Lately I've dived back into document control, content management and intranets and data ware-housing in general, a swarm of concepts and technologies I haven't played with in a while. Taking these breaks from certain areas is a good thing; it allows me to return to it at a later stage and witness how they've changed, often for the better.
But my return to this field hasn't been the happy smooth ride I was hoping for. Put briefly, the technologies and intellectual concepts within seems to me to still, uh, suck. I'm constantly living on the edge between people and policies in various organisations, and there's nothing more frustrating(1) than seeing the divide between good intentions and good actions, ever growing despite that people should know better.
The first thing I notice is that the concept of persistent identification management is no further than when I left it. Documents are still named silly things, and identifiers in systems that tries to deal with it still apply internal identifier schemes, and have no external facility for managing them, either sharing nor changing them. It seems to me that most of the technologies in the DC / CMS / KM space still has no good solutions to perhaps the problem that sit at the core of each of them.
Some user interfaces have improved, but not in the way I was hoping. Sure, things look smoother and prettier, and surely the misnomer "web 2.0" have injected it healing juices into old battered ideas, but they're still bad ideas at the core no matter what. It doesn't matter that the buttons look good or are big and shiny if the functionality behind them are fundamentally flawed. A document without external identity is still an internal abomination, even when the buttons are easy to hit.
Workflows are still sequential stop-points along a list of basic logic that only triggers on what we might think of, never of what should happen. The ontological concepts are often completely missed, if present at all. Roles and permissions are all ACL where, perhaps, human organisations don't function that way. Maybe that ACL model fits your network, but does it fit how we humans deal with information and knowledge? We humans might have permissions and access through it, but they do not cover our roles and positions in compound situations. I would have thought this was done better these days.
Wiki's have come a long way. I'm excited about using Semantic MediaWiki with Semantic Forms and a few other plugins, for doing essential super-rapid application development, but the Wiki user-interface have not improved much. The concept of every page simply being a point to which to hang knowledge is still mostly if not entirely missed, even by Wiki makers. People still think a Wiki page is just a page, when it should be a point of data to hang our other bits on to, including, ahem, identity management.
And don't get me started on the various and numerous CMS out there. There's now simply too many of them, and they all do pretty much the same with minor differences. It's almost a bit embarrassing that the field haven't progressed beyond the basic model they pretty much all offer. Even Drupal which claim to be different still, to me, feels and works, well, to a poor model.
So let's talk about the models. They're still the same. They haven't moved. It's all still based around the concepts of content, structure, users and plugins, plopped into a relational model that have to have a specialized table for any ontologically interesting concept you want to introduce. I don't understand, are most of these systems being developed with bribed from the DBA association or something?
Where are the semantic options? Where's the ontology editors? Where's the conceptual modeling tools for content and knowledge management? Where's the persistent identification schemes implemented so we can actually do, you know, integration of systems? Where's the simple data mergers that allow distributed and / or federated reporting?
None of these things are tricky in and of themselves, not even when merged into larger systems, unless, of course, they're rooted in old and stale ideas. Where's the new ideas? The bright and new ways of solving some of these old problems? What have I missed?
16 February 2011
14 January 2011
Mr Mister : Pull
For those in the know, the 1980's and early 1990's was a period of music that was forever going to be synonymous with something, err, different, often so different that people that were into it now disown that thing; Ball sweaters, washed jeans, all of the hair-styles, leg-warmers, Milli Vanilli, Pat Sharp, Samantha Fox ... the list goes on. There was a certain plasticy fabric spun into our societies, often making things worse, but once in a while making it all heaps better.
I was a child of the 1980's, of course, and in my musical journey I was heavily into Al Jarreau, early fusion like Seawind, George Benson and some GRP productions, funkier Rufus and Chaka Khan, some rock and pop (bits of David Bowie, more of Toto, glimpses of David Foster and all his various incarnations, and so on), but slowly entering the underbelly of jazz and classical.
However. There was one band I was more into more than any other, and it all started with that well-known tune you still hear from time to time, "Broken Wings" by Mr Mister. Apart from being a good tune, there was something about the group that made them stick a bit better into my brain, something about the sound, the musicianship, the amazing lyrics (thanks, John Lang; you were loved!). I got the album it was off, of course, and the previous, and discovered that the groups frontman Richard Page was a already present in a lot of music I already listened to (especially David Foster and Toto stuff, Steely Dan, and so on). If anyone serious needed a backing vocal to create that special feeling, Richard was brought in. So I had a connection, and I followed the band quite closely, being nothing short of a fan. I loved the dynamic punch, the textures, of course Richard's brilliant voice (through the times has been offered to be vocalist to both Toto and Chicago, no less), the fabulous textures of Steve George, and, as a drummer myself, loved all the crazy in-your-face punctuations that Pat Mastelotto came up with.
