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

@sgmlguru Good luck & enjoy! Wish I could have made it.—@ndw

@ndw Thanks. For full enjoyment of my little something on XML, though, you should know some Swedish.—@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

@abdelazer If you don’t specify a -poutput on the command line, it’ll go to STDOUT. Assuming you’ve not bound the pipeline result elsewhere.—@ndw

@ndw I have read that text output is bad in the middle of pipelines (I can understand why), but is it forbidden for the last step?—@abdelazer

@abdelazer No. If you don’t send it anywhere else, it’ll go to STDOUT. Are you still having trouble?—@ndw

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

Check out lettering.js at http://letteringjs.com/ #aea—@steyblind

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

@ldodds It's very good, but not at all happy.—@JeniT

@JeniT @ldodds Especially for poor Ned at the moment.—@ndw

@ndw I suffer from a complete failure to recall the names of anyone in Game of Thrones. /cc @ldodds—@JeniT

@JeniT Ned is Sharp, er, Stark, I mean.—@ndw

@ndw Oh right. Yes. Not Good.—@JeniT

@JeniT I gotta say, I didn’t see *that* coming though.—@ndw

@ndw @JeniT sounds like the episode you're watching is about where I am in the book—@laurendw

Monday at 03:33pm

RT @jamis Recruiters: if you want to hire the best talent, stop expecting people to relocate. Telecommuting works, and works well.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 04:07pm

Vim: because your brain is more adaptable than your wrist muscles.—@tommorris

@tommorris Nonsense. My brain is an essentially inert lump of semi-solid goo. #Emacs #FTW—@ndw

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

Google Music won't upload files that have non-ASCII characters in them. #i18n #fail—@ndw

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

@bsletten He fared less well in Game of Thrones, alas.—@kendall

@kendall Uhm... *spoiler* alert.—@bsletten

@bsletten Doh! Sorry.—@kendall

@kendall @bsletten Glad I watched that one last night!—@ndw

@ndw Next @kendall is gonna to announce that “She’s a dude”, “Soylent Green is people”, “He’s dead”, “Vader is Luke’s father”.—@bsletten

@bsletten I get all of those but "he's dead" -- which one is that? /cc @ndw—@kendall

@kendall @bsletten That one’s The Sixth Sense—@ndw

@ndw @bsletten That's what I suspected; but all that M Night Whatshisname stuff is starting to seriously run together at this point...—@kendall

@kendall @bsletten Yeah, but The Sixth Sense was the one that was actually, you know, any good.—@ndw

@ndw Actually, we should just get him this shirt: http://tinyurl.com/y2j6aav—@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

@zeldman Nonsense.—@ndw

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

@ndw What bug? *angel smile*—@grtjn

Tuesday at 01:58pm

@kendall @bsletten If it’s any consolation, I had to look up “Donnie Dies”—@ndw

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

Angry Birds: Stuck in Rio http://flic.kr/p/9TE7zX #cartoonphysics #angrybirds—@ndw

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

@ndw They will just have to find new markets. Next stop for the Zuckmeister is Alpha Centauri.—@drzero42

@ndw We can all have more personas—@ptsefton

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

@ndw What does it return? I'm not sure what I'd expect there.—@MattioV

@MattioV The empty string.—@ndw

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 python definitely—@daks_

@ndw I went for PHP in console mode. For reasons see http://t.co/oZzavJI—@petecordell

@ndw Or Basic on C64 ;) Actually, this is a good (and long) kind of related article: http://t.co/21xhVGz—@ebruchez

@ndw Ada 2012! (Complete dev environment available from http://t.co/QKtTtaG )—@Scorpaena

@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 Yes or Python, IMO.—@kendall

@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 JavaScript, good choice—@phidip

@ndw i'd vote either asm or a functional language—@kalou000

@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 I'd probably go with python or ruby; good materials on each depending on interests—@laurendw

@ndw Python using http://t.co/hhDkgHx but JavaScript would be my second suggestion—@jtauber

