Pointer to resources

Andy Loughran said...

That's a pretty good account of one of blogging's limitations. I do find that when I want to append to, or develop, a previous idea, then it's much more difficult on the blog to do that.

I enjoyed your article about big IT projects. I haven't read anything else by you - but was hoping to be pointed to some more resources - so from that perspective I hope it isn't your last blog - even if you only post on an essay a month.

Well, I have no idea whether this will be useful to anyone, but here are some links.

http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs/
Contains pointers to everything else and a recently added snipe at the hassles of Windows users giving presentations without the benefits of multiple virtual desktops.

http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/talks/
A collection of pointers to talks (PDF) given over the years.

http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cosy/papers/
Papers and presentations in the EU-funded CoSy robotic project.

http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/freepoplog.html
The Free Poplog Web site (open source, multi-paradigm program development software, including a lot of AI research and teaching materials -- originally developped at Sussex University, then sold for a while by ISL, until they were bought by SPSS for their Clementine system, implemented in Poplog, after which they had no interest in selling Poplog, so Sussex allowed me to make it available free of charge with open source.)

http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/packages/simagent.html
The SimAgent toolkit (part of Poplog.)

http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/misc/
Many discussion notes and papers, including some saved email exchanges and postings to news groups, going back over 20 years.
Includes the rant about large monolithic government projects, like the NHS IT project here.

http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs/my-doings.html
A not very successful attempt to provide a structured overview of my research activities (and some others) over the last few decades.

http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs/laptop
Linux on my laptop (Dell D600, then D610, using Redhat then Fedora:
now Fedora 7, including stuff on wireless, software suspend, etc.).

I have probably forgotten something, and it probably doesn't matter!

Aaron

Why I am not a blogger

I set up this blog not knowing whether I would make significant use of it or not.

It turned out that I hardly ever added to it or looked at it. I have decided that blogging is not what I am interested in insofar as the blogging mechanism expects me to organise my thought by date, whereas for me the dates are irrelevant: it's the ideas that count.

So instead I create multiple web sites with all sorts of half-baked or more or less than half-baked thoughts and then go on modifying or adding to them when I get new ideas or others send me criticisms or suggestions.

So they are all essentially constantly changing (some more slowly than others) extensions of my mind (or brain). The state of any of them at any particular time is of no more significance than the state of my brain at that time. Both keep changing and developing.

So this may turn out to be my last ever blog post.

http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs/

A bit more on WIF: World Innovation Foundation

I previously wrote that as a result of raising questions about the status of WIF I provoked its Chief Executive:

Later, the chief executive of WIF responded, angrily claiming that I was no longer a Fellow and making various demands. Since threatening me never achieves anything I invited him to calm down, and did some investigating of my own.

In fairness I should report that he responded very well, apologised fully, and provided some pointers to help me find answers to some of my questions.

I also wrote

I conclude that it is well meaning and that many would endorse the goals on its web site. But I fear that its influence will never match the impressive list of names of its fellows and members (e.g. large numbers of Nobel Prize winners) because most of what it does is done quietly, and done only by a tiny subset. All the rest are happy to announce that they have been chosen to be members or fellows and then forget about it.

I now think that on the basis of the limited investigations I carried out this conclusion was too sweeping, and even if correct at the time could later become, inaccurate -- especially if, as could well happen, the WIF manages to attract funds to support more extensive activities and more of its fellows and members take an active role. Some contributions from people other than the Chief Executive can be found here.

Aaron
6th August 2007

World Innovation Foundation-PS

In my post below on this topic I did not mention, because I did not know, that a post by Zeth Green to our local Linux User Group commenting on my earlier post had come to the attention of David Hill of WIF, who had posted a reply. After submitting my update I found the correspondence. So I thought I should add the relevant links here:

• Comment by Zeth Green
• Reply by David Hill

Aaron

World Innovation Foundation

I wrote on 19th April 2007 in three-short-notes

2. Does anyone know anything about 'The World Innovation Foundation' apart from the information provided on their web site and on the sites of the very many scientists who announce that they have been elected members or fellows of WIF? Their aims seem to be laudable, but I would like independent evidence of what they actually do.

They had invited me to be a member in 2004, and I accepted though I was somewhat mystified partly because I could not get clear evidence that WIF actually did anything, and partly because I could not understand why they had selected me. I then forgot about it. Later I stumbled across a controversy in wikipedia as to whether WIF ever did anything that was reported anywhere off its own web site.

A little research left me puzzled (e.g. about whether Glenn Seaborg really had founded WIF in 1992 as some news articles claimed), so I mentioned the puzzle on my web site asking whether WIF was a "glorious hoax", expecting that eventually someone with real evidence would respond. I then forgot about it.

Later, the chief executive of WIF responded, angrily claiming that I was no longer a Fellow and making various demands. Since threatening me never achieves anything I invited him to calm down, and did some investigating of my own.
I have found that the reports of Glenn Seaborg founding WIF in 1992 were not published by WIF itself but by press offices of organisations whose members had been selected by WIF. Several press notices conflated two facts:

1. WIF was originally founded as The Institute of National Economic Enrichment and Development (INEED) in 1992
2. Glen Seaborg agreed to be the 'founding president' in 1996 and suggested the new name at that time. He died not long after that, which is presumably why the information is not on his web site.

I have also found that some WIF members have indeed done things for WIF, e.g. signing letters to Bush and Blair, or writing articles to go on the WIF Web site.

So the organisation is real and attempts to do things, including influencing governments. But it does not do so publicly, and that makes it very easy for governments to ignore its advice. I have no idea whether it really can achieve its goals, including setting up the multi-billion dollar research centre described on its web site.

I conclude that it is well meaning and that many would endorse the goals on its web site. But I fear that its influence will never match the impressive list of names of its fellows and members (e.g. large numbers of Nobel Prize winners) because most of what it does is done quietly, and done only by a tiny subset. All the rest are happy to announce that they have been chosen to be members or fellows and then forget about it.

Sad in a way.
Aaron

My namesake?

I discovered a reference to "Aaron Sloman microsoft evangelist", and wondered if I had stumbled into an alternative universe.

It turns out that I have a namesake, e.g. reported here
http://khnl.com/global/story.asp?s=6166042&ClientType=Printable

His company's website is so slow to respond that I have not provided a link.

New blog format, thanks to Zeth Green

Zeth saw my complaint about fixed-width blogs, looked at the result of my attempt to alter the default to allow text column width to expand when window width expands, and suggested some alterations to the template.

It turned out to be much simpler to install his changes than I had expected: download the old template, make a copy, insert the four suggested changes, and upload the new template.

The result makes the header and footer much more tidy. Many thanks Zeth.

Aaron
www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs