[dba-Tech] OT: Wolfram|Alpha

I just saw this article on Wolfram Alpha.  A pretty good description I think.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2347236,00.asp






________________________________
From: Steve Erbach <erbachs at gmail.com>
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 6:53:47 AM
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] OT: Wolfram|Alpha

Gustav,

In the days since, I haven't noticed that it's slow except for a few
queries where I saw a skinny progress bar appear.  Normally now the
answer is returned quite quickly.  I haven't done much beyond the
playing stage, though.  For instance, I found that there's a limit to
the number of sides of a regular polygon it will display.  If you type
in "30-gon" you'll be shown a "visual representation" of the shape as
well as a nifty "Diagonals" plot.  But if you go up to 31-gon all
you'll get will be a text description.

I've been following the Wolfram|Alpha Facebook discussion as well as
the blog.  I've lusted after Mathematica for years and played with a
few of the demo versions.  I bought Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science"
and even wrote an Access routine using Steve Lebans' graphics library
to produce one of the automatons in that book. So, I've been a Wolfram
fan for some time and I hope that Wolfram|Alpha does very well.

Steve Erbach
Neenah, WI

On Sat, May 16, 2009 at 12:51 PM, Gustav Brock <Gustav at cactus.dk> wrote:
> Hi Steve (switched channel)
>
> Yes, it is slow.
> However, the knowledge of this incredible machine has limits, though hard to believe.
> I'm a bit proud I found one item it doesn't know of: Cartesian (product or join). That is somewhat weird, as this is well-known in mathematics:
>
>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesian_product
>
> In SQL, this returns every possible combination of records from two or more tables:
>
> Select
>  TableA.*,
>  TableB.*
> From
>  TableA,
>  TableB
>
> /gustav
>
>
>>>> erbachs at gmail.com 16-05-2009 19:30 >>>
> Gustav,
>
> I hear you about the heavy load.  In the past few hours I'd say that
> 25% of my queries get the "Sorry Dave!" warning about over capacity.
>
> Steve Erbach
>
> On Sat, May 16, 2009 at 3:44 AM, Gustav Brock <Gustav at cactus.dk> wrote:
>> Hi Steve
>>
>> Thanks!
>> This could be extremely useful at a high level - though currently the site seams to be under heavy load ...
>>
>> /gustav
>>
>>>>> erbachs at gmail.com 16-05-2009 06:44 >>>
>> Dear Group,
>>
>> I watched the live launch webcast of Wolfram|Alpha tonight from about
>> 7:30-10:30 CDT.  It is online now, though the official launch date is
>> Monday:
>>
>> www.wolframalpha.com
>>
>> One of the first queries I typed in was: "circumference of the milky
>> way in cm".  Wolfram|Alpha gave me the answer, whereas a Google search
>> just gave me a list of Milky Way web sites.

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