Just a Flesh Wound 5
SEMANTIC KNIGHT: None shall pass without formally defining the ontological meta-semantic thingies of their domain something-or-others!
HACKER: What?
SEMANTIC KNIGHT: None shall pass without using all sorts of semantic meta-meta-meta-stuff that we will invent Real Soon Now!
HACKER: I have no quarrel with you, good Sir Knight, but I must get my work done on the Web. Stand aside!
SEMANTIC KNIGHT: None shall find anything on the Internet without semantic metadata!
HACKER: So be it!
HACKER and SEMANTIC KNIGHT: Aaah!, hiyaah!, etc.
[HACKER chops the SEMANTIC KNIGHT's first argument off by building efficent statistical/heuristic search engines]
HACKER: Now stand aside, worthy adversary.
SEMANTIC KNIGHT: 'Tis but a scratch.
HACKER: A scratch? Your argument has been cut off!
SEMANTIC KNIGHT: No, it isn't.
HACKER: Well, what's that, then?
SEMANTIC KNIGHT: I've had worse. None shall have an effective syndication network without RDF Site Summaries!
[clang]
Hiyaah!
[clang]
Aaaaaaaah!
[HACKER chops the SEMANTIC KNIGHT's second argument off by building the blogs/RSS/Aggregators/Bloglines/etc. network ]
HACKER: Victory is mine!
SEMANTIC KNIGHT: Have at you!
[kick]
HACKER: Eh. You are indeed brave, Sir Knight, but the fight is mine.
SEMANTIC KNIGHT: Oh, had enough, eh?
HACKER: Look, you stupid &^%$# You've got no arguments left.
SEMANTIC KNIGHT: Yes, I have.
HACKER: Look!
SEMANTIC KNIGHT: Just a flesh wound.
[kick]
HACKER: Look, stop that.
SEMANTIC KNIGHT: You won't be able to get machine-machine services without an ontology to formally describe all the relationships!
[kick]
HACKER: Right!
[whop]
[HACKER chops the SEMANTIC KNIGHT's third argument off by building SOAPy and RESTful services with only implicit semantic descriptions]
SEMANTIC KNIGHT: Right. I'll do you for that!
HACKER: You'll what?
SEMANTIC KNIGHT: Come here!
HACKER: What are you going to do, bleed on me?
SEMANTIC KNIGHT: I'm invincible!
HACKER: You're a looney.
SEMANTIC KNIGHT: The SEMANTIC Knight always triumphs! Have at you! Come on, then. I have an battalion of KR theorists on my side!
[whop]
[HACKER chops the SEMANTIC KNIGHT's last argument off with an army of actual code writers]
SEMANTIC KNIGHT: Oh? All right, we'll call it a draw.
HACKER: Come on, folks, let's go.
SEMANTIC KNIGHT: Oh. Oh, I see. Running away, eh? You yellow ^&^%$s! Come back here and take what's coming to you. I'll bite your legs off!
-Michael Champion, xml-dev list
I'm rolling on the floor laughing at this... :)
This is EXACTLY how I feel about semweb tech. Thanks for posting Rich. Really funny!
-Brian
Duncan, I had the same reaction.
For a follow-up, check out Brian's post on the SciLink Blog, which also has something on this.
Aside: It sure would be nice if I could expose trackback without getting a boatload of trackback spam.
Yes, funny, but... That's not what the semantic web people are saying.
Moreover, I disagree that statistical/heuristic search engines chopped anything off.
... and of course the semantic knight won.
it's similar to the ecology issue. first nobody this is a real issue. lots of ridicule on the emerging green parties. Now any part has to have this on the agenda. Who won the fight; the green parties are still small but the issue is alive.
... the hacker might have implemented a lot more then the semantic scientist; but the issue/vision of a semantic web is alive.