They released their third album "Go on" which changed both sound and direction of the band. Less poppy, more progressive, a bit darker, but still distinctly Mr Mister, I loved it to bits (and Pat Mastelotto came out as a awesome drummer, now with real drums[TM]!). However, the record company was not too happy with the sales nor direction it had taken, and lead guitarist Steve Farris left (due to musical differences we have been told). The three Misters went into the studio, borrowed a couple of amazing guitarists, and made a fourth album anyway. And there it stopped. The record company didn't release it. The misters had gone from a poppy chart-topping act to being too serious for record company executives, and with little options at the time (it was the beginning of the curse of grunge) the band disbanded, and their album entered that mystical place of rumors, hearsay and myth, the record company vault.
They all moved on. (Ah, puns!) Richard page did bits and bobs, but mostly as a songwriter and the odd studio work (including a solo album that I love to pieces, but never got much traction outside of those in the know. Not sure if it was another record company slip?), including a couple of songs for Joe Zawinul (of Weather Report fame).
Meanwhile Pat Mastelotto joined none other than King Crimson (1994? - and is still there) and a few other cool gigs. A cool connection to another part of my music world is fellow King Crimson bandmember Trey Gunn (who use Pat a lot) also had another favorite of mine, the completely unknown Bob Muller as drummer for a while (and maybe still?), and Bob again is married to the amazing yet unknown Happy Rhodes (which I've written about before). The circle is complete.
21 years passed.
A couple of months ago that album was released. The mythical fourth album was to be heard, for some for the first time ever (there were a couple of dreadful bootlegs around, but I had resisted all those years) by Little Dume records (Richards' record company). I downloaded my copy a couple of days ago, and it's been sitting in my headphones ever since.
The anticipation and mythical status of something like this is sure to lead to disappointment, with a 20 year build-up to every expectation that "Welcome to the Real world" to the "Go on" progression mustered, so what's it like?
Well, I wouldn't write this long had it been anything short of great. But it's more than that. It superseded any expectation I had. It is simply that good, a true masterpiece. It's basically a step back from "Go on" towards a brighter, more progressive sound, with some of the tunes bringing back some of the best of the early 80's with the coolest sounds the 90's could offer. There's less guitar focus, and certainly tighter, more drums, and definitely more and better singing. Hmm, hard to explain, I know, but the album sounds as if it had been released now it would still sound fantastic. Now, I normally wouldn't do a song-by-song review, but I feel compelled to do so, not only because they all deserve the attention, but to bring some closure for me personally through the music as well; this is the fourth album that needs the context of the earlier three. Here goes.
1. 'Learning to Crawl' starts exactly like a song that builds on "Go on" should start, the piano work and darker tone, and progresses exactly like a song that's from "Welcome to the Real World" does, with various added twists like the layered singing, fresher drums, that catchy chorus, haunting backing vocals that drones away something that ends up in a cacaphony of a grungy "I wear the face." The perfect start.
2. 'Waiting in my dreams' start like other good tunes from the mid-80's acoustic era, quite Toto-ish of the time. But then something happens, the chorus turns terribly Mr Misterish, and turns that all upside down. Another round, and after that a progressive section that blows me away every time, starting with some cool harmonic vocal that leaps into a progressive section of drums, emphasized piano chords and, uh, pan flutes. Yeah, that sounds wrong, but it works. This also have some of the coolest triplet-based syncopated breaks from Pat yet.
3. 'Crazy boy' has some minor / major key swings that a really cool, a snazzy drum-track, and some very interesting guitar layering. This is a somewhat typical Mr Mister tune, I think, with a slightly edgy Richard singing in there as well.
4. 'Close your eyes' is a direct descendant of "Go on" with a twist, with a mid-section around 2:50 which simply screams for a Chicago or Seawind horn treatment! (I betcha if a horn section was available, this would be the bestest tune they ever did!) It has a great drive, and a fantastic refrain that takes me back to "I wear the face", with a few interesting synth twists worthy of Gary Numan.
5. 'Lifetime' is fast becoming one of my favorites, with some excellent guitar work flowing through what is essentially a grungier "Welcome to the Real World" tune.
6. 'I don't know why' is a curious one, taking a few steps back to "I wear the face" with blobs of "Welcome to the Real World" push, only this time with real drums, less guitar, and cooler singing (even to the point that they here sing about falling, too. 32, anyone?)
7. 'We belong to no one' is a real stand-out, a teenage child of "Broken Wings", with a great refrain and sexier drums, until I get my senses blow around 2:10. Beautifully done, with bridge dipping straight for a progressive refrain, building up to a great climax where Pat gets off really well.
