nl is a python library, that exposes a declarative API that allows us to build sentences and rules. These are used as input for a knowledge base built on the CLIPS production system. CLIPS builds a Rete network with the rules and sentences, which can then be queried for the consecuences of those in a most efficient way.

The main claim of nl is to offer a syntax that can accommodate any coherent theory that we may build with the natural language (in the same sense as something like the semantic web's OWL-Full would), while at the same time being based on a simple finite domain first order theory. This theory is NL, a discussion of which can be found here. This discussion is probably required reading to understand the breadth and the limits of nl, but not to start using it.

Pushing METAR data on Twitter

I'm planning to donate $100 to archive.org as I have a whole new appreciation for how rare an internet-wide full archive service -- one that includes images -- really is.

Cherry Blossom is a blogging system written in Python. It was written specifically because I had a lot of pyblosxom blog entries on my previous blog, but I wanted to use cherrypy instead of plain-ol cgi. It adds features like object publishing, session support, access to lots of cherrypy plugins, access to GET and POST vars as method parameters, and others. This software's been running my blog (http://billmill.org) for over two years now, and has survived a couple redditings and a flood from stumbleupon, all without a hiccup.

analyzes Python source code looking for bugs and signs of poor quality.

The United Kingdom's Met Office recently released temperature data for about 1700 weather stations across the globe from 1701 to 2009.

More than 23 million records have been added to WorldCat.org results this month from a group project called OAIster.

OAIster represents the initiatives that many libraries, museums and archives have taken in recent years to digitize their historic artifacts and make them open to the online world. Including them now in WorldCat increases the visibility of these collections and ensures continued access.

chance to investigate the HTTP/1.1 Vary header. As it turns out, there are interesting implications around setting or not setting this header or setting this header incorrectly. Here is my notes on the rationale behind the Vary header, and design guidelines.