From: thunk <gmkoller@...>
Date: 2010-02-11T02:30:09+09:00
Subject: Re: It's a Bird, it's a plane, no! umm, it's Super Boid?

Do you have an application in mind for this or is it just
for fun?


The idea is definitely "commercial".   My original thinking was to
keep "the  engine" - where the model is built proprietary, and make
pretty much everything else open source.  The engines would be running
and make building new domains almost trivial - people could
concentrate on build sets of Boids rather than Selection/Navigation
database issues and all of that.  We are using couchDB and it opened
the door to saving the Boids as "documents".

The project was conceived for "checking computer components" as they
are added into a "builder box" or shopping basket if you will.   The
assumption is that all the components are part of a computer system.
This came from my hesitation to hit the Buy button with over $2k worth
of items sitting in my basket at compUSA (to build a Hackintosh). The
web is great at serving up blobs of pretty much self-consistent text
but trying to make sense of something like building a Hackintosh is
not so simple because you don't know who to trust and things are
changing pretty fast. (BTW I installed linux on it and never tried OSX
- but the machine has been rock solid :) fast, quiet,  and about 1/2
the price..  they are just PCs)

(Let me explain: I'm a 30 year programmer dude - haven't "worked"
since '76 when I put a H8 together my first app for McGraw-Hill sold
over $7M the first season back in 1984.  I left programming for awhile
because I was genuinely alergic to c++.  Went off to a beautiful but
lonely resort area here in NE Wis (Door County) and studied
Smalltalk.)

Anyway,  the "Boids" are really simple and generic.  Each one
corresponds to something like a "item" in a check list.  The
attributes and everything it needs are designed to be handed to these
things quickly and in already "standardized" form for units and
such.

The Boid goes on to make classical assertions and builds a detailed
record of its experiences.  It usually uses one Helper Library (a
current restriction).  If multiple "helperLibraries are needed it can
use the data from a Boids in a previous pass(es). Like I say I have
been trying to keep the Boids as simple as possible so they can be
authored by non-programmers.

Because the Boids are so simple to write we see potential for many
domains where there is a lot of confusion due to rapid change, or
where there is a large body of technical knowledge (as medical,
medicines).

The powerful thing using the web would be that, for the medical stuff,
Doctors all over the world could submit "candidate" boids that could
get reviewed and promoted to a national system, and like that.

On a much more humble scope there could be offered a service to check
out your product basket at CompUSA for $1 or so - seems like it would
be worth it as a single missing or wrong item can delay things a week
easy, or can even turn that new gamer dream machine into a big
expensive nightmare.

So, we see all kinds of potential.   I am working on a on-line demo
system and that is just going slow because I'm struggling daily with
web stuff like I cannot believe.  I'm getting some great help when I
need it, however.  Some sort of on-line demo should be available
before too long.

(I am starting to write to some universities with programs for AI
technology transfer hoping to find some interest.)

Cheers,

Thunk