Why we (probably) won't have a Semantic Web.

Librarians make the assumption that because we are smart and know how to categorize and organize information that others will follow our recommendations.

But we see that book stores don't when they group their products under large, nebulous categories.

And Google doesn't, when it returns results based on algorithms optimized for displaying ads.

Librarians think that all metadata are equal. That "sex" is equal to "love" because they are just terms to classify content. But no two terms are ever equal. Metadata have meanings that are timely or momentarily popular or specific.

So librarians ask questions to establish intent.

INTENT.

"The entertainment system was belting out the Beatles' 'We Can Work It Out' when the phone rang. When Pete answered, his phone turned the sound down by sending a message to all the other local devices that had a volume control."

[The Semantic Web by Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler and Ora Lassila]

Why did Pete's phone send a message to turn down the volume? What if it were Pete's boss calling to tell him to work Saturday? Would the phone understand to send a message to play the "Ferris Bueller" sneezing and coughing audio files?

My point is that our understanding of the purpose of the Web is wrong. And our understanding of machines is wrong. Just as our understanding of other people is wrong.

We can't possibly know the purpose of the Internet. First, we didn't make it. Second, it was designed with only one purpose, to make access to data easier.

But now we want to control that data flow. We want to tell the internet that different data have different values to us through metadata. And the only way we can do that, from my understanding of the internet, would be to insert such massive amounts of metadata into the web that we would end up creating a second internet. One made up entirely of metadata.

This second internet would act as checksum data to compare to the internet to calculate and verify the user's intent. To understand.

This second internet would contain all the metadata needed for machines to understand humans. Yes, I said it would be huge.

But I don't see that. Of course, I wouldn't see it if it existed. I would be invisible. So what I see is an internet evolving into something that looks like a semantic web, but is only a more accurately fine-tuned commercial web. The web is getting better at selling me things. It doesn't really know what I want, so it gives me what others seem to have wanted.

I can see that the internet is trying. I can see that we are trying. There are frameworks for attempting to have the internet understand us. And to have machines understand us.

In fact, there might even need to be a third internet made up purely of rules, policies and vocabularies which massage the metadata into accuracy of intent.

But to build this, one must understand what humans think. But since humans communicate with machines so much differently than how they communicate with each other, what humans think when they interact with other humans or machines changes.

In the example at the top, Pete might think that he wants to talk to the person on the phone, so the phone communicates his intent to the stereo. But if Pete doesn't want to talk to the person on the phone, the phone communicates a different message to different machines. How is the phone to know? Without asking questions? Oh, it listens in on our conversations. Did we say it could?

basic web crap.

I know there are lots of ways to download images and videos from the Internet. I have a Firefox extension that downloads and I have Tubesucker. And I know how to right-click (yes, this is Windows).

But there are times when I'm not on my computer and I need to download a hidden or secret or unavailable file and there doesn't seem to be any way to get it right then and there.

So this has helped:

(<)html(>)
(<)body(>)
(<)a href="http:// "(>) right-click and save as (<)/a(>)
(<)/body(>)
(<)/html(>)

Obviously, you need to remove the parentheses, but I couldn't get the text to display properly without them. Put that in Notepad or any text editor and save it with a .htm extension.

I say now, I Am Not a Geek, or a h4x0r; I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her. So there may be easier ways to do this, but there are many times when I've scanned the Source of a web page to find the file I need and then copied or compiled the URL from known pieces and pasted it into a simple file like this to get the download.

If you know a better way, let me know. Or maybe I just shouldn't be downloading these kinds of files.

... okay... assume you just saw a video or an animation of something, but there's no way to save a copy, and since this is the Internet, you assume, like me, that everything on it is free for the taking.

so you look at the source for the web page and see something simple like "/videos/123456.flv" and you think, hey, this is where the video is stored. so you add that to the web page URL you're on, like www.dontstealmyvideosyoudamnthief.com and you get www.dontstealmyvideosyoudamnthief.com/videos/123456.flv.

so you paste that whole address into the quotes area in the html file you see above and hit Ctrl-S to save it. then open the file and it will open up in your default browser where you can then right-click on the hypertext link and left-click "Save target as" or "save link as" or whatever it says.

again, not really a big deal, unless you are like me and think that everything on the web is yours to keep. there's more and more stuff that's impossible to get like this, but there are still tons of avi, mov, flv, swf files out there that are easy to grab this way.

have fun. but don't steal other people's stuff. the above is for educational use only and not for any purpose explicitly spelled out in the post. wherever you see the words "steal" or "take," just assume the author meant to add, "do not" before it. any misunderstandings will be attributed to typographical error or poor translations or computer error.

think happy thoughts.

