Semantic Web

What does Semantic mean?It stands for meaning.So is Semantic Web same as Web with meaning.Literally speaking quite so.Semantic Web is a web that is able to describe things in a way that computers can understand.

The Semantic Web was thought up by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the WWW, URIs, HTTP, and HTML.However, Semantic Web technologies are still very much in the infancy, and although the future of the project in general appears to be bright.

In simple terms, it is information being stored in a form that can be understood in a meaningful way.It makes use of RDF for describing resources and information on the web.RDF (Resource Description Framework) is a markup language for describing information and resources on the web.Putting information into RDF files, makes it possible for web spiders to search, discover, pick up, collect, analyze and process information from the web.

Resource Description Framework

RDF gives you a way to make statements that are machine-processable. Now the computer can't actually "understand" what you said, of course, but it can deal with it in a way that makes it seem like it does.

An RDF statement is a lot like a simple sentence, except that almost all the words are URIs. Each RDF statement has three parts: a subject, a predicate and an object.

N-Triples format is used for simple RDF statements. However, the official RDF specification defines an XML representation of RDF, which is a bit more complicated but says the same thing

Conclusion

Internet means different things to different people.Semantic Web as a technology promises more versatility and usability.Arguments rage over the usefulness of the technology, the difficulty of using RDF, and so on. However, its vision of a machine-readable web has numerous possibilities.Though some complain about its lack of definition, its envisages radical effect it will have on the Web.

Watch Tim-Berners-Lee on Semantic Web at Technology Review.

Previous Article:Interesting Automatic E-mail Replies

Interesting Automatic E-Mail Replies

1. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.

2. I'm not really out of the office. I'm just ignoring you.

3. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office.If I was in, chances are you wouldn't have received anything at all.

4. Sorry to have missed you but I am at the doctors having my brain removed so that I may be promoted to management.

5. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return from vacation on 8/20. Please be patient and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.

6. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged Rs.5.99 for the first ten words and Rs.1.99 for each additional word in your message.

7. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try sending again.

8. I am on holiday. Your e-mail has been deleted.

9. Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queueing system. You
are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.

10. Please reply to this e-mail so I will know that you got this message.

Courtesy:S/W Anecdotes

Previous Article:Eye Spy

Eye spy: U.S. scientists develop eye-shaped camera

Borrowing one of nature's best designs, U.S. scientists have built an eye-shaped camera using standard sensor materials and say it could improve the performance of digital cameras and enhance imaging of the human body.

The device might even lead to the development of prosthetic devices including a bionic eye, they said.

"This is the first time we've demonstrated a camera on a curved surface to really make it look like a human eye," said Yonggang Huang of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, who reported his findings on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Huang developed a relatively simple solution to the long-running problem of transferring microelectronic components onto a curved surface without breaking them.

"If you simply bend it, those materials are brittle like a ceramic bowl. They break," Huang said in a telephone interview.

To solve this, they developed a mesh-like material made up of tiny squares that hold the photodetectors and electronic components. The squares are connected by tiny wires that give each component the ability to mold to a curved surface.

Improving the field of vision

"Currently when you take photos, the middle part of the picture is very clear but when you go to the edge, it is not so clear," Huang said. "The curved technology will make the entire picture clear."

But the applications extend beyond taking better vacation photos.

"It really extends to all of the electronics that we use on humans. You want to have a curved surface to fit the human body. That is really the place it can be used," he said.

Huang said the device could be used to make better imaging equipment, such as curved sensors to monitor brain activity that follow the contours of the brain. It could even be used in the development of an artificial retina or a bionic eye.

"If you want to develop an eye to replace a human eye, certainly you want the shape to look like a human eye," he said.

"Right now we've already got a camera working. It works very well with computers. It's just how to connect the camera to the brain. That is the issue to be solved," he said.

Courtesy:Reuters

Concepts for a S/W Engineer

The number of S/W Engineers is quite enormous these days especially in India.Unfortunately the quality is not quite matching with these numbers.Majority of these raising developers are lacking in basic S/W concepts core to this technical field.From my limited experience in the industry and my academic exposure I am listing out certain domains mandatory to gain expertise in this field.

A successful S/W Engineer bases his development on proper design,effective coding,comprehensive testing continuously striving for a match between simplicity and completeness.Beyond the basic methods, there are concepts that good software engineers know about. These transcend programming languages and projects - they are not design patterns, but rather broad areas that one needs to be familiar with.

Databases

Data is the key to information management.And the key to data is storage i.e Databases.Though scalability is an issue with them especially with regard to web-based systems,they are one of the fundamental concepts of computing.

