Open Source, Open data, Process Models

A while back I argued that Open data is more important than open source.

Dave Megginson has posted that your data is the next big battle. This is a key point. Its good to see the debate moving to this important question.

I'm hoping that as part of this, folks will begin to think about how process models - as opposed to traditional source code - might provide a better way of "open sourcing" key information about how open data is processed to produce particular results e.g. WYSIWYG renderings of documents.
ODF, I think is a good forum for this. As ODF grows and grows, the gap between what any ODF compliant application does interpreting the data, and what is explicit in the data - will need to be filled.

Traditionally, reference implementations (i.e. traditional source code) has been the way to do this. "Running code" is the final arbiter.

Maybe this is as good as it gets? Unfortunately, a fully blown word processor runs to many, many thousands of lines of code and the semantic devil is buried way down in the details...

Linux pre-installed on a Dell laptop

I'm currently a very, very happy Lenovo Thinkpad user but if Dell
offer me Linux pre-installed on one of their boxes, I would be very inclined to go back to Dells.

Application Research

"As a sanity preservation device, I have devised a little litmus test that I use when evaluating software applications..." -- A simple litmus test for where to spend your application research time

Identity management and virtual worlds

"Virtual worlds are on the rise all over the world. The 'new' thing called the Web has met its first serious challenger in the form of immersive, 3D environments..." Identity management and virtual worlds

One Python Per Child

The fact that the One Laptop Per Child makes extensive use of Python in Sugar etc. is, well, potentially massive actually.

Geek Strums #6

Following on from the last update.

• One weekend, not so long ago, I overdid it and it triggered wrist pain. There seems to be a hysterisis element to damaging yourself with a guitar that I wish I'd known about. I.e. you don't realise you are doing damage until afterwards. It feels fine when you are playing and if you are having fun, its hard to stop and take a break...
  
  
• Related to the above. To build muscle memory in your fingers you need to repeat actions over and over again. Fine but I suggest spread 'em out a bit so that you are not lining yourself up for an RSI attack. Especially if you spend most of the rest of your waking hours kitting Emacs chords :-) I over did it by spending ages working on G-CAdd9-D-CAdd9-G for Time Of Your Life (Green Day) and E7-F barre chord for Major Tom (David Bowie).
  
  
• I am making progress with the theory side. Some time ago, I wrote about the fourness of four being the least interesting thing about the number 4. Today, I would substitute 4 for 3. Lets see... do you mean the third note in a scale? How about the semi-tone distance of a third? Do you mean a major third or a minor third cos the former is kinda like 4 in disguise... Or do you mean the third chord from the diatonic chord set? By the way are you counting up or down?. Or maybe you mean the third inversion? Or maybe the 6/5 chord which is a first inversion of a seventh in which the third is implicit?...As ever, context is king.
  
  
• My fingerpicking is running ahead of my ability to change chords fluidly. This is incredibly frustrating. From my picking hand I hear pleasant, nippy, Simon and Garfunkesque arpeggios for C chords, G chords, A minor chords and then pregnant silences as my right hand hauls itself through the chord changes.
  
  
• Its great fun though. Highly recommended.
  
  

XML and the document format mind bender

"It is entirely possible to have all the benefits of XML and yet retain the ability to just use user friendly, commodity off-the-shelf tools. However doing so - especially with complex document-oriented information - requires something more than just slapping an XML label on the file format." -- XML and the document format mind bender