An XML database is a data persistence software system that allows data to be specified, and stored, in XML format. This data can be queried, transformed, exported and returned to a calling system. XML databases are a flavor of document-oriented databases which are in turn a category of NoSQL database. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_database (more)

Lightning Memory-Mapped Database (LMDB) is an embedded transactional database in the form of a key-value store. LMDB is written in C with API bindings for several programming languages. LMDB stores arbitrary key/data pairs as byte arrays, has a range-based search capability, supports multiple data items for a single key and has a special mode for appending records (MDB_APPEND) without checking for consistency.[1] LMDB is not a relational database, it is strictly a key-value store like Berkeley DB and DBM. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_Memory-Mapped_Database

Designers often desire an open-ended data structure that allows for future extension without modifying existing code or data. In such situations, all or part of the data model may be expressed as a collection of tuples (attribute name, value); each element is an attribute-value pair. (more)

Berkeley DB (BDB) is an embedded database software library for key/value data, historically significant in open-source software. Berkeley DB is written in C with API bindings for many other programming languages. BDB stores arbitrary key/data pairs as byte arrays and supports multiple data items for a single key. Berkeley DB is not a relational database,[2] although it has database features including database transactions, multiversion concurrency control and write-ahead logging. BDB runs on a wide variety of operating systems, including most Unix-like and Windows systems, and real-time operating systems. BDB was commercially supported and developed by Sleepycat Software from 1996 to 2006. Sleepycat Software was acquired by Oracle Corporation in February 2006. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_DB (more)

Steve Yegge on what makes great software systems (Platform). The big realization I had, sometime in the last month or so, is that all of the common properties of my favorite software systems can be derived from a single Root Cause: one property, or design principle, that if present will cause software to take on the right characteristics automatically. What are my favorite software systems? Here are a few of the very best: UNIX. WinXP. MacOs X. EMacs. MsExcel. FireFox. Ruby On Rails. Python. Ruby. Scheme. Common Lisp. LP-Muds (MUD). The Java Virtual Machine (JVM). A few more that just barely make the cut, for now: MsWord. OmniGraffle Pro. JavaScript. Per Force. Some that I think would make the cut if I learned how to use them effectively: The GIMP. Mathematica. VIM. Lua. MsIE.... I won't keep you in suspense. I think the most important principle in all of software design is this: Systems should never Re Boot. If you design a system so that it never needs to reboot, then you will eventually, even if it's by a very roundabout path, arrive at a system that will live forever.... I think the second most important design principle, really a corollary to the first, is that systems must be able to grow without rebooting... First (essential feature): every great system has a command shell (Command Line)... Great systems also have advice. There's no universally accepted name for this feature. Sometimes it's called hooks, or filters, or Aspect Oriented Programming... World-class software systems always have an extension language and a PlugIn system... The last big feature I'll enumerate today, and it's just as important as the rest, is that great software systems are Intro Spective. You can poke around and examine them at runtime, and ideally they poke around and examine themselves as well... Introspection can (and should) take many different forms, not just health monitoring. (aliveness? turing-complete?) (more)

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive and a founder of FaceBook, has agreed to donate $100 million to improve the long-troubled Public Schools in Newark Nj, and Gov. Chris Christie will cede some control of the state-run system to Mayor Cory Booker in conjunction with the huge gift, officials said Wednesday... Less than a month ago, the governor informed the city’s schools superintendent, Clifford Janey, that he would not be rehired, and that the state was looking for a successor. There has been speculation in Trenton about the possibility of hiring Michelle Rhee, the hard-charging schools chief in Washington, whose political patron, Mayor Adrian Fenty, recently lost his bid for re-election. Officials said Mr. Christie planned to announce that he and Mr. Booker would jointly select a new superintendent, a decision the governor has the power to make on his own. And they said he would instruct the mayor to come up with a reform plan for the system: in effect, asking Mr. Booker to redesign it. (more)

