Prolog is a great language. I love it.
Recently I have been writing code which uses a very large number of facts. Hundreds of thousands or millions. This code often turns out to be slow and the algorithms need to be obfuscated somewhat to speed it up.
A few additional features for Sicstus could help this situation significantly:
- an interface to MySQL
- facility to allow predicates to index on any or all arguments
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Wikipedia readers
I have noticed a lot of wikipedia reading and searching applications cropping up on the web recently.
ReadWriteWeb recently published a list of top 10 ways to search Wikipedia, but some things are missing, so here is my list:
ReadWriteWeb recently published a list of top 10 ways to search Wikipedia, but some things are missing, so here is my list:
- Powerset.com, a natural language search engine focused on Wikipedia for now. This works on any browser and there is a special interface for the iPhone too. I work for Powerset.
- Offline Wikipedia viewer for the Irex Iliad - a homebrewed offline reader for an ebook
- A Techcrunch article about tagging Google maps with wikipedia articles
- An offline reader for Wikipedia on the iPhone
- An online Wikipedia reader formatted for iPhone
- Another online Wikipedia reader formatted for iPhone
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Friday, May 09, 2008
Mellified man
This caught my eye a while back and took some work to track down... a list of illegal foods, including Mellified Man.
Of course, I really dislike honey.
Marmite man... that would be more like it.
Of course, I really dislike honey.
Marmite man... that would be more like it.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Disappointing - The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
Old Man's war was an incredible book. I was struck by the relentless logic of the plot, and the tight writing.
In contrast, the sequel "The Ghost Brigades", limps along. The writing is nowhere near as precise, and the plot ambles from front to back cover.
Skip drive.
In contrast, the sequel "The Ghost Brigades", limps along. The writing is nowhere near as precise, and the plot ambles from front to back cover.
Skip drive.
package and configuration management
Is package and configuration management always the ultimate pain in the neck, or is there a proper way to do it?
MacOven
I love my Macs to bits but one thing which always bothers me is the power management. It happens too often (i.e. ever) that when I lift the lid of my Mac to wake it from sleep I get a black screen with a perpetual motion simulation in the form of a beachball that never stops spinning.
I have a very convenient Incase slip which I carry my Mac around in. As well as providing protection against collisions with the books, ipods, piles of paper, alien foetuses etc with which it shares my rucksack, the foam padding of the case is an excellent insulator. So occasionally when I open the case at the end of my journey, I find that instead of sleeping quietly, my Mac has been furiously spinning its CPU or disk, and is now extremely hot, and, by the sound of the fans, all spooled up and ready for take-off. This is disturbing.
It seems clear that the power management firmware should be able to stop whatever processes are running. I imagine that a sensible way to do this would be to first send a signal to all running processes telling them to STOP. This gives the processes the opportunity to perform any critical clean-up activities (like handing control of the nuclear reactor over to another machine). After a decent period, any processes which are still running are forcibly terminated. According to Wikipedia, Power Management Unit, on a MacBook Pro, the power management functions are controlled by a tiny CPU, the settings for which can sometimes become corrupted. In that case, it might be necessary or helpful to reset the PMU back to its default settings. How to do that is described in Resetting an Apple portable's System Management Controller (SMC). The Apple article suggests this reset should only be a last resort, if the mac fails to shut down even if the power button is held down for 10 seconds. Gulp. The Wikipedia article suggests it might be something to try if your Mac's power management is getting funky.
I have a very convenient Incase slip which I carry my Mac around in. As well as providing protection against collisions with the books, ipods, piles of paper, alien foetuses etc with which it shares my rucksack, the foam padding of the case is an excellent insulator. So occasionally when I open the case at the end of my journey, I find that instead of sleeping quietly, my Mac has been furiously spinning its CPU or disk, and is now extremely hot, and, by the sound of the fans, all spooled up and ready for take-off. This is disturbing.
It seems clear that the power management firmware should be able to stop whatever processes are running. I imagine that a sensible way to do this would be to first send a signal to all running processes telling them to STOP. This gives the processes the opportunity to perform any critical clean-up activities (like handing control of the nuclear reactor over to another machine). After a decent period, any processes which are still running are forcibly terminated. According to Wikipedia, Power Management Unit, on a MacBook Pro, the power management functions are controlled by a tiny CPU, the settings for which can sometimes become corrupted. In that case, it might be necessary or helpful to reset the PMU back to its default settings. How to do that is described in Resetting an Apple portable's System Management Controller (SMC). The Apple article suggests this reset should only be a last resort, if the mac fails to shut down even if the power button is held down for 10 seconds. Gulp. The Wikipedia article suggests it might be something to try if your Mac's power management is getting funky.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Excellent sci fi podcast, "Friction"
I just started listening to some science fiction podcasts. Very useful when hands are otherwise occupied. The following caught my ear, Friction, by Will McIntosh, a beautifully imagined and carefully paced short story.
Another science fiction blog I have been listening to a bit is Starship Sofa. Recently they broadcast short stories nominated for the BSFA Award Best Short Story 2007. I particularly enjoyed The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate by Ted Chiang.
Another science fiction blog I have been listening to a bit is Starship Sofa. Recently they broadcast short stories nominated for the BSFA Award Best Short Story 2007. I particularly enjoyed The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate by Ted Chiang.
Monday, August 06, 2007
dead person pint guinness
Someone got feared this afternoon by a clumsy Caltrain. Well, they got deaded, but before that I expect they got (iPhone autocorrect) feared. Probably clumsy person rather than clumsy train. So I find myself in San Mateo waiting to be rescued and, curiously ambling along South B Street I encounter an Irish pub which draws me in with its Guinnessly wiles. I succumb and am rewarded with the shadow of the word Guinness cast obliquely onto its head through the glass and with a trickle of memories, or rather feelings... The gloom, the chatting people and the music.
I'm sorry someone died...
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