The short-form week of 4–10 Apr 2011
11 Apr 2011
The week in review, 140 characters at a time. This week, 82 messages in 87 conversations. (With 37 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 02:20pm
@ndw Obvious simplification: do away w/ XML declaration and say doc is *always* UTF-8, period. Why support other encodings?—@ebruchez
@ebruchez I think UTF-16 is a requirement for some languages, the others are a pretty significant convenience.—@ndw
@ebruchez I believe, though perhaps am mistaken, that for some languages UTF-8 encoding produces files much larger than UTF-16.—@ndw
@ndw @evlist Some metrics for http://t.co/otAv4Hz UTF-8: 717K UTF-16: 1.2M Gzipped: 152K vs. 172K. UTF-8 easily wins over UTF-16 here.—@ebruchez
@ebruchez: Interesting... That contradicts sources like http://ur1.ca/3rrwe which says utf-16 is "denser for far east languages"! cc @ndw—@evlist
@ndw @ebruchez For more on the "size" issue, see the 2nd bullet under http://awe.sm/5HlQO (my take: it's a dubious argument). #xml—@avernet
@ndw @evlist Finding some support for UTF-8 here: http://t.co/bkq0K8W (Ironically Chinese/Japanese chars are messed up on this page.)—@ebruchez
@ndw FWIW, I really like the new-syntax-for-XDM approach, particularly as it makes error correction possible.—@JeniT
@ndw C:Python::Java:Jython::XML:NextML.—@davidpriest_ca
@ndw Talking of an alternative syntax for the same data model, what's your thought on something along the lines of Jade? http://awe.sm/5HlPx—@avernet
Sunday at 11:21pm
Monday at 01:13am
Monday at 01:39am
RT @ndw: Let the ridicule begin: http://norman.walsh.name/2011/03/28/XMLvNext #xml #xmlprague—@innovimax
Monday at 04:16am
Monday at 09:39am
"In a democracy people supposed to get politicians they deserve. What on earth did Americans do to deserve these?" http://on.ft.com/dJLitU—@simonstl
Monday at 09:52am
Suspect Social Security/Medicare won't be there for me because Republicans will have done their damndest to kill it, not for other reasons.—@simonstl
Monday at 09:52am
CFO asks CEO "What happens if we invest in developing our people & then they leave us?" CEO: 'What happens if we don't, and they stay?"—@eranium
Monday at 11:03am
"Big Content" Is Strangling American Innovation http://ur1.ca/3roi9 Refers to USA, but similar can be said of EU (via @johnmark)—@jgbarah
Monday at 11:22am
Google really is the new Sun -- led by engineers, bogged down by process and with a single and vulnerable source of revenue.—@ekabanov
In a conversation that started on Monday at 12:06pm
I must be the only person on the planet who likes XSLT. But I do find it very natural—it's like LISP with pattern matching—@pragdave
In a conversation that started on Monday at 01:19pm
Weather station I've wanted since I was a kid arrives today. Don't worry - I won't report weather every 2.5 seconds.—@simonstl
@simonstl Setup another Twitter account to do that... with a Perl script!—@gcarothers
@simonstl Which one? Was thinking of getting one of those to teach my girls about simple maths, etc.—@kendall
@kendall I went with Davis VantagePro2. A basic one, but maybe more than you want in the city. Explore http://www.wviewweather.com/ ,maybe?—@simonstl
In a conversation that started on Monday at 01:20pm
Animals being sold as live keyrings in China http://bit.ly/f8rShJ—@shelleypowers
@shelleypowers That’s it. The straw that broke the camel’s back, if you’ll pardon the metaphor. I have lost all faith in humanity.—@ndw
@ndw I thought it had to be an April Fools at first, but verified with other sources. It is beyond despicable.—@shelleypowers
Monday at 01:23pm
One doesn't expect thunder to *shake the house* in April. Nor the Spanish Inquisition, I suppose.—@ndw
Monday at 01:56pm
Only in DC's media culture could Paul Ryan get credit for "courage" for proposing to beat the hell out of society's most vulnerable.—@BrianYoung
Monday at 02:07pm
"Religion seems to make people happy in these dark times, but it's just a delusion. It distracts them from the zombies and everything."—@MrTeller
Monday at 02:23pm
"1. Stop theorizing. 2. Write lots of software. 3. Learn from your mistakes." http://is.gd/WmwboU (hat tip @baob)—@codinghorror
Monday at 03:03pm
Reason is doomed. RT @ACLU Supreme Court Rules ... Lack Standing To Challenge Fund[ing] Religious-Based Scholarships http://bit.ly/gIxFOT—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Monday at 04:15pm
