Since im on a tech roll.

Anyone else excited/scared of this thing?

http://www.wolframalpha.com/index.html

If people are right, this has the potential to be maybe the biggest evolutionary step forward for the internet in a very long time, maybe ever.

not sure what it is. Even after some light digging. Looks like they had a test run and now its shut off.

Didn't they already try to launch this or something like it a few times and it did not work at all like it was supposed too?

Didn't they already try to launch this or something like it a few times and it did not work at all like it was supposed too?

You're probably thinking of Cuil (which is a terrible failure on several levels).

Alpha isn't public yet. It's pretty amazing in the controlled demonstrations. It will be interesting to see how well it works when lay-users get ahold of it.

Google has something similar in the works too, but is way behind the game right now.

If you want a better idea of what Wolfram Alpha is:
http://bytesizebio.net/index.php/2009/05/09/test-driving-the-wolfram-alpha/

Wolfram is very well known in the math community. They are the makers of Mathematica, which is widely used in math and science research. They also maintain an excellent math reference website, http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ .

That's awesome, and we used Mathematica extensively back when I was at UGA, but this is the first I've seen of this...

Think of the spurious conclusions just waiting to be drawn :)

Regards,
Nydia

http://www.wolframalpha.com/

LOL!! "I'm sorry Dave I'm afraid i cant do that". Apparently its getting pounded.

So it does not appear to work to well, it seems to not be able to answer a vast array of simple questions.

So it does not appear to work to well, it seems to not be able to answer a vast array of simple questions.


You noticed that too...it is definitely targeted at the very few...funny, if it finds you a location it uses Google maps.

What is it *supposed* to do? I'm having a lot of trouble with it, high server load.

If you don't understand what it's supposed to be, make sure to watch the introduction video: http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html

For example, is it not supposed to replace a normal search engine. Seems to be a lot of confusion about what it is and isn't.

thanks for linking the video....that is freaking amazing.

lol "Weather in Boston, MA when Ghandi was born." it was brisk 54 degrees that day :p

Well one interesting thing is there's no sources, you have to assume they're always correct? Where is the information they gather from?

If you look at the bottom of the results page, it cites its sources.

I am impressed.

It nailed this question:

what is the answer to the universe


Cheers,

http://mashable.com/2009/05/17/better-wolfram-easter-eggs/

I'm interested, but kind of weirded out at the same time. I know its algorithm driven, but it seems very close to a thinking computer.

Can it help find Rovers gay midget porn?

Skynet?

Wolfram and Hart

Good call Selwen!!

Being as I used to use Mathmatica/Maple or good old bc in a pinch over a faked desk calculator, I'm rather liking the ability to plug complex calculations into this in a more narrative fashion. Not as good as RPN for quick stuff but definitely beats Calc.exe or the chiclet keys on my phone.

Hopefully we get a good mobile/PDA frontend for it.

Hopefully we get a good mobile/PDA frontend for it.

it runs in java script which is what a majority of new phones run ton of apps on it.

It doesnt work on my blackberry, it does work on my iphone. I will check out some of the java phones tomorrow

It works on my BlackBerry. Enable JavaScript in the browser options (or run Opera instead of the crappy BB browser).

The interface definitely fails pretty hard in that browser though.