All Posts Tagged With: "technology"
Wolfram|Alpha is Ridiculous
Thanks to Kiyoshi for alerting me to tonight’s debut of Wolfram|Alpha, a new way of searching and organizing data that will change our (Internet) lives. Wolfram|Alpha can compute a nearly infinite number of data requests. I love data, so perhaps I am exaggerating the importance of Wolfram|Alpha, but I don’t think it can be exaggerated. This engine is already ridiculous and it will only get more ridiculous in the future. Wolfram happens to be a Champaign guy. His company has its headquarters here. I was fortunate enough to hear Wolfram lecture on his book, A New Kind of Science, at Foellinger Auditorium when I was a Freshman. His lecture shocked me. He’s a genius. I shook his hand in awe.
Tonight Wolfram and his team will debut the first practical fruits of his book. All you need to do is watch this introduction to Wolfram|Alpha to be convinced. The engine will debut tonight at 7pm CST at this link. The Wolfram|Alpha blog has lots of other information as well. Here is a techy article that tries to explain Wolfram|Alpha.
The video below is a lengthy presentation that Wolfram gave at Harvard. It is worth watching:
Question for the Agora: How does Shazam work?
You have probably seen the iPhone commercial demonstrating the application called “Shazam.” If not, when you’re listening to a song you like, but you don’t know the name of, you open the application, play more of the song, the program identifies the song, and links you to the iTunes store to buy the song.
With most iPhone applications, it’s pretty easy to understand conceptually how the program works, but this one amazes me. Shazam is the perfect name. It’s like magic.
One buddy of mine is convinced it’s rigged to some international bar trivia league where members identify songs at all hours. How do you think they do it?
Too Much Technology?
After last week’s Chief column, I decided to go a little lighter on this one. Here is today’s column about our dependence on technology- does it enrich our lives? Or are we all destined for social self-withdrawal? Read more…