Re: [CODE4LIB] Advice on a class
On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 4:18 PM, Genny Engel wrote: > C++ might be a better choice if you want to start off with a grounding in > object-oriented programming. Or maybe Java. I'm about to start the C++ > course at the local junior college. Which reminds me to mention, it probably > doesn't matter which programming course you take right now -- if you then go > through life taking more programming classes like I do! Here are a few quotes from computer science notables about C++: "I invented the term Object-Oriented, and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind" (Alan Kay) "There are only two things wrong with C++: The initial concept and the implementation" (Bertrand Meyer) "Whenever the C++ language designers had two competing ideas as to how they should solve some problem, they said, 'OK, we'll do them both'. So the language is too baroque for my taste" (Donald E Knuth) To really learn OOP, Ruby, Java, Python and particularly Smalltalk are much better choices, IMHO. OK, you won't find much practical use for Smalltalk, but neither for C++ in this day and age (not in a library setting, anyway). And learning C then Smalltalk is a great path to Objective-C, the main language used to program iPhones and iPads. Putting aside the OOP issue, learning C is totally worthwhile as a grounding for any other language. Its what C++ adds to C that is not worth the trouble, as there are better alternatives. Cheers, -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] [lita-l] Re: Seeking feedback on database design for an open source software registry
Congrats on this project, Peter. On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 4:28 PM, Peter Murray wrote: > Great questions, Lori. Thanks for prompting these clarifications. > > We're using Drupal as a foundation and are going to be contracting with a > Drupal developer to integrate existing Drupal modules with any custom field > design, taxonomy creation, and plug-in development required to meet the > goals. One of the conditions we'll put on the development contract is that > we can release the code behind the registry as open source itself. My > current thinking is that once the core work done we'll put the code up on > Google Code or GitHub or a similar code hosting service. The best practice in Open Source development is to put the code (and specs, roadmap etc.) in a public repository on day 1. That way you give others a chance to contribute with ideas, code reviews and even code in the form of patches, if they find the project useful. Of course, developing in the open does not guarantee that you will get any volunteer help. But doing it behind closed doors does guarantee that you won't get any. Cheers, -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] Any Experiences with In-House Training and Development?
On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 11:55 AM, Nordstrom, Kurt wrote: > Hey folks, had a topic come up here that seemed relevant to the tenor of this > group. Would be interested in hearing if anybody else has approached the same > situation, and how they went about it. > > Technology, especially in regards to software development, is a pretty > constantly moving target, and there are always new methodologies, tools, > practices and models that need to be evaluated and possibly adopted. Or, put > another way, developers need to be learning constantly if they're going to > stay relevant. > > Unfortunately, in today's economic climate, the prospect of being able to > ship your developer team across the country to attend week-long seminars or > conferences or what-have-you is not quite as realistic as it once might have > been, especially in the academic and library world. > > The obvious solution would seem to be implementing some sort of in-house > skills training program to keep developers sharp. Possibly something like a > mutual book study with followup reports or presentations, or maybe bringing > in an outside presenter. I wonder if any of the groups here have implemented > anything along these lines, and how have they gone about it? > > Things that we'd be interesting in knowing, if you've done any sort of > in-house training program would be: > > - Topics: What sort of things did you cover? New languages? New technologies? > Programming practices? I work at BIREME, a digital library part of PAHO/WHO (Pan-American Health Organization). We've had succesful internal study groups about Python, CouchDB and DSpace. > - Method: What did you use? Books? On-line courses? Videos? Hired speakers? We used books and each group was led by one or more developers of our staff who were studying the technology in question on their own before the group was formed. > - Budget: Did you have one? What were the costs involved? Only the time of the participants. > - Time: How much time did you allocate to training? Were you able to provide > study time for those involved in the training? Our study groups had between 6 and 12 sessions, lasting 2 hours each. Participants were supposed to read material and do exercises between sessions. Some didn't. Those who did, did very well. The group sessions and a mailing list were useful to help those who got stuck doing exercises or trying to apply the technology in new test projects while the study group was ongoing. > - Evaluation methods: How did you evaluate the effectiveness of the training? > Did those involved give reports? Did you do any sort of coding reviews? >From 1/3 to 1/2 of all participants effectively started using the studied technology for real tasks within 2 months. > - Results: Was it worth it? Would you do it again? Yes. Python and CouchDB have since become established technologies here, and those who did not take full advantage of the study groups are now playing catch up. To increase the chance of everyone actually reading the material each week we want to try "shotgun seminars" [1] [1] http://www.teachingcollegeenglish.com/2008/02/17/shotgun-seminars/ > We'd love to hear from any and all of those out there who have implemented > (or attempted to implement) something along these lines. -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] Seth Godin on The future of the library