8. 'Burning bridge' is another slower tune that starts as you expect a Mr Mister tune to start, and then something amazing happens! This is my favorite tune of the whole album, with singing that reminds me of Doobie Brothers, Kenny Loggins, Chicago and Steely Dan, a laid back track with just takes me away days gone by. Listen out for 2:10, a great cut. There's layered singing here that I simply love to pieces! Oh, and some really cool bass playing as well that you'll miss if you blink.
9. 'No words to say' is "Go on" legacy, with dreamier keys and perhaps the strongest lyrics on the album. Progressive, layered guitars, beautiful verse. Great tune.
10. 'Surrender' starts expectedly Mr Misterish, but then turns into a early Toto-esque ballad of sorts, before leaping into "Welcome to the Real World" drive with a "Go on" setup. And then excellent chorus singing through a progressive finish.
11. 'Awaya' Here Mr Mister is doing a Toto, by at the end putting in a mostly instrumental piece, with great drive, all musicians coming together for some fun time. A perfect ending to an amazing album.
What an odd thing; well worth the 20 year wait, still sounding as if just released (well, you know what I mean), and perhaps Mr Mister's absolute best. And most people will never know. But you should. It's that good.
Simply put; this is an awesome album, better than I thought it could have been. I'm in love again.
I was a child of the 1980's, of course, and in my musical journey I was heavily into Al Jarreau, early fusion like Seawind, George Benson and some GRP productions, funkier Rufus and Chaka Khan, some rock and pop (bits of David Bowie, more of Toto, glimpses of David Foster and all his various incarnations, and so on), but slowly entering the underbelly of jazz and classical.
However. There was one band I was more into more than any other, and it all started with that well-known tune you still hear from time to time, "Broken Wings" by Mr Mister. Apart from being a good tune, there was something about the group that made them stick a bit better into my brain, something about the sound, the musicianship, the amazing lyrics (thanks, John Lang; you were loved!). I got the album it was off, of course, and the previous, and discovered that the groups frontman Richard Page was a already present in a lot of music I already listened to (especially David Foster and Toto stuff, Steely Dan, and so on). If anyone serious needed a backing vocal to create that special feeling, Richard was brought in. So I had a connection, and I followed the band quite closely, being nothing short of a fan. I loved the dynamic punch, the textures, of course Richard's brilliant voice (through the times has been offered to be vocalist to both Toto and Chicago, no less), the fabulous textures of Steve George, and, as a drummer myself, loved all the crazy in-your-face punctuations that Pat Mastelotto came up with.
They released their third album "Go on" which changed both sound and direction of the band. Less poppy, more progressive, a bit darker, but still distinctly Mr Mister, I loved it to bits (and Pat Mastelotto came out as a awesome drummer, now with real drums[TM]!). However, the record company was not too happy with the sales nor direction it had taken, and lead guitarist Steve Farris left (due to musical differences we have been told). The three Misters went into the studio, borrowed a couple of amazing guitarists, and made a fourth album anyway. And there it stopped. The record company didn't release it. The misters had gone from a poppy chart-topping act to being too serious for record company executives, and with little options at the time (it was the beginning of the curse of grunge) the band disbanded, and their album entered that mystical place of rumors, hearsay and myth, the record company vault.
They all moved on. (Ah, puns!) Richard page did bits and bobs, but mostly as a songwriter and the odd studio work (including a solo album that I love to pieces, but never got much traction outside of those in the know. Not sure if it was another record company slip?), including a couple of songs for Joe Zawinul (of Weather Report fame).
Meanwhile Pat Mastelotto joined none other than King Crimson (1994? - and is still there) and a few other cool gigs. A cool connection to another part of my music world is fellow King Crimson bandmember Trey Gunn (who use Pat a lot) also had another favorite of mine, the completely unknown Bob Muller as drummer for a while (and maybe still?), and Bob again is married to the amazing yet unknown Happy Rhodes (which I've written about before). The circle is complete.
21 years passed.
A couple of months ago that album was released. The mythical fourth album was to be heard, for some for the first time ever (there were a couple of dreadful bootlegs around, but I had resisted all those years) by Little Dume records (Richards' record company). I downloaded my copy a couple of days ago, and it's been sitting in my headphones ever since.
The anticipation and mythical status of something like this is sure to lead to disappointment, with a 20 year build-up to every expectation that "Welcome to the Real world" to the "Go on" progression mustered, so what's it like?
Well, I wouldn't write this long had it been anything short of great. But it's more than that. It superseded any expectation I had. It is simply that good, a true masterpiece. It's basically a step back from "Go on" towards a brighter, more progressive sound, with some of the tunes bringing back some of the best of the early 80's with the coolest sounds the 90's could offer. There's less guitar focus, and certainly tighter, more drums, and definitely more and better singing. Hmm, hard to explain, I know, but the album sounds as if it had been released now it would still sound fantastic. Now, I normally wouldn't do a song-by-song review, but I feel compelled to do so, not only because they all deserve the attention, but to bring some closure for me personally through the music as well; this is the fourth album that needs the context of the earlier three. Here goes.
