The short-form week of 16–22 Dec 2013

23 Dec 2013; last modified 28 Dec 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.

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 03:47am

@danbri Reducing SPARQL standard to Xquery is someone's sick idea of a joke, surely.—@kendall
@kendall @danbri reducing sparql to xquery isn't good, but queries with full support for xml, json, and rdf make sense in today's systems.—@jonathan_robie
@jonathan_robie @danbri I'm very skeptical of that, but it's a sound technical idea at least. :>—@kendall
@kendall @danbri which part are you skeptical of, and why?—@jonathan_robie
@jonathan_robie Skeptical of "queries with full support of XML, JSON, and RDF". Why? Why not.—@kendall
@kendall i have repositories with xml for document data and json for program data, add RDF for linked data, now how do i query that?—@jonathan_robie
@jonathan_robie Why stop there? You also have log data, other time series data, CSV, etc. Where's the database to query all of that too?!—@kendall
@kendall @jonathan_robie Uhm, I hav…no, nevermind. :-)—@ndw
@ndw @jonathan_robie No, hey, that's fine: there are multi-modal databases! I just don't think that's the big unstoppable future trend.—@kendall
@kendall @ndw are graph databases are the big unstoppable trend? my big data is JSON, less XML, even less RDF. linked data may change that.—@jonathan_robie
@jonathan_robie @kendall @ndw I think sparql on XML&JSON data will be popular. Trees are simple graphs ;) Graph view on legacy data is easy—@jervenbolleman
@jervenbolleman @jonathan_robie @ndw Maybe. But better to just give a canonical mapping of JSON & XML to RDF and then declare victory.—@kendall
@kendall @jervenbolleman @ndw the way to prove that is to work the XQuery and JSONiq use cases using that approach. i'm skeptical.—@jonathan_robie
@jonathan_robie @kendall @ndw Something like this? https://t.co/aTM3xljDYV Not finished, but I have no more time for it this year.—@jervenbolleman
@jervenbolleman @kendall @ndw Nice! Incidentally, what's the best set of SPARQL use cases to use for a comparison?—@jonathan_robie
@jonathan_robie @jervenbolleman @ndw SP2B and BSBM benchmarks are a good place to start.—@kendall
@jonathan_robie @ndw I didn't say there was a big unstoppable trend. Don't put words in my mouth.—@kendall
@kendall @ndw ok, sorry to misread you. i do think big data and nosql are unstoppable trends, and workflow as part of data management.—@jonathan_robie

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 11:01am

XSLT 3.0 is now a Last Call Working Draft: http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt-30/ —@michaelhkay
#RELAX NG Compact Schema updated http://www.sharexml.com/x/get?k=gfC5oPhTcGjx “@michaelhkay: XSLT 3.0 is now a Last Call Working Draft: http://t.co/eut2bYa5as” —@sharexml
@sharexml @michaelhkay And I've updated https://t.co/vTOPF5M4it—@ndw

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

@ndw could you correct the /p:library/p:declare-step[@name='target']/p:option/@cx:type in /p:library/p:declare-step/p:option/@cx:type? Ta!—@tom_yamahito
@ndw (in case you're wondering why, I have to distribute xproc to a bunch of oXygen 13 users ;) )—@tom_yamahito

In a conversation that started on Monday at 12:53pm

Anyone know of a Google Refine reconciliation service that works? Can’t seem to impl the API nor find a public one that I can add.—@ndw
.@PaulZH In Google Refine 2.5, when I use that URL to “Add Standard Service”, refine just swallows it. No error, no new service.—@ndw
.@ndw it works over here, though using open refine 2.6 https://twitter.com/PaulZH/status/412663856440561664/photo/1 —@PaulZH
@PaulZH Ok. I have different problems with 2.6, but I’ll keep poking them with a sharp stick and see what happens.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Monday at 02:22pm

@PaulZH A prefectly reasonable looking JSON payload. Same as I get for all the other ones that don’t work, including my attempt to impl API—@ndw
@ndw I think you should read this: https://t.co/irH4qQSBZq—@larsga
.@ndw only things i can think of: something wrong in your config (clean install on other system?) or when using large dataset lack of memory—@PaulZH

Monday at 03:56pm

It's pretty liberating once you realize ppl will still like you and respect your ideas if you're like, "hey, that? I was wrong about that."—@NativeApprops

Monday at 04:47pm

Google motto 2004: Don't be evil Google motto 2010: Evil is tricky to define Google motto 2013: We make military robots—@BrentButt

Monday at 08:02pm

You know what's worse than trying to shave a yak? Finding out the yak is hairless and you're just blind.—@steveklabnik

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

Wow.  Just wow.  Eight events where people cheat death, only to die shortly after by some other grisly ... https://plus.google.com/+RandalLSchwartz/posts/E6ZH2hX5pNq?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter #gplus —@merlyn
@merlyn The law of big numbers just sucks.—@ndw

Tuesday at 07:15am

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

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 03:36pm

To wit, "the ideal solution: progressive wealth tax at the global scale, based upon automatic exchange of bank information". #semtech #rdf —@kendall
@kendall I like it.—@ndw
@ndw we could build it!—@kendall

