The short-form week of 13–19 Jun 2011
20 Jun 2011
The week in review, 140 characters at a time. This week, 86 messages in 103 conversations. (With 10 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 01:01pm
Busy writing the text for my little something on XML, next week in Stockholm.—@sgmlguru
In a conversation that started on Sunday at 02:48pm
@ndw should I be able to figure out how to have the final p:xslt step output text to STDOUT?
Finding this impressively opaque—@abdelazer
Monday at 04:10am
The web-semantique Daily is out! http://bit.ly/fHdjyT ▸ Top stories today via @davidbgk @jplehmann @zo_z @jeenbroekstra @ndw—@networkvb
Monday at 07:18am
"The web of data will succeed *because* it conflates a thing and a web page about
the thing."—@psd
In a conversation that started on Monday at 10:26am
the more I read about Unity, the more I cringe - so many usability and accessibility
problems designed into it—@marjoleink
@marjoleink Yeah. I ran screaming within minutes.—@ndw
Monday at 11:05am
Monday at 11:47am
I'm tired of hearing about the government's efforts to keep me "safe"; I don't believe
it, don't want it, and prefer to be free-r than safer—@kendall
In a conversation that started on Monday at 03:03pm
Is Game of Thrones any good?—@ldodds
Monday at 03:33pm
In a conversation that started on Monday at 04:07pm
Vim: because your brain is more adaptable than your wrist muscles.—@tommorris
Monday at 10:24pm
Favorite NoSQL sound-byte 'reducing the "suckyness" to a bearable minimum for your
developers.' From http://bit.ly/iPiLiC via @ndw I think.—@grechaw
Tuesday at 10:06am
In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 10:22am
@ndw that means it's definitely not for me: I have tons of such files—@marjoleink
@marjoleink I’ve already got a system that doesn’t rely on filenames so I’m just going to rename
the few hundred files with accented letters—@ndw
Tuesday at 11:29am
Hey, Plex Media Server just got interesting: preview releases for Linux.—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 11:54am
My lady cab driver is getting me to record her voicemail on her mobile with my English
accent. :)—@leepollington
@leepollington Carl Kasell, watch out! http://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/features/messages.html—@ndw
@ndw Ha. A new income stream!—@leepollington
@leepollington where are you at? This is me at athens (too lazy to get up and get the acropolis
in the picture) http://twitpic.com/5bj4lk—@dscape
Tuesday at 12:06pm
@leepollington In other news, those clips are an audio fail. I couldn’t find any way to play them.
Not Firefox, Safari, or Chrome. Or VLC.—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 12:25pm
Damn it. The DVR only got the second half of "When a Good Man Goes to War" and it's
not being rebroadcast this week. #majorpout—@ndw
@ndw One of the advantages of buying these episodes on Amazon, rather than subscribing
to cable.—@shelleypowers
@shelleypowers Yeah, I’ve been meaning to try that. Do you actually get to d/l a useful, non-DRM’d
file? I wonder how I’d send it to the TV?—@ndw
@ndw It's a streaming file. I have a Roku, plus my blu-ray is Netflix/Amazon capable.—@shelleypowers
@ndw The Doctor Who episodes also show up for free on Watch Now after the season is over.
If you can wait (I can't).—@shelleypowers
In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 01:22pm
Sean Bean stabbed in a bar brawl: http://tinyurl.com/5r8uhqd (he’s ok, and just ordered another drink)—@bsletten
In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 01:47pm
Five years from now, there'll be no such thing as a web page. http://flic.kr/p/9Ts5RB—@zeldman
In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 01:54pm
Oh, look, I found a bug in my code before QA did. I wonder if I can fix it before
they notice.—@ndw
Tuesday at 01:58pm
Wednesday at 05:24am
As in real life, X's liberals go in and out of government but never have much influence.
