The short-form week of 6–12 Aug 2012

13 Aug 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 12:51am

Dear Religion, While you were debating what chicken sandwiches were okay to eat, I just landed on Mars. Sincerely, Your Pal Science—@MKHDDLSTN

Monday at 06:06am

Montreal here I come! #Balisage #odarkthirty —@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 10:14am

Analysis of Apple's FileVault 2 whole disk encryption by those nice chaps at Cambridge http://t.co/c43acxZS Distrust closed source crypto—@tug
@tug Are there good open source OS X alternatives?—@ndw
@ndw I use TrueCrypt http://t.co/ZxETj2pM Not identical in functionality but some nice features (I also use FileVault but don't trust it)—@tug

Monday at 10:53am

IAH to YUL. "At least it doesn't have props." #smallcomforts #smallplane —@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 09:26am

Is #Balisage the right hashtag to follow the proceedings from afar? Or is there something else I should be searching for?—@mdubinko
@mdubinko yes #balisage is the correct hashtag.—@xmltechgeek
@mdubinko That’s the right one.—@ndw
@mdubinko yes #balisage is the right hashtag—@DALDEI
@mdubinko #balisage is indeed the Balisage hashtag. WiFi is spotty, so there may not be much to follow.—@btusdin

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 10:05am

@ndw announces demo jam. Free drinks. 5 minute demos. Demo with the loudest applause wins. Is that the demo after the most beer? #balisage —@jonathan_robie
@jonathan_robie The voting is at the end, so the beer consumption is fairly normalized.—@ndw
@jonathan_robie They do say that drinking a lot of beer as part of the demo would increase your chances.. ;-) cc @ndw —@grtjn

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 10:49am

That was fun. I love #balisage.—@sgmlguru
@sgmlguru Well done!—@ndw
@ndw Thanks. I hope I didn't do irreparable damage to either XProc or Calabash. :)—@sgmlguru

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 11:12am

14 Wacky "Facts" Kids Will Learn in Louisiana's Voucher Schools http://t.co/0ANrae9X --you won't believe it, I guarantee you—@shelleypowers
@shelleypowers We are doomed as a species.—@ndw
@ndw Luckily for us, other countries still teach their children things like science...and facts.—@shelleypowers

Tuesday at 01:06pm

Ha! @jenit presenting at #Balisage by way of #XMLPrague and @evlist —@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 03:18pm

Why do calendar apps on my Android phone show appointments that have been deleted in http://t.co/hbGBY96j ?—@ndw
Me too! @ndw Why do calendar apps on my Android phone show appointments that have been deleted in http://t.co/PwNODzEO ?—@jpcs

Tuesday at 04:27pm

In other news, if you turn off the wireless router when you leave your house, you can’t reach the servers in your house from the road.—@ndw

Tuesday at 04:33pm

Fundamentally, I think the question raised by proposals like UDL is, how far down the XML stack can you tweak things? #balisage —@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 04:36pm

Give me back my notations! #balisage —@ndw
@ndw The feature nobody ever used, even once, amirite?—@timbray

Tuesday at 04:36pm

RT @ndw: Fundamentally, I think the question raised by proposals like UDL is, how far down the XML stack can you tweak things? #balisage —@xmltechgeek

Tuesday at 05:40pm

RT @ndw: Fundamentally, I think the question raised by proposals like UDL is, how far down the XML stack can you tweak things? #balisage —@simonstl

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 06:43pm

Demo Jam tonight and my presentation tomorrow. Who scheduled this? #balisage —@ndw
@ndw We all know you thrive on adrenaline. :-). Break a leg.—@collwhit

Wednesday at 07:09am

XML Stars, the journal nouvelle édition http://t.co/cd9sLTFc ▸ Aujourd'hui à la UNE: @xmlgrrl @RealMichaelKay @ndw —@dominixml

Wednesday at 10:48am

#XProc has turned up in several #Balisage talks. Good to be reminded that it really is solving problems for users.—@ndw

