While preparing for next week's lecture, I happened to come across a few Ibatis-related articles. I have been using Ibatis for both work and spare-time projects for more than two years now, and in appreciation, I thought I would post links here to "put the word on the street".

There are introductory articles at both ONJava.com and developer.com. The developer.com article covers the very basics of SQL maps and their usage. The ONJava.com article goes a bit further and explains the Ibatis approach to transaction management, caching, logging and a few more bits and pieces.

At the Sardegna Java User Group, Fabrizio Gianneschi has presented a real world case study of deploying the Ibatis framework. The case study describes how the entire data access layer of a web application was converted from the original JDBC version to an iBATIS-based solution. The case study therefore contains a comparison of persistence-related LOC before and after deploying Ibatis.

Finally, Carl(?) has posted a brief review of persistence layer mechanisms in his weblog. The review is brief, but does contain a few important observations to which I agree.

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I am not sure how I missed this, but I have the feeling that I probably should have attended. At the website of the organisers - Crossroads Copenhagen - slides can be found from the different presentations of the conference.

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Overview of .NET articles available at 4GuysFromRolla.com

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Swiss manufacturer of RFID chip and reader technology, Data Mars S.A., announced on January 28th. their new LaundryChip^TM system: T-BT7720. The T-BT7720 chip has a diameter of just 12 mm. and a height of 2 mm. - about the size of a shirt button. Data Mars supplies the T-BT7720 RFID technology to be used in the fashion and textile industry; waste management; logistics and indentification of pets and livestock. The Data Mars website contains a cost-benefit comparison between barcode and RFID technology, and also a rundown on RFID usage for the life cycle of garments.

At the website of a Danish reseller of T-BT7720 technology - IDzone - specs can be found for the T-BT7720 chip. IDzone also lists a document, which describes how the introduction of RFID technology affects laundry and cleaning work processes.

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I am starting to feel quite happy about my weblog - the basic functionality, including categories, index by month and comments, is implemented and seems to work.There are, however, two pieces of functionality that I would like to incorporate in the weblog: The ability to do a text based search among blog entries and generation of a syndicated web feed from recent entries.

I have been using the weblog for almost a year now and though there are not that many entries, it is becoming increasingly cumbersome to refind old entries. I have used the Apache Lucene search engine ("I Love Lucene") for projects in the past, so I will probably go with that, once I get around to doing something.
BTW, by browsing the Lucene pages, I just discovered that .NET ports of Lucene exist. The Lucene resource page lists NLucene and Lucene.Net to choose from.

In regards to syndication, I am currently looking at Rss and atOM utilitiEs - ROME. I did a small test and in 15 minutes, I had generated a feed from the 10 most recent entries - pretty easy. I need to do a little fine tuning concerning file paths and encoding. The special Danish characters currently does not come out right in the feed.

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An autopoietic system holds constant its organization and defines its boundaries through the continuous production of its components

Winograd & Flores, "Computers and Cognition"

Structural coupling is generated by the demands of autopoiesis.

Observers … generate distinctions in a consensual domain.

Consensual:

1. Of or relating to a reflexive response of one
   body structure following stimulation of another, such as the concurrent
   constriction of one pupil in response to light shined in the other.
2. Of or relating to involuntary movement of a body part accompanying voluntary movement of another.

Source: dictionary.com

An organisation is a network of conversations and relationships, an organisation is also a network of commitments.

So, if we are observers that make distinctions in a consensual domain through speech acts, we can view organizations as networks made up from commitments communicated through speech acts. Could the consensual domain be modeled using the habitat concept? The commitments could be modeled using PBA and BBK's agent-role mechanisms.

Regarding "The Singapore Scenario":
Could these modeling mechanisms be used to model the interaction between the ship's crew, Pilot and Hanger Crew? Also internally between ship's crew and between Pilot and tug boats? Maybe the tugboat and ship could interact directly?

Jeg er ved at læse en bog, der hedder "Understanding Computers & Cognition: A New Foundation for Design" af Winograd og Flores. Inden FUSS-mødet havde jeg i bogen læst om et verdensbillede, der er baseret på Heidegger og en biolog ved navn Maturana. Et dragende aspekt ved dette verdensbillede er, at det passer så smukt med den forståelse, jeg har taget med mig fra mit speciale og arbejdet med Gibson m.fl. I dette verdensbillede indgår autopoiesis som den fundamentale forudsætning for biologiske organismers selvopretholdelse og strukturel kobling som princippet for evolutionær adaption.

Some links:
http://www.acm.org/sigs/sigois/auto/Main.html
Randall Whitaker's Observer Web - Autopoiesis and Enaction
Autopoiesis bibliography
Autopoiesis and Coevolution: http://www.calresco.org/lucas/auto.htm
Resources on autopoiesis: http://www710.univ-lyon1.fr/~jmathon/autopoesis/Resources.html
Observer newsletter archive (FTP):

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I attended a fuss meeting (my first) today. The meeting was concerned with the question of how (if?) to use habitats (and related concepts) in training simulators for operators of sea going vessels. During a break, I discussed pervasive computing with a couple of other attendees. One attendee voiced a concern about pervasive computing being very difficult to grasp, since pervasive computing appeared to be about everything and nothing. Pervasive computing seemed to be the focus of a great many research areas and projects, and yet there dit not appear to many - if any - established core definitions.

I have been considering this question since the meeting and I think I will jot down my thoughts.

I did my master's thesis on the subject of pervasive computing. On the basis of that - and other experiences - I personally have come to the conclusion that pervasive computing is less about new technology breakthroughs, and more about using technology in new ways. I do not mean to belittle the significance of diminishing the size of processor, sensor and actuator components. Matter of fact, it is precisely this tiny-ness that enable us to use these components in new ways, but the capabilities (interpretation of higher order programming languages, networking etc.) of the components are known from other platforms.

The ways in which these components are used have two characteristic aspects:

• Through pervasive computing, technology is reaching out into most - if not all - dimensions of human exsistence. This is sometimes paraphrased as "humans being embedded in a sea of computing".
• Pervasive computing enable technology to "sample" human life with an unprecendented level of detail.

The resulting force is one which drive technology to take one step closer to us - technology pervade our existence (hence the name pervasive). Not only does it span across different aspects of our existence - it also probes into the individual aspect. This drive is probably also what makes it difficult to encompass pervasive computing as a whole: It is used in so many different settings and ways - different applications focus on different aspects - which has led to a wealth of labels being used: pervasive computing, ubiquitous computing, mobile computing, context-aware computing, sentient computing, etc.

In my mind, the drive for technology to close in on us, prompts some very interesting questions regarding the novel ways to use and interact with technology. These new ways propose a challenge to the way we design technology, which is probably why pervasive computing development and research is so concerned with *design* issues. Most significant, however, is perhaps that the onslaught of pervading technology leads us to reflect on the nature of the relationships between humans and technology.

To answer the initial question, I think it is most fruitful to regard pervasive technology as a technology that is characterized by - and exhibit - a set of properties, e.g.:

Intention
History
Dynamic
Personalized
Adaptation
Anticipation
Time & Space

The above list is taken from from "TangO: Concepts and Properties for Modeling the Digitally Pervasive World", May, Kristensen and Nowack, 2002. The list is not exhaustive and similar, but slighly different sets of properties can probably be derived from other sources (e.g. Satyanarayanan, 2001). What is nice about this list, though, is that it enables us to view and comprehend pervasive computing as a whole, and in general. Furthermore, the set of properties supports an overview of the multifaceted application and research areas of pervasive computing: The different "niches" (re: the labels listed above) can be understood as focusing on different - but not disjoint - subsets of properties.

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