|
||||||
|
Greetings! A bit of history on me: Been programming since 1981 - basic, fortran, pascal, c, c++, lisp, java, tcl/tk, perl (sed,awk,sh), python [in roughly that order]; pursued a degree in computer science in the '90s - scooped up by industry before I could finish (30 hours remaining - actually I had bills to pay, so I jumped at an opportunity). I have spent the better part of my life thinking about the art and science of building the best systems I can. I found that my philosophy most closely approximated the current trend in 'xtreme'/agile development - I was talking about these concepts before it became fashionable to do so. Sadly I was speaking to those who couldn't appreciate what I had to say. That's life for you. It is still an uphill battle - so there is more talking to do. :) My development platform of choice now is Zope and python; I develop 90% of my applications as http based systems using these tools (the most intriguing part of that system being the ZODB - Zope object database - incredibly scalable and powerful indexing/searching in comparison to traditional relational databases); the other 10% is the backend automation to support the frontend - I am using Perl about 50% of the time for that - but am pursuing porting all of that over to python when time allows. Most recently I started my own LiveJournal blog geared toward FOSS projects. The current project is one that has been bouncing around my head for 20 years: we have these powerful computer systems where we can crunch numbers and collect massive amounts of information, yet cataloging the data we collect (turning it into information) and allowing systematic and quick searches across multiple media types for individuals in a way that is natural and tailored for each person is still just a dream - unless you have the money to shell out for a purpose built system - which obviates interoperability, of course. Specialized systems have been built (for example Delicious Monster's 'Delicious Library') that approach parts of the problem, but nothing comes close to a general purpose system as I envision. We still have to bend around computer system's peculiarities, rather than the other way around. I was spurred into action by the recent 'Grand Challenges in Computing' set forth by the British Computing Society. In particular I was struck by the content of the 3rd challenge: 'Memories for Life: Managing Information over a Human Lifetime'. While I do not agree fully with the boundaries of the problem established by the conference, it certainly overlaps much of the project that has been on my mind - and covers such diverse areas as AI, interface development (hardware and software), data formats/conversion/future-proofing, security etc. Well, I won't bore you with more of that...one person's passion is another person's snore. I am looking forward to getting to know any zopetistas in the crowd who might like to share their experiences using Zope3 (beta) - or python in general; I am really a python newbie having used it for only about a year now. So I am sure I will have some dumb questions that RTFM will not handle. Cheers! |
||||||
|
|
contemplative.