw considered a security (DOS) threat http://tinyurl.com/mdmkam—@DALDEI

@DALDEI It'd be nice if they gave some detail. I wonder if someone's rediscovered the billion laughs problem.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 03:08pm

If you follow me but your tweets are protected, what am I to do? Ignore you? Block you? Those are my choices, right?—@ndw

@ndw actually, i believe you can subscribe to their rss. it's true for when you block someone, they can still read your rss feed.—@peteaven

@peteaven Yeah that'd be if I was motivated enough to care what folks with protected updates have to say.—@ndw

@ndw Do you stop people reading your blog if the only blog you know for them is private? What's the difference?—@ed_davies

@ed_davies I suppose it's the same. Feels different somehow. Anyway, I just ignore 'em unless they look like spammers.—@ndw

@ndw ignore them? i basically ignore twitters emails about followers and just follow the people i choose to—@iand

@iand True. But every now and then I discover someone I didn't know was on twitter because they discovered me.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 03:39pm

You don't want to look at this photo: http://bit.ly/ccVaO—@abcoates

@abcoates My eyes! My eyes! AAAUGGHHGGH!—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 04:39pm

Lazyweb: I want a USB TV tuner (mostly) to move some old VHS stuff into the modern era. Mac OS X. I should get...what?—@ndw

@ndw I have used and gotten good results with the EyeTV Hybrid: http://tr.im/vDYH—@eliasisrael

@eliasisrael Thanks!—@ndw

Wednesday at 06:58pm

Trying to find XNI schema validation examples w/multiple schemas, hint processing, caching, etc.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 08:47pm

my google voice business cards are here. the coloured numbers logo reminds me of something...—@dajobe

@dajobe I guess you're liking it? I think I need to give it a more thorough test. And break from my #iPhone shackles, bastards.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 10:10pm

Sorry to those who saw only half the convo yesterday! The part you may have missed: I'm joining PayPal next week. Exciting times.—@xmlgrrl

@xmlgrrl Congratulations & good luck!—@ndw

Thursday at 12:13am

RT @junecohen: "The Internet is actually made of words and enthusiasm" - Erin McKean (@EMcKean) http://z.pe/fW4 #TED (via @lucasvb)—@timoreilly

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 12:44am

tinkering with the idea of going to http://www.xmlsummerschool.com/ to refresh my semantic web knowledge—@xquery

@xquery sounds like a great idea to me!—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 02:33am

@ndw There's a broken link on http://xmlcalabash.com/download/ for Overview, it points to http://xmlcalabash.com/implementations/—@georgebina

@georgebina Thanks, on both counts.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 03:33am

as far as I can tell, the "XML security flaw" is just a flaw in certain implementations and absolutely nothing to do with the spec itself—@jtauber

@jtauber They say it's about "XML elements with unexpected byte values and recursive parentheses". Have written them asking for details.—@timbray

@timbray Let me know what you find out, plz—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 05:49am

10 recommendations around ebook readers - http://bit.ly/1Kk1I (pdf)—@karlpro

@karlpro Sigh. Why is that PDF? It's two pages of text and a couple of lists. Must be so they could get the spacing wrong on item 10's title—@ndw

Thursday at 06:28am

Finding that saving my ass has given me new tolerance for the CPU hog that is Time Machine.—@ndw

Thursday at 11:23am

I seem to recall that Firefox 3.5 had some security issues when it came out. All resolved in 3.5.2? I should upgrade?—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 12:12pm

doing experiments with panorama stitching (lightroom + photoshop)—@zaphgod

@zaphgod I've found Photoshop to do a pretty nearly flawless job.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 01:06pm

Moo, you just lost my respect. Ads on "free" cards, fine. Not telling me about them until the end of the process, fsck you.—@ndw

@ndw http://tr.im/vLyv They seem to tell you about the "wathermark" and the discount code at the beginning. Have they just changed the site?—@tug

@tug They certainly didn't mention it in the email with the link I followed. If there was fine print early in the process, I missed it.—@ndw

Thursday at 03:16pm

is wondering if there's more than one wasp nest in the back yard. I can confirm one. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch...—@ndw

