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OK, so a while ago they started burbling about the "transcendental new
functionality which will fundamentally revolutionise the way people use
Wolfram|Alpha".
Well, now it's here:
http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2012/02/08/announcing-wolframalpha-pro/
As you can see, it /won't/ revolutionise or in fact alter the way people
use Wolfram|Alpha at all. Because Wolfram|Alpha is staying exactly the
same. Instead, they've launched Wolfram|Alpha Pro.
Which costs money.
So what's new? Well, the big thing is that you can now grab any random
spreadsheet file on your computer and upload it to the WA Pro website,
and get an automatic statistical analysis:
http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2012/02/09/launching-a-democratization-of-data-science/
The idea of the original WA was that you could type in some free-form
text, and WA would figure out what the hell that's supposed to mean,
possibly go look up some raw data from its vast curated data stores, and
then do some computations with it. 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. (Presumably you can still use the
query field to /select/ which analyses you're particularly interested in.)
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.)
As well as raw data input, you also get to customise the interface, and
download interactive versions of the output. If you I ask WA about the
weather in Cambridge, it is smart enough to work out from my IP
geolocation that I mean Cambridge UK, but it is too stupid to figure out
that in the UK we use Centigrade, not Fahrenheit. So now (for $60/year)
I can set Centigrade as my default. Thanks, but I'll pass on that one.
For a long time, it's irritated me that simple queries work, but as the
query complexity increases, at some arbitrary point WA either pretends
not to understand any more, or otherwise refuses to answer the query.
It's not that the system /cannot/ answer, it's that it's been programmed
not to. Because, you know, we're a commercial entity here, and we want
to encourage you to give us your money in exchange for answers. Free
computational knowledge for everyone, my foot!
As an example of what I'm talking about, if you ask for the standard
deviation of, say, six numbers, it tells you. But if you supply too many
numbers, it refuses to do the calculation. There's no technical reason
for it to refuse - certainly it understands the question, and knows
a copy of Mathematica, with its unlimited input size, when you can do
the same calculation for free without even installing any software?
In short, the software fails on purpose, for commercial rather than
technical reasons. And I despise such anti-features.
Well, now they're offering WA Pro, which presumably doesn't have these
arbitrary restrictions. Or maybe it does? I don't know - mainly because
I'm not paying money just for the privilege of a new toy to play with.
It's entertaining, but not entertaining enough to warrant the price tag.
Don't get me wrong, it /is/ very cool that you can just type in some
text, or - now - input a big chunk of data, and see the computer
automatically analyse it, Star Trek style. But other than being an
amusing toy, it's not especially /useful/. And it doesn't /work/
particularly well either. It knows about so many subjects that if you
enter a query, it often struggles to comprehend which topic your talking
about.
For example, I'm trying to figure out the nutritional information for
cheese on toast, and I eventually get a result telling me that the
distance from Cheddar, Somerset to Toast, North Carolina is 3,828 miles
- which is also 6,160 km, by the way. And at the speed of light, that
would take 20.5 ms to cross. Fascinating, but utterly unrelated to my
actual question. :-P
(Also: America, why the *hell* do you have a city named Toast? What is
*wrong* with you people?!)
Then there's my repeated attempts to make it tell me what the wavelength
of a sound of a specific frequency is. WA knows what the speed of sound
is. It knows how to do wave computations. But it WILL NOT answer the
damned question! You have to manually figure out how to do the
calculation yourself, and then ask WA to do that, because it's far too
stupid to figure this out for itself. Which is silly, because that's
kind of the whole /point/ of WA. Google can tell me what the speed of
sound is, and even do the arithmetic for me. WA is supposed to make it
automatic. It fails too often.
Still, even with all that said, I keep hoping that at some point,
somebody will make something just like WA, but less sucky. Something
which never refuses a query for commercial reasons. Something that
returns results as text and vector graphics rather than GIF images.
Something which lets you interactively build large queries from smaller
ones, rather than each question being a new, separate interaction. And
lets you specify a context in which to interpret a query, to give the
machine some hope of answering sensibly.
