The short-form week of 27 Sep–3 Oct 2010

04 Oct 2010; last modified 13 Mar 2011

The week in review, 140 characters at a time. This week, 29 messages in 30 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 Saturday at 03:11pm

I have joined the HTML Working Group. May the fates have mercy on my soul.—@ndw
@ndw I will bet good money you will have a lot more success then you think, make sure you call on your xml brethren to shout when needed—@xquery
@ndw Oh, Norm... whatever possessed you?—@JeniT
@JeniT you should help him!—@roessler
@JeniT Madness, I'm sure. I sincerely want HTML5 to play nice with XML. I can't rail against the result if I don't attempt to help.—@ndw
@ndw best of luck Norm!—@al3xbrown
@ndw @roessler I have the greatest respect for everyone who attempts to engage with that process. I know what it would do to me.—@JeniT
@ndw Do you perceive HTML5 not to play nice with XML now? If so, what part?—@hsivonen
@hsivonen I'm most immediately concerned about the srcdoc/markup-in-attributes issue.—@ndw
@ndw That one seems to be a general “escaped markup inside markup is distasteful” kind of thing than a “doesn’t play nice with XML” thing.—@hsivonen
@hsivonen Unescaped, it's more than that. Escaped, maybe it's just a matter of taste. Depends what underlying model it encodes, I think—@ndw
@ndw: the WG's mission statement, "lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate", didn't give you a clue?—@david_megginson
@david_megginson Luckily my dad prepared me by instructing me "illegitimi non carborundum"—@ndw
@ndw: "Some people called the 'Romanes', they go 'house'??" Pls correct the grammar, then write it 100 times on the Harvard library.—@david_megginson
@ndw Had to look that up, and Google led me here: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Illegitimi_non_carborundum—@JeniT
@david_megginson @ndw I'm guessing that's "abandon all hope, all ye who enter", yes?—@abcoates
@ndw you'll need every bit of patience you have, but you can achieve something. Good luck!—@laurendw
@ndw best of luck!—@ldodds
@ndw It is a far, far better thing you do than you have ever done. It is a -- um.—@RepoRat
@ndw what @JeniT said... I wish you the very best of luck.—@skwlilac
@ndw Good luck! I think they are beyond help in many ways, but it is noble of you to try.—@james_clark
@james_clark would be really great if you could share your views on what is wrong with "HTML5". Cheers!—@annevk
@annevk My biggest complaint would be the process: excessive deference to major browser vendors, plus the dual WHATWG/W3C specs cc @ndw—@james_clark
@james_clark presumably not liking the process has something to do with the result of it? Can I persuade you to write a blog post?—@annevk
@annevk It's not about the result: I haven't studied the result closely enough (yet) to form a view about the result.—@james_clark
@ndw re: HTML5. admirable. Let me know if there are ways I (we) can help. Wish I had the time for similar endeavor.—@aspyker
@ndw Great, HTML WG really needs some new blood to defend reasonable positions.—@jirkakosek
@ndw It's not too late to go back.—@timbray
@timbray It may be a short lived foray, but I have to be honest and I have to be able to say I tried.—@ndw
@ndw joining the HTML 5 WG?!?! Tell me you're also taking up deep meditation. I never did figure out how to manage the stress.—@dckc
@ndw @JeniT says what I think. It sounds crazy, but they certainly do need help.—@larsga
@ndw hope the fun is worth the purgatory!—@roessler

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

Delayed on the Bure Valley railway. Chuckling to myself as we wait for the rescue engine.—@johnlsheridan
@johnlsheridan I did that once with my folks. A very pleasant ride, at least if it doesn't break down.—@ndw
@ndw it's my home county, so naturally I am very fond of the landscape. There's no better way to see it than by train, big or small :)—@johnlsheridan
@johnlsheridan I come to Norfolk once or twice a year to see my mom (she's in Stalham now). We should grab coffee or a pint sometime!—@ndw
@ndw oh wow, Stalham :) Not far. Please do let me know when you're next around. A pub lunch + a pint of Woodford's Norfolk Wherry in order!—@johnlsheridan