Wednesday at 11:00am

“Advanced technology is always indistinguishable from a rigged demo” #Balisage #Overheardinthehalls —@ndw

Wednesday at 11:24am

“I am not a programmer.” / “Yes, you are!” #balisage #arguments —@ndw

Wednesday at 11:25am

RT @ndw: “I am not a programmer.” / “Yes, you are!” #balisage #arguments —@simonstl

Wednesday at 12:49pm

RT "@ndw: #XProc has turned up in several #Balisage talks. Good to be reminded..." Making my work happen... Thanks to Calabash!—@keithlawrenz

Wednesday at 01:48pm

When @ndw had spare time with little bandwidth, he created a compact syntax for XProc .#balisage —@simonstl

Wednesday at 01:58pm

did @ndw just imply that an xml syntax is more declarative than an equivalent construct in a non-xml syntax? #balisage —@jonathan_robie

Wednesday at 01:59pm

XML extensible but not concise. @ndw makes the obvious point interesting, though, and hopefully sets stage for balance. #balisage —@simonstl

Wednesday at 02:00pm

@ndw A criterion we used for the syntax of Quilt / XQuery: a moderately complex query should fit on a slide for a presentation. #balisage —@jonathan_robie

Wednesday at 02:09pm

#balisage audience horrified by @ndw creating a <![xml[ ]]> syntax modeled on CDATA. Awesomely evil, though not a good idea.—@simonstl

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 02:12pm

Anyone else want a bumper sticker that reads <![xml[<div ... />]]> ? #balisage —@mdubinko
@mdubinko Me, me! #balisage —@sgmlguru
@mdubinko I have to have one for my laptop, don’t I? Just have to.—@ndw

Wednesday at 02:17pm

Best maniacal villain laugh I’ve heard in a while: @ndw re: his <![xml[ … ]]> hack #balisage —@whovingh

Wednesday at 02:22pm

Nice #balisage talk by evil @ndw Norm Walsh on non-XML and/vs XML syntax (for XProc)—@WendellPiez

Wednesday at 02:45pm

After @ndw talk at #balisage, I wish these compact syntaxes could use the same syntax for things such as comments or embedded XML snippets!—@evlist

Wednesday at 03:12pm

“Us humans can read read sentences that have been disemvoweled.” #balisage —@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 03:28pm

@ndw Is http://t.co/kLHrrowK still being maintained? I asked for a few more OpenJDK lists to be added a couple weeks ago, but no joy yet.—@mreinhold
@mreinhold @ndw MarkMail is maintained as a volunteer effort, by me and @eedeebee. We’re sometimes slow. I’ll add the lists tho.—@hunterhacker
@hunterhacker @ndw @eedeebee Didn’t know that—thanks!—@mreinhold
@mreinhold @hunterhacker @eedeebee Thanks, Jason. Sorry I didn’t get back to you more quickly, Mark.—@ndw
@ndw No problem, and thanks for forwarding my query to the right people /cc @hunterhacker @eedeebee —@mreinhold

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 03:51pm

RT @jonathan_robie did @ndw imply that an xml syntax is more declarative than equiv construct in a non-xml syntax? #balisage <-- #magic!—@mnot
@mnot No, what I said was that languages designed with an XML syntax tend to be more declarative, but no magic was implied.—@ndw
@ndw (cc @mnot) you mean XML syntax as language's code serialization or as language's native data model? disagree on #1, agree on #2.—@dret
@dret I’m not sure I was carefully considering that distinction. I suppose I think #2 is the important part, but #1 helps reinforce that.—@ndw
@ndw complex and possibly recursive data input models (#XML, #Lisp) are simply processed more appropriately with functional languages. #XSLT —@dret
@ndw Hm. So the canonical example of a programming language in XML is XSLT, right? Does it get any utility from being in XML? #notsure —@mnot
@mnot @ndw value of XSLT using XML syntax varies wildly by task being performed. Used to hate it, but for appropriate use, excellent.—@simonstl
@mnot #XSLT is one of the few languages that's naturally digesting the same syntax it lives in. sometimes, that's *extremely* useful.—@dret
@dret if you mean for syntactic alignment, agreed (look at all of the proposals for integrating XML syntax into js, etc.).—@mnot
@mnot #JSON pretty much stopped all the proposals that tried to make languages more #XML-friendly; it simply made data more object-friendly.—@dret
@dret very good point, nicely put.—@mnot
@mnot I think it does. But, you know, I would, wouldn’t I?—@ndw
@ndw LOL—@mnot
@ndw what I mean to ask whether you / anyone knows of use of its declarative nature.—@mnot
@mnot compare the push/pull styles. I think the push style is much more declarative and benefits from that declarative nature.—@ndw
@ndw … @dret pointed out that the syntactic alignment with its target is a good thing, which I agree with, but that's not about declarative.—@mnot