But hey, who's going to build that? What would be in it for them? Who
would pay for it all? Yeah, it's not gonna happen. :-P
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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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> (Also: America, why the *hell* do you have a city named Toast? What is
> *wrong* with you people?!)
>
Because at first they gave their towns names like "El Pueblo de Nostra
Senora, La Reina De Los Angeles De Porciuncula" it quickly got to
complicated...
Also, as a Non-United Statian American, I'd like to point out that
America is a continent, not a country. Don't lump us as with these
bozos. Thanks.
--
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/* flabreque */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/* @ */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/* gmail.com */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }
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On 10/02/2012 01:46 PM, Francois Labreque wrote:
>
>> (Also: America, why the *hell* do you have a city named Toast? What is
>> *wrong* with you people?!)
>>
>
> Because at first they gave their towns names like "El Pueblo de Nostra
> Senora, La Reina De Los Angeles De Porciuncula" it quickly got to
> complicated...
What, like that place in Wales called... uh...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanfairpwllgwyngyll
...which apparently is a complete description of exactly where the place is.
> Also, as a Non-United Statian American, I'd like to point out that
> America is a continent, not a country. Don't lump us as with these
> bozos. Thanks.
Ever since the Arrogant Worms, I live in constant fear that somebody
will make this exact point...
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Francois Labreque <fla### [at] videotron ca> wrote:
> Also, as a Non-United Statian American, I'd like to point out that
> America is a continent, not a country. Don't lump us as with these
> bozos. Thanks.
When talking about citizenship, "American" means "a citizen of the USA",
and likewise when talking about countries "America" means "USA". Being
nitpicky about it isn't going to change the terminology. You can try it,
but it will be useless.
--
- Warp
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>
>> (Also: America, why the *hell* do you have a city named Toast? What is
>> *wrong* with you people?!)
>>
>
> Because at first they gave their towns names like "El Pueblo de Nostra
> Senora, La Reina De Los Angeles De Porciuncula" it quickly got to
> complicated...
Beter known as Los Angeles, or just LA...
But, looking at the other extreme, in France, there are a few citys and
vilages named Y. Pronounce that as the english "e".
>
> Also, as a Non-United Statian American, I'd like to point out that
> America is a continent, not a country. Don't lump us as with these
> bozos. Thanks.
>
Alain
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> Francois Labreque<fla### [at] videotronca> wrote:
>> Also, as a Non-United Statian American, I'd like to point out that
>> America is a continent, not a country. Don't lump us as with these
>> bozos. Thanks.
>
> When talking about citizenship, "American" means "a citizen of the USA",
> and likewise when talking about countries "America" means "USA". Being
> nitpicky about it isn't going to change the terminology. You can try it,
> but it will be useless.
>
I was being facetious. What bugs me though, is web sites that force me
to chose between America and Europe, when trying to order stuff, but
when I pick America, they only list the 50 States of the US and/or
expect a five digit postal code.
--
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/* flabreque */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/* @ */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/* gmail.com */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }
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On 13-2-2012 14:10, Francois Labreque wrote:
>> Francois Labreque<fla### [at] videotronca> wrote:
>>> Also, as a Non-United Statian American, I'd like to point out that
>>> America is a continent, not a country. Don't lump us as with these
>>> bozos. Thanks.
>>
>> When talking about citizenship, "American" means "a citizen of the USA",
>> and likewise when talking about countries "America" means "USA". Being
>> nitpicky about it isn't going to change the terminology. You can try it,
>> but it will be useless.
>>
> I was being facetious. What bugs me though, is web sites that force me
> to chose between America and Europe, when trying to order stuff, but
> when I pick America, they only list the 50 States of the US and/or
> expect a five digit postal code.
>
obligatory failblog reference:
http://work.failblog.org/2012/01/11/job-fails-male-female-or-canadian-make-your-choice/
--
tip: do not run in an unknown place when it is too dark to see the
floor, unless you prefer to not use uppercase.
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andrel <byt### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> obligatory failblog reference:
>
http://work.failblog.org/2012/01/11/job-fails-male-female-or-canadian-make-your-choice/
Not as bad as the "male, female, hispanic" I remember once seeing... :P
(Of course either one of those could easily be faked.)
--
- Warp
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