I'm used to having a lot on my plate and a todo list as long as my arm, but the rest of April is insane. I can haz clone now, plz?—@ndw
@ndw I take it you are fan of duck-typing?—@leighklotz
Monday at 04:39pm
In a conversation that started on Monday at 06:07pm
According to @Klout, @kellblog's Klout score is 51. How influential are you? http://bit.ly/9csHKV—@Kellblog
Monday at 07:23pm
Dear Citi, Thanks for telling me about the data breach at Epsilon. Q: Why do they have my data in the first place? PS: Die in a fire.—@arclight
Monday at 08:28pm
If all atheists left the USA it would lose 93% of the National Academy of Sciences but less than 1% of the prison population.—@UFLinguist
In a conversation that started on Monday at 09:08pm
Using text/xpath as a content type for an embedded XPath expression appears reasonable, no? Any precedent?—@ebruchez
@ebruchez: perl, tcl, javascript, ... are application/x-perl, application/x-tcl, application/x-javascript... what about application/x-xpath?—@evlist
@evlist I don't like the x-* options. They feels very unassertive. XPath is established, I would use just xpath, whether official or not ;)—@ebruchez
@evlist Since "text" is useless and "application" doesn't say anything: inline: type="xpath"; network: application/xpath and UTF-8 @ndw—@ebruchez
@evlist JavaScript is officially text/javascript in HTML 5, but many options in practice: http://t.co/MjeWN9W—@ebruchez
@ebruchez: a difference between text/* and application/* is that for text/* you declare the encoding in HTTP headers. Is that the case here?—@evlist
In a conversation that started on Monday at 11:02pm
Turn your old school analog 35mm camera into a digital camera? Awesome, if it ships. http://t.co/kkBAeC9—@thebrianmanley
@thebrianmanley It looks fantastic. If it ships.—@ndw
Tuesday at 03:57am
Byte walks into a bar looking glum. Barman: "What's the matter with you?" Byte: "Parity error." Barman: "Ah. Thought you looked a bit off."—@sdstrowes
Tuesday at 05:10am
Outside world! Now in 3D! OMG! Awesome!—@jessicahagy
Tuesday at 06:31am
"well, what could be more serious than that? I think I'm going to be sick." - http://bit.ly/g0azpr—@simonstl
In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 06:58am
@ndw we need native features!—@marjoleink
Tuesday at 07:32am
I don't want to live in a place where what Paul Ryan has proposed can be called "courageous". That's just too fucked up & immoral for me.—@kendall
In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 07:40am
From a scientific point of view, it takes absurdly long for terrible ideas to be discredited & discarded in politics, at least in the US.—@kendall
@kendall There’s evidence that they’re *ever* discredited and discarded in US politics? Are you sure? ;-)—@ndw
@ndw Well, as @derekwillis pointed out, slavery is pretty much beyond the pale now. Took forever!—@kendall
@kendall @ndw @derekwillis Yet a big story yesterday was on Latino sex slaves in US neighborhoods in 25 states—@shelleypowers
Tuesday at 08:35am
@shellypowers Right, but I don't think anyone's going to argue in favor of that as a *policy* /cc @ndw @derekwillis—@kendall
Tuesday at 09:24am
Trying out "solarized" theme. I dunno, I'm not sure there's enough contrast in the light version. http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized—@ndw
Tuesday at 10:33am
the colour geek in me loves this stuff: Evan Schoonover's Solarized http://t.co/5hOoYmS /ht @ndw—@jtauber
Tuesday at 10:34am
RT @jtauber: the colour geek in me loves this stuff: Evan Schoonover's Solarized http://t.co/5hOoYmS /ht @ndw—@trevormunoz
Tuesday at 12:27pm
Powerful people should pay lower taxes, poor people should get less medicine. #brave—@mattyglesias
Tuesday at 12:37pm
"In one culture x is OK and in another it's shocking […] the side that's shocked is most likely to be the mistaken one." http://awe.sm/5HiC6—@avernet
In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 01:21pm
Protip: CZ receipts are indecipherable to English speakers so take notes. #xmlprague #expensereport #whatdidibuy?—@ndw
Tuesday at 01:53pm
I just found my new color scheme! RT @jtauber the colour geek in me loves this stuff: Solarized http://bit.ly/i9uTRl /ht @ndw—@jeffschenck
Tuesday at 03:54pm
Must have C-c C-t d about 25 items off my todo list in the last two days. #notasustainablepace #emacs #org-mode #ftw—@ndw
Tuesday at 04:01pm
Wednesday at 03:30am
Find myself re-reading @ndw's "XML v.next" http://bit.ly/i782g88. Check it out, if you haven't done so already. #xml #MicroXML #xmlnext—@thomas_hansen_
