The short-form week of 7–13 Sep 2009

14 Sep 2009; last modified 13 Mar 2011

The week in review, 140 characters at a time. This week, 67 messages in 60 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.

In a conversation that started on Monday at 03:38pm

Suddenly fscking obvious: I need to implement #marklogic #cq for #emacs—@ndw
@ndw And after that, the iPhone version. :-)—@abcoates
@abcoates CQ doesn't run in Mobile Safari? I must admit I've never tried...—@ndw
@ndw I was thinking more of a native app - iQuery?—@abcoates

In a conversation that started on Monday at 04:20pm

RT @jonpither dealing with XML in java is like making drunken sexual advances towards a cheese grater—@migueldemelo
@migueldemelo There was a time when I really wanted to fix that. Alas, they wouldn't let me.—@ndw
@ndw @migueldemelo Pity, Norm. That's why I'm using Scala now, it seems a bit like Java with built-in XML support might have been.—@abcoates

In a conversation that started on Monday at 04:33pm

RT @migueldemelo: RT @jonpither dealing with XML in java is like making drunken sexual advances towards a cheese grater—@ndw
@ndw though, really, doing ANYTHING substantive in Java is like that if you ask me—@TheRepoRat
@TheRepoRat well, I wouldn't go that far myself, but I hear ya.—@ndw
@ndw *DIES LAUGHING AND IS DED*—@TheRepoRat

Monday at 05:03pm

dealing with XML in java is like making drunken sexual advances towards a cheese grater ( via @ndw @migueldemelo @jonpither )—@peteaven

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 05:08am

Just looking at USD-GBP rates. Can't wait for $2=£1 rate again.—@tommorris
@tommorris It's the prospect of $10=£1 that scares the crap out of me. Maybe I should invest in GBP while I'm at #xmlsummerschool.—@ndw

Tuesday at 07:16am

@Tweetie's ads these days seem to be about email marketing. Because the world needs more spam, I guess.—@ndw

Tuesday at 07:17am

On the other hand, maybe it's a good ploy to make me buy a license. Not being nauseated by my Twitter client would be a good thing.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 09:27am

Document validates to my schema in #oxygen but fails on #xproc p:validate-with-xml-schema & #calumet. No validation report. Hmm, what to do?—@philipfennell
@philipfennell File an @xmlcalabash bug that some sort of report should be generated. And if you want, send me the schema and test case.—@ndw
@ndw It's a #calumet problem. I haven't got Saxon SA so can't test validate-with-xml-schema on #calabash. Can I send examples to you anyway?—@philipfennell
@philipfennell Sure, I'd be happy to test them locally for you. But perhaps not for a day or two. #xmlsummerschool slides *overdue*—@ndw
@ndw It's such a shame I can't go to the #xmlsummerschool this year. Doubly so as I live in Oxfordshire. It looks like an excellent line-up.—@philipfennell

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 10:37am

I reckon the bottleneck is that it's spawning a JVM for each file.—@tommorris

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 04:03pm

Wheels down SFO.—@ronhitchens
@ronhitchens Welcome home, Ron!—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 04:09pm

Hotel reservations made for Atlanta this weekend so we can go to the aquarium with @movie_pundit!—@kplawver
@kplawver Go early. It was *packed* when I was there on a weekend.—@ndw

Tuesday at 08:20pm

@ndw I think you'll especially dig the AD Weird Summer mix: http://bit.ly/h2Yzo—@bsletten

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 08:20pm

@ndw Whoops. Sorry, it wasn't you, it was Bob DuCharme who liked the mixes. Sorry.—@bsletten
@bsletten No worries. And I am enjoying Weird Summer.—@ndw
@ndw Well, excellent. A.D. has a great show on Sirius XMU if you subscribe. His blog is a good source of free stuff if not.—@bsletten

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 12:41am

Cybermen have been exterminated! Daleks are supreme!—@peteaven
@peteaven It'll never last.—@ndw

Wednesday at 08:09am

And you think *you're* cynical: http://www.threadless.com//product/2009/zoom.gif—@ndw

Wednesday at 08:19am

And you think *you're* cynical: http://www.threadless.com//product/2009/zoom.gif (via @ndw, who deserves a hug for the laugh)—@olivierthereaux

Wednesday at 01:07pm

@ndw But Cybermen are better than Daleks at only 1 thing: <who:dalekvoice> That is Dying! Exterminate!!</who:dalekvoice>—@peteaven

Wednesday at 01:38pm

Have I said recently how iTunes is the suck? WTF is up with non-ASCII characters in artist names? If id3v2 can get it right...—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 01:59pm

Hey, there's a new iTunes today. I wonder if it sucks less. I bet not. Just differently, perhaps.—@ndw
@ndw There is no hope for iTunes until they do a serious rewrite instead of patching it up.—@ebruchez
@ndw Or perhaps the new version introduces Dyson-like cyclonic suction.—@abcoates