1. 'Learning to Crawl' starts exactly like a song that builds on "Go on" should start, the piano work and darker tone, and progresses exactly like a song that's from "Welcome to the Real World" does, with various added twists like the layered singing, fresher drums, that catchy chorus, haunting backing vocals that drones away something that ends up in a cacaphony of a grungy "I wear the face." The perfect start.
2. 'Waiting in my dreams' start like other good tunes from the mid-80's acoustic era, quite Toto-ish of the time. But then something happens, the chorus turns terribly Mr Misterish, and turns that all upside down. Another round, and after that a progressive section that blows me away every time, starting with some cool harmonic vocal that leaps into a progressive section of drums, emphasized piano chords and, uh, pan flutes. Yeah, that sounds wrong, but it works. This also have some of the coolest triplet-based syncopated breaks from Pat yet.
3. 'Crazy boy' has some minor / major key swings that a really cool, a snazzy drum-track, and some very interesting guitar layering. This is a somewhat typical Mr Mister tune, I think, with a slightly edgy Richard singing in there as well.
4. 'Close your eyes' is a direct descendant of "Go on" with a twist, with a mid-section around 2:50 which simply screams for a Chicago or Seawind horn treatment! (I betcha if a horn section was available, this would be the bestest tune they ever did!) It has a great drive, and a fantastic refrain that takes me back to "I wear the face", with a few interesting synth twists worthy of Gary Numan.
5. 'Lifetime' is fast becoming one of my favorites, with some excellent guitar work flowing through what is essentially a grungier "Welcome to the Real World" tune.
6. 'I don't know why' is a curious one, taking a few steps back to "I wear the face" with blobs of "Welcome to the Real World" push, only this time with real drums, less guitar, and cooler singing (even to the point that they here sing about falling, too. 32, anyone?)
7. 'We belong to no one' is a real stand-out, a teenage child of "Broken Wings", with a great refrain and sexier drums, until I get my senses blow around 2:10. Beautifully done, with bridge dipping straight for a progressive refrain, building up to a great climax where Pat gets off really well.
8. 'Burning bridge' is another slower tune that starts as you expect a Mr Mister tune to start, and then something amazing happens! This is my favorite tune of the whole album, with singing that reminds me of Doobie Brothers, Kenny Loggins, Chicago and Steely Dan, a laid back track with just takes me away days gone by. Listen out for 2:10, a great cut. There's layered singing here that I simply love to pieces! Oh, and some really cool bass playing as well that you'll miss if you blink.
9. 'No words to say' is "Go on" legacy, with dreamier keys and perhaps the strongest lyrics on the album. Progressive, layered guitars, beautiful verse. Great tune.
10. 'Surrender' starts expectedly Mr Misterish, but then turns into a early Toto-esque ballad of sorts, before leaping into "Welcome to the Real World" drive with a "Go on" setup. And then excellent chorus singing through a progressive finish.
11. 'Awaya' Here Mr Mister is doing a Toto, by at the end putting in a mostly instrumental piece, with great drive, all musicians coming together for some fun time. A perfect ending to an amazing album.
What an odd thing; well worth the 20 year wait, still sounding as if just released (well, you know what I mean), and perhaps Mr Mister's absolute best. And most people will never know. But you should. It's that good.
Simply put; this is an awesome album, better than I thought it could have been. I'm in love again.
11 January 2011
Happy guacamole!
So, a new year is here. Again. I'm getting a bit sick of this straining repetition, but apparently the rest of society thinks it is quite alright. So.
A lot of stuff have happened. We've sold one house, bought and moved into another (and I'm sure I'll write more on this later), and various events have come and gone. I've gotten a new camera for Christmas which I'm excited about (a Panasonic Lumix G2), and I'm reading Bill Bryson's latest "At Home" which is brilliant as usual. Oh, and Mr Mister have released their album "Pull" after 20 years (!!), and it is AWESOME!
I'm writing a book. And I'm enjoying it, when I get the time to do it. I'm some 70 pages in, and it's about ... uh, part technology, part human and cosmological evolution, some laser shooting which defies the laws of physics, project management, opinions on the strong need for secularity, on music, and some more parts technology, programming and development, syntax and language, lots about language, and about libraries and culture, and then some. Yeah, so not your average book, but some people are interested, and I'm taking advice on publishing, format and schedule from anyone.