On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 8:31 AM, Andreas Orphanides wrote: > - As Graham says, there's a sunk-cost issue: you're going to prioritize the > stuff you paid for over free stuff since you've already invested resources in > it. Everybody who believes in sunk-cost should learn to play Go, the ancient japanese game. One of the things that you learn playing Go is to let go (pun intended) of resources already spent unwisely when there are better courses of action. Wikipedia has a good introductory article on the subjec "Escalation of commitment": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalation_of_commitment -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] Seth Godin on The future of the library
On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 6:24 AM, graham wrote: > 2. It is hard to justify spending time on improving access to free stuff > when the end result would be good for everyone, not just the institution > doing the work (unless it can be kept in a consortium and outside-world > access limited) Why is it hard to justify anything that would be good for everyone? -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] Seth Godin on The future of the library
Mike, thanks for the link to Seth's excellent post. I do take issue with this paragraph, though: """ And then we need to consider the rise of the Kindle. An ebook costs about $1.60 in 1962 dollars. A thousand ebooks can fit on one device, easily. Easy to store, easy to sort, easy to hand to your neighbor. Five years from now, readers will be as expensive as Gillette razors, and ebooks will cost less than the blades. """ I own a Kindle and like it very much, but that sounds like Amazon.com PR. My points: 1) Why quote the ebook price in 1962 dollars? The reality in 2011 is that Kindle books in general are too expensive, particularly when comparing their cost with the paper counterparts (think about variable costs in paperbacks, logistics etc; it is pretty obvious the cost reductions are not being fully reflected in consumer prices). Given the current situation, I see no evidence that ebooks will cost less than razor blades, ever. 2) "easy to hand to your neighbor", sure, if you dont't mind being without your entire collection, or if you have several spare Kindles (but you are limited to sharing books among just a few Kindles). The whole point of DRM is to hinder sharing anything with your neighbor. 3) I totally support librarians pushing for ebook lending solutions, and not only for the sake of the future relevance of libraries, but because I want to have better options for sharing my ebooks with my friends (actually, anyone who does not live in the US cannot lend Kindle ebooks at this time; meanwhile Amazon.com is very happy selling them to us via "free" 3G). Otherwise, a great post. Cheers, Luciano On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 6:41 AM, Mike Taylor wrote: > Seth Godin is not a library professional -- he's a marketing guru with > a string of best-selling books and a blog that manages to be both > insightful AND brief on an astonishingly consistent basis. > (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ -- highly recommended). So he's > outside the library world, looking in, and has a track record of > seeing far and clear. > > Which means he's probably worth paying attention to when he writes > about The Future Of The Library, as he does in the newest post on his > blog: > > http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/05/the-future-of-the-library.html > > To summarise: "The library is a house for the librarian ... [Kids] > need a librarian more than ever (to figure out creative ways to find > and use data). They need a library not at all ... We need librarians > more than we ever did. What we don't need are mere clerks who guard > dead paper." > > -- Mike. > -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] Position Anouncment: Web Developer - University of Pittsburgh
"Gregg, Brian D" wrote: >Systems/Programmer III >Web Developer, Information Systems, Thomas BL. > >To apply or see more information on this position: >https://www.pittsource.com/applicants/jsp/shared/position/JobDetails_css.jsp?postingId=239751 > >This is a temporary grant-funded position through September 30, 2013 in the >University Library System/Information Technology Department, responsible for >planning, development and implementation of Web-based applications and >interfaces for content management and e-publishing systems, with emphasis on >local software development, integration and configuration of open source >content management software and data migration tasks to export, transform and >import content and metadata between systems. > >50% effort will be applied to the development of Telerehabilitate!, a national >database and directory of telerehabilitation service providers. The remaining >50% effort will be devoted to Web development projects to support the ULS >D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program (http://www.library.pitt.edu/dscribe) and >other Web-based services. At various times, the incumbent will be expected to >perform in the general areas of systems analysis; system design and >development, needs assessment, resource planning and allocation, and >independent execution of major projects. The incumbent will maintain >communication with faculty, staff and students within libraries and throughout >the University, with vendors and open source software developers and users >worldwide. > >B.S. degree in Computer or Information Science or related field of study or 5 >years equivalent work experience with diverse Web Development tools in a >complex network environment; > >REQUIRED: >Demonstrated in-depth knowledge of: > >* LAMP environment (Linux/Unix, Apache, MySQL, PHP 5+). > >* Drupal content management system, Perl, HTML, XML, CSS, Javascript, >jQuery, AJAX > >* Experience in developing Web applications for multiple platforms and >browsers. > >* Demonstrated understanding of object oriented concepts, design >patterns, and various open-source toolkits and frameworks. > >* Strong interpersonal and communication skills; ability and desire to >learn. > >* Software life-cycle including software documentation, design, >specification and development > >PREFERRED: > >Strong working knowledge of: > > > >* Solaris, Fedora or RedHat operating systems; > >* Geospatial search and retrieval systems > >* Web software integration using APIs to Web 2.0 services such as >Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, etc. > >* Java > >* LDAP > >* Microsoft SharePoint > >* Islandora > >* Fedora Commons Repository > >* VMware >Minimum of two years experience with Web development using the Drupal content >management system in a LAMP environment (Linux/Unix, Apache, MySQL, PHP).
Re: [CODE4LIB] What do you wish you had time to learn?