Monday at 08:35am

RT @quixproc: RT @ndw: Updated xprocbook.com; no diffs (yet) but mostly Chapter 3, I think. #xproc #book—@innovimax

Monday at 12:06pm

What could possibly go wrong? RT @shelleypowers For profit companies taking over public libraries http://nyti.ms/dwUjOI—@ndw

Monday at 12:23pm

RT @mnot RT @lachlanhardy: Man, I love the Guardian. Why the fuck don't *we* have a paper like this? http://bit.ly/daDMnD—@ndw

Monday at 12:27pm

RT @simonw The Web for me is still URLs and HTML. I don't want a Web which can only be understood by running a JavaScript interpreter [...]—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 02:41pm

R U Kidding me??? RT @stockguy22: How crazy ironic is this ? .. Segway owner dies while riding a segway http://tinyurl.com/23hz997—@DaveO
Oh! The irony! Owner of Segway corp drives Segway off a cliff. Fatally. http://tinyurl.com/23hz997 /via @DaveO—@ndw

Monday at 03:30pm

You know, maybe I don't need to sleep in NYC this week. Maybe I'll just stay awake and out of hotels all night. http://bit.ly/nycbedbugs—@ndw

Tuesday at 09:46am

RT @dret "wiretapping on the net is really inconvenient b/c it is decentralized and open, so we decided to change that." http://is.gd/fwnn3—@ndw

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

So people who are at Web 2.0 expo, what did the browser companies have to say about next five years?—@shelleypowers
@shelleypowers right now they're banging on XML—@simonstl
@simonstl As in, trying to kill it?—@shelleypowers
@shelleypowers they seem to think XML is already dead. I disagree for a few use cases.—@simonstl
@shelleypowers I was afraid to ask.—@ndw

Wednesday at 06:55am

New twitter.com? Meh.—@ndw

Wednesday at 09:17am

Parsing a 2.7M file, "Invalid byte 2 of 3-byte UTF-8 sequence." Great. Fine. Could I have a clue about *where*, FFS!!?—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 09:18am

<blush>Oh! look! I wrote utf8test last time I had this problem</blush>. Nevermind.—@ndw
@ndw That itf8test could come in handy! Did you release it?—@avernet
@avernet There's not much to it. iconv might be better, I dunno. http://gist.github.com/603124—@ndw
@ndw Awesome, thanks for sharing. I'll keep a link, and I'm sure it will come in handy.—@avernet

Wednesday at 09:19am

@ndw Try iconv?—@vojtechtoman

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 03:32pm

I swear the thing that will make me finally leave Perl will be 0-based months and 1900-based years.—@ndw
@ndw ya, maybe it is time to move on from Perl, but it still continues to teach me (every week vs every day now) ...—@xquery

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 04:56pm

When I relaunch my weblog on #MarkLogic, I'll be doing a redesign too. Soliciting pointers to attractive, minimal designs I can steal from—@ndw
@ndw I'd point you to mine, but who am I kidding, I can't design worth a damn...but it is minimal! And with RDFa, too!—@shelleypowers
@ndw "Soliciting pointers" Not pushing my particular theme, but IMO "Web user interfaces should scale" http://tinyurl.com/2fuo4j3—@noahmendelsohn

Wednesday at 11:26pm

I am so tired of web sites that post 10 minute videos instead of 1000 words of text. If you can't write, get off the Web!—@elharo

Thursday at 12:16am

you could use my framework as stared design http://www.baselinecss.com “@ndw: pointers to attractive, minimal designs I can steal from”—@projeturbain

Thursday at 09:20am

+1x10^6 RT @elharo I am so tired of web sites that post 10 minute videos instead of 1000 words of text. If you can't write, get off the Web!—@ndw

