On 10/02/2012 11:26 AM, Invisible wrote:

> Now WA Pro lets you chuck data at the
> system, and it will try to figure out what the hell all the data
> columns, labels, units, etc. actually mean, and how best to analyse that
> to give you something meaningful.

Not to mention that if your data contains place names, it can plot those 
on a map. If it contains currencies, it can look up current and 
historical exchange rates, not to mention inflation rates. If it 
mentions cities, it can adjust against current or historical population. 
In short, it's not just a calculator - it knows stuff about stuff. This 
is the part that you or I could never implement, because we don't have 
the vast data store with a huge army of volunteers managing it.

> WA Pro is extremely cool. And like most extremely cool things, it has NO
> USEFUL PURPOSE. Seriously, it's a very neat toy, but I cannot begin to
> imagine what useful task you could possibly use it for. (Not helped by
> the fact that the majority of useful "real world" data covers the USA
> only.)

What do I mean by that? Well, if you want to look up total population, 
that'll work for almost any major city in the world. If you want to look 
up unemployment, that only works for America. If you want average 
income, that only works for America. If you want cost of living, that 
only works for America. If you want house prices, [sing along with me] 
that only works for America. If you want crime statistics, that only 
works for America. If you want death rates, that only works for America...

In short, anything more specific than the most basic geo-political data 
that you could look up in a world atlas is only available for America. 
WA /knows/ I'm in the UK, and yet if I ask how much a typical piano 
tuner earns, it will tell me how much such a person earns /in America/. 
Because, let's face it, there aren't any other countries, are there?

It also /insists/ on using imperial measurements, even though the UK 
uses almost exclusively metric. It's bizarre; it manages to select the 
right currency, date format, applicable taxes, bank holidays, but 
completely fails to use the correct measuring system. It's not hard!

> In short, the software fails on purpose, for commercial rather than
> technical reasons. And I despise such anti-features.

There is no free lunch.

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