At least, as long as those documents are accessible via HTTP.

RDF and URIs

As the RDF specification is currently laid out, everything, from the item being described to the tags and types describing it, is a URI. This approach simultaneously streamlines the disambiguation of item properties and complicates the enumeration of metadata elements. This isn't too much of a price to pay. It's only a slight step beyond the complexity simple XML namespacing, and its benefits justify its conceptual overhead.

Where URIs don't cut it, however, is when resources don't reside on the World Wide Web, but in a private data store. There are many situations, from the expression of metadata regarding a resource intended for future web publication to the formalization of relationships between elements in the data of a local application, where RDF's well-designed standard structure would be a welcome improvement over the variety of proprietary, vendor-specific mechanisms currently in use today. Unfortunately, there is no way to harness this power without going beyond the standards, and thus the standardized format loses most of its benefits.

URIs, URLs, and URNs

As clarified by the W3C, there are many types of URIs, or Uniform Resource Identifiers. There are the http:, ftp:, and mailto: URI schemes that virtually every user has, at some point, encountered. Since these schemes identify items by the information needed to retrieve them from their location (in this case, on the Internet), rather than some other attribute, one may also properly refer to addresses conforming to them as URLs, or Uniform Resource Locations. However, there also exist non-URL URIs. Many of these are URNs, or Uniform Resource Names. The IETF has designed the urn: URI scheme specifically to handle identifiers that represent specific resources, but do not specify their means of access. The URN specification provides for namespaces, making URNs useful in many different applications without risk of namespace collisions, and ensuring that a given URN references one and only one item. Examples of valid URNs include urn:isbn:067972110X and urn:oasis:PartyId:Type:ISO9735:8.

Unfortunately, getting a URN namespace is difficult. Each new namespace requires a separate RFC. Considering these documents are typically many pages long, and must describe both the purpose of a namespace and all its possible uses, it is simply too much work for many organizations to get a formal namespace. A quick glance at the IANA's official list of URN namespaces shows that, as of this date, there are only 27, many of which belong to Internet governing bodies. There are also informal namespaces, which benefit from a streamlined application process. Because of IETF restrictions, however, they lose many of the benefits of a namespace in the first place. All informal namespaces are simply "urn-" followed by a sequential number. They're not easily remembered, not easily understood, and not frequently used. In fact, despite the simpler application process, there are only six of them.

URIs and Local Files

When distributing a website on disk, the traditional approach has been to use relative path names for everything. By using relative path names, the site author can ensure that everything will still reference what it's intended to reference, even if the disk is renamed, or the files are copied.

Unfortunately, this approach does not translate into RDF. RDF requires a URI, and a URI is, by nature, absolute. While some RDF parsers will automatically assume any URI missing a scheme references a relative path, the RDF specification does not require this behavior. The only valid way to refer to a file is using a file: URI, which changes if a file is moved, or copied from one filesystem to another.

One could even make a case that addresses conforming to the file: URI scheme are not, in fact, URLs, since they reference locations in the filesystem, but, whereas a web browser sends a request containing the information in the URL scheme and receives a web page back, to access a file: URI, the accessing agent (or the operating system upon which it is running) must first look up the appropriate inode, then read from this inode. Thus, a true URL would refer to the inode, and not the file path. Such an approach would provide a URI that would not change even if the file was moved; it is the basis for aliases on the Mac OS (and the chief difference between Mac aliases and POSIX symlinks). However, any implementation of this URI scheme would rely on the implicit (and probably false) assumption that all filesystems use an ID number of some kind to reference files, and would still fail to solve the problem of files copied from filesystem to filesystem.

Impact

As a result of these limitations, very few organizations have picked RDF as a component of their local data interchange formats. Among the few that have, implementations violate one or more RFCs, since, in order to compensate for the lack of a URI to describe a given resource, developers must choose their own, unregistered and thus invalid, URI scheme.

