Wolfram Alpha - Alpha? Really?

The Wolfram Alpha, launched on May 15, 2009, claims to be a computational engine that has all the answers to your queries.  It has initiated much discussion on whether it will kill Google, taking over as the ultimate search engine, or will simply be a ‘nerdy’ assistant on someone’s science project.

The Atlantic carries an article on the useful features of Wolfram Alpha, and how it really provides answers while search engines like Google and Kosmix only claim to do so.  The writer says that Google only shows us the direction to pages that it thinks are relevant.

ZDNet wonders if Wolfram Alpha is a Wikipedia Killer, while SearchEngineLand.com says that WA is what they would call “Un-Google”. Pretty high praise, also seconded by ITProPortal.com and DailySEOblog.com.

Others are not so sure.  Epicenter says WA simply fails the cool test.  Ryan Singel describes it as “the nerdy kid the other kids only talk to when they need help with a physics exam…”!  I have to agree on that.  WA brings up only facts and figures, no matter what the search term is.  Google, on the other hand, brings up results from all spectrums, from facts and trivia to entertainment and Twitter updates.  If facts are all you want, we do have Wikipedia, which is the input of many people, whereas WA is one entity’s research.  Blogs.com says that Wolfram Alpha is a huge nerd, in spite of its winning computation moments.

Mashable’s post on Wolfram Alpha lists out 5 things that WA does better than Google: complex queries, localization, precision, calculation, and comparison.  I can only imagine a silver-haired science professor working on his post-doctoral, staring with admiration at Wolfram Alpha, lapping up the facts and figures it doles out.  I simply cannot picture me or any other Internet surfer looking for some normal useful info on Wolfram Alpha.

So, who is WA for? CNet News carries the comments of some users who say that WA is for ‘the tech crowd – the kind of people who want to dig into the data’.  Another user says he would not recommend it to normal users as WA is very picky about search terms and accuracy of words and spellings, which difficulty you would never face on Google (italics is mine).

In a lighter vein, one user says how he entered his own name into Wolfram Alpha, and the engine responded with a very curt “Wolfram Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input”!  I received the same response when I searched for this 'Ad Libitum', whereas on Google I would have found my Twitter account, a post from this blog, and at least one other human being who has a blog with the same name.

In conclusion, go to Wolfram Alpha by all means, but only when you have some serious facts and figures to crunch, or when your science paper is due tomorrow.  For a more thorough search of the entire online world use Google, or if you want them arranged according to your interests, use Kosmix.  If you want a scholarly look at the topic, look up Wikipedia.

Wolfram Alpha has a long way to go if it wants to nudge out these big fellas…!

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Other sites I referred to:

Technology Review

Geeks are Sexy

LockerGnome.com

National Novel Writing Month- November 2009 Contest

I have enrolled myself into the National Novel Writing Month Contest. This is a great contest, where you only get to start writing your novel on November 1st and have to end by November 30th.  You do get all year to prepare, though!  Your novel should have 50,000 words.  Check out the web site for more information on this.

Believe it or Not! I have also started writing my own novel.  It is about a writer (duh!). That's all I'm saying right now, because that's all I know!

I am treading virgin waters here.  Never tried my hand at fiction before, but fiction it will be.  Surprisingly, I have already written 2 and a half pages.  The working title of my novel is "In Good Faith".  Well, there's someone in there called Faith, so I reckoned... Well, you know.  Ok, whatever.

The pure excitement of it all (and my inability to believe that I have actually let myself into writing fiction!) kept me up almost all of last night :0P  The web site suggested that I tell a whole lot of people that I have decided to write a novel that will be done by November of this year.  That way, I will be sure to finish my novel just to avoid embarrassment.

So, this is me putting myself in an embarrassing situation of major proportions...

Wish Me Luck.... on everything.  Write to me if you have enrolled yourself in, and be my writing buddy.

10 Mother’s Day Quotes

While we’re at that Mother’s Day sentiment, I thought I could put down here some of the wonderful quotes I found on Mothers.  Here they are:

“A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie”.  ~Tenneva Jordan

“A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after”.  ~Peter De Vries

“Sweater, n.:  garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly”.  ~Ambrose Bierce

“All women become like their mothers.  That is their tragedy.  No man does.  That's his”.  ~Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895

“Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother”.  ~Oprah Winfrey

“You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back”.  ~William D. Tammeus

“Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body”.  ~Elizabeth Stone

“Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs... since the payment is pure love”.  ~Mildred B. Vermont

“Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible”.  ~Marion C. Garretty, quoted in A Little Spoonful of Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul

“All mothers are working mothers”.  ~Author Unknown

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Courtesy: http://www.quotegarden.com/index.html

Growing Pains on Mother’s Day

"The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.  She never existed before.  The woman existed, but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new". ~ Rajneesh


I doubt my mother would agree with that. Let alone my grandmother. You see, I grew up in a society where every woman is expected to have motherhood, wifeliness (is that a word?), docility, and kitchen and household skills the day she is born. All other skills were taught. Motherhood was always left to good woman sense. My mother showed me how to do the dishes, wash clothes, clean floors, boil rice, do the laundry, make the bed, and vacuum under the sofa. She never once talked about how to bring up a child. She probably thought I should learn that through observation, or that it should come by instinct. Now, my sister and I were brought up just like my brother was – equal opportunities, equal freedom, and equal couch space in front of the TV. All of us were expected to put our own dirty plates into the wash basin; none of us were expected to clean them. Basically, I didn't know motherhood from Adam (or is that Eve?).


