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2009 05 posts (3)

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1. ODF to XHTML or ePub

2009-05-08 13:25:44 by Martynas Jusevičius

I am looking for a way to convert Open Document Format (ODF) files into XHTML, and later package them as ePub. It should be a tool that can be integrated into a publishing workflow, not user-oriented software.

I would especially like an XSLT solution, and it seems that there is one in a form of odf2xhtml filter for OpenOffice.org. Has anyone worked with it? The stylesheets can be found in CVS:
http://framework.openoffice.org/source/browse/framework/filter/source/xslt/

But maybe there are other options? Or a direct way to ePub?

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2. Semantic Web explained

2009-05-15 01:57:21 by Martynas Jusevičius

The article Tying Web 3.0, the Semantic Web and Linked Data Together understandably and in length explains the main concepts of the Semantic Web. It also reminded me of couple of things.

The first one is 1,5 half years-old post on this blog Relational model does not fit the Web, which received some mixed response.

The other one is something a had in my mind for a while, a list of very basic differences/advantages of RDF/OWL over the relational model:

  1. your record ID (primary key) becomes URI, so you can define foreign keys pointing to any record in any data source on the Web
  2. there are standard generic serialization formats, so you don't have to invent your own every time
  3. the schema uses the same data model as the data, but the data can just as well live without any schema
  4. it allows you to build applications that are generic, that is, can operate on different data without knowing its specific concepts and data types
  5. schemas can be global, shared, reused, and extended
  6. you can merge your databases without making any changes

Some more?

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3. Wolfram|Alpha

2009-05-18 02:04:12 by Martynas Jusevičius

Wolfram|Alpha is just mindblowing.

I don't know if it uses any technologies from the Semantic Web stack like RDF, but it is believed to contain “10+ trillion of pieces of data”. If we say one piece is similar to an RDF triple, then current triple stores come nowhere near — tens of billions of triples for them is still a challenge.
However it truly is one of the first important pieces of the semantic Web, and still very young. It's what the future Web should be like.

If Alpha holds its promise, “Who wants to be a millionaire” should get rid of factual/scientific/statistical questions. Or help over phone.

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