The short-form week of 4–10 Aug 2014

11 Aug 2014

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 Wednesday at 08:49pm

Have (almost surely) decided the next release of my DocBook toolchain (XSLT 2.0/HTML5) will require XProc, abandon XSL FO.—@ndw
@ndw I've been out of the XML loop for a year or so - I am curious - why abandon XSL-FO?—@EileenOttawa
@EileenOttawa Working group disbanded. Locus of interest/effort clearly CSS.—@ndw
@ndw Woah! Interesting. I have indeed been under a rock! Thanks much—@EileenOttawa
@ndw How will you get to PDF from XML? @EileenOttawa—@webbr
@webbr @EileenOttawa DocBook XML → "for-print" HTML → HTML+CSS formatter → PDF.—@ndw
@ndw @EileenOttawa Thank you for the details. What's the tool in the chain that gets you to PDF from HTML+CSS?—@webbr
@webbr @EileenOttawa I've tested both PrinceXML (oh, the irony) and AntennaHouse's formatter. There are probably others and surely will be.—@ndw
@ndw @EileenOttawa Do you think that there will soon be a free tool for that link in the chain? At this point, I rely on fop to get to PDF.—@webbr
@webbr @EileenOttawa I expect so. Might be already. Something that rivals fop shouldn't be too difficult.—@ndw
“@ndw: @webbr @EileenOttawa DocBook XML → "for-print" HTML → HTML+CSS formatter → PDF.” @CMaudry sounds familiar? ;)—@wohnjalker
@wohnjalker @ndw @webbr @EileenOttawa The only (enterprise ready) HTML+CSS processor I heard of is @AntennaInfo. Any open source alt?—@CMaudry
@CMaudry @ndw @webbr @EileenOttawa @AntennaInfo how about printing to PDF from your web browser? ;-P—@wohnjalker
@ndw So docbook without print output. Something about lead balloons?—@dpawson
@dpawson No, print output w/XHTML+CSS. Web output won't produce good print, but developer energy is in CSS paged media (vs FO certainly).—@ndw
@ndw Hope you're patient Norm.—@dpawson
@dpawson @ndw at this very moment I'm writing tests for GCPM :)—@dauwhe
@dauwhe @ndwhttp://t.co/2VgrJha4nKK? Guesses when it might get to PR?—@dpawson
@dpawson @ndw Hoping for last call this autumn, then we'll see.—@dauwhe
[big shift] MT @ndw: Have (almost surely) decided next release of my DocBook toolchain (XSLT 2.0/HTML5) will require XProc, abandon XSL FO—@jeffsonstein
@ndw *Abandon* FO?!? /runs away screaming—@sgmlguru
@sgmlguru It's an experiment. I could be persuaded it's bad, but bet CSS paged media better than fop any day now. Commercial soln already.—@ndw
@ndw It's bad. ;-)—@sgmlguru
@sgmlguru Because?—@ndw
@ndw Every time you use CSS for print formatting, a kitten dies. (In other words, I'm *used to* FO.)—@sgmlguru

Monday at 12:02am

Don't fall in love with your tools.—@haxor

In a conversation that started on Monday at 02:46pm

@eliasisrael by extension, can you not love sports cars, skyscrapers, or romance novels unless you drive, build, or write them for a living?—@ndw
@ndw That would be overstating it a bit, admittedly. What I do think is that IFLS is UpWorthy with costume lab coats.—@eliasisrael

In a conversation that started on Monday at 03:50pm

@ndw we're missing your presence here at #balisage :(—@alexmilowski
.@alexmilowski I'm missing #Balisage too, believe you me!—@ndw

Monday at 04:07pm

Spent four of the last five days doing grueling physical labor under insane conditions. All of my muscles are sore.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 01:14pm

@alexmilowski I’m told you need to tell me about @ndw’s rib.—@robinberjon
@robinberjon @ndw LOL. Over a beer...—@alexmilowski
@alexmilowski Ow. Beer. I don’t think that’s something I’m drinking ever again. @ndw—@robinberjon
@robinberjon @ndw Yeah, sure. And Google will implement MathML tomorrow.—@alexmilowski

Tuesday at 07:03pm

Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you'll look back and realize they were big things.—@Kurt_Vonnegut

In a conversation that started on Tuesday at 07:07pm

Working outside for a week. Weather forecast: rain. Weather: sunny. Tanglewood lawn tix this eve. Forecast: sunny. Weather: torrential rain.—@ndw
@ndw if you figure out the torrential rain thing, please bring some to CA. :)—@mdubinko
@mdubinko I'd pack some in my suitcase for home and some in a box for CA if it was within my power.—@ndw
@ndw @mdubinko What? You powers are waning. So disappointed ...—@alexmilowski
@ndw The universe's sense of humor is inscrutable indeed.—@collwhit
@collwhit After we'd found a spot, spread out a blanket, etc., of course.—@ndw

Tuesday at 07:44pm

If you're worried about Ebola, which 100‰ of scientists say don't, but not climate change, which 97% say do, reflect on your choices.—@pourmecoffee

Tuesday at 08:14pm

Playing Ms Pac-Man once a friend said "Life's exactly like old video games: Only reward for success is having to do the same thing faster"—@studiesincrap

Wednesday at 04:37am

Currently hot discussion in @leftlogic offices. I’m arguing that HTML semantics is a waste of time. Pretty sure I’m right.—@rem

