May 28, 2003
All bundled up

Days are passing in somewhat a blur, but that might be because I have plans piled up so high that they are starting to tip forwards in an impressive cascade. Or maybe it might just be this damn flu. I don't have it quite as bad as Blork, thank goodness.

Here at my new apartment, amongst other things, I have a really great view of traffic jams. Nothing like watching cars crawl down the street. It's a bit of an urban Zen experience. There was some excitement today when an ambulance tried to sneak its way between the two barely moving rows of cars. The traffic split painfully, slowly, in two as it tried to make a lane which didn't exist, cars trying in vain to sidle up to the sidewalk (because there were cars parked on the road side).

The month of May draws to a close, and I have resumed crumpled for the final few days. I've been having a bit of difficulty with the morning papers since I'd moved. I encounter a couple of newspaper dispensers on my way to work, but often, school kids and their mothers hang around in front of them whilst waiting for the school bus, and I get a bit shy with taking photographs. Apart from that, all the cafes and dépanneurs along my morning route aren't yet open at that hour. I do, however, come across numerous bundles of rolled-up newspapers ... It might soon become a Rolled-Up Morning Paper project.

Posted by sniffles at 11:13 PM | Comments (2)

May 27, 2003
Hand-coding or basket weaving?

Pardon me, flu medication makes me foggy-brained and I'm catching up with existence.

Kendall Clark wrote on XHTML at xml.com:

The Web's success, then, is due in part to the simplicity and generality of HTML. The ongoing success of the Web will be in part a function of maintaining a positive balance between how difficult and how empowering it is to learn XHTML. Some form of HTML, eventually XHTML, will always be the most common type of Web content; people will keep writing it by hand, building user interfaces with it, trying, succeeding, failing to scrape useful information from it, and so on. Any part of the Web's infrastructure with such a long future life cycle deserves careful, attentive, community shepherding.

And from a much earlier article:

In some ways, then, the Semantic Web will reverse the early Web's balance between producers and consumers. HTML was and is simple enough that just about anyone could learn enough of it to publish on the Web. And that was and is a very good thing. It is one of the things which the Semantic Web must never disturb.

I think this is a particularly geeky perspective. I disagree that brevity and typist-friendliness should be important prerequisites to XHTML 2.0. Sure, people will continue to type XHTML by hand, but people who do so are geeks, and by the notion of geekiness, these are the people who should be most able to adapt to technological change. I would have thought it would be more sensible to argue for brevity in terms of document processing size. The smaller the number of bytes, the faster and more efficient it would be to parse.

Having been teaching, and also frequently coming into contact with people who are really in the beginning stages of learning about the Web, I would say that people have a preference for WYSIWYG authoring tools, or other simple solutions for publishing content — why else are publishing services such as LiveJournal so popular? The truth is, only a tiny proportion of the world actually hand-code or have a preference for hand-coding — this is the elite group of people who 1) type fast 2) think geek 3) geekily adaptable (theoretically, at least).

XHTML 2.0 is in a realm where there is a lot of freedom for it to become the language it should be. If it gets really so troublesome to type, what about developing some macros in emacs? We need better authoring tools, not a more handcoder-friendly XHTML.

What made the Web successful doesn't mean that the same criteria will apply in the future. Otherwise, we would still be running steam engines and have to crank up our car to start it every morning. Onwards and upwards, I say.

Posted by sniffles at 10:57 AM | Comments (2)

May 26, 2003
Minor update

Trying to squeeze a summary of the past few days between now and when I finish my medicated tea is probably an impossibility.

I made it to Toronto 3 hours after I was due to arrive, thanks to a freight train derailment just off Kingston. I wasn't too put out by it — it was a beautiful day to be grounded at a train station for an hour, and I sat next to a pleasant elderly lady on the bus for the final two hours to Toronto who told me stories about her family.

The presentation at the Toronto Usability Summit went well, even if I get the feeling that the content of our presentation was somewhat unexpected. And I got to meet a lot of lovely, enthusiastic, smart people, including the esteemed Joe Clark.

Then, it's back all the way to Montreal, where I read about the new SARS cases on the back of someone's newspaper.

