Author: grant

A Bit about CLIPS

JESS is a superset of CLIPS. On Linux it is a little less obvious how to get the install because CLIPS seems to come with a powerful IDE, but not on Linux. Oh well, on Ubuntu you can install it with:

sudo apt-get install clips clips-common clips-doc

Installing it provides

  • the interpreter
  • a nice man page
  • a help file accessible within the interpreter via ‘(help)
  • /usr/share/doc/clips-common/CLIPS-FAQ a compressed FAQ file readable with zcat or zless or zless to read it.
  • /usr/share/doc/clips-common/html/ Local copy of the main website with links out to stuff like documentation
  • /usr/share/doc/clips-common/examples/ “A number of examples of CLIPS program are available so you can test the interpreter and learn how it works. You can, for example, load one of them with (load “/usr/share/doc/clips-common/examples/wordgame.clp”) and run it using (reset) and (run).”

CLIPS seems like a great place to start with learning at least parts of JESS. I’m guessing that there is a lot of good material between the docs and examples.

Jess Sample Java Setup Project: Minimal Setup

This project will start out with a typical Java development setup:

Continue reading “Jess Sample Java Setup Project: Minimal Setup”

Jess Sample Java Setup Project: Mission Statement

For a couple of months I have thought about how fun it would be to set up a real simple Java+Jess project to help myself out with the basics of dependency management and logistics of interaction between Java and Jess. Recently it made sense to start using GitHub. With the hope that lowering the barriers to anyone interested in using Jess, I decided to throw the project out here. More so, because I will be working on it piecemeal, I decided to log progress in this diary and also on the blog I’m hoping it will serve as a resource for anyone interested in the project. My particular interest in Jess is for where a rules engine might fit in a 3 month to 2 year long Java project with a team of 3-12.
Here are some of my goals:

  • Provide a preconfigured project setup using Maven
  • Demonstrate some sample projects
  • Learn and cover interesting aspects of how Java and Jess work together
  • Learn or create nice ways of testing the system

Here are some of the options for sample projects to drive it:

  • Porting CLIPS samples
  • Logic puzzles
  • Video games
  • HVAC system
  • Form data validation
  • Data conversion

Here are some of ways to test it:

  • TestNG
  • Fitnesse

My preparation so far has been to read virtually everything available on Jess ( http://herzberg.ca.sandia.gov/), twice, and additionally read whatever I can find about CLIPS (http://clipsrules.sourceforge.net/), rules engines, and expert systems in books and on the Internet.
Getting started with Git meant reading the official docs (http://git-scm.com/documentation) and man pages, and GitHub itself has excellent documentation (https://help.github.com/). One helpful page was for the basic Markdown syntax which I had never learned officially (http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/basics) (except for using it in various wikis).
Admittedly, the Jess wiki cites a project like the above to be outside the sweet-spot of Jess. My worldview right now, though, is that the rules engine way-of-thinking has a lot to offer beyond mega-million enterprise-style projects, and that anyone who masters it will have a very valuable and powerful tool in his kit when he is done!

Configuring VNC on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Desktop Over SSH Before Logging In Locally

My goal was to log in to the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Desktop desktop, over a SSH tunnel, using VNC, before anyone was logged into the desktop itself. This scenario occurs because although you may share your desktop over the built in “Desktop Sharing”, you may need to restart the system, and after rebooting you are left with a login screen desktop, but without a logged-in desktop to share.
The directions I followed are from this great post.

sudo /usr/bin/x11vnc -xkb -noxrecord -noxfixes -noxdamage -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -display :0 -passwd "yourpwhere" -forever -bg -o /var/log/x11vnc.log

Option notes: -xkb, help with keyboard modifiers. -noxrecord, don’t let the xserver do grabs, assume this helps with speed. -noxfixes, disable xfixes cursor shape mode, assume this helps with speed. -noxdamage, disable xdamage polling hints, this does help with speed, has to do with Ubuntu’s compiz. -auth, lightdm is the unity login manager. -display, the primary. -passwd not secure, tunnel over ssh also. -forever don’t quit after the first client disconnects. -bg go into background mode. -o redirect output here.

Bring a trailer

Barn finds, rally cars, and needles in the haystack…
We put together Bringatrailer.com because finding great vintage cars online has become too much of a hassle. There is no need to keep sifting through hundreds of hopeless projects or overpriced dealer inventories to find that one car you’ve been looking for. We pick the winners and save you the trouble… the best bargains, the best dream cars, and the best rarities.
We especially favor regularly driven real-world classics, and cars with well chosen period-correct modifications. We’ll usually skip the blue chip restorations and trailer queens unless they offer something amazing in aesthetic or rarity. Deep pockets can buy a big-dollar restoration but they can’t buy good taste or driving passion.

— via MilVinMoto via bringatrailer.com

Engine Assembly Lube

When reassembling any of the internal parts of an engine I’d use
something like this
http://www.permatex.com/products/product-categories/lubricants/specialty-lubricants/permatex–ultra-slick–engine-assembly-lube-detail

rather than motor oil.
I’ve used motor oils in the past and never had any issues that I could
attribute to it. But consider what might happen while you’re
reassembling. You’ve got everything put back together and then your
kid gets sick, things get busy at your job, Aunt Judy dies, the dog
has puppies, and the neighborhood gets over run by Zulus.
By the time you’ve got things sorted out a month has gone by. And all
that oil you carefully applied to your parts has had time to slowly
drip it’s way down into the crank case.
Assembly lube stays put.

— Bob Burns via MilVinMoto