The short-form week of 26 Apr–2 May 2010

03 May 2010; last modified 13 Mar 2011

The week in review, 140 characters at a time. This week, 83 messages in 72 conversations. (With 6 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 Sunday at 01:06pm

Any device that fits in a pocket/purse has a large advantage over any device that doesn't.—@timbray
@timbray On the other hand, any device with a usefully large screen has an advantage over any device that doesn't.—@ndw
@ndw @timbray. How about a device that fits in my pocket, with a 21" projected screen, and a roll-up keyboard?—@michaelhkay
@michaelhkay perhaps, but I expect I'll just get uses to carrying something slightly larger around.—@ndw
@michaelhkay @ndw @timbray pocket device: I've been able to do that for 3 yrs with any projector #nokian800—@docum3nt

In a conversation that started on Monday at 03:47am

http://is.gd/bI9Dl Massive squirrel? #birdfeeder—@dpawson
@dpawson Possibly. But I bet the smaller squirrels have already cleared out that feed.—@ndw
@dpawson Yep. Squirrel. That's what I was thinking :))—@livetechdocs

Monday at 06:22am

Amazing. RT @benosteen RT @rebeccawatson Try to finish this maze before you start crying: http://i.imgur.com/bSgDo.jpg—@ndw

Monday at 07:13am

♺@mnot Here's a tip: if you value your privacy, go to xauth.org and hit 'disable'—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 07:22am

Was looking forward to tweeting about attending a tasting of world's strongest beer (41%) later today, but a 43% beer was announced today...—@larsga
@larsga: And you'd consider the move to wine?43%. Sheesh.—@dpawson
@larsga Heh. I haven't even opened my bottle of Tactical Nuclear Penguin yet.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 08:18am

The three most beautiful words in the English language may be "I love you"; the four most beautiful may be "On vehicle for delivery".—@ndw
@ndw you are so hyped for the unboxing, aren't you? ;)—@JeanKaplansky
@JeanKaplansky I never claimed it was still *in the box*...—@ndw
@ndw oh... You are torturing yourself intentionally, then?—@JeanKaplansky
@ndw Beautiful 3 words: "Let me help". See "The City on the Edge of Forever" cf. http://www.disobey.com/node/1729—@morbusiff
@morbusiff I did only say "may", but mostly now I'm sorry I didn't remember that line from ST: TOS. Shame on me.—@ndw

Monday at 08:35am

Monday at 08:39am

@ndw norm, buddy, you gotta get out a little more. ;-)—@dckc

In a conversation that started on Monday at 08:49am

Watching the pain of twitter rate limiting at a conference when twitter thinks the entire conference is coming from one IP (NAT I guess)—@aspyker
@aspyker The limiting is per IP address, not per "user+IP address"? Or even just per user. That's just broken.—@ndw
@ndw I think the issue is most apps don't login for search so all searches are coming from one IP with no concept of a user login—@aspyker
@aspyker we learned how to avoid this with xmlprague and our twitterwall ... twitter also can be contacted to remove rate limiting—@xquery
@xquery Yeh, I think #www2010 just started doing that as well. Didn't realize that was the "fix"—@aspyker

Monday at 09:27am

@ndw seriously ROTFL ... "On vehicle for delivery". ... Just placed an order last night and already clicking on tracking status.—@DALDEI

Monday at 09:30am

There is a brand new laptop sitting on my desk and I am not playing with it. I am GSD. I don't actually have to say how hard this is, do I?—@ndw

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

Xbench of my MacBook Pro Core i7/256GB SSD compared w/ old MBP: http://tinyurl.com/28csydw Tweet back your own results!—@ebruchez
@ebruchez That SSD really helps, I see. http://db.xbench.com/merge.xhtml?doc1=441693&doc2=441691 Diffs between our i7's are interesting too—@ndw
@ndw Cool. The difference w/ SSD is stunning in small random read/write (but not unexpected).—@ebruchez
@ebruchez Yes. It'll be interesting to see how it performs when your disk has been completely filled at least once.—@ndw

Monday at 11:27am

Stupid modal dialog box pops up just as I'm about to hit enter in a terminal window. WTF did I just agree too? I'll never know.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 12:25pm

