The short-form week of 5–11 Sep 2011

12 Sep 2011

The week in review, 140 characters at a time. This week, 37 messages in 36 conversations. (With 4 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 02:49pm

UNIX' Russian Roulette: sudo [ $[ $RANDOM % 6 ] == 0 ] && rm -rf / || echo “You live”—@zeminlu

@zeminlu @ndw I would hope that I fotgot the root password with bash commands like that one. Might be fun on an old netbook—@phidip

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

Rewrote titlepage handling for DocBook FO stylesheets. Again. I wonder if I have it right this time.—@ndw

@ndw I will be putting it to use tomorrow!—@davidpriest_ca

@davidpriest_ca I fear you may be a bit too early; not sure I’ll get it all checked in by tomorrow (er, today)—@ndw

Tuesday at 08:42am

Firefox tab groups are quite handy.—@ndw

Tuesday at 12:54pm

I have crushing deadlines. My better half has crushing deadlines. So naturally *both* her printers have balked today. KMN.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 04:18pm

If I hadn't brined the chops in preparation for grilling, would the rain have held off so that I could use the grill?—@ndw

@ndw thats what grill lids are for—@DALDEI

@ndw Almost certainly! Marination of any kind tempts fate.—@collwhit

@ndw it's bad luck to be superstitious.—@icing

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 09:40pm

The Portal paraphernalia in the back of the Think Geek catalog only increases my interest in buying the game.—@ndw

@ndw I finally broke down and bought Portal, haven't regretted it. Great game. I played the first few levels bought Portal 2, that good.—@dethe

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 08:17am

puts his SVG design generation code online http://t.co/YfpkejM for anyone to play with.—@briansuda

@briansuda An example of the output of each script would be very useful.—@ndw

@ndw some of the folders have an output.svg file. I'll see what i can do to get it for everything.—@briansuda

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 12:47pm

SVG in the browser was a long time coming, but it sure is nice.—@ndw

@ndw My favourite thing about <canvas> is that it prompted browser vendors to bring SVG up to snuff.—@dethe

@ndw And yet, just today, I was forced to move my SVG into a separate document in order to publish my spec. WHAT HAS THIS WORLD COME TO?!?—@tabatkins

Wednesday at 12:48pm

+1 RT @ndw: SVG in the browser was a long time coming, but it sure is nice.—@jeffsonstein

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 02:23pm

I'm installing a nightly build of MarkLogic Server 5.0 and I'm rocking one leg. Jealous!?!? [throws gang signs]—@peteaven

@peteaven There’s a joke here about having your very own smokin’ hot build, but I can’t find it.—@ndw

Wednesday at 03:11pm

@ndw LOL! #awesome :)—@peteaven

Wednesday at 03:37pm

RT @toshok: more game of thrones influence on my thinking: The slogan for the 2012 election should be "Winter is coming"—@ndw

Wednesday at 04:01pm

Linux Journal has gone all digital. Wow. Beginning of the end or beginning of the beginning?—@ndw

Wednesday at 04:02pm

Hey, @linuxjournal, how about you replace that awful "enhanced digital edition" goo with some simple, decent HTML+CSS?—@ndw

Wednesday at 04:25pm

CSS humor: .titanic { float: none; }—@saismo

Wednesday at 04:32pm

@ndw guess I should hang on to that noe issue I have then ;)—@marjoleink

Wednesday at 05:53pm

Cold, wet day vs Naba Yaki Udon. Udon FTW!—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 08:41pm

Is it just me, or did the most recent Insp Lewis mystery completely fail to explain the present day murders?—@ndw

@ndw lates insp. Lewis are not yet bradcasted in Denmark. But you'll just find Lewis himself and ask him during @xmlsummerschool (i'm going)—@MarieBilde

@ndw re: Lewis. Darn, I knew there was something on besides debate, but forgot til your tweet. BTW, Lewis easier to understand than GOP.—@richardhamilton

@richardhamilton One can no more hope to understand the GOP than they can hope to understand any other deranged lunatic.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 02:16am

Difficult phone call with an American who pronounces both "can" and "can't" as "cairn".—@michaelhkay

@michaelhkay I cairn understand why that was a problem.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 06:04am

When Yahoo borks Flickr, I'm going to go back to rolling my own. Fscking cloud.—@ndw

@ndw that's the curse of the cloud. dependency is high, portability is low, so if it's core business, it's better to run your own cloud.—@dret

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 07:58am

actually feel good about my (non)reaction to that event; was able to act as if that hadn't just happened and take care of her.—@peteaven

@peteaven That’s good because the tweet almost made me lose my breakfast.—@ndw

@ndw oops. didn't think about the chain reaction ramifications of that one. :)—@peteaven