On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 9:08 PM, Fleming, Declan wrote: > Wine appreciation - ok, this one is a lie. BEER!!! Same here. Both the façade and the truth. -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] irtual Lightning Talks: tests passed, but Webinar "not found"
I just got in the room. Please ignore my last message. Cheers, Luciano On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 1:05 PM, Luciano Ramalho wrote: > Hello, Peter! > > I am trying to connect to the Webinar but I keep getting a Java > NullPointerException traceback, with an "Event not found" message on > the side. > > java.lang.NullPointerException > at > centra.cms.web.model.user.NavigationGroupIterator.initLinkConditions(NavigationGroupIterator.java:219) > > Maybe its because I am a little early? I kwow the right time, just > thought I could hang around the virtual room to get acquainted to > Centra... > > Please advise. > > Cheers, > > Luciano > > > On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 3:47 PM, Peter Murray wrote: >> Thanks for the feedback, everyone (both on and off list). The >> one-week-to-prepare was, in hindsight, too aggressive. Okay, lesson learned >> (I hope). >> >> The Virtual Lightning Talks session has been rescheduled to April 29th from >> 1pm to 2pm Eastern U.S. time. I've reset and updated the sign-up form: >> >> http://wiki.code4lib.org/index.php/Virtual_Lightning_Talks >> >> Peter >> >> On Apr 1, 2011, at 7:13 PM, Matt Jones wrote: >>> >>> I also like this idea, and it also conflicts for my schedule, but I was >>> contemplating skipping my other commitment to attend this. Hadn't decided >>> for sure, as I was waiting to see a few of the Virtual LT talk titles that >>> signed up (hah!). >>> >>> Also, I am a bit of a newcomer to code4lib, having never attended the >>> conference, and coming from a related but somewhat different community >>> (environmental informatics). I thought this might be a good way to hear a >>> little more about what is developing in the code4lib community. I >>> considered giving a Virtual LT as well, but thought it best to hear a few >>> to gauge what might be of interest from my projects. >>> >>> Matt >>> >>> On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 2:48 PM, Edward M. Corrado >>> wrote: >>> >>>> I agree with Luciano that the lead time was a bit short for me. Well, >>>> maybe not specifically because it was short, but it does conflicts >>>> with something else I have to do and I don't have time to reschedule. >>>> I really like this idea and I hope it can be successful, so I hope >>>> this message brought a rash of sign-ups and it goes on, or it is >>>> rescheduled. >>>> >>>> Edward >>>> >>>> On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 6:42 PM, Luciano Ramalho >>>> wrote: >>>>> On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 3:01 PM, Peter Murray >>>> wrote: >>>>>> So far no one has signed up to present on Monday and only one person has >>>> signed up to attend. It sounds like the idea of virtual lightning talks >>>> isn't going to fly. If you have feedback (e.g., not interesting, not >>>> enough >>>> lead time to prepare, wrong time of day/week/year), I'd appreciate hearing >>>> it. >>>>> >>>>> As a Pythonista I am a huge fan of lightning talks, a staple of PyCons >>>>> all over the World. >>>>> >>>>> Virtual lightning talks is a novel idea to me, but sounds great. >>>>> >>>>> I'd be interested in attending and even presenting, but I think the >>>>> lead time was too short, particularly for an activity intended for >>>>> business hours (1:30pm EDT is 2:30pm BRT / UTC-3). >>>>> >>>>> How about trying again, but aiming at a date in late April? >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> Luciano Ramalho >>>>> programador repentista || stand-up programmer >>>>> Twitter: @luciano >>>>> >>>> >> >> >> -- >> Peter Murray peter.mur...@lyrasis.org tel:+1-678-235-2955 >> Ass't Director, Technology Services Development http://dltj.org/about/ >> Lyrasis -- Great Libraries. Strong Communities. Innovative Answers. >> The Disruptive Library Technology Jester http://dltj.org/ >> Attrib-Noncomm-Share http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ >> > > > > -- > Luciano Ramalho > programador repentista || stand-up programmer > Twitter: @luciano > -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] Webinar information for today's Virtual Lightning Talks
Great, I just got in the room. Please ignore my last message, Cheers, Luciano On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 12:59 PM, Peter Murray wrote: > The first Code4Lib Virtual Lightning Talks starts in about an hour (1pm > Eastern Daylight Time). To attend the meeting, use this link: > > http://mt205.centra.com/GA/main/00bc5596012eb2d01dc395bd > > Attendees may also enter the event by going to the URL below, and entering > the event ID. > > URL: http://mt205.centra.com/main > Event ID: RMW644179 > > Presenters are urged to use the desktop software (available for MacOSX, Linux > and Windows) for the smoothest operation (see the links at > http://wiki.code4lib.org/index.php/Virtual_Lightning_Talks#Presenter_Guidelines > for download information). I'll start the webinar software at 12:30 in case > anyone wants to come in early to test. > > > Peter > -- > Peter Murray peter.mur...@lyrasis.org tel:+1-678-235-2955 > Ass't Director, Technology Services Development http://dltj.org/about/ > Lyrasis -- Great Libraries. Strong Communities. Innovative Answers. > The Disruptive Library Technology Jester http://dltj.org/ > Attrib-Noncomm-Share http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ > -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
[CODE4LIB] irtual Lightning Talks: tests passed, but Webinar "not found"