New laptop. MacPorts dance or just freaking build everything from source by hand by myself?—@ndw
@ndw Don't do MacPorts, use Homebrew. Better by *far* and super-responsive. http://github.com/mxcl/homebrew—@dethe
@dethe Ah, yes. Now I remember wanting to give that a try...—@ndw
@ndw `sudo port install [bla bla bla]` then go out for a seven hour walk with the dog. That's my standard thing...—@tommorris
@ndw Ubuntu on VMWare and just skip MacPorts ;)—@gcarothers
@gcarothers I hear ya.—@ndw
@ndw FWIW I used the Migration Assistant to move data around. Moved apps, user act, and "other stuff" (which included /opt).—@ebruchez
@ebruchez Interesting. I always assume accumulation of bitrot is bad and use a new machine as an opp to start over—@ndw
@ndw I would never have done that w/ Windows ;) Also I had recently rebuilt MacPorts & first cleaned apps dir a bit, then migrated.—@ebruchez

Monday at 01:36pm

RT @ndw: The 3 most beautiful words in the English language may be "I love you"; the 4 most beautiful may be "On vehicle for delivery".—@avernet

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

♺@kellblog Been reviewing the agenda for the Mark Logic 2010 user conf and boy am I impressed. Best ever. #mluc10http://bit.ly/cEePTm—@ndw
@ndw interesting ... re your joint presentation at #mluc10 with EXSLT 2.0, looking forward to seeing the fruit of that particular labour—@xquery
@xquery I think the title's actually XSLT 2.0 and... not EXSLT, though there is, in fact, a little EXSLT in there. And Mary's copresenting.—@ndw

Monday at 02:50pm

Recommendations for an up-scale, romantic (as in milestone anniversary romantic) restaraunt in Boston? $$$ no object.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 03:54pm

yeah, realized that was more of a statement that a question—@peteaven
@peteaven I'm a little freaked because I thought I was teaching part of that class on Monday. Does Ken expect me there this week?—@ndw
@ndw just asked him. he says you're ok this week, not expected. Next Monday at the conference you're on! :)—@peteaven
@peteaven Thanks Pete. It must be for Kelly then. I'm sure I'm teaching joint XSLT/XQuery apps for someone on Monday! Or maybe I've gone mad—@ndw

Monday at 04:54pm

@ndw can't go wrong with Parker House—@anthonyallen

Tuesday at 04:23am

@ndw no probs, I still think it sounds interesting ... good luck with the conference—@xquery

Tuesday at 09:04am

@ndw any idea on appropriate docbook markup for an 'exercise' in a training manual? question? procedure?—@bphogan

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

This new multi-touch, buttonless trackpad thingamabob is going to take some getting used to. And, man, does it click *loudly*.—@ndw
@ndw (re mb pro trackpad) the first thing I did was enable tap to click, drag etc—@andrewwelch
@andrewwelch Turning off "two finger secondary click" and "bottom right corner secondary click" was a vast improvement.—@ndw
@ndw What's your new toy?—@freddrake
@freddrake A 17" MacBook Pro with all the knobs turned to 11, except that I didn't splurge for an Apple SSD. When the prices come down...—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 06:11pm

w00t! got the Mayor of #MarkLogic shout out on @kellblog ! http://bit.ly/drcWNX just know @ndw is workin the API now to unseat me. boooo!—@peteaven
@peteaven Nah. Using the API would be cheating.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 06:14pm

Portugal legalized drugs 5 years ago with great success in reducing harm: http://tinyurl.com/23bkgrhh. Now they're broke. Just sayin'—@DaveO
@DaveO Are you really suggesting a cause and effect relationship? You must have some good stuff up there in CA.—@ndw
@DaveO oh, please.—@mnot

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 06:57pm

Weird. The OSX installed on the new laptop didn't create a new group 'ndw' for the new user 'ndw'.—@ndw
@ndw weird; I found myself in '_lpoperator'. WTF?—@mnot

