The short-form week of 12–18 Apr 2010

19 Apr 2010; last modified 13 Mar 2011

The week in review, 140 characters at a time. This week, 76 messages in 77 conversations. (With 9 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 01:15am

RT @ndw: A website makes it official, right? http://xprocbook.com/—@vojtechtoman

In a conversation that started on Monday at 05:46am

Frustrated by Flickr API. checkToken works, other methods report invalid signature. Must be doing something stupid.—@ndw
@ndw does @dajobe's flickcurl (http://librdf.org/flickcurl//) give you the data you want? It might make your life a bit easier ...—@mischatuffield
@mischatuffield Maybe. At least if it successfully auth's I should be able to see what I'm doing wrong. Thanks for the pointer.—@ndw
@ndw Yep. Stupid thing: turning 0x7 in the MD5 into "7" not "07" when generating the string value of the hash. p:hash fixed now too.—@ndw

Monday at 07:13am

Ruby may be nice, but the gem package management stuff has never worked correctly for me on any platform ever.—@ndw

Monday at 11:31am

Dear AT&T, do us a favor, would you? Let me combine both my mobile accounts on a single bill.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 11:34am

While you're at it, AT&T, could you please send me *plain text* email, the way $DIETY intended, and not this steaming pile of HTML? kthxbai.—@ndw
@ndw Plain text email? Dude, that's so 1980. :)—@eliasisrael

In a conversation that started on Monday at 03:44pm

Blech. The Flickr upload API method ignores Content-Transfer-Encoding. #REST #FAIL http://bit.ly/dmLETQ—@ndw
@ndw Yeah, that's bitten me before... oh hey wait, that's my posting you linked to :) #REST #FAIL—@lmorchard

In a conversation that started on Monday at 10:29pm

@ndw what do you think about this? I whipped this up as an experiment today. http://bit.ly/aG9Me5—@bphogan
@bphogan Very cool! My only concern is that the extra whitespace introduced by pretty printing may sometimes be unwanted.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 03:22am

Supposed to be going somewhere, meeting someone, talking about something. Momentarily forgetting where, who and what, but I'm on the train.—@JeniT
@JeniT The right train? Going the right direction? To the right place? :-P—@ndw
@JeniT Yes that another-day-another-meeting syndrome :) Have a good one, whatever it is—@der42

Tuesday at 07:10am

Opera mini doesn't do end-to-end encryption. I understand why, but, uhm, wow. Bzzzzt! Wrong. But thank you for playing. http://bit.ly/cWIKM9—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 07:56am

Yes. Well. I guess I will be giving Apple one more bite at my wallet. On balance, I think that new 17 incher is going to be the way I go.—@ndw
@ndw: "I think that new 17 incher is going to be the way I go" - so hard to resist a #TWSS—@david_megginson
@david_megginson: Bragging again Megginson :-)—@dpawson

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

"Battery isn't replaceable" really means that people aren't replacing their macbooks often enough.—@mikeloukides
@mikeloukides Yeah, I agree. OTOH, apparently the battery is *a lot* bigger because it's spread around and not wrapped in a container—@ndw

Tuesday at 08:29am

Hey @twitter. Happy to see you're going to try to make some money. Please let me buy a subscription so I never see a freaking ad, kthxbai—@ndw

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

SSD is indeed unbelievable: battery up 20%, 0 noise, reduced heat, and it is screeeaming fast. switching back to normal hd feels odd #ssdftw—@pk11
@pk11 So I guess that's a vote for the 256G SSD instead of the 500G spinning platters, eh?—@ndw
@ndw SSD is definitely worth it imho, i would not get it from apple though—@pk11
@pk11 Got a source you do recommend? Ordering one in the new MBP seems like the logical thing...though I'm competent to swap one in, I guess—@ndw
@ndw this is what i got http://amzn.to/bKi0Sz (i am not affiliated with either intel or amazon, i am just a happy customer:) )—@pk11

