THIS WEEK: Nothing

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October 2, 2002 >> Receive this email as text  >> About this e-mail   In this Issue >> From the editor: Nothing >> Featured topic from SearchWebServices: ebXML and Web services >> Reader Feedback: Are you a weenie?   From the editor: Nothing by Lowell Thing, Editor I have nothing to write about this week - absolutely zero. And by that, I mean, of course, 0, the numeral and the idea. The Sumerians were apparently the first to have a symbol that meant "nothing in this column" when they wrote a number using positional notation as we do today. Still, it wasn't exactly a real zero as we think of it today. With a counting board or pebbles in sand, a "nothing in this column" can simply be represented by the absence of a mark or pebble so it wasn't necessary to ask "What is this thing called nothing?" It was just the absence of something and that's not quite the same thing as a symbol that actually says it. According to Robert Kaplan's fascinating "The Nothing That Is - A Natural History of Zero," the idea of "zero" evolved gradually in a history difficult to trace. The Greeks had the idea of "almost nothing." Today's zero symbol may have originated to represent the absence or removal of a round marker from a counting board. Ancient Hindus, Tartars, the Chinese - all had counting systems and some came up with the circle to symbolize absence. The Mayans took the idea seriously; they had a God of Zero to whom human sacrifices were made. The Arabs often get the credit for introducing the concept of zero as a mathematical concept to the Western world and, in time, mathematicians would begin to ask how much was left if you divided zero by zero or what was zero to the zeroeth power? (We'll provide the answers here next week.) If you wonder what all this has to do with information technology, perhaps you should ask yourself where computers would be today without zeros and ones. Could they have used ones and twos instead? (We'll also try to answer that here next week.) By the way, you will not find zero in the table in our new reference called "Mathematical Symbols" because it doesn't include the numerals - but it does include almost every other symbol. And the title of Kaplan's book is taken from the last line of one of our favorite poems by Wallace Stevens. LEARN MORE: counting board http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci214120,00.html Mathematical Symbols http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci803019,00.html "The Snowman" http://stripe.colorado.edu/~morristo/snowman.html "The Nothing That Is - A Natural History of Zero" Try Amazon.com or your local library  Featured Site: SearchWebServices.com FEATURED TOPIC: ebXML and Web services Integrating Web services with existing e-business standards like ebXML can be a puzzle, but we can help put the pieces together. Join us to learn more about ebXML, what it has to do with Web services. Find out more From our Webcast Archives: Making e-business standards work with Web services While Web services are tasked with point services, how do they integrate into extended information services, legacy application systems and standards? Learn how to make e-business standards work with Web services. http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/webcastsTranscriptSecurity/1,289693,sid26_gci847919,00.html Web Services Decisions: March 19-21, 2003 in Atlanta Web services has arrived. Whether you're still in the planning process or are ready to take your initiatives to the next level, Web Services Decisions delivers the most effective strategies, tips, tactics and techniques to achieve Web services' success and avoid the pitfalls of early adopters. Register for this free conference  Reader Feedback: Are you a weenie? by Margaret Rouse, Associate Editor What's a six-letter IT-related word that means "someone who is highly knowledgeable?" Last month we added IT Crossword Puzzles as a new feature at whatis.com to help learners practice their tech-speak. Crossword puzzles are supposed to improve flexible thinking skills. Working puzzles in pairs or small groups is supposed to be good for cooperative learning skill-building. We think they're a fun way to learn new IT terms and reinforce old ones you already know. Did you know that the first known published crossword puzzle was created in 1913 for the New York World-Telegram & Sun Newspaper? Creator Arthur Wynne called his new puzzle format "word-cross" for the first couple of weeks but decided that "cross-word" fit the puzzle better. Co-workers speculated that "cross-word" was a better name because it more accurately reflected the vocabulary typesetters used when setting up the weekly puzzles. Crossword puzzles remained a New York World exclusive until 1924, when two journalism majors at Columbia University decided to open up their own publishing house. Problem was, Dick Simon and Lincoln Schuster had nothing interesting to publish. A friend of theirs convinced the pair that there was an audience for Wynne's crossword puzzles. At $1.35 a pop, both a publishing empire and a world-wide crossword puzzle craze began. So what's a six-letter IT-related word meaning "someone who is highly knowledgeable"? Weenie. (I bet you always thought that being called a weenie was less-than-flattering.) Are you an IT weenie? Why don't you try one of our new crossword puzzles for yourself and find out! All our crossword puzzles http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci850903,00.html Crossword puzzles are supposed to encourage flexible thinking, but you couldn't tell that from our reader mail. All our mail said the same thing in almost exactly the same words: Give us more crossword puzzles! Thanks to Hema D., Vince T., Kumudini S., Curtis K., Mouthu, Chuck L., Karen W., Eric J., Sara, Eric S., Tim T., Anita J., Anton C., Mike C., Abdur R., Cathy R., Steven C., Mazur, Pravin, Lahari, Papa H., Princy M., John R., Colesta J., and Metamorphasis24, for taking the time to write. This e-mail is published by TechTarget where you can get relevant search results from over 19 industry-specific Web sites.  Whatis.com contacts: Lowell Thing, Site Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Margaret Rouse, Associate Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) To unsubscribe from Updates on new site content: >> Simply Reply to this Email with REMOVE within the Body or Subject -OR- >> Go to: http://WhatIs.techtarget.com/register/1,,sid9,00.html    - Log in to edit your profile.    - Click on the link to Edit email subscriptions.    - Uncheck the box next to the newsletter you wish to unsubscribe from    - When finished, click "Save Changes to My Profile". Copyright 2002 TechTarget, Inc. All rights reserved.