The short-form week of 24–30 Oct 2011

31 Oct 2011; last modified 07 Nov 2011

The week in review, 140 characters at a time. This week, 60 messages in 47 conversations. (With 11 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 Wednesday at 05:07pm

Because the platypus both lays eggs and produces milk, it is one of the few animals that can make its own custard.—@adzebill
@adzebill Ewwww.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 07:32am

XHTML or TEI to EPUB conversion toolchain (in XProc) by @grtjnhttp://t.co/Ekhp9gjX /via @gimsieke—@abdelazer
@abdelazer @grtjn @gimsieke Wow. That so totally out-classes my efforts, I’m almost afraid to publish my entry. Almost.—@ndw
@ndw Well, what are you waiting for? :-) @abdelazer @gimsieke—@grtjn
@grtjn @abdelazer @gimsieke Congratulations again, @grtjn! http://t.co/KQErxSey—@ndw

Monday at 06:30am

Measuring. Because if it takes this long to run, I must have done something stupid.—@ndw

Monday at 08:14am

RT @mikeloukides Infographic about Infographics: http://t.co/4lAOjI6q << Could be the most important infographic you see /via @monkchips—@ndw

Monday at 08:21am

ROTFL. Monday morning blasphemy. http://t.co/pd7HJPwY—@ndw

Monday at 09:33am

After all that animated flash crap, I have to download the menu as a PDF file? #restaurant #website #fail—@ndw

Monday at 09:47am

What a difference an operator makes: http://t.co/V7oBFijd—@ndw

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

If there's one thing from today's #RecSys2011 presentations you should remember...it's this http://t.co/7XCkqd8X—@alansaid
@alansaid If you’re not wearing pants, you get beer?—@ndw
@ndw if you're not wearing jeans, you get beer—@alansaid

Monday at 11:32am

"It's not iterative if you only do it once"—@ph

Monday at 12:59pm

Productivity is a stupid goal if you're only making more crap.—@jessicahagy

Monday at 01:05pm

Pupils dilating. Dilating. Dila...aw, crud. I can't read that anymore.—@ndw

Monday at 06:09pm

Ask Slashdot: GNU/Linux Laptops? http://t.co/p7kUzFLE—@slashdot

Monday at 06:54pm

Analysis of Google Dart http://t.co/D560rGRd—@slashdot

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

@grtjn Congratulations!!—@collwhit
@collwhit @peteaven Thnx! Couldn't resist the temptation to try to beat @ndw. Did strain myself to the max to do so.. ;-)—@grtjn

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 08:04am

Note to self: don't change your haircut right before a conference! I'm the one in the purple dress. #rsuc11—@lisabos
@lisabos You gotta update your profile pic!—@ndw
@ndw ok—@lisabos

Tuesday at 09:05am

elnode - emacs lisp nodejs clone http://t.co/ikLprHYo (via @ndw) - McCarthy may be dead, but Lisp lives!—@therealmaxf

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 11:30am

Congratulations @grtjn! http://t.co/pjgaonI5—@ndw
@ndw Thnx!! :-)—@grtjn

Tuesday at 12:54pm

With a 3:15a wake up call for tomorrow's depature, I'll be doing all my packing tonight. Laptop included.—@ndw

Tuesday at 02:39pm

How long have we been able to style the <title> element and make it visible? http://t.co/Nn5mzn5X #missedthis—@andydavies

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 03:25pm

I don't care about business or entrepreneurship. Not interesting to me. Not at all. Don't care.—@tommorris
@tommorris same here ;)—@gridinoc

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 03:37pm

Trying to convert DocBook RNG into DocBook DTD mechanically is a f'ing nuisance.—@ndw
@ndw lol #RNG is for people was can't understand schemas and DTDs. It's like a kids shaving kit, they can't hurt them selves—@pmvallone
@pmvallone Uh. Yeah. Wanna share what you’re smoking? Must be some good stuff.—@ndw
@ndw bet you wish you had written it all in ODD—@rahtz
@rahtz That wouldn’t help unless I’d also avoided features that aren’t supported by more primitive schema languages, no?—@ndw
@ndw trang?—@jreschke
@jreschke No, it’s way too complex for trang. Lots of systematic transformation and some DocBook-specific heuristics.—@ndw
@ndw The obvious question is "Why would you need to do that?". But I suspect you have an obvious answer.—@arh
@arh To support users with broken tools that don’t do RELAX NG validation.—@ndw
@ndw That's a good, albeit unfortunate, reason. :-(—@arh
@arh It’s *this close* to not being a good enough reason.—@ndw
@ndw I'm assuming you have an XSD version already converted from the RNG.—@kingargyle
@kingargyle No, the XSD and DTD versions are effectively the same thing.—@ndw
@ndw unfortunately that is the problem with RNG, while a better syntax most tools don't support it.—@kingargyle
@kingargyle Most? What are the popular tools that don’t? I guess I’m out of touch.—@ndw
@ndw eclipse XML Tools doesn't. Only supports XSD and DTD, and that means tools built off eclipse don't. Which means IBM, Oracle don't.—@kingargyle
@ndw a few niche tools like Oxygen XML and XML Mind do support it though. But again very niche.—@kingargyle

Tuesday at 04:30pm

@ndw but XML Mind doesn't use RNG for guided editing, just for validation.—@kingargyle

Wednesday at 04:02am

I love the smell of airport at 5:00am. No. wait. That's not right...—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 05:25am

Hmm. Those jet engines with the funny external blade things again. Slow and noisy FTW? Sigh.—@ndw
@ndw Generally go with seats and overhead storage that requires tall people to dislocate their limbs before taking a seat.—@mvahowe
@ndw Is every aisle a window and every window an aisle on the plane with the external blade things? ;)—@JeanKaplansky
@JeanKaplansky almost. It was 1 by 2, so I guess it could have been smaller.—@ndw