I'm opening ThinkPlot again, an organisation for people who care about the well-being of the human race and the world we live in in an intelligent fashion, to promote education, science and rationality amongst the people that live near you. Our patron "saint" is the late great Carl Sagan. I'm definitely talk more about this later.
Work is good. It's intranets all the way, interspersed with UCD, IA, UX, hacking, supervision, PMing, and all other goodies, and it's in the health-care system doing important work. So, yeah. Good stuff, and enjoyable. In fact, one of the things I've noticed is that in the few years since my last stints in the Intranet world not much have improved in terms of content and document management. The old systems that sucked have been overtaken by systems that also sucks, just in different ways. Enterprise systems of various kinds follow suit. There's so much bad software out there, even from people who should know better. So, yes, I've decided to make something funky from scratch in the Intranet space, using REST, Topic Maps and simpler development tools readily available. We'll see where it takes us.
Kids and wife doing fine. Kids winning awards, playing violin brilliantly, and growing up fine. (Crossing fingers!) Things are chugging along. Oh, and we've just been introduced to and getting hooked on Carcassonne, so now you know what we often do in the evenings. The beach is down the road next to the shop and cafe, and the pool in the backyard is a favorite past-time, so do come over. Things are good.
PS. Send more salty liquorice.
A lot of stuff have happened. We've sold one house, bought and moved into another (and I'm sure I'll write more on this later), and various events have come and gone. I've gotten a new camera for Christmas which I'm excited about (a Panasonic Lumix G2), and I'm reading Bill Bryson's latest "At Home" which is brilliant as usual. Oh, and Mr Mister have released their album "Pull" after 20 years (!!), and it is AWESOME!
I'm writing a book. And I'm enjoying it, when I get the time to do it. I'm some 70 pages in, and it's about ... uh, part technology, part human and cosmological evolution, some laser shooting which defies the laws of physics, project management, opinions on the strong need for secularity, on music, and some more parts technology, programming and development, syntax and language, lots about language, and about libraries and culture, and then some. Yeah, so not your average book, but some people are interested, and I'm taking advice on publishing, format and schedule from anyone.
I'm opening ThinkPlot again, an organisation for people who care about the well-being of the human race and the world we live in in an intelligent fashion, to promote education, science and rationality amongst the people that live near you. Our patron "saint" is the late great Carl Sagan. I'm definitely talk more about this later.
Work is good. It's intranets all the way, interspersed with UCD, IA, UX, hacking, supervision, PMing, and all other goodies, and it's in the health-care system doing important work. So, yeah. Good stuff, and enjoyable. In fact, one of the things I've noticed is that in the few years since my last stints in the Intranet world not much have improved in terms of content and document management. The old systems that sucked have been overtaken by systems that also sucks, just in different ways. Enterprise systems of various kinds follow suit. There's so much bad software out there, even from people who should know better. So, yes, I've decided to make something funky from scratch in the Intranet space, using REST, Topic Maps and simpler development tools readily available. We'll see where it takes us.
Kids and wife doing fine. Kids winning awards, playing violin brilliantly, and growing up fine. (Crossing fingers!) Things are chugging along. Oh, and we've just been introduced to and getting hooked on Carcassonne, so now you know what we often do in the evenings. The beach is down the road next to the shop and cafe, and the pool in the backyard is a favorite past-time, so do come over. Things are good.
PS. Send more salty liquorice.
3 December 2010
Tabulat Minor
Not the best title in the world, but the time has come to yet again make a dump of interesting stuff that's come my way, and that I feel interesting enough not to kill the darn tab, taking up valuable memory and browser-loading-every-time-I-have-to-restart-it resources. So ;
How all human communication fails, except by accident : "Wiio's laws are humoristically formulated serious observations about how human communication usually fails except by accident. This document comments on the applicability and consequences of the laws, especially as regards to communication on the Internet."
Integrationism - An integrational approach to communication : "an integrational approach to signs and semiological systems, and hence to all human communication"
Rendering knowledge : "I updated my original three rules of knowledge management to seven principles which I share below"
There is no “one true” top-level intranet navigation : Just a friendly reminder from James Robertson.
A Brief, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Programming Languages : The sort of funny geeky article that makes me chortle coffee out my nose.
XSLTForms : "allows browsers to manipulate XForms. This is an open source client-side implementation, not a plug-in or install, that works with all major browser (Internet Explorer, FireFox, Opera, Safari, Chrome and more)" - well worth some love and understanding.
The OpenRespect Declaration : Bringing a bit more respect and unity to open-source free-as-in-freedom development, started by Jono Bacon of Ubuntu fame. Not even sure I completely agree with this. Well, agree with sentiment, but I don't think I'm prepared to simply respect everything under the umbrella; there's too many arseholes in the world that do not deserve it.
