The short-form week of 8–14 Mar 2010

15 Mar 2010; last modified 13 Mar 2011

The week in review, 140 characters at a time. This week, 66 messages in 74 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 Monday at 09:06am

is officially an engineer. As of this morning, I've moved from the media team to the application services team in #marklogic engineering.—@ndw
@ndw Congrats.—@bsletten
@ndw How does it feel to be an engineer after having been a rock star?—@fgeorges
@fgeorges :-P—@ndw
@ndw why am I not surprised? :)—@JeanKaplansky
@ndw re: engineer - congrats. I was recently kicked out of the clubhouse—@lizfraley
@ndw Congrats—@shelleypowers
@ndw Congratulaions. Is that normal at ML, that you start people in media before moving them to engineering?—@abcoates
@abcoates I'm not the 1st to move from the field to engineering, but not sure it's normal. I am the first remote engineer though. Fun times!—@ndw
@ndw congats!—@abdelazer

In a conversation that started on Monday at 09:21am

This site, http://www.stltoday.com/ demonstrates why people use ad blockers and turn off JavaScript Ars Technica http://bit.ly/coezTe—@shelleypowers
@shelleypowers Yeah. I have no sympathy (well, maybe a little), but they did it to themselves with garish, blinking, moving, annoying ads.—@ndw
@ndw Nope. Sorry Ars Technica. I whitelisted you for all of five minutes. This isn't television. I don't want your moving, dancing Flash ads—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 10:18am

Engaging in a periodic musing about the best #OSX #IRC #client. I still seem to favor X-Chat Aqua.—@ndw
@ndw I found it to be less usable than Xchat Linux... Is there a way to have the default treeview of channels w/ Aqua? Gets messy quick—@ircjunkieorg
@ircjunkieorg Don't think I've tried treeview, sorry.—@ndw
@ndw surely rcirc??—@nicferrier
@nicferrier Yeah, you'd think, but no. I suppose I should try it :-)—@ndw
@ndw +1 for Xchat Aqua. old school—@karlpro

Monday at 10:22am

@ndw did you try adium? maybe not the best IRC client, but has the benefit of having identi.ca, IM, IRC and everything in same interface…—@olivierthereaux

Monday at 10:44am

@cutlass Jim, any update on dinner friday night (@ndw & myself)? Thanks.—@abcoates

Monday at 10:46am

@ndw I have it in Adium 1.4b17 - might be fairly recent - http://twitpic.com/17dbhg—@olivierthereaux

Monday at 12:56pm

@ndw pretty sure you were an engineer before the "official" ness. :) Awesome! Can't wait to see the @ndw thunder in the product!—@peteaven

Monday at 02:03pm

Huh? I quit Adium and a few minutes later it comes back to life. Who's doing that (and how do I stop them)?—@ndw

Monday at 02:22pm

Oh. About Adium. Nevermind. It was me. If you use AppleScript to ask an app its status, I guess OSX starts the app. Fair enough I suppose.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 02:42pm

What's the state of the art in whole disk encryption for Mac OS X?—@ndw
@ndw I don't know, but I'm interested if you find anything interesting (especially on a Time Capsule)—@fgeorges

In a conversation that started on Monday at 04:22pm

AT&T guarantees that no Android app developers will target their phones: http://is.gd/9Z7lZ—@timbray
Next phone: iPhone? No. Next phone: AT&T? No. RT @timbray AT&T guarantees that no Android devs will target their phones: http://is.gd/9Z7lZ—@ndw

Monday at 05:03pm

♺@abcoates RT @codepo8: This is friggin genius: http://bit.ly/908YZl—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 06:17pm

LOL! RT @codinghorror suicide linux, where any unknown command is resolve as "rm -tf /" http://qntm.org/suicide—@ndw
@ndw @codinghorror Very funny, but I had to man rm to find out what the -t switch isn't.—@ed_davies
@ed_davies @codinghorror Yeah, I blew all my cred by not fixing the typo. Honestly, I read right past it.—@ndw

Tuesday at 12:32pm

The data for BackgroundColor in OS X ".terminal" files is a 348 character base64ish looking string. WTF!—@ndw

Tuesday at 12:45pm

Me: "What's the emoticon for tears?" @liza: "HTML5-)"—@abdelazer

Tuesday at 12:56pm

♺@abdelazer Me: "What's the emoticon for tears?" @liza: "HTML5-)"—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 02:57pm

