This page is an archive, possibly an out-of-date one. You’ll find newer weblog postings at So… and more about norm on his homepage.

The short-form week of 19–25 Mar 2012

26 Mar 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.

In a conversation that started on Monday at 01:08am

a bit traumatised by seeing Frozen Planet with hammy American voiceover instead of lovely Attenborough.—@mattb
@mattb Really? Stupidity. I’ll delete that off the DVR without watching then and buy the DVDs. If it’s not Attenborough, it’s just wrong.—@ndw

Monday at 08:45am

Annoying how the permission culture makes people ask me for permission to do stuff that's permitted by law or that I've already permitted.—@hsivonen

Monday at 08:50am

Adding a Facebook Like to a client’s page. I’d rather he’d asked me to stick my head up a camel’s arse.—@Malarkey

Monday at 09:59am

things apple won't do with its cash pile: repatriate money into the US and pay tax on it—@monkchips

Monday at 12:11pm

Rethuglicans in the House want to double the interest rate on student loans!? Crush the educated young people before the fix the economy!—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 01:27pm

Did my update not work @readability or is it really the case that I still can’t share *from* browser *to* Readability. Really?—@ndw
@ndw Still the case. We shipped an update Friday for the one and are hard-at-work on the other.—@readability

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 01:50am

No descendant-or-self axis in jQuery, 13 years after XPath 1.0 (1999) introduced it. http://t.co/x4jyv06X #xml #reinventingthewheel—@ebruchez
@ebruchez “I don’t really agree that such selection makes sense in the context of HTML”. #sigh #facepalm—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 03:24am

[blog] More Emacs for the favorite IDE http://t.co/Z35nZMFP—@intellijidea

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 04:16am

Probably the greatest and most sinister achievement of tabloids has been to persuade the poor to denounce Human Rights http://t.co/lRWoYB8f—@mjrobbins
@mjrobbins @ndw "the poor" are not a single homogeneous group all thinking the same thing... you may as well say "the left handed"—@andrewwelch

Tuesday at 08:57am

Feature request for @hibariapp, setting to turn off animated gifs.—@ndw

Tuesday at 11:59am

@kendall Tru dat.—@ndw

Tuesday at 12:20pm

Excellent. Vex is getting DocBook 5.0 support. @ndw https://t.co/5Q6tsYUT—@kingargyle

Tuesday at 02:09pm

@kendall A truly, staggeringly large number apparently.—@ndw

Tuesday at 02:16pm

Planned parenthood has improved the health of 20 *million* women in the last two years. That’s >27k/day, 7 days/wk, 52 wks/year.—@ndw

Tuesday at 03:20pm

"There's no need to build a labyrinth when the entire universe is one." - Jorge Luis Borges—@pk11

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 03:29pm

OH “That’s a whole new ball of fish."—@ndw
@ndw or newts—@collwhit
@collwhit I’ve seen that. Very cool.—@ndw

Tuesday at 03:44pm

No, <random-startup>, I don’t want a video about your cool new product. I want you to tell me about it in a series of complete sentences.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 03:54pm

RT @ndw: No, <random-startup>, I don’t want a video about your cool new product. I want you to tell me about it in a series of com ...—@bphogan
@ndw @bphogan It's all a media for communicating an idea.—@krainboltgreene
@krainboltgreene @bphogan I’m sure it’s unfair, but if all you’ve got is a video, I assume you’re incapable of writing complete sentences.—@ndw
@ndw The startups are only doing what they feel will get them the most reward. It's the result of positive reinforcement. /cc @bphogan—@krainboltgreene
@ndw @bphogan Pft, you're not sure, you know for a fact that's unfair ;) Tell others to stop rewarding only videos, you'll see change faster—@krainboltgreene
@krainboltgreene @bphogan Uh, I said “I’m sure...” I never expressed any doubt about the lack of fairness. But ignore me. I’m an outlier.—@ndw
@ndw @bphogan Oh come off it, I was only playing around with that bit.—@krainboltgreene

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 04:12pm

Yes, @tmobile, if I clicked “logout” I did want to, you know, log out. No modal popup required, thank you very much.—@ndw
@ndw It means a lot that you took time to tell us what you feel. We will pass this feedback onto those who can implement it. ^KN—@TMobileHelp

Tuesday at 04:12pm

Grill. Steak. Cabernet. </grumpy>—@ndw

Tuesday at 05:18pm

Buds on the clematis! Buds on the hops! #spring—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 08:52pm

I suck at web design. And I mean *profoundly*.—@ndw
@ndw lol. I resemble that remark!—@mich_woodside

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 08:58pm

Static page: photo, title, metadata, sometimes a map. Your name in lights in an insignificant tech blog for a simple, appealing design.—@ndw
@ndw I love the elegant layout of http://t.co/5IgYCfui from @khoi -available as Wordpress theme,but perhaps could be adapted for your needs?—@evan_l_williams