Apache Zeta Components : "A high quality, general purpose library of loosly coupled components for development of applications based on PHP 5" - Yet another PHP collection of classes that will save the world from actual programming. I liked a few of these, though.
Schemapedia - RDF schema compendium : Search engine for RDF vocabularies.
SIOC Core Ontology Specification : "The SIOC (Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities) Core Ontology provides the main concepts and properties required to describe information from online communities (e.g., message boards, wikis, weblogs, etc.) on the Semantic Web." - Something I should stick my nose in.
LODE - An ontology for Linking Open Descriptions of Events : "an ontology for publishing descriptions of historical events as Linked Data, and for mapping between other event-related vocabularies and ontologies"
Linked Data Tutorial - : Publishing and consuming linked data with RDFa : "The idea of linked data is at time of writing roughly three years around and the community has established a number of good practices and technologies. From publishing linked data [HOWTO-LODP] and URI management [COOL-SWURIS] over describing linked datasets [VOID-GUIDE] to linked data applications. A range of tutorials and guides is available and the number of triples in the linked data cloud keeps growing at a remarkable pace."
A(nother) Guide to Publishing Linked Data Without Redirects : "If we are going to fix fundamental problems with serving Linked Data, I'd prefer to explicitly address the fundamental questions related to URI naming of physical, conceptual and information resources (the overloading of the HTTP name space), so I proposed an alternative solution on the public-lod@w3.org mailing list last week. This post expands on those thoughts with some more detail."
There would be more things here, but I've lost a cobble of them over the last couple of weeks. I better get better at publishing these nuggets before I kill them.
Language, communication and Knowledge management
How all human communication fails, except by accident : "Wiio's laws are humoristically formulated serious observations about how human communication usually fails except by accident. This document comments on the applicability and consequences of the laws, especially as regards to communication on the Internet."
Integrationism - An integrational approach to communication : "an integrational approach to signs and semiological systems, and hence to all human communication"
Rendering knowledge : "I updated my original three rules of knowledge management to seven principles which I share below"
There is no “one true” top-level intranet navigation : Just a friendly reminder from James Robertson.
Programming and geekery
A Brief, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Programming Languages : The sort of funny geeky article that makes me chortle coffee out my nose.
XSLTForms : "allows browsers to manipulate XForms. This is an open source client-side implementation, not a plug-in or install, that works with all major browser (Internet Explorer, FireFox, Opera, Safari, Chrome and more)" - well worth some love and understanding.
The OpenRespect Declaration : Bringing a bit more respect and unity to open-source free-as-in-freedom development, started by Jono Bacon of Ubuntu fame. Not even sure I completely agree with this. Well, agree with sentiment, but I don't think I'm prepared to simply respect everything under the umbrella; there's too many arseholes in the world that do not deserve it.
Apache Zeta Components : "A high quality, general purpose library of loosly coupled components for development of applications based on PHP 5" - Yet another PHP collection of classes that will save the world from actual programming. I liked a few of these, though.
Semantic Web
Schemapedia - RDF schema compendium : Search engine for RDF vocabularies.
SIOC Core Ontology Specification : "The SIOC (Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities) Core Ontology provides the main concepts and properties required to describe information from online communities (e.g., message boards, wikis, weblogs, etc.) on the Semantic Web." - Something I should stick my nose in.
LODE - An ontology for Linking Open Descriptions of Events : "an ontology for publishing descriptions of historical events as Linked Data, and for mapping between other event-related vocabularies and ontologies"
Linked Data Tutorial - : Publishing and consuming linked data with RDFa : "The idea of linked data is at time of writing roughly three years around and the community has established a number of good practices and technologies. From publishing linked data [HOWTO-LODP] and URI management [COOL-SWURIS] over describing linked datasets [VOID-GUIDE] to linked data applications. A range of tutorials and guides is available and the number of triples in the linked data cloud keeps growing at a remarkable pace."
A(nother) Guide to Publishing Linked Data Without Redirects : "If we are going to fix fundamental problems with serving Linked Data, I'd prefer to explicitly address the fundamental questions related to URI naming of physical, conceptual and information resources (the overloading of the HTTP name space), so I proposed an alternative solution on the public-lod@w3.org mailing list last week. This post expands on those thoughts with some more detail."
There would be more things here, but I've lost a cobble of them over the last couple of weeks. I better get better at publishing these nuggets before I kill them.
10 November 2010
Hello, world ; what are you?
Hi there. Long time, no hear. Yeah, been busy again, doing stuff, acting up, playing around. You know, life.
But not only has life been busy, but my brain has gone into overdrive over the most absurd notions the last few months. It all kind begun when I was working for Free Systems Technology Labs in India last year when I was working, quite heavily, on a failed ontology that would be a compromising and pragmatic approach to the intersection between us social human beings and the concept of doing business. Yeah, so the scope was crazy right off the bat, but when did that ever stop me?