Suddenly I was 24, I got married. Within 7 months I had a baby! Mothers often make the joke, "My daughter is herself a baby, and she has another baby now!" That is not funny, and I kid you Not. Motherhood was not born with me, I swear. It was born with my daughter. My motherhood is not yet 2 years old. I have motherhood tantrums that equal my daughter's child hood tantrums. I am still learning the ropes. I die a little when women gasp that I forgot to wipe the chocolate off my 2-year-old's dirty shirt. This is all coming over in a very bad way, but I hope mothers out there understand what I mean – Motherhood is difficult.


The only thing that came long before the motherhood is the love for my child. That love was born when we first found out I was pregnant. That love grew with every new cell added to my daughter's being. That love will continue to grow forever. Everything I do for her, I do out of that love. I cannot be the best mother in the world. I may not turn out the plumpest, cutest, most intelligent, ultra-achieving child in the universe, but I can nurture a friendly, humane, intelligent, hard-working, empowered spirit in my little girl. I can introduce her to the best in the world and in herself. I can grow along with my daughter to be the best mother I can be.


With every growth spurt of my motherhood, I realize that my mother is still growing. I also realize how much my mother has must have grown, and how fast, with the least amount of help, bringing up three little children, in a foreign land. Every growing pains I have makes me grateful to my mother, who had the same pains but never let them show. Mom, I love you. I hope 25 years hence, Debbie feels I am half as good as you. That will be my true reward.


Happy Mother's Day Mom, and all growing Mothers of the world.

Kosmix.com: Searches Everything!

I came across Kosmix.com on a blog post today. This is a search engine that is completely different from Google. It organizes the search page into topics like Reference, Media, News & Blogs etc. When you search a term, the results are arranged again as Twitter feeds (which I totally loved!), online discussions, Q&As, Videos and more. At one glance, I had it all. It is easy to use, and a refreshing change from Google.

Okay, I am not saying that Google is no good. I love Google search, and it is absolutely my browser homepage. Still, I am happy I found Kosmix.

Kosmix.com was founded by Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman. These guys also created Junglee, a shopping search engine (!!) which was later bought by Amazon.com.

So, these guys are all about search engines with a difference. You'll understand that from the article on Wikipedia. Well, I recommend this search engine, so that you can get a different perspective of things. Check it out and tell me all about it.

The Amazon Kindle 2

The Amazon Kindle 2 must be a book worm's idea of technology heaven.  Gone are the days of reading the written word on the very paper it was written on. No more having to keep one hand free to turn pages, doggy-earing pages you want to come back to next day, worrying about termites eating into your precious library, or scouring way side book stores and vendors for that book you always wanted to read.

The Kindle 2 has redefined the reading experience. Simply download and read. I remember, in the not-so-distant past, people used to imagine of a world that was so technologically advanced that books were extinct. Instead they had a technological device that held all the books they ever wanted to read. Guess Amazon decided that it no longer need be someone's imagination.

Slim as a pencil, this cool e-book lets you read books, newspapers, magazines, and even blogs.  Barely 10.2 ounces in weight, this is your ultimate library when you are traveling light! Check out this video demo here.



What I like best about it is that it is glare-free, so you can even read it in broad daylight without the sun shining in your eyes, and it has long battery life.

It hold over 1,500 books, imagine! That's more books than my real library has. And all those books that I am dying to read, but are just not available in local bookstores - suddenly within my reach!

And stores even have really cool Kindle covers in a wide range of colors. This is the idea of heaven if you love books, a lot and technology, and even more style!



You know, maybe in the near future, we would see authors having e-book signings! Gosh! I would love to have an e-book signed by J.K.Rowling!

The Finish Line

I have never run many races in my life so far, whether rat or otherwise. So I do not have any 'record-breaking' memories to choose from when I think of a finish line. What comes to mind, though, is a 'Rabbit Race' we kids ran, back when we were in grade three, and the world was a rainbow. Apparently, I was on the other (more rainy) side of the mountain...whatever.

Anyway, our teacher, a wonderfully sweet lady with a beautiful singing voice gave us our instructions to run the race (but not in the form of a song). She should have sung it, maybe then everyone would have listened....I digress.

Anyway, during rehearsals (yeah, we used to have dry runs, many, in fact), the teacher said that little containers of mango juice (my favorite kind) would be placed on chairs at the start line and each one of us (dressed as rabbits - rabbit ears made from pink chart paper, socks on our palms for paws, and socks on our feet for, well, rabbit feet..duh), had to drink up all, she said All... the juice as fast as we can, and run (no, hop) to the finish line. Sure, that's easy, right?

Anyway, (Gosh, I sound like Ellen Degeneres), the big day arrived, and we lined up for the race, every little girl with paper ears, sock paws and hopping rabbit feet. Our teacher blew the whistle and everyone hopped to the juice containers, picked them up, started sipping (so far so good), and...dropped the containers and ran....Hey wait! You guys are supposed to Finish the drink, and then run. I was following instructions and the others were finishing the race... where do I come from, anyway, gaaawd! No prizes for guessing what position I finished in at that race. My mom still has a picture of me at that race - lopsided rabbit rabbit ears covering half an eye, drink in hand, and a "What The..." expression on my face!

I look at the winners of that race now, and I wonder if they still have the head start - cool jobs, cooler hairdos, parties, pets, apartments and travel photos - while I try to not to burn breakfast, then force-feed it to my daughter Debbie, and get to work on time.

And then I turn around and look at her toothy grin and the love in her eyes, and I think, well, Mama Rabbit's going to sip this one in, moment by moment, before the next race catches up... We got time to sip the juices, smell the roses .... The finish line can wait.

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This is my entry to the "WriteAway" contest over at Scribbit for the month of January, 2009. Check out the contest and give it a go. She has great prizes every time around!