You are delving into the archives. Tread lightly; Shub-Niggurath and Her Thousand Young dwell near.
If you’ve not yet heard of Wolfram|Alpha, you just haven’t been reading up on enough of those scientific internet applications recently. It is, in my opinion, one of the most useful and incredible breakthroughs in dynamic input interpreter (or “search engine”) technology since Google. Bing’s got nothing on this shit1.
Wolfram|Alpha is this service I’ve been using for several weeks, perhaps more, and it is by far the single most useful computational knowledge engines I’ve ever used, and maybe the first! Stephen Wolfram’s goal with Alpha is essentially to make the world’s knowledge quantifiable and search-able, and condensed and consolidated into a database able to receive a single input string.
Only a fool couldn’t see that Wolfram|Alpha is a good idea. First of all, it’s fantastic for doing simple things: calculating roots of a quadratic function, finding out where the moon will be tomorrow, etc. And all of these simple things add up until you realize exactly how many simple things Wolfram|Alpha can do.
Second, I love the design. Alpha’s website is simple and intuitive, bringing the viewer’s eye towards the input field, and secondarily towards the list of examples. On a results page, the data is loaded dynamically, and although it’s not immediately available in plain-text, it’s clear that this is necessary. Obviously they are loading information in such a way that enhances speed and accessibility.
Lastly, the interpreter is very intelligent. Most coherent input strings can be read and interpreted pretty well, regardless of syntax. Before you even take a look at all of the examples, you can probably guess at some of things that can be entered. Try “etymology anxious” or just “anxious” or even “what are broader terms for the word tuna?” You can query an object — the word anxious — or, in addition limit information, such as the etymology. In addition, you can type in two queries separated by a comma (such as “Pluto, Neptune“), and Alpha will format and compare the two entities dynamically. The interpreting power of Wolfram|Alpha can only be surpassed by its computational power and sheer bulk of data.
There’s really not a whole lot to say, you kind of have to experience it for yourself. I suggest you check it out, play with it a little bit, and see what you can do.
All Wolfram needs now is a comprehensively featured and useful desktop client.
1Technically speaking, Bing has nothing on anything. “Decision engine?” It doesn’t even make decisions! It’s just Google, with less influence and ability, a superfluous design, and a distinct need to actually advertise their services. On TV! Television, for Christ’s sake!
So, as some of you may know, I’m in the process of redesigning Danger Syndicate, and I think it’s coming along nicely. I’ve gotten to the point where I can start coding in PHP and WordPress, after which I’ll be able to put it live on the site, and make changes from there. Let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions by commenting or emailing us.
Probably most of you have seen the popular site fmylife.com, and have found it pretty entertaining (my personal favorite is this one). As regards internet humor, I certainly consider it a gem, and can usually find something to laugh (or groan) at every time I check it, adding some much needing entertainment and/or exasperation to my normally monotonous day.
However, quite unbeknownst to me, another site had been growing in popularity, a site which was brought to my attention just to day and which, in counter to FML, adds some much needed monotony to my more volatile days : MyLifeIsAverage. Honestly, though, this site is really funny. I am a huge fan of really dry humor, being of the opinion that it takes more mental effort to comprehend, and is therefore more valuable :P Granted, this site may not have the intelligence factor of some classic works of dry humor (i.e. anything by Douglas Adams), but the absolute normalcy of the whole thing appeals to me greatly, and is why I recommend you check out the chronicles of normal people doing normal things.
So some of you may already know about this, but I just figured it out, and I like it a lot!
If you search something in Google, and the URL comes out to be (after the .com) search?q=ham, or something, you can replace the “search” with “ie” to view your results more simply. The URL ends up like ie?q=ham. The result is a nice, clean page, 10 links per page, titles-only.
I am going to use this more often. It would be very useful for taking screen caps of Google results for certain terms.
…is definitely the greatest thing! Apple is good at interface design, I’m pretty sure. Everything’s simplified in OS X — not that I couldn’t handle the intense complexity of XP, just that the intense complexity of XP was the root of all of its problems. I imagine Microsoft gets often lost in their own code.
OS X is Unix-based, which is excellent. It runs much faster than my Windows machines with similar specs have (although, to be honest, this is my first dual-core computer…), and I really like the interface much more. The way files, programs, and windows are laid out makes so much sense and keeps everything easy, giving me more time to do stuff.
Dashboard’s nice, I can keep track of D-Syn’s statistics and Twitter, weather, movies, etc. Quicksilver has definitely increased productivity, and if you’re on a Mac and not using, go get it! Right now! It’s deliciously free and unimaginably useful! I could not live without it.
Of course, there are problems with OS X. Not all hardware works with it, I’ve had DJ equipment stop working (but then start working again…?), and some graphic tablets don’t work for Mac, which has limited my options in shopping for one. The way the file system is laid out doesn’t give you a lot of room for customization (i.e. having things where you want), but it’s adaptable enough for me, and anyone who is stubborn in that way has no business working on one of these lovely machines.
The main problem I’ve been having is getting wifi. Whereas my Windows laptop could get perfect reception from this range (which is actually fairly far from the router), the MacBook cannot. I believe this is because I have a Wireless-G router, and the MacBook has a Wireless-N card. I should be upgrading shortly.
All in all, a great, dependable purchase, and a definite upgrade. Bottom line: sexy.
You can keep up with the daily haps of me and Jeff on Twitter now. You know, if you have an obsession like that - the kind where you like to know what thousands of people are doing right now. It’s ok, I didn’t say it was weird*.
Here’s Jeff and this one’s mine. Follow us and we may just follow you back.
I’m also going to let you know that we are not taking breaks this holiday season! Comics will continue regularly! However, I’m going to warn you that these comics may possibly be holiday-themed. Most likely Christmas-themed.
* It’s weird
I’d like to share something with you guys who might be interested in this kind of thing.
Backreaction is a blog by two theoretical physicists who have some very interesting things to say. Their What if… advent series has been particularly interesting.
Check them out, they challenge imaginations.