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 09:19am

looks like I finally can be in for a new  laptop upgrade: pro comes with new core i7 cpu, 500GB solid state drive, RAM http://bit.ly/cYXOKl—@bblfish
@bblfish That 512G SSD is freaking expensive though!—@ndw
@ndw I use my computer 18 hours a day, so price is not a problem. If it were perfect a 64 thread Sun T2 would be ideal...—@bblfish
@ndw yes the Solid State drive is something like 1000 pounds more. I wonder how much of an improvement it is.—@bblfish

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 10:13am

Commenter: "There are no jumpsuits. Otherwise, it sounds like life in the Dharma Initiative." http://is.gd/br49z—@timbray
@timbray I read "Dharma and Greg" in your tweet and had to go read the essay to figure out what the hell that meant. "Initiative", he said.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 10:41am

Now the really frightening thing is the final number in he right cornet of the online Apple Store.—@ebruchez
@ebruchez Ain't it though. Want that 512G SSD but, man, that really makes an ugly number.—@ndw
@ndw I think my wallet is calling for sticking with 256 GB for now.—@ebruchez

Tuesday at 11:27am

RT @ndw: A website makes it official, right? http://xprocbook.com/ <<= Yup—@richardhamilton

Tuesday at 12:10pm

Lunchtime errand to pick up tax forms thwarted by CPA's decision to go out for lunch. Drat it all.—@ndw

Tuesday at 03:15pm

In a twisty maze of details, all razor sharp and angry.—@ndw

Tuesday at 03:32pm

@ndw says "In a twisty maze of details" @MrTeller says "beautiful naked people lounging around the set." Why am I in the same biz as @ndw?—@richardhamilton

Tuesday at 03:57pm

Fantastic. RT @alecmuffett Somehow I missed this one: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05547—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 04:49pm

#SGML --> #XML --> #DITA = Happiness! As you can see It doesn't take much to make me happy!—@harveybetty
@harveybetty Well, it takes a couple of decades ;-)—@fgeorges
@harveybetty you had me right up to that last step.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 05:41pm

@ndw Customization or Tool Selection?—@harveybetty
@harveybetty Your choice of authoring vocabularies.—@ndw
@ndw @harveybetty Uh oh. torn between two lovers. or loves.—@fiberartisan

Tuesday at 06:30pm

When you're out of the office, away from your backups, an accidental 'rm *' can really be a time suck.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 06:32pm

@DaveO Smarter than mine too, heh. Then again, they're following *me* so ...—@ndw

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

After p:http-request, I swear the hardest #xproc step to implement correctly is p:xinclude.—@ndw
@ndw it just means nobody implemented xinclude seriously before... #fail #xinclude #xpointer #xmlbase—@innovimax
@innovimax no, I don't think that's it.—@ndw
@innovimax Yeah, as I feared, just clumsiness on my part. All better now.—@ndw
@ndw Re. XInclude, I suppose you are having fun with namespaces?—@ebruchez
@ebruchez no, some weirdness with sibling elements created by XPointer, nested XIncludes, and xml:base fixup.—@ndw

Tuesday at 07:04pm

No no @ndw - I still love #Docbook! I have been responsible for a few Word users to move to Docbook if I do say so myself!—@harveybetty

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 02:44am

Wonder at what point a train stops being delayed and starts being next timetables service.—@JeniT
@JeniT As soon as they can start claiming that it's a delay on the next timetables service, presumably.—@ndw
@JeniT if u need to remind yrself wht functioning public transport shld b, ride bus/metro in Czech, thgh since u in uk perhaps best not too!—@xquery

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

Do Mac users out there find reflections/glare from the glossy display to be a problem? Wondering if I need an antiglare screen.—@james_clark
@james_clark Glare bothers me with anti-glare screens. On glossy screen, I don't think it would bother me, it would drive me mad.—@avernet
@james_clark I worried about glare before my last purchase (they didn't offer antiglare), but it's never bothered me in practice.—@ndw
@james_clark Happy with it. Plus when the MB is off, I actually use it as a mirror when practicing drums to check my technique (no joke). :)—@vojtechtoman
@james_clark go for the anti-glare... Glossy is for video, not for text.—@andrewwelch
@james_clark re glare ... though at first a bit strange it ceased to be an issue past the first few days—@xquery
@james_clark I have 2 macbooks that I currently use, one glossy & one antiglare. I won't never buy a glossy ever again!—@fgeorges
@james_clark that said, I'm not sure what the trade-offs are getting the antiglare screen. I'm guessing you lose some vibrancy and contrast—@jtauber
@james_clark i rarely find myself in situations where it matters, but when it does, the reflections can be bad.—@jtauber

