The ability to write programs (preferably quickly :-) allows us to experiment with data representations. The point I am making here is that different software tools can not only help solve different problems with different levels of effort, but the tools that we choose inform us and change the way we think.
Sometimes a relational data model just works best, both for efficient access (not letting an object relational mapping system build an entire object in memory when you are only interested in a few columns in a table) or for thinking about and browsing data.
When there are too many attributes characterizing data that you need to explore or use, then faceted browsing helps a lot: pick the most important attribute, then the second, etc., eliminating large parts of a data space.
For some problems graphs are the best data representation and languages like Lisp and Prolog that allow list data structures to be cut up and put back together are most effective.
The big cost in IT is usually in development and maintenance, not in deployment costs. Most projects are small, not Amazon size deployments so I believe that unless you are sure that you are building a very large scale system, it is best to optimize development to reduce costs for small and medium size systems. Smaller code size means smaller costs. Java programs should be as short and concise as possible and generics and use of collections helps a lot. Sometimes when I read the source for Java programs it looks like the authors were paid by line of code :-)
The thing that I find interesting about using AllegroGraph is that you are dealing with disk-based persistent data, but not dealing with objects - not dealing with object relational mapping, etc. Instead, you work with graph data structures that are stored on disk, with parts cached in memory. Interesting stuff.
Still, dealing with RDF is not optimal, compared to dealing with graphs in memory. As an example: I used to work a lot with Rete networks using Lisp (hacking Charles Forgy's Lisp code) and dealing with graph data structures built up with Lisp lists, cons, etc. is just easier to do. In memory graphs, semantic networks, etc. are just easier for me to wrap my thoughts around. However, approaches like AllegroGraph have the advantage of scalability.
In this article I write about why a Java developer might want to also use Ruby and I cover a few cool Ruby features.
- Get your Seaside application running interactively in Squeak; make sure the WAKom service is running on a desired port number with:
WAKom startOn: 9090
and save image and quit Squeak. Do not stop WAKom before saving your image and quitting Squeak. - ZIP up your image and source changes:
zip -9 -r seaside_running_image.zip Squeak3.9-final-7067.*
copy to your Linux server, and unzip in your Linux Squeak directory. - Run Squeak in headless mode:
nohup squeak -headless Squeak3.9-final-7067.image &
Dear readers,
It's been fun, but this ambivalent imbroglio is hereby closed for business. It became a lot more about law school than I anticipated, and now that law school is over...
But hey, when one door closes, another opens, right? You are hereby cordially invited to become a regular reader of the brand new blog on the block: the imbroglio!
Thanks to everyone who has visited, commented, and otherwise made ambivalent imbroglio such a rewarding project for me over the last three years. I hope you will join me in making the transition to what promise to be bigger and better things.
humbly yours,
ambimb
So have you heard the one about the Michael Moore hata who has been begging for money to pay server costs to keep his blog going so he can continue to hate on Michael Moore? Yeah, and did you hear why he can't pay his own server bills? Because his wife is ill and they can't afford to pay her medical bills b/c their insurance is screwing them around! He writes:
I’m fairly broke, and my wife has been in the hospital way too often in the last month. They raised the cost of our health insurance by about $1500 a year and this year our mortgage increased as well. Now Donna needs tests that aren’t covered by the insurance.
Yeah. And what is Michael Moore's next film about? Well, it's tentatively called “Sicko” and it's a documentary about the failings of the U.S. health care and insurance industries. In February Moore asked for people to tell their health care horror stories:
So, if you'd like me to know what you've been through with your insurance company, or what it's been like to have no insurance at all, or how the hospitals and doctors wouldn't treat you (or if they did, how they sent you into poverty trying to pay their crazy bills) ...if you have been abused in any way by this sick, greedy, grubby system and it has caused you or your loved ones great sorrow and pain, let me know.
So just to be clear, Michael Moore is making a movie about how our health care and insurance system ruins people's lives and this major Moore hata is begging for money to continue bashing Moore—money he doesn't have b/c the health care and insurance system has ruined his life.
What's the matter with Kansas? Nothing much—it's just cutting off its nose to spite its face.
