The short-form week of 2–8 Jan 2012

09 Jan 2012

The week in review, 140 characters at a time.

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.

Monday at 09:35am

RT @xmlcalabash XML Calabash 0.9.42 released.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 05:27am

Ominous "Please wait" on departures board...—@JeniT
@JeniT I hope you’re in the air now, not still waiting for that flight.—@ndw
@ndw 1:15 late in the end -- lots of turbulence and strong headwinds over the Atlantic. Maybe that means going home will be really quick!—@JeniT
@JeniT Welcome to Massachusetts! If you’re on the overnight return that arrives LHR at 6:00a, getting there early won’t help.—@ndw

Tuesday at 10:24am

RT @xmlcalabash XML Calabash 0.9.43 released with Saxon 9.3 and Saxon 9.4 flavors—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 01:06pm

Twitter spam seems so pointless. A link plus a random collection of usernames from a random username. You think I’m going to follow that?—@ndw
@ndw sorry, is this spam?—@ChrisWoolfrey
@ChrisWoolfrey No. Your name is insufficiently random. Please try again. Never.—@ndw
@ndw www.sdhdhekfhskh/ff9t.com (?)—@ChrisWoolfrey
@ChrisWoolfrey The usernames are random, not the links. At least, that link doesn’t resolve for me. Tweet must not be spam: I clicked.—@ndw
@ndw ha. Never has such faith in my integrity / name been so strong from a stranger. I shall do this more often!—@ChrisWoolfrey

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 01:48pm

The weeks start on Monday on my new wall calendar. I’m not sure that’s going to work for me.—@ndw
@ndw Weekend at the end of the week? What a concept.—@vambenepe
@vambenepe I didn’t say it wasn’t obvious and logical, but I’ve got a few decades of contradictory visual memory to wrestle with.—@ndw
@ndw It's a good first step. If that works out for you, may I suggest a logical date format next? ;-)—@vambenepe
@vambenepe I’ve already got that covered. I tend to use either ISO 8601 or “3 Jan 2012”. I rarely, if ever, use the conventional US 1/3/2012—@ndw
@ndw Great. One day I plan to print ISO 8601, add a leather binding with gold letters, put on a suite and go door to door to convert people.—@vambenepe
@vambenepe An office suite?—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 02:20pm

Does an HTTP PUT with a content-type of application/x-www-form-urlencoded make sense? What does it mean?—@ndw
@ndw update of the hash-table-like resource on given URL?—@mcepl
@ndw What does it mean when a GET returns a body with that media type?—@robinberjon
@ndw sure! A map of key/value pairs? What's not to like? ;-)—@conal_tuohy
@ndw most WebDAV servers will store the payload as-is—@jreschke
@ndw I think verbs & content-type are orthogonal. It's just a put request with some data encoded as such.—@mwhooker
@mwhooker Yeah. So if a framework gives you convenience functions for accessing the params with GET and POST, you’d expect the same for PUT?—@ndw
@ndw for sure.—@mwhooker
@ndw PUT != 'write this to filesystem (or database) as-is'—@mdubinko
@mdubinko I get that. But in our context :-), if the fields were provided for PUT requests, the body would be incorrect consumed. I think.—@ndw
@ndw It means replace the described resource. Does it matter if the res is represented by a body blob or a set of name/value pairs?—@ronhitchens
@ndw My bug about PUT param decoding got rejected so it's up to you and ml-rest-lib to help. :)—@hunterhacker

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 02:59pm

I think I’m going to have to decide soon if “promoted ads” in my twitter stream will make me delete my accounts and never come back.—@ndw
@ndw AdBlock. It works on Promoted Tweets.—@tabatkins
@tabatkins Interesting. I wonder how Twitter will attempt to use the API T.O.S. to prevent my favorite client from just discarding them.—@ndw
@ndw that would be disappointing.—@MattioV
@MattioV Shoving stupid f’ing adverts in my stream is pretty disappointing too. Maybe they’ll let me buy my way out of that sh*t.—@ndw
@ndw Something, anything, would be nice.—@MattioV
@ndw @MattioV irc awaits ....—@xquery

Tuesday at 09:27pm

I just ousted @ndw as the mayor of Pelham Auto on @foursquare! http://t.co/PBk4l2lT—@DonCalzoneVIP

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 02:57am

RT @ndw: Does an HTTP PUT with a content-type of application/x-www-form-urlencoded make sense? What does it mean?—@jreschke
@ndw @jreschke Of course it makes sense; very interested to know why you would think it doesn't—@stilkov
@stilkov @ndw the interesting question is what the expected outcome is—@jreschke
@stilkov @jreschke I was confused. Well, puzzling about a design decision made by someone else that was confusing to me. I’m unconfused now.—@ndw

Wednesday at 03:01am

“@ndw: Does HTTP PUT with app/x-www-form-urlencoded make sense?” yes; it means use the NVP list to create replacement for target resource—@mamund

