Is the Semantic Web the new Internet, or a complex technology in search of a problem to solve? That’s a question that advocates attending the Semantic Technology Conference hope to put to rest. Standards specialists, venture capitalists, computer scientists and technology executives are meeting at the four-day conference to discuss enterprise applications for the Semantic Web–the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) growing collection of protocols designed to make a wealth of new information accessible and reusable through the Web.

Being a blogger can get you in trouble nowadays, at least if you write something that sufficiently vexes your employer. In an effort to separate fact from fiction, CNET News.com offers this list of frequently asked questions about blogging at work and at home.

After investing significantly in technology for radio frequency identification devices, Microsoft is readying its first major product, a software package designed to help companies manage the product tagging technology. Microsoft plans early next year to release the RFID Services Platform, a "middleware" product that connects the hardware that monitors RFID signals with the business software that can make sense of the information. The product is designed for businesses that want to incorporate RFID into their own systems, as well as for other software companies that want to build a product based on Microsoft’s technology.

Security researchers have published details of a denial-of-service vulnerability that could enable hackers to attack Microsoft Windows and spin computers into senseless processing loops. Posting to the SecurityFocus industry forum site late Monday, an individual identified only as Dejan Levaja first described how the threat, known technically as a LAND attack for the type of code that triggers it, could affect Windows users by needlessly occupying their computers’ processing power. Using such an approach, an individual typically sends a packet of data to a Windows machine using a command that features the same source host and destination host information, thereby sending the computer running in circles.

SimpleTech announced SimpleTransfer, a USB-based data migration solution that makes it easy to upgrade your computer and move your data from the old computer to the new. SimpleTransfer comes with SimpleMover, an application that automates migration of all data files including email files, Web bookmarks, user settings, music libraries, photo libraries and other vital user data in a simple, automated process. Additionally, SimpleTransfer’s synchronization option makes it simple to backup, migrate and synchronize data between systems.

A University of Arizona student is believed to be the first person in the nation to plead guilty under state Internet piracy laws. Parvin Dhaliwal, 18, was charged with uploading digital copies of recently released movies and music. He entered a guilty plea to possession of counterfeit marks, or unauthorized copies of intellectual property, a Class 6 Felony under Arizona’s new piracy law.

With an official credential hanging from his neck, a young man stepped into the White House briefing room Monday as perhaps the first blogger to cover the daily press briefings. Garrett M. Graff, 23, writes Fishbowl D.C., a Web log about the news media in Washington. He decided to see if he could get a daily pass for a briefing after a recent controversy raised questions about White House access and who is a legitimate reporter.

Hackers have compromised databases belonging to LexisNexis and stolen information on at least 32,000 people, according to a statement Wednesday from LexisNexis’ parent company, Reed Elsevier PLC. The hackers stole passwords, names, addresses, Social Security and drivers license numbers of legitimate customers of the company’s Seisint division. Seisint collects data on individuals that is used by law enforcement and private companies for debt recovery, fraud detection and other services.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates trumpeted Office’s role in integrating communications as he unveiled further plans for the company’s "Istanbul" client and other real-time communications products during a launch event. Microsoft brought its combined instant-messaging and telephony client under the Office umbrella, renaming it Office Communicator 2005 and announcing plans to release it to manufacturing in the next 90 days. On the server end, Microsoft’s Live Communications Server 2005 also is undergoing a revamp.

The spam situation is bad and only getting worse. A judge recently cited insufficient evidence and dismissed a North Carolina woman’s felony spamming conviction, according to the Washington Post. CAN-SPAM, Bayesian filters, blacklists and whitelists–none have done much to stem spam traffic. Experts are calling on enterprises to support their proposed standards for email sender authentication, which will underscore new, so-called reputation services that rate messages against thousands of criteria. The idea is to identify trusted elements and turn away spammers at the gateway by treating all as "guilty until proven innocent."