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 06:41am
Yes, norman.walsh.name, xprocbook.com, wiki.docbook.org, and wiki.xproc.org are down. Fscking defective memory. Back soon. Maybe. Probably.—@ndw
Wednesday at 08:50am
Got it in one. The first 4G DIMM I pulled appears to be the one that has errors. Now running with 12G and we'll see how it goes.—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 09:30am
Hey, but at least all those hardworking Congress people still get paid during the govt shutdown. We must have our national priorities!—@kendall
Wednesday at 10:36am
RT @chrislhayes: Imagine if the Serious People spent all this energy on making sure we avert climate disaster rather than screwing the poor?—@kdrum
Wednesday at 02:04pm
More anti-government than Newt Gingrich and serving in Congress. That should just not happen in a sane society.—@kendall
Wednesday at 10:49pm
Thursday at 05:54am
What? "The Fifth Element" is not a movie about Boron?—@raphv
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 06:05am
"Our in-house technical support team is being moved...to a more cost-effective offshore support platform." #doesnotbodewell #eig #dreamhost—@ndw
@ndw April Fool!—@milessabin
@milessabin The newsletter containing the statement is dated 6 April, so they’re either 5 days late or they’re not kidding.—@ndw
@ndw Yes, but it's referring to a blog post that went out on the first. Read the comments ... very funny. http://blog.dreamhost.com/—@milessabin
@ndw that's a key part of the reason I pay for a cage with power and an Internet connection downtown.—@simonstl
@ndw re dreamhost - that was a joke, wasn't it?—@andrewwelch
@andrewwelch Yeah, apparently. Meh.—@ndw
Thursday at 06:34am
@ndw do they actually say the *team* is moved? or is the 'support' moved? & WTH is an 'offshore support platform'? oil rig?—@marjoleink
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 06:44am
Color me taken then: http://bit.ly/gNAPvz but April Fool jokes dated 6 April do not amuse. #dreamhost—@ndw
@ndw You're not the only one. A lot of people (me included) only saw this via the newsletter several days later.—@milessabin
Thursday at 07:25am
MurphyCanHasCongress.com. Priceless. http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/03/i_iz_sad_cuz_i_iz_not_a_newyor.php—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 07:40am
I wonder if I would have joined the engineering team if I had known that I would have to write technical docs in Word. #killmenow—@ndw
@ndw .docx is XML. Is there not a workaround?—@james_clark
@james_clark Yes, I expect there is. Word to DocBook and back or some such, but this particular task is to edit part of someone else’s doc—@ndw
@ndw I have to read Word docs now and then here at KUMC, but so far I have managed to avoid editing them. Knock wood.—@dckc
@ndw revolution starts today ... Look at techdocs build system. I used it for CPF, we could use it again—@mathling
@ndw thought you would have everything on docbook by now.—@kingargyle
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 09:21am
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 01:02pm
RT @kdrum: How Condoms Are Shutting Down the Government http://mojo.ly/hsN51k < Now there's an image!—@simonstl
@simonstl @kdrum the US wouldn't need to worry so much about condoms if it didn't keep electing dicks to Congress.—@david_megginson
Thursday at 01:04pm
It's good to know Republicans want to shut the entire federal govt to ban an activity (abortion) that's *completely legal* in the US.—@kendall
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 03:33pm
Connection between computers A and B is worse than A to internet. Problem: 50 cm wall to drill through for ethernet :-(—@martin_probst
@martin_probst That’s a serious bit of wall.—@ndw
@ndw typical late 19th century German city house. People really liked to show off those days, c.f. >3m ceiling height.—@martin_probst
@ndw though the wall itself should only be bricks or maybe even clay in parts. So it's a question of length, not power.—@martin_probst
@martin_probst Years ago a cable installer just rammed a drill through the wall w/no concern for what was in or beyond it. I was stunned.—@ndw
@ndw is there another way? :-)—@martin_probst
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 04:04pm
Can you even imagine the inverse of the present situation? Democrats shutdown govt because their liberal left wants defense de-funded?—@kendall
