The short-form week of 10–16 Oct 2011

17 Oct 2011

The week in review, 140 characters at a time. This week, a bunch of messages in 65 conversations. (With 12 favorites.) The random tweets marked as favorites bug continues to be as annoying as anything.

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 Monday at 07:39am

Hey Apple, how does someone who brings a remote into the room get to take over my laptop uninvited?!?! #SecurityFail—@chaals

@chaals You forgot to pair your remote with your laptop, didn’t you? :-)—@ndw

Monday at 07:52am

Celebrate Columbus Day by dropping in on a distant relative unannounced & uninvited and refuse to leave. Smallpox optional.—@tom_streeter

Monday at 09:38am

Seriously, I do not want to talk to my computer, not even the one in my pocket.—@lmorchard

Monday at 09:41am

I want to talk to my handheld computer as much as I want to talk to my hand.—@lmorchard

Monday at 12:12pm

RT @jahendler "Colleague, stranger, friend / I'll answer your email soon / but not right away" #haiku—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 01:40pm

Appleistas all saying any handset bigger than 3.5" is too big, any tablet smaller than 10" too small. #seemsfarfetched—@timbray

@timbray I'm waiting for a decent 5.5-6" tablet/handset; then I'll consider buying it. It'll be running Android. Appleistas haven't a clue.—@freddrake

@timbray Interesting to ponder. Which is Apple more likely to make: a smaller iPad or a bigger iPhone?—@gruber

@gruber My heart is still with the 7" form factor, and my tastes are usually pretty mainstream. That's a smaller iPad, right?—@timbray

@timbray I'd say that's more likely too. I don't expect it, but a smaller iPad is far more likely than a bigger iPhone.—@gruber

@gruber @timbray …or a bigger iPad. (A smaller iPhone is the least likely, I think.)—@siracusa

@timbray Nonsense.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 01:44pm

OMG! New content at nwalsh.com! Bestill my fluttering heart. #xmlss presentations now online.—@ndw

@ndw My wife thought that 3 phrases "Document Management", "Norman Walsh" and "MarkLogic Corporation" are front page of ML web. #rockstar—@jirkakosek

In a conversation that started on Monday at 04:02pm

Holy cow! RT @dcm This is quite insane - RT @jfleck: Last Thursday's Texas drought map? Just wow. http://t.co/sUCNdBVT—@ndw

@ndw they did get some rain over the weekend.—@simonstl

Tuesday at 04:58am

Xml Techno nouvelle édition http://t.co/uKBUc9XK ▸ Aujourd'hui à la UNE: @robinsmidsrod @intelligentform @idug_mtl @ndw—@dominiquepere

Tuesday at 06:50am

I'll take a well formed text tutorial over a screencast any day. I can read *really* fast.—@fogus

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 11:10am

Finally migrating my dozen or so Mercurial repos to git. Nothing against hg, per se, just reducing complexity in my life a little bit.—@ndw

@ndw Fail to see how hg -> git reduces complexity. Increases entropy maybe....—@bpanulla

@bpanulla It means I have one less VCS to think about—@ndw

@ndw Not trolling, btw. I suspect I may move to Git eventually when I find a compelling reason, so I was curious what compelled you.—@bpanulla

@bpanulla I’ve got stuff on github which is working out well. Hg barked about big binary files once or twice which bothered me.—@ndw

@ndw Yeah, GitHub was a big push for me for DVCS, but I got so impatient with Git that I didn't really use it until I jumped to Hg.—@bpanulla

@ndw Yeah, that hasn't come up yet, but I'm pretty strict about what I actually version and big binaries usually don't pass the test.—@bpanulla

@ndw Totally agree.... that's why I'm using Hg with the hg-git and hg-subversion plugins. Loving that simplicity.—@bpanulla

Tuesday at 11:16am

Wow. That Photoshop "unblur" thing is pretty damn impressive.—@ndw

Tuesday at 12:20pm

Holy cow! RT @dcm This is quite insane - RT @jfleck: Last Thursday's Texas drought map? Just wow. http://t.co/AfxpEaKD (via @ndw)—@fjhirsch

