Supermind Search Consulting Blog 
Solr - Elasticsearch - Big Data

Kelvin Tan really likes learning new stuff, playing Ultimate Frisbee, working with software, and with smart people (not neccesarily in that order).

Right now, when he's not learning to play his spanking new Yamaha S08 keyboard, he's working on http://www.homethinking.com.

He can't really imagine why anyone would want to email him when telepathy works fine most of the time, but here it is just in case of an emergency.

Comments Off on (real short) bio

I got started with http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/materials/tao.html.

Ontopia is a commercial company, but its founders are amongst the authors of the
spec:
http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/learn_more.html
In particular, I found http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/materials/tm-vs-thesauri.html useful in placing
topic map in relation to thesaurus, ontologies, etc. As far as I can tell, altmc falls under the definition of a glossary.

http://www.topicmap.com/topicmap/tools.html has a good list of tools, APIs, etc.

Ontology-driven Topic maps:
http://www.idealliance.org/europe/04/call/xmlpapers/03-03-03.91/.03-03-03.html

XML Topic Map Specification: http://www.topicmaps.org/xtm/1.0/

One problem I found with XTM is the dearth of authoring tools. Its terrible! I
designed my own text format initially, then found  AsTMa=
(http://astma.it.bond.edu.au/authoring.xsp) which turned out so similar to what
I came up with, I abandoned my format and used it instead.

Comments Off on Getting started with topic maps

http://www.eleganthack.com/archives/002165.html#002165

A thesaurus is a very advanced way of controlling vocabulary and in general shows:

1. Equivalence – variants and preferred terms
2. Hierarchical – Broader and Narrower
3. Associative – "see also" references

http://www.techquila.com/tmsinia3.html describes a thesaurus in the context of topic maps.

Comments Off on Thesaurus

Spent over an hour today watching a 1st kyu grading session (a poor one at that), so had plenty of time to contemplate.

Ki flows when we are relaxed. We are born relaxed (babies). As the astral body impacts into the lower complex, we become tense, anxious and fearful easily. The fight/flight syndrome is a reflex action; it is encoded into the very nature of our physical selves. The consequence is that there is a significant predisposition against extending ki, i.e. as "natural" (in the sense that it is in harmony with nature) as extending ki is, it doesn't come naturally to us at all.

Abit of cosmology is appropriate here. We started out pre-personal; one with nature but without a 'me'. We are now at the personal stage where there is a gulf between us and the divine. We need to move towards the trans-personal stage of being one with nature, and yet retaining the sense of self. From a physical perspective, this means that we need to learn how nature works so we canintegrate with it. From an aikido perspective, we need to learn how ki works so we can integrate with it.

I believe the best way of doing this is to follow. And that's what I'm focusing my efforts on now: how to follow completely. Following can be passive (moving when you are moved), but it can very much be active too (moving to be one with the mover). And when I know how ki works (knowing from a know-how, not an intellectual perspective), then I can integrate with it.

The state of ki extension is the most natural and powerful one. In the presence of fear, anxiety, tension, ki is cut-off and we lose our power. Implication: ki extension is the antidote to fear, anxiety, etc. Be aware: are you extending your ki if you're feeling afraid? Instead of an intellectual discourse of why there's no need to be afraid, just extend ki. Try that next time.

Comments Off on The importance of following and extending ki

According to this site, a thesaurus is

a taxonomy that also includes associated and related terms..

where a taxonomy is

a set of controlled vocabulary terms, usually hierarchical.

Well, that aptly describes altmc doesn't it? Except, of course, there isn't any hierarchy in altmc.

Update 31052004: Hierarchy in a thesaurus is in reference to their use of BT (Broader Term) and NT (narrower term).

Update 02062004: The lack of hierarchy in altmc makes it a glossary instead of a thesaurus! Duh, any idiot could have told me that just by looking at it, but I was just hopelessly confused with all the terms in IA. For example, the term 'thesaurus' is used differently from the layman's definition (think: Roget's).

Comments Off on altmc is a thesaurus