@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 javascript may be the most useful in his adult life but I suggest they start with python—@iand

@ndw Sure JavaScript is the new overlord and node.js etc look cool—@adamretter

@adamretter @ndw I meant the new old overlord of course—@adamretter

.@ndw Racket or Scheme (?) http://t.co/uZpPmKZ—@sindoc

@ndw yup, javascript. I'm helping my 11 year old learn JS as a summer project.—@dckc

@dckc (cc @ndw) Was there a particular JS book that worked well as a programming intro book? Looking myself...—@bobdc

@bobdc: actually, the only JS tutorials we could find on youtube were boring, too.—@dckc

@bobdc: I'm a web guy; I use books for escape. Let alone my 11 yr old. youtube is his classroom. e.g. learning songs on piano.—@dckc

@bobdc, @ndw, I found my notes on JS games and added them to http://groups.diigo.com/group/web_craft—@dckc

@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 I wouldn't hesitate: Python.—@larsga

@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

@ndw I'm inclined to agree with you there. whether its the easiest language to get to grips with, I'm not sure—@ldodds

Wednesday at 09:48am

@ndw Smalltalk!—@marjoleink

Wednesday at 09:49am

@ndw +1 JavaScript—@Klortho

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

@ndw holy %#!& citibank web engineers must be the idiots—@eedeebee

Wednesday at 10:26am

@ndw now where did that financial crisis start again? ... :p—@marjoleink

Wednesday at 10:26am

@ndw Javascript would be my first choice now, too, but whatever you do don't use w3schools.com as a reference. See w3fools.com for why not.—@raybellis

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

My evening project recently has been retooling the build process for DocBook: TDG. Sure glad I don't have to do it without #XProc anymore!—@ndw

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

@ndw good article Norman. A bit harsh, but thorough and just nonetheless.—@yasoofq8

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

@ndw No problem here - http://t.co/PVAqD2A—@webmink

@webmink When I follow your t.co link, I get an intermediary “STOP - there might be a problem” page.—@ndw

@ndw Worse, there's no way to tell bit.ly their system is being abused.—@webmink

.@ndw I've had a reply from @bitly and they've unblocked the Cagle site. As far as I can tell they have no real process for false positives.—@webmink

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

@ndw @webmink http://ow.ly/5iJea - possibly NSFW—@muni_pete

@muni_pete @webmink Is that the problem!? ROTFL!—@ndw

@ndw @muni_pete @silner Bit.Ly say it's not their problem and I should complain to Spamhaus. I call bullshit and abuse.—@webmink

@ndw I just sent a complaint to bit.ly and I suggest you do too... /cc @muni_pete—@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

@hsivonen Yeah, when my external needs replacing, I’ll definitely go bigger. I like having the same res on both internal and external though—@ndw

@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

Amazing: (via @ndw) #security #FAIL RT @benosteen Citibank was really this easy to hack?! http://is.gd/x7Jicr—@fjhirsch

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

http://goo.gl/q6gzx NYNY traffic. A normal day? #traffic—@dpawson

@dpawson Looks pretty normal from my somewhat limited experience. Pushy pedestrians, rude drivers, & crazy cycle msngrs. What’s not to love?—@ndw

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

@giagia @ndw Santorum needs a sanitarium—@DanCookeUK

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

RT @mikeloukides awesome Rube Goldberg video: http://youtu.be/qybUFnY7Y8w—@ndw

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

RT @ashooner The Truth About the Economy http://t.co/akKks8B /vai @mamund—@ndw

Thursday at 12:48pm

Thank you NetSuite for finding a new way to #fail. Submit+Print doesn’t. Have to re-load page, re-login, re-open report, then print.—@ndw

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

O.M.G. RT @lmorchard Github commit of the year. rm -rf is not a toy. https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee/commit/a047be85247755cdbe0acce6—@ndw

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

@ndw @lmorchard @jonzo1 The iTunes installer did that back in the day.—@paulschreiber