Tuesday at 12:21pm

I was going to go to America for my Second Coming, but they don't seem to take too kindly to immigrants named Jesus.—@Jesus_M_Christ

Tuesday at 12:37pm

If the 6:30a train out of London, 10min from hotel, was crazy, what's the 6:30a flight out of BDL, an hour away? WTF was I thinking!?—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 12:58pm

Who owns the NYPD? http://t.co/ec6Dnp1g /via uh, someone on twitter—@ndw

@ndw Is this one of those where the domain name provides the answer?—@mwiik

Tuesday at 01:15pm

So @gmail is tweeting about security but they'll give all my data to the gov't without a warrant. Oh, the irony. http://t.co/fMZgYSGB—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 01:26pm

@ndw even more irony since you're using google's tool to shorten the URL (why?)—@marjoleink

@marjoleink Because I have an Alfred script that makes the Google shortener a click and three characters away.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 03:20pm

it's not hard to guess this is impossible on a mac. actual typing is frowned on: you have to do everything with mouse/menu :-( #macui #fail—@docum3nt

@docum3nt If you find a way, do let me know. FWIW, I coded up a few keyboard-only ways in Emacs :-)—@ndw

@ndw M-x ucs-insert is excellent, thank you. The Mac is severely deficient in this area, but ucs-insert seems to work in AquaMacs OK—@docum3nt

@docum3nt Don't give up... though if Tom doesn't know then you probably should!—@lornaocallaghan

@lornaocallaghan @ndw It's for here http://t.co/FTOqCrQJ—@docum3nt

Tuesday at 04:18pm

RT @ndw So @gmail is tweeting about security but they'll give all my data to the gov't without a warrant. Oh, the irony http://t.co/6tasRTVZ—@MoniqueSleek

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 05:02am

@ndw @lornaocallaghan @beq00000 Yay! FIRST do Sys Prefs > Lang & Text > Input Sources > Unicode Hex Input, THEN Option nnnn works :-)—@docum3nt

@docum3nt Nice. Shame you still have to switch modes, though. I’ll have to figure out a good keyboard shortcut for that.—@ndw

Ctrl-U? QT @ndw: @docum3nt Nice. Shame you still have to switch modes, though. I’ll have to figure out a good keyboard shortcut for that.—@docum3nt

Wednesday at 05:05am

@ndw @lornaocallaghan @beq00000 Thanks to @Evertype and Sara on TYPO-L for finding this!—@docum3nt

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 08:20am

Whee! Namespaces in JSON! Let the reinvention of XML begin! http://t.co/7WQyLsKL—@ndw

@ndw .. wow. the idea of using json that way weirds me out.—@jwpye

@ndw But they are using dots, that makes it so much better ;)—@gcarothers

@ndw they guy simply uses (slightly) more complex property names. That would have saved the XML community from a lot of problems...—@martin_probst

@ndw http://t.co/2Zgx8sTJ—@jreschke

@ndw I'm hopeful about JSLT and JELAX NG—@abdelazer

@ndw oh but this one you can eval() !—@doriantaylor

@doriantaylor Yeah, because that never leads to security problems or injection attacks.—@ndw

@ndw quoth Crockford: "Not my problem!"—@doriantaylor

@ndw the Turmeric SOA framework from http://t.co/DGLKkHuB supports similar namespace constructs for json. http://t.co/K7o0ERGP #soa #json—@kingargyle

Wednesday at 08:26am

O.M.G.!!! RT @ndw: Whee! Namespaces in JSON! Let the reinvention of XML begin! http://t.co/je5P7XFD—@grtjn

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 08:33am

RT @ndw: Whee! Namespaces in JSON! Let the reinvention of XML begin! http://t.co/7WQyLsKL—@hsivonen

@ndw @hsivonen no, no, no, no, no! #hidingandcowering—@jdpacker

Wednesday at 12:12pm

. RT @ndw Whee! Namespaces in JSON! Let the reinvention of XML begin! http://t.co/VdBcwsbZ—@tigracc

