The short-form week of 24–30 Aug 2009

31 Aug 2009; last modified 13 Mar 2011

The week in review, 140 characters at a time. This week, 49 messages in 50 conversations. (With 3 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.

Monday at 06:21am

Hmm. Identica seems not to have page limits on "friends timeline". Will I get to the end before I run out of stack frames?—@ndw

Monday at 02:00pm

Hmph. I didn't mean to say yes to 10.5.8 on the day it was released. Too late now.—@ndw

Monday at 06:38pm

Ordered 500Gb drive for my laptop. Breathing room I going to feel good.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 07:16am

Disturbing! RT @raduboncea: No female A-level computing students by 2014 http://bit.ly/131cR8 http://bit.ly/hhFbo—@abcoates
@abcoates Disturbing indeed. But that trend graph shows no A-level computing students *at all* by 2018 or so! That seems unlikely.—@ndw

Tuesday at 08:10am

ndw: ♺@manuelp With this #javascript mode for #emacs [...] http://bit.ly/3CqdwI—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 11:58am

Unforgivable. Sweet. That's me off the hook once and for all. http://bit.ly/13a3tJ—@ndw
@ndw There is just no way back ;) Although you could probably find contrary bible quotes showing you can be saved anyway.—@ebruchez

Tuesday at 12:16pm

#atheism #ftw RT @ndw:Unforgivable. Sweet. That's me off the hook once and for all. http://bit.ly/13a3tJ—@ruidlopes

Wednesday at 07:17am

Maybe it's time we joined the civilized world and stopped executing people. Especially the innocent http://bit.ly/cdI0C but also the guilty.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 12:28pm

How to compare directories on two machines? Like rsync -n -var but w/o checking time stamps?—@ndw
@ndw possibly: diff -u <(find /some/dir |sort) <(ssh -C otherhost find /some/dir |sort)—@happygiraffe

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 12:39pm

If I surrender to the OS X GUI and change "⌘ + v" to "paste" in Emacs, what do I use for page up? Fn+page-up is *way* to inconvenient.—@ndw
@ndw How about ^↑ and ^↓ which seem to be the usual alias for page up and down on OS X?—@asbjornu
@asbjornu Maybe. You're the second person to explicitly suggest it. Those were the keys I initially described as way too inconvenient.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 02:46pm

In Docbook, why is the attribution always before the text being referred to, even though in print it's almost always the opposite?—@dauwhe
@dauwhe You mean titles on figure, example, etc.? I think the idea was consistency with book, chapter, section, etc. I could be wrong.—@ndw
@ndw I was thinking blockquote/epigraph.—@dauwhe

Wednesday at 05:42pm

Wednesday at 06:43pm

Hacking my twitter tool. Mult. svcs, oodles of docs, idxes, faceted search, web apis, URI rewrites, conv. threads...something for everyone!—@ndw

Thursday at 01:36am

RT @ndw: It's time we join the civilized world and stop executing people. Especially the innocent http://bit.ly/cdI0C but also the guilty.—@avernet

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

#VirtualBox #FAIL. It just crashed my OS X box. Hard. rm -rf here we come.—@ndw
@ndw Did you run it at the same time as VMware Fusion? One of them doesn't like it.—@ceri
@ceri Ah. Yes. I suppose running two different virtualization tools at the same time is asking for pain and suffering.—@ndw
@ndw I've been bitten many times. Eventually, you remember.—@ceri

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 09:55am

I know why def dirs for 'Pictures', 'Documents' etc. I don't like it. I want an OS-level switch: 'no default dirs, always make me choose'—@ndw
@ndw +1 do not assume what folders I want my files to be stored in.—@fiberartisan

Thursday at 09:56am

Because I think your defaults suck, that's why. ~/Library/VirtualBox/HardDisks/ my *ss.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 01:26pm

After several days of JavaScript/AJAX/Forms hell, I think I can see the end...—@ndw
@ndw Does it involve a nice wooden platform with a rope and trap door?—@david_megginson
@david_megginson Not so dramatic, happily. A whole set of AJAX'd pulldowns where each is contingent on the preceding selection is a bitch.—@ndw
@ndw now, you should have fun rewriting all with #xforms using #xsltforms ;-)—@AlainCouthures
@AlainCouthures If only. I need to be *finished* with this project. Ideally before the billable hours run out :-)—@ndw

Thursday at 02:47pm

Pretend I tweeted a bon mot. Got it? Okay. Now pretend it was funny.—@pfhawkins

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 02:49pm

Input fields with autocomplete, select options dep on other select values, input field and select options mutually depend. My. Brain. Hurts.—@ndw
@ndw XForms is supposed to make this stuff easier ;)—@ebruchez
@ndw I've burned myself writing GUI apps through thinking that server/compsci stuff is hard and GUI easy, but it's the other way around.—@larsga
@larsga I'm not sure about easy or hard, but it's fscking tedious.—@ndw
@ndw autocomplete is not native #xforms but deps are basic stuff ! Even circular references can be easily managed with #xforms...—@AlainCouthures

Thursday at 03:30pm

[ http://is.gd/2CiMs ] @ndw on Mark Logic's community license: "you now have the most powerful XML chainsaw imaginable at your fingertips"—@peteaven

Thursday at 04:13pm

Reliability is measured in 9's. You can pay more to get more 9's, but it's always 9's. :)—@merlyn

Thursday at 05:39pm

Moving Steve's Scottish Brown into the secondary fermenter. Specific gravity ~1.019.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 06:55am

The power of referrals from friends. I just risked .18 on pinboard.in on the basis of @edd's casual remark.—@ndw
@ndw this is how our devilish bacterial marketing strategy plays out!—@PinboardIN

