No, I am a humble computer programmer. My Dad taught physics at Berkeley and until not too many years ago was a member of the National Academy of Science.
John Wheeler was an old friend and colleague (many years ago at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton) of my Dad's - I just forwarded this article to Dad to read.
The Institute for Advanced Study had many 'legends' like Kurt GÃdel, Einstein, John von Neumann, etc.
I still use LaTex+OmniGraffle for serious writing and OpenOffice.org when customers use Microsoft document formats, but I find myself using Google Docs more for short notes, short papers, sharing writing with other GMail users, etc.
The addition of Google Gears based local document storage over the next few weeks will not be a feature I ill need often, but it will be good to have.
BTW, I use a utility tht you can find on the web (gdatacopier.py) to periodically back up all of my Google Docs - just in case.
Just recently, I discovered that Ferret had synchronization problems when I deployed my my http://cookingspace.com/ site using nginx and a mongrel cluster - a little nuisance to work around. I did some fast experimenting with indexing and search using MySQL and PostgreSQL, and I made a note to retry PostgeSQL when version 8.3 was released.
When a deployment platform has inherent weaknesses (like Rails!), it is important to be able to shove off as much processing as possible to more industrial strength tools like memcached and (choose a) relational database.
I did some J2ME work for a customer years ago, and played with Android recently - looks good, and I very much like the idea of making advanced cellphone devices into a cheap commodity.
As a long time iTunes customer, I have started buying from Amazon. With iTunes, I would always backup the music that I bought to an audio CDR, then re-import as MP3 -- Amazon selling MP3s saves me real effort.
Buying music online is a good deal, if you can back it up and enjoy it over a long time period.
Good points in the article on the value of face time. My young grandkids now live on the other side of the country, and as great as live video conferencing is to see their new toys, their art, and their faces, living nearby would be much better!
Same thing goes for telecommuting. I have been living in a fairly remote area for about 10 years (Sedona Arizona) and travel on business less than 3% of the time. This sounds good, and in some ways it is great, but work wise, it is a bummer to miss face time with the people who you work with. I need to (try to) work with smaller teams and have very modular tasks. The big wins are living in a beautiful place with a much lower cost of living. Working with very large teams when telecommuting tends to not work as well as 3 or 4 person projects.
There is another issue here: while the concept of "peak oil" really does not make sense, we are certainly past "peak oil production" (a retired friend used to be in the business, so I just have one good data point on this, but I also read about this subject).
The concept of people commuting long distances from the suburbs into cities is going to become unpalatable for all but the rich. Moderately large and medium size cities closely surrounded by food production is a good idea. Also, supporting people working remotely is a good idea, as long as working situations make that possible.
Ideally, decentralized habitation and work is a good thing. Buy locally grown organic food so that when fuel prices continue to increase, the infrastructure will be in place to feed people using less energy.
---
I also hope that teleconferencing technology gets better faster. iSight on my and my family's Macs works fine, but even higher resolution coupled with using large screen hi-def TVs would be a nice improvement.
I much prefer the higher level OWL representation with descriptive logic, but the problem is that support for lower level RDF is much better. There are commercial and open source OWL+descriptive logic reasoner packages, but there is much better coverage for RDF tools. In any case, with the exception of the expensive (commercial) Lisp based AllegroGraph and RacerPro tools, and the open source Swi-prolog semantic web library, almost all of the tools I have tried (Sesame, Jena, Pellet, etc.) are written in Java. Fortunately, most of the Java tools are open source, so playing/experimenting only costs your time:-)
The really important thing is to understand yourself and your own priorities. Except for travel, my wife and I have always chosen a less ritzy life style in return for a lot more free time. In the last 25 years, I have probably averaged about 30 hours per week (not counting my writing 14 books, which I enjoy a lot and do not really count as taking up free time).
Microsoft needs to stop selling new versions of Windows and Office, and transition to a yearly subscription model.
