Woman Deletes The Internet

Dave Winer sees XML driving object databases:

Relational databases will not go away, but a new kind of database will take root. Object databases, ones that can manage heterogeneous, non-tabular information. In other words, XML is more general than the relational form. Relational databases will only be able to manage a subset of XML.

He also suggests:

No doubt Oracle, Informix, Sybase, Acius, Claris, Microsoft, et al are wiring up their databases to send and receive XML.

Microsoft is going full-on XML. If you have MSIE 4.0, you already have an XML parser available via COM or Java.

I wonder if MapInfo can hear the XML tsunami?

Rochester is the next Silicon Valley?

At least they're truthful:

Q. Someone told me that it rains every day in Rochester.
A. Well, you tell Someone it rains every day in Seattle. In fact, it doesn't even rain every other day in Rochester. Yes, it's cloudy sometimes, and now and then we have wind, rain, sleet, ice, snow, and frigid temperatures. But our weather is excellent for your circulation, tornadoes are a rarity, we've never had a tsunami, and we're 2,856 miles from the San Andreas Fault.

Atlases of cyberspace. These are cool.

Automatic writing for standard programming references.

MicrosoftX backpedals on ActiveNaming. It's back to "COM", kiddies, until they decide to confuse us all with DNA and DNS. DNA isn't about the double helix and DNS isn't a way to find your IP address, of course.

Bill Gates clears up just what DNS means:

[...] That vision says PCs will be a central element of how companies share information. The name of that vision is the Digital Nervous System (DNS), allowing companies to reduce paper work and make better decisions.

There's a new arcade game based on Magic: The Gathering. It's in the arcade near work. I haven't played yet (50 cents a game and it looks like it would take ten dollars to really grok it). In any case, it's remarkably true to the card game-- sort of. You are in a duel with another wizard. You have a cursor which you can move around the screen. You can throw creature energy at it (the more you throw, the more powerful the creature) or you can just shoot directly at your opponent (and her minions).

The cursor is more than just a cursor, though. If you place it the way of an opponent's shot, it reflects the shot away. You can place the cursor over where the opponent is trying to create a creature (or the creature is overcoming summoning sickness) and drain it of energy.

All in all, it looks like a cool game. I just gotta show up with a roll of quarters some time.

"What prompted me, finally, to desert the Olympics for 'Hook,' arguably the worst movie ever made?"

Oh yeah, Happy Valentine's Day, too.

SF Bay Trojans: Happy Holidays, 1998, Tiger, President's Day...

It appears as if S3 got Exponential's patents.

Since the Olympics sucks on CBS, check out the web site. I think it's great.

A guy inexplicably patents multithreading and is now suing Microsoft for royalties.

From honored Traveler of the Sublime, Michele Liguori:
I am the seasoned traveler
Of the Labyrinth.
The genius of alacrity,
Wizard of the impossible.
My brilliance is yet unmatched
In its originality.
My hearts filled with potent magic
That could cast a hundred spells.
I am put together
For mine own pleasure.
I am the Monkey.

(If you're not a monkey, all of the Chinese horoscope monkey links have information about all of the other horoscope animals as well.)

The Foam is back again after a week-long hardware malfunction. Either the rain, or sludge, or trained weasels damaged a chunk of PacBell cable which needed to be replaced (not mended).

So, here's some old news from the last week which I just found out about:

XML is now a standard. Why do you care? Because it's a generalized structured document format. It's self-defining-- like SGML only less so. Not impressed? How about this: In the future, you will use simple text tools to search your Word documents.

grep mistake *.doc | grep MapInfo | more

Still not impressed? Well, you're probably not a geek.

On the heels of Netscape's "freeing" of the source code for their browser, there are rumors of a takeover. Can you say "sell out."

Instead, there's been a call for Netscape to go full-on Linux.

Bill Gates gets a pie in the face. Apparently, the guy who did it is internationally feared for this.

Primate of the Week

Federal Fond Remembrance Guidelines

From the always fresh, but still neo-retro, Curt Krone:
The Retro Gap is Closing

Geeks: The Unix GUI Manifesto