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 07:17am

The worlds most expensive cat toy? (You know, it probably isn't.) RT @RussB http://bit.ly/ctekWL (Awesome!)—@ndw
@ndw Zooey has already given the pad two paws up. It attracts cat hair like mad, too, so double cat bonus!—@JeanKaplansky

Wednesday at 07:25am

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 07:28am

If I tell Sprint I'm interested in the HTC EVO 4G phone, they ask me if I'm interested in NASCAR. Uhm. No, but thanks for asking, I guess.—@ndw
@ndw I wonder how strong the correlation there actually is...—@bsletten

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 07:30am

♺@codinghorror boilerplate legalese email footers are like sending a giant '<-- I'M WITH STUPID' in every message—@ndw
@ndw @codinghorror publish.ucc.ie/doc/mailtips?sectoc=3#disclaimers—@docum3nt

Wednesday at 07:36am

Carrying a library like that around on a tablet is very appealing. But I think I can wait for the competition. http://bit.ly/9qzkBK—@ndw

Wednesday at 08:04am

Positive review of ipad as ebook reader, including pdfs http://bit.ly/9qzkBK (via @ndw)—@fjhirsch

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 08:11am

RT @ericneumann: RT Why Is Coffee in Paris So Bad? http://nyti.ms/bEdZxq (via @simon_frantz)—@bblfish
@bblfish You're just not comparing it to American coffee...—@ndw
@ndw I think coffee in the US has improved a lot in the past 20 years, at least in big towns. French coffee has not changed.—@bblfish

Wednesday at 09:19am

if your excuse is "I don't have time to learn it", you're saying you've gone so long without learning anything that you've forgotten how.—@bphogan

Wednesday at 10:27am

RT @ndw: ♺@codinghorror boilerplate legalese email footers are like sending a giant '<-- I'M WITH STUPID' in every message—@sss4r

Wednesday at 10:45am

Beginning a series of commits for my first actual feature. Anyone want to take odds that I break the build? No, me neither.—@ndw

Wednesday at 10:53am

Halfway through the commits and CVS goes pear shaped. Have I said how much I *hate* CVS recently?—@ndw

Wednesday at 12:00pm

@ndw Perhaps Apple thinks Dashcode is HyperCard Touch.—@robc2

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 01:17pm

"The joy of tax": http://tinyurl.com/yfd6g5v "the equivalent of 3.8m skilled workers full-time" #economist—@ebruchez
@ebruchez I've long felt that a tax code you can't print on two sides of a single, letter sized piece of paper is too complex.—@ndw
@ndw I would even settle for an XProc spec-sized tax code.—@ebruchez

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

I see how it's a win for Twitter to get a credibility boost from the Library of Congress, but what's in it for them to curate this ephemera?—@ndw
@ndw re twitter/lib-congress they get to claim they are "archiving cultural history"—@DALDEI
@ndw What was in it for the LoC to keep these new fangled color photographs? http://bit.ly/27If We don't know what will mater in 60 years.—@gcarothers
@ndw Where else will the LoC be able to get that kind of cultural zeitgeist data... down to the minute?—@kplawver
@ndw Future presidential hopefuls will be judged by their tweet history.—@abcoates

Wednesday at 05:41pm

I like @adriana872 's definition "an Ad is a recommendation from someone you don't trust" @dickc #chirp—@kevinmarks