Why the.effing.librarian never blogged before last year.

I had a web page in 1996, back when I was writing "the book of which we dare not speak." And I remember when I finished that book, how I would post chapters on my web page and link to other sites and wait for someone to comment on my book. I wrote my funny little comments about life and edited my page and waited for someone to care about what I was saying.

Around 1998, I gave up on my book promotion.

I still had web pages, but only for simple things. They're still out there, 2 or 3 of them that haven't been deleted by Yahoo! for inactivity. One has movie reviews; another has some goofy stuff. One was a pain in the butt because I had bought a magnetic poetry calendar and I attempted to write a poem a day for a whole year using only the tiles that came with the calendar. The only poem I can remember right now is: "can the sun moon the earth?"

But yeah, the Web had abandoned me. Or at least, it never acknowledged me. I did post something once that made its way into a legitimate print newspaper, but that was it.

So when blogging came along, I didn't care. I didn't want to talk about my lunchtime sandwiches or haircuts or coworkers haircuts. I had reached out to the Web and she (yeah, she's a she) had spurned my love, so I didn't care when she attempted to tease me back with all this new promised attention.

All through 2000-2005, I would hear everyone get giddy about their blogging. "Screw you," I'd say to the Web. "I am not taking you back."

But in 2006, that whole "23 Things" started, so I figured I'd better learn what it is, in case I got asked about it.

So, eventually, I started this thing, whatever it is.

I still don't trust the Web. She claims she thinks about me, and she showed me that she kept those letters I wrote her, so she must care, at least a little. But I'm not trusting her, and I definitely don't love her. We just hook up for the sex. And I try to remember her birthday.

Also, I probably never blogged before 2007 because I think I was in prison: Listen up, kids, never try to overthrow the government of Peru. By yourself. And then try to escape on a llama. He won't run fast with your fat ass on his back.

Web, girl, you're a woman now.

Wow, this month marks the 16th birthday of the World Wide Web. If I can trust my Internet
sources. But when can you trust anyone to reveal her true age?

On 8/16/2007 at 6:52 AM EST, Wikipedia said this about the WWW:

On August 6, 1991, he (Tim Berners-Lee) posted a short summary of the World Wide web project on the alt.hypertext newsgroup. This date also marked the debut of the Web as a publicly available service on the Internet.

...But when you check now, it might say,
"On this day, Alice B. Toklas defeated Max Schmeling in the first season of Survivor: Battle of the Network Stars. Flying Spaghetti Monster: I've been touched by Your noodly apendage."

Damn you, Wikipedia for your continuing revisions!

August 2007 is also the 10th anniversary of my first website. I had a little Studio page in SoHo on Geocities where I posted my heart's desires and my pink unicorn dreams. And I wrote all my special poems that I hoped The Spice Girls might see and use in one of their songs and maybe Geri would sing (I feel closest to Geri because we've both had photographers exploit our young bodies for money).

Here are those lyrics:

You're such a crazy girl.
Your head is in a whirl.
You need to find a guy
hung like Milton Berle.

Wait. Maybe those were lyrics I wrote for Mötley Crüe (Dudes, that song would have been
huge!)

So, Happy Birthday to the World Wide Web. You're Sweet Sixteen. I'm sorry if I missed your
"fifteens" party (quinceañera) last year, but I think you got my card and gift card to the
Dadeland Mall (I know you wanted a Coach bag).

Gosh, you're such a fine young lady. Soon you'll be getting all parts of you pierced. Go
girl! Have strange men handle your most intimate parts and poke sharp bits of metal through your skin. Cover you body with tattoos of nekkid ladeez and cherubs and faeries and barbed wire. You're a woman now.