Wednesday at 02:33pm

I'm just gonna go ahead and assume that any family values candidate is humping something he shouldn't be.—@CcSteff

Wednesday at 04:05pm

Alas, iTunes 9 can't see the media server any better than 8. But it can from Deb's Windows box. Maybe Snow Leopard will fix that. Feh.—@ndw

Wednesday at 04:10pm

Hmm. IM down again at dreamhost.com? /me rolls eyes. Gonna buy that beefy server to host from home again real soon now.—@ndw

Thursday at 05:52am

Minus several 1000 pts to the guy who introduces Masterpiece Mystery for a significant plot spoiler!—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 06:18am

New hard drive arrives today. Open up laptop, upgrade HD, install Snow Leopard...or wait until after #XMLSummerSchool?—@ndw
@ndw Which MacBook do you have and which HDD are you upgrading it with?—@asbjornu
@asbjornu I have the 17" MacBookPro (the previous generation, not the unibody). Upgrading to http://bit.ly/ArgCf—@ndw
@ndw Ah, I have the same 15". The HDD looks awesome, but I think I'll wait for the warranty to run out and for SSD to become cheap. ;-)—@asbjornu
@asbjornu Yeah. I'm taking a risk that I'll be able to swap the orig drive back in if I ever need warranty repair again. Er, when I need...—@ndw
@ndw Depends - have you mrmorised your slides word-for-word yet?—@abcoates
@abcoates Exactly.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 07:31am

Despite looking at the search results, I can't work out what the tag "#fb" is supposed to represent.—@ndw
@ndw it's for changing Facebook's status with that text (I think that it's part of an FB app for twitter integration)—@ruidlopes
@ndw FaceBook. It's used mostly by "selective twitter", which copies all tweets so tagged into FB status updates.—@gdaniels
@ndw I think #fb is for some script that sees what you tweet and only copies messages thusly tagged to your Facebook account.—@robinberjon

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 07:31am

@ndw its filtering tweets to push them to facebook...theres a facebook app that sets your status there—@bazzargh
@bazzargh Ah. I see. Thank you. And let me summarize my feelings on this approach: blech!—@ndw

Thursday at 07:34am

Careless me. Close firefox, click on a link in a prefpane, firefox re-opens, all tabs lost...—@ndw

Thursday at 07:57am

#LightRoom "import from catalog" does the right thing when you ask it to copy pictures. It preserves the relative paths. Very pleased.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 09:35am

VirtualBox on Snow Leopard appears to actually be broken - my Ubuntu VM has suddenly aborted. #fail #snowleopard—@frumioj
@frumioj Bleh. That puts the brakes on Snow Leopard upgrade. Please let us (me! :-) know if you find a resolution. #snowleopard #virtualbox—@ndw

Thursday at 09:54am

Blech. The #XProc test suite coverage report pipeline is totally borked. Fsck me.—@ndw

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

I figure I should use #virtualbox during the open source track at #xmlsummerschool.—@ndw
@ndw Plus, you should install Ubuntu as the host OS on your Mac. :-)—@abcoates
@abcoates When Photoshop and Lightroom run on Ubuntu, I will.—@ndw
@ndw, I reverted to previous version, 2.2 which got rid of the ~104% CPU usage problem, but today the CPU spun up again, then VM just quit.—@frumioj
@frumioj Have you tried 3.0.6, just out today?—@ndw
@ndw, so far, informal testing of #virtualbox 3.0.6. on Snow Leopard looks promising...—@frumioj
@ndw, no, but that sounds like a great idea ;)—@frumioj

Thursday at 11:24am

♺@xproc New editor's draft, with update diffs from the CR draft: http://www.w3.org/XML/XProc/docs/langspec.html—@ndw

Thursday at 11:28am

We have resolutions for all the current XProc issues. We're done, except for the coverage and the testing.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 12:54pm

Does an .ics file capture everything iCal knows? I have a repeating appt that stops repeating in iCal, but I see nothing to stop it in .ics—@ndw
@ndw Unless they changed drastically how iCal works, it should. Look for an UNTIL or COUNT param in a RRULE for the faulty VEVENT—@olg
@olg Ah, thank you. I was looking for an UNTIL but overlooking a COUNT.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 02:23pm

Oh, Spotlight, you useless bag of bits, please stop trying to index volumes I attach. Just. Go. The. Fsck. Away.—@ndw
@ndw  > System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy. :-)—@asbjornu
@asbjornu yes, but I have to do that for every volume or it grinds along painfully for some bkp drive. Would pref a global go away setting—@ndw

Thursday at 04:08pm

Arrived: 1 500Gb drive, 1 enclosure, and 1 toolkit of Torx screwdrivers and the like. Must. Not. Hack. http://twitpic.com/h8dnq—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 12:49am

