Ivan's Blog

The 2.2.2 version of RDFLib has been released, and this includes my old sparql-p as part of the distribution. Thanks again to Michel Pelletier.

There have been some small changes due to the merge. Whereas, in the separate sparql-p distribution, the main structure of the code was something like:

from rdflibUtils import myTripleStore
store = myTripleStore()
store.load("someRDFFile.rdf")
select = ("?a","?b","?c")
where  = GraphPattern([("?a",P,"?x"),(Q,"?b","?a"),("?x",R,"?c")])
result = myTripleStore.query(select,where)

the new version looks as follows:

from rdflib.sparql import sparqlGraph
sparqlGr = sparqlGraph.SPARQLGraph()
sparqlGr.parse("someRDFFile.rdf") # or sparqlGr.load, these are synonyms
select = ("?a","?b","?c")
where  = GraphPattern([("?a",P,"?x"),(Q,"?b","?a"),("?x",R,"?c")])
result = sparqlGr.query(select,where)

Not a big deal, but better be careful. I am sure that some other problems will pop up as we go, but this is a great start.

Work has also begun to include a SPARQL parser into the system, leading, eventually, to a full SPARQL implementation in RDFLib. That would be great…

Category: /WorkRelated/SemanticWeb/RDFLib; Posted at: 16:33 UTC; Permalink

It was a really good coincidence that I read the book of S. Huntigton, entitled The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, while being in Kyoto. Clearly a very controversial book, but certainly food for lots of thoughts (the Wikipedia entry gives a good overview of the book as well as the discussions around it, I do not want to repeat it here). Being in Kyoto at the time of reading it, i.e., being confronted to a very different civilization than what I am used to, made it even more interesting. And, of course, it is also related to my work: after all, the Web is a universal medium, and it would be very interesting to see whether the usage, the “ethos” of the Web transcends civilizations or not, does it act as a “unifying” force or, on the contrary, different civilizations look at the Web in very different ways. Of course, as long as the Web was used only by a very thin layer of the population in non-Western countries, these were not really issues; but things change. I am not sure whether there is any sociological work on this subject; would be interesting to do it.

Nevertheless, I also see the dangers of Huntington’s book; for example, it can certainly be exploited by racist theories and politicians like Jean-Marie le Pen or Filip Dewinter (and I am sure it happened already). Nevertheless, some of the statements of the book are worth remembering, like: “The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do.” It would be wise if some members of the current US administration read the book…

Category: /Private/General; Posted at: 10:31 UTC; Permalink

A beautiful trip to the city of Kyoto, in Japan. Fascinating. Although the modern city itself is mostly ugly (at least in my view), the temples and shrines (which are all over the place) are amazing. We spent there 10 days and there were some new and wonderful thing to see every day. The art of combining architecture with nature (i.e., gardens) is simply amazing. Although I am not a religious person, I really had an almost spiritual experience in some of the Zen Buddhist temples. My only disappointment was with the National Museum in Kyoto. Although their Web site refers to a large number of things to see (e.g., in Far Eastern paintings), most of those were not on display. Pity… But I was compensated by the rest!

Of course, I made tons of photos; I have put a selection on this site. Enjoy…

Category: /Private/General; Posted at: 10:11 UTC; Permalink

The pictures on the TV are absolutely awful and terrible. But they also fill me (and people around me) with anger: one would have never expected to see such pictures coming from the US, even though the force of Katrina was bigger than what anyone has seen before in that region. It is incredible how that condescendent, arrogant, “who-if-not-me” crowd currently in power in Washington could be so powerless and blindfolded as they were in that case. I just cannot believe that, with more caring, better foresight, those thousands in New Orleans could not have been helped earlier and more effectively. Dicit the commentator on this morning’s BBC News (commenting on the long military convoy finally arriving to New Orleans): “a superpower who finally begins to act as one”…

In a number of countries Bush would have to resign after this. I do not believe we will be as lucky, though…

Category: /Private/General; Posted at: 09:20 UTC; Permalink

The horrible images of New Orleans and Mississipi; the report(s) on World Climate changes like, for example, the one issued by WWF and… a small discussion I saw on Fox TV a few weeks ago on the usage of SUV-s in the US, and that people should just use those. I wonder whether reasonable forces in the US will draw the conclusion of these terrible events, and that the pollution issues would be taken seriously, at last, on the US government level!

Category: /Private/General; Posted at: 16:21 UTC; Permalink