The short-form week of 29 Oct–4 Nov 2012

05 Nov 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 Sunday at 06:10pm

I have been using Perl for roughly 18 years. Abject failure to deal with a UTF-8 encoded CSV file a few days ago may have been last straw.—@ndw

@ndw That's weird, Perl has good UTF8 support. What were you doing?—@robinberjon

@ndw Even if everything in your locale is UTF-8 aware? Strange. Any "use utf8" anywhere? I trashed it years ago and haven't looked back.—@sunny256

@sunny256 I think everything is utf-8 aware. Every attempt I made to change characters produced bizarrely misencoded results.—@ndw

@ndw Really strange. You'd think that UTF-8 problems would be a thing of the ancient past. Do you have an example of a mangled sequence?—@sunny256

@sunny256 It was a Google csv of contacts. I s/\n/\\n/g and got a bunch of random characters instead of literal “\n"s.—@ndw

@ndw @sunny256 echo '∀ x φ' | perl -pe 's/\n/\\n/' works for me on Ubuntu 12.04. Perhaps OS/perl installation or specific to that data?—@jkingdon2000

@ndw Tried this yet? open(my $fh,'<:encoding(UTF-8)', $file)—@grtjn

RT @ndw I have been using Perl for roughly 18 years.[...] Perl is Cowboy Woody and python is Buzz Lightyear. Cmd.exe is Rex, sh is Sarge.—@icing

@ndw ...at least that was true in 2003 running ActivePerl 5.8—@vancouverizer

@ndw ...ActivePerl on Windows uses ASCII unless told to use another encoding: Win32::OLE qw(CP_UTF8); Win32::OLE->Option(CP => CP_UTF8);—@vancouverizer

@ndw Really time to move on. Really. Come over to the Dark Side. As in Dark Red.—@timbray

@timbray Yeah. I guess. As good at string/regex hacking?—@ndw

@ndw @timbray or the old stalwart #Tcl. #utf-8 #regexp —@bcharder

@ndw Isomorphic, more readable/maintainable, slower.—@timbray

@timbray That sounds like a net win.—@ndw

@ndw Also, this may sound weird, but Ruby makes you smile.—@timbray

@ndw Helped someone with an issue like this a few years ago, perhaps it is the same? They were running ActivePerl on Windows...—@vancouverizer

Monday at 05:41am

Dear weblog spammer, I can undo with three lines of XQuery everything you’ve done typing for I don’t know how long. P.S. Eat flaming death.—@ndw

Tuesday at 02:55am

@xquery @ndw Sad passing of XML rockstar twitter avatars. @xquery used to look like Elvis Costello and @ndw like Frank Zappa. #sigh —@aljopainter

Tuesday at 04:30am

AddressBook sync with Google on my 10.6.8 box has made an absolute pigs breakfast of my contacts. Lovely.—@ndw

Tuesday at 02:39pm

Just arrived in Lyon. Wondering where to go for some company… #tpac /cc @torgo @robinberjon @ndw —@JeniT

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 09:23am

Oh, fsck me. In an effort to fix address book issues, I created a smart group which now hangs the AddressBook app at startup. KMN.—@ndw

@ndw aren't you happy you left the Northeast? It's a mess here.—@scohenadler

@scohenadler I’m certainly happy to be in Lyon right now :-)—@ndw

@ndw wish I could have been there. But need to be here cleaning up trees, etc. At least we got power back today. Give my love to all.—@scohenadler

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 09:42am

Interested in change tracking? Come join the Change Tracking Markup Community group http://t.co/rwxJkLlJ —@ndw

@ndw Re @w3c Change Group, the Open Annotation group has discussed use of Annos for Editing. Perhaps some cross-pollination is possible? :)—@azaroth42

Wednesday at 03:57pm

@ndw : Carcassonne #envy . Enjoy! (Bill from comp.fonts days)—@n1vux

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 03:12am

Ok. So sqlite3 can dump the AddressBook-v22.abcddb file. Anyone know how to get sqlite3 to write it back out after I “fix” it?—@ndw

@ndw sqlite3 -init <SQL-file> database.db—@mcepl

.@mcepl I don’t get the impression that will give me the .abcddb file I need. Le sigh.—@ndw

@mcepl Thanks. That seems to have worked.—@ndw

Thursday at 07:03am

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

Thursday at 08:41am

OH “At that point, you’ve gone meta-meta and my head explodes."—@ndw

Thursday at 03:41pm

@ndw @robinberjon I am going to leave my hotel, up for last drinks tonight?—@fgeorges

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 05:24pm

@robinberjon I Cant believe we missed that dance off ... we hang tomorrow with @ndw et al ?—@xquery

@xquery I'd love to hang out during the day, in the evening my wife arrives for a romantic time :-) @ndw —@robinberjon

Saturday at 06:24pm

"238 Americans have been killed by terrorists since 911, 293 by falling furniture and TVs." // Time to declare the War on Furniture.—@theharryshearer

Saturday at 07:42pm

Arrived IAH. Almost almost home.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 07:02am

@marjoleink Photography work is basically what ties me to Mac OS at this time.—@ndw

@ndw I see no need, only preference (but that's OK). I prefer free (as in freedom), open software, use closed SW only when no alternative—@marjoleink

Sunday at 06:53pm

Don't let anyone stop you from voting.—@WendellPierce

Sunday at 09:25pm

@owillis when countries run elections the way they're run in OH and FL, the State Dept issues Travel Advisories and we recall ambassadors—@Burrite

Sunday at 10:38pm

RT @WendellPierce: Don't let anyone stop you from voting.—@ndw

Sunday at 11:19pm

http://t.co/9nSGeiE6 This one's for @ndw...a Calabash tree.—@collwhit