I took myself offline for a couple of days — the ole bod has decided it has had enough and succumbed to a flu-like thing. Two days of sleeping, reading, drinking tea, and more sleeping. Not quite back to normal just yet, but getting there.

Posted by sniffles at 11:54 AM | Comments (2)

May 20, 2003
Minor disruptions

Pardon the sporadic updates, but I suspect that none of you are missing sheep or pickle trivia. Between moving house, 25°+ weather, preparing for a conference, and lacking both phone and Internet connections at the new place, it's going to like this for another few days. :)

I had little choice but to put crumpled on hold, but something will happen with it when I have a chance to breathe.

Be back soon!

Posted by sniffles at 10:16 AM | Comments (3)

May 16, 2003
Pickle or gherkin?

gherkin

n 1: any of various small cucumbers pickled whole

At the cafe, I asked the girl behind the counter to add some gherkin in my sandwich, and she appeared to have no idea what I meant.

In the end, I had to point and ask, "What are those green things?"

"Pickles," she said, looking a bit puzzled.

"Can I have some of that then?"

A week or two ago, I was asking for "blackcurrant juice", and the guy thought I meant "carrot juice" — in the end, "grape juice" did the trick, eventhough grapes and blackcurrants are not the same! He said, "Carrot? You call this carrot juice?"

Ahh, the joys of living in a different country.

Posted by sniffles at 01:52 PM | Comments (6)

May 14, 2003
Being protective

When copy protection backfires, as on /..

I guess some people were never taught that sharing is a good thing.

Posted by sniffles at 12:25 PM | Comments (0)

Ewe udder and Mooovin'

A healthy udder is soft and pliable, and has two well-developed teats. When purchasing older ewes, examine udders for missing teats that might have been snipped off at time of shearing.

-- "Sheep Raising in Canada", W.L. Allen, Canada Department of Agriculture 1969.

Thought I was off the sheep thing, didn't you? (Ow, that quoted paragraph did sound painful ...)

I've been keeping my head down and preparing for the Toronto Usability Summit, at which I will be co-presenting with Tara Cleveland.

Other news, I've found a new place to move to yesterday evening. I'd tell you more, except I can't remember much. It was one of those walk-in-the-door-THIS-IS-IT experiences that I can't remember if it had carpet or not, I had no idea what view I had out the double windows (except that it is amazing). So, details to come after I actually move ;)

Whilst the landlady(?) and I were going into the lift, she asked me when I'd like to start my lease. A portly man was already in there, looking rather casual and unshaven. In a daze, I asked, "What day is it today?"

"Today is Monday," said the landlady.

"Today is Monday ..." I repeated.

The lift began its downwards grind. After we'd slipped past three floors or so, the man besided us suddenly spoke, "No, today is Tuesday."

Posted by sniffles at 09:37 AM | Comments (3)

May 11, 2003
Question

Is the word "stagette" used only in the English provinces of Canada, or is it used in Quebec too? (Is it a Canadian word?)

Posted by sniffles at 10:37 PM | Comments (3)

What is a woman?

To state the question is, to me, to suggest, at once, a preliminary answer. The fact that I ask it is in itself significant. A man would never get the notion of writing a book on the peculiar situation of the human male. But if I wish to define myself, I must first of all say: "I am a woman"; on this truth must be based all further discussion. A man never begins by presenting himself as an individual of a certain sex; it goes without saying that he is a man.

-- "The Second Sex", Simone de Beauvoir

Case in point: One of today's stories at the Montreal Gazette has the headline of 'An example of what a woman should be'" — the fact that this is written by a girl about her mother shows how grave the situtation is, that women still feel that we have to define ourselves as women. Why couldn't it have been, and what would it have mattered, if the words had said, "An example of what a good human being should be" ?

Anyway, I've done a lot of reading lately. They have all been relatively small books, and "The Second Sex" will probably take me a while.

"Love That Dog" is a great, hilarious little story about a young boy named "Jack" who is discovering the joys of poetry. It took me barely a couple of hours to read, and has kept me smiling since.