♺Whoo hoo! @xproc XProc: An XML Pipeline Language is a W3C Proposed Recommendation: http://www.w3.org/TR/xproc/—@ndw
@ndw Congratulations to you and the team. This has been a long time in the making.—@JeanKaplansky

Tuesday at 03:22pm

♺@docbook The DocBook Wiki has been restored. Sorry for the outage. http://wiki.docbook.org/—@ndw

Tuesday at 03:28pm

Yes! RT @xproc @ndw: XProc: An XML Pipeline Language is a W3C Proposed Recommendation: http://www.w3.org/TR/xproc/—@vojtechtoman

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 07:08pm

Standing between @ndw and @abcoates , I feel small... #xmlprague—@fgeorges
@fgeorges Oh dear me, no, nothing like that. Actually, I'm looking forwards to finally getting to meet you in Prague.—@abcoates
@abcoates Me too. And don't worry, I said so *also* because anyway, I am small next to @ndw ;-)—@fgeorges

Tuesday at 08:20pm

RT @vojtechtoman : Yes! RT @xproc @ndw: XProc: An XML Pipeline Language is a W3C Proposed Recommendation: http://www.w3.org/TR/xproc/—@peteaven

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 02:31am

planning to finish my #xmlprague presentation preparation today - well, we'll see ...—@fsasaki
@fsasaki You and me both!—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 11:49am

So much for the BitchX irc client; the #macport segfaults and the source won't build.—@ndw
@ndw is DocBook TC meeting today? I just use chatZilla in Firefox...—@shudson310
@ndw why not colloquy?—@ruidlopes

Wednesday at 03:44pm

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

I'm using Apache HTTPClient 3.1. I should upgrade to 4.0.1 or 4.1? Yes or no?—@ndw
Figuring that @ndw has probably worked out that our paths won't cross today.—@skwlilac
@skwlilac *Next* Thursday, Stuart. I haven't crossed the pond yet. Will start that journey by car in 31 minutes.—@ndw
I want a car like @ndw 's that's up for a journey across the pond.—@skwlilac
@skwlilac Ask Top Gear. I'm sure they'd be up for it.—@ndw
Doh... @ndw another off by one error!—@skwlilac

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 09:40am

RT @ndw - I'm using Apache HTTPClient 3.1. I should upgrade to 4.0.1 or 4.1? Yes or no? << Yes!—@dims
@dims And this will be an easy and straightforward process or a screaming nightmare?—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 10:27am

@ndw - not a drop in replacement by any means...since its a complete rewrite. but worth the effort. Plz take a look at http://bit.ly/9GYPMB—@dims
@dims Is 4.1 a drop in replacement for 4.0?—@ndw

Thursday at 12:53pm

First test of my automated location tracking as I begin my journey to #xmlprague, http://norman.walsh.name/2010/03/06/where—@ndw

Thursday at 12:57pm

RT @ndw: First test of my automated location tracking as I begin my journey to #xmlprague, http://norman.walsh.name/2010/03/06/where—@innovimax

Thursday at 04:42pm

Revisiting the 'Convert DocBook (and derived schemas) from RNG to DTD problem'. Ugh. It's 2010 people, RELAX NG FTW ok?!—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 04:43pm

And no, my #xmlprague slides aren't entirely finished. I'm facing an overseas flight in coach. Leave me the fsck alone, ok?—@ndw
@ndw He he, thanks Norm!—@fgeorges

Friday at 12:29pm

Armed with map and GPS coordinates, sets out for dinner. If I'm not there in 30 minutes, don't wait for me :-)—@ndw

Friday at 12:30pm

I've got no mobile phone service. None at all. Anywhere. Which is weird because the same phone worked fine last year.—@ndw

Saturday at 02:38am

/me waves to the room from the wall where #xmlprague tweets are being projected.—@ndw

Saturday at 04:25am

Tony Graham: In the beginning there was the page ... brilliant! #xmlprague—@ndw

Saturday at 05:31am

#xmlprague @ndw talking on #docbook—@michaelhkay

Saturday at 05:38am

@ndw Docbook and Widgets !! whoohooo ! #xmlprague—@innovimax

Saturday at 05:49am

After @ndw showing DocBook and XProc to assemble documents, @fgeorges on EXPath #xmlprague—@robinberjon