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 07:28pm

@ndw AFAICT the only solution is to use dseditgroup, but I'm not finding enough docs, yet...—@mnot
@mnot I got through it following my nose through this page: http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/Manage_users_and_groups—@ndw
@mnot Er. But I guess I got through it with dseditgroup last time: http://norman.walsh.name/2008/01/20/leopard *blush*—@ndw
@ndw double-thanks! Agreed WRT the option-click; that's idiotic...—@mnot

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

Cap'n! The avian food replicators are down! The perimeter shields are at 50%! They canna withstand another bear attack!—@ndw
@ndw You need some pet ostriches.—@abcoates

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 06:53am

If the TSA demands my laptop psw, can they then demand passwords for any app and connect to all my online services? I suppose so. #privacy—@ndw
@ndw yikes. Just thinking about it makes me want to drive or meet online—@JeanKaplansky
@JeanKaplansky Just don't drive anywhere within 100 miles of a US border.—@ndw
@ndw then i'm safe by approximate 50 miles...—@JeanKaplansky
@ndw how can people travel if TSA deep dives into their laptops/data/services. Case for a simple ipad and no data? :)—@fjhirsch

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

@ndw it may look like an attack to you, but thru his eyes i bet that bear was stoked to get his 'animal house' badge on foursquare :)—@peteaven
@peteaven You might be right, but I wish he'd chosen a different location for his 'chaos and destruction' badge.—@ndw
@ndw sorry man ( bout the bear, not the ppt :) ) but its sounding more like the bear actually just earned the d#####bag badge—@peteaven

Wednesday at 10:38am

EVERY DAY telemarketers ask ffor "the person who handles your phone services". I say solemnly "I'm sorry, we don't have phones" and hang up.—@textfiles

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 10:43am

.@timberners_lee If you would make info available for a freedom of information request, then just stick the raw data on the web #www2010 +1!—@azaroth42
@azaroth42 What? And make the information available to anyone? Without making them ask? Outrageous! How will we keep the st00pid hidden?—@ndw

Wednesday at 01:00pm

Burning brain, cpu, and clock cycles in PowerPoint.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 02:53pm

Encrypting my entire hard disk.—@ndw
@ndw With FileVault, or really the entire hard drive?—@avernet
@avernet The whole shebang.—@ndw
@ndw @avernet Are you using TrueCrypt (if you can disclose that information ;) ?—@ebruchez
@ebruchez PGP Whole Disk encryption—@ndw
@ndw using FileVault? Will it slow access times ?—@sss4r
@sss4r Using PGP Desktop. @abcoates assures me that the performance impact isn't significant. I'll benchmark it in...about 8 1/2 hours...—@ndw
@ndw @sss4r Hmmm, benchmark. Not that I ever did that. Will be interested to see what you find. But certainly I don't notice it at all.—@abcoates

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 03:00pm

@ndw for REAL security at the boarder http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0908.html#5—@DALDEI
@DALDEI At this point, I'm more curious about the content of Dropbox and S3 storage border-wise. Encryption is protection from loss or theft—@ndw

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

Hmm. Fonts are different on the new laptop. Don't recall installling (m)any, but...—@ndw
@ndw Well, fonts can also be different from one manufacturer to another... ;-)—@fgeorges

Wednesday at 03:50pm

Pardon me while I puke on my shoes. RT @doctorow: Record industry spokesman loves child porn http://tinyurl.com/22t4pu4—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 05:06am

The performance impact of whole disk encryption: in disk I/O, where you'd expect. http://bit.ly/aG8YMz—@ndw
@ndw If it makes you feel any better, your laptop is still faster http://bit.ly/atlQxS but now your disk i/o is slower than my 5400rpm ;-)—@sss4r
@sss4r what makes me feel better us if someone steals my laptop, they don't get any of my data.—@ndw

Thursday at 07:09am

"My motto is 'Never say never'. Which makes it difficult to tell people my motto." - Steve McKenna—@micknugent

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 07:47am

Cannot get the flash player settings dialog to respond to mouse clicks at all on this new laptop. Hrmfph.—@ndw
@ndw That doesn't sound like a huge loss...—@robinberjon
@robinberjon Not noticeable at all.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 08:19am