And just like that, my adventure in law school has come to an end. I completed my final final and, as far as I know, do not have a single further obligation for law school. Ok, I have to be in court tomorrow for a client, and that's technically law school-related, but only in the most technical sense. I also have law school loans to repay for, oh, maybe the rest of my life, but how about we not think about that right now, hmm? Good, thanks.
The feeling is definitely one of anticlimax. So this is it? This is what it feels like? It doesn't help that I've felt pretty done for a week or more now, really. Or maybe I've really been done since about the first week of last December when I finished my last real final. I dunno. What I do know is that now there is no excuse for not doing the other things that I must do: clean up the apartment so the landlord can show it to prospective renters (anyone want a good place to live in an excellent DC location for a relatively decent price?), arrange a moving truck, find a new place to live, mail off the application for the job of my dreams. You know, little things like that. Maybe I should get to work on all of that, you think?
But first, congratulations to Divine Angst who finished 1L today, and once again to Half-Cocked, who decloaked yesterday to announce that he is also finished with law school. I'm sure there are others who have finished (either with the school year or the whole shebang) or are going to finish soon, so best wishes to you all—may that moment of accomplishment be everything you've always hoped for!
Although I've tried to keep my whining to a minimum here, for the past six months or so, L. and I have been thinking of little else besides where we're going to be living six months from now. Yesterday, that dilemma was finally solved when she took a great job in Billings, Montana! And we're moving at the end of the month!
In a way it feels like I just took Jay-Z's choice b: “bounce on the devil put the pedal to the floor.” Suddenly things seem to be moving very quickly and there's no doubt that this is a huge gamble. Most sane law graduates get a job and then move; I'm going to be doing it the other way around. It feels crazy, and it probably is, but hey, what's life w/out a little risk? Or a lot?
Yikes.
Of course, first I have to successfully complete law school and suddenly even that seems like a gamble. My final final is tomorrow and I still don't have a clue what I'll be expected to summon from my brain (or my notes, such as they are. I better get crackin'!
Oh, a note to all of our friends and loved ones who have been so supportive during our uncertainty and who had high hopes we'd be moving to the Midwest: We will miss you and hope you will come visit us often in the Big Sky Country! Take the train from Chicago and we'll meet you in West Glacier! We'll certainly try to visit you as often as we can and will most likely be moving east again sometime in the future.
Once I get started, I just can't stop. But I'm thinking more about GW's LRAP. In a way you could say I came to GW only b/c of its LRAP b/c I only applied to schools w/LRAPs. That means if GW hadn't had an LRAP, it wouldn't have been on my list and everything would have been different. So I have always planned to get a job that qualifies for the LRAP and I hope to be able to take great satisfaction in the fact that GW will end up paying back some (I hope large) portion of my loans.
I've known from the beginning that as far as LRAPs go, GW's is no great shakes—barely funded, very restrictive in what jobs qualify, etc. But its great advantage is that almost no one uses it. GW grads almost never go into public interest law (the average is 1% of each class) so they almost never qualify for the LRAP. That means that even though it's barely funded, odds aren't bad that those few that do qualify will get money. Last year GW funded everyone who qualified for the LRAP at 100% of what they qualified for. I believe that is true for several previous years, as well. So that's great. The only problem is that available funding changes every year. The LRAP has an “endowment” of only $15,000, meaning there are virtually zero dollars dedicated to the program. Instead, most of the LRAP money comes from alumni donors and, recently, class gifts.
One hundred percent of last year's generous class gift went to the LRAP and they were able to fund everyone who qualified. This year, we have to split our class gift between LRAP and incoming student scholarships. One reason for that is that our new Dean has publicly expressed disdain for the LRAP several times; it's not a priority for him. I don't know how much say he has over where class gift money goes, but I know his antipathy toward the LRAP cannot be a good thing for its long-term health. With so little institutional support, is there going to be any money for people like me next year? The year after that?
Yet, solving this problem would be so simple. If 100% of class gifts for the next 5 years went toward the LRAP endowment (not to payouts, but to the principle), then in 5 years the endowment would go from $15,000 to $500,000. The interest alone on that endowment would probably be enough to fund most if not all of LRAP requirements. In fact, that's what should have been done before the school ever started claiming to have an LRAP. If it would be so easy, why not do it now?
Recycling old tshirts.
Many different models available on request : )