Saturday at 05:49am

@ndw Well done for not mentioning MarkLogic. But actually I think storing topics in a database makes sense.... #xmlprague—@michaelhkay

Saturday at 05:49am

.@ndw is such a stud #xmlprague—@ronhitchens

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 06:04am

Pet peeve: s/eXtensible/extensible/g.—@ndw
@ndw I'm not sure which is scarier... That you wrote this as a cmd, or that I immediately got it without thinking!—@JeanKaplansky

Saturday at 06:30am

XML Zebra extension step for XML Calabash, #expath test case? #xmlprague—@ndw

Saturday at 06:35am

Indeed ! RT @ndw: XML Zebra extension step for XML Calabash, #expath test case? #xmlprague—@innovimax

Saturday at 08:43am

Great morning talks at #xmlprague, among others @ndw; more today and tomorrow. Follow it here: http://tinyurl.com/ykfb5r4 #xmlprague—@MarkLogic

Saturday at 08:52am

Yay! @xquery's tip worked: pulled the SIM card and put it back in, now I can haz mobile phone service.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 09:12am

For bonus points, what's %ho for? #xmlprague—@ndw
@ndw re %ho, I probably should not take take part in this contest in order to play fair play. #xmlprague—@jirkakosek
@ndw I'll tell you what a 'ho is for.—@robinberjon
@robinberjon Keep it clean, Robin. And keep your shirt on, please.—@ndw
@robinberjon You know, I knew that if anyone was likely to say that, it was going to be you!—@JeniT
@JeniT Could. Not. Resist <grin type='sheepish'/>. You're not here this year? :(—@robinberjon
@JeniT If only I'd thought of it *before* I hit enter.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 09:56am

Now I must start using a twitter to IRC gateway. #xmlprague—@ndw
@ndw Who needs IRC when you have Twitter? (Or is it the other way around?)—@avernet

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 10:01am

@tommorris Is the source for your twitter/IRC gateway available?—@ndw
@ndw I just published twittertoirc: http://bit.ly/c2dBof—@tommorris
@ndw No, but I'll publish it when I'm at my desktop machine.—@tommorris
@tommorris Thanks! I'm trying to decide if I like bitlbee instead of IM. Putting twitter in IRC as well seems interesting.—@ndw

Saturday at 10:29am

Sometimes we run 2.5 million JavaScript statements to start displaying a file #xmlprague—@ndw

Saturday at 10:45am

Why punish authors? Because they've been bad. #xmlprague—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 11:06am

Uhm. FWIW, I can't see the connection between topic-based authoring and the semantic web. #xmlprague—@ndw
@ndw RE topic-based authoring + sem web: presenter not making the connection or...? Have you met @kendall ?—@lizfraley
@lizfraley *I* was the presenter; the connection was in a RT. I guess I'll have to get the scoop from @kendall.—@ndw
@ndw helped me ages ago learn SGML & DocBook, @lizfraley, I wldnt presume to teach him anything! ;)—@kendall
@kendall Wondered if you knew each other.... should have guessed it—@lizfraley
@ndw Now I'm double curious—@lizfraley
@ndw Because it's easier to assign focused metadata to discrete units, then metadata drives eyeballs to content. Or that's the general idea.—@bobdc

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 11:10am

If you hide the XML, is it still a document? How can you tell? #xmlprague—@ndw
@ndw is this some sort of zen question? You seem to be in quite the tweet mood today! Squirrel!—@JeanKaplansky
@ndw the editors can't tell - and they don't want to know. But after editing others can, so you don't losse the XML power #xmlprague—@fsasaki
@fsasaki Indeed. Mine was more of a philosophical musing, not a comment on your (excellent) talk. #xmlprague—@ndw
@ndw sure - hope to do more philosophy over a few beers this evening #xmlprague—@fsasaki

Saturday at 11:12am

@ndw It's Schrödinger's XML. #xmlprague—@sgmlguru

Saturday at 11:16am

Definition of an XML geek - someone more likely following #xmlprague than #sxsw.—@kurt_cagle

Saturday at 12:52pm

@ndw re @kendall: sly dog—@lizfraley

Saturday at 05:27pm

Heh. I'll have a word with Jim about about that.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 10:52pm