Mostly they support centrists who despise them.—@aaronsw
Wednesday at 06:49am
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 06:56am
Facebook does realize that sustaining a rate of growth in excess of the rate of population
growth indefinitely is...unlikely, right?—@ndw
@ndw the markets don't worry about annoying trivial realities like that. $100Bn+ valuation,
here we come. http://bit.ly/mrQNGJ—@aristippus303
@ndw only under the assumption that accounts are backed by actual humans. Violating that
undermines their value prop though ...—@martin_probst
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 07:36am
In #XSLT 2.0, <xsl:value-of select='()'/> does not return the empty sequence #dumbmistakesivemadetoday—@ndw
@ndw Is it valid XSLT though? What are the semantics if '()'? I'd expect a syntax error.—@rolandbouman
@rolandbouman xsl:value-of always returns a text node; @select defines its string value; the string-value of () is the empty string.—@ndw
@ndw ok, thanks for pointing that out.—@rolandbouman
Wednesday at 08:01am
♺ @ndw: RT @lennybacon: @codinghorror ASCII rules!!! http://bit.ly/lXGgUM <--- Absolutely brilliant! TY!—@benosteen
Wednesday at 08:49am
Finally, an online illustration tool that I can recommend to authors. RT @lennybacon: ASCII rules!!! http://t.co/9U8hGsp (via @ndw)—@adamwitwer
Wednesday at 09:06am
Head to @UnSqNY tonight for the @ndw-nyc flash mob followed by the kick-off party at Union Bar! http://ow.ly/5gPd7—@DNA_Dance
Wednesday at 09:30am
Party at Union Bar: http://sch.mp/a0zWp - RT @DNA_Dance Head to @UnSqNY tonight for the @ndw-nyc flash mob followed by the kick-off party...—@NY_Now
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 09:45am
My nephew is 15 and wants to learn programming. What, his mom asks, do I recommend
as a first language? I'm tempted to suggest JavaScript.—@ndw
@ndw Too many quirks in JS for beginners; it loses even confirmed developers but i agree
this language is to be very important in the future—@X_Cli
@ndw Thinking that systems have tendencies.The web tends toward html,css,js.Other langs
have their own,introducing complexity when mixed.—@mwiik
@ndw Or Basic on C64 ;) Actually, this is a good (and long) kind of related article: http://t.co/21xhVGz—@ebruchez
@ndw but I'm an old man that's being practical. JS is awesome too and maybe immediate
web whizzy bang will keep him enthused. :)—@peteaven
@ndw fwiw, if asked, that's what I'd give. not only for obvious reasons & "Worse is better",
but also b/c relatively, it ain't all that bad—@sideshowbarker
@ndw Perl is a pragmatic 1st lang to try out all flavours of programming ... but you knew
I would suggest that right ?—@xquery
@ndw i'd agree. buy him a copy of Eloquent Javascript (http://eloquentjavascript.net//) by @marijnjh.—@dransfim
@ndw my 1st thought was python. looking at it now & i think it's great for learning prog
+ libs could be very useful to him thru hs/college—@peteaven
@ndw ...syntax (e.g. CoffeeScript, Haskell) might help with "can't see the forest for
the syntax trees" / prevent ingrained bad habits of JS—@pdxleif
@ndw Python is also a candidate. JavaScript is very ubiquitous, but the environment is
still "kind of works". OTOH, easy UI in JS—@martin_probst
@ndw It has universal usability, plenty of examples. Everyone ought to learn at anyways
at some point. But a language with a more 'pure'...—@pdxleif
@ndw Sure JavaScript is the new overlord and node.js etc look cool—@adamretter
@dckc (cc @ndw) Was there a particular JS book that worked well as a programming intro book? Looking
myself...—@bobdc
@ndw Yeah either Javascript or Python. Python is easier to as a language, but less fun
as a platform. Hard to make simple games—@gcarothers
@ndw ...quirks. Lot of beginners might be unsure where to sprinkle all the {}'s & ;'s,
and overdo it or just stick with copy/paste.—@pdxleif
@ndw Quora says Python: http://t.co/MYAxneq I agree. JavaScript is too quirky, and starting with a synchronous language is easier.—@pchapuis
Wednesday at 09:47am
Wednesday at 09:48am
@ndw Smalltalk!—@marjoleink
Wednesday at 09:49am
Wednesday at 09:52am
@ndw lesson 1 was a mad-libs thing. I didn't keep good notes, but I hope to in the future:
http://groups.diigo.com/group/web_craft—@dckc
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 10:12am
Holy [expletive deleted, -ed] indeed! #security #FAIL RT @benosteen Holy f*ck - Citibank was really this easy to hack?! http://is.gd/x7Jicr—@ndw
Wednesday at 10:26am
@ndw now where did that financial crisis start again? ... :p—@marjoleink
Wednesday at 10:26am
Wednesday at 01:04pm
Can the restaurant industry of America cool it with the Flash on the websites, please?