Given that I've been asked "Why this sheep obsession?" several times now, maybe now is a good time to answer ;) I am not sheep-obsessed — it just so happened that we found a book published in 1969, by the Canada Department of Agriculture, called "Sheep Raising in Canada". (This is scary, if you google the title, I come up first.)

It occurred to me how little most of us know about the agricultural background of the country we live in — I suppose that is why this book holds such a fascination for me — nothing to do with the fact that I am Australian and that Australia has a big sheep industry! Plainly speaking, we don't tend to ask where our meat comes from, or where our clothes come from — for me, it's just interesting to know. And given that I am the caring/sharing type, you get to hear about it.

"Sheep Raising in Canada" is actually a very well-written little book, with the view to promote sheep farming. It outlines the different kind of sheep farming you can undertake, and at what risk. Then it discusses wool grades and meat grades. It has summaries on the top 18 breeds of sheep in Canada (complete with photos), in which the author talks about the origins, the breeding tendencies, wool/meat grades associated with each breed, and other annotations he felt necessary to give an overview.

As for Charlie, he was an accidental birth. No, really.

It's not that I am sheep-obsessed. I'm just obsessed with life.

Posted by sniffles at 10:04 AM | Comments (13)

A day's adventures
Our contribution to the May Day Project. Posted by sniffles at 08:55 AM | Comments (7)

May 09, 2003
North Country Cheviot

The North Country Cheviot is a straight development from The Border Cheviot. In 1792, a sheep breeder in Northern Scotland brought 500 Border Cheviots from the south and, through culling and selection, began a program of improvement. They did well on the high hills of Sutherland and the pastures of Caithness, with the result that a larger sheep with much more bone was developed. The rams of this breed have a fairly pronounced Roman nose. Mature rams weigh from 225 to 275 pounds, or more; ewes 120 to 170 pounds.

The North Country Cheviot is not only larger than the Border Cheviot but is also more prolific. Twins are more common than single births. The ewes are good milkers and good mothers, being very attentive to their newborn and readily claiming all lambs.

-- "Sheep Raising in Canada", W.L.Allen, Canada Department of Agriculture, 1969.

You know you're in trouble when you type "free shipping" as "free sheeping" ...

Posted by sniffles at 12:03 PM | Comments (2)

May 08, 2003
Upcoming local Web conferences
The 6th International Internet Marketing Conference — 12-14th May 2003, Montreal. International Web Services/XML Conference and Expo— 28-30th July 2003, Toronto. Posted by sniffles at 02:28 PM | Comments (0)

Purebred Sheep Production

Probably the most challenging type of sheep farming is the breeding of purebreds to produce foundation breeding stock. The progeny are usually sold as registered lambs or yearlings of both sexes.

If you venture into this field, you will be competing with so many established reputable breeders that it will be necessary for you to raise progeny just a little better than theirs. This means you will have to buy the best and pay the highest prices, which, in turn, calls for a large original capital investment, the raising of purebreds becomes a most interesting challenge.

-- "Sheep Raising in Canada", W.L. Allen, Canada Department of Agriculture, 1969.

This blog post has been brought to you by the letters S, C, the number 42 and the YULmetaBlog.

Posted by sniffles at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

My philosophy
Be nice to the cafe folks behind the counter, you get freshly cut banana bread every morning, gladwrapped on the spot. Mmmmmmmmmm. Posted by sniffles at 09:42 AM | Comments (0)

The short one
Nothing makes one feel shorter than walking between two tall guys and discussing vegemite, cheese curds, and their respective directions for use. If you didn't turn up to YULBlog, you missed out! (Not just on tall guys, of course ...) Posted by sniffles at 08:51 AM | Comments (2)

May 07, 2003
Raw sugar

Sheep raising in Canada dates back to the beginning of our agriculture. The early settlers kept small flocks from which they sheared wool that was needed to clothe their families to protect them from the severe cold. They ate lamb and mutton, too, but in those days sheep producers directed their efforts toward the production of a heavy fleece rather than good quality meat.

[...]