Wednesday at 03:31am

Hurray, @XMLAmsterdam has a program committee! More details soon.. :) cc: @jenit @ndw @robinberjon—@grtjn

Wednesday at 03:58am

Why do we have to wait 5 years to take a govt back to the shop. "This govt doesn't do anything it said it would on the side of the box"—@robinince

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 07:56am

Word clouds with image map? Anyone know of a word cloud tool that also returns an image map of where the words are in the image?—@ndw
@ndw Probably not what you're looking for but FYI just in case http://t.co/TuGkE53B—@ttso
@ndw I've been looking for something similar. Best option I've found: implement Wordle algorithm using Raphael.js—@eliasisrael
@eliasisrael Yeah, ok, just linking from the words would do it to. If you get around to implementing wordle with Raphael, do let me know :-)—@ndw
@ndw OK. Not sure it's an MVP feature, but I'll let you know.—@eliasisrael
@eliasisrael If I get there first, I promise to let you know too :-)—@ndw
@ndw Thanks.—@eliasisrael
@ndw Wow, I haven't thought of image maps in forever. I remember building one as nav for my Geocities site in high school.—@pfhawkins

Wednesday at 08:14am

"Museums are like icebergs: most of the time you can't see 95% of the objects" #bathdigifest—@m1ke_ellis

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 08:46am

OK boys and girls, I'm about to come out of the cave and buy a smart phone. Android. Suggestions on carrier/phone?—@shelleypowers
@shelleypowers I’m planning to get the Galaxy Nexus next, when it comes to T-Mobile. The HTC G2 has been fine. Verizon doesn’t work overseas—@ndw
@shelleypowers I am fond of HTC's but I highly recommend going into an actual store and trying a variety. I'm on Sprint with unlimited data.—@mollydotcom
@mollydotcom I used to have Sprint, and it does seem as if they have true unlimited. Thanks for suggestions.—@shelleypowers

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

Take a photo of a farm and go to jail for a year in Utah. http://t.co/DhJd8phO—@shelleypowers
@shelleypowers How do we elect politicians that would sign stuff like this? (Don’t answer that.)—@ndw
@ndw Sorry, answered it anyway. Consider it a vent.—@shelleypowers
@shelleypowers Congratulations. I rarely manage to vent about politics without turning the air blue.—@ndw
@ndw Because we elect people who pander, not lead. Because people in urban centers would rather go our for a latte than vote.—@shelleypowers

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 10:24am

NSA Chief Denies Claims of Domestic Spying http://t.co/XpPaN50U—@slashdot
.@slashdot Because they’d never *lie*.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 11:48am

Extremely disappointed by this Supreme Court decision http://t.co/2ivl3UY2—@shelleypowers
@shelleypowers It’s not like we need clean water or air or anything. Corporations are the people that vote and they don’t need ‘em.—@ndw
@ndw Oddly enough, the guy that argued for the EPA in this case is the same one who argued for government in Citizens United.—@shelleypowers
@shelleypowers Everything dies. The overwhelming majority of all species that ever existed are extinct. We’ll die in the bed we’re making.—@ndw
@ndw And yet, things live. I hold on to that thought, a lot.—@shelleypowers

Wednesday at 12:56pm

Oh, how nice! My new windows box comes with this cute little program with a swoosh-y "e" icon for downloading a browser!—@textfiles

Wednesday at 01:43pm

Too many tabs open. Tab titles just go 'Lo Ma Ma Pr Cu BB Ne Ge Wi th Ac' etc, like a periodic table of procrastination.—@j4

Wednesday at 02:53pm

That thing where you send a piece of email demonstrating monumental stupidity? That.—@ndw

Wednesday at 04:17pm

Neat and obvious idea from Norman Walsh - “@ndw: Word clouds with image map?”. Link should, presumably, go to keyword search results page.—@SteveLAnderson

Wednesday at 08:37pm

UN finds that US tortured Bradley Manning, who injured no one. Meanwhile Robert Bales who killed 16 seems to be treated very well.—@ronmichael

Thursday at 09:05am

It bears repeating: if your essay is broken into several short, screen-length pages, I never read the second page.—@ndw

Thursday at 09:27am

Here's something I hate about my industry: it's dominated by sexist little boys who need to grow the fuck up.—@kendall

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 10:15am

So tired of hearing people say they don't believe in climate change. It's not freaking Tinkerbell. It doesn't need your belief to exist. #p2—@viscous_rumors
@viscous_rumors @ndw fwiw i dont believe co2 is driving climate change, instead its solar activity.—@andrewwelch

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 12:31pm

Must. not. be. distracted. by. glorious. summer. weather. in. March.—@ndw
@ndw it's impossible not to be! Running however is not advised. I dare say, it's actually *too hot* to run outside right now—@TNRGlobal