Hard to fathom US Republicans. Against health care when they must have friends/fam without it? It's so crucial; why continue these myths?—@annbass
@annbass I think you could have ended that tweet at the first period without substantially altering its meaning.—@ndw

Friday at 07:16am

Inbox 380! No, wait, that's not the goal, is it?—@ndw

Friday at 07:36am

I want to be able to grab my current AddressBook w/o remebering to export it. But I'm not in the mood to parse an SQLite3 dump this morning.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 09:17am

Wondering how to get from Oxford to Norwich if the Liverpool Street-Norwich trains go on strike.—@ndw
@ndw Via Birmingham? By bus? Public transport in the UK isn't teh suck, like some other countries :-)—@jpcs
@ndw if the Kings Cross trains are running, get a coach to Cambridge and catch a train from there to Norwich?—@al3xbrown

In a conversation that started on Friday at 09:48am

How do real web devs deal with pages that look "funky" before the CSS loads? Can I force CSS to load first?—@ndw
@ndw You'll only get the first render w/out CSS if you're using @import (ha) instead of a link or style tag.—@kplawver
@kplawver That's not been my experience and I'm definitely not using @import. It's all link tags.—@ndw

Friday at 10:16am

RT @ndw: Inbox 380! No, wait, that's not the goal, is it?—@abdelazer

Friday at 12:05pm

Want to grasp CSS z-index property? No problem: http://www.flickr.com/photos/exey/3142529240/in/photostream/—@jirkakosek

Friday at 01:09pm

@spam orowe1860o—@ndw

Friday at 01:14pm

JotNot+Evernote, that's got potential. http://tinyurl.com/nsfavc—@ndw

Friday at 01:21pm

@dckc That's the "feature" where replies to folks you don't follow, don't show up in your stream, even if they're by people you do follow.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 01:39pm

Web Clue FAIL! "You are also prohibited from linking the Site to another website in any way whatsoever": http://bit.ly/IAvNS (via @hadashi)—@dhmspector
@dhmspector The great big ball of #flash is pretty much #fail too. I'm thankful for #flashblock every single day.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 03:22pm

HTML is a silly language where <script src="myfile.js"/> is not valid but <script src="myfile.js">&#160;</script> is !—@AlainCouthures
@AlainCouthures Yes. It'd be so straightforward if we could move towards a future where it was well-formed XML.—@ndw

Friday at 04:10pm

When I open an .ics file, I wish iCal would ask me which calendar I want to add it to, rather than just jamming it in the first.—@ndw

Friday at 06:18pm

wondering what I don't know I don't know about building my own server. Think I've picked the right components.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 11:23am

Parting shot. http://twitpic.com/hgbl0—@ndw
@ndw wow. you actually fit in that?—@peteaven
@peteaven Yeah. It was quite comfortable, though I wouldn't have objected to another inch of legroom.—@ndw
@ndw cool. i like toyotas but never seemed to fit (pickups/4runner). had a ford ranger but it was a lemon. may have to check out the tacoma—@peteaven

Saturday at 03:48pm

Chores all f'ing day, but that means they're all done. Install new HD tomorrow? Prolly. Disengaging brain now. Drink. I want a drink.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 03:49pm

The problem with being in the mood to play a computer game about once every six months is that I never have any.—@ndw

Saturday at 04:31pm

Bourbon. Yes. That's what I wanted. Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 04:31pm

RT @ndw The problem w/being in the mood to play a computer game about once every 6 months is that I never have any (trying iPhone instead)—@abdelazer
@abdelazer Yes, I have a few on my phone (+ there's always Tetris, @jirkakosek) but I had something...bigger in mind. Hacking XProc instead.—@ndw
@ndw yeah, I'm in the middle of a Civilization Revolution phase (complex, iPhone) but am about ready to stop playing games for another year—@abdelazer

Sunday at 02:23am

I know the feeling. RT @ndw: The problem with being in the mood to play a computer game about once every six months is that I never have ...—@ttso

Sunday at 08:11am

Kudos to newegg.com for providing reasonable URIs for all their components. No stupid session crap, no 480 character query strings. FTW.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 04:00pm

Things I learned today: Snow Leopard disk won't boot if laptop HD isn't formatted. SL won't install on a blank, formatted HD. Upgrade only.—@ndw
@ndw SL DVD won't boot unless HD formatted, but won't install on a formatted HD because it's only an upgrade -- Isn't that contradictory?—@asbjornu
@asbjornu No. Unformatted=won't boot. Formatted=boot but won't install. Formatted+10.5 installed=boot and install—@ndw

Sunday at 04:01pm

Fair enough, I guess, since it's the thirty-something dollar upgrade DVD. Still an extra special PITA though.—@ndw

Sunday at 05:26pm

Doing the MacPorts update/upgrade dance for Snow Leopard—@ndw