I'm now several months later still fiddling with it, because it's such an interesting concept; make a model, or a language if you like, of human doings. We all kinda do this every day, but unawares; when you talk to your neighbors and friends you use words that make up phrases that denotes some context you're trying to pin down; you're making a verbal version of a model in order for you to communicate a concept to another human being. All communication in the end fall down to this basic concept.
As they say, some models are useful, all models are wrong, and I've talked a lot about this in the past as well. But what I'm pondering these days is more the fuzzy intersection between things and our thoughts on them, or, to be a bit more specific, between the identity of things, and the things themselves. Here's an example ;
"Alex."
Now, that's just my name, and in the context of reading it on or through my blog, it's fairly easy to assume that my first name somehow refers to me, the person. And you'd be right, too. Except, not really ; It's just a word. Here's another one ;
"Respect."
For some reason we all think that words actually mean something, but they don't! Not a single word you see will have one - and only one! - meaning. Any one word can have millions of meanings, depending on where you see it, what mood you're in, what other words surround it, what language it's in ... so, it depends on context. Heavily. Seriously. Unconditionally.
Even a word such as "respect" can mean so many things, and yet, in our everyday lives, we use words like this as if they make perfect unambiguous sense. Even written down in big serious books we tend to think our words as proper guides for meaning and context, but we're pretty much wrong. All communication fails, it's more a question of the severity and complexity of that failing. Even me writing this blog post is an example of a fail. Hopefully it's up to you to tell me how badly I failed. Be gentle.*
* See what I did there?
But not only has life been busy, but my brain has gone into overdrive over the most absurd notions the last few months. It all kind begun when I was working for Free Systems Technology Labs in India last year when I was working, quite heavily, on a failed ontology that would be a compromising and pragmatic approach to the intersection between us social human beings and the concept of doing business. Yeah, so the scope was crazy right off the bat, but when did that ever stop me?
I'm now several months later still fiddling with it, because it's such an interesting concept; make a model, or a language if you like, of human doings. We all kinda do this every day, but unawares; when you talk to your neighbors and friends you use words that make up phrases that denotes some context you're trying to pin down; you're making a verbal version of a model in order for you to communicate a concept to another human being. All communication in the end fall down to this basic concept.
As they say, some models are useful, all models are wrong, and I've talked a lot about this in the past as well. But what I'm pondering these days is more the fuzzy intersection between things and our thoughts on them, or, to be a bit more specific, between the identity of things, and the things themselves. Here's an example ;
"Alex."
Now, that's just my name, and in the context of reading it on or through my blog, it's fairly easy to assume that my first name somehow refers to me, the person. And you'd be right, too. Except, not really ; It's just a word. Here's another one ;
"Respect."
For some reason we all think that words actually mean something, but they don't! Not a single word you see will have one - and only one! - meaning. Any one word can have millions of meanings, depending on where you see it, what mood you're in, what other words surround it, what language it's in ... so, it depends on context. Heavily. Seriously. Unconditionally.
Even a word such as "respect" can mean so many things, and yet, in our everyday lives, we use words like this as if they make perfect unambiguous sense. Even written down in big serious books we tend to think our words as proper guides for meaning and context, but we're pretty much wrong. All communication fails, it's more a question of the severity and complexity of that failing. Even me writing this blog post is an example of a fail. Hopefully it's up to you to tell me how badly I failed. Be gentle.*
* See what I did there?
15 October 2010
Canberra House for sale
Ever wanted to live in the best cutest little house in Cook in Canberra? Why, here's your chance!
Me and the family has taken a decision to live down the coast (in amazing Kiama) near the beach, basking in the sun, frolicking in the sub-tropical rain forest, sipping good coffee in the many cafes around here, and generally live in paradise for a while, if you know what I mean. So. In order to buy that house near the beach with a swimming-pool (no kidding), we need to sell our beloved house back in Canberra. It is with great sadness I hereby introduce ;
Have a look, it's a gorgeous little house in a fantastic area. When I worked for the National Library of Australia, which is beautifully situated down by the lake, I had a 7 minute commute in the car, or, 35 minutes of a couple of buses. Jamison shopping center, a mostly charming and smaller group of shops, is just around the corner. There's good stuff all around, with magical Mt. Painter just over the hill, great for walks, and especially if you've got a pet or three. Our backyard is quite large, and perfect if you've got a dog or two, with beautiful trees both front and back. And the cubby-house is a gorgeous little thing I built in Norwegian style with my father-in-law. Wish I could take it with us.
I love this house, and I'm sad to see it go. But the beach beckons me!
