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Comment Re:Vapourware my arse (Score 1) 135

by Wastl (#22383450) Attached to: Semantic Web Getting Real

For the record; I am a researcher working in the Semantic Web area, and I am primary developer of the system IkeWiki and the reasoning language Xcerpt. Since this discussion seems to pop up again and again on Slashdot, I didn't want to add comments to the same issues (trust, search) again. But your comment might add something new to the discussion:

Without knowing the details of your circumstances, it sounds like, maybe, the real point is that what you want is an object oriented database rather than relational one. RDF allows for much more of an object oriented design than a traditional RDBMS does.

In principle, you are right. But there is an important difference between RDF and Object Oriented Databases: while OO DBMS require that the data always conforms to a strict, pre-defined schema, RDF data is semi-structured and can be very flexibly extended. To give an example: in an OO DBMS, it is a problem if a person is defined only by first name and last name, and someone else wants to add a "friend" relationship to this person that is not foreseen in the schema. With RDF, this is not an issue: programs and repositories that were designed just for first name/last name will equally well work in the presence of a "friend" property. In a Web environment, chaotic as it is, this is a crucial property.

Greetings, Sebastian

The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Creative Places to Work

Submitted by DieNadel
DieNadel writes: The company I work for as a developer pays a good salary and gives me some stability, but it has a total lack of creative work. We mostly spend our days looking into bugs and doing really boring development. I'm therefore looking for a job in a new and more creative environment, but it's hard to figure out a place besides the usual suspects (Microsoft, Google and Apple). So, the place you work at gives you the ability to be creative? Do you know some companies that fit the profile (in the US and Worldwide)? Please let us know their name and how to apply.
Role Playing (Games)

The Quest To Build a Better Warcraft 196

Posted by Zonk from the better-than-a-mousetrap dept.
Red Herring tackles the rush into virtual space, talking about the MMOG goldrush and the business consequences World of Warcraft has had on the games industry as a whole. Though sometimes it doesn't seem to fully understand the difference between a single player game and a Massive one, the article still touches on a number of important points. Lots of folks are looking to cash in on WoW's success, and they're importing or licensing every Massive game they can find to get on the bandwagon. "The problem is that no one knows what the next WoW killer will look like. Creating a hit video game, which combines strong characters, a compelling story, and top-notch production values, is part art and part inexact science. Making a hit game can be much more difficult than producing an Oscar-winning movie. After all, the hit video game must be compelling enough to keep players coming back for more." Even if a lot of their conclusions are odd, and they call Puzzle Pirates silly, it's worth a look. What do you think it's going to take to crack Blizzard's deathlock on the Massive genre?

Biggest IT Disaster Ever? 405

Posted by kdawson from the I-can-top-that-one dept.
lizzyben writes, "Baseline has a major story about a major IT disaster in the UK: 'In 2002, the English government embarked on a $12 billion effort to transform its health-care system with information technology. But the country's oversight agency now puts that figure at $24 billion, and two Members of Parliament say the project is "sleepwalking toward disaster"... In scale, the project... (NPfIT) is overwhelming. Initiated in 2002, the NPfIT is a 10-year project to build new computer systems that would connect more than 100,000 doctors, 380,000 nurses and 50,000 other health-care professionals; allow for the electronic storage and retrieval of patient medical records; permit patients to set up appointments via their computers; and let doctors electronically transmit prescriptions to local pharmacies.'" An Infoworld article from earlier this year sketches some of the all-time greatest IT meltdowns.

Funding Cut For Arecibo Observatory 161

Posted by Hemos from the haven't-they-seen-contact dept.
satorchi writes "In a recent Senior Review conducted by the National Science Foundation, a panel of experts recommended the reduction of funding to Arecibo Observatory, the world's largest radio telescope. Unless other sources of funding are found, Arecibo faces severe cuts in its program, with the prospect of closure around the year 2011. Development of the global project called the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) is cited as a reason to decommission Arecibo, but with the SKA coming online around the year 2020, closure of Arecibo in 2011 is some ten years premature. Until SKA is up and running, Arecibo remains the world's most sensitive radio telescope."

How To Manage a Security Breach? 183

Posted by kdawson from the how-much-disclosure? dept.
Salvance writes, "A friend of mine has recently been stressed over a security breach at the company he consults for. The company maintains dozens of Windows 98 desktops to support legacy software that cannot be easily replaced. Due to the inherent lack of security in Win98, a worm was able to infiltrate almost every computer and send gigabytes of data (possibly including sensitive company data) to a 'redirector' in Eastern Europe. My friend was working on other security projects at this company and stumbled across this massive hole. He quickly convinced company executives to remove Internet access from all Win98 machines, purchase better firewalls, and implement other data protection strategies. However, the sticking point was client notification. Due to the nature of the legacy systems, there was no way to know what data was transferred. For this reason the company wanted to play it safe and disclose nothing. Of course, my friend is all for disclosure and preventing harmful use of the potentially leaked data. My friend doesn't know what to do, so I'd like to know what others here think."

Hacking the Free "La Fonera" Wireless Router 67

Posted by kdawson from the wisdom-of-crowds dept.
wertarbyte writes, "FON is still giving away their wireless routers for free in Germany and Austria until Wednesday — under the premise that the devices will be connected and used as FON access points. The router, called 'La Fonera,' is a variant of OpenWRT, but locked down to prevent modification, including a signed firmware image to prevent the upload of new software. It is, however, possible to get shell access by connecting to a serial port present on the circuit board. And now two students from Germany have discovered vulnerabilities in the CGI scripts used to configure the device, and successfully activated an SSH daemon on the device by exploiting them, giving owners a root shell on their router. They also provide a detailed description of the procedure and 'ready-to-use' perl scripts to open up your router."

What Ways Can Sites Handle Spambot Attacks? 75

Posted by Cliff from the barbarians-at-the-gates dept.
Amazing Quantum Man asks: "I'm a member of a site devoted to nitpicking TV shows and movies. It has always had an open posting policy — no registration required, and you could use any name you wanted. This policy was instituted way back in 1998, and led to some quite fun, freewheeling threads on various boards. Recently, we have come under spambot attack, with spambots posting links to gambling and porn sites on every single discussion board on the site. The admins have been trying to block IPs, but it's useless against a botnet. As a defense, it looks like the site is going to require registration, and disable anonymous posting. Many regulars, while they understand the need, are concerned that the freewheeling character of the site will be lost. Let me continue by saying that I'm not a site admin, merely a member there. Also, if it helps, the site in question is running Discus. Has anyone here been in a similar situation? How did you handle it, and what did it do to the 'culture' of your site?"

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I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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