Thursday at 01:19am

RT @ndw: “Advanced technology is always indistinguishable from a rigged demo” #Balisage #Overheardinthehalls —@nine9ths

Thursday at 08:32am

"Epistemology is the Achilles' heel of realism about abstracta." #Balisage —@mdubinko

Thursday at 10:14am

When UML rules the world, all progress becomes abstract. #balisage —@mdubinko

Thursday at 09:54pm

"DocBook is god" #balisage #overheardinthehalls #werewolf —@ndw

Thursday at 10:49pm

RT @ndw: "DocBook is god" #balisage #overheardinthehalls #werewolf —@whovingh

Friday at 10:07am

#MicroXML’s utterly simple data model has some appeal. #Balisage —@ndw

Friday at 11:01am

“Maybe that is third normal form, but it’s certainly not first useful form” @barefootliam #Balisage —@ndw

Friday at 11:01am

RT @ndw: “Maybe that is third normal form, but it’s certainly not first useful form” @barefootliam #Balisage —@simonstl

Friday at 11:02am

RT @ndw: “Maybe that is third normal form, but it’s certainly not first useful form” @barefootliam #Balisage —@mdubinko

Friday at 11:14am

RT @ndw: “Maybe that is third normal form, but it’s certainly not first useful form” @barefootliam #Balisage —@amclark42

In a conversation that started on Friday at 11:29am

Thank you, @sheilaMorr for all the #balisage conference tweets.—@ndw
@ndw A pleasure - returning the favor for others who have live-tweeted from conferences I could alas not attend—@sheilaMorr

Friday at 11:32am

RT @ndw: Thank you, @sheilaMorr for all the #balisage conference tweets.—@xmltechgeek

Friday at 02:47pm

RT @ndw: “Maybe that is third normal form, but it’s certainly not first useful form” @barefootliam #Balisage —@jpcs

Friday at 04:22pm

@ndw 's XQuery-OAuth with minor changes for #basex https://t.co/zq9hA41S—@apb1704

Friday at 04:47pm

RT @ndw: “Maybe that is third normal form, but it’s certainly not first useful form” @barefootliam #Balisage —@grtjn

Friday at 07:57pm

Several photo gallery apps on my #Android phone crash on startup. I wonder how I can fix that?—@ndw

Friday at 10:43pm

Camera 360 sometimes creates invalid JPGs, apparently. #debuggingonaplane —@ndw

Saturday at 08:10am

Headline: Tips aim to help drivers avoid hitting deer. 1. Slow down when a deer crossing sign is present. #duh —@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 09:38am

New credit card is first I’ve had with no raised numbers. I wonder how many merchants will express confusion.—@ndw
@ndw Only the ones with the machines that imprint the card number on forms with carbon paper. And when did you last see one of those?—@collwhit
@ndw Whoah, that totally breaks those carbon paper things that they use when the net goes down. Not sure if want.—@pfhawkins
@ndw You'll probably have difficulty with that in cabs. Lots still use the carbon-paper thing for receipts.—@tabatkins