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 11:27pm

All future historians will learn from Twitter is that at one time in the past, people had too much time on their hands.—@shelleypowers
@shelleypowers: Frame that one Shelley. #twitter—@dpawson
@ndw Yes, but to put it into context: the LoC doesn't have the nude bathtub photo of me at age 2 ;-) @dpawson @gcarothers—@shelleypowers
@shelleypowers: So.... where do we find that Shelley? ... runs—@dpawson
@dpawson I was a very cute baby. Then I grew up and became a demon.—@shelleypowers
@shelleypowers Like Civil War letters, we may learn the most from the most mundane.—@gcarothers
@gcarothers I enjoy the chit chat on Twitter, but think storing my burbles for posterity is a waste of bits. But, if others are happy, cool—@shelleypowers
@gcarothers But the Civil Letters only reflected the views and impressions of a certain class of society. Only the educated and well to do—@shelleypowers
@shelleypowers Sadly no, that would be cute ;) Just think Lincoln in the Bath at age 4. On the other hand they do have: http://bit.ly/asbF2j—@gcarothers
@gcarothers I imagine that was taken by the FSA. Many of the LOC photos are FSA. These were from pros, specifically to record events—@shelleypowers

Thursday at 07:14am

Apple claims to have repaired my noisy laptop by cleaning the fans. I'm cautiously optimistic. But what if they have the new MBP's in stock?—@ndw

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

Throwing that apple core in my office trash can seemed like a good idea...several days ago. Today, not so much.—@ndw
@ndw Yeah, those old Motorola chips can get smelly...—@docum3nt

Thursday at 01:44pm

more execs need to understand this: "If you have a yes man working for you, one of you is redundant." (Colin Powell)—@annbass

Thursday at 03:09pm

"It's so much easier to find good weird these days." http://bit.ly/9MzMTT—@ndw

Thursday at 03:21pm

. @Sagaraghosa (my mum): 'it's very dangerous saying anything in this household, because it'll just go on twitter' QED—@JeniT

Thursday at 05:41pm

Wrote an #xmlcalabash wrapper for Drew Noakes' metadata-extractor. One step closer to Flickr uploads!—@ndw

Thursday at 07:00pm

I am not a number, but I have settled in to watch "Arrival" again while my #XProc pipeline uploads pics to Flickr.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 08:54pm

@al3x Without any details and with an asinine conspiracy theory, that post can only help the App Store-improvement effort :|—@mrgan
@nevenmrgan "Improvement effort?" I wasn't aware this was a community endeavor. Is there a bake sale? Anyway, I rephrased.—@al3x
@al3x The conspiracy theorizing sure seems like a community effort, communal tea and underground movement flag and all :)—@mrgan
@nevenmrgan I'm not sure what the conspiracy theory is here. Apple won't even bend their policies for an educational tool. Fact, not theory.—@al3x
@al3x What programming tool or code interpreter is not educational. I know, Scratch is targeted at edu, but still.—@gruber
@gruber That's a really hard one to defend if true. Scratch is goodness.—@timbray
@timbray And it's not about creation/consumption. It's about an interpreter that runs arbitrary code. (Again: I don't like the decision.)—@gruber
@timbray I don't like it at all. Bad taste in the mouth to be sure. But not surprising at all.—@gruber
@timbray I assume leaving the obvious interpreter in, goodness though it is, would simply be fodder for lawyers trying to keep others in.—@ndw

Thursday at 10:05pm

"Thoreau says the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. Not programmers, though. They lead lives of really loud desperation."—@codinghorror

In a conversation that started on Friday at 05:27am

@ndw Apparently it stands for "Unidentified Secret Brand" :-) http://tinyurl.com/6pyfex—@ebruchez

In a conversation that started on Friday at 05:29am

RT @computers_book: DocBook 5: The Definitive Guide - by @ndw and @richardhamilton http://tinyurl.com/y7np8gv—@livetechdocs
@livetechdocs By "Walsh Norman". Thanks Amazon. I wonder if it's worth trying to get that fixed.—@ndw
@ndw Well it's your name, it's worth a try :) If it doesn't work out, don't worry. Anyone interested in Docbook 5 knows who you are.—@livetechdocs

Friday at 07:08am

Moving Lightroom Catalogs around. Copying data. Since I have to go to the bank, might as well swap the offsite backup drives...—@ndw