Thursday at 12:40pm

“@ndw: Must. not. be. distracted. by. glorious. summer. weather. in. March.” <<<< That. Not succeeding.—@whovingh

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 12:46pm

.@kendall That suggests so many scary things about the back end that I’m just going to stick my fingers in my ears and go “La! La! La!...”—@ndw
@ndw Check out http://t.co/kaWEy6xN and tell me what you see. :>—@kendall
@ndw Yes. And now I'm in the customer support queue for an app with 100M+ users…Probably never get fixed. :(—@kendall

Thursday at 12:54pm

Heh. The bio for @LOLGOP is pretty funny.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 01:00pm

@kendall Some imposter named Kendall Pelliccia.—@ndw
@ndw Indeed. I've clearly -- to people's disgust, I'm sure -- not been inactive for 30 days. :>—@kendall

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 01:00pm

@kendall @ndw Weirdly, if I click on your name, I still get you... This is bizarre.—@npilon
@npilon @ndw "Eventually consistent" means "mostly wrong". :>—@kendall
@npilon I bet if you do a cache flush, you'll see the new @kendall—@kendall

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 01:02pm

Holy frak! How did I overlook for more than two years the opportunity to use a @psd caricature for my avatar!? #facepalm—@ndw
@ndw: But did or did not @psd overlook the opportunity to reuse one of Rolf Harris?—@MenteaXML

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

@kendall I can prove you were active last week. Does @twitter really claim to recycle accounts after 30 days!?—@ndw
@ndw I think so. Some amount of days an account is inactive and someone else can request it (I think). Not what happened here, I think. :>—@kendall

Thursday at 01:31pm

@kendall @npilon Preaching to the choir, my friend.—@ndw

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

Chrome: “This page is in Indonesian. Would you like to translate it?” Me; “Uh, WTF. Is not."—@ndw
@ndw nice new avatar!—@MarieBilde
@ndw Chrome insists that our internal tool palantír is in Hungarian (based on that one diacritic)—@jtauber
@ndw Perhaps you should look again. Translate is never wrong.—@tabatkins
@tabatkins As the author of the page in question, and confident of my total ignorance of Indonesian, I have some confidence in my assertion.—@ndw
@ndw CONTINUE LOOKING UNTIL YOU SEE INDONESIAN. (And five lights.)—@tabatkins

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 01:56pm

@kendall If you don’t regain control over @kendall, I’m going to have to patch all my archives, I guess. :-) Curiously old links still work.—@ndw
@ndw I noticed old links work. But that's probably a completely different system. They definitely have tiered storage (w/ quick drop off).—@kendall

Thursday at 02:18pm

Fox News can't wait for a Republican White House so they can stop inventing scandals and go back to covering them up.—@LOLGOP

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 03:23pm

Trying to drum up support for an #httpRange14 change proposal http://t.co/8fo53Opu #lod—@JeniT
@JeniT I’ll try to read it tomorrow.—@ndw
@ndw thanks :)—@JeniT

Thursday at 03:50pm

Group code review with Google+ Hangout was pleasantly successful. Or successful, pleasantly.—@ndw

Thursday at 05:06pm

Leonardo DiCaprio never died in Titanic. Last scene: him going underwater. 1st Scene in Inception: him waking up on a beach. Mind = Blown—@ImTracyMorgan

Thursday at 08:33pm

every time #hadoop adds another daemon, a unicorn impales a baby kitten on its horn thingie and jumps off a cliff.—@esammer

Friday at 03:20am

@ndw Nice avatar.—@sgmlguru

Friday at 04:37am

Anyone believing off-shoring parts of development to be a good thing, is unfortunately a moron.—@aidy_lewis

Friday at 04:44am

"If you just put security aside..." and then the speaker, having suppressed the only serious issue, goes on... #SATIN2012—@bortzmeyer

In a conversation that started on Friday at 05:47am

Google+ on my tablet delivered a hangout notification from yesterday with musical fanfare at 2:45 this morning. Gee, thanks.—@ndw
@ndw Reliable message delivery, but not relevant.—@ronhitchens

Friday at 07:47am

Obamacare cuts the deficit, taxes the richest 1% and makes men and women equal. That's why the GOP hates it. #endofstory—@LOLGOP

Friday at 08:55am

Very clever. RT @mikeloukides Frustro: The Impossible Typeface: yes, we need this! http://t.co/IzA6QHba—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 09:06am

@timbray Is it really the case that no one ported your GenX library to Java?—@ndw
@ndw I decided to write Genx in C because there were already good alternatives in Java.—@timbray
@timbray Alternatives such as?—@ndw
@ndw Uh in 2004 I seem to recall looking around and finding something decent.—@timbray