Hey #xmlprague its 4.50am... So I win (loose) the late night beer drinking contest???—@adamretter
@adamretter 4:50.... Wow. But are you sure you did win from @ndw ?—@dizzzz
@dizzzz @adamretter No comment.—@ndw
@ndw @adamretter pfew, they are still alive. Guys you are missing Liam -barefoot- 's presentation! http://yfrog.com/4jqlcj—@dizzzz
@dizzzz No, I'm listening to it from the hallway.—@ndw
@adamretter I think Mohamed won the late night contest by being chivalrous in the face of lots of alcohol.—@robinberjon

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 05:02am

Name and shame those who didn't show up in the morning: @ndw, @fgeorges, @adamretter. Who else? #xmlprague—@robinberjon
@robinberjon lol. Gee, thanks, Robin.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 05:12am

Won a Marklogic t-shirt and wallet in the yesterday's Demo Jam. Thinking of a fitting X-Hive/EMC present for @ndw in return :) #xmlprague—@vojtechtoman
@vojtechtoman What @ndw would *really* like is a large plush bee with a soft velvet coating. Can you organise that? #xmlprague—@abcoates
@abcoates Why do I want a large plush bee with a soft velvet coating?—@ndw

Sunday at 05:33am

@abcoates @ndw Something like this? http://twitpic.com/18j5nj Sure :)—@vojtechtoman

Sunday at 06:26am

Xurgle? Loop over what, I wonder? #xmlprague—@ndw

Sunday at 06:31am

A RELAX NG validator that does type assignment is item 143 on my todo list. #xmlprague—@ndw

Sunday at 06:37am

RT @ndw: A RELAX NG validator that does type assignment is item 143 on my todo list. #xmlprague. Mine too.—@michaelhkay

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 10:32am

In 20 minutes I'll be talking live at http://www.xmlprague.cz/2010/twitterwall #xmlprague—@robinberjon
@robinberjon [In 20 minutes I'll be talking] Sorry I'll have to miss your talk - plane to catch. #xmlprague—@michaelhkay
@michaelhkay Shame! It's full of outrageously gratuitous uses of technology — I even make DocBook look sexy #xmlprague—@robinberjon
@robinberjon can make anything look sexy, I guess. #xmlprague—@ndw
@ndw Anything looks sexy in contrast to me :) #xmlprague—@robinberjon

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 10:40am

@ndw are you watching? See my new steps proposal for XProc 1.1 http://bit.ly/c3hTT1 #xmlprague—@jirkakosek
@jirkakosek Nice.—@ndw

Sunday at 10:47am

Would love to have p:fermenter or p:tap there :) RT @jirkakosek @ndw See my new steps proposal for XProc 1.1 http://bit.ly/c3hTT1 #xmlprague—@vojtechtoman

Sunday at 10:49am

Tweetie's giving me "bad request" errors. Twitter as a write-only medium?—@ndw

Sunday at 10:59am

"I don't really have anything against #docbook"--@robinberjon—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 11:02am

Making pages with CSS is like sex in a bathtub. If you don't know anything about sex, it won't help to know a lot about bathtubs #xmlprague—@ndw
@ndw Can I quote you on this? I have to do a presentation on typography and page layout in the near future... :)—@JeanKaplansky
@JeanKaplansky the quote is from @robinberjon's presentation, but I don't mind if you repeat it.—@ndw
@ndw Cool. I'll have to credit appropriately, then! This one was up there with "elephant through a garden hose..." as far I'm concerned.—@JeanKaplansky
@ndw, @JeanKaplansky: the quote is actually older (about HTML, not CSS) but I could never find a clear attribution, alas.—@robinberjon
@robinberjon, @ndw: Ahh. Then it's just become an old maxim of known lore. (Both of you get the credit for bringing it to my attention.)—@JeanKaplansky

Sunday at 11:05am

@ndw Could ask Robin for the docbook CSS?—@dpawson

Sunday at 11:55am

Michael Sperberg-McQueen rocks the closing keynote. Gratuitous #tei jab at #docbook notwithstanding. :-)—@ndw

Sunday at 11:56am

Michael Sperberg-McQueen rocks the closing keynote. Gratuitous #tei jab at #docbook notwithstanding. :-) #xmlprague—@ndw

Sunday at 12:09pm

Great conference! Great talks! Great to get together with everyone! Thanks, #xmlprague!—@ndw

Sunday at 01:10pm

@michaelhkay @ndw Re RELAX NG type assignment, shouldn't be really e.g. with MSV validator (we do it in W3C Schema mode in XForms engine).—@ebruchez