Slashdot Mirror
Moving Sensor Data Onto The Internet With SensorML
Roland Piquepaille writes "According to this Sensors article, a new XML encoding scheme may make it possible for you to remotely discover, access, and use real-time data obtained directly from Web-resident sensors, instruments, and imaging devices. By describing sensors using SensorML, anyone can put sensors or sensor data online for others to find and use. And because it's XML-based, it means all this data will easily be searchable. "For example, searching for particular kinds of sensors and data in a particular geographic region, with data collected within a particular time window, will be easy. This has significance for science, environmental monitoring, transportation management, public safety, disaster management, utilities operations, industrial controls, facilities management, and many other activities." In this column, you'll find a summary of the Sensors' story which contains more technical details about the technology. And if you're really interested, please visit the SensorML homepage."
Can they track me with this? I would use it to tag child molestors and thugs, then track them down when they came into my area and shoot them. Is this legal?
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
Ugh.
Well, I guess that's a good priviledge to pay for, hitting the machine hosting the referenced article before it melts.
They didn't shorten it to SML because everyone will pronounce it smell. Then half their FAQ will have to explain that smell sensors don't exist yet.
Jason
ProfQuotes
With Flash's native XML interfaces, looks like some fun with graphing coming up. Anyone have any examples of this in use yet?
Jason Key
Stem Cell Research Geek
http://www.stemnews.com
Today's Stem Cell Research
<I>
<have fallen="true">
<can>
<get up="false">
</can>
</I>
Great, now Ashcroft can geek out homeland surveillance and violate my rights...updated real time onto NSA.blog.com or something...Sheesh
It might be difficult to establish trust for these technologies. If I want to know the temperature in some distant city, how can I be sure that the sensor I address is correctly calibrated, or not resting near a air-con outlet? In fact, there would be no way to tell if the damn thing even exists- it could be a textfile sat on the sever or the local tourist office...
The idea is great. Standards like these are good. Now if enough people start using it, and the standards are followed in such a way that things remain workable, then it can spark a great step forward...
First (of May) Post!
I'll attach sensors to my COCK, then make an XML feed so you can continually monitor the status of my COCK on your blog or livejournal!!!!
That's awesome!!!! You'll know instantly whether I'm soft, when I'm hard, and when I'm spanking my monkey!!!!!!!!! It's the interweb's killer app!!!!
FUCK YEAH!!!! Hey, is cocksensor.com registered yet? If not I'll register it. Be sure to visit my cafepress store too, so you can buy shirts, mugs, and mousepads with pictures of my sensor-laden COCK!
I need to round up some venture capital. I see myself taking this public in 2-3 years and retiring a billionaire... a billionaire with a BIG COCK.
-PENIS--PENIS--PENIS--PENIS-
P_______________________8..P
E__Bow down to the_____#~..E
N__Lord's penis_______8.',-N
I_____________________#',-.I
S__Jesus wants your__8',-..S
-__anus, and he_____#~',-..-
P__wants it NOW!____8_',-..P
E__________________##',-',-E
N__An original_____8',-',";N
I__TrollKore(TM)_____##',-',";I
S__work of art.___8',-',";.S
-__By Dessimat0r ##',-',";.-
P________________8',-',";,.P
E_______________#'',-',";,.E
N______________8(',-',";,..N
I_____________#(',-',";,.,.I
S__________#8#8_',-',";,.,.S
-_________#',-.8',-',";,.,.-
P________8~',-..#',-',";,..P
E_______#'',-',";8_',-',";.E
N_____8=',-',";.+#+',-',";.N
I____#=',-',";,._8',-',";,.I
S___#=',-',";,..(#',-',";.8S
-__8(',-',YOUR,.(8',-',";s#-
P_8(',-',MOTHER";#',-',-s8_P
E_#z',-',LOVES,";8',-..s#__E
N_8_.,#',"YOU',";~#,..88___N
I_#.##',-DEARLY,";~8,.8#___I
S_8##',-+~'',-',-~#'8______S
-_#.,..-',-',";.'=8#_______-
P_.8+_',-',";,.'88_________P
E___888',-',";~8___________E
N______8#888#88____________N
I__________________________I
S____.oO TrollKore Oo._____S
-_At the head of the game._-
P__________________________P
E___irc.freedomirc.net_____E
N_______#trollkore_________N
I__________________________I
S__________________________S
-PENIS--PENIS--PENIS--PENIS-
All you cock-loving fuckers out there, here is a special treat for you bastards, take a look at this knob. NOW SUCK IT, MOTHERFUCKERS!