I just want your frickin' phone number & menu...—@NolanHaims
Wednesday at 01:43pm
Tossing in an attribute into HTML5 without due consideration in order to fix WebGL
is just phenomenally stupid. #screwtact—@shelleypowers
Wednesday at 02:07pm
Wednesday at 02:41pm
I suppose responding to the ACLU request to seek limits on FBI surveillance is just
asking for it right? Dear FBI, have fun in my garbage.—@ndw
Wednesday at 02:42pm
You know, if the FBI wanted to come pick up my garbage and recycling every Sunday
evening, that'd be kind of handy in its own way.—@ndw
Wednesday at 02:57pm
Evil hypocrites in everyday life are a challenge; but when they hold high office...Let's
avoid doing that any more, huh? http://t.co/G9Miz9Z—@kendall
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 03:15pm
"It was different with my wife. You see, I love her. I don’t even know your wife’s
name." http://tinyurl.com/3qf8mjy—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 03:17pm
Curiously, bit.ly wouldn't make me a link to the cagle blog post. Claimed it was "dangerous".—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 03:20pm
RT @ndw: "It was different with my wife. You see, I love her. I don’t even know your wife’s
name." http://tinyurl.com/3qf8mjy—@webmink
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 03:27pm
Have I said that 1600x900 is almost intolerable after 1920x1600? Well, it is.—@ndw
@ndw I needed to buy a screen for 5 weeks. Thought I'd go with 19". Those were *huge*
in the CRT days. Now 19" is tiny. Went with 24".—@hsivonen
@ndw I'm at 1280x800 mostly when I'm not plugged in to a big monitor. It could be worse
my friend! Roll on new MacBook Airs soon...—@billynewport
Wednesday at 04:18pm
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 05:16pm
Charter (cable) redesigned the DVR channel guide. It's prettier and displays less
information. #UI #FAIL—@ndw
@ndw Thank you for your feedback about the new SA Passport Guide. Which information is
it lacking? http://www.charter.com/Umatter2Charter—@CharterSteve
@CharterSteve There’s all that silly gray border on the left, top, and bottom so there’s less room
for actual, useful information.—@ndw
@CharterSteve Another gripe: where did “go to date” go? And a feature request: suppress some channels
from the guide entirely.—@ndw
@ndw We truly appreciate the feedback :) Have you seen this: http://bit.ly/mzZlbF Check out that video and let us know if it helps any.—@CharterSteve
@CharterSteve Hey, thanks. I’d missed the popup menu under “A”. That’s handy. Now, about all that
wasted screen space ... :-)—@ndw
@ndw Glad the video helped :) Thank you for your comments! If we can help in the future
please feel free to @Charter & we'll assist you.—@CharterSteve
@CharterSteve In the interest of positive feedback, search is nice and resuming playback on multiple
programs is also nice.—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 10:39pm
email alerts patented? Is it possible for something to go past tragedy and farce?
What's on the other side of farce? http://bit.ly/iVkVrD—@mikeloukides
@mikeloukides Sigh. Can we discard the entire, ludicrous "business process"/software patent mess,
yet? Plz?—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 02:17am
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 02:25am
RT @ndw "It was different with my wife. You see, I love her. I don’t even know your wife’s
name." http://tinyurl.com/3qf8mjy #fb—@giagia
@ndw @giagia incredibly moving RT. True but so well put almost in tears on the train. Sometimes
I really worry about America's future—@RebeccaNOLAUK
Thursday at 02:28am
RT @giagia: RT @ndw "It was different with my wife. You see, I love her. I don’t even know your wife’s
name." http://tinyurl.com/3qf8mjy #fb—@taniaglyde
Thursday at 02:30am
RT @giagia: RT @ndw "It was different with my wife. You see, I love her. I don’t even know your wife’s
name." http://tinyurl.com/3qf8mjy #fb—@RebeccaNOLAUK
Thursday at 02:36am
Hm. RT @ndw: "It was different with my wife. You see, I love her. I don’t even know your wife’s
name." http://tinyurl.com/3qf8mjy—@frobisher
Thursday at 04:02am
RT @giagia RT @ndw "It was different with my wife. You see, I love her. I don’t even know your wife’s
name." http://tinyurl.com/3qf8mjy—@pinknessofbeing
Thursday at 05:31am
Poweful. RT @ndw: "It was different with my wife. You see, I love her. I don’t even know your wife’s
name." http://tinyurl.com/3qf8mjy—@stokely