The change in behavior of C-n/C-p in Emacs 23 is...definitely a change. Get used to it, or revert the behavior?—@ndw
@ndw still using emacs 22 for Mac OS X, changing c-n/c-p seems rather radical if they work differently..—@fjhirsch
@fjhirsch C-n/C-p move by "screen lines" instead of "logical lines". Like most other editors, really. But different from before.—@ndw

Thursday at 08:25am

Bit.ly remembered a bunch of links via a cookie, I suppose. Created an account, hoping to make them portable. Bit.ly forgot them all. #FAIL—@ndw

Thursday at 09:17am

I have a little HTML widget and some JS for manipulating it. What's the right way to package this for reuse on several pages?—@ndw

Thursday at 10:11am

Blah. The brew build of ImageMagick exhibits some SVG conversion anomaly that the MacPorts version didn't. #suckstobeme—@ndw

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

@ndw Almost a factor 2. It's pretty significant. Wondering how the performance of things like Apple's FileVault or TrueCrypt compares.—@ebruchez
@ebruchez Yeah, it hits disk I/O pretty hard but that was to be expected. I'm happy to say it's not bothering me. Don't know how others comp—@ndw

Friday at 06:05am

Check out spiffy new MarkLogic Developer Community site: http://developer.marklogic.com/—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 08:47am

I can ping pinboard.in but can't make an http connection. anybody else seeing this problem?—@dckc
@dckc I see that with www.pinboard.in, but not with pinboard.in; leave off the www, I guess.—@ndw
@dckc server is rebooting—@PinboardIN

Friday at 10:15am

Wanna use node-repl from @emacs? Grab @phuff's js-comint.el & (require 'js-comint) (setq inferior-js-program-command "node-repl") M-x run-js—@emacs

Friday at 11:03am

Check out spiffy new MarkLogic Developer Community site: http://developer.marklogic.com/ - RT @ndw—@peteaven

Friday at 11:12am

RT @ndw: Check out spiffy new MarkLogic Developer Community site: http://developer.marklogic.com/—@sss4r

In a conversation that started on Friday at 01:30pm

@kendall both; "absolute control" is a misunderstanding of the medium; px, the mechanism, overrides my choice of body font size.—@dckc
@dckc As Web replaces print, some uses call for the 1000-year old typographic arts. Leading Web to its fullest potential includes typography—@kendall
@kendall @dckc wouldn't be the first time, or the last, I'm afraid. But respectfully, I don't agree in this case.—@ndw
@ndw So you think there's not a single legit use case for pixel-level precision typography on the Web, is that it?—@kendall
@kendall Don't get me wrong, I'm a type and letterpress geek. I wan't beauty, but I don't think pixel-level precision is the right path.—@ndw
@ndw Do you never sense an anti-beauty streak among some "only the information counts" types in geek world?—@kendall
@kendall I've always attributed all the ugliness to carelessness or cluelessness, not an intentionally anti-beauty streak. Beauty is hard.—@ndw
@ndw Can't disagree with any of that, but I think there's something else at play too often. But, eh, diminishing returns. :>—@kendall
@kendall I'm sure there are. About as many as there are for hand drawn, illuminated manuscripts in the modern age of dead tree typography.—@ndw
@ndw That's a very odd, but telling response. Scads and scads and scads of stuff today is hand drawn. Tons. But eff them, right? :>—@kendall
@kendall Scads of hand drawn books? Calligraphy by hand from beginning to end? We hang out in different bookstores, I think.—@ndw
@ndw I assume you don't have any children. Kids books are full of hand-drawn, illustrated & illuminated pages. & that's a big market.—@kendall
@kendall Ah. So we hang out in different sections of the bookstores then :-).—@ndw
@kendall Typography on the web isn't the same as ink on dead trees. Can't be. I concur with @dckc, esp. re. "absolute control"—@ndw
@ndw @dckc Yes, but you are both stone-cold, completely wrong. :> And it doesn't have to be "the same" to be a good that the Web shld enable—@kendall

Friday at 01:42pm

A wicked tour de force. NSFW! RT @micknugent Tim Minchin's new Pope Song - not as offensive as prot. paedophile priests http://bit.ly/b9cB17—@ndw

Friday at 01:48pm

@ndw @dckc I'm exaggerating for effect; I lament tasteless geeks (neither of you!) embedding their preferred aesthetic unnecessarily.—@kendall

