Tuesday, February 11, 2003

New architecture for KnowledgeBooks.com information portal Over the last 4 or 5 years, I have been prototyping information portal technologies with an eye towards developing novel and useful commercial portal products. I have usually used the most convenient programming languages for this research: Common Lisp, Python, Java, Smalltalk, and Prolog. However, now I basically understand how to "do it", so I am working on a new architecture that would be easier for companies, charities, NGOs, and individuals to host on their own servers. In a nut-shell: all data is stored in relational databases (I use PostgreSQL myself, but I am keeping the SQL portable by not using PostgreSQL specific features) and all code is in Java. The Java code itself is divided into two modules: in terms of Model-View-Controller notation, one module is the Model (database access and portal logic) and the other implements the View-Controller (as Java servlets and JSPs). I really like VisualWorks Smalltalk, and it would be easier to write everything in VisualWorks, but I think that I will have a more commercially viable product if I implement in Java, JDBC, and SQL. 4:31:02 PM

About 200,000 Iraqi civilians died as a result of the first Gulf War As I mentioned the other day in my blog: it seems like almost all of my friends, family, and associates prefer waiting for the UN to do the inspections before the war. The synopsis of opinion is "Iraq is no immediate threat to the U.S. - what is wrong with waiting 6 months or so". I would really like to see more public opinion polls on general support for unilateral (or with just England's support) war with Iraq. Here is an interesting news article on civilian casualties during the first Gulf War. check it out 4:21:47 PM

© Copyright 2003 Mark Watson. Last update: 9/16/03; 7:34:50 AM.