The short-form week of 28 Nov–4 Dec 2011
05 Dec 2011; last modified 06 Dec 2011
The week in review, 140 characters at a time. This week, 58 messages in 50 conversations. (With 8 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 Monday at 12:02pm
I'm struggling mightily to use a positional predicate to number new identifiers & add them to docs with xdmp:node-insert-after() #xquery
—@caschwartz
@caschwartz Happy to help. Drop me a line.—@ndw
@ndw Sorry for late reply. My colleague helped he used fn:count with range expression rather than positional variable to get sequential nums—@caschwartz
Monday at 01:19pm
Wow, there sure are a lot of PCI SATA controllers out there. Looking for six drives. Any recommendations?—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 01:33am
This feeling of foreboding, personal and political: paranoia or a more accurate sense of what can and does happen?—@alaindebotton
@alaindebotton I wish I knew.—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 07:58am
SGML5 anyone?—@robinberjon
@robinberjon No?—@ndw
@ndw Tentatively?—@robinberjon
@robinberjon SGML5, canal historique ? ;)—@karlpro
Tuesday at 12:14pm
And she's not even a librarian ... RT: @carleton97: my life would be so much easier if everyone else shared my love of accurate metadata.—@eandrews
In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 02:00pm
In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 03:23pm
I don't: RT @timoreilly: Facebook doesn't necessarily get privacy right, I believe @zuck when he says they want to. http://t.co/5wbqkhQ3
—@jsuttor
In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 03:52pm
Shoot. Me. Now. http://t.co/26U1mirH
—@ndw
@ndw Reading this post as "let's add to selectors what XPath has and selectors don't", I don't necessarily disagree.—@avernet
@ndw The reason for that email is that people *are* attempting to "develop" XPath 1.0 in the form of new APIs for it.—@tabatkins
@tabatkins That's not "developing" XPath. That's fixing what we already have in browsers. @ndw
—@robinberjon
@tabatkins What details would you like? CSS Selectors are in no sense a reasonable alternative to XPath. Anywhere. Ever. At all.—@ndw
@ndw @JeniT Some real-world examples of XPath 1.0 that Selectors can't do would help @tabatkins. Xpath 2.0 is easier but would be cheating.—@svgeesus
@svgeesus @ndw @JeniT No real need. I know there are some things, mostly around string/math tests. JS can fix those holes.—@tabatkins
@svgeesus @ndw @JeniT We've had plenty of egs, I don't think that's the core of the thread. @tabatkins wants to pimp up CSS to XPath level.—@robinberjon
@robinberjon @svgeesus @ndw @JeniT Though I challenge the underlying assumption that XPath > Selectors. They're both better than each other.—@tabatkins
@tabatkins I assume you were comparing Selectors 3 with Xpath 2.0? http://t.co/PoNS47OL @ndw just checking—@svgeesus
@glazou The attribute axis in XPath is, afaict, syntactically equivalent to attribute selectors in Selectors—@tabatkins
@glazou I know you can, but that's used either for filtering based on attributes, or for extracting an attribute.Latter can use .map() in JS—@tabatkins
@glazou Uh, no. Note that selecting attributes is useless for CSS. Selecting attributes is useful only in JS. Thus...—@tabatkins
@svgeesus @glazou Because you can't style attributes. Sometimes useful in JS to extract attrs from a set of nodes.—@tabatkins
@tabatkins the fact we can't style attributes is something weird ; all content should be stylable, including attribute nodes (cont..)—@glazou
@glazou Huh? Attributes don't exist in the page; they're just node data. It wouldn't make sense to style them.—@tabatkins
@tabatkins Tab, you and I should have a long chat around a few drinks, seriously ; i'll open your mind about that ; not kidding—@glazou
@glazou I know that in XML attributes are just a shorthand for child elements. That's not true in HTML.—@tabatkins
@tabatkins What huh?! XML attributes are not child elements. No way no how. //cc @glazou
—@gcarothers
@glazou I think that web specs should care about the web, which is de facto HTML, CSS, and JS.—@tabatkins
@glazou In that the web is run on devices which have a meaningful notion of battery life, yes, somewhat.—@tabatkins
@glazou I challenge you to create a useful definition of "the web" where XSLT is more important than Battery API.—@tabatkins
@glazou Are they using it on "the web" that users and browsers see, or on their servers, where web APIs are irrelevant?—@tabatkins
@tabatkins the Web is not only the front-end, it"s a whole, an ecosystem; remove one species and the whole thing collapses—@glazou