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Just think of what could be done when Lego updates Mindstorms to use this.
[ed. note: in the following text, former FreeBSD developer Mike Smith gives his reasons for abandoning FreeBSD]
When I stood for election to the FreeBSD core team nearly two years ago, many of you will recall that it was after a long series of debates during which I maintained that too much organisation, too many rules and too much formality would be a bad thing for the project.
Today, as I read the latest discussions on the future of the FreeBSD project, I see the same problem; a few new faces and many of the old going over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes. Frankly I'm sick of it.
FreeBSD used to be fun. It used to be about doing things the right way. It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane chores of programming for a living got you down. It was something cool and exciting; a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile.
It's not anymore. It's about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you're told. It's about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of where it's going, and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics.
So I'm leaving core. I don't want to feel like I should be "doing something" about a project that has lost interest in having something done for it. I don't have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won't achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project.
Discussion
I'm sure that I've offended some people already; I'm sure that by the time I'm done here, I'll have offended more. If you feel a need to play to the crowd in your replies rather than make a sincere effort to address the problems I'm discussing here, please do us the courtesy of playing your politics openly.
From a technical perspective, the project faces a set of challenges that significantly outstrips our ability to deliver. Some of the resources that we need to address these challenges are tied up in the fruitless metadiscussions that have raged since we made the mistake of electing officers. Others have left in disgust, or been driven out by the culture of abuse and distraction that has grown up since then. More may well remain available to recruitment, but while the project is busy infighting our chances for successful outreach are sorely diminished.
There's no simple solution to this. For the project to move forward, one or the other of the warring philosophies must win out; either the project returns to its laid-back roots and gets on with the work, or it transforms into a super-organised engineering project and executes a brilliant plan to deliver what, ultimately, we all know we want.
Whatever path is chosen, whatever balance is struck, the choosing and the striking are the important parts. The current indecision and endless conflict are incompatible with any sort of progress.
Trying to dissect the above is far beyond the scope of any parting shot, no matter how distended. All I can really ask of you all is to let go of the minutiae for a moment and take a look at the big picture. What is the ultimate goal here? How can we get there with as little overhead as possible? How would you like to be treated by your fellow travellers?
Shouts
To the Slashdot "BSD is dying" crowd - big deal. Death is part of the cycle; take a look at your soft, pallid bodies and consider that right this very moment, parts of you are dying. See? It's not so bad.
To the bulk of the FreeBSD committerbase and the developer community at large - keep your eyes on the real goals. It'
Google on smell sensors faq
Smell with a digital sensor
cyrano sciences
How Smell Sensors Work
. . .
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
[note: in the following text, former FreeBSD developer Mike Smith gives his reasons for abandoning FreeBSD]
When I stood for election to the FreeBSD core team nearly two years ago, many of you will recall that it was after a long series of debates during which I maintained that too much organisation, too many rules and too much formality would be a bad thing for the project.
Today, as I read the latest discussions on the future of the FreeBSD project, I see the same problem; a few new faces and many of the old going over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes. Frankly I'm sick of it.
FreeBSD used to be fun. It used to be about doing things the right way. It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane chores of programming for a living got you down. It was something cool and exciting; a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile.
It's not anymore. It's about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you're told. It's about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of where it's going, and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics.
So I'm leaving core. I don't want to feel like I should be "doing something" about a project that has lost interest in having something done for it. I don't have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won't achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project.