Wednesday at 03:07am

“@jreschke: @ndw most WebDAV servers will store the payload as-is” <- how does WebDAV treat app/x-www-form-urlencoded for POST? doc or args?—@mamund

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 07:17am

Google, Facebook, Amazon May Go Black in SOPA Protest, htpp://j.mp/x8GMPh. (via @stroughtonsmith)—@aallan
@aallan More power to them!—@ndw

Wednesday at 09:30am

Dear Arctic, thanks for loan of your weather. We’re done with it now, please take it back.—@ndw

Wednesday at 09:43am

Yes indeedy! RT @edd Running, not walking, to install writegood-mode http://t.co/HNfZdRDj #emacs #writing—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 11:35am

Anything more disagreeable that starting in on a "simple little fix" to discover pervasive issue in deep API?—@mathling
@mathling Not really.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 11:57am

To say nothing of the disagreeable discovery of several dozen code paths, all alike, except not quite.—@mathling
@mathling “Several dozen”? Yikes. I felt good when I found and factored away three of four in one of my apps recently.—@ndw

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

As the new CEO, Scott Thompsen vows to make Yahoo as popular and beloved as PayPal.—@mdubinko
@mdubinko Ouch!—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 01:36pm

I just signed up for 80char! #80char is going to be the coolest place to share your code! Sign up for yourself at: http://t.co/8L7UOUVt—@vbsteven
@vbsteven Ok. I’ll sign up. But I won’t pimp for them. The fact that they’re trying to encourage me to do so doesn’t give me warm feelings.—@ndw
@ndw I'm not a big fan of the signup-gathering concept either. But that seems to be the general practice for new services nowadays—@vbsteven
@ndw @vbsteven Sorry about that! Our hope is that people would want to share #80char - we certainly don't mean to pressure you!—@80_char

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 01:43pm

#tagf2f progressing process for re-resolving httpRange-14 http://t.co/XQI9QiKw—@JeniT
@JeniT /me runs away and hides—@ndw
@ndw @JeniT it would be unwise to remove the "raison d'être" for the TAG, no?—@jreschke
@jreschke If they close it I'm sure we can find a reason to reopen it.—@robinberjon
@jreschke @JeniT Oh goodness, that might be a reason to disband, but it’s hardly a reason to be.—@ndw

Wednesday at 04:08pm

Wise. RT @fantasai Any time you use "must" in a spec, there's an implied "or else". Stop and make sure that "else" is defined somewhere.—@ndw

Wednesday at 04:11pm

Holy crap! How much worse can this get? RT @kendall It's now illegal in NYC to *speak publicly*. No, seriously. http://t.co/8GF0NHGN—@ndw

Wednesday at 05:03pm

I think it might be time to root my phone. Just because.—@ndw

Wednesday at 05:09pm

#httpRange14 RT @ndw: @jreschke @JeniT Oh goodness, that might be a reason to disband, but it’s hardly a reason to be.—@roessler

Wednesday at 05:30pm

RT @ndw @jreschke @JeniT Oh goodness, that might be a reason to disband, but it’s hardly a reason to be. << indeed.—@mnot

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 06:45pm

Santorum says that sex has been “deconstructed to the point where it’s simply pleasure"—that's NOT what she said.—@kendall
@kendall *chuckle*—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 06:49pm

Anyone have comments on “The Rhetorical Nature of XML: Constructing Knowledge in Networked Environments” by J D Applen and Rudy McDaniel?—@ndw
@ndw /me shakes head, glassy-eyed—@timbray
@timbray Is that a speculative comment, or a comment based on practical experience?—@ndw
@ndw I'm 90% sure I got my undergraduate with the author. Small damn world. (I know I had Applen as a professor).—@perigrin

Wednesday at 07:38pm

Been having one of those "write once, debug everywhere" Java experiences the last couple of days. About as much fun as it sounds.—@malcolmt

Wednesday at 07:41pm

/me wonders if @t has described his techniques for #indieweb and #ownyourowndata—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 07:47pm

I hope I don’t agree with this just because I’m a curmudgeon. https://t.co/iQmiTDwI /via @talios—@ndw
@ndw @talios Norm, by any chance, are the curmudgeons quitting your organization?—@JoshNarva
@JoshNarva @talios No, I didn’t mean to imply that.—@ndw

Wednesday at 07:51pm

.@80_char S’okay. I won’t hold it against you. You’re hardly alone. I’m just grumpy about my time and reputation.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 07:55pm

My choice: early night at hotel, or returning to Hungry Mother to meet @amyvdh & other W3Cers—@JeniT
@JeniT That’s easy. Please say “Hi” to @amyvdh & friends for me!—@ndw
@ndw hi Norm! so glad @JeniT joined us - a very nice night—@amyvdh
@amyvdh I don’t expect I had a lot to do with it, but you’re welcome. Sorry I’m not coming all the way into MIT today so I won’t see you.—@ndw
@ndw sorry to miss you! hope we'll get to see you in the new year.—@amyvdh
@ndw Will do :)—@JeniT