This would generate revenue while letting them hop off of the new version cycles that are intended to force upgrades without adding much in new features that out weigh the penalties of more and more problems.
I used to like Windows more than I do now. I shipped a commercial product on Windows 1.03 and for some business needs I still keep a Windows 2000 image on my MacBook.
Anyway I like to feel that I get good value for my IT investments (I am a one person consulting shop) and right now, I feel that I get best value from a nicely loaded MacBook and several leased managed Linux servers for my own stuff and Linux or Solaris servers for customer projects.
As a Linux user since about 1992 (I downloaded Slackware on a 2400baud modem - ouch!!) I continue to be a little disappointed with the 'Linux on the laptop' experience but I might eventually replace my MacBook with a Dell Linux laptop: it would be nice to just deal with just Linux. I have all but stopped using Common Lisp and Java for consulting, sticking with just Ruby - after many years of investing *lots* of time staying up to speed on many technologies, it is a refreshing change to concentrate more on problem solving than a wide mix of technologies.
Except for rare use on my Windows 2000 image, I would not even consider using any form of Windows for development work.
I don't enjoy being critical but John Dvorak sounds like a chump.
I automatically donate to the Heifer Project, Quaker Friends Society, and Habitat for Humanity (monthly credit card deductions for 8 years, with requests that they never mail anything to me - that mostly works:-)
So, I also believe that feeding people who are starving takes precedence - obviously.
However, I think that we need to think long term, and I believe that he OLPC project is excellent both in its core idea and in its implementation caveat: I have only run the software under VMWare).
I do think that OLPC threatens Microsoft and other corporations in the PC industry, so I am not surprised that a write fro PC Magazine might dump on OLPC.
A started a web portal KnowledgeBooks.com about 9 years ago and started the process of getting a trademark for KnowledgeBooks - this process was interrupted when I took a job at Ben Goertzel's startup AI company. Years later, I noticed that someone else had applied for a trademark, I protested this since I had been using KnowledgeBooks for years, and I don't think the other person received the trademark.
It is better to get a trademark - in my case I payed the fee, but got tired of jumping through the hoops to get a trademark - my bad on that one.
One other thing: I like to keep a copy of NetBeans 6 beta 2 with only Ruby/Rails support added: I am not sure if it helps startup time, but it is a small price to pay, disk storage wise.
I used to do most of my Ruby and Ruby on Rails coding using TextMate but I have switched to using NetBeans. Beta 2 understands Ruby code well enough for (mostly) meaningful code completions and having popup documentation for the standard classes is useful. The integration of the "fast debugger" is also handy. Rails support is also very good. I usually use native (Matz C) Ruby, but NetBeans supports JRuby also. BTW, I used to use Common Lisp, Ruby, and Java about equally in my work, but recently I have been living with the Ruby performance hit and I am starting to use Ruby for just about everything that I do.
I wrote the first commercial Go program
on
Cracking Go
·
· Score: 1
I wrote Honinbo Warrior in UCSD Pascal and sold it for the Apple II. Sadly, I don't have the code anymore except for a printed listing. Anyway, it played a poor game, slowly.
I wrote a white paper a few years ago on how I would do 'real AI' and Go (PDF file: http://www.markwatson.com/opencontent/AI_Go_Consciousness.pdf). Really not much content, rather, I was just laying how I would go about it if someone funded me to work on AI Go for the rest of my life:-)
I bought one old Johnny Winter song as a test. I was asked to download and install their download and iTunes installation application, which I did. My credit card was billed, but the download of the song never happened.
I just sent a customer support email, and will report back later if this issue was resolved.
I like De Alfaro's statistical approach of ranking both blocks of text and editors.
I also like the approach of checking IP addresses, although I was caught in that: earlier this year I added an article on machine learning, but someone from my ISP had done vandalism; I was blocked for a few days until I went through their system; no problem, just a delay.