Hello, Peter! I am trying to connect to the Webinar but I keep getting a Java NullPointerException traceback, with an "Event not found" message on the side. java.lang.NullPointerException at centra.cms.web.model.user.NavigationGroupIterator.initLinkConditions(NavigationGroupIterator.java:219) Maybe its because I am a little early? I kwow the right time, just thought I could hang around the virtual room to get acquainted to Centra... Please advise. Cheers, Luciano On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 3:47 PM, Peter Murray wrote: > Thanks for the feedback, everyone (both on and off list). The > one-week-to-prepare was, in hindsight, too aggressive. Okay, lesson learned > (I hope). > > The Virtual Lightning Talks session has been rescheduled to April 29th from > 1pm to 2pm Eastern U.S. time. I've reset and updated the sign-up form: > > http://wiki.code4lib.org/index.php/Virtual_Lightning_Talks > > Peter > > On Apr 1, 2011, at 7:13 PM, Matt Jones wrote: >> >> I also like this idea, and it also conflicts for my schedule, but I was >> contemplating skipping my other commitment to attend this. Hadn't decided >> for sure, as I was waiting to see a few of the Virtual LT talk titles that >> signed up (hah!). >> >> Also, I am a bit of a newcomer to code4lib, having never attended the >> conference, and coming from a related but somewhat different community >> (environmental informatics). I thought this might be a good way to hear a >> little more about what is developing in the code4lib community. I >> considered giving a Virtual LT as well, but thought it best to hear a few >> to gauge what might be of interest from my projects. >> >> Matt >> >> On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 2:48 PM, Edward M. Corrado >> wrote: >> >>> I agree with Luciano that the lead time was a bit short for me. Well, >>> maybe not specifically because it was short, but it does conflicts >>> with something else I have to do and I don't have time to reschedule. >>> I really like this idea and I hope it can be successful, so I hope >>> this message brought a rash of sign-ups and it goes on, or it is >>> rescheduled. >>> >>> Edward >>> >>> On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 6:42 PM, Luciano Ramalho >>> wrote: >>>> On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 3:01 PM, Peter Murray >>> wrote: >>>>> So far no one has signed up to present on Monday and only one person has >>> signed up to attend. It sounds like the idea of virtual lightning talks >>> isn't going to fly. If you have feedback (e.g., not interesting, not enough >>> lead time to prepare, wrong time of day/week/year), I'd appreciate hearing >>> it. >>>> >>>> As a Pythonista I am a huge fan of lightning talks, a staple of PyCons >>>> all over the World. >>>> >>>> Virtual lightning talks is a novel idea to me, but sounds great. >>>> >>>> I'd be interested in attending and even presenting, but I think the >>>> lead time was too short, particularly for an activity intended for >>>> business hours (1:30pm EDT is 2:30pm BRT / UTC-3). >>>> >>>> How about trying again, but aiming at a date in late April? >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Luciano Ramalho >>>> programador repentista || stand-up programmer >>>> Twitter: @luciano >>>> >>> > > > -- > Peter Murray peter.mur...@lyrasis.org tel:+1-678-235-2955 > Ass't Director, Technology Services Development http://dltj.org/about/ > Lyrasis -- Great Libraries. Strong Communities. Innovative Answers. > The Disruptive Library Technology Jester http://dltj.org/ > Attrib-Noncomm-Share http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ > -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] What do you wish you had time to learn?
Great topic, Edward! Next on my list are: - nodejs - CoffeScript - JQueryUI - Clojure - Video editing - Spanish (I speak Portuguese, which is close enough to grok most Spanish texts and basic conversation) I'd also want to learn more about current best practices for dealing with bibliographic records, authority records, FRBRization in relational and non-relational datbases. I work at a digital library which has decades of experience with bibliographic data in non-relational databases, but I believe we need to learn more about how others solve the same problems. On the other hand... I love to teach and I am a Python and Django instructor (I've used Python professionally since 1998). I've been using CouchDB for a few months at work now. -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] Why does the MARC to DC crosswalk refuse to use Creator?
Thank you very much Rebecca, Karen and Esme for your replies. It is
really a privilege to be able to ask a question here and get answers
like these.
Regarding the DC Creator issue, I probably nave a different
perspective on DC than many here, because my first contact with DC was
not as a librarian but as a content management specialist. In the
content management community DC is widely adopted, but a lot (most) of
the metadata one finds in a CMS is new, born digital and often created
by users directly inside the system itself (think of a blog post).
Also, in a CMS most metadata is generated by users without any
knowledge of cataloging best practices, so the simplicity of
unqualified DC is adequate. These factors make it very desirable to
have a simple Creator attribute, which is often a very important
search criteria for users. That is why I found it strange that LC
chose not to map any tag to Creator.
Now with my librarian hat on, and your explanations, the reasoning is
very clear.
Thanks a lot!
Cheers,
Luciano
On Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 11:58 AM, Guenther, Rebecca wrote:
> The reason we used DC Contributor instead of Creator is because the semantics
> do not map well to MARC creators/contributors. Creators in MARC can be in 1XX
> and 7XX; since 1XX is not repeatable, additional creators go in 7XX.