It is not uncommon today to hear people condemning sheep raising and saying it is a dying industry; and, in fact, the sheep population has declined by almost 45 percent in the last 10 years. However, others who have stayed with sheep and practised good husbandry state that there are greater returns for investment in sheep than for any other kind of livestock. Because of the persistence and efforts of these producers several new and very interesting trends are developing in the sheep industry.

-- "Sheep Raising in Canada", W.L. Allen, Canada Department of Agriculture, 1969.

I had a sudden craving for Tim Tams yesterday. Turns out you can buy them online, in boxes of 20, or you can buy a single pack, where the postage costs three times as much as the packet (and postage is calculated per packet, not per delivery)! I actually didn't consume much in the way of Tim Tams whilst living in Oz. They are best enjoyed (I found) on the occasional basis.

*siiiiiighhh* Ahhh, for a Tim Tam Slam ...

Posted by sniffles at 11:10 AM | Comments (3)

Immortal, invisible

Report at the Sydney Morning Herald: Press play for the voice of Saddam, along with the full transcript.

Posted by sniffles at 08:21 AM | Comments (0)

May 05, 2003
Charlie

Charlie the Sheep has a thought.

What would it be like, to be a cow?
He would have to say "Moo".
"Bêêê," says Charlie.
He tries again. "Bôôôôô."
No accents on the vowels, Charlie.
"Booooo," says Charlie.
He scratches an ear, and wobbles his tail.
He takes a deep breath ...
and ...
"MOOOOO!"

Well done Charlie the Cow!

(This happened to me over breakfast on Saturday. I love brown paper.)

Posted by sniffles at 08:59 AM | Comments (8)

May 04, 2003
If only the world spoke one encoding
Languages are cool, but having to deal with encodings suck. Unicode::Lite. Expat FAQ. Tools for internationalization and localization. These look handy. Posted by sniffles at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)

The band-aid dilemma

I managed to slice my thumb on the sharp edge of a Scotch tape dispenser the other day, and there were no band-aids in the first aid kit at work — there were no band-aids in the other office down the corridor either. People must have been prone to paper-cuts lately, I thought.

Eventually, someone found me half a band-aid, so I kept that on my finger until I made it to the pharmacy. The wound wasn't bleeding much, and it didn't even hurt. But I didn't want to walk around with skin flapping, at the risk of injuring myself further.

When I finally located the row where the band-aids were, there were already three people in the aisle. Two were having an in-depth conversation about some of their friends, the third looked somewhat confused, and was trying to move around the other two in order to look at the shelves. I plunged into the aisle, and joined him.

There was something like a 6-feet square worth of band-aids on display. Plastic band-aids, see-through band-aids, fabric band-aids, medicated band-aids, waterproof band-aids, breathable band-aids, Scooby-Doo band-aids, The Rugrats band-aids, large squares, small circles, knuckle-shaped, toe-shaped, finger-shaped, boxes of mixes. Which do you choose? So the confused man and I ferreted to and fro around the two talking people, trying to decide which box of band-aids to buy.

We both stopped to look at the incredible array of boxes marked with yellow stickers, meaning they were on sale.

"Too much to choose from, isn't there?" I said, starting to feel giddy.

"Yeah, I think I might just grab the cheapest and run," he said. "Though you feel like you should shop for the best value and all that. Anyway, good luck."

He grabbed one of the ones on sale, and ran. I bent down to look at the bottom three rows, picked up one which said "finger-shaped", and ran too. I probably injure my fingers often enough to warrant a special box for fingers.

Posted by sniffles at 12:20 PM | Comments (2)

May 02, 2003
Friday swirl

The only thing better than an art exhibit without the people is an art exhibit without the art.

-- "The Butterfly Box", Neil Smith (from Headlight Anthology 2000)

The glasses arrived. I feel suitably geeky.

Last night's W3Québec meeting went very well. The infrastructure to support this group's initiative is being progressively nailed; we are in early stages, and there are good things to come. Having been involved with similar initiatives which communicate only via email, being able to see fellow evangelists for a face-to-face meeting was truly refreshing (eventhough my French has a long way to go).

RDF on the brain. (It's all Aaron's fault. Never get him talking about RDF after a pint.)

Posted by sniffles at 10:01 AM | Comments (4)