I present as an example the Mozilla Foundation. Mozilla is, in most ways, very respectful of standards. It is the single best browser in terms of supporting all of the various W3C and IETF recommendations out there today. As part of the Foundation's mission of standards compliancy, they chose to use RDF as the format for Mozilla's data files. Unfortunately, in order to use RDF, it was necessary to completely ignore the IETF's namespacing rules. Browsing through the Mozilla RDF data files, I see that the Mozilla developers have seen it fit to design a host of new URN namespaces, including urn:search, urn:mimetype, and urn:mozilla. One of my Mozilla extensions has even created its own URN, in order to use Mozilla's RDF data source apparatus. The Mozilla Foundation's flouting of URN namespace registration procedures seems to indicate that these procedures are simply too complex.

Future Outlook

The W3C's position on this problem seems unclear. While the W3C understands the power of RDF, its current position, as stated in the RDF primer, suggests that it sees RDF as a tool to describe web-accessible resources and nothing else. Since the IETF/IANA does not appear to be devising any additional URI schemes, it seems those trying to extend the scope of RDF beyond the semantic web are out of luck.

While the assumption that the RDF parser will use the local document path as the in-scope base URI solves many of the problems regarding relative path names, the RDF specification does not mandate this behavior. Until the IANA relaxes its URN namespace registration procedures, it will remain impossible to access internal application resources by a valid URI in RDF. All in all, the future of RDF outside of the sematic web doesn't look so bright.

It also includes MythMusic, an interface for playing MP3 and AAC files. Unfortunately, MythMusic does not include a DAAP client, and thus cannot play iTunes music directly. It is, however, possible to share music between iTunes and MythTV, playlists and all.

The easiest way to share music between iTunes and MythMusic is to copy the iTunes folder from the client computer (in ~/Music/) to the MythTV server, then put an alias back to the folder on the server in its place. (The folder will have to be shared with Netatalk, Samba, NFS, or WebDAV so that OS X can access it.) This way, you can still synchronize your iPod with the library, but all the music resides on the MythTV box.

MythTV cannot natively read the iTunes Music Library XML format, however, and thus it is necessary to find a workaround to use iTunes playlists. This perl script will clear all playlists in the MythMusic database, then populate it with playlists found in the iTunes Music Library XML file. (iTunes automatically saves this in its folder.) Simply modify the variables at the top of the script and it ought to work. It takes about 10 seconds to handle 7000 or so songs on my 1.4 GHz Pentium M.

This script does not preserve playlists created in MythMusic, but really, the interface is so cumbersome that no one in their right mind would want to create a playlist in MythMusic anyway.

Update: A reader has posted an update to this script here that works with MythTV 0.20. There is also a newer PHP script that performs a similar function.

I also told her I'd link to her mom's website, but as far as I can tell she doesn't have one. So here are a few informative pages about Rivka's mom, Rosalind Newman:

• Rivka's mom in the Internet Broadway Movie Database
• Rivka's mom on some German website
• Rivka's mom in the Village Voice
• A scathing review of one of Rivka's mom's dances in the New York Times

As a final note, Googling for past exams for any AP topic is pretty easy. For Physics C, the preferred search string is something like '2001 "ap physics c: mechanics" filetype:pdf'. Replace 'mechanics' with 'electricity and magentism' if you want E&M exams, and replace the year with whatever you want. The College Board is evil and likes to prevent students from getting access to AP materials, so they take down sites offering past exams frequently. If the sites above aren't working, try searching on your own.

Just be aware that you'll never find any released multiple choice newer than 1988 anywhere online. Those are the sites the College Board kills most quickly. God forbid students should actually have access to the materials to prepare for the tests they're going to take.

If anyone who ends up arriving here has more suggestions, please comment.

I figured these minor problems weren't big enough to justify the purchase and installation of a new keyboard, so I set to work circumventing them.

First attempts

My first thought was to modify the keyboard layout. There are a number of tools that make this very easy, among them Ukelele. I set F9-F12 to set as arrows on the U.S. Extended layout, then put the layout in /Library/Keyboard Layouts and restarted. No luck.

While Finder and iTunes respected the new settings, nearly every other application completely ignored them. Without being able to use my keys for text editing, I was going to be out of luck.

Solution

My next thought was, why not edit the keyboard driver? In my search for information, I found this tip. All PowerBooks and iBooks still use ADB rather than USB, so I pulled out Ukelele, selected "Show Key Code" from the keyboard menu, found the key codes for F9-F12 and the key codes for the arrow keys, and converted them to hexadecimal. (There are a number of sites that do this. I used this one but a quick Google search shows many more.)