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 08:04pm

Damnit, @80_char why does your app want the ability tweet on my behalf? Bad enough you want to read my tweets. You want to speak for me? No.—@ndw
@ndw That's actually left over from one of our old feature ideas. We will remove those access requirements ASAP! http://t.co/7NzPbhUU—@80_char

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 05:42am

1. Write base UML model. 2. Reinvent RDF badly inside it. 3. Sprinkle some OWL on top. 4. Query with XPath subset. #s-ramp #yuck—@larsga
@larsga Ugh.—@ndw

Thursday at 09:05am

Oh, drat. I wish I'd thought to note the positions of all my icons before I rooted my phone.—@ndw

Thursday at 09:25am

@ndw That makes two of us.—@collwhit

Thursday at 11:18am

It's important to remember that the Tea Party is a GOP faction that was and is unhappy with George Bush's liberalism. No, really.—@kendall

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

Trying to decide if I’m looking forward to or terrified by my plans to meet with the @w3c TAG about HTML/XML this afternoon.—@ndw
@ndw hehe… having the same thoughts about talking to them about HTTP tomorrow. :)—@mnot
@ndw be afraid, be very afraid.—@torgo

Thursday at 11:36am

Nice #xmlprague program. Momentary relief that proposal rejection means I don’t have to work dashed by appearance twice on first page of pgm—@ndw

Thursday at 12:42pm

Things I will not be installing on my phone now that I have a choice: Facebook, Netflix, mobile provider status crap, excuse me, app...—@ndw

Thursday at 12:43pm

So true. RT @timbray Geeks win, eventually: http://t.co/qcNCsO69—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 01:06pm

me: good company, rock solid engineering team (who are some pimps w/ awesome personalities and senses of humor); him: word, sounds enticing—@peteaven
@peteaven Nothing in there I’d disagree with :-)—@ndw
@ndw @peteaven Ahh, look at you guys... This is like watching your kids ride a bike for the first time. Well, not the first time. #hiring—@JoshNarva

Thursday at 01:15pm

CyanogenMod let's me turn off haptic feedback. What. a. relief.—@ndw

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

Talking about HTML & XML at the @w3c TAG meeting this afternoon. @ndw is in the hot seat. http://t.co/Wppr5yWB—@torgo
@torgo @ndw good luck Norm!—@xquery

Thursday at 07:27pm

@ndw - any input into this discussion of docbook sect1/2/3/4/5 vs section issue? http://t.co/SYLmHNHd Is the former more legacy?—@bdarcus

Thursday at 08:34pm

Just updated our twitter auth settings to disallow posting on behalf of our users. Sorry for the confusion! (/cc @ndw) ^JW—@80_char

Thursday at 09:53pm

Just updated our twitter auth settings to disallow posting on behalf of our users. Sorry for the confusion! (\/cc @ndw) ^JW—@januszaw6

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 10:08pm

Delightful and productive, I thought, meeting with the TAG. Long drive made more pleasant with Dirk Gently's H.D.A. audio book.—@ndw
@ndw really great to see you, even if you did remind me about looming @xmlprague keynote…—@JeniT
@ndw Thanks for all the help, and the good times at dinner. Great to see you again!—@noahmendelsohn

Friday at 02:41pm

Vote early, vote often! #voteberjon #W3C #TAG #elections—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 11:56am

#hey80char, Compare the contents of two zip files, by @ndw. http://t.co/PnRquSYA—@80_char
@80_char I mostly posted that as a sort of experiment, trying to figure out what 80char is all about. Not seeing code from anyone else.—@ndw
@ndw Yeah, it's still a closed beta so we don't have many members, and few of them have posted. Thanks for jumping in!—@80_char

Saturday at 11:57am

RT @80_char: #hey80char, Compare the contents of two zip files, by @ndw. http://t.co/h2WkiAFk…—@Joe_Wegner

Saturday at 03:15pm

Fixing the import bug in #XMLCalabash is so clearly not worth the trouble (it turns out to be a lot of trouble). #perfectionist—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 03:31pm

"I find myself longing for a church with a cool factor of about 0." - http://t.co/dHiQj9GN—@simonstl
@simonstl Meh. The whole institution couldn’t be less cool to me if it was buried in permafrost.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 10:30pm

What's the preferred android twitter client these days? Tweetdeck has been flaky lately..—@talios
@talios I've been very happy with Twicca—@ndw
@ndw that's the second vote for twicca ;-) liking it so far.—@talios

Sunday at 02:58pm

@ndw why it is so hard to understand that the president who wasted (aka spent) more money BEFORE the Iraq war than any other US president ..—@mcepl

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 02:58pm

@ndw ... after Johnson is not considered by many too conservative (at least in the fiscal meaning of the word)?—@mcepl
@mcepl Sorry, was this apropos of something specific?—@ndw

Sunday at 05:24pm

Didn't finish fixing #XMLCalabash imports; didn't write blog posts; didn't finish patching ceiling. Can I have more weekend, please?—@ndw