The whole topic of trust is a very interesting problem, one that also occurs on web sites, the semantic web, etc. (Imagine trying to perform reasoning with RDF on the web when some contains fake information).
I (slightly) embarrassed myself last night by sending a link to a parody article to a few friends and family, not realizing that it was a parody - I had to send out a "never mind" email this morning.
I have mixed feelings about private anonymous use of the web vs. the benefits to knowing who people are. I very recently turned off anonymous posting on my web blog - too many anonymous posts offered opinion that I doubt the posters would express if they represented themselves.
As an open platform (hopefully forever), the Internet will evolve in interesting ways:-)
What a waste of time. Evaluate and use new technology on new tasks.
One of my main customers hired a good team in Vietnam who used PHP, CSS, HTML, and Javascript. I introduced them to Rails a year ago, and they were just about instantly productive.
Deploying Rails can be a small hassle, but there are now lots of good options, including running on JRuby/Goldspike/Java app server.
Slashdot Mirror
No, I am a humble computer programmer. My Dad taught physics at Berkeley and until not too many years ago was a member of the National Academy of Science.
:-)
re: DNA Watsons:
Well, I do have 1/2 of my Dad's DNA
But, no relation to Watson (and Crick)
John Wheeler was an old friend and colleague (many years ago at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton) of my Dad's - I just forwarded this article to Dad to read.
The Institute for Advanced Study had many 'legends' like Kurt GÃdel, Einstein, John von Neumann, etc.
I still use LaTex+OmniGraffle for serious writing and OpenOffice.org when customers use Microsoft document formats, but I find myself using Google Docs more for short notes, short papers, sharing writing with other GMail users, etc.
The addition of Google Gears based local document storage over the next few weeks will not be a feature I ill need often, but it will be good to have.
BTW, I use a utility tht you can find on the web (gdatacopier.py) to periodically back up all of my Google Docs - just in case.
Just recently, I discovered that Ferret had synchronization problems when I deployed my my http://cookingspace.com/ site using nginx and a mongrel cluster - a little nuisance to work around. I did some fast experimenting with indexing and search using MySQL and PostgreSQL, and I made a note to retry PostgeSQL when version 8.3 was released.
When a deployment platform has inherent weaknesses (like Rails!), it is important to be able to shove off as much processing as possible to more industrial strength tools like memcached and (choose a) relational database.
I did some J2ME work for a customer years ago, and played with Android recently - looks good, and I very much like the idea of making advanced cellphone devices into a cheap commodity.
As a long time iTunes customer, I have started buying from Amazon. With iTunes, I would always backup the music that I bought to an audio CDR, then re-import as MP3 -- Amazon selling MP3s saves me real effort.
Buying music online is a good deal, if you can back it up and enjoy it over a long time period.
Good points in the article on the value of face time. My young grandkids now live on the other side of the country, and as great as live video conferencing is to see their new toys, their art, and their faces, living nearby would be much better!
Same thing goes for telecommuting. I have been living in a fairly remote area for about 10 years (Sedona Arizona) and travel on business less than 3% of the time. This sounds good, and in some ways it is great, but work wise, it is a bummer to miss face time with the people who you work with. I need to (try to) work with smaller teams and have very modular tasks. The big wins are living in a beautiful place with a much lower cost of living. Working with very large teams when telecommuting tends to not work as well as 3 or 4 person projects.
There is another issue here: while the concept of "peak oil" really does not make sense, we are certainly past "peak oil production" (a retired friend used to be in the business, so I just have one good data point on this, but I also read about this subject).
The concept of people commuting long distances from the suburbs into cities is going to become unpalatable for all but the rich. Moderately large and medium size cities closely surrounded by food production is a good idea. Also, supporting people working remotely is a good idea, as long as working situations make that possible.
Ideally, decentralized habitation and work is a good thing. Buy locally grown organic food so that when fuel prices continue to increase, the infrastructure will be in place to feed people using less energy.