> Contributors in Dublin Core play a secondary role in the resource ("An entity
> responsible for making contributions to the resource.") vs. Creator ("An
> entity primarily responsible for making the resource.").If we simply mapped
> the name in 1XX to Creator and the name in 7XX to Contributor, these may or
> may not be correct in terms of semantics. In MARC primary vs. secondary
> contributions are not what distinguish recording in 1XX vs 7XX, but the
> particular contribution that was made may be included in the role subfield
> ($e in textual form or $4 in coded form). Unfortunately we find that many
> MARC records do not record the role, but that is because of previous
> cataloging policy, not anything in MARC. Another point is that whether the
> contribution is prim!
ar!
> y or secondary may vary depending on the type of material, so giving the
> specific contribution may be more useful in the long run (for instance, an
> illustrator may be considered a secondary contribution in the book world, but
> if the resource is in a museum it may be considered the primary contribution).
>
> It might be noted that some time ago (the year that the DC conference was in
> Florence, I can't remember exactly when that was) the Dublin Core Usage Board
> (of which I was then a member) attempted to combine creator and contributor
> (and publisher) to become one DC element (Agent), but implementers objected
> to it, so the proposal was withdrawn. But that was recognition that the
> distinction being made might not have been the best way to go. That was also
> a factor in mapping MARC to DC this way.
>
> Rebecca
>
> Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:35:35 -0700
> From: "Cowles, Esme"
> Subject: Re: Why does the MARC to DC crosswalk refuse to use Creator?
>
> It looks like it's using Contributor instead. So I'm guessing the sticking
> point is that it's hard to figure out what Contributors are primary, so it's
> safer to just punt and put them all in Contributor instead.
>
> -Esme
> --
> Esme Cowles
>
> "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in
> creating the Internet." -- Al Gore
>
> On Apr 18, 2011, at 5:13 PM, Luciano Ramalho wrote:
>
>> I am mystified by the discovery that the MARC to DC Crosswalk does not
>> map *any* MARC tag to the DC Creator element!
>>
>> http://www.loc.gov/marc/marc2dc.html
>>
>> Does anyone know the reasoning behind this strange decision?
>>
>> --
>> Luciano Ramalho
>> programador repentista || stand-up programmer
>> Twitter: @luciano
>
> Rebecca S. Guenther
> Senior Networking and Standards Specialist
> Network Development and MARC Standards Office
> Library of Congress
> 101 Independence Ave SE
> Washington, DC 20540
> +1 202 707 5092 (voice)
> +1 202 707 0115 (fax)
> r...@loc.gov
>
--
Luciano Ramalho
programador repentista || stand-up programmer
Twitter: @luciano
[CODE4LIB] Why does the MARC to DC crosswalk refuse to use Creator?
I am mystified by the discovery that the MARC to DC Crosswalk does not map *any* MARC tag to the DC Creator element! http://www.loc.gov/marc/marc2dc.html Does anyone know the reasoning behind this strange decision? -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] Sign up to present at the Code4Lib Virtual Lightning Talks on April 4th
On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 3:01 PM, Peter Murray wrote: > So far no one has signed up to present on Monday and only one person has > signed up to attend. It sounds like the idea of virtual lightning talks > isn't going to fly. If you have feedback (e.g., not interesting, not enough > lead time to prepare, wrong time of day/week/year), I'd appreciate hearing it. As a Pythonista I am a huge fan of lightning talks, a staple of PyCons all over the World. Virtual lightning talks is a novel idea to me, but sounds great. I'd be interested in attending and even presenting, but I think the lead time was too short, particularly for an activity intended for business hours (1:30pm EDT is 2:30pm BRT / UTC-3). How about trying again, but aiming at a date in late April? -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] Controlled Vocabulary DB: RESTful CRU[D]
On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 4:31 PM, William Denton wrote: > On 1 March 2011, Bobbi Fox wrote: > >> I have been tasked with coming up with a RESTful Create, Read, Update >> [we're not Deleting] API to our home-grown controlled vocabulary database, >> "WordShack". > > I can't help you with your actual question---except to wish you good > luck---but have you read RESTful WEB SERVICES by Leonard Richardson and Sam > Ruby (O'Reilly, 2007) (http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596529260)? > > It's excellent. You probably already know about it, but if not, it'll be a > big help. Not only does it explain about REST, by doing so it explains how > the web works. It changed how I think. That book is O, but I found it too verbose and not very practical. IMHO, a newer, much more objective and practical approach is RESTful Web Services Cookbook, published by O'Reilly in 2009. RESTful Web Services Cookbook - Solutions for Improving Scalability and Simplicity By Subbu Allamaraju http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596801694 -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] Controlled Vocabulary DB: RESTful CRU[D]
On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 5:07 PM, Luciano Ramalho wrote: > On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 4:31 PM, William Denton wrote: >> On 1 March 2011, Bobbi Fox wrote: >> >>> I have been tasked with coming up with a RESTful Create, Read, Update >>> [we're not Deleting] API to our home-grown controlled vocabulary database, >>> "WordShack". >> >> I can't help you with your actual question---except to wish you good >> luck---but have you read RESTful WEB SERVICES by Leonard Richardson and Sam >> Ruby (O'Reilly, 2007) (http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596529260)? >> >> It's excellent. You probably already know about it, but if not, it'll be a >> big help. Not only does it explain about REST, by doing so it explains how >> the web works. It changed how I think. > > That book is O, but I found it too verbose and not very practical. O -> OK. > IMHO, a newer, much more objective and practical approach is > RESTful Web Services Cookbook, published by O'Reilly in 2009. > > RESTful Web Services Cookbook - Solutions for Improving Scalability > and Simplicity By Subbu Allamaraju > http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596801694 -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] GPL incompatible interfaces
On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 5:48 PM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote: > You can't combine non-open-source code and GPL code in a single project. Yes you can, as long as as it is an in-house project. The "viral" aspect of the GPL affects only distribution to third parties, not your own use of the GPL code. Lots of people do it all the time. For instance, Google reportedly heavily patches and otherwise integrates the GPL'd Linux kernel with their own proprietary software, and they can do it without any infringement because they do not distribute the resulting systems, but just use it within their infrastructure. That is exactly why the AGPL was created, by the way. To provide a way to make companies like Google share the changes they make to GPL software they use to provide services to third parties. -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] CouchDB and MongoDB (was: Re: O'Reilly books...)