The key database concept to know would be relational databases,query language and data normalization.

Suggested reading

• Database System Concepts
• Handbook of Database Security
• Intelligent Databases
• OLAP Solutions
• Mastering Oracle SQL and SQL*Plus

Security

Security is of paramount importance and it covers authorization,authentication and network protection.While authentication is about verifying the credentials, authorization is assessing the permissions based on the credentials.Network protection has to deal with sensitive and secure data transmission.

Suggested Reading

• Network Security Tools
  
• Security Testing
  
• Computer Security
  
• Network Security
• Wireless Security
  

Concurrency

Concurrency is about parallelism, but inside the application. Most modern languages have an in-built concept of concurrency; in Java, it's implemented using Threads.The complexity in concurrency programming stems from the fact Threads often needs to operate on the common data. Each Thread has its own sequence of execution, but accesses common data.

Suggested Reading

• Parallel Processing
• Basic Thread Programming
• C# Threads
• Programming threads

Data Structures and Algorithms

Algorithms and data structures form the crux of effective programming.They are crucial to the art of programming.There are just a handful of things engineers must know about algorithmic complexity. Planning is particularly necessary for simplistic and efficient programs.Algorithmic skills evolve as a subset of problem-solving techniques.Quick and to-the-point logic is of importance is heavy-duty applications.

Suggested Reading

• Analysis of Algorithms
• C++ Data Structures
• Algorithms and Data Structures
• Problems on Algorithms
• Algorithmic Analysis

Modeling,Design and Architecture

Lots of systems suffer from the extremes: clumped, lengthy code with little abstractions, or an overly designed system with unnecessary complexity and unused code.

In modeling, you iterate towards the right solution. Firstly, never add methods that might be useful in the future. Follow a minimalistic approach. Secondly, be willing to change things.Iterative development is key.Ultimately you will arrive at a system that feels right. Until then, keep iterating and don't settle.

Suggested Reading

• Software Architecture
• OOAD Overview
• SSAD
• OOAD with UML
• Software Modeling
  

Proficiency in the above concepts is guaranteed to ensure the gift of being an effective and purposeful programmer.Strong concepts and a learning mind is enough to set aside one from the milling crowd of engineers.

SEO Series - Keyword Analysis

The first and crucial step to optimising a web site is ensuring the right keywords are used.What is required to start off on SEO is keyword analysis.

Things to keep in mind are

• Words that best describe the site
• Words used by competitor's sites
  
• Search Words for the site

Analysis tools

• Google Analysis Tool
• SubmitExpress
• Webmaster ToolKit
• SEO Chat

Steps for Keyword Optimisation

• Spy on Competitors - Search for your product or service and see which web sites are highly rated.Analyse their keywords by looking their source code.Use the tools on their site and analyse the prominence of keywords on their page to get a better understanding where you are lacking and get a idea on where to improvise.
• Keyword Phrase Research - Research the ways your keywords can be put to better use.Remember MODERATION is key to ensuring the credibility.Keyword stuffing will be taken as spam and may lead to the site being removed from the search engine's index.The optimum frequency to opt for would be 2-9 %
  
• Keyword Optimization - Google uses keyword stemming i.e only stems of search words are taken as query.So if your site covers travel it is not necessary to include travels,travelling as your keywords.You could think of synonyms and words that better describe travel such as holiday or vacation.A user is more prone to search the net for "seaside holidays" than "Florida+travel".Try to put yourself in a user's perspective to decide on effective keywords.
• Integration with the website - Using keywords is not sufficient by itself, presenting it effectively has wider impact.Try using your keywords in H1 or H2 tags or even Bold tags.This sends a message to the crawler that your site is credible not just yet another black hat attempt.Ensure the initial and last few lines contain a higher frequency of keywords.Use them in IMG and META tags.(Will be covered in greater detail in a later article
  

Next article is Tag-Based Optimisation that is how to use the functionality of various tags to improve the site rankings.The article will deal with meta,heading,formatting,anchor,image and comment tags in more detail.

SEO Series

I am going to start a series of articles on SEO.SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the means of improving the web traffic to a web site from search engines.Higher the ranking on search results,more the chances of getting hit by visitors.

SEO looks into the working of search algorithm to come up with ideas that could improve the ranking of a page.They cover the structure,presentation,coding and organization of a web site.Certain small changes are guaranteed to ensure effective spidering of your web site.

Effective SEO campaign can have magical impact on the business. SEO is the art and science of improving the website such that it gets listed at top in search engines. Search engines are the biggest source of free traffic. Once a website is listed at top through proper SEO, the qualified visitors to the website will increase.

Why SEO?