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 04:54pm
Sigh. RT @skepticscience Fossil fuel companies spend $1 billion on lobbying, receive $90 billion in subsidies http://t.co/V0ytNUu—@ndw
Friday at 05:34am
Woops, direct link to World Wide Catacombs http://bit.ly/fZhomN About the buried non-commercial Web. @vwadhwa @DaveWiner @JayRosen_NYU—@dsearls
Friday at 05:38am
Why GUIs suck, revisited http://t.co/gsCPWRU—@JohnPelhamBlack
Friday at 06:35am
Really interesting: theory that gravity isn't a force, but a consequence of projecting 5 space-time dimensions onto 4 http://flpbd.it/sCCj—@mikeloukides
Friday at 06:48am
Less architectural tiers + no data impedence = less problems. #marklogic #xquery http://bit.ly/etmChN (via @xquerywebappdev)—@jpcs
Friday at 07:32am
RT @dsearls World Wide Catacombs: http://bit.ly/i7h1uv The non-commercial Web is now buried, if not dead.—@ndw
Friday at 07:37am
"They Chose WHO to Look Out for the Water Your Children Drink?" - http://www.andrewtobias.com/cgi-local/display_col.pl?110408—@simonstl
Friday at 07:39am
Working at the auto repair shop is one thing. Working through the non-stop talk talk talk of the shop radio is another thing entirely.—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Friday at 08:49am
#GOP #WI Election official use her PERSONAL COMPUTER to store election results and "finds" 7200+ votes? Srsly? http://t.co/3KBkmxR #fraud—@dhmspector
@dhmspector Is there anything so outrageous that the GOP won’t do it?—@ndw
@ndw is that a rhetorical question? :)—@dhmspector
Friday at 08:59am
I encourage everyone to refer to the govt shutdown, if or when it happens, as The Tea Party Shutdown. Let's make 'em own it!—@kendall
Friday at 09:36am
The One-second War (What Time Will You Die?) http://j.mp/eM8DOU—@windley
Friday at 12:57pm
In a conversation that started on Friday at 01:05pm
Friday at 01:12pm
If men got pregnant, Planned Parenthood would be funded at military levels.—@HunterDK
In a conversation that started on Friday at 01:13pm
I have an irrational dislike of XPath expressions of the form "some-expr/string()". I prefer "string(some-expr)".—@ndw
@ndw I used to dislike them too, but realized I wasn't forward thinking enough to start with string(... and so saves CTRL-cursoring back—@leepollington
In a conversation that started on Friday at 01:14pm
Protip: in XPath, some-expr/@foo/string() and string(some-expr/@foo) are not at all the same if some-expr has no foo attribute.—@ndw
Friday at 01:40pm
This year, we cut $75 million in homeless veteran benefits, but promised $27.4 million for NASCAR sponsorships | http://ti.me/eOPg4S—@TIME
In a conversation that started on Friday at 01:48pm
OH "Descartes' geeky nephew paraphrased his uncle: \'I introduce bugs, therefore I am.'"—@ndw
@ndw Codito ergo sum!—@hunterhacker
@hunterhacker Bugito ergo sum...—@iansmall
@iansmall Sum ergo codito. Codito ergo bugito.—@hunterhacker
@hunterhacker There's a follow up that has to do with the "sum" of your "bugs" but I'm too tired to figure it out.—@iansmall
Friday at 02:05pm
Hang on. NPR needs to be shut down to save money and this dead asshole gets MORE money than they do: http://is.gd/OkQTpP /ht @meyerweb—@jungshadow
Friday at 02:05pm
Friday at 03:07pm
Planned Parenthood's crimes, which must be stopped according to the GOP? Birth control, pap smears, cancer screenings. #americantaliban—@kendall
In a conversation that started on Friday at 03:19pm
Ubuntu is loads better than it was last time I really used it. But I still like macs better. Right now I miss my OmniFocus.—@bphogan
Friday at 03:23pm
"Probable-cause warrants would only get in the government’s way." You're damned right. #billofrights #privacy http://bit.ly/dHZLlw—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Friday at 03:24pm
Friday at 03:27pm
What part of "Uphold, protect and defend the Constitution of the United Sates" didn't you understand? http://t.co/PylHYag #obama #congress—@dhmspector
Saturday at 04:27pm
4 steps to #xproc : 1. read @ndw s intro http://t.co/Vr0eneJJ, 2. see real life samples in @oxygenxml, 3. goto 1., 4. start coding on monday—@herrkerzenbaum
Sunday at 11:58am
Remember when Planned Parenthood & NPR crashed the market, wiped out half our 401Ks and took TARP money? Me neither.—@joelhousman
Sunday at 04:26pm
New Blog Post - Creating an iPad-like dropdown menu in HTML5 http://goo.gl/fb/uzBOB—@RussB