Apart from writing really, really interesting Blog posts on the ‘Coven, I usually spend my day doing all sorts of things related to context. That’s a word that, for the most part, means “stuff this program doesn’t know about but could use if it did know about it”. In short, the idea is that I get that stuff to the program by sucking data off the web (for argument’s sake) and integrating it.

If you were bored at work, you might like to look at some of the external issues that I spend my day musing. You might even find something to interest you in it. The great thing about Computer Science is that, if you are reading this*, you can contribute**.

The first thing is a rather nice REST-based Web Services. Ok, so maybe it’s sexist (sidenote: would it be sexist if it were a wife to husband?), but it’s just about the best explanation of what’s going on that I know. A lot of the work in this area comes under the banner of the Semantic Web, which is the creation of a certain T. Berners-Lee, who is responsible in large part for the Tubes you are reading this through. You may wish to think about ontologies, REST and the semantic web next time you see the ‘tag’ button on a site like digg. There are those who think that the Folksonomy will be the main way to build the Semantics for content.

It’s notable that Computer Science is home to some truly mangled English. The first thing any serious technology does is take a perfectly good word and turn it to its own foul purpose (for example: Ontology was an innocent concept until we corrupted it).

Currently, I am building my software. It’s written in Java and uses lots of xml in its many forms. There are databases and servers, and the code I have written is built on an extensive set of libraries (bits of code other people have written). To be honest, my work can be be described as grovelling humbly upon the shoulders of titans (to corrupt a phrase).

The process has, so far, been less painful than it has been fun. That’s set to change over the next few weeks. I am writing this not just for you, gentle reader, but also for me as a marker. I suspect that by the end (whatever the result) I will be a changed person, and it is good that I have said these things now when things look good.

I also realise that this article is a cardinal sin, but I am assured that my karma will be good based on what is to come.

*Unless there is some sort of printing service for the Coven that I have not been informed about. Perhaps there are jungle tribes reading us, and they have created a pantheon of gods from our personas.
** Many people will tell you Java is a Bad Thing™ and that their language is better. For the most part, it’s not important. Different languages just take more or less work to get to do a specific thing. The main thing is to never, ever, use VB :)
If you are interested in learning programming or something, please mail me and I can give you some places to start and things to think about. Then you can ignore them and go play WoW instad :)

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