Thursday at 05:43am
"@stokely: Poweful. RT @ndw: "It was different with my wife. You see, I love her. I don’t even know your wife’s
name." http://t.co/am3Zjb2"—@Becs
Thursday at 05:59am
RT @ndw: "It was different with my wife. You see, I love her. I don’t even know your wife’s
name." http://t.co/am3Zjb2—@CurvaceousDee
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 06:47am
Why does someone who has tweeted twice in 3 years, and only follows airlines and airports,
suddenly decide to follow me?—@michaelhkay
@michaelhkay Must be because you’re a real high flyer! :-)—@ndw
Thursday at 07:12am
RT @giagia: RT @ndw "It was different with my wife. You see, I love her. I don’t even know your wife’s
name." http://tinyurl.com/3qf8mjy #fb—@Mammy_P
Thursday at 09:15am
This whole Weiner affair is such a national embarrassment: when will the US ever grown
up and slough off Puritanical bullshit? _sigh_—@kendall
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 09:45am
Texas cocktail confab Friday night in Austin: http://t.co/LLc347cc. Come join us for some delicious drinks.—@PaulasTXSpirits
@PaulasTXSpirits Oh dear, mixaustin.net seems not to be a real hostname.—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 09:48am
First person to Tweet I LOVE PAULA'S TEXAS SPIRITS! gets a free ticket to mixaustin.net.—@PaulasTXSpirits
@PaulasTXSpirits I LOVE PAULA'S TEXAS SPIRITS! (But give the ticket to the *second* person, eh?)—@ndw
@ndw Oops! Travel NOT included!—@PaulasTXSpirits
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 09:56am
Retry: First person to Tweet I LOVE PAULA'S TEXAS SPIRITS! gets a free ticket to MIX:
Celebrate Texas Cocktails http://t.co/S25N8HK—@PaulasTXSpirits
@PaulasTXSpirits Nope. Still 404. Whatever the site, it’s not at *.mixaustin.net I’m afraid.—@ndw
Thursday at 10:06am
RT @docbook Announcing a test release of DocBook Publishers: The Definitive Guide, http://docbook.org/tdg5/publishers/—@ndw
Thursday at 11:15am
NZOSS defeats Microsoft attempt to patent XML in word processing: http://wmk.me/lhEwge—@webmink
Thursday at 11:15am
Thursday at 11:19am
RT @ndw: RT @mikeloukides awesome Rube Goldberg video: http://youtu.be/qybUFnY7Y8w << Wow, cool!—@marked_man
Thursday at 11:23am
How can it be lunchtime? I haven't accomplished anything yet today! #oneofthosedays—@ndw
Thursday at 12:00pm
Thursday at 12:48pm
Thursday at 01:48pm
Replaced guts of printer. Like some demented game of Operation, almost inaccessible
tiny screws balanced on a weakly magnetized screwdriver.—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 01:49pm
Penalty for dropping a screw: remove them all, remove ticket printer guts, retrieve
errant screw, start over.—@ndw
@ndw I made a screw vacuum out of a shopvac, paper towel tube and window screen/cheese
cloth for those incidents. Works great.—@gcarothers
@gcarothers Yeah, except that there was no way to get anything around the body of the ticket
printer. The gaps were *just* big enough...—@ndw
Thursday at 01:51pm
Now, can I get all the byzantine client/server/local/remote/serial/internet connection
software working? #stressedtothemax—@ndw
Thursday at 01:53pm
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 01:56pm
Looking for an XProc vs. XSLT equivalency document! Current need <xsl:value-of> for
#xproc.—@harveybetty
@harveybetty Almost anything you do with an expression in XProc results in a string. Send me the
context and I’ll take a look...—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 02:00pm
RT @ndw: O.M.G. RT @lmorchard Github commit of the year. rm -rf is not a toy. https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee/commit/a047be85247755c
...—@jonzo1
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 02:25pm
Wonder how that W3C HTML/XML Task Force is getting on. I'll just check http://t.co/WOSf4yx ...yep looks fine.—@mattur
Thursday at 02:46pm
Oh thank all the $DIETIES, the ticket printer prints again. Normal service will return
when my blood pressure and anxiety subside.—@ndw
Thursday at 03:25pm
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 03:25pm
Amusing hypothetical biometric authentication method that came up today in conversation:
"licking the screen".—@xmlgrrl
Thursday at 03:33pm
RT @ndw: RT @docbook Announcing a test release of DocBook Publishers: The Definitive Guide, http://docbook.org/tdg5/publishers/—@jbzech
Thursday at 03:34pm