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

@ndw I wonder if the number will still be legible in 4 months. (I've had cards like that... #JustSayin)—@chaals
@chaals No idea. The number isn't printed on the front of the card at all.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 01:55pm

If you put an ad for your mobile app between me and the page I was trying to get to: a. You suck. b. You lose most of your credibility.—@ndw
@ndw At least that earns you the “privilege” of ending up at the page you wanted to view in the first place. Cf: http://t.co/F2fnCNoi —@20gnd

Saturday at 02:12pm

RT @ndw: “Maybe that is third normal form, but it’s certainly not first useful form” @barefootliam #Balisage —@DALDEI

Saturday at 02:14pm

RT @ndw: If you put an ad for your mobile app between me and the page I was trying to get to: a. You suck. b. You lose most of your cred ...—@20gnd

Saturday at 03:15pm

Holes made in Curiosity's wheels were made to spell out "JPL" in Morse code after not allowed to put a JPL sticker on it. #GeekGirlCon —@verethele

Saturday at 04:27pm

As a rule, US beer is hop-based, European beer malt-based. Belgian beer is yeast-based, and industrial beer is water-based.—@larsga

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 07:20pm

My sister has some interesting stuff on etsy, including steampunk and Dr. Who themed items: http://t.co/yMx0ZoaU —@bobdc
@bobdc I will wear my steampunk cufflinks at XML Summer School!—@ndw

Saturday at 09:15pm

Time to abandon all my hacked up XML representations of iCal for xCal, I suppose. Tool to convert iCal to xCal?—@ndw

Sunday at 08:37am

Whover took this pic - #WIN http://t.co/DtGKK0Dx —@roomthinker

Sunday at 09:40am

Text::vFile::toXML is not the answer :-(—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 10:03am

The RELAX NG grammar in #rfc6321 contains a bunch of syntax errors and undefined patterns. #fail —@ndw
@ndw these things would be so much easier to prevent if the #RFC process supported publishing associated machine-readable resources. #IETF —@dret
@dret Yes. I was astonished that I had to copy the schema out of the spec and delete page headers and footers. Twenty-first century, anyone?—@ndw
@ndw i was going through the same moves for the xCard #RFC, but at least the result was a valid schema and not the mess you got for xCal.—@dret

Sunday at 10:16am

RT @ndw: The RELAX NG grammar in #rfc6321 contains a bunch of syntax errors and undefined patterns. #fail —@sideshowbarker

Sunday at 10:24am

Errata reported. That’s my good deed. Now I guess I’ll ignore xCal for another six months… :-/—@ndw

Sunday at 10:38am

RT @ndw: If you put an ad for your mobile app between me and the page I was trying to get to: a. You suck. b. You lose most of your cred ...—@SteveLAnderson

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 11:42am

How on earth did the #rfc6321 editors manage to produce a schema that contains such egregious errors. It was *tested*, right?—@ndw
@ndw Don't see how it could have been tested. We had a build/test step for AtomPub, it caught a bunch of bugs on the way—@dehora
@ndw Same thing with the RNG schema in the OOXML spec: basic, systematic syntax errors. Amazing that people can be so sloppy.—@larsga
@larsga @ndw I checked the OOXML RNG schemas using Jing, and found no errors.—@muratamakoto
@muratamakoto I was referring to ECMA-376:2006, not the ISO versions.—@larsga

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

At Dorval airport, waiting to board a plane to JFK.—@sgmlguru
@sgmlguru Paris seems like a strange connection between Montreal and New York!—@ndw
@ndw ???—@sgmlguru
@sgmlguru Brain cramp. Dorval is not Charles de Gaulle. :)—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 09:49pm

I just coordinated a bar outing with @xmlgrrl and @MissDestructo from 38,000 feet. That's so branché it makes me sick.—@eliasisrael
@eliasisrael @missdestructo The weird part is, I'm in a completely different airplane.—@xmlgrrl
@xmlgrrl @missdestructo We live in the future. :)—@eliasisrael