HamsterSoup - Recipes for Data Geeks http://blog.hamstersoup.com Exploring the next wave of data-driven apps Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:50:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU en Hang Firefox 3 on Mac with Firebug http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2008/07/04/hang-firefox-mac-firebug/ http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2008/07/04/hang-firefox-mac-firebug/#comments Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:27:20 +0000 Will Moffat http://hamstersoup.wordpress.com/?p=66

This 2-line web page will hang Firefox 3 with Firebug on a Mac:

<body onload="debugger">
<img src="">

(With Firebug scripting enabled)

This completely hangs the Firefox user-interface, so you can’t access your other tabs. The only thing to do is a Force-Quit. I reported the bug but unfortunately I just don’t have the time and energy to learn how to fix it myself. Hoping somebody out there might have some useful insights.

]]> http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2008/07/04/hang-firefox-mac-firebug/feed/ hamstersoup MQL: Finding the Wikipedia page for a Freebase Topic http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/11/27/mql-finding-the-wikipedia-page-for-a-freebase-topic/ http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/11/27/mql-finding-the-wikipedia-page-for-a-freebase-topic/#comments Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:25:37 +0000 Will Moffat http://hamstersoup.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/mql-finding-the-wikipedia-page-for-a-freebase-topic/

Freebase contains many articles mined from the Wikipedia. For example, this page about Edinburgh.

You might want to show the Wikipedia page in your own web application. Given the Freebase topic ID, in this case /en/edinburgh

This MQL query will return the Wikipedia ‘curid’

[{
"id" : "/en/edinburgh",
"key" : [{
"namespace" : "/wikipedia/en_id",
"value" : null
}]
}]

Run in Query Editor

Result:
{
“code”:”/api/status/ok”,
“result”:[{
"id":"/en/edinburgh",
"key":[{
"namespace":"/wikipedia/en_id",
"value":"9602"
}]
}]
}

The Wikipedia URL is then:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=9602

Update: You can find the Wikipedia article name + all the redirect names with this query but as far as I know there’s no way to distinguish between redirects and the current article name.

]]> http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/11/27/mql-finding-the-wikipedia-page-for-a-freebase-topic/feed/ hamstersoup Tagging demo with Freebase Suggest http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/11/08/tagging-demo-with-freebase-suggest/ http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/11/08/tagging-demo-with-freebase-suggest/#comments Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:11:24 +0000 Will Moffat http://hamstersoup.wordpress.com/2007/11/08/tagging-demo-with-freebase-suggest/

I whipped up a quick example of tagging with Freebase Suggest.

This is just the client-side user interface. Integration with an existing tagging system is left as an exercise for the reader ;-)

Screenshot of Tagging demo

]]> http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/11/08/tagging-demo-with-freebase-suggest/feed/ hamstersoup Screenshot of Tagging demo Freebase Suggest demos http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/10/14/freebase-suggest-demos/ http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/10/14/freebase-suggest-demos/#comments Sun, 14 Oct 2007 10:59:08 +0000 Will Moffat http://hamstersoup.wordpress.com/2007/10/14/freebase-suggest-demos/

As an excuse to avoid packing my suitcase (an activity which I detest about as much clothes shopping) I wrote a few examples for Freebase Suggest.

The live demos are on the Freebase Suggest project page.

(Geek note: The 3rd demo includes a first attempt at a Freebase MiniTopic plugin for jQuery. This is a really easy way to generate an infobox or summary of a Freebase topic for your own page)

Freebase Suggest in action

]]> http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/10/14/freebase-suggest-demos/feed/ hamstersoup Freebase Suggest in action Freebase apps without cookies http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/08/09/freebase-apps-without-cookies/ http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/08/09/freebase-apps-without-cookies/#comments Thu, 09 Aug 2007 20:22:36 +0000 Will Moffat http://hamstersoup.wordpress.com/2007/08/09/freebase-apps-without-cookies/

Freebase just announced that

Within a week or so we will be removing the registration requirement in order to view Freebase.

Soon all my demo apps will work without requiring a Freebase invite. Cool!