Discussion
I'm sure that I've offended some people already; I'm sure that by the time I'm done here, I'll have offended more. If you feel a need to play to the crowd in your replies rather than make a sincere effort to address the problems I'm discussing here, please do us the courtesy of playing your politics openly.
From a technical perspective, the project faces a set of challenges that significantly outstrips our ability to deliver. Some of the resources that we need to address these challenges are tied up in the fruitless metadiscussions that have raged since we made the mistake of electing officers. Others have left in disgust, or been driven out by the culture of abuse and distraction that has grown up since then. More may well remain available to recruitment, but while the project is busy infighting our chances for successful outreach are sorely diminished.
There's no simple solution to this. For the project to move forward, one or the other of the warring philosophies must win out; either the project returns to its laid-back roots and gets on with the work, or it transforms into a super-organised engineering project and executes a brilliant plan to deliver what, ultimately, we all know we want.
Whatever path is chosen, whatever balance is struck, the choosing and the striking are the important parts. The current indecision and endless conflict are incompatible with any sort of progress.
Trying to dissect the above is far beyond the scope of any parting shot, no matter how distended. All I can really ask of you all is to let go of the minutiae for a moment and take a look at the big picture. What is the ultimate goal here? How can we get there with as little overhead as possible? How would you like to be treated by your fellow travellers?
Shouts
To the Slashdot "BSD is dying" crowd - big deal. Death is part of the cycle; take a look at your soft, pallid bodies and consider that right this very moment, parts of you are dying. See? It's not so bad.
To the bulk of the FreeBSD committerbase and the developer community at large - keep your eyes on the real goals. It's wh
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a mere fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
I've been trying but with limited success to speak FML.
If I'm brave and loaded, I can open a tag, but just can't quite seem to close one.
ESR can you help me?
This is an incredibly insightful post. Funny, Interesting, and Underrated. Mod this one up!
sure standards are great and all and they're setting a good example for people to follow. but what real application does this have? i mean, will it make my color tv better? =\ I'd like to see efforts put to better use.
all i see are 1's and 0's
A MAFIA TURNCOAT told a stunned courtroom yesterday how he gunned down his mob boss - because he was gay. Former DeCavalcante soldier Anthony Capo said the New Jersey-based family - often described as the real-life "Sopranos" - feared they would be the laughing stock of the New York underworld if their acting boss, John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato was outted.
"Nobody's gonna respect us if we have a gay homosexual boss sitting down discussing La Cosa Nostra business," Capo told jurors in Manhattan federal court.
Capo was testifying at the racketeering, murder and conspiracy trial of Stefano "Steve" Vitabile, the DeCavalcantes' reputed counselor for more than 30 years, and alleged capos Philip Abramo and Pini Schifilliti.
Capo, the mobster-turned-government informant, said he felt like killing D'Amato when the boss's girlfriend, known as Kelly, confessed to him about his secret life.
"She told me John D'Amato and her were going to sex clubs in the city, swapping partners and John was engaging in homosexual activity," he said.
"It shocked me . . . he couldn't be acting that way - he was a leader of men."
He said the family's leaders, including consigliere Vitabile and then-capo Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo, approved the killing, but knew the hit would be a "very delicate matter."
"The rule in La Cosa Nostra is not to take down a boss without the permission of the commission [of all New York crime families]," said Capo, under questioning from federal prosecutor John Hillebrecht.
"We knew we'd have to sneak him - kill him without permission."
Capo made his move early in 1992 against D'Amato - who had helped him become a made man only two years earlier - when the acting boss returned to New York from Florida, where he'd been on the lam.
He told the jury how he and another mobster, Victor DiChiara, arranged to pick up D'Amato up from Kelly's home in the Mill Basin section of Brooklyn.
"John D'Amato got in the car and sat in the back," Capo said. "He said, 'Let's go eat,' and as we drove away, I turned and shot John D'Amato.
"He said, 'Oh, shit,'" Capo recalled proudly, saying he shot the boss twice and then twice more when he kept moving.
Capo said they found $5,000 in one of D'Amato's pockets.
He said the money was given to DiChiara because his car "would have to be destroyed because of all the blood in the back."
