Danny Gagne: Assertion Through Structure

Installing Virtuoso Open Source Edition on Windows isn’t that difficult, I did have a few small issues but here is a log of the install. Might be of use to anyone else wanting to give it a try.

Here’s a link to the install directions I filed: Install Directions

Here’s a link to the binary file: http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=virtuoso&filename=virtuoso-opensource-win32-5.0.5.zip&use_mirror=dfn

Notes:

I felt the directions on this page were a little short, so I figured I’d make some notes

ODBC Driver Registration

I. Create Enviornment Variable
1. Righ click on My Computer > Properties
2. Select the Advanced Tab
3. Click the Environment Variables Button
4. Under the System Variables section, click NEW
5. Name the variable: VIRTUOSO_HOME
6. Set the path to the directory: \virtuoso-opensource (what should of been the results of unzipping the windows build).
7. To Test: open a command line and type: cd %VIRTUOSO_HOME%

Setup DSN

I had to skip this section since it couldn’t connect — nothing was running. When I later tried to connect after starting the demo service using the instrucitons in the section called: “Creating a Windows Service for the Demo Database” I got a bad username/password.
after getting the demo service running, i went back and used localhost:1112 and dba:dba and it worked.

Creating a Windows Service for the Demo Database

1. I manually modified the path (found in step 2) using the instructions above to create an envrionment variable. This time, instead of creating a new one I merely appended the two paths required to tthe existing Path variable. I then restarted my system.

Paste this at the end of the path: ;%VIRTUOSO_HOME%\bin;%VIRTUOSO_HOME%\lib

After this step I got the demo service running

——

All of the uri’s provided in the document do not work, 404 error except
http://localhost:8890/sparql

After pinging the mailing list I got a quick response from Hugh Williams, he told me to add a few lines to the config file.

I had to edit the demo.ini
1. Changed the DirsAllowed from:
DirsAllowed = .\tmp\, .\backup\, ..\vad\, virtprof.out, ..\bin\OpenLink.Data.Virtuoso.dll, .\classlib\
to:
DirsAllowed = ..\..\..\..\share\virtuoso\vad, .\tmp\, .\backup\, ..\vad\, virtprof.out, ..\bin\OpenLink.Data.Virtuoso.dll, .\classlib\

added this to the beginning: ..\..\..\..\share\virtuoso\vad,

2. Then added this line:
VADInstallDir = ..\..\..\..\share\virtuoso\vad

3. Stopped & Started it

4. This url now worked: http://localhost:8890/conductor/

Some usful commands:

List Running Services
virtuoso-t +service list

Create Service Instance
virtuoso-t +service screate +instance “Demo” +configfile demo.ini

Stop Instance
virtuoso-t +instance “Demo” +service stop

Start Instance
virtuoso-t +instance “Demo” +service start

Excellent interview with Milton Friedman. I’ve read a few of his books and seen quite a few his videos, this is a great one.

So HC08 was an amazing success. Here are some pictures
Hunt Camp 08 Pictures, video will soon be available.

FIGHT THE BLUE LIGHT

So I’ve launched another blog to keep track of a trip we’re planning to take sometime in the summer. It’s going to be a crazy long road trip. Anway, here is the link: C2SEA : The Alaska Road Disaster

I love this.

I decided to install ubuntu on my laptop — it doesn’t have a cd or floppy drive so I decided to try instlux. When I ran the installer it caused my machine to reboot and then popped up with an uninstaller… I tried reinstalling a few times with no luck. I then did a little research and figured out the problem was with the boot.ini file.

Fix: I had to change my boot.ini to include this is as the last :C:\grldr=”Ubuntu 6.06 installer”

After that the install worked perfectly accept at the very end the screen went black and just had 2 gray boxes on it. After waiting 5 minutes, I hit the enter key — the system restarted and worked like a charm

I’ve been a fan of Ron Paul for a long time. I first found out about him when I was searching for a tfile called Not Yours To Give by David Crocket, and I found it on his website. Fast forward a year or so and he’s running for president. So far he proved that he is the only honest candidate out there, and he advocates responsible policies. I don’t agree with him 100%, but he’s a small government, low taxes, freedom loving kind of guy. If you’re interested in finding more about Dr. Paul you can see him at: Ron Paul YouTube and his myspace:
Ron Paul MySpace

So I’ve been a fan of prototype based programming since I first came across SELF a few years ago. I was talking to duncan over the weekend about various OO/PL type things and we realized that neither of us had seen factorial, the standard functional programming demo, implemented in a prototype langauge. This being the case, I set out to rectify it.

Here is an implementation in Javascript (tested in firefox)

	Number.prototype.factorial = function ()
	{
		if (this == 1)
			return 1;
	
		return this * (new Number (this -1)).factorial ();
	};
	
	//Test
	myNum = new Number (10);
	alert (\"Factorial of \" +myNum +\": \" +myNum.factorial ());

So you can see it’s not that bad, but its not as good as it could be.

Now the following code DOESN’T WORK. This is how I wish I could program it.

   	NaturalNumber.prototype.factorial = function () {return this * (this -1).factorial()};
	
	0.factorial = function () { return 1; }

Now this code leverages the power of a prototype based language. This code doesn’t work since JavaScripts doens’t treat literal #’s (1, 42, 1337, etc) as instances of the Number object, and doesn’t define a collection of natural #’s.

It defines a factorial function for every Natural # (integers >= 0). We have one special case 0, 0! = 1.

So, I was recently accepted into the Masters program @ the MIT Engineering Systems Division. It seems like a really cool program and I’ll be starting classes in the fall, my thesis ASAP

So I paddled a cayuco across the continent last weekend via the panama canal. I participated in Panama’s annual Ocean-To-Ocean Cayuco Race. It was awesome. Pictures & Some video to come soon.

Our team consisted of (in boat order): Chris Lambert, Andrew Gagne, Danny Gagne, Dave Glinka

The other team we went with: Nick, Veronica, Ralph, James

We r0kked!