I'd like to announce Drools 2.0-beta-13 which mostly corrects just a small problem with the groovy semantic module. Additionally, Kalstride has released their KRules GUI for Drools.
2.0-beta-13 is actually now out, fixing a problem with the Groovy semantic module. At the same time, I'd like to announce the Kalstride KRules GUI.
While working on search.codehaus.org, I was adapting mnogosearch to the infrastructre of The Codehaus. This included not only global search capability, but also the freedom to search logical sub-sets of the assets we host.
mnogo has a nice feature where you can pass limiting search URLs as a query parameter. But I find that to be ugly. So, with a little mod_rewrite, and a Perl CGI which is truly a classic wrapper-facade around mnogo's search.cgi, I've encapsulated my own collection logic using pretty URLs and collection descriptors on the file-system. The Perl wrapper synthesizes a QUERY_STRING that mnogo will eat, and formats the results nicely.
Overall, I'm pleased. I use to hate Perl. Now, I realize that sometimes, it can certainly get the job done.
My wife smelled nice tonight, and I asked her what it was. Her response was something along the lines of "Warm vannilla spice perfume from Bath and Bodyworks." I've always thought that we should throw a party where the snacks and beverages were simply Bath and Bodyworks products.
You could mix the Strawberry and Rice Shampoo with a little ginger ale to produce a lovely beverage. Slices of the Oatmeal and Walnut Body Bar would go well with a cup of coffee. The Lavendar and Mint Bath Beads in a dish for guests to freshen their breath. Maybe even roll up and smoke some Pure Hemp Exfoliating Cloths.
Foo Camp was written up by CNN. I was invited, but instead I was off in Amsterdam organizing the first irregular Haus Party. Sounds like Foo Camp was good geeky fun also.
The idea: Get 200 or so smart folks with a lot in common together in one place at one time, let them pitch tents, toss in a Wi-Fi network, and see what happens. Turns out, quite a lot.
Googlearchy: How a Few Heavily-Linked Sites Dominate Politics on the Web (PDF).
Claims about the Web and politics have commonly confounded two different things: retrievability and visibility, the large universe of pages that could theoretically be accessed versus those that citizens are most likely to encounter. While the governing assumption of much previous work has been that retrievability would translate inexorably into visibility, we cast doubt on that claim. Drawing on a large literature in computer science that ties a site's visibility to the number of inbound hyperlinks it receives, this paper proposes a new methodology for measuring the link structure surrounding political Web sites. Our technique involves iterative, extremely large scale crawls away from political sites easily accessible through popular online search tools, and it uses sophisticated automated methods to categorize site content. In every community we examine, we find that a small handful of Web sites dominate. Online political communities on the Web thus seem to function as "winners take all" networks, a fact that would seem to have widespread implications for politics in the digital age.
Drools 2.0-beta-12 has finally shipped.
While the Drools project has previously experienced a drought in terms of releases, the release schedule has once again picked up and active progress is being made. Ring in the new year!
Some of the important changes include:
* 2-phase execution model
* conflict reslution
* removal of Jelly
* simplification of the XML language
* expanded the semantic module framework
* fixed the go-slow bug. several orders of magnitude faster now.
* a Groovy semantic module
* a new manual
* simple bash script to build it (no maven required)
* all dependencies included
* and a brand spanking new website
Keep in mind this is still a beta release, and there are indeed holes in the website and the manual. Good luck and godspeed.