This will incredibly simplify work of many
people:
if sensor=world.sensor.find("Saddam"):
print "Saddam is alive!"
for msgtype in voice,sms,im:
CIA.leavemessage(msgtype,"Saddam is at"+sensor.location)
else:
print "Saddam is dead!"
CNN.call("Saddam is dead!")
This is an outrage. What about the First Amendment? Our civil rights? I'm opposed to sensorship of any kind!
Why XML with all its verboseness and hierarchy?
What I want is a relational or SQL schema. Then a much slimmer data transfer format would be possible.
Sure enough I can get XML data and input into a more useful SQL or relational database. But why go thru a verbose, hierarchical format, I can't see enough reason.
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
Now THAT would be useful!
Je t'aime Stéphanie
From perusing the SensorML site, SensorML seems geared for satellite-based geosensing and other applications for which significant computing resources are available. I'm interested in small wireless sensor networks, which have very limited computing resources (usually just an 8-bit 8051 or HC08-based MCU, running at 4 to 8 MHz, with about 5k ROM and 1k RAM available). SensorML seems to have a lot of optional fields that could perhaps be eliminated for a "stripped down" version suitable for these types of sensors but, while I'm not an expert in the field, it's always been my understanding that XML=bloat. Can anyone comment on the feasibility of SensorML for small embedded applications?
...was XML optimal for searchability?!
How about talkML
this is useless nonsense to append brackets to
everything
It is just another layer of semantics
it is too hot in here, I guess the
temperature sensor
is broken
Seems to me that National Instruments could use this recommendation to develop a web services based version of LabView. It'd be cool to have a loosely coupled, geographically independant sensor network that one could run experiments against. Now if we only had RemoteHandsML.
Pimpin' all the Karma Hoes!
Get your own little tubgirl today!
You don't have to live with the low sex drive of the female of the species. Instead, you can go cruising and get some hard bareback action every night if you like it that way.
Hi,
Sorry, I am not in the office at the moment.
However If you care to leave your name, quest and favorite colour after the tone I'll ignore you as soon as possible.
In my absence, please Read your F*cking Manual.
Beep.
*cheesey music*
I can't help but think that there is some serious BIG BROTHER potential here.
it's not like we have been getting sensor data off the internet for over 10 years now WITHOUT IT.
it's only a new way to do the same damn thing we have been doing at the uni's for years now...
Sheesh, is this place ran by microsoft calling an incremental achievement a REVELATION
my space cakes are ready.
I'm smarter than the average bear.
They've invented...SNMP.
I don't have any examples of this, but it also seems like the sort of thing that SVG was designed for from the start. You could use XSLT or something to make SVG. Too bad it doesn't have better browser support....
Bookmarking Article for Later, ignore.
No kidding. Was really hoping to see more native support within Mozilla by now, but alas, it seems to be still relatively quiet on the SVG / Mozilla front.
By the time they get around to it, I am afraid the XML generated content within Flash will overcome the in some ways.
Jason Key
Stem Cell Research Geek
http://www.stemnews.com
Today's Stem Cell Research
BTW, has anybody managed to get plugin SVG to work with Phoenix?
A markup language for real-time monitoring of remote events... I can see it now...
<ex-wife id=1>
<screwing>
milkman
</screwing>
</ex-wife>
<ex-wife id=2>
<screwing>
that dickhead with the Trans-Am
</screwing>
<spending>
most of my money
</spending>
</ex-wife>
It should be pretty easy to add a perl or python wrapper to DigiTemp, I'll have to look into this when I get home tonight.
bcl
Remember Lexington Green!
Having an ML for the data is all well and good, but it's hardly a full solution. To be really useful in distributed terms, they also need to standardize a UDDI vocabulary for easy discovery/searching, and the attendant SOAP/WS interfaces for the data retrieval. This would also alleviate some of the trust issues, since the authentication/identification would be moved into the web services and DI layers.
Seems like this capability has already existed with java object serialization, this is usually much more compressed than xml and does not require the significant overhead XML has for parsing.
MM