• Major search engines command over 400 million searches everyday, day after day. SEO helps in gaining over the competition.
• SEO offers a much better return on investment than other traditional forms of Internet marketing like banner campaigns and email marketing.
• SEO helps capture targeted traffic.People who are already looking for the product or service offered.
• SEO is a long term and permanent answer to traffic woes. Once a website has been optimized for search engines it can stay at the top for long periods of time.

Next in this series:

• Keyword Analysis
• Tag-based Optimization
• Robots.txt
• Image and Hyperlink Optimization
  
• Link-Building
• Social Marketing
• Directory Submission
• Site map Creation

Mind-blowing futuristic gadgets

Somebody once said "Nothing is constant but change".In this era of continuous research and development this is quite true.The interesting thing about technology is it just gets more and more high-end but the size keeps getting smaller and slimmer.The other day I saw a shop selling erst-while storage disks - the 1.44MB floppy disks and asked my friend "Do they still these things anymore?"

It was not quite long ago strictly speaking five years back when I had used floppy to take a printout of my physics project report.In this short span they have become quite so redundant and to be honest extinct.

When I joined college one year after this i decided to get a USB to make carrying around data easier.I got myself a 512MB Transcend pen drive for 800 rupees and I carried it around with good deal of care and love.

During the course of the next six months prices crashed and now it is quite common to get a 8GB one at the same price.Not just USBs,even laptops,mobiles and DVD players have evolved and reached the realm of common man's gadgets.

Here is a listing of some cool futuristic gadgets ready to hit the shelves and our homes some years down the lane.

Napkin PC

The Napkin PC is a multi-user, multi-interface, modular computer designed for creative professionals to collaborate and bring their greatest ideas to life.

This design by Avery Holleman won the first place at 2007-08 Next-Gen PC Design Showcase.

The Napkin PC is innovative because of its multi-flexibility. It can have multiple users, multiple interfaces, and multiple configurations. It breaks the PC down to only the interface— a pen and a space— and then gives you a multitude of both so you can let your creativity run wild.

Mobile Search














Touch screen, built in camera, scanner, WiFi, google map (hopefully google earth), google search, image search… all in one device.Choose a building and touch a floor and it tells you more details of the building.Well, it doesn’t have to be a building, but it can be any object you see. You can use it when you want to know a car model, an insect name, what kind of food is served at a restaurant and how much, who built a bridge, etc. etc.It’s got a scanner built in, so you can use it this way when you want to check the meaning of a word in the newspaper, book, magazine, etc.

IPod Watch

How cool would be a sleek and sexy iPod watch. It's actually a simple design concept by Peter Burns, the iWatch which touts a 10GB memory storage with Bluetooth-enabled earphones. He should think of adding a microSD memory card slot and solar powered technology.




Pet Cell

The pet cell phone fits on the dog's collar and is water- proof and has a built in GPS. In order to contact your dog, you just dial his number and after just one ring, his cell phone automatically picks up, so you don't have to worry about your pet fumbling his claws around the 'talk' button.

Other features include

• A 'Call Owner' feature in case your dog gets lost.
• Built in GPS so you can locate your dog.
• GeoFence that tells you when your dog goes over his parameters.

Rotating Apartment Centerpiece

This room features a central unit that can rotate 360 degrees with the push of a finger. It has different compartments on different sides, allowing you to basically rotate the walls of what should be different rooms to face different living areas. Want your TV facing the bed? Just rotate it. Want the TV facing the couch? Rotate it back. It's crazy and awesome.

Ego : The Car of the Future
Volkswagen's visualization for the 2028 is Ego.It's a sporty two-seater without a front window loaded with all sorts of cameras and sensors that are better than a window.

The simple body shape uses high performance batteries which are charged by fuel cell and shall be emitting water.



The interiors has intelligent driver aids to warn the driver of hazards and an advanced cruise control with even no need of involvement for the driver.




iCache
Give yourself the ability to have all your credit cards on one card, leave all of them at home. iCache can make that possible. This device simplifies your business life, practically replaces your wallet. It uses biometric security to protect your credit card and personal information. The iCache digitally replicates your credit card magnetic strip signatures for all of your shopping needs.




EPOS Digital Pen

The EPOS-enabled Digital Pen & USB Flash Drive provides all the benefits of a digital pen with the addition of full Flash memory capabilities. Completely portable, users can write, sketch and draw freely anywhere, using regular paper, while the device simultaneously captures and stores all handwritten text and drawings in real-time to the Flash memory.

Once uploaded, handwritten information can be transformed to text using standard handwriting recognition software, and notes and drawings can be edited and shared via email and messaging applications.