Heather Cox Richardson: June 28, 2025. Last night just before midnight, Republicans released their new version of the omnibus budget reconciliation bill. It is a sign of just how unpopular this bill is that they released the new version just before midnight on a Friday night, a time that is the graveyard of news stories. ("Big Beautiful Bill") (more)

RyanB: Book Review: Why Honor Matters. People who live in honor cultures have a sense of purpose and meaning. They dwell in solidarity with their fellows, are courageous in the face of danger, set great store in hospitality, and put the welfare of the group above their own. Mostly. (more)

Ian Alexander: Book Review: Donald Schon - The Reflective Practitioner. Readers of my reviews will know that I have been interested for some years in the dialogue between action (do something) and reflection, discussed admirably by John Heron and Peter Reason, and put into practice in their Co-operative Inquiry method. Donald Schön is one of the seemingly few people to have written about reflection and its role in professional life; it is a tricky subject, as it lies between the domains of academia and industry, and must be both theoretically accurate and practically useful to succeed fully. (more)

Trump is Playing 4D Chess is an expression used by supporters of the 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump when speculating that his campaign is using advanced political strategies to manipulate and dominate the news media. On September 15th, 2015, Dilbert comic artist Scott Adams published a blog post as part of a series on Donald Trump's persuasion titled "2-D Chess Players Take on a 3-D Chess Master."[7] On March 24th, 2016, /r/The_Donald[6] user Fire-Keeper responded to a comment about Trump's image macro tweet mocking the wife of rival Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz with the statement "God Emperor plays 4D chess while the other candidates and the media play Tic Tac Toe in the sand." https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trump-is-playing-4d-chess (more)

the part of your business strategy that's about what technology choices you're making

Nikhil Suresh: Contra Ptacek's Terrible Article On AI. A few days ago, I was presented with an article titled “My AI Skeptic Friends Are All Nuts” by Thomas Ptacek. I thought it was not very good, and didn't give it a second thought. To quote the formidable Baldur Bjarnason: “I don’t recommend reading it, but you can if you want. It is full of half-baked ideas and shoddy reasoning. (more)

Matt Zeiger: Why I'm Building a Creative Cult. Individualism is still a new concept to humans. It doesn’t feel like it, but only because we can’t imagine our modern lives without it. The reality is, for most of human history, you were defined by your family first (more)

Matt Zeigler: Punk-rock Economics (How To Start A Scene, Not Sell Out, And Save The World). A friend of mine was telling a story about a small business event where a sponsor chose to order food from a nearby chain instead of getting it from one of the local restaurants the sponsor had personally invited to attend(!). The sponsor proceeded to eat the takeout in front of the restaurant owners. In front of them. (more)

Baldur Bjarnason: Trusting your own judgement on ‘AI’ is a huge risk. One of the major turning points in my life was reading my dad’s copy of Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion as a teenager. (more)

Mike Morris: What Wikid Wants To Become. Most of the notebook tools out there are focused on the writing. They use the expression "note-taking" and that's... telling. And why I've taken to speaking/writing about "note-making" — I don't want to be always in the position of a consumer, always just writing down (summarising or recasting in my own words) someone else's thinking (though there are times I do!) — I really want my notebook/slip-box to be a collection of my own thinking and observations (no matter how half-arsed, ill-formed or partial). (more)

Evan Armstrong: Slack.com Declares War. Sometimes though, when there are billions, maybe trillions on the line, there is no choice but to attack directly. The modus operandi is win at all costs. (more)

Mike Morris: WikidProject Musing. Wiki Notebooks. Was dreaming a bit about what wikid might be/do in that space. There's a long, long way for it to go to get there... (more)

sounds like a SmallWorld-oriented Libertarian model. Or is it Libertarian Socialist? (more)

The Internet said today: While I would like to return the honor , I'm concerned that the Church has history of "demeaning human dignity", at least of young male humans. And while the Church has "adapted to discoveries through the ages", it took over 400 years to forgive Galileo. So I think I'll have to pass for now. And remember, I know all the bank account numbers, and I read all the email... (more)