]]> http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/08/09/freebase-apps-without-cookies/feed/ hamstersoup Avoiding timeouts - Using MQL cursors with MJT http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/08/04/avoiding-timeouts-using-mql-cursors-with-mjt/ http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/08/04/avoiding-timeouts-using-mql-cursors-with-mjt/#comments Sat, 04 Aug 2007 15:56:19 +0000 Will Moffat http://hamstersoup.wordpress.com/2007/08/04/avoiding-timeouts-using-mql-cursors-with-mjt/

If you start to develop Freebase applications you then at some point you will inevitably see the error message “Query timeout”

For example, if you wanted to get a list of Musical Artists in Freebase you might try this query

{
“query”:[{
"id":null,
"limit":0,
"name":null,
"type":"/music/artist"
}]
}

But as there are almost 1/3 million artists in the database this query will timeout. That’s just as well, otherwise you would be loading a 30MB JavaScript file!

That was an extreme example, but as more users register with Freebase, my Map of Freebase Users occasionally timeouts. (It’s actually the MJT library which imposes the deadline here, not necessary the database which timeouts). Even if your application isn’t timing out, you find that your browser becomes unresponsive as it loads large JavaScript files from the database.

The solution is to use MQL cursors

I’ve created an example using MQL cursors in MJT which demonstrates a number of concepts:

  • Using MQL cursors
  • Calling MJT templates with arguments
  • Incremental queries (the page updates without reloading)
]]> http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/08/04/avoiding-timeouts-using-mql-cursors-with-mjt/feed/ hamstersoup And we’re back http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/07/26/and-were-back/ http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/07/26/and-were-back/#comments Thu, 26 Jul 2007 07:00:51 +0000 Will Moffat http://hamstersoup.wordpress.com/2007/07/26/and-were-back/

Our short caving expedition is already finished. The Canto system is now almost 80km long!

Luc in Cantabria

]]> http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/07/26/and-were-back/feed/ hamstersoup Luc in Cantabria Caving in Spain http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/07/13/caving-in-spain/ http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/07/13/caving-in-spain/#comments Fri, 13 Jul 2007 19:20:47 +0000 Will Moffat http://hamstersoup.wordpress.com/2007/07/13/caving-in-spain/

There will be no updates for a week and a half as I’m caving in Spain.

Droplet by David De Roest

]]> http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/07/13/caving-in-spain/feed/ hamstersoup Droplet by David De Roest BBCode - live editor http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/07/12/bbcode-live-editor/ http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/07/12/bbcode-live-editor/#comments Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:20:24 +0000 Will Moffat http://hamstersoup.wordpress.com/2007/07/12/bbcode-live-editor/

I’m working on a BBCode generating bookmarklet for Freebase data. I didn’t want to pollute online forums with lots of test posts so I whipped up my own BBCode live editor.

Type BBCode into the top textarea and the rendered HTML will appear after a second of inactivity.

There are other live editors on the web but since I’m running my own I can easily configure it to support the different dialects out there.

Will’s live editor in action:

  1. bolded text
  2. italicized text
  3. underlined text
  4. http://wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia
]]> http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/07/12/bbcode-live-editor/feed/ hamstersoup Step by step MQL with Jimi Hendrix http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/07/12/step-by-step-mql-with-jimi-hendrix/ http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/07/12/step-by-step-mql-with-jimi-hendrix/#comments Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:12:13 +0000 Will Moffat http://hamstersoup.wordpress.com/2007/07/12/step-by-step-mql-with-jimi-hendrix/

When I show developers Freebase and the query language MQL, the first thing they often try to do is extract all the info they can out of the database for a generic topic.

This is actually quite a good learning experience, as you have to learn lots of MQL concepts:

  • How “*” expands (default values v objects, type specified or not)
  • Multiple queries v nested queries
  • Reflection

I had been keeping my own notes, but I thought they might be worth sharing so I whipped up a nice stylesheet and here they are:

Step by step MQL with Jimi Hendrix

Still lots of uncompleted TODO points but I’d be interested in your feedback. Is this something worth working on?

]]> http://blog.hamstersoup.com/2007/07/12/step-by-step-mql-with-jimi-hendrix/feed/ hamstersoup