On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 5:57 PM, Tom Keays wrote: > I saw this visualization of where the various nosql databases fit on > the CAP Theorem triangle. CAP says there are three primary concerns > you must balance when choosing a data management system: Consistency, > Availability, and Partition tolerance. Furthermore, you can only pick > 2. > > http://blog.nahurst.com/visual-guide-to-nosql-systems > > According to this, Riak, SimpleDB, Cassandra and CouchDB all sit on > the AP side, whereas MongoDB and BigTable sit on the CP side. Most > relational databases sit on the CA side. Very interesting, Tom, thanks for the link. It is interesting to note that although CouchDB and MongoDB sit on different sides of the CAP triangle, their data model, from an application perspective, is very similar. But the implementation of the data model is very different, as Bill Dueber mentioned before, with MongoDB doing updates in-place whenever possible, and aggressively caching writes, both of which increase update speed but also the risk of a corrupt database in case of a crash. CouchDB does neither, so updates are much slower, but its data is always in a consistent state on disk, because it only appends, and appends are guaranteed to be atomic in posix systems. -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] CouchDB and MongoDB (was: Re: O'Reilly books...)
On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 6:55 PM, Bill Dueber wrote: >> It depends on how you define "that space". There are lots of players >> in the non-relational, AKA, NoSQL space, but in the document oriented >> space I don't know of any other current contender other than MongoDB >> and CouchDB. Do you? > > Well, the ones I was thinking of were Terrastore, Raven (windows), and > Persevere, but I don't actually have any experience with them except a > little with persevere, and its website (www.persvr.org) seems to be gone. > Terrastore looks to be the most mature. Terrastore seems promising, I will check it out. Thanks for the pointer, Bill. -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] CouchDB and MongoDB (was: Re: O'Reilly books...)
On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 3:23 PM, Nate Vack wrote: > Tongue lodged deeply -- so deeply -- in cheek: > > http://nosql.mypopescu.com/post/1016320617/mongodb-is-web-scale# Yeah, that is funny, thanks for the link, Nate. I bet you did not mean any harm, but I hope the joke does not kill the conversation we had just started on the other thread. -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
[CODE4LIB] CouchDB and MongoDB (was: Re: O'Reilly books...)
On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 11:58 AM, Bill Dueber wrote: > Oops. I just found a better overview than I can provide, at > http://www.mongodb.org/display/DOCS/Comparing+Mongo+DB+and+Couch+DB I was just about to send that link. > There are lots of other players in this space, too -- see > http://nosql-database.org/ It depends on how you define "that space". There are lots of players in the non-relational, AKA, NoSQL space, but in the document oriented space I don't know of any other current contender other than MongoDB and CouchDB. Do you? Comparing Riak, Cassandra and MongoDB is like comparing a golf cart, a fork lift and a fire engine. They are just too different. But i'd say MongoDB and CouchDB belong in the same category, though MongoDB is optimized for performance in cluster, deployed in a single datacenter, with master-slave replication, and CouchDB is designed for easy and reliable distributed deployment with master-master replication among nodes that are not always online. Their conceptual data model is very similar (JSON and BSON), so it's a snap to migrate data from CouchDB to MongoDB (the opposite maybe more complicated depending on the dataset, because BSON has more primitive types than JSON). Where I work [1] we are doing pilot projects with CouchDB, but we also envision using CouchDB as the main repository for content creation, and pushing data to MongoDB for high demand services, if we find out that CouchDB can't handle the traffic. [1] http://regional.bvsalud.org/php/index.php?lang=en -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] Which O'Reilly books should we give away at Code4Lib 2011?