---
I also hope that teleconferencing technology gets better faster. iSight on my and my family's Macs works fine, but even higher resolution coupled with using large screen hi-def TVs would be a nice improvement.
I have experimented with RDF for many years (best toolkit for experimenting, I think, is the Swi-prolog semantic web library: http://www.swi-prolog.org/packages/semweb.html).
:-)
I much prefer the higher level OWL representation with descriptive logic, but the problem is that support for lower level RDF is much better. There are commercial and open source OWL+descriptive logic reasoner packages, but there is much better coverage for RDF tools. In any case, with the exception of the expensive (commercial) Lisp based AllegroGraph and RacerPro tools, and the open source Swi-prolog semantic web library, almost all of the tools I have tried (Sesame, Jena, Pellet, etc.) are written in Java. Fortunately, most of the Java tools are open source, so playing/experimenting only costs your time
... before blasting the effort like the top level story poster.
BTW, last night I looked at their technical information site: http://search.wikia.com/wiki/Search_Wikia
Some interesting stuff that I did not know about in their "Semantic lab".
Anyway, it is at least an interesting idea - time will tell how it works out for users, and as a business.
I wish that I had mod points to give you - very well said!
I wrote about this last week: http://markwatson.com/blog/2007/12/consulting-and-working-at-home-when.html
The really important thing is to understand yourself and your own priorities. Except for travel, my wife and I have always chosen a less ritzy life style in return for a lot more free time. In the last 25 years, I have probably averaged about 30 hours per week (not counting my writing 14 books, which I enjoy a lot and do not really count as taking up free time).
Microsoft needs to stop selling new versions of Windows and Office, and transition to a yearly subscription model.
This would generate revenue while letting them hop off of the new version cycles that are intended to force upgrades without adding much in new features that out weigh the penalties of more and more problems.
I used to like Windows more than I do now. I shipped a commercial product on Windows 1.03 and for some business needs I still keep a Windows 2000 image on my MacBook.
Anyway I like to feel that I get good value for my IT investments (I am a one person consulting shop) and right now, I feel that I get best value from a nicely loaded MacBook and several leased managed Linux servers for my own stuff and Linux or Solaris servers for customer projects.
As a Linux user since about 1992 (I downloaded Slackware on a 2400baud modem - ouch!!) I continue to be a little disappointed with the 'Linux on the laptop' experience but I might eventually replace my MacBook with a Dell Linux laptop: it would be nice to just deal with just Linux. I have all but stopped using Common Lisp and Java for consulting, sticking with just Ruby - after many years of investing *lots* of time staying up to speed on many technologies, it is a refreshing change to concentrate more on problem solving than a wide mix of technologies.
Except for rare use on my Windows 2000 image, I would not even consider using any form of Windows for development work.
I don't enjoy being critical but John Dvorak sounds like a chump.
:-)
I automatically donate to the Heifer Project, Quaker Friends Society, and Habitat for Humanity (monthly credit card deductions for 8 years, with requests that they never mail anything to me - that mostly works
So, I also believe that feeding people who are starving takes precedence - obviously.
However, I think that we need to think long term, and I believe that he OLPC project is excellent both in its core idea and in its implementation caveat: I have only run the software under VMWare).
I do think that OLPC threatens Microsoft and other corporations in the PC industry, so I am not surprised that a write fro PC Magazine might dump on OLPC.
A started a web portal KnowledgeBooks.com about 9 years ago and started the process of getting a trademark for KnowledgeBooks - this process was interrupted when I took a job at Ben Goertzel's startup AI company. Years later, I noticed that someone else had applied for a trademark, I protested this since I had been using KnowledgeBooks for years, and I don't think the other person received the trademark.
It is better to get a trademark - in my case I payed the fee, but got tired of jumping through the hoops to get a trademark - my bad on that one.