In a conversation that started on Friday at 01:48pm

@dckc @ndw I won't be okay w/ Web killing print if it kills typography & beauty too. If you only can do that stuff in print, print == ghetto—@kendall
@kendall If the web's gonna kill print, it's going to do so with or without your ok. And mine.—@ndw
@ndw Well, duh, but that doesn't mean I can't bitch about it on Twitter, does it? If so, I'm gonna be really grouchy.—@kendall

Friday at 02:04pm

Sorry to @ndw & @dckc if I strayed over the line: just meant to disagree, not be disagreeable. :>—@kendall

Friday at 02:25pm

@ndw I'm still curious about the alternative to pixel-level precision you alluded to...—@kendall

In a conversation that started on Friday at 02:48pm

Almost ready for the @MarkLogic DemoJam on Monday. Looking forward to it! http://bit.ly/aI7Hor—@evanlenz
@evanlenz I did one of those in Prague; just ask @ndw. I found that a Mexican wave is a crowd pleaser, but I should have taken my ukulele.—@abcoates
@abcoates I've got a couple things up my sleeve for this one. :-)—@evanlenz

Friday at 03:19pm

RT @ndw: Check out spiffy new MarkLogic Developer Community site: http://developer.marklogic.com/http://bit.ly/bVRNsA—@abcoates

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

Sigh. Fuck us all. RT @doctorow AT&T asks feds to create censorwall and to disconnect accused infringers http://tinyurl.com/2g9q6y4—@ndw
@ndw pretty sure that AT&T is proposing that to defend itself against being sued by Hollywood.—@whump

Friday at 04:26pm

What a week! Rocking some code and getting ready for a rocking week at #mluc10!—@ndw

Friday at 06:49pm

Grab two drinking glasses in one hand. Tip a third out of the cabinet onto the first two. 52 million pickup anyone? Extra points for blood?—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 09:14pm

How can so much blood come from one tiny little sliver if glass in my foot?—@ndw
@ndw uh... You did go to urgent care, right?—@JeanKaplansky
@ndw maybe it was already sensitive from all the a$$ you've been kicking recently? :) sounds bad tho, hope you feel better soon.—@peteaven

Friday at 09:35pm

@ndw aww re foot :( try lying down and propping your foot above your heart maybe?—@amyvdh

Saturday at 04:41pm

My computer may be stupid, but it isn't nearly as stupid as some of the people it connects me to.—@tommorris

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

It is apparently our duty as programmers to keep the music industry, journalists and TV people in business. I didn't get the memo.—@tommorris
@tommorris What, Tom, you don't get the emails with the subject "Urgently awaiting your reply"? I think those are the memos.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 09:06pm

Forgot to watch the derby, but I did make a mint julep. Does that count?—@ndw
@ndw Yes, we'll accept it if you actually used a dedicated muddler—@abdelazer
@abdelazer But of course! There's some other way!?—@ndw
@ndw if you're making a larger batch you can use a baseball bat—@abdelazer

Saturday at 11:04pm

Why do free social networks tilt inevitably toward user exploitation? Because you're not their customer, you're their product.—@librarythingtim

Sunday at 03:54am

Short version of NYC Mayor's press conference: "don't know a lot yet". Short version of journalists questions: "We don't listen very well."—@malcolmt

Sunday at 08:54am

Airport driver went to the airport to pick me up. Uh. Bzzt! No! But thank you for Playing. I need a ride TO the airport. Deb to the rescue.—@ndw

Sunday at 09:12am

Feeling a weird urge to dig through 20ish years of cruft in my .bashrc and .emacs files. I'm resisting.—@ndw

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

Worse than not getting an upgrade? Getting an SMS that says you did, then being told first checked in full.—@ndw
@ndw that sucks. You arriving for #mluc10 today?—@jimbo843
@jimbo843 that is the plan.—@ndw
@ndw Reminds me of someone who receive a b'day card inscribed "I bought you a lottery ticket & scratched it, but you didn't win anything"—@abcoates

Sunday at 05:58pm

Battery lasted all the way across the country. That's nice.—@ndw

Sunday at 06:21pm

BARTing through S SF.—@ndw