This page is an archive, possibly an out-of-date one.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 18–24 Nov 2013

25 Nov 2013; last modified 26 Nov 2013

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 10:22am

“She wanted to see the universe.” “She didn’t miss much, it’s almost over.” #drwo—@ndw

Monday at 01:22pm

A parking space in downtown Austin. #thingsthatareimpossibletofind—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 10:52am

The call for papers for @xmlprague is up! I need to think of a good non-XML topic for this year :) http://www.xmlprague.cz/call-for-papers/—@robinberjon
@robinberjon "comment traduire draft en français ?" Vous avez deux heures.—@karlpro
@karlpro Pas assez troll pour le public :)—@robinberjon
@robinberjon DRM for enabling privacy of personal data. :) assez troll?—@karlpro
@karlpro Hmmmmoui, mais ça ne trolle pas spécifiquement un public XML. I need a topic that trolls @ndw very personally :)—@robinberjon
@robinberjon Why?—@ndw
@ndw @robinberjon Probably Robin as editor of HTML spec must pretend that there is nothing like XML. But I doubt he can tell because of NDA—@jirkakosek
@jirkakosek @robinberjon My question wound up as a reply to the wrong tweet. It was the one about trolling me that I was confused about.—@ndw
@ndw how else am I to draw your august attention? @jirkakosek—@robinberjon
@robinberjon You’re confused. Balisage is in August. XML Prague is in February.—@ndw
@ndw Well played sir, well played.—@robinberjon

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

Not covered by my prospective health plan: “any release of nuclear energy, whether or not the result of war” #disclaimers—@ndw
@ndw As in "if a nuclear power plant malfunctions, and you need medical attention because of that, we won't cover it"?—@avernet
@avernet Basically, though I think, in fairness, the disclaimer went on to ramble something about if government aid is available...—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 11:55am

@ndw "Not because anyone loves it ..., but because it's an omnipresent miasma, like air pollution and second-hand cigarette smoke."—@alexmilowski

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 12:03pm

Finally, a site that catalogs & classifies all those bread bag closey thingies. http://www.horg.com/—@lmorchard
@lmorchard That’s amazing. Or frightening. Or both.—@ndw

Wednesday at 12:16pm

If your first thought is “The compiler is wrong” you should take a step back and make sure you’re qualified to make such an assertion.—@balexander

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 02:04pm

Printed an A4 document today. On A4 paper. That’s right, I have A4 paper. Because it’s better.—@ndw
@ndw You go, Norm! Taking the world by storm, one A4 page at a time.—@alexmilowski
@ndw next you'll be cheering on the welfare state! Or buying those strange punches and notebooks used for A4.—@simonstl
@ndw do you sometimes fold it once or twice and then look at it and say "and it still makes sense! hooray for fractal formats!" #A4rules—@dret
@dret Absolutely!—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 06:09pm

One afternoon trying to build xulrunner on 64 bit linux in order to run Talend starts to make the Mac look inviting despite the suck.—@ndw
@ndw Hi Norman! Tell us how we can help you, in any way, with this.—@Talend
@Talend I’m experiencing this issue http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17801715/talend-open-studio-exiting and have found no solution that works with Talend DI 5.4.0—@ndw
@ndw Hi Norman! Maybe you could check this post? It seems like other users have had the same message as you have http://www.talendforge.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=22630—@Talend
@Talend Yes, thanks, that does seem to have fixed it.—@ndw
@ndw Great, thanks a lot for the reply and glad you have a fix.—@Talend
@ndw ia32-libs-xulrunner? Haven’t tried it, but was amazed how instantly kindlegen was up and running on 64 bit Linux using ia32-libs—@gimsieke

Thursday at 07:12am

XML Stars, the journal is out! http://paper.li/dominixml/1329135087 Stories via @ndw @xmlgrrl @RealMichaelKay—@dominixml

Thursday at 03:51pm

RT @alexmilowski: Got a spare $ or two? Support Mathematics in ebooks! [English lang version] #MathMLhttp://www.ulule.com/mathematics-ebooks/—@ndw

Thursday at 04:14pm

Watch 32 discordant metronomes achieve synchrony in a matter of minutes (via Simon) - If you place 32... http://wwrnr.tumblr.com/post/67687092032/watch-32-discordant-metronomes-achieve-synchrony-in-a#_=_—@0xcafebabe

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 09:08am

@arh That would be my assumption too, but it’s far above my pay grade to comment. I’ve had nothing (personally) to do with that project.—@ndw
@ndw Sorry to hear on both counts (that you’re not at the top pay grade, and that you weren’t involved). :-)—@arh
@arh I'm content to do engineering in relative quiet, for which MarkLogic pays well (we're hiring), and no one can work on all the projects—@ndw

Saturday at 12:41pm

Noilly Prat seem to be phasing out "original dry" vermouth in favor of "extra dry" in the US. "Foul," I cry! "Foul!" Bring back the O.D!—@ndw

Sunday at 03:10pm