My ADBVirtualKeys section now looks like this (sans line breaks, of course):
<key>ADBVirtualKeys</key>
<string>0x00,0x01,0x02,0x03,0x04,0x05,0x06,0x07,0x08,0x09,0x0A,
0x0B,0x0C,0x0D,0x0E,0x0F,0x10,0x11,0x12,0x13,0x14,0x15,0x16,0x17,0x18,
0x19,0x1A,0x1B,0x1C,0x1D,0x1E,0x1F,0x20,0x21,0x22,0x23,0x24,0x25,0x26,
0x27,0x28,0x29,0x2A,0x2B,0x2C,0x2D,0x2E,0x2F,0x30,0x31,0x32,0x33,0x34,
0x35,0x3B,0x37,0x38,0x39,0x3A,0x7B,0x7C,0x7D,0x7E,0x3F,0x40,0x41,0x42,
0x43,0x44,0x45,0x46,0x47,0x48,0x49,0x4A,0x4B,0x4C,0x4D,0x4E,0x4F,0x50,
0x51,0x52,0x53,0x54,0x55,0x56,0x57,0x58,0x59,0x5A,0x5B,0x5C,0x5D,0x5E,
0x5F,0x60,0x61,0x62,0x63,0x64,0x7B,0x66,0x7D,0x68,0x69,0x6A,0x6B,0x6C,
0x7C,0x6E,0x7E,0x70,0x71,0x72,0x73,0x74,0x75,0x76,0x77,0x78,0x79,0x7A,
0x3C,0x3D,0x3E,0x36,0x7F</string>

After a false start (you must delete the cache as detailed at the bottom of the tip page) I got it all working, except for the fn+arrow = page up/down trick. Apparently, despite all appearances, that's not what fnVirtualKeys is for. If anyone can explain fnVirtualKeys to me, feel free to shoot me an email.

Alternate Solution

If it's just your arrows that are broken, OS X provides text editing shortcuts that mimic their function. These shortcuts are:

ctrl+B - left arrow (backward)
ctrl+F - right arrow (forward)
ctrl+P - up arrow (previous line)
ctrl+N - down arrow (next line)

In addition, simple keys mimic the action of page up/down in uneditable text boxes, Safari, and Mail:

space - page down
shift+space - page up

I hope this helps anyone in the same in which predicament I found myself.

Regarding the afternoon, Geneva says I have to say that "for triple chem today i sat next to Geneva, she really rocks my socks." That's not really true. She spent most of triple chem sticking my pencil in her mouth and picking her nose.

Picking one's nose must be a Tavakoli tradition. I remember that in 9th grade I was recording a video, and Sh*ud started picking his nose. It was very frightening. I wanted to run and hide, but I couldn't. Instead, I just had to sit there, recording Sh*ud Tavakoli picking his nose. It was extremely traumatic. I still haven't recovered.

(Yes, apparently I have to censor Sh*ud's name because otherwise it comes up as the number 1 hit on Google. Apparently Google likes my blog a lot.)

This afternoon I was planning on sleeping but community obligations pre-empted my sleep. As a result, I haven't gotten to bed before 12:30 this week.

Tomorrow is Friday, just in case you didn't know.

Chad put a carrot in Isabel's fruit salad and now Isabel thinks he has no skills.

Now, we'll skip ahead a few hours because first period was AP English and all we did was take a sample multiple choice, and Spanish class wasn't too interesting. In Precalc BC, we discussed various mathematical concepts, from Gottlob Frege to Gödel's Theorem. I love Gödel's Theorem.

At lunch, I talked to Asad about his apparent foursome. Turns out, Asad wasn't in on the action, which is too bad.

In French class, we watched Amélie again. It was fun. I'm really sleep deprived right now, and I can tell because my senses are beginning to act up. I'm going to skip to after school.

After school, Isabel's mom kidnapped me and brought me back to her house to fix her computer. Isabel also kidnapped Helana. When I got back to Isabel's house, I pulled the tape off my mouth and cut the rope around my wrists and managed to escape and (mostly) fix her computer. We also walked to the beach, but not really, because we never went there. Then Emmett rushed me off in a giant metal woody and I got home, although Emmett was weird and tried to take 57 to get home rather than Middle Ridge. Emmett, Middle Ridge is so much faster. Take Middle Ridge home next time. I left my iPod at Isabel's house. Now I'm sad.

I think I'm going to go into a corner and cry. Goodnight.

So, on with the story.

Today, I arrived at school to find a giant building. I expected that Satan would curse the building and it would retreat into the fiery gates of hell, but sadly, that has not yet happened. *Whimpers*. My first period class was AP Euro, where we got back a bunch of essays and tests. It was so much fun! If I had to choose between receiving a bundle of papers and sex with a supermodel, I'd definitely pick the former.

*Ahem*.

Oh yes, and my brother has blonde hair. Or yellow. Or something. Discuss it.

Next, I went to chemistry class where I was one of only three people to attempt the homework. I feel so special! It's like that one Mr. Rogers song. It's a good thing that man is dead.

Speaking of being dead, I've decided I want to get hit by a car. Not only have some pretty famous people been hit by a car, but it seems like the most anonymous way of dying conceivable. If you die of heart problems, it's because you were fat. If you die of old age, you were a wise old man. If you receive the death penalty, you were a vicious criminal. If you get hit by a car, who knows who you were. There is no stereotypical image of a man who got hit by a car. You don't even know if it was the driver's fault or the man's fault. It's not something you have to worry about. It just happens. The death is as immediate as a death due to natural causes can be (with the exception of maybe a volcanic eruption). There's no anticipation, no agonizing long years in a hospital. It does mean that your life gets cut short, but as long as it happens when I'm over 60 and senile, I don't care.

Oh, and I'm not suicidal and never will be. Sorry.

Anyway, back to chemistry.

Then, we had French class. We watched people having sex in a Amélie. Here's a tip: if you ever feel compelled to make love to someone in a French café bathroom, don't do it. Really. It drives away the customers. And French ghosts will molest you if you're a girl. And working in a porn shop is fun.

So that's pretty much what I learned today.

I could talk about Student Senate, but if you care, ask Dustin and he'll email you the minutes. Basically, we decided that if the president decides he wants to neglect his duties, he can't get them back later.

Afternoon attractions included AP English, where I got a 75% on the sample AP exam. From my mistakes, I learned that if someone talks about a kitten, they're talking about a child, and you're just supposed to guess that. It's kinda ridiculous.

I had two free periods. The first one I spent walking places with Dustin. We tried to invade Dr. Mo's Western class, but we were defeated at the Battle of Lepanto. Damnit. We also asked Mrs. Hatcher to what political party she belonged, only to be told she was a Jeffersonian and hasn't voted in a long time. It's sad. She should vote more often. Dustin also told me the sad story of the abrupt termination of his love affair. I've never heard a sadder story in my life.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you, I'm running for pope. Contact your local priest, who will contact your local bishop, who will contact your local archbishop, who will contact your local cardinal. Or just find out how to contact your local cardinal. I'm too lazy to do it for you.

Oh, and Isabel gave me a monkey. More on that later in the blog entry.

Anyway, back to school. Shortly after that, I had to tutor, but only for a few minutes. There was only one assignment to be worked on, and my student already knew basically what to do. We looked for Mrs. Coleman but she had disappeared, so I was free to go. I went back to the upper school and stuffed my monkey between Isabel's breasts.

Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey.

Then, I had Spanish class, where I decided that I needed a red Jewish star button. I made a red Jewish star buddy icon, complete with hammer and sickle, but I have yet to find a button. Maybe I'll have to make one myself. Everyone left Helana and I alone in the front row and I was sad because I was lonely and Seńor wouldn't sit next to us. Maybe next time.

When I got home, I discovered that my new LCD Soundsystem and Bloc Party albums had arrived. They're both great.

So, that's all for today. Check tomorrow for another ridiculously long, rambling, ADD blog entry.

The first is that I had to disable comments. Apparently, spammers decided that since I was using spam protection, they'd go ahead and attack my server, slowing it down considerably. Removing the spam filter would be pointless, since spam would quickly accumulate to a level that would make comments pointless to begin with. Plus, it would be letting the terrorists win. So, no more comments. Sorry.

The second is that I can't post anything without getting into trouble. When people take the jokes in my away messages and submit them as evidence against teachers, you know something is wrong. If I can't get away with making a joke, I'm pretty certain I can't get away with anything controversial.

Isn't the world great?

Something like two weeks ago went to Iceland. It was fun, except we spent half the time on the bus, listening to our tour guide explain how "the volcanoes are pregnant with terrorists," and scaring us with stories about "Osama under the mountain." It also smelled like rotten eggs everywhere in the hostel in Reykjavik, because they get their water from the sulfurous hot springs. We did, however, get to see the northern lights and watch "Striperella" on Icelandic TV at the bowling alley. It was fun.

I also decided to remember my dreams. I say I decided because I just felt like it and it happened. I'm still working on the lucid dreaming. I've had two so far. It's like passing into another reality. Everything is so bright and vivid, but yet it's not real and you know it. I can't figure out control, though. I try to make things appear, and they don't appear. I try to jump off the ground, but I can't fly. I guess it'll come with time.

So anyway, that's all for now. Peace.

On the school front, all is fairly boring, as usual. My Spanish teacher wants to move me into Spanish 4, which would mean that with two half-classes of Spanish I've somehow managed to learn more than everyone else with two full years. I don't believe that. I don't have any problem with grammar, maybe because it's similar to French grammar, but I think I need more vocabulary and a lot more oral practice. I can barely speak Spanish. I'm not as good as I'd like to be at speaking French either, and I've been learning it for four years. So it goes.

To everyone at Lake Ridge, I love you and I miss you.

Anyway, first thing to discuss is school. It started. It's not very much fun, except for a couple of classes. Philosophy & Literature class kicks ass. I think we're going to read a lot of things that aren't particularly easy to read, and I know we'll be doing quite a bit of writing, but the teacher and the class are so great. Every week it's basically three days of discussion of the text, one day without class, and one day of discussion of things we've written.

Math class isn't bad, but it also seems to move really slowly. I'm in a standard Precalculus class, rather than the accelerated one, and I could probably handle going through the material at at least twice the speed we do in class. My math teacher recommended to me that I transfer into the harder math class, but I can't because AP Chem is that period. (What the fuck? Wouldn't most of the juniors taking AP Chem be in accelerated math? Damn stupid schedulers.) I figure it's easier to take an not-very-challenging class of Precalculus and try to catch up at Lake Ridge than refrain from taking AP Chem and try to start in the middle of the year. That doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be easy, though.

The language classes are probably my least favorite classes, and I'll probably do worst in them. French class is probably the most challenging thing I'm in, because it's the accelerated French class, although I'm not exactly sure why I'm taking it. Spanish may or may not be difficult. I've basically missed half a book, and I need to catch up. On the other hand, the teacher's fun. She reminds me of Sra. Badilla.

Then there's acting, which Russell absolutely hated. He said the teacher didn't really know anything and basically just wanted to make girls do slutty things. While I agree that he does kinda have the aura of a sexual predator, he seems like a nice guy. I have no idea exactly how much he knows.

I've made a couple of friends. There's Liz, who claims she doesn't take many drugs, even though she did herbal hallucinogens (although she swears they didn't do anything), smoked pot, drank, and chainsmoked all in one weekend, and her friends, who apparently don't do any drugs or drink at all. Then I've got friends in a few of my classes who I talk to, but I don't really remember their names (sorry!). I've still got no one as close to me as my friends at LRA were/are (you know who you are), but how could I? It's only two weeks into school.

The problem with living in the middle of a large city is that there are too many record stores. Particularly on Berwick Street. (A picture of which, I am told, is on the cover of Oasis's What's the Story, Morning Glory?, except in real life the street isn't completely empty). There are at least ten record stores there, maybe more. In the past two weeks, I think I've bought five CDs (Lesser Matters, The Futureheads, Iaora Tahiti, Blueberry Boat, and finally, Human Amusement at Hourly Rates [and no, Austin, it does not suck]) at a total cost of roughly 35 pounds. That's like $65 worth of CDs. The exchange rate fucking sucks. All my money is going to disappear fast.