Thursday at 04:43pm

@shelleypowers no, the same nasty little ground dwellers that got me last time http://norman.walsh.name/2005/08/21/wasps—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 07:55am

is starting to peek at the Android phone market for when this contract expires.—@ndw

@ndw I was already on T-Mobile and liked their service. Now with the myTouch android phone, I LOVE it!—@shudson310

@shudson310 Coming to #Balisage2009 ? I'd love to look over your shoulder at it.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 08:12am

Wrote a simple but nasty recursive #xproc test pipeline for parameters. I think who passes it has got it 99% right (...I am still debugging)—@vojtechtoman

@vojtechtoman I'm afraid. Very afraid. :-)—@ndw

Friday at 10:58am

♺@DALDEI "/. Microsoft patents the #XML Document http://tinyurl.com/kln7dp" Oh you [expletive deleted -ed]! [expletive deleted -ed] you!—@ndw

Friday at 11:22am

@shelleypowers Yes, it's ridiculous. Asshats.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 11:32am

truth be told, the G1/#android pales in comparison to the sidekick as a PIM. I've gone back to paper for all but calendar.—@dckc

@dckc Bleh. I am sorry to hear that. Unless something changes in the iPhone ecosystem, I ain't renewing this contract.—@ndw

@ndw you're no longer fat-dumb-n-happy as an iPhone customer?—@dckc

@dckc I may still be fat and dumb, but happy I ain't. It's a sweet device, but Apple and AT&T actively working against me, I don't need.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 03:47pm

The Schema WG accepted a last-minute change to XSD 1.1 requested by one of my clients: the process sometimes works! Thanks @abcoates.—@michaelhkay

@michaelhkay Actually, I wouldn't have discovered the XML Schema 1.1 issue if it weren't for Saxon giving me the opportunity to try XSD 1.1.—@abcoates

@abcoates Yes: I made the point strongly to the WG that user reaction to early implementations was input we had to consider.—@michaelhkay

@michaelhkay I'm vaguely looking forward to XSD 1.1. Man, that's an odd feeling.—@ndw

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

Someone says the link http://twitter.com/michaelhkay doesn't work. Any ideas what might be wrong?—@michaelhkay

@michaelhkay DDoS attack on Twitter is what I suspect.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 06:29pm

Completed slides for my main #balisage talk. Nice not to have to do it on the plane.—@michaelhkay

@michaelhkay and here's me wishing my plane ride was longer :-(—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 09:59am

going to Bristol baloon fiesta to see the red arrows—@libbymiller

@libbymiller: Will they have red balloons?—@dpawson

@dpawson 99 of them, I hope #eighties—@ndw

@ndw @dpawson Oh, you did that gag! I thought better of it ;-) Oddly enough, the song charted in Oz *in German*, quite a rarity.—@abcoates

@abcoates I prefer the German version, actually.—@ndw

Saturday at 05:00pm

couldn't get the coding part of my brain working. Worked on photo editing instead. Uploading soon.—@ndw

Saturday at 06:36pm

Crud. Forgot to extract EXIF GPS data into Flickr machine tags. Wonder if Flickr can read the EXIF?—@ndw

Sunday at 09:23am

(Carelessly) entering flights into your calendar when you're in the "wrong" timezone can be stressful and expensive. Trust me on this one.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 09:28am

No, it's subtler than that. The times *were* right in iCal but not on my iPhone. Odd, but I'm no less fsck'd.—@ndw

@ndw it's rather important that you turn on "time zone support" in both iCal and on the phone. With that setting, things work nicely.—@roessler

@roessler It's a "floating" appt so it shouldn't matter. I suspect Exchange got its grubby paws on it and mangled what it sent to the phone.—@ndw

Sunday at 12:32pm

United Red Carpet Club membership gets me into USAir Club on a USAir itinerary. There's some win in the day after all.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 12:36pm

Wow! RT @pkedrosky: This is absolutely insane water slide footage, like something from a cartoon http://bit.ly/E6SMo (via @terrycojones) #fb—@abcoates

@abcoates Well calculated mathmatics my *ss. I hope they tested with a dummy first!—@ndw

Sunday at 02:55pm

Boarding in PHL, next stop YUL and #Balisage2009!—@ndw