Wednesday at 12:53pm

How long has http://t.co/B1hfZiRN been broken? I dunno, but it's fixed now.—@ndw

Wednesday at 03:19pm

Several interesting tweets tagged #mangobos have drifted past me today. Not that I have a clue about what a #mangobos is when it’s at home.—@ndw

Wednesday at 03:25pm

I'm so productive for a little while when I forget to restart the email collector after rebooting.—@ndw

Wednesday at 03:29pm

@ndw #mangobos is the hash tag for the Windows Phone developer conference at the Marriot in Cambridge today; http://t.co/vHOp0TRR—@crschmidt

Wednesday at 03:30pm

Tuxes are black on back and white on front to fool predators. While swimming, grooms blend into sea when seen from above, sky from below.—@JaneEspenson

Wednesday at 03:57pm

Folks, if you want to put a three day meeting on my calendar, please make it all day & repeating, not 53.5 continuous hours. kthxbai—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 11:11pm

My startup, Clipboard, has come out of stealth tonight. Read about it at Technology Review: http://t.co/IehznL4EE.—@flakenstein

@flakenstein Very cool. Online collaborative annotation?—@ndw

@ndw among other things ;-)—@flakenstein

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 02:09am

"An hour before a conference talk is a good time to install OS update". Discuss. Extra marks for discussing OSX Lion. #tei2011—@rahtz

@rahtz Marginally better than doing it an hour before you leave on a week-long trip, I suppose. Not that I’d know about that, of course.—@ndw

@ndw the good thing is that today you get to update MacOSX _and_ iOS on iPad in the same worrying long session. iCloud will become a bane.—@rahtz

@rahtz Not I: no iPad and no plans to buy Lion.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 02:18am

Until Google is making claims like "technological ballast such as XML" it is dead stupid company for me. http://t.co/xZqH6vdE—@jirkakosek

@jirkakosek how does that selector stuff work when element names contain full stops?—@al3xbrown

@al3xbrown I think that they care only about HTML elements. It's sad they provide only selectors and not XPath when it's native in browsers—@jirkakosek

@jirkakosek *sigh*—@al3xbrown

@jirkakosek People sometimes tell me browsers will continue to support XML in the future. I don’t believe them. If wishes were horses...—@ndw

@ndw @jirkakosek Old versions of MSIE will last another few decades I expect, will that do? :)—@grtjn

@grtjn @jirkakosek Uhm. “No."—@ndw

@ndw @jirkakosek LOL, just kiddin!—@grtjn

Thursday at 04:39am

When I see a QR code I feel a parental urge to show it to my phone, like pointing out a digger to a toddler—@mattedgar

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 04:53am

Bertrand Gaiffe turns TEI content models on their hand. Excellent revolutionary thought! #tei2011—@rahtz

@rahtz confused head and hand in his last tweet. #tei2011—@rahtz

@rahtz Pointer? Tell us more!—@ndw

@ndw Bertrand suggests that elements should declare their cardinality etc rather than the content model of their parent determining it—@rahtz

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 05:11am

4h of sleep is not enough. I will blame @robinberjon and @notabene #parisweb—@karlpro

@karlpro Been there, Karl. Done that. Don’t let @robinberjon convince you it was @notabene’s fault!—@ndw

@ndw Oh now look who's talking. Next thing you know, @chaals will have had nothing to do with it. @karlpro @notabene—@robinberjon

@karlpro It's entirely @notabene's fault, I wanted to go home but he forced me to drink. #parisweb—@robinberjon

Thursday at 05:45am

RT @KatMeyer "a community is not a community just because you wish to market to them" - @aklempert #tocffm—@peteaven

Thursday at 05:50am

#chuckle RT @ndw Whee! Namespaces in JSON! Let the reinvention of XML begin! http://t.co/CWY17UcI—@peteaven

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 06:14am

The thought of team exercises, even potentially fun and challenging ones, fills me with a kind of sick dread.—@ndw

@ndw I am enjoying my team exercises in the mornings. I have lost 14 pounds so far.—@lcahlander

