Rants

Posted on 8 Jun 2009 at 15:25

In my tantrum above I complained that some people may feel stupid when buying books that claim to be 'For Dummies'.

Now I have encountered something worse - something that makes me feel every bit the underachiever. It's like being transported back to an A-level physics class during which I've been caught day-dreaming and am now being asked to calculate a parabola. Except that it can't be a parabola because I know what one of those is. It has to be something of which I have no concept.

The reason I feel 18 years old again (and not in a good way) is because I have tried the new Wolfram Alpha knowledge engine.

The media was very excited when we learned that a new sort-of search engine was being launched. Could this be the new Google? Will it shift paradigms or do the other things that marketing people like to twitter on about?

Goodness knows, because I'm blowed if I can make it do anything useful. It's interesting to see what others make of it, mainly because I don't want to be the only one who feels like they have been caught doodling through Quantum Phenomena.

If you want to give it a go, visit www.wolframalpha.com and see what you think. Remember, though, it's not a search engine. It's a 'computational knowledge engine'. Personally, I reckon that Wolfram Alpha is just a bit too clever for its own good.

Author: Simon Edwards

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