@ndw the thing that is not mentioned there is that HTML/CSS and XML have quite different views of a node.—@LaurentGoderre
@ndw I've shifted to using CSS Selectors for most of my work, but no, that doesn't make any sense, except as part of the WHATWG jihad vs XML—@simonstl
@simonstl @ndw Was surprised that XPath1 actually works in JS: http://t.co/fJbY741n (can’t query a radiobutton’s @checked state, though)—@gimsieke
@ndw Check out the XPath expression starting on line 221 here: http://t.co/gCpGYYUu I'd love to see that as a CSS selector. Love to.—@mdubinko
Tuesday at 04:26pm
@shelleypowers @ndw agreed- thanks to @jreschke for taking up that cudgel on the W3C list!—@simonstl
Tuesday at 04:34pm
the only thing more amusing than the WHATWG's permanent war on XML is the WHATWG's permanent plea that WHATWG doesn't matter.—@simonstl
Tuesday at 04:41pm
HTML5 is a half-baked collection of partially thought-out specs from a too-small group of people. Unfortunately, it's still an improvement.—@simonstl
In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 05:10pm
HTML WG co-chairs are not addressing the <time> issue until mid-January. W3C HTML5 editor's draft last updated November 4. #irrelevant
—@annevk
Tuesday at 05:12pm
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 06:32am
Let's just suspend the constitution while we're at it; at this point, there isn't much left. http://t.co/egskT59E
—@mikeloukides
@mikeloukides I think they did that last month. At a secret meeting.—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 06:45am
Wednesday at 09:06am
http://t.co/wAuHVbe4 The GOP has one mission: to take your money and give it to rich people. All else is hand-waving.—@AmandaMarcotte
Wednesday at 09:13am
Freedom of assembly is against the law in the US now, and there are 5,000 arrests that prove it. #notkidding
—@kendall
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 10:22am
You know the database where I had carefully constructed a complex configuration data structure. The database I deleted. Yeah. That one.—@ndw
@ndw I have found that Time Machine's hourly backups can help with that kind of things ;-)—@ebruchez
@ebruchez Yeah, if only Time Machine wasn’t such an agonizing resource-hog that it often drives me to detach the backup drive.—@ndw
@ndw the moral of this story is "don't build databases".—@nicferrier
@nicferrier Perhaps. But it could equally have been a dir on the FS. I shouldn’t have crafted something valuable in a throw-away dev env.—@ndw
@ndw I was joking. I wanted to make an entry in the "totally the wrong thing to learn from a failure". You're right, of course.—@nicferrier
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 10:41am
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 10:50am
Oh, the irony, it burns. For the first time, ever possibly, Time Machine might have saved me. If only I hadn’t excluded dev scratch space.—@ndw
Wednesday at 10:58am
“Weekly” backup disk, dated, uh 24 Oct, FTW.—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 12:04pm
San Diego police arrest congressional candidate for voter registration in Civic Center Plaza - http://t.co/uMzaTZkA
—@simonstl
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 12:43pm
Interesting article in IDEAlliance Bulletin about Financial Times's choice to go all HTML5 instead of native iPad app http://t.co/EWNTcK1n
—@lisabos
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 02:53pm
The only thing I can't figure out how to do with Quicksilver: launch Quicksilver.—@adamwitwer
@adamwitwer Whenever Quicksilver crashes I might as well just shut off my computer and go back to bed.—@liza
@liza ctrl+space! ctrl+space! ctrl+space! why isn't it working!!!—@adamwitwer
@adamwitwer The only sensible option at that point is to throw the computer away and start over.—@liza
@liza @adamwitwer I eventually gave up on Quicksilver because of the crashes. @alfredapp is great replacement.—@ndw
@ndw @alfredapp does look slick. I need to try it. I've configured QS just so, though. @liza
—@adamwitwer
@adamwitwer Surely you don't have it bound to Ctrl-space when that's already M-x set-mark!! @ndw
—@liza
@liza Ha, I swear I'm going to learn to use vim properly some day! I use dumbed-down MacVim. @ndw
—@adamwitwer
@adamwitwer Heresy! That was emacs. :)—@liza
@liza Ha, oops. I assumed you were vim-y, for some reason.—@adamwitwer
In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 04:36pm
Achievement unlocked: XML Prague submission. I fear the abstract is a little weak, but I think it’ll be good. But I would say that, right?—@ndw
@ndw At least you got it done before pumpkin time, tongith at midnight PDT!—@leighklotz
