SoC Project: A Proposal for LISA

Here follows my abstract and proposal. It is unchanged, except for the removal of email addresses and the addition of small dashes to improve formatting.

Abstract:

LISA (Lisp-based Intelligent Software Agents) currently uses an implementation of the Rete algorithm (a many-to-many matching system) as its inference engine.  The Rete algorithm has excellent performance for certain applications, such as deductive databases and production systems.  However, in many situations its many-to-many matching is overkill.

Implementing backward chaining in LISA will provide a system of one-to-many matching, allowing LISA to be efficiently used for logic programming.

LISA Homepage:
- http://lisa.sourceforge.net/

Google Summer of Code – I’m in!

Well, after working on a couple of proposals, my proposal for extending LISA, a Lisp library, was accepted.  My primary mentor will be Heow Eide-Goodman from LispNYC, and I’m still not sure who my secondary mentor is (maybe David Young, the maintainer of LISA?).

I’ll very probably be using this blog to track progress.

Pärt’s alive?

I never knew that Arvo Pärt was a modern composer.  His music always made me think of Gorecki, and other such composers… Actually, I just found out that Henryk Gorecki is modern too!

In my defense, I should point out that Pärt composed in two styles.  If you were to hear my mom’s CD you would have a better understanding of my confusion.

Hmm… Ikos really misled me…

My mother has a CD called Ikos.  It has music by John Tavener (the modern), Pärt and Gorecki, interleaved with Plainchant.  It’s an excellent recording, but I never took the time to look at more than the cover.  Now I want to listen to it again, just to see what I missed, or what musical cues I should have picked up on to indicate that I was mistaken in the period.

I should also point out that I first heard this CD before I had any education in music theory.  Of course, even if it were a recent acquisition, it’s possible that I may have been confused.  If you listen to any music by Carlo Gesualdo, you might understand what I mean.  Try listening to a part of O vos omnes (it’s the 2nd track on the 2nd CD).  Incidentally, that CD (The Best of the Renaissance by the Tallis Scholars) is also excellent.

update: As a result of thinking about this, I bought Ikos.  Maybe I should think less?  Nah…

A recommendation when compiling kernels:

If you compile your own kernel, be sensible and follow the suggestions in the help.  Especially in the general setup.  If you don’t you may be bitten by surprising bugs.

The other day I recompiled my kernel and then had some issue with my audio.  Firefox would play sound, but VLC wouldn’t work, and Amarok would report an error like “xine could not initialize audio drivers”, or some such thing.

Apparently I forgot to compile in the System V IPC, which is necessary for xine.  I have come to a decision to follow the recommendations found on the “General setup” page, unless I really know why not to.  Or I forget.  Again.

A Math Department Banquet (with Ronald Graham)

The other day I attended a private banquet in the Skyroom for grad students, professors, a select few undergrads from the Math Department (and their spouses), and a visiting Professor from UC San Diego, Ronald Graham.  He is rather famous; not only is he a fantastic mathematician, he co-authored “Concrete Mathematics” with Donald Knuth and Oren Patashnik, and is also a fabulous juggler.

The events that led to my inclusion in the event are somewhat peculiar.  More than peculiar, they may be inexplicable.  As those who know me well may know, I am not heavily associated with the Math Department; to date I have taken 1 course in mathematics at BYU; calculus.

A friend of mine (David Wilcox), received an invitation in the mail.