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

maybe #XQuery's doc() and unparsed-text() try too hard to hide the web, instead of supporting developers to work with it? #REST —@dret
@dret I don’t think they hide the web at all.—@ndw
@ndw how do you use HTTP headers? how can you POST/PUT/DELETE? how can you use other URI schemes, if supported by your implementation?—@dret
@dret Ah. Sorry. I misunderstood what you meant. Yeah, an http function would be nice.—@ndw

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
@jsuttor @timoreilly Nor I.—@ndw

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 Oy, and verily.—@mathling
@ndw Also, note that I'm talking about XPath 1.0 there.—@tabatkins
@tabatkins Well no one *is* developing XPath 1.0 anymore, so maybe the point is moot.—@ndw
@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 So convince them that CSS would be better. Asserting that XPath should be dropped because CSS has matured seems antagonistic.—@ndw
@ndw My email argued that they're nearly equivalent in function, so we should only develop one (and that one should be Selectors).—@tabatkins
@ndw Details!—@tabatkins
@tabatkins What details would you like? CSS Selectors are in no sense a reasonable alternative to XPath. Anywhere. Ever. At all.—@ndw
@ndw I argued the opposite. Care to debate in more detail, perhaps in email?—@tabatkins
@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 They can’t be extended to do XQuery 1.0, for example.—@ndw
@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
@svgeesus @ndw No, I was comparing Selectors 3/4 to XPath 1.0. Both of these are the versions people are talking about in public-webapps.—@tabatkins
@tabatkins you know XPath can select an attribute, a text node, whatever ?—@glazou
@glazou The attribute axis in XPath is, afaict, syntactically equivalent to attribute selectors in Selectors—@tabatkins
@tabatkins no, you can select an ATTRIBUTE_NODE—@glazou
@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
@tabatkins so you're proposing to replace a declarative mechanism by JS ? Warf !—@glazou
@glazou Uh, no. Note that selecting attributes is useless for CSS. Selecting attributes is useful only in JS. Thus...—@tabatkins
@tabatkins @glazou why is selecting attributes useless for CSS - and why for Selectors?—@svgeesus
@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
@gcarothers @glazou Anytime you have an attribute, you could instead have a child element with the attr value as text content.—@tabatkins
@tabatkins OMG...@ndw, we should show him the old SGML chats with Sharon, Jean, Goldfarb, ...—@glazou
@tabatkins because you think Selectors only for CSS ?—@glazou
@glazou I think that web specs should care about the web, which is de facto HTML, CSS, and JS.—@tabatkins
@tabatkins yeah, like Battery API is about the Web ?—@glazou
@glazou In that the web is run on devices which have a meaningful notion of battery life, yes, somewhat.—@tabatkins
@tabatkins ROFL—@glazou
@glazou I challenge you to create a useful definition of "the web" where XSLT is more important than Battery API.—@tabatkins
@tabatkins easy : remove XSLT and most online retailers die immediately—@glazou
@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
@glazou I'm not arguing that everyone should throw away XPath forever. I'm arguing that we should not define new web APIs for it.—@tabatkins
@tabatkins awfully sounds like what xhtml2 said long ago—@glazou
@glazou I'm saying "don't develop XPath1.0 on the web (because nobody's using it), develop Selectors instead (because everyone is using it)"—@tabatkins
@tabatkins I think you have no idea how many people use XPath for Web sites ; ask @ndw —@glazou
@glazou @ndw I know that it's a vastly smaller number than the people who are using CSS and querySelectorAll. Again, on the client-side.—@tabatkins
@ndw the thing that is not mentioned there is that HTML/CSS and XML have quite different views of a node.—@LaurentGoderre
@ndw I, for one welcome our new CSS selector overlords.—@stand
@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 I use them often as well. They’re fine. I’ve nothing against them.—@ndw
@simonstl @ndw I do admire @jreschke 's pushback—@shelleypowers
@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 the first sentence conclusion is… interesting—@karlpro
@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
@annevk I’m sorry, which is the irrelevant bit?—@ndw
@ndw @annevk The W3C HTML5 draft.—@tabatkins

Tuesday at 05:12pm

This whole @tabatkins vs Thing He Doesn't Understand debacle makes me think WHATWG's calendar is stuck in 2002.—@dylanw

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

time keeps slipping into the future—@psd
@psd Not the past?—@ndw

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 It was painful without SSD, but now I barely notice it (also it backs up over wifi). I assume you are using a good old spinning drive?—@ebruchez
@ebruchez Yes. You need a special Apple gizmo to do it over wifi, yes?—@ndw
@ndw Probably. Used Time Capsule, now Airport Extreme w/ ext drive (there have been doubts about robustness of that setup but so far ok).—@ebruchez
@ndw A good reason to always script such configurations, and keep backups of everything! ;-)—@grtjn
@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

Well, that's my #xmlprague submission done. Excited by the topic - I feel a bout of #xquery productivity coming on.—@jpcs
@jpcs Then I couldn’t be more delighted that you picked up two of my reported bugs and added them to your stack :-)—@ndw

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
@ndw Ah, there you go! Hadn't read tweets that far.—@ebruchez

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
@simonstl I wonder if it’s still possible to save salvage democracy in this country.—@ndw

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
@lisabos The fact that that article is apparently published as a set of JPEG page images is...well, it must be something.—@ndw
@ndw Annoying! I actually read it in print first, how old-school am I?—@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 @adamwitwer Yeah. I have it bound to Cmd-Space.—@ndw
@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
@ndw Thanks, checking it out.—@liza

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 Talking of Abstracts, you probably saw this one: http://t.co/qZDpQz0f —@docum3nt
@docum3nt Alas mine was neither that concise nor that witty.—@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

@docbook DocBook Stylesheets 2.0.3 released, http://t.co/AxGrwfmR —@ndw

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

@ndw Please mention the 2.0.3 release on docbook-apps.—@abdelazer
@abdelazer Good point. Sigh. I need better release management processes.—@ndw

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

Coupon: $ off 2 pkgs of 1lb or larger. Product: sold in pkgs of 14oz. Naturally. #asshats —@ndw

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
@xquery @jirkakosek Ah, great, thanks, I wasn't sure if I was there or not :)—@robinberjon
@xquery @adamretter No, let me do it >:)—@ndw

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
@j4 *snicker*—@ndw

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

Hey, @evernote, my attempt to use the API has been reporting “Host is down” for a while. Is that really true, or is there some API bug?—@ndw

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
@kendall Facts? Facts!? Communist!—@ndw
no tweecency RT @ndw: @kendall Facts? Facts!? Communist!—@RedScareBot

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
@macsales I just submitted the order. Upgraded the HD in my previous Mac with your parts/videos. Looking forward to it!—@ndw
@ndw Way easier than stringing up tangled holiday lights ;-)—@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
@ndw SSD should make you happy.—@ebruchez
@ndw You know, it's not Xmas yet!—@mortenf

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
@bphogan If you think editing is easy, you’ve never done it.—@ndw
@ndw Indeed.—@bphogan

Saturday at 03:08pm

RT @xmlcalabash XML Calabash 0.9.41 released, http://t.co/d644fonQ —@ndw

Saturday at 06:14pm

RT: @ndw: RT @xmlcalabash XML Calabash 0.9.41 released, http://t.co/1AN1mdDE #xproc #xml —@d0cster

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
Facebook buys Gowalla? Well, time to delete that app, I guess. /via @jdvogt —@ndw

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