Thursday at 09:27am

RT @ndw RT @elharo I am so tired of web sites that post 10 minute videos instead of 1000 words of text. If you can't write, get off the Web!—@RepoRat

Thursday at 11:04am

Amtrak 493 from SPG to NHV struck a tree. Delayed in Meriden. #thingsthatdonthappentoplanes #travel—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 12:01pm

The passengers in this carriage are learning far more than I ever wanted to know about some young woman's personal life. #phonesonatrain—@ndw
@ndw Last time I rode Amtrak, a Drunk woman was pestering a Nun for hours ...—@DALDEI

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 12:26pm

The conductor said the bus would be here any minute as he shepherded us off the train. I don't think he knows what the word "minute" means.—@ndw
@ndw or he really meant "any". He just didn't know which one ;)—@karlpro
@ndw but beware, he could be an expert on the word "any"—@al3xbrown

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 01:08pm

Dan Brown's next book should explore the theory that the world ends if they ever finish construction on I-95. #ithinkitmightbetrue—@ndw
@ndw Trying to come up with a clever title including Sisyphus but failing. It's always awful down here in CT.—@MattioV

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 11:43pm

Just shown US video ad where they were proud of iphone app to scan checks. Meanwhile, the 19th century called the US and wants cheques back.—@mnot
@mnot Remember that the US have promoted cheques to the status of cash. They no longer offer the non-negotiable security of real cheques.—@malcolmt

Friday at 11:39am

Yesterday the train hit a tree, today the car service has put me in a van that's stalling every 10 miles. #oneofthosetrips—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 02:06pm

T-Mobile will discount my prospective phone (S. Vibrant) by $300 if I agree to pay them $480 more over the next two years. Uhm. #badatmath?—@ndw
@ndw aimed at people who don't have the cash available, I suspect.—@laurendw
@ndw Not necessarily. The extra $180 should buy you service you don't get just by owning the phone. Can you buy same service for < $180?—@elharo
@elharo Yes, that comparison included the same plan in both cases.—@ndw
@ndw: $480 more than what? I think I saw that one time but conveniently forgot it. Remind me?—@dckc

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

I finally got home and discovered the cable is out and has been for hours. Now the power is out. #enoughalready #weather—@ndw
@ndw which fate did you piss off? Your travels have been very Steve Martin & John Candy this week.—@JeanKaplansky

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

It must be that my Androidy friends have written weblog posts about their fav. apps. It appears not to be the case that I can find them.—@ndw
@ndw install an app that gives you access to other markets—@dscape
@ndw keep thinking I should ;-) maybe this week?—@laurendw

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

Homemade beer is 1 part making, 1 part drinking, and 8 parts cleaning and sterilizing. But the Russian Imperial Stout is in bottles!—@ndw
@ndw Well your problem is that you bottle it! I just put it in a barrel and drink it quickly :-)—@jpcs
@jpcs fair point. I should try a barrel I suppose.—@ndw
@ndw How long until it is ready? I have always been tempted to home brew but some friends skunked several batches in college. Yuck.—@bsletten
@bsletten Not less than 4-6 weeks, then it probably improves for a few more months, maybe longer, but it never lasts that long :-)—@ndw
@ndw Anything special about the conditions for storage during this time? Dark and cool w/o much traffic?—@bsletten
@bsletten I get bottle carbonation with a dose of sugar, so room temperature for a couple of weeks then cool or cold. I prefer cool.—@ndw
@ndw Imperial stout alway sounds good to me! Did you get to try BJ's take on it? http://bit.ly/9y4XC9—@avernet
@avernet Nope, don't think I've ever been to a BJs.—@ndw
@ndw re: stout, how about bringing some to Philly next week:-)?—@richardhamilton
@richardhamilton uh, it'll be a bit green...—@ndw
@ndw Shows you how much I know about brewing beer:). But I am an expert at drinking it.—@richardhamilton