Extensible Markup Language (XML) is something I have often encountered, but never mastered. It was developed by the World Wide Web Consortium and is a general-purpose specification for creating custom markup languages. As it allows the user to define the mark-up elements, it is an extensible language.

Like most developers I have a working knowledge of HTML, which is an XML developed to define the layout of web pages. But XML has far more uses than just a way of defining pretty internet sites. Its purpose is to allow information systems to share structured data. It can be used to define data structures, as well as the data.

Tools, such as XQuery can be used to query these XML data structures in a similar way to SQL can be used to query a relational database. Many popular internet applications, such as the Wordpress blogging application this site uses, use XML.

I am definitely not an XML superstar by any stretch of the imagination. Do you think you could be? IDUG want to increase awareness and familiarity with XQuery, XML and DB2. So they are sponsoring a contest, open to students, professional and hobbyist developers alike.

There are five separate tracks, so you are bound to find something that suits you. You can enter one or more tracks, up to all five.

• Video Contest: Upload a video, judged by the community, prizes awarded monthly.
• Gadget Contest: Create a small widget or gadget, judged by the community, prizes awarded monthly.
• XQuery Challenge: Answer a series of questions by developing queries in XQuery. All correct answers (answer and query structure) entered to win larger prizes.
• Port an Application: Port an existing application to use XML, XQuery or DB2. Judged by a panel of judges.
• Develop an application: Develop a brand new application using XML and/or XQuery. Judged by a panel of judges

You Can Do It!

Don't hide your light under a bushel, gain recognition for your hard won skills. Step up for your chance to win thousands of dollars in prizes ranging from Wiis to complimentary places at technical conferences. Go to the XML Challenge site now to enter the competition.

The ambitious Europeana digital library opened on Thursday Nov. 20, only to be overwhelmed and crash. Its objective is to bring Europe's cultural heritage out of its museums and libraries and onto the internet.

The site was designed to handle up to five-million users per hour. But it was receiving 10-million hits an hour when it crashed at 11:30 am. Despite increasing the number of servers from three to six, the site crashed again early evening. It is now offline and displays the message, "We are doing our utmost to reopen Europeana in a more robust version as soon as possible."

Europeana currently holds some two-million paintings, photographs, sound recordings, maps, manuscripts, newspapers and documents. According EU commissioner Viviane Reding Europeana will, "enable a Czech student to browse the British library without going to London, or an Irish art lover to get close to the Mona Lisa without queuing at the Louvre."

Europeana has 14 staff and an annual budget of 2.5 million euros (US$3.15 million). The aim is to have 10 million works available by 2010. It will be back online by mid-December 2008.

The Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1 has begun its two-year-long science mission. On Nov 15, it sent a 30-kilogram impact-probe crashing to the surface of the Moon. The probe, painted on two sides with the Indian flag, reached the Moon's surface at 20:34 Indian Standard Time (15:04 GMT).

An ISRO representative told the AFP news agency, "During its descent from Chandrayaan-1, an onboard video camera transmitted lunar pictures to the ISRO command centre." The probe also sent back data about the Moon's tenuous atmosphere.

Chandrayaan-1, which roughly translates as "Moon Craft-1," launched on Oct 22 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, an island off the coast of Andhra Pradesh. The one-and-a-half-tonne satellite successfully entered lunar orbit on Nov 8 and is now in polar orbit at a height of 100 kilometres (62 miles).

This is India's first space mission beyond Earth orbit. It joins Japanese and Chinese spacecraft orbiting the Moon. The event generated considerable national pride among Indian's who see the launch as an indication that their country is one of the space faring nations of the 21st century and that India has arrived as a technologically advanced global power.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hailed the launch as a milestone in the India's space program. Saying, "Our scientific community has once again done the country proud and the entire nation salutes them."

The Chandrayaan-1 mission is to provide detailed maps of the Moon's surface and composition. Present maps date from the Apollo era. As well as the Moon Impact Probe, it has ten other instruments onboard. The first four listed below are Indian, then two from NASA, three from the European Space Agency (ESA) and one built by Bulgaria. The Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network at Bangalore, will turn on theses instruments over the next few weeks.

The TMC will produce stereo images of the surface of the moon, creating maps with an elevation resolution of five meters. It will cover the entire lunar surface over the next two years.

The HySI takes images at 64 different wavelengths of light between blue and the near infrared. It has a resolution of 80 meters and will help identify the mineral composition of the surface of the Moon.

This instrument is an infrared laser that pulses 10 times per second. By measuring the time it takes for the laser light to be reflected from the surface, the height of surface features can be calculated to within 5 meters.

HEX detects high-energy x-rays from radioactive elements on the lunar surface and from cosmic rays hitting the moon. This will shed light on the composition of the lunar surface and may help locate thick deposits of ice.

This instrument provided by NASA will map the both the Moon’s surface and a few meters subsurface using radio waves. It will look for ice deposits.

The second instrument provided by NASA is an infrared mapping spectrometer. This can provide a resolution of 70 meters at hundreds of wavelengths of infrared light.

The C1XS is one of three instruments provided by the European Space Agency. It detects x-ray fluorescence, lower energy x-rays that are emitted when materials are bombarded by high energy x-rays. It will examine the composition of the lunar surface.

SIR-2 looks at sunlight reflected from the lunar surface in the near infrared range. This is a good range for identifying surface minerals.

SARA will examine the surface of the Moon by analyzing particles blasted from the surface by the solar wind.

Made by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, RADOM will measure the magnitude and energy range of radiation near the Moon. This is essential information for any future lunar colony.

Chandrayaan-1 is part of unprecedented international interest in the Moon. NASA aims eventually to establish a permanent lunar colony and plans to launch and sustain human exploration of the Moon by 2018. Other nations are unlikely to leave exploration and exploitation of the Moon solely to the USA.

Image credits ISRO