Me and the family has taken a decision to live down the coast (in amazing Kiama) near the beach, basking in the sun, frolicking in the sub-tropical rain forest, sipping good coffee in the many cafes around here, and generally live in paradise for a while, if you know what I mean. So. In order to buy that house near the beach with a swimming-pool (no kidding), we need to sell our beloved house back in Canberra. It is with great sadness I hereby introduce ;
 |
| Viewed: Fond memories and hours of work |
Have a look, it's a gorgeous little house in a fantastic area. When I worked for the National Library of Australia, which is beautifully situated down by the lake, I had a 7 minute commute in the car, or, 35 minutes of a couple of buses. Jamison shopping center, a mostly charming and smaller group of shops, is just around the corner. There's good stuff all around, with magical Mt. Painter just over the hill, great for walks, and especially if you've got a pet or three. Our backyard is quite large, and perfect if you've got a dog or two, with beautiful trees both front and back. And the cubby-house is a gorgeous little thing I built in Norwegian style with my father-in-law. Wish I could take it with us.
I love this house, and I'm sad to see it go. But the beach beckons me!
Canberra House for sale
Ever wanted to live in the best cutest little house in Cook in Canberra? Why, here's your chance!
Me and the family has taken a decision to live down the coast (in amazing Kiama) near the beach, basking in the sun, frolicking in the sub-tropical rain forest, sipping good coffee in the many cafes around here, and generally live in paradise for a while, if you know what I mean. So. In order to buy that house near the beach with a swimming-pool (no kidding), we need to sell our beloved house back in Canberra. It is with great sadness I hereby introduce ;
Have a look, it's a gorgeous little house in a fantastic area. When I worked for the National Library of Australia, which is beautifully situated down by the lake, I had a 7 minute commute in the car, or, 35 minutes of a couple of buses. Jamison shopping center, a mostly charming and smaller group of shops, is just around the corner. There's good stuff all around, with magical Mt. Painter just over the hill, great for walks, and especially if you've got a pet or three. Our backyard is quite large, and perfect if you've got a dog or two, with beautiful trees both front and back. And the cubby-house is a gorgeous little thing I built in Norwegian style with my father-in-law. Wish I could take it with us.
I love this house, and I'm sad to see it go. But the beach beckons me!
Me and the family has taken a decision to live down the coast (in amazing Kiama) near the beach, basking in the sun, frolicking in the sub-tropical rain forest, sipping good coffee in the many cafes around here, and generally live in paradise for a while, if you know what I mean. So. In order to buy that house near the beach with a swimming-pool (no kidding), we need to sell our beloved house back in Canberra. It is with great sadness I hereby introduce ;
|
| Viewed: Fond memories and hours of work |
I love this house, and I'm sad to see it go. But the beach beckons me!
13 October 2010
Jokes
So, I presented at the OzIA 2010 conference on Friday and Saturday, and since I was the last one out, I thought I'd try to lighten the mood a bit. As part of my presentation I thought I should try to come up with a couple of jokes, you know, to lighten things up, break things up, bring out the happy. But what jokes? I didn't know any Information Architecture jokes.
So I made some up.
Most sane people would stop right there, evaluate what they were doing, and admit that perhaps inventing comedy when there's a distinct lack of talent in the pertinent area perhaps is a bit stupid. Needless to say, that didn't deter me one bit. Here's the first ;
Ok, a few giggles for that one, I suspect out of sympathy for the presenter who was bleeding all over the stage. Having ran out of blood, I delivered my piece-de-resistance ;
At this point a few more giggles were heard (perhaps my friends remembered that I'd ask them to at least try to laugh, and withstanding the gagging reflex managed to croak something that could be mistaken for laughs?) while I was given a mop by someone off-stage.
Personally I think it went rather well, but I think I've learned my lesson, and the next time I'll do interpretive dance instead. You have been warned.
So I made some up.
Most sane people would stop right there, evaluate what they were doing, and admit that perhaps inventing comedy when there's a distinct lack of talent in the pertinent area perhaps is a bit stupid. Needless to say, that didn't deter me one bit. Here's the first ;
An inquisitive person walks into a bar, however he's grumpy, looking for a fight. He bumps into an information architect, who proceeded to teach him a lesson.Now, after I told the first joke there was a deafening silence, despite the fact that I had even planted the idea amongst some of my friends there to at least try to laugh at them. Nothing. This surely would have thrown off the best of sane presenters anywhere, but not to ever be deflected or impacted by complete failure I went on to tell the next one ;
A usability researcher walks into a bar. The bartender asked what he wanted, and the usability researcher wrote that down.
An interaction designer walks straight into a bar. Not a very good one, is he?
Personally I think it went rather well, but I think I've learned my lesson, and the next time I'll do interpretive dance instead. You have been warned.
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