Thursday at 10:24am

@simonstl Less than 10%. Wow. I wonder if I’ll even be able to get a stick when next I have to buy a car.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 02:24pm

That’s pretty good. RT @jimancona To estimate a project we apply C to F formula. C is internal and F is what we tell PM: C x 9/5+32=F days.—@ndw

@ndw: I've use 'kg to lb' formula before. kg is hours it should be; lb is what you tell PM: kg x 2.2 = lb hours.—@MenteaXML

Thursday at 03:55pm

@ndw Credit for that one goes to @DEVOPS_BORAT—@jimancona

In a conversation that started on Friday at 09:00am

"unnerved by the way we've become so security obsessed, so suspicious, so wary" - http://t.co/ODQsDPU—@simonstl

@simonstl Ultimately, it may simply be necessary to live somewhere else.—@ndw

@ndw @simonstl I shocked myself a few weeks ago when I caught myself saying (and meaning) "Maybe it's just time to go elsewhere"—@kiphampton

Friday at 09:48am

Wow. Nailed it: http://t.co/3nQC8Vb #Bush #911 #GroundZero speech revisited—@dhmspector

In a conversation that started on Friday at 11:46am

@kiphampton @ndw I worry about the steadily decreasing number of "somewhere elses" that we all haven't botched yet.—@simonstl

@simonstl @kiphampton There’s definitely that problem.—@ndw

Friday at 12:03pm

Just because the ratio in running times between two tests has increased doesn't mean performance is worse. The denominator matters too.—@mathling

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

Oh dear, trains to Norwich in a pickle, going home via Cambridge. Only upside is I have @pauldappleby for company :)—@johnlsheridan

@johnlsheridan Your bad luck with trains reminds me, I’ll be near Norwich 16-19 Nov (trains willing :-) )—@ndw

Friday at 12:39pm

@johnlsheridan November? Where’s my brain? 16-19 September. Next Friday.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 08:51am

Typography #fail http://t.co/Kk0Q8rP—@ndw

Ewww. QT @ndw: Typography #fail http://t.co/7xgXl9c—@docum3nt

@ndw http://t.co/DefhE83 Now tell us what it is/was/what you were doing Norm?—@dpawson

Saturday at 04:19pm

"Mel Brooks and Dick Cavett Together Again." Delightful. #tv—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 09:05pm

Bo has two faces? #didntseethatcoming #torchwood—@ndw

@ndw Hi Norm - Is your 2011 Balisage paper/presentation on XML editors publicly available? I can only find an abstract. Curious.—@arh

@arh I'm pretty sure I sent in something for the proceedings, but I'll check. I've been woefully bad about self-publ my pres recently.—@ndw

@ndw Thx! Much appreciated.—@arh

@ndw Ssshhh! Still on season 2. #whosbo—@distobj

@distobj You'll need to watch Dr Who to find out about Bo. It was a carefully chosen unspoilery comment.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 06:28am

Is Bletchley Park a reasonable day trip from London? Say, departing at 10ish, must be back by 3ish? Or is that just silly?—@ndw

@ndw depends on your mode of transport, but in principle easy—@louBurnard

@ndw yes it is, right outside the train station. Lots to see though—@drogersuk

@ndw echo @dpawson comments, was pretty cool when I went—@xquery

@ndw ah - geek tourism :) FWIW, Turing's birthplace is a hotel in Little Venice (Warwick ave tube stop). Or come to AU to see black swans ;)—@mnot

@mnot I am always on the lookout for an opportunity to come to AU!—@ndw

@ndw I can't see you having enough time to do more than take a photo of the entrance.—@mvahowe

@ndw http://t.co/iTRYDjp—@louBurnard

@ndw This is probably not enough time. You will spend 2 hours only going there and back.—@aamelnikov

@ndw 10 til 3 sounds a bit short. 1.5 hours each way depending on where from? Never been myself though stayed near by very recently.—@ed_davies

@ndw: Fair hike Norm, but worth it. 57 miles, 1.25 hours? by car.—@dpawson

@ndw feasible, you'd have 3 hours there for ~2 hours travel: http://t.co/D0EM4qQ—@psd

@ndw Bletchley is about 40 mins in the train from Euston. BP is v near the station. Day trip a doddle—@tug

Sunday at 09:08am

10 years ago we had rights to privacy and fair trials; torture and assassination were our enemies' policies. This is also worth remembering—@acdha

Sunday at 10:11am

Summary: doable, but probably short on time. Maybe if my connections are all good I can leave earlier. We'll see. Thanks!—@ndw