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 05:38pm

In case anyone is playing along at home, I was able to reverse engineer a simple reconciliation service for OpenRefine 2.6.—@ndw
@ndw did you get OpenRefine running on OS X? I had a hell of a time with that a few months ago and haven't revisited..—@soypunk
@soypunk The 2.6b1 binary ran without incident for me.—@ndw

Tuesday at 08:36pm

Up next: Dr Neil DeGrasse Tyson. #austin #paramount —@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 10:54pm

Oracle proves they’re a dinosaur. They built the new Cover Oregon website. It requires IE! https://t.co/lUHIcAUYIy—@hunterhacker
@hunterhacker Just speechless.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 12:25am

Thoroughly enjoyed @neiltyson at the Paramount tonight.—@ndw
@ndw Ooooo. Jealous.—@mdubinko

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 06:16am

"Are your programmers working hard, or are they lazy?" http://mikehadlow.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/are-your-programmers-working-hard-or.html —@j4
@j4 The first manager I had at my first real programming job considered laziness a virtue. I agreed then and I think it’s true now.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 07:11am

Displacement of teaspoons: http://www.bmj.com/content/331/7531/1498 < I suspect the results of this study could be reproduced at @ox_IT :-}—@j4
@j4 It is with a mixture of guilt and glee that I occasionally use the teaspoon that I accidentally (honest!) stole from Oxford years ago.—@ndw

Wednesday at 10:35am

Something else from OS X that I won’t miss: that pointless CPU-sucking mds worker process.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 10:46am

@ndw are you going to blog on the reasons for leaving OS X to linux, the transition experience, app replacements & hardware decisions?—@fjhirsch
@fjhirsch I hadn’t planned that, but it sounds like a good idea. Will do.—@ndw

Wednesday at 03:28pm

Oxidative metabolism is the main cause of aging. Eat a diet rich in trilobites and hydrogen sulfide—@Pinboard

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 07:32pm

For thems that asked and everyone else too. Laugh if you must. http://norman.walsh.name/2013/12/19/LeavingOSX —@ndw
@ndw #BatteriesFTW Yes, The GIMP has improved. Darktable looks interesting but i'm really enjoying Fotoxx (via GetDEB)—@n1vux
@ndw Good luck, and thanks for documenting!—@ebruchez
@ndw Sounds reasonable Norm. Did you enquire about Mint installation?—@dpawson
@dpawson Not specifically. Linux seems to run well on it, so I’m assuming the distribution won’t be an issue.—@ndw
@ndw one of the most well reasoned platform switches I've ever heard. Good luck!—@crichey

Thursday at 08:05pm

“@ndw: For thems that asked and everyone else too. Laugh if you must. http://t.co/y2ArfqnNH5” thanks!—@fjhirsch

Friday at 07:15am

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

Friday at 08:45am

OH: I read a book once on metaphors. Well it wasn't a book; it was a squirrel.—@psd

Friday at 10:22am

Years ago, I had VMWare Workstation for Linux. I got Fusion for Mac before I knew about VirtualBox. Any reason to get Workstation again?—@ndw

Friday at 07:53pm

RT @aral: You think the rule of governments you can elect is bad, just wait until you see the rule of corporations you have no representati…—@ndw

Friday at 08:04pm

I have two Sonos in my tiny apartment. I suspect a third is in my future. (And, no, I'm not just saying this for the @JoshNarva retweet :-))—@ndw

Friday at 08:23pm

Waiting for the Trial of Lights line to die down over dinner and a beer at #ShadyGrove was very pleasant. Then someone started smoking. Ugh.—@ndw

Friday at 10:22pm

There's nothing like arbitrary limitations on how many, and what, characters I can use in a password to send me into an apoplectic rage.—@bitworking

Friday at 11:12pm

RT @doctorzaius: RSA you had one job—@ndw

Friday at 11:41pm

Thanks to Edward Snowden I’ll always remember 2013 as the year I stopped laughing at conspiracy theorists.—@atomicbird

Friday at 11:47pm

The Austin Trail of Lights. Winter in short sleeves. And an exercise in hand-held frustration. http://photos.nwalsh.com/sets/ndw/2013-12-trailoflights —@ndw

In a conversation that started on Saturday at 12:52am

Am I supposed to know who "Justine" is? I'm pretty sure I don't care, I just wonder if I'm supposed to know.—@ndw
@ndw Lawrence Durrell's Justine?—@msokolov
@ndw it's stacey's mom.—@sneakin
@ndw I don't know either—@laurendw
That would be Java compiler author Justine Thyme :-) RT @ndw: Am I supposed to know who "Justine" is? I'm pretty sure I don't care—@docum3nt

Saturday at 08:46pm

Dear Early 2013 Self, Database column names are no place for your special brand of irony. Sincerely, Late 2013 Self—@ftrain

Sunday at 12:11am

Any time you say "the internet of things" or "big data", an angel loses a Bitcoin.—@louisgray