Eno + iPhone = Bloom

November 5, 2008

I’ve just learned about Bloom, which is a piece of generative music software for the iPhone created by Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers.

I’ve only spent a few minutes with it so far, but am very pleased with it. I think Adam Gates has a great description for it:

“Basically its a new Eno ambient album every time you turn it on except Eno hasn’t heard it, and never will. But it’s still Eno. The philosophical implications are of course staggering!”

(Aside: I wonder if there is an Oblique Strategies plugin for WordPress?)

No Comments » | music | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Karl W. Reinsch

SOA Growth Projections Shrink

November 4, 2008

I won’t generally use this blog to point to articles, however a friend pointed this out to me today – and it has implications for rules deployments and a bunch of my friends who consult in the space. According to Infoworld, Gartner finds that SOA adoption appears to be slowing.

The key quote from InfoWorld is probably this:

“The two major reasons organizations choose for not pursuing SOA are lack of skills and expertise and no viable business case. There is confusion about constructing a business case for SOA, Gartner said.”

I’m sure the economy is a factor in this as well, but I’ll be watching carefully for the next set of projections.

The business case confusion is another aspect that I’ll probably be touching upon in my notes from ORF Day 3.

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Posted by Karl W. Reinsch

October Rules Fest: Day 1

November 4, 2008

Some comments on the first day of the October Rules Fest:

Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by Karl W. Reinsch

October Rules Fest: Moving Forward

November 3, 2008

October Rules Fest sign

On October 22-24, I attended the (first?) October Rules Fest. I think something like this is long overdue. In fact, it is so overdue that I’m working to overcome my instinctive cynicism that the event will be unable to continue.

The community owes the organizers a round of thanks. Thank you: James, Rolando and Greg. It’s also my understanding that Mark Proctor helped get the ball rolling. Thanks, Mark.

Here are some of the reasons why I think the conference was/is valuable:
Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by Karl W. Reinsch

Monkey and Bananas 2: The Revenge

October 31, 2008

If you’ve read Charles Forgy’s dissertation or the Brownston/Farrell/Kant/Martin OPS5 book or any of a number of resources, you eventually come across the Monkey and Bananas ruleset.

Some time ago, I stumbled across a humorous AI exam which contains a “complicated” form of Monkey and Bananas:

The monkey and bananas problem has been complicated by the following additional factors :
(i) The bananas will not be ripe for two weeks.
(ii) The monkey is blind.
(iii) The bananas are locked in a safe.
(iv) There are no suitable boxes present.
(v) The monkey is afraid of heights.
(vi) The floor of the room has been electrified.
(vii) The monkey doesn’t like bananas anyway.

No Comments » | humor, rules | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Karl W. Reinsch

Oracle + Haley

October 30, 2008

Before I could even finish setting this blog up I spotted the news that Oracle has purchased Haley. (Tip of the virtual hat to Peter and Carole-Ann).

This sort of rule industry consolidation has long been predicted by a number of us.

For those keeping score, here are the acquisitions by the platform players:

  • 17 October 2007: SAP + YASU
  • 28 July 2008: IBM + Ilog
  • 29 October 2008: Oracle + Haley

The question of what Oracle would do was certainly on people’s minds at the ORF last week, along with speculation about other potential consolidation.

It is certainly an interesting time to watch the rules space.

3 Comments | rules | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Karl W. Reinsch

assert (monkey); assert (bananas);

October 30, 2008

After a number of years working in the rules space, I am overdue to participate more directly in the online communities. Apologies to KSK, since I turned him down when he asked me to do this years ago. 

My area of focus at work is broader than rules, and this blog will head into that space at some point. However, the initial content will be exclusively rules.

I’ll do what I can to provide regular content.

The standard disclaimer in the About page applies to everything here.

1 Comment | metablog | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Karl W. Reinsch

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