Wednesday at 06:56am

Number four on the waiting list for an upgrade. Hope springs eternal. EWR to LAS.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 07:29am

Oh, look, #Continental doesn't have economy plus seating. Kill me now.—@ndw
@ndw yes that really sucks. But 1st class on Continental has always been better than United—@brucesnyder
@ndw Are you flying to Santa Clara already?—@robinberjon
@robinberjon with a detour through LAS for company meetings, yes.—@ndw

Wednesday at 12:02pm

It's called tear gas because it usually means freedom is weeping.—@warwickp

Wednesday at 01:42pm

Hello LAS. Is it time to leave yet?—@ndw

Wednesday at 02:53pm

Coders are special. "We are expected to know how to do things we've never done before and estimate how long they will take." @ultrasaurus—@jaimeohm

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 01:35pm

Kindle Format 8 (html5) looks interesting. Wonder how hard it would be to add support to docbook. http://t.co/lvxALah8—@edavis10
@edavis10 should be able to take the html output. Hey @ndw, is there an html5 xsl yet for docbook?—@bphogan
@ndw ahhhhhhhhhh crap I suppose I need to plug those into my build chain yet, eh? *scared*—@bphogan
@bphogan Feedback welcome. There are probably rough edges, but I’ve been using them for more than a year.—@ndw
@ndw so these are just for html and FO? Do I use the old ones for epubs then?—@bphogan
@bphogan Yes. Porting the epub work is on my list, but hours in the day...—@ndw
@ndw oh I hear you on that. epub, html, and fo are the only three I care about for my build system. :)—@bphogan

Thursday at 06:04pm

OH: What maps in Vegas, reduces in Vegas.—@ndw

Friday at 06:42am

The longer I observe US control at home and abroad, the more I think "top secret" is just a cover for "the public would never allow this".—@AnonyOps

Friday at 07:27am

"Our best minds have gone into financial engineering instead of real engineering, with catastrophic results for both sectors." G. Kasparov—@JohnDCook

Friday at 08:20am

"My new iOS app uses Facebook for logins" is the new "It only runs on Windows"—@danbenjamin

In a conversation that started on Friday at 10:41pm

Achievement fail: there is no longer a rollercoaster at the top of the Stratosphere. Wish I'd thought to check before I schlepped up here.—@ndw
@ndw ah, boo!—@peteaven
@ndw NewYork hotel had a roller coaster last time I was there. Pretty good.—@DALDEI
@DALDEI Yeah. But it was the 107 stories up that was part of the appeal.—@ndw
@ndw Really? How long has it been gone? #didnotknow—@bsletten
@bsletten "gone for years"—@ndw

Saturday at 12:01am

There's a fake Arc de Triomphe under the fake Eiffel Tower. #thingsididntneedtoknow—@ndw

Saturday at 01:49pm

Protip: you can check restaurant reviews *first* #fromadinerinthemiddleofnowhere—@ndw

Sunday at 03:08am

great walking around The Grand Canyon today with @jpcs, @alexb1978,@ndw ... now to the land of nod—@xquery

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 10:35am

My weblog, the DocBook and XProc wikis, and maybe a couple of other things are down until power returns to the northeast.—@ndw
@ndw thats why I gave up 15 years ago hosting servers at my house. They have a nasty habit of breaking when I'm away ... :(—@DALDEI
@DALDEI Yeah. But I haven't found an affordable alternative. And this sort of thing doesn't happen *that* often.—@ndw
@ndw less than $30 / year for an amazon ec2 instance (micro with 3 year commitment). That's almost free—@DALDEI
@DALDEI I don’t see MarkLogic Server running there :-)—@ndw
@ndw MarkLogic runs great on amazon EC2. I run 2 of em ...—@DALDEI
@DALDEI Yes, it does. Maybe I should investigate the cost again, but last I checked it was higher than my disposable web income budget.—@ndw
@ndw re ml on ec2 ... Neglecting license fees it just depends on how fast you want it—@DALDEI

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 01:03pm

Abandonning #TPAC. Going home to deal with the #snowpocalypse. Sigh.—@ndw
@ndw For a moment, I read that as "Abandoning TUPAC," and I thought, "Don't give up on hiphop, Norm! The world needs you...to DANCE!"—@pointybrackets
@pointybrackets Of all the great many things the world needs, seeing me dance does not number among them.—@ndw
@ndw :-(—@innovimax

Sunday at 01:03pm

@ndw sad to hear. Take care.—@svgeesus

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

With the departure of @jpcs and @xquery, I’m now the last man standing in Vegas. Because it wasn’t desperate and awful enough with company.—@ndw
@ndw @jpcs gamble your way out of it, barring that consider fork->eye option—@xquery

Sunday at 07:32pm

I did take out some extra cash planning on TPAC next week...damnit, the room has a kitchen but no cutlery!—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 08:42pm

"Maybe the days of explaining the patently obvious to the transparently compromised are finally over" http://t.co/a90SRE2d—@ndw
@ndw re http://t.co/iUK3e5Q5 , first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you and then you win - applied Gandhi—@xquery
@ndw URL shortener made editorial comment on your pointer to Slate/Lithwick piece - tdyeyi obviously "scrambled tie dye". ;)—@simonstl
@simonstl *chuckle*—@ndw

Sunday at 08:44pm

Making thr surreal more so: reading about #ows in Las Vegas. Walk a few blocks off the strip and ponder #olasvegas—@ndw

Sunday at 08:53pm

Plan for next summer: learn how to grow Thai eggplant.—@ndw

Sunday at 09:19pm

If the best mango and sticky rice you've ever had was in Bangkok, resist the temptation to order it in Vegas. #protip—@ndw