@ndw how about Team Fight Club? You've got long arms, for eg - hard to hit, I reckon. some of our Team really did fight club in years back—@amyvdh

Thursday at 06:32am

Steve Jobs might have given me shiny toys but dmr gave me a livelihood.—@simoncozens

Thursday at 06:52am

+1 RT @ndw: The thought of team exercises, even potentially fun and challenging ones, fills me with a kind of sick dread.—@jeffsonstein

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 07:37am

Mr Apple offers to back up my iPad on his iCloud. 5Gb for free. max 50Gb @ £70 p.a. 64Gbyte iPad. Does not compute :-} #icloud #applefail—@rahtz

@rahtz Is it possible that 14Gb of the 64Gb iPad is OS stuff that never needs to be backed up?—@ndw

@ndw possible, I admit, that its that precise.—@rahtz

Thursday at 09:45am

LOL RT @peteaven: #chuckle RT @ndw Whee! Namespaces in #JSON! Let the reinvention of #XML begin! http://t.co/RczNYVuV—@figaro_bdbxml

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 11:20am

…that little moment of terror as you type a password, hit Return, then realize keyboard focus isn't where you thought it was…—@pgor

@pgor And the evil that is apps that steal keyboard focus.—@ndw

@ndw Hmm…Since it's disabled for most password fields it might be possible to have @textexpander expand your password to "D'oh!" elsewhere.—@pgor

Thursday at 11:39am

@ndw (Other than the problem of putting your password cleartext in @textexpander's config, of course.)—@pgor

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 01:58pm

Just typed the words "may have to write my own OAuth library" :(—@dajobe

@dajobe your own OAuth library? Wow. Are you working in APL or something? ;(—@simonstl

@simonstl @dajobe am now tempted to code an APL oauth module—@psd

@simonstl python actually. the default one insists on never sending Authentication: header for GETs. More than that. Makes it impossible—@dajobe

@dajobe argh. sounds like they might as have written it in APL. Why..... oh well.—@simonstl

@dajobe Coincidentally, http://t.co/pv1CEALs though I didn’t write most of it.—@ndw

@ndw wow. just wow—@dajobe

Thursday at 02:59pm

Wanna hear a joke? A million guys walk in to a Silicon Valley bar. None of them buy anything. The bar is declared a rousing success.—@jstanwix

Friday at 10:14am

I haven't tried it, but cool. RT @MenteaXML xslide XSL mode for #Emacs resuscitated as derived mode from 'nxml-mode' http://t.co/7ciBqOGo—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 01:11pm

Why do wireless access points spontaneously die after a couple of years? What wears out?—@ndw

@ndw probably damaged capacitors. Easy and cheap to replace. Check for bulgy ones. They should have a flat top.—@hutchkintoot

@ndw After a couple of years, the profit the manufacturer made of you wore out.—@avernet

@avernet Yes, that's what it feels like.—@ndw

@ndw Why do the dead acces points end at the college where I teach web development?—@phidip

@ndw For at least two WRT54Gs it turned out to be the power bricks?—@gcarothers

In a conversation that started on Friday at 01:15pm

@glennf Maybe you can answer this? "@ndw: Why do wireless access points spontaneously die after a couple of years? What wears out?"—@soypunk

@soypunk @ndw Access points have a sealed container with an isotope of cesium inside. When enough decays, it cracks open capacitors.—@GlennF

@soypunk @ndw Actually, it’s usually cheap power supply design or cheap components. A 50¢ part goes bad. Unit dead.—@GlennF

Friday at 02:53pm

RT @acathur "There are two rules for success: 1. Never tell everything you know." Roger H. Lincoln #q—@marjoleink

In a conversation that started on Friday at 03:22pm

#Stardog passing 2022 unit tests now.—@kendall

@kendall You have unit tests from the year 2022?!?—@JeniT

@JeniT You didn't know @kendall was from the future?—@gcarothers

@gcarothers It's all starting to fall into place... /cc @kendall—@JeniT

@JeniT I mean @kendall has a #stardog of course he's from the future.—@gcarothers