On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 9:16 PM, Cary Gordon wrote: > JQuery Cookbook +1 And "CouchDB, the Definitve Guide". I believe CouchDB will take the library world by storm, and the sooner the better. A document database is what we need for many of our applications. CouchDB, with its 100% RESTful API is a highly productive web-services platform with a document oriented data model and built-in peer-to-peer replication. In short, it does very well lots of things we need done. -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] Code4Lib Journal Call for Papers
Hello, I tried to make a submission via the form [1] but after hitting "Send" all I got were two spinning arrows below the send button, and no other response. [1] http://journal.code4lib.org/submit-proposal I have also sent my submission by e-mail to jour...@code4lib.org, but I figured you'd like to know that the form is misbehaving. Cheers, Luciano PS. BTW, the arrows are still spinning... On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 12:21 PM, Gabriel Farrell wrote: > Call for Papers (and apologies for cross-posting): > > The Code4Lib Journal (C4LJ) exists to foster community and share information > among those interested in the intersection of libraries, technology, and the > future. > > The Code4Lib Journal is now accepting proposals for publication in its 13th > issue. Don't miss out on this opportunity to share your ideas and experiences. > To be included in the 13th issue, which is scheduled for publication in mid > April 2011, please submit articles, abstracts, or proposals at > http://journal.code4lib.org/submit-proposal or to jour...@code4lib.org > by Friday, January 7, 2011. When submitting, please include the title or > subject of the proposal in the subject line of the email message. > > C4LJ encourages creativity and flexibility, and the editors welcome > submissions > across a broad variety of topics that support the mission of the journal. > Possible topics include, but are not limited to: > > * Practical applications of library technology (both actual and hypothetical) > * Technology projects (failed, successful, or proposed), including how they > were > done and challenges faced > * Case studies > * Best practices > * Reviews > * Comparisons of third party software or libraries > * Analyses of library metadata for use with technology > * Project management and communication within the library environment > * Assessment and user studies > > C4LJ strives to promote professional communication by minimizing the barriers > to > publication. While articles should be of a high quality, they need not follow > any formal structure. Writers should aim for the middle ground between blog > posts and articles in traditional refereed journals. Where appropriate, we > encourage authors to submit code samples, algorithms, and pseudo-code. For > more > information, visit C4LJ's Article Guidelines or browse articles from the > first 11 issues published on our website: http://journal.code4lib.org. > > Remember, for consideration for the 13th issue, please send proposals, > abstracts, or draft articles to jour...@code4lib.org no later than > Friday, January 7, 2011. > > Send in a submission. Your peers would like to hear what you are doing. > > > Code4Lib Journal Editorial Committee > -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] He's Pro-Django (humour)
Hooray! On Sat, Oct 30, 2010 at 5:24 PM, Doran, Michael D wrote: > He's Pro-Django > > (sung to the tune of "Mr. Bojangles" and with > abject apologies to Jerry Jeff Walker) > > I knew a man pro-Django and he proselytized > For DRY; > "It's plugable, reusable, for rapid dev, > Give it a try." > He praised Python, he praised Python, > Which it's written in. > He's pro-Django, he's pro-Django, he's pro-Django, > That's his stance! > > I met him in a thread on code4lib, I was > So confused. > He seemed to me to be a code guru > And he was so enthused > He talked of code, he talked of code, > That's readable (unlike Perl). > > He said he was pro-Django, and he made his case > Throughout the thread. > He quoted stats, and better apps, and praised Python, > It had appeal. > He showed us graphs, he showed us graphs, > Took on detractors. > He's pro-Django, he's pro-Django, he's pro-Django, > That's his stance! > > He talked to those with coding woes at conferences > About the web. > He spoke with tears of fifteen years maintaining Perl > No commenting at all. > Then a Perl web app died, just up and died, > After two years he still seethes. > He's pro-Django, he's pro-Django, he's pro-Django, > That's his stance! > > He said "I code Python at ev'ry chance at hack-a-thons > and parse MARC blobs. > But most the time I'm working on some Java apps > 'Cause I need this job." > He sent his post, and as he sent his post I saw someone reply "He's > pro-Django, he's pro-Django, he's pro-Django, > That's his stance!" > > -- Michael > (A gray-beard Perl programmer who has resolved to start learning and using > Python in 2011) > > # Michael Doran, Systems Librarian > # University of Texas at Arlington > # 817-272-5326 office > # 817-688-1926 mobile > # do...@uta.edu > # http://rocky.uta.edu/doran/ > -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] PHP vs. Python [was: Re: Django]
On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 9:28 PM, Alexander Johannesen wrote: >> From my experience, it seemed php was a server side >> scripting language. > > Strictly speaking, so is Python. Actually, Python is a general purpose programming language. It was not created specifically for server side scripting like PHP was. But it is very suitable to that task. > Not seen any scientific packages, but I've seen a few ray-tracers, > although they're all demo apps and fun toys (although I think that > applies to Python, too). No, that does not apply to Python. Python is widely used for hardcore scientific computing. It is also the most important scripting language in large scale CGI settings, used in companies such as Indusrial Light & Magic, Weta Digital and so on. Python has become so important for CGI in recent years that Autodesk had to embed Python in its Maya application even though Maya has always had its own embedded scripting language, called MEL. Nuke, a red hot 3D compositor that was massively used in the production of Avatar, is completely scriptable in Python. In fact, its entire UI Is made with