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

@ndw Any news or just the blues? RT @mattur Wonder how W3C HTML/XML Task Force is getting on. Checking http://t.co/9h1dQuX …yep looks fine.—@gimsieke

@gimsieke Time for us to get back to meeting and address the comments. Thought it would happen this week, but...now planning for next week.—@ndw

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

#fail RT @ndw O.M.G. Github commit of the year. rm -rf is not a toy. https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee/commit/a047be85247755cdbe0acce6—@dscape

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

@xmlgrrl “There’s an app for that."—@ndw

@xmlgrrl iPhones only, of course.—@webmink

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

@edd Funny. I read that page, and I’ve re-read it now, and haven’t the faintest clue what storify is or why I should care.—@ndw

@ndw It lets you glue together social news items to make a story. Not 100% convinced, but Tim's use is the best I've seen—@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

Ha! RT @gnat Penis-tweeting US politician forced to resign but Iraq war architects remain unpursued. In short: "Weiner out, Bush free."—@ndw

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

@grechaw Broken image, but an interesting piece (and series) otherwise. Keep up the good work!—@kendall

@kendall Thank you sir. Evernote is underwhelming me during this process.—@grechaw

@grechaw We've started using Dropbox for asset hosting like that...—@kendall

@kendall You found no egregious errors then, in approach or reasoning?—@grechaw

@grechaw Well... Nothing egregious but I wouldn't mention Russell or use 'object' talk because it's not OOP, etc.—@kendall

@kendall I see your point. There are however conceptual bridges to help people to semtech, including the SQL bridge and the OOP bridge.—@grechaw

@grechaw I understand that...The better bridge IMO is basic set theory and Venn diagrams, which everyone on earth already understands. ;>—@kendall

@kendall @grechaw How does Evernote play into this?—@ndw

@ndw I mailed my post to myself, and then to posterous. Since I was still logged into evernote, I never saw the image link problem.—@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

Well done, sir. http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/republican-new-york-senator-comes-out-for-gay-marr—@ndw

Friday at 06:22pm

+1 RT @ndw Ha! RT @gnat Penis-tweeting US politician forced to resign, Iraq war architects remain unpursued. ... : "Weiner out, Bush free."—@tigracc

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

@danja @xmlgrrl the first things that come to mind: XProc, XSLT 2.0, XQuery.—@ndw

@ndw @xmlgrrl thanks Norm. XSLT & XQuery latest are covered, must have a think on how to get XProc in, it is neat stuff (some life in XML!)—@danja

@danja @ndw Best guess: Transform tools, editors/IDEs, proc speed, JSON competition, settling of many satellite specs, more std schemas?—@xmlgrrl

@xmlgrrl @ndw filter for newbies, what would stand out?—@danja

@xmlgrrl @IdentityWoman was concerned about 8/10 male at http://t.co/pxv8nzy called for more girls—@danja

@danja Ah yes, I wasn't able to get to FSW.—@xmlgrrl

@xmlgrrl @ladyjson sorry, I didn't answer your question. For the benefit of a newbie programmer or academic—@danja

@danja Broad knowledge of XML still poor, people still need reminding about char encodings and the dangers of special chars in text editors.—@abcoates

@abcoates thanks re. XML - luckily I'm not on the intro chapters—@danja

Saturday at 07:01pm

@xmlgrrl @ndw Joe Fawcett is the lead author, has filtered well for changes in XML. But I got half the chapters to do. I insisted #xmpp #rdf—@danja

Saturday at 07:44pm

@ndw you're late. And it's your round btw... @xmlgrrl—@danja

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

@ndw Does your Saxon project compile with Java only? I seem to remember a char encoding issue with Numberer files.—@ebruchez

@ebruchez yes. It even compiles as a module in this project. And the scala compiles from the cmd line.—@ndw

@ndw Not sure what the issue is, but you can temporarily remove most Numberer_*.java from compilation if you don't want to be stuck.—@ebruchez

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)