@gcarothers @JeniT Well, we borrowed that from Bowie, so it's a bit of a cheat. But, still and all, it's a good dog.—@kendall

@JeniT Oh, I see what you did there... But, still, no Stardog for you! :()—@kendall

@kendall Too cruel.—@JeniT

@JeniT We are cruel in the future, it's true.—@kendall

@kendall Tell me, has anyone fixed httpRange-14 when you come from?—@JeniT

@JeniT No, we more evolved & enlightened members of the future have finally seen that for the time sink that it always was. :>—@kendall

@kendall Fantastic. Just that makes me want to live another 11 years.—@JeniT

@JeniT @kendall maybe it gets better if you rename it.—@roessler

@roessler @JeniT We renamed it: "Stop Wasting Time and Get Back to Work"--14... That really seemed to help.—@kendall

@JeniT @kendall You know that part of me that misses being on the TAG? Well, httpRange-14 ain’t it.—@ndw

@ndw @JeniT I am Kendall's complete lack of surprise.—@kendall

In a conversation that started on Friday at 04:00pm

Thinking about an XQuery API to Google services (Plus and Latitude at the moment). Great. Just what I needed. Another project.—@ndw

@ndw ooh!—@eedeebee

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 07:01am

Is it me or does spam get weirder over time? Flooded with disco lighting equipment offers right now.—@robinberjon

@robinberjon perhaps its more targeted ... its not like I couldnt imagine you never needing disco lighting at some point ....—@xquery

@xquery True, but then I'd need them as a travel kit!—@robinberjon

@robinberjon But that sounds like something you might actually need, Robin!—@ndw

@ndw Why does everyone seem to think that? Do I not naturally glitter?—@robinberjon

@robinberjon Of course you do, but so much more resplendently under the hypnotic flashing of strobe lights and a mirror ball.—@ndw

@ndw @robinberjon Yes, I'd like to see the mirror ball approach at your next XML conference talk.—@abcoates

@abcoates @ndw @robinberjon this can be arranged .....—@xquery

@xquery If there's a mirror ball, I'm pretty sure some form of talk can be devised around it :) @abcoates @ndw—@robinberjon

Saturday at 10:35am

I'll take bad typography puns for $200, Alex. http://t.co/4JV5U1zJ—@AngelosTzelepis

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 11:23am

Still waiting to hear a coherent defense of status quo in the US with respect to income and wealth inequality.—@kendall

@kendall Don’t hold your breath.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 12:00pm

Aargh how did safari become more of a CPU and bloathog with the new OS X release?—@Pinboard

@Pinboard By following it’s logical trajectory from previous releases?—@ndw

@ndw @Pinboard s/it’s/its/ damn me.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 04:19pm

Scala debugging in IntelliJ is a little odd wrt stepping into/past breakpoints.—@ndw

@ndw when did you pick up scala?—@dckc

@dckc A few months ago, I guess. I’m doing the rewrite/refactor of @xmlcalabash in it.—@ndw

@ndw Yeah what you really would like is Scala awareness and ability to step into expressions.—@ebruchez

Sunday at 06:28am

.@hunterhacker @duncan Bloody hell. What will it take to impress upon them that they’re public servants and we have the right to photo them?—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 07:54am

anyone happen to know how to switch Ubuntu 10/11 back to Classic?—@danja

@danja On the login screen there’s something down in the bar on the bottom of the screen.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 10:50am

Why I stopped talking to people about religion: http://t.co/Pm9NkpnQ—@kendall

@kendall *chuckle*—@ndw

@ndw People who aren't moved by reason aren't going to buy what I have to sell. :)—@kendall

Sunday at 11:48am

You can do record structures (with named ports, even) in Graphviz with HTML table markup. Sweet!—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 06:33pm

32 mile ride after a couple of months off. I predict a certain soreness tomorrow.—@ndw

@ndw Where'd you go? I was mostly in Leverett and Shutesbury; one of the nicer rides of the year.—@dauwhe

@dauwhe Wanted to explore the trail extension into Easthampton. Alas, took longer to *get* to the ext than I anticipated. Nice ride though.—@ndw