Steve Minutillo :: messy-78messy things

Let’s let Clay Shirky go first, on the Semantic Web:

Dodgson’s syllogisms actually demonstrate the limitations of the form, a pattern that could be called “proof of no concept”, where the absurdity of an illustrative example undermines the point being made. So it is with the Semantic Web. Consider the following, from the W3C’s own site:

Q: How do you buy a book over the Semantic Web?

A: You browse/query until you find a suitable offer to sell the book you want. You add information to the Semantic Web saying that you accept the offer and giving details (your name, shipping address, credit card information, etc). Of course you add it (1) with access control so only you and seller can see it, and (2) you store it in a place where the seller can easily get it, perhaps the seller’s own server, (3) you notify the seller about it. You wait or query for confirmation that the seller has received your acceptance, and perhaps (later) for shipping information, etc. [http://www.w3.org/2002/03/semweb/]

One doubts Jeff Bezos is losing sleep.

Ha! That’s a real zinger! Now, let’s hear from Joe Gregorio, on Longhorn:

Yet again another new set of interfaces to learn for the programmers, which this time we really really promise will make you more productive. And even if it doesn’t make you more productive, you’ll have to use it anyway since you won’t have a choice:

Longhorn will be the first operating system where ALL functionality is designed to be accessed through managed code. WIN32’s reign as the Windows API has ended, replaced by managed .NET APIs.

Such a move is unique in the industry. No one, including Sun Microsystems, has made Java THE API for programming a particular OS, much less declared that, going forward, all new features would be offered through Java. Microsoft’s decision to do that with .NET is an important advance, as it FORCES developers to write more secure code, simply because they can’t make some of the coding errors (such as buffer overruns) that form the lion’s share of security flaws.

Remember the last time we heard such breathless copy over a Microsoft technology? Maybe the same promises were made about COM? At the time they were already getting a little stale because they’d already been used in hyping MFC.

The last thing to ask when pondering Avalon is how many applications has Microsoft shipped that are pure .Net applications. After all, that’s what they’re telling their developers to do, and that’s all of what Avalon is built upon. Last I knew, that count was still sitting at zero.

Pretty good! That really sounds like it sucks! But I’m going to have to give the prize to The Semantic Web. Both Longhorn and the SemWeb are going to waste lots of smart (and even more not-very-smart) people’s time, and both make all sorts of promises that they can’t keep. But, you can rest assured that Longhorn, in some form, will someday actually appear. The Semantic Web won’t.

Next on What Sucks More: Local TV news vs. Blog Spammers.