The short-form week of 16–22 Aug 2010

23 Aug 2010; last modified 13 Mar 2011

The week in review, 140 characters at a time. This week, 35 messages in 30 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 01:28pm

Wow I am never not flying without noise-canceling headphones. Indistinguishable from magic.—@liza
@liza Ain't that the truth, though!—@ndw
@liza which kind did you get? Colin has long told me I was an idiot for not having them but the ROI on $300 was hard.—@abdelazer
@abdelazer No, really, the ROI is spectacularly obvious on the first prop-jet flight or the first flight over an hour.—@ndw

Monday at 11:14am

This afternoon Penn and I record dialog for an upcoming episode of "The Simpsons" set in Vegas. I wonder if they'll give me a blank script.—@MrTeller

Monday at 12:39pm

Works for me. Literally. RT @kellblog Short statement on company #culture on ... our website. #marklogic http://bit.ly/bi17l2—@ndw

Monday at 02:37pm

That peal of thunder just about frightened me to death, but I don't think the lightning hit the house. I wonder how much longer the power—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 05:04am

My Twifficiency score is 40%. Whats yours? http://twifficiency.com/—@RichardOfSussex
@RichardOfSussex I'm mildly curious, but not curious enough to give the app permission to update my status.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 07:04am

We should encourage religious attacks on science as the ultimate honeypot defense of rational society.—@kendall
@kendall I don't get the impression that any encouragement is necessary.—@ndw

Tuesday at 07:19am

If lies offend you, you’re rational. If the truth offends you, you’re religious. /via @neo_indian @mauvedeity—@gridinoc

Tuesday at 10:36am

"The Catholic Church can build a church near a playground but should they?" - John Oliver on The Daily Show—@Carnage4Life

Tuesday at 10:50am

Heh. "To simplify it so a computer science guy can get it, Kurzweil has everything completely wrong." http://bit.ly/b5Y6xP—@ndw

Tuesday at 12:32pm

Chicago, May 1, 1893, the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition. #temporaltues—@ndw

Tuesday at 01:23pm

Now I want me one of them USB microscopes! RT @iand ... http://www.bit-101.com/blog/?p=2722—@ndw

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

Sun engineers played a "joke" by filing for absurd Java patents. Oracle's jamming Google w/ those patents. That's...that's not a funny joke.—@kendall
@kendall Unless Google can get one of those people who filed to say it was a joke... then it's a rather good joke on Oracle ;)—@gcarothers
@gcarothers How can it be a good joke on Oracle?—@kendall
@kendall Mmm, perhaps a bad joke at Oracle's expense, which I will enjoy thanks to schadenfreude?—@gcarothers
@gcarothers Sure, we all wil; I just don't understand the legal theory whereby the patents being a joke to Sun engineers are less valid. :>—@kendall
@kendall "novel, non-obvious, and have utility," a joke patent it seems would likely fail at least one of those.—@gcarothers
@gcarothers on the basis of "novel" alone, most I've seen shouldn't have made it. Took me a full day to convince attorney my idea wasn't.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 05:22pm

Reason to buy an iPhone: so I don't have to figure out which bleeding Android phone to buy.—@ndw
@ndw I thought you had an iPhone?!—@sgmlguru
@sgmlguru I do, but my two years of servitude are up, so I get to reconsider. I’m tired of Apple’s walled garden. Voting with my wallet.—@ndw
@ndw I'd still go with the Nexus One. It's not the most powerful #Android phone any more, but it's still the most open.—@david_megginson
@david_megginson For better or worse, apparently no longer available in the US. Hmmm, I suppose eBay...—@ndw

Tuesday at 05:23pm

The thing to understand about Facebook is that you are not their customer. The *advertisers* are their customers. You are their *product*.—@jonoxia

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 07:43am

@ndw Any chance you'll write an XProc book?—@sgmlguru
@sgmlguru Already started. See xprocbook.com, when it’s up, which it isn’t at the moment. I know, I know, it’s on my list.—@ndw
@ndw Very cool. Looking forward to it. I'm trying to run through the w3c test suite and I can safely say that I don't understand it all yet.—@sgmlguru
@sgmlguru Feel free to send questions. And check out the xproc-dev archives http://markmail.org/search/?q=list%3Axproc-dev—@ndw

Wednesday at 08:54am

I've exclaimed WTF! so many times recently, I'm becoming inured to the feeling. Today's (first?) WTF discovery: http://bit.ly/bs7kPs—@ndw

Wednesday at 11:25am

The leaves on some of the trees in the backyard have started to change color. I warned 'em, if they don't stop, I'll cut 'em down.—@ndw

Wednesday at 02:37pm

Bah humbug. The Magellan GPS isn't even seen as a USB device by my Mac, so I can't work with it in a VM, I need a physical Windows box. Ugh.—@ndw

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

sometimes Atom feels as if allowed occurrences of elements within feed and entry elements have been determined by reading tea leaves.—@dret
@dret Or by the consensus of a working group, but wait, at this point, I'm just repeating what you said.—@ndw

Wednesday at 06:58pm

Setting my alarm for 2:50am. Remind me why I'm going to bed?—@ndw

Wednesday at 07:01pm

Sunset over BDL http://yfrog.com/3d2muaj—@ndw

Thursday at 04:07am

The non-geek friends are whispering about Android phones, and the sexy new Samsung Galaxy S. There's a sea-change coming! Sell APPL.—@adamburmister

Thursday at 04:52pm

Just got my Web Is Dead issue of Wired. It came several days after I read all about it plus pro and con arguments and analyses. On the web.—@ironicsans

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 04:54pm

I swear to you, if you want to be a better Software Engineer, get a job at @MarkLogic.—@peteaven
@peteaven @marklogic True dat. Nothing rocks like working with so many smart, engaged people.—@ndw

Thursday at 07:00pm

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 07:30pm

actually hoping that 1 of my upcoming assignments is the roundtripping of wordprocessingML to DocBook & back. #thepeoplehavespoken—@peteaven
@peteaven I have *so* got your back on that one!!!—@ndw

Friday at 02:58pm

Surfing the web on a deck chair *in* the swimming pool. Holding on to my phone very, very tightly.—@ndw

Saturday at 07:17pm

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 03:33pm

Read It Later v2.2 Rejected. More uncertainty and randomness with what will make it past Apple's appstore gatekeepers. http://u.nu/9idve—@ejwcom
Like I needed more reasons to abandon the iPhone. RT @ejwcom http://u.nu/9idve—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 05:56pm

Another reason to learn to drive a stick shift: rental cars outside the USA. Just sayin'—@ndw
@ndw Yes, although I didn't dare trying to shift left-handed in Ireland. I kept hitting the wipers instead of the turn signal as it was.—@jimancona
@jimancona I confess, in the UK, I go out of my way to get an automatic. #somethingsaretoohard—@ndw