Wednesday at 10:01pm
.@Newyorkist just now to Sgt Vance, #2156: Q: "Am I being detained?" A: "Yes." Q: "For what?" A: "For being a protester." #FreeSpeech #OWS
—@DiceyTroop
Thursday at 04:19am
praising the #LAPD for not beating #occupyLA protesters is is like praising a priest for not raping kids—@UrbanCavemanLA
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 06:17am
The real danger to Privacy isn't Facebook, it's commercial spyware designed for military & secret polce: Scary http://t.co/o3MYsX5X
—@mikeloukides
@mikeloukides Scary indeed.—@ndw
Thursday at 08:36am
Thursday at 08:49am
Some Adobe notifier gizmo wants to connect to http://t.co/LwPGSSxKK? WTF? Denied. #littlesnitch
—@ndw
Thursday at 09:13am
DocBook stylesheets v2.0.3 released, w/improved, backwards-compatible HTML5 output. http://t.co/zuSwWDbD HT @ndw
—@arh
In a conversation that started on Thursday at 01:48pm
Thursday at 02:07pm
Comparison of DocBook 1.0 stylesheets vs 2.0.3 stylesheets, http://t.co/24ZdNTHs suggested by @abdelazer
—@ndw
Thursday at 06:57pm
In a conversation that started on Friday at 04:50am
Nerve racking, waiting to find out if my paper will be accepted for #xmlprague
—@adamretter
@adamretter mental note, remember not to have Adam review his own paper !—@xquery
@xquery Dammn, you have seen through my plan!—@adamretter
@xquery Are papers being reviewed? Need a hand with it?—@robinberjon
@robinberjon @jirkakosek will dole out papers for review to Program Committee which you are on—@xquery
@xquery @robinberjon Yep, I will send details about review to PC members probably on Monday. I'm catching up after business trip.—@jirkakosek
@jirkakosek btw running slightly late, will be with you around 1615 latest—@xquery
In a conversation that started on Friday at 07:15am
Retweet this if you can't bear to RT tweets containing spelling/grammar/punctuation errors, even if their really funny.—@j4
Friday at 08:59am
I f’ing *love* the fact that github notices issue numbers in commit messages and automatically inserts a link into the relevant issue.—@ndw
Friday at 09:10am
In a conversation that started on Friday at 09:12am
On the surface, absurd, but when you consider the rationale, ISO 3103 does make some sense.—@ndw
@ndw If you like ISO 3103, you'll love ISO 3591!—@SheltieJim
@SheltieJim I have long wanted one of those, Jim!—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Friday at 10:47am
Federal jobs are at lowest per capita level since 1962. If, you know, facts matter at all.—@kendall
In a conversation that started on Friday at 10:57am
I’m tempted to try replacing my laptop’s optical drive to install an SSD. http://t.co/vRSdQUpJ
—@ndw
@ndw We have free install videos to show you how to replace that optical: http://t.co/w2PSq0gK
—@macsales
@ndw I did that a couple weeks ago. I definitely don't regret it.—@speedocowboy
@speedocowboy Did you put the SSD in the optical bay, or swap the spinning rust drive over there?—@ndw
@ndw at least for my macbook model. but super easy to swap out the hard drive in the main bay.—@speedocowboy
@ndw SSD in the main bay; spinner in the optical bay. There are reports that 6Gbps SATA drives don't work well in the optical bay.—@speedocowboy
In a conversation that started on Friday at 02:45pm
Temptation resisted fail: ordered 120Gb SSD, optical drive bay converter kit, and external optical enclosure.—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Friday at 02:49pm
Bash shell rejecting !indent=yes, says "event not found" - how come I haven't seen this before?—@michaelhkay
@michaelhkay You’ve never used ! to access history? Me neither. Marks me as a Unix weirdo, but that’s ok. You want “histchars=“ in .bashrc—@ndw
@ndw Thanks. Escaping it with backslash did the trick.—@michaelhkay
@ndw So ! is for history? I always get that error when I'm excited in commit comments, never grokked it though. cc @michaelhkay
—@robinberjon
In a conversation that started on Friday at 04:52pm
Just in case you think editing is easy, I've spent the last hour trying to craft a single sentence. For marketing purposes.—@bphogan
Saturday at 03:08pm
Saturday at 06:14pm
Sunday at 09:14am
TSA at xray: boarding pass? Me: It's on my phone. TSA: Oh, ok. #securitytheater
—@ndw
Sunday at 01:25pm
I didn't even know ORD *had* a terminal F. Glad I have time...—@ndw
In a conversation that started on Sunday at 01:33pm
Facebook buys location service Gowalla http://t.co/f51HBUh7
—@jdvogt
Sunday at 01:50pm
Doing my best sardine impression. I make this s#!t look goo...oh, who am I kidding; I look and feel like a squashed bug. SFO here I come.—@ndw