Friday at 07:24am

Dark days, yes. http://bit.ly/9v4F0W—@ndw

Friday at 09:13am

So black holes are the universe's mark & sweep garbage collector? How cool is that.—@kendall

In a conversation that started on Friday at 09:57am

Oh #arse! Just realised I'd never see a space shuttle launch. That was on my list to do before I died. Need replacement space-related item.—@adamburmister
@adamburmister Yeah, I had the disappointing realization myself a few weeks ago.—@ndw
@ndw Researching now: 3 more daytime launches to go, it seems: http://spacelaunchinfo.com/faq.html#shuttleup Get in quick! #bucketlist—@adamburmister
@adamburmister Yes, I know about those. Unfortunately, I have conflicting engagements around each. *Major pout*—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 11:42am

"Is there a use case for that?" is the new "Fuck you."—@zeldman
@zeldman The old "fuck you" - "patches welcome!"—@siracusa

Friday at 12:37pm

Stupid CSS tricks: a:hover { text-shadow: 0 0 10px #000000; } (or #FFFFFF; looks better on a dark bg anyway)—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 12:47pm

I wonder if I shd wait for OS X to support TRIM before getting the (expensive) SSD? OTOH, do I care if it's slow if it consumes less power?—@ndw
@ndw get the SSD ... both my old IBM X40 laptop and my new desktop have SSD and I'll never go back—@DALDEI

Friday at 12:57pm

Much as I like you, @evernote, web clipping usually f*cks up the formatting so badly that I end up printing to PDF and archiving that.—@ndw

Friday at 01:28pm

Indeed. RT @ndw: Dark days, yes. http://bit.ly/9v4F0W—@lizfraley

In a conversation that started on Friday at 02:09pm

Reviewing legacy code the does neither what it's named nor what its comments say.—@MattioV
@MattioV It's a sad fact that legacy code almost never does what comments say. I'm skeptical even in new code. My own excepted, naturally:-)—@ndw
@ndw Ha. I feel the same about my own. Worst part is this code is nasty HTML munging trying to insert <img> tags. Bad Friday task!—@MattioV

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

Just had a Rueben with horseradish, thanks to @littleidea for the idea: http://flic.kr/p/7TWNdp—@cote
Thanks, @cote it's not like I wasn't hungry before I saw that sandwich.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 06:42pm

The Apple Store couldn't do the faster HD or SSD. Lucky me. Err, for some definition of lucky, I guess.—@ndw
@ndw Now you can get an X-25 SSD third party!—@gcarothers
@gcarothers I suppose. But I meant lucky in the sense that I was able to resist buying one. Today, at least.—@ndw

Saturday at 07:11am

I just read the words "faith rights" in Hansard. What the fuck? PROTIP: s/religion/football team/g and see if it still makes sense.—@tommorris

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 07:56am

no recorded msg and no queue at #ryanair now. It just rings and no one answers. Worse?—@adamretter
@adamretter you're in the Canarys and so this is a problem why?—@ndw

Saturday at 10:05am

@ndw meetings and presentations will be missed. oh hangon, yeah, your right!—@adamretter

Saturday at 10:06am

You know what I love about @pinboard? You tweet a link and it's automatically added to your bookmarks. Sweet.—@ndw

Saturday at 01:42pm

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: excellent.—@ndw

Saturday at 02:35pm

My "magsafe" power brick just gave out. I wonder if that's a hint.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 06:38am

Surveying the damage to the fence and the bird feeders, I have to conclude: bear.—@ndw
@ndw: "...conclude bear" Sheesh, and I get niggled about rabbits!—@dpawson

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 10:34am

@ndw Bear attack not random. "Big bear hug" of ex-Sun technology/-ists http://bit.ly/cj8x6D not a metaphor but rather a euphemism—@jclip
@jclip I don't think there was anything euphemistic about the thing that hauled itself over our fence in two different places.—@ndw

Sunday at 06:49pm

Oh, Spotify, "Massive R&B" is not for me, thanks. I'd rather stab myself in the eye with Amy Winehouse's used smack needles. Thanks anyway.—@tommorris