Friday at 07:02am

Bah. $5.18 that is.—@ndw

Friday at 08:27am

RT @OReillyMedia: Augmenting Reality with the iPhone http://bit.ly/10DvPX Very cool! Maybe a reason to get an iPhone 3GS.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 08:58am

Thank goodness there isn't (yet?) an API for Google Voice. Would have been irresistable, and I've no time to lose fiddling with *that*.—@ndw
@ndw here's your Google Voice API http://bit.ly/K7o4e—@eliast
@eliast Must. Resist. Urge. To. Hack. Must. Resist. Urge. To. Hack. Must. Resist. ...—@ndw
@ndw there is an API - it is the grandcentral API and pretty easy to find docs that have been reverse engineered—@dajobe

In a conversation that started on Friday at 09:34am

I thought I was out of JavaScript hell. And then there was IE. Fscking IE.—@ndw
@ndw, I guess you mean IE6 - reminds me of a conversation I had recently with @JeniT - http://twitter.com/jenit/status/2584521813—@frumioj

In a conversation that started on Friday at 10:15am

IE7 segfaults on almost every page I point it at. I guess that's an improvement over IE6. A pretty dramatic improvement, in fact.—@ndw
@ndw Why aren't you using IE8? I forgot when I last used IE7. IE8 is really much better.—@dnovatchev
@dnovatchev I expect I'll have to make it work all the way down to IE6. Kill me now.—@ndw

Friday at 10:20am

I have other reasons to go to the mall tonight. I wonder if there will be any Snow Leopard left.—@ndw

Friday at 10:21am

Ack. IE7 brought down DrWatson. Let's try the first line of Windows defense: reboot.—@ndw

Friday at 10:48am

Bah. Windows crashed hard. Time to discard that VM and start over, methinks. Good thing I had so much free time today. Not.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 10:55am

All I know is that two plugins that made my computer a lot more useful no longer work. Thanks, Apple.—@tommorris
@tommorris Which ones?—@ndw

Friday at 12:02pm

Norm Walsh (@ndw) uses the most powerful XML chainsaw on the planet to start archiving his personal microblogging history http://bit.ly/ ...—@iansmall

Friday at 12:03pm

Norm Walsh (@ndw) uses the most powerful XML chainsaw on the planet to start archiving his personal microblogs http://bit.ly/GRtZn—@iansmall

Friday at 04:07pm

Even after a clean install of XP from original media, IE6 (and 7, I wonder) still segfault. With dev toolbar and script debugging. Fsck me.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 05:11pm

@ndw Are you not allowing comments on your post? (http://bit.ly/jZtar—@JeniT
@JeniT Oops. Left of a bit of metadata. Rebuilding now. Comments should be open shortly.—@ndw

Friday at 06:09pm

@JeniT Ok, comments enabled. Again, sorry about that everyone.—@ndw

Friday at 06:14pm

iTunes not seeing music server means I've just about reached my limit on #pandora_radio. Time to give them money, I think.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 07:20pm

Quicksilver b56a7 seems to work better on Snow Leopard: http://bit.ly/F52pz—@dsifry
@dsifry better enough to be usable? I gave up on it a while back. Too much #fail.—@ndw
@ndw You seem to appreciate photo. I can provide your with photos, videos of middle-age monuments in France. But ML/windows 2008 help needed—@dRabeuf
@dRabeuf Drop me a note in email with the details and I'll try to be helpful.—@ndw

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

erm, what kind of hard drive connector is this? some new standard thing? -- http://bit.ly/3wtjhD (I just dismantled broken casing)—@danbri
@danbri That's SATA, I believe. Serial ATA.—@ndw

Saturday at 09:19am

Grrr. This month ImageMagick's -density setting doesn't work. Becuase I did a 'port upgrade' recently?—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 03:50pm

I know using tables for layout in CSS is evil. I also know that life is too fucking short.—@ndw
@ndw you're forgiven, at least by me. the apparent nondeterminism of CSS is also an evil and we do well to spare ourselves!—@edd
@ndw try a css framework, check a list of them here http://bit.ly/W3rDN—@ruidlopes
@ndw And I suppose these two are related?—@JohnPelhamBlack
@ndw Have you considered 'display: table' instead of <table>? Is IE6 in the equation?—@asbjornu
@asbjornu I considered, even impl. display: table. But how is that really better? And padding-top doesn't behave correctly in FF.—@ndw
@ndw 'display: table' is better than <table> because presentation is separated properly from the markup. Without CSS it renders vertically.—@asbjornu
@asbjornu But why is vertical presentation w/o CSS a virtue? Do browsers that don't understand table markup do something else?—@ndw

Saturday at 03:50pm

s/ in / instead of /—@ndw

Saturday at 05:01pm

@ndw I couldn't agree with you more about CSS formatting without using tables. It is sooo hard!—@harveybetty

Saturday at 07:12pm

RT @ndw I know using tables for layout instead of CSS is evil. I also know that life is too fucking short.—@fgeorges

Sunday at 04:48am

#standards vs #pragmatism RT @ndw: I know using tables for layout in CSS is evil. I also know that life is too fscking short.—@innovimax

Sunday at 08:57am

Holy moly: port install inkscape sure is building half the universe.—@ndw

Sunday at 10:16am

Thx twitter:@ndw twitter:@jdwcornell identica:@dajobe re SATA. I'm glad it's something standard, I have a few files stuck on it. No biggie.—@danbri

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 04:44pm

What the hell? Snow Leopard has somehow rewired my machine so emacs is now my default editor. WTF?—@tommorris
@tommorris what did you expect? It did promise you an upgrade, didn't it?—@ndw