RT @ndw: RT @docbook Announcing a test release of DocBook Publishers: The Definitive Guide, http://bit.ly/jnaHus #ePrdctn <-noteworthy—@jbzech
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 03:56pm
Unsurprisingly, @timoreilly has figured out the best way I've seen to use Storify effectively http://t.co/7pqsyCo—@edd
Thursday at 07:56pm
Dear Math, I'm sick and tired of finding your "x". Just accept the fact that she's
gone. Move on, dude.—@TheQuoteAholics
Friday at 02:36am
The ᐸinnovimax/ᐳ Daily is out! http://bit.ly/fTmEYa ▸ Top stories today via @ndw @maitremo @authueil @ansidotorg—@dominiquepere
Friday at 02:52am
ROFL :D RT @ndw O.M.G. Github commit of the year. https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee/commit/a047be85247755cdbe0acce6—@arnaud_bos
Friday at 03:43am
“@dscape: #fail RT @ndw O.M.G. Github commit of the year. rm -rf is not a toy. http://t.co/INSt1Vb”EPIC—@aloncarmel
Friday at 10:49am
In a conversation that started on Friday at 10:50am
Are there *any* open source/Linux calendar apps that communicate with MS Exchange
at all successfully? Any tool at all?—@ndw
@ndw Kontact used to work just fine? Still use it but haven't used it with Exchange in
a while.—@gcarothers
@gcarothers Thanks. I’ll check it out.—@ndw
Friday at 11:14am
All roads seem to lead to davmail which I believe I did use successfully a few years
ago. Will have to try to get it setup again...—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Friday at 11:39am
Semtech ground-up -- The First Class, The First Individual http://post.ly/2EJAi—@grechaw
Friday at 02:50pm
Highly recommended: Painting Churches (and the whole summer season!) at http://www.newcenturytheatre.org/—@ndw
Friday at 04:02pm
Oh! Hello weekend! I almost didn't see you there. What? You brought me a Mojito? How
kind! /me wanders off...—@ndw
Friday at 05:24pm
Friday at 06:22pm
In a conversation that started on Saturday at 05:49pm
@xmlgrrl - looks like I'm going to be co-writing an XML intro book (well, another edition
of one) - in 140 chars, what should be in there?—@danja
@danja Hmm. XML used for what - narrative content? Programming? If the latter, these days
you need a JSON comparison. /cc @ladyjson :)—@xmlgrrl
@xmlgrrl @ladyjson JSON, thx, that's a very big stick. But if you were to write a book on XML (broad
not deep) what would be in there?—@danja
@danja Perhaps design patterns for info modeling, optimized for various data structure /
messaging / processing purposes?—@xmlgrrl
@xmlgrrl thanks, exactly the help I need. The one I don't know the state of the art on there
is processing - any pointers?—@danja
@xmlgrrl I am finding it difficult to frame XML 2011 when half my head never got past RDF/XML
2001 :)—@danja
@danja I'm rusty myself! (on both the "XML" half and the "grrl" half :-) But I bet @ndw would have thoughts...—@xmlgrrl
@xmlgrrl day on day fewer people will be able to disentangle xml from grrl, cryptic, so all
you gotta do is change your photo every 6 months—@danja
@xmlgrrl @ndw heh, Norm was next. Think it's his round, in fact. But fair question: what's changed
in the XML space in the last 5 years?—@danja
@xmlgrrl @IdentityWoman was concerned about 8/10 male at http://t.co/pxv8nzy called for more girls—@danja
Saturday at 07:01pm
Saturday at 07:44pm
In a conversation that started on Sunday at 10:00am
I bought a box of HP 4x6 photo paper. The pages are 4x6.5". WTF!?—@ndw
@ndw 4x6 print size, and a half-inch for the paper feeder?—@davidpriest_ca
In a conversation that started on Sunday at 02:05pm
Created a Scala proj in IntellIJ 10. Added Saxon module to the project. Scala compile
fails: IO error decoding Numberer_da.java. Clues?—@ndw
@ndw scala/Saxon. Are you trying to compile the Java or include the byte code? Latter
should work.—@leepollington
Sunday at 03:57pm
RT @ndw: Created a Scala proj in IntellIJ 10. Added Saxon module. Scala compile fails: IO
error decoding Numberer_da.java. Clues? << anyone?—@etorreborre
Comments
JavaScript: The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford is not a tutorial, still less aimed at novice programmers, but its subset of JavaScript is an excellent programming language.
Those Carl Kasell messages would be cute to hear once. After the tenth time, I'd want to wipe it clean remotely. "Use it once, you're a wit; use it twice, you're a half-wit." "Geometric progression?" "Or worse." (Heinlein, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress)