http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/authors/pete-cliff/ Recent content in Pete Cliff on Ariadne Hugo -- gohugo.io en-gb Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/63/cliff-rvw/ Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/63/cliff-rvw/ 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know. From the title it should be pretty clear what we’re getting, but the creation of this book is a little different. The editor goes so far as to state this is an Open Source book and likens its creation to Open Source Software development. It contains (you guessed it) 97 short (2-page) essays (‘axioms’), each one contributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/62/cliff-rvw/ Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/62/cliff-rvw/ In the past the storage and recall of information (the act of remembering) was limited. If people wanted to keep a record, it had to be written down (at great expense in the days before printing) or they had to rely on (notoriously error-prone) human memory. As time moved on, more and more could be recorded, but recall in the analogue world remained difficult - the raison d’être of information science. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/61/cliff-rvw/ Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/61/cliff-rvw/ Asynchronous Javascript and XML (AJAX) programming technique enables one to update parts of a Web site without reloading the entire page. So useful is it that AJAX is turning up all over the Web, including on my own Web-based archival interfaces; so it was timely that I should be asked to review Ajax in Oracle JDeveloper. Before diving into the book, I should say a little about Oracle's Integrated Development Environment (IDE) JDeveloper [1]. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/57/cliff-rvw/ Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/57/cliff-rvw/ Serendipity can be a wonderful thing. It was a Tuesday, over coffee, that the esteemed editor of this publication presented me with a copy of Website Optimization and asked if I would be interested in reviewing it. Two days later, at a regular team meeting for the Repositories Support Project 1, we discussed (rather generally) how we might boost the search ranking and usage of the RSP Web site. Marvellous, an interesting book to review and a real life problem to which to apply to it. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/56/cliff-rvw/ Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/56/cliff-rvw/ I'll be honest - I am no expert in data visualisation. I had not heard of Edward Tufte [1] before looking at this book and while I thought I had an idea about the topic, the book suggested to me I did not. Perhaps this makes me unable to judge the value of its content; but I prefer to think this means I can come at the work as a member of the target audience: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/54/cliff-rvw/ Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/54/cliff-rvw/ When I was handed this book for review a colleague of mine said "rather you than me" and there is no doubt that Programming Collective Intelligence is probably not a book for everyone. However, if phrases like 'Bayesian filtering', 'Support-vector machines', 'Collaborative filtering' and 'Methods of clustering' do not deter you or better, engage your interest, then this work is well worth a look. One of the pleasing things to notice when picking up the book is its relatively small size and Toby Segaran has managed to condense a series of complex techniques into just eleven chapters of concise and interesting writing. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/53/cliff-rvw/ Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/53/cliff-rvw/ Principles of Data Management might not sound like a thrilling title and, given its business focus, you might think not all that relevant to many readers of Ariadne. However, before dismissing it out of hand, consider this: may not the research outputs of an institution be regarded as business assets that require management (in, for example, an institutional repository)? On what other data does a university rely? Staffing, recruitment, enrolment, courses, library stock, costs? http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/52/digital-deluge-rpt/ Sun, 29 Jul 2007 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/52/digital-deluge-rpt/ It was that rare thing, a sunny morning in Manchester, and it was almost with regret that I entered the dark entrance hall of the Manchester Conference Centre in search of coffee and the start of the JISC conference Digital Repositories: Dealing with the Digital Deluge [1]. Day One Andy Powell, Eduserv Foundation [2], and co-author of the JISC Digital Repositories Roadmap [3] kicked off by suggesting that ‘roadmap’ documents in this domain should be treated like satellite navigation systems rather than a traditional paper-based route planners [4]. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/51/cliff-rvw/ Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/51/cliff-rvw/ In the changing, and increasingly digital world, learners and teachers are more and more subject to information overload and the noise this generates. Teachers must cope with larger cohorts and more disparate communities. Increasingly, information communication technologies are being used to address these issues and it becomes clear that new skills are required to operate effectively in the learning environment. In Digital Literacies for Learning, editors Allan Martin and Dan Madigan set out to show in Part One how emerging (digital) learning environments require learners and teachers to develop new skills. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/30/rdn-oai/ Fri, 25 Jan 2002 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/30/rdn-oai/ The RDN is a collaborative network of subject gateways, funded for use by UK Higher and Further Education by the JISC (though it is used much more widely). Each subject gateway, as part of its service, provides the end user with access to databases of descriptions of freely available, high quality, Web resources. As each resource described in the database is hand picked by subject specialists, following well developed guidelines, it is hoped that a resource discovered through the RDN will be of great value to an end-user. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/27/seti/ Fri, 23 Mar 2001 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/27/seti/ Distributed Solutions to Number Crunching Problems There are many problems that require the large scale number crunching capablilities of supercomputers. For instance calculating Pi to the nth level of precision, attempting to crack the latest encryption algorithm [1], mapping the human genome, or analysing radio waves from space. For some applications, a Supercomputer might not be enough; nor can every project can afford one. However, but with a little bit of clever software engineering applied to the Internet, there is a solution. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/24/checkout-review/ Thu, 22 Jun 2000 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/24/checkout-review/ My first reaction when asked to review this book was "What is a community information network?" Fortunately the authors of the book foresaw such a response and were thoughtful enough to include the following definition in the opening chapter: "a [network of computers] which provide: community information; and a means for the community to communicate". Obvious when you think about it. Furthermore, the opening chapter gives a brief overview of what characterises a community network from any other (that they have a local focus and promote free access to all) and sets out the impetus behind their creation. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/23/checkout-review/online-searching.html Thu, 23 Mar 2000 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/23/checkout-review/online-searching.html To match the growing trend towards electronic resources and rapid resource discovery, librarians, perhaps the most traditional of resource discovery methods, need to embrace the world of online searching. A correctly executed search or series of searches can yield a number of useful results. But what is the correct way to perform an online search? It is this question that Forrester and Rowlands hope to answer in The Online Searcher’s Companion. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/23/oed-review/ Thu, 23 Mar 2000 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/23/oed-review/ Cultural history, encyclopaedia, etymological record of the English language, spelling aid… The Oxford English Dictionary is a number of things, and now it is a web site. What was once evocative of dusty tomes, thumbed by wizened professors of English in the recesses of University libraries is embracing the information age and going online. But how can this, the most traditional of traditional works of literature, benefit from modern technology? An initial answer, in a word, is “revision”.