One other thing: I like to keep a copy of NetBeans 6 beta 2 with only Ruby/Rails support added: I am not sure if it helps startup time, but it is a small price to pay, disk storage wise.
I used to do most of my Ruby and Ruby on Rails coding using TextMate but I have switched to using NetBeans. Beta 2 understands Ruby code well enough for (mostly) meaningful code completions and having popup documentation for the standard classes is useful. The integration of the "fast debugger" is also handy. Rails support is also very good. I usually use native (Matz C) Ruby, but NetBeans supports JRuby also. BTW, I used to use Common Lisp, Ruby, and Java about equally in my work, but recently I have been living with the Ruby performance hit and I am starting to use Ruby for just about everything that I do.
I wrote Honinbo Warrior in UCSD Pascal and sold it for the Apple II. Sadly, I don't have the code anymore except for a printed listing. Anyway, it played a poor game, slowly.
:-)
I wrote a white paper a few years ago on how I would do 'real AI' and Go (PDF file: http://www.markwatson.com/opencontent/AI_Go_Consciousness.pdf). Really not much content, rather, I was just laying how I would go about it if someone funded me to work on AI Go for the rest of my life
There are 2 problems: getting plain text out of documents, then indexing the plain text
A good tool for getting plain text out of various versions of Word documents is the "antiword" command line utility.
The Apache POI project (Java) can read and write several Microsoft Office formats.
For indexing: I like Lucene (Java), Ferret (Ruby+C), and Montezuma (Common Lisp).
I have mostly been using Ruby the last few years for text processing. Here is a short article I wrote using the Java Lucene library using JRuby:
http://markwatson.com/blog/2007/06/using-lucene-with-jruby.html
Here is another short snippet for reading OpenOffice.org documents in Ruby:
http://markwatson.com/blog/2007/05/why-odf-is-better-than-microsofts.html
---
You might just want to use the entire Nutch stack:
http://lucene.apache.org/nutch/
stack that collects documents, spiders the web, has plugins for many document types, etc. Good stuff!
So, very cool :-)
This will give iTunes a run for their money.
I always took the time to create audio CDs fro my iTunes purchases, then convert to MP3 for permanent backup -- now that hassle is gone.
The problem was: I was using FireFox, but Camino is my default browser - customer support reset my download for me.
I don't blame Amazon for this problem.
I bought one old Johnny Winter song as a test. I was asked to download and install their download and iTunes installation application, which I did. My credit card was billed, but the download of the song never happened.
I just sent a customer support email, and will report back later if this issue was resolved.
I agree: it is OK to introduce a delay in order to cut down on vandalism.
I like De Alfaro's statistical approach of ranking both blocks of text and editors.
:-)
I also like the approach of checking IP addresses, although I was caught in that: earlier this year I added an article on machine learning, but someone from my ISP had done vandalism; I was blocked for a few days until I went through their system; no problem, just a delay.
The whole topic of trust is a very interesting problem, one that also occurs on web sites, the semantic web, etc. (Imagine trying to perform reasoning with RDF on the web when some contains fake information).
I (slightly) embarrassed myself last night by sending a link to a parody article to a few friends and family, not realizing that it was a parody - I had to send out a "never mind" email this morning.
I have mixed feelings about private anonymous use of the web vs. the benefits to knowing who people are. I very recently turned off anonymous posting on my web blog - too many anonymous posts offered opinion that I doubt the posters would express if they represented themselves.
As an open platform (hopefully forever), the Internet will evolve in interesting ways
It turns out that the article I linked was a satire. Oh well, still a little interesting :-)
What a waste of time. Evaluate and use new technology on new tasks.
One of my main customers hired a good team in Vietnam who used PHP, CSS, HTML, and Javascript. I introduced them to Rails a year ago, and they were just about instantly productive.
Deploying Rails can be a small hassle, but there are now lots of good options, including running on JRuby/Goldspike/Java app server.
I meant "OK, I read the article *after* writing my post."