Friday at 09:14am

LOL! RT @kendall There’s a cold, black monolith ... in our solar system; on it is the inscription: "httpRange-14: Attempt no discussion".—@ndw

Friday at 09:50am

Font not called Escher? :( RT @ndw: Very clever. RT @mikeloukides Frustro: The Impossible Typeface: yes, we need this! http://t.co/wdAb0MfZ—@grtjn

In a conversation that started on Friday at 10:12am

So I "fixed" my Twitter account problem by (1) a most remarkably roundabout process that (2) robbed me of my 6 year old username. :(—@k_ndall
@k_ndall That’s not fixed.—@ndw
@ndw Agreed. But since I *use* Twitter (and, I hope, contribute to its value) and the other person doesn't. More pressure on me to give in.—@k_ndall

In a conversation that started on Friday at 10:22am

This Twitter bug fiasco has taught me an important thing: there is no *one* Twitter, not really. There are many. #distributedisweird—@k_ndall
@k_ndall Doesn’t have to be. There are big data solutions that scale and provide ACID transactions #bigdata #marklogic—@ndw
@ndw Oh. Thanks for making me into an ad for yr company...—@k_ndall
@k_ndall Sorry. I tried to resist, briefly, but it seemed so apropos.—@ndw
@ndw That's okay. I don't blame you. Now, I don't *believe* you, either, but that's entirely separate issue. :>—@k_ndall
Hey, @k_ndall, how am I seeing your tweets? I didn’t explicitly follow your new id...maybe I’m only seeing the ones with @ndw in them.—@ndw
@ndw Oh, that's something Twitter gets right: anyone can change their username and it "just works", i.e., you don't lose followers, etc.—@k_ndall
@k_ndall You see, now that’s just tempting me to follow up with an ad for MarkLogic World. It’s in DC, even! http://t.co/iJ9czTwV—@ndw
@ndw Pathetic. ;>—@k_ndall

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

Okay, exhibit number 1 in the nasty Twitter bug I've been chasing: https://t.co/HUjqMdLX /thx @maco_nix—@k_ndall
@k_ndall Man, that really suggests there’s something deeply, deeply wrong with their database, doesn’t it?—@ndw
@ndw Yes. Something's deeply deeply wrong with *something*.—@k_ndall

Friday at 10:43am

“Holding up the sky” http://t.co/YihImHU5 /via ... someone—@ndw

Friday at 10:53am

@JeniT, I think your change proposal is an improvement on the current state of affairs. I also think maybe 200 assumptions are a bad idea.—@ndw

Friday at 11:01am

@ndw @maco_nix @k_ndall You've been quoted in my #Storify story: "Twitter usernamespace collision" http://t.co/oPNcY0KZ—@maco_nix

In a conversation that started on Friday at 11:09am

If someone says you remind them of the chemical compound C4H4AsH, it’s not a compliment.—@bsletten
@bsletten *chuckle*—@ndw

Friday at 12:01pm

The Sand People travelled in single file, while wearing hoodies, to avoid being shot by George Zimmerman.—@k_ndall

Friday at 12:37pm

So @KaleyCuoco has a dog named “Norman”. Nope. I got nothing.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 12:43pm

I thought Angry Birds in Space was a joke. It’s much more cool than I imagined. But I’m not playing it now. I’m not. Honest.—@ndw
@ndw neither was i at at 12:30 AM when is should have been sound asleep :) +1 on unexpected cool factor!—@jasonmonberg

Friday at 12:46pm

RT @BadAstronomer It's that time again! 20 Things You Didn't Know About....Math http://t.co/sRsWFim0—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 05:18pm

A whole day of backups with the wrong options. Yay me.—@ndw
@ndw I can see how that would get your back up.—@abcoates

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 08:49am

Complete photo site: users, dates, sets, tags, EXIF metadata, public/friend/family/private, four image sizes, etc. ~1k lines #XQuery. #FTW!—@ndw
@ndw nice!—@collwhit
@ndw I'm interested! Must be loads better than my own private photo site built in Cocoon. (Haven't found time yet to rebuilt into XQuery) :P—@grtjn
@grtjn It’ll go up on github eventually.—@ndw
@ndw Sounds cool - is this public? Is there a link?—@StephenBuxton

Saturday at 09:39am

Wonder if FB's opposition to employers demanding potential/current employees login infor is b/c they intend to sell this service #cynic—@lizfraley

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 07:55am

My to-do list is so long at this point my only hope is that it overflows its buffer and wraps around to 0.—@liza
@liza 03:14:07 UTC on Tuesday, 19 January 2038—@abdelazer
@liza alas, in my experience, todo lists are always implemented with bignums.—@ndw

Sunday at 08:07am

What's the big deal with procrastination? Why bother having a future if you can't use it to store tasks you don't want to do?—@evanpro

Sunday at 11:17am

recalling a pep talk from @ndw, with thanks—@JeniT