Wednesday at 12:55pm

Today @ 4:45 PM EST, Join "How to Survive the Coming Namespace Winter," w/ @NDW and R. Milowski. You won't want to miss this! #Balisage—@MarkLogic

Wednesday at 02:49pm

Norm Walsh @ndw honored with @OASISopen 'Distinguished Contributor Award' awarded by @scottmcgrath9 (Scott shown) http://t.co/YyE8iWtYvO—@fjhirsch

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 05:17pm

@ndw The talk went well. Everyone probably wants to hear your take on it. Enlighten us when you can. #balisage—@alexmilowski
@alexmilowski I wish I was there, great paper. Have you considered submitting as an article to http://t.co/sGthwO7ASx ? @ndw—@rdeltour

Wednesday at 10:54pm

RT @RichRogersHDS: "Programmers want to program, and anything that takes away from this is probably not worth doing." - http://t.co/y5hFssPb—@ndw

Wednesday at 11:01pm

RT @timminchin: Newspapers seems to be just adverts for fear. "Get your fear here! 2 for 1 fear! Buy terror, get xenophobia free!" http://t…—@ndw

Thursday at 01:26am

Three days of dealing with Java and I’m dismayed by how hard it can be to write tests, in spite of all the tools and support for doing so.—@whump

Thursday at 07:17am

Trying to copy multi-page example JSON from a PDF spec into a plain text file you can test: Welcome to Hell.—@pgor

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 07:52am

@der42 The phrase you're looking for us "differently normal"—@ndw
@ndw :) yes that's even better than "normality challenged"—@der42

Thursday at 09:06am

RT @dalapeyre: Life is full of multiple concurrent hierarchies #balisage—@ndw

Thursday at 09:07am

RT @alexmilowski: What I love about #balisage : Completely fascinating bit on hierarchies and overlap in text that I couldn't have predicte…—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 09:14am

Deeply, seriously bummed that I'm missing #Balisage this year.—@ndw
. @ndw We are too!—@Klortho
@ndw we’re missing you too #Balisage—@laurendw
@ndw you are missed. If you haven't already, when you get a chance you should try: http://t.co/DsCQgVGHCc #villager—@sheilaellen
@ndw yeah.really wish you were here!—@dalapeyre

Thursday at 02:06pm

Loves me some math. http://t.co/UoElMvJWKZ /via @pickover @jtauber—@ndw

Thursday at 03:09pm

@dalapeyre @ndw when looking at the world through hierarchical lenses …—@jorabin

Thursday at 03:49pm

I like a slide with #XProc in the middle. #balisage—@alexmilowski

Thursday at 03:54pm

@dalapeyre @alexmilowski Me too!!!—@ndw

Thursday at 03:55pm

RT @alexmilowski: I like a slide with #XProc in the middle. #balisage—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Thursday at 04:52pm

Assuming I wanted to buy an SSL cert for https on my website(s), where's a reputable place to start?—@ndw
@ndw If you trust your browser, any CA in your browser is reputable. Who's going to check? Get Comodo cert at CheapSSL or pay $$$$—@nsushkin
@ndw define 'reputable'… do you just want SSL-without-browser-warnings, or do you want some security theatre?—@nevali
@nevali I meant reputable in the literal sense. I don't want to wind up at fly-by-night-certs dot com. Not planning to spend $$$ OTOH.—@ndw
@ndw I’d head for rapidssl or similar. not expensive, not cowboys, but not exactly what you’d use if you were a bank (one’d hope)—@nevali
@ndw l like StartSSL, cheap and straightforward. Depending on your requirements it can even be free. https://t.co/oeGLzZ30ft—@CMaudry
@ndw That's difficult. They are all expensive and difficult, IMO.—@prototypo

Friday at 10:04am

The real value Mark Zuckerberg has given this world is keeping all those emails that used to be sent to us, kept all inside Facebook.—@rstephens

Friday at 05:21pm

Last night I put 8 things on my to do list for Friday. It’s 3:20 and I just finished #1 #whyamisurprised #actuallynotsurprised—@cdavisafc

In a conversation that started on Friday at 07:56pm

Mostly sure I'm going to man up to https for my stuff. Haven't decided if I'm going to move NWN to blog dot nwalsh dot com in the process.—@ndw
@ndw What motivates you to switch your websites to #HTTPS? You visitors' privacy?—@CMaudry
@CMaudry Mostly. And because it makes the spooks violating my constitutional rights work harder.—@ndw

Friday at 08:00pm

"Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy." - Guillaume Apollinaire—@quotesforself

In a conversation that started on Friday at 08:05pm

@JoshNarva I like mine. I've got several bits and bobs and so do a bunch of my friends. I've also got a few ideas for API improvements...—@ndw
@ndw send em on over... Will get them to the right folks here.—@JoshNarva

In a conversation that started on Friday at 08:06pm

@ldodds @DrTomCrick Please tell me you're kidding...—@ndw
@ndw @ldodds @DrTomCrick I love the photo they've found. Did they search for FEAR MOON?—@arnia

Saturday at 08:36am

#balisage must-read from @alexmilowski & @ndw: how Web Components enable brighter future for XML in the browser http://t.co/TFpu8OvYe2—@sandersk

Saturday at 10:28pm

There are 10 types of people: those who understand binary, those who don’t, and those who didn’t expect this joke to be in base 3.—@jacobian

Sunday at 06:55pm

RT @cdespinosa: The deadliest consequence of 9/11 has been the hair-trigger militarization of local police against any disobedience https:/…—@ndw