Python. http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/nuke/ > You can bind PHP and Python the same, it's just a matter of doing and > whether it makes sense to do so. It's *not* a question of /if/ you can > do it, but if you /should/ do it. Your milage *will* vary. > >>> For the sophisticated hacker, most languages can >>> be tweaked to solve almost any problem. >> >> I am sure that is true. Though, I feel many for many tasks php would >> require quite a bit more tweaking than python, with much less >> community support behind it (I mean, google comes up with fewer >> helpful links to the problems I sited above). > > Maybe your Google-foo is weak. :) Or maybe he's just realizing that outside of server side web scripting, PHP is just not so widely used. > Anyway, I wasn't meaning to promote PHP over Python, just pointing out > that PHP is a lot more (and more often still, a lot better) than what > most people think it is. Having used both languages, I discovered that Python is easier for most tasks, and one reason is that the libraries that come with Python are extremely robust, well tested and consistent. PHP is very practical for server-side web scripting, but it's libraries are unfortunately full of gotchas, traps and unexpected behaviour. A key reason for that is the fact that Python has always had an exception-handling mechanism while PHP has grown something like that only a few years ago, and many libraries don't use it, so whenever you call a function you never know whether the result will be a real value or some error code. This is very error-prone and testing for errors on many calls makes the program logic harder to follow. So, I my opinion, PHP is great at what it does best: enabling quick server-side Web scripting on almost any hosting service on Earth. For everything else, it is very worthwhile to learn and use a general purpose dynamic language such as Python, Ruby or Perl. Sorry for the rant. I must confess I am a founder of the Brazilian Python Association and was its first president, so you can call me a Python advocate. -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] Django
On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 6:33 PM, Gabriel Farrell wrote: > If you already know PHP you might want to check out Symfony or another > PHP framework to get the hang of web frameworks, then move onto other > languages from there. I've been using Django for a couple of years now, and have been tasked to introduce Django to a team in my current employer. Two of the developers here, both experienced in PHP but just learning Python, told me that they've found Django much simpler and easier to learn than Symfony. Besides the original Django Book, my colleagues have also enjoyed "Python Web Development with Django", which includes half a dozen simple and diverse example applications. http://www.amazon.com/Python-Development-Django-Jeff-Forcier/dp/0132356139 -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
Re: [CODE4LIB] Call for Papers: Code4Lib Journal
On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 11:48 AM, Ron Peterson wrote: > Call for Papers (and apologies for cross-posting): > > The Code4Lib Journal (C4LJ) exists to foster community and share information > among those interested in the intersection of libraries, technology, and the > future. > Ron, thanks for the invitation. I take it all I need to submit by September 17 is an abstract, and if selected, I should then submit the full article by some later date, am I right? I am interested in writing about the evolution of the ISIS-DM project and tools after my initial paper about it, which you can find here: http://reddes.bvsalud.org/projects/isisnbp/wiki/ISIS-DM http://reddes.bvsalud.org/projects/isisnbp/wiki/Tools ISIS-DM is an API to ease the migration of legacy ISIS databases to modern document databases such as CouchDB or MongoDB or semistructured databases such as Amazon SimpleDB and Google Datastore. The isis2json tool I am using to explore the LILACS bibliographic database to eventually migrate it to CouchDB or MongoDB. Cheers, Luciano > The Code4Lib Journal is now accepting proposals for publication in its 12th > issue. Don't miss out on this opportunity to share your ideas and experiences. > To be included in the 12th issue, which is scheduled for publication in mid > December 2010, please submit articles, abstracts, or proposals at > http://journal.code4lib.org/submit-proposal or to > c4lj-artic...@googlegroups.com > by Friday, September 17, 2010. When submitting, please include the title or > subject of the proposal in the subject line of the email message. > > C4LJ encourages creativity and flexibility, and the editors welcome > submissions > across a broad variety of topics that support the mission of the journal. > Possible topics include, but are not limited to: > > * Practical applications of library technology (both actual and hypothetical) > * Technology projects (failed, successful, or proposed), including how they > were > done and challenges faced > > * Case studies > * Best practices > * Reviews > * Comparisons of third party software or libraries > * Analyses of library metadata for use with technology > * Project management and communication within the library environment > * Assessment and user studies > > C4LJ strives to promote professional communication by minimizing the barriers > to > publication. While articles should be of a high quality, they need not follow > any formal structure. Writers should aim for the middle ground between blog > posts and articles in traditional refereed journals. Where appropriate, we > encourage authors to submit code samples, algorithms, and pseudo-code. For > more > information, visit C4LJ's Article Guidelines or browse articles from the > first 10 issues published on our website: http://journal.code4lib.org. > > > Remember, for consideration for the 12th issue, please send proposals, > abstracts, or draft articles to c4lj-artic...@googlegroups.com no later than > Friday, September 17, 2010. > > > Send in a submission. Your peers would like to hear what you are doing. > > Code4Lib Journal Editorial Committee > ___ > Ol-lib mailing list > ol-...@archive.org > http://mail.archive.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ol-lib > -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano -- Luciano Ramalho programador repentista || stand-up programmer Twitter: @luciano