Anyway, that's all for now. And if you want me to write more blogs, you better leave me comments. Otherwise, I'll forget all about you and you'll never hear from me again. Doesn't that suck?

Pretty Girls Make Graves & Seachange & some English band (of which I have so far been unable to determine the name) were good. They were playing in a tiny venue. (PGMG described it as "like a school cafeteria".) I was in the absolute front, with no one in front of me. It was awesome.

The English band sounded somewhere between post-punk and post-hardcore. They were decent, but not great. Seachange really surprised me, becaused I'd never heard them before, although I think I've heard of them. Their first song, whatever it was called, was extremely good. You could see Andrea Zollo from PGMG smiling backstage as they launched into the guitar feedback that started it out. The others were decent. "Just one more song, then it's Pretty Girls Make Graves. You be good to them. It's their last show in the UK," the lead singer said as they launched into the final song of their set.

Pretty Girls Make Graves was truly amazing. They started the set with a song I've never heard before, which appears to center around Andrea blowing a whistle. I think it's off the new album. It was good. According to the set list, which those of us up front had found before the set even started, the song was called "Whistle" (although this may or may not be the actual title). After a couple of songs, the guitarist told us to jump over the barriers that had been preventing us from getting within more than a foot of the stage. That was sweet. The crowd was extremely well-behaved: no pushing or (thank God) moshing, and no crowd surfing. They played both "This is Our Emergency," "The Grandmother Wolf," and "The Teeth Collector," three of my four favorites off the new album. They also played "Chemical, Chemical," "Blue Lights," and "All Medicated Geniuses." Sadly, they did not play either "A Certain Cemetary," my other favorite off the album, or "The New Romance," another standout track. But then again, if they had, they would've played all but two tracks off the album, so I guess it's okay. They also played "Speakers Push the Air" and "More Sweet Soul" off Good Health, and a few new songs.

For the encore, the guitarist started with the riff from "The Get Away;" Andrea complained something to the effect of, "I thought we stopped playing that song a long time ago," prompting another riff from the guitarist.

"No, no!" she continued.

Another riff.

Finally, Andrea gave in, announcing the song, probably the best in their entire catalogue. The set ended with "Sad Girls Por Vida" off the first album; not one of my favorites, but a good song nonetheless.

We left the comfortable-but-boring world of Ohio three days ago, and after six hours in the aeroplane (over the sea) we arrived. So far, life here hasn't been too interesting. No one's gotten lost, no one's been picked up by the police, and no one's really done anything. We did manage to eat dried pigs' blood without knowing what it was, but seeing as it somehow became part of a traditional English breakfast, that isn't too surprising. They call it "black pudding," in case you're wondering. Go try it. It isn't too bad.

Schedule for the following week is pretty elementary. Tomorrow, we're going to Greenwich. Not quite sure exactly how we'll get there yet. Wednesday, I gotta take a math placement test for the American School but I could fail it and it wouldn't really matter. In fact, I might, since I haven't done any math in three months, and I have no idea what's going to be on it. But if I do, I gotta endure some bullshit math class for 4 months. But I'm sure I won't and all that fun shit. I think they're gonna make me meet with some college counselor, too. What happens if I tell the counselor I don't want to go to college? Hehe, I wanna try.

As my reward for taking a test six days before school starts, I'm gonna see Pretty Girls Make Graves that night. Getting out of the boonies is nice. If you've never heard them, you should go download a song ("This is Our Emergency" and "The Get Away" are the best) so you can be jealous of me. And shit.

If you really gotta talk to me, try to find me online around midnight, or a bit later. That means 7:00 pm for all you losers in the United States. You can also call me, but that's expensive. Phone number is 020 7637 1998. (You'll have to call 011 44 20 7637 1998 from America, but you probably want to use one of these unless you've got a lot of money to burn.) We got four mobiles too, but we haven't divided them up yet, so I dunno the number of mine. But don't call that, because it's expensive for both of us.

I gotta get off this wireless network before someone figures out I'm on it, although seeing as it's 1:45 in the morning, that's pretty unlikely. As always, you can email me at simon@simonster.com.

—S.