Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?

#101

Post by 5- » Sat, Nov 06, 2021, 8:55 PM UTC

mike_d wrote: post #71

onedognight wrote: post #4

I use it regularly. Sometimes it’s broken, and maybe nobody notices but me? :) Their natural language queries for things that I know they know about are amazing. Here are some that I have used recently. You really need to see these results to appreciate them. I wanted to know how tall my daughter might be. 8 year old female 55 lbs http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=8%20year%20old%20female... I wanted to know the nu…

Also a frequent WA user. I use it for things I could calculate, but are much faster to just ask in plain text. How much that cloud instance really costs $0.03/hr * 1 month Bandwidth calculations for hosting providers 10 TB per month in Mbps

you might want to try units(1).

https://www.gnu.org/software/units/units.html

the input language is less flexible than wolframalpha/google, but i quickly got used to it. it's nice to have something local and reliable. you can also define custom units.

i prefer using it in terse mode:

    $ units -t 0.03$/hr*1month
    21.914532 US$
    $ units -t 10TB/month Mbps
    30.421214

Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?

#102

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Nov 06, 2021, 8:56 PM UTC

jawns wrote: post #82

To understand the state of Wolfram Alpha, you have to understand the guy behind it. Wolfram Alpha was a pet project of Stephen Wolfram, the creator of Mathematica. He had grand visions for it. And for the first few years, it seemed like he was doubling down on it. But then he got bored and started tackling a bigger problem: his own solution to the "theory of everything" problem -- something that has eluded the world'…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?

#103

Post by spindle » Sat, Nov 06, 2021, 8:58 PM UTC

This question reminds me of the time someone wrote to the letters page of a print publication (I think it was The New Statesman) asking "Whatever happened to the composer of the theme music for Trumpton?" (a popular children's TV series in the 1960s) and the composer wrote back saying "What do you mean whatever happened to me?"

Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?

#104

Post by pbhjpbhj » Sat, Nov 06, 2021, 8:59 PM UTC

For me it stopped working several years ago and wouldn't ever return answers for queries. I futzed about with it to try and make it work; came back a few times over a couple of years as I had been a big fan. Just assumed they'd killed it somehow. Mentioned it on HN and others said it worked. For some reason it works again for me now -- it not working allowed me to discover Geogebra, which was nice and served a lot of my previous uses for WA.

Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?

#105

Post by ModernMech » Sat, Nov 06, 2021, 9:02 PM UTC

katzgrau wrote: post #91

jawns wrote: post #82

To understand the state of Wolfram Alpha, you have to understand the guy behind it. Wolfram Alpha was a pet project of Stephen Wolfram, the creator of Mathematica. He had grand visions for it. And for the first few years, it seemed like he was doubling down on it. But then he got bored and started tackling a bigger problem: his own solution to the "theory of everything" problem -- something that has eluded the world'…

I'm not sure you intend it, but your comment kind of makes Wolfram sounds like some sort of crank. He's a leading thinker obsessively interested in this idea that everything around us is the product of a simple, fundamental ruleset. He's sitting on the bleeding edge of human knowledge where, honestly, everyone is at risk of being full of shit. Scientific consensus isn't really any kind of indicator of future breakthr…

They don’t make him sound like a crank, but like a narcissist, which Wolfram definitely is. Not that it’s really a bad thing, most lang devs are a little narcissistic in my experience. Comes with the territory. But the guy named his language after himself. No one does that! Creating a language is already a very ego-driven endeavor, but naming it after yourself is next-level egoist.

Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?

#106

Post by JanMa » Sat, Nov 06, 2021, 9:03 PM UTC

I used it a lot while pursuing my electrical engineering degree. It's ability to solve almost any mathematical formula and to show you the solution step by step is just plain awesome.

I guess it's safe to say I would not have passed some algebra and electrical engineering exams without it.

One tip I have (not sure if it still works though): Buy the Android or iOS app for a few bucks to get access to the step by step solutions if you can't afford the pro subscription.

Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?

#107

Post by glenstein » Sat, Nov 06, 2021, 9:04 PM UTC

katzgrau wrote: post #91

jawns wrote: post #82

To understand the state of Wolfram Alpha, you have to understand the guy behind it. Wolfram Alpha was a pet project of Stephen Wolfram, the creator of Mathematica. He had grand visions for it. And for the first few years, it seemed like he was doubling down on it. But then he got bored and started tackling a bigger problem: his own solution to the "theory of everything" problem -- something that has eluded the world'…

I'm not sure you intend it, but your comment kind of makes Wolfram sounds like some sort of crank. He's a leading thinker obsessively interested in this idea that everything around us is the product of a simple, fundamental ruleset. He's sitting on the bleeding edge of human knowledge where, honestly, everyone is at risk of being full of shit. Scientific consensus isn't really any kind of indicator of future breakthr…

He is both a crank and an innovator, and comments regarding his crankery are perfectly appropriate.

I think his "new kind of science" needs to be singled out from Wolfram alpha and Mathematica as especially crank-ish. It appears to be an attempt at a grand foundational philosophical statement, but it doesn't interact with pre-existing literature that covers similar territory, conveys ideas with pictures and informal statements without robust definitions, doesn't have an underlying bedrock of concepts or uniform vocabulary, and doesn't have the focus or clarity of purpose to rise to the level of being right or wrong. And it nevertheless maintains a grandiose tone of establishing an entirely new domain of science

It's not necessarily wrong, but it is unfortunately very vague and concerningly childish, even though I think it does have some meaningful things to say. It's a very fair example in favor of crankery.

Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?

#108

Post by ReleaseCandidat » Sat, Nov 06, 2021, 9:05 PM UTC

peheje wrote: post #59

ReleaseCandidat wrote: post #20

I mainly use it as an english dictionary of math terminology. Although for the basics of differential geometry like the Weingarten equations and the Dupin indicatrix WA is lacking - as is Wikipedia except for the articles in the german Wikipedia. And I haven't found a way to get to the 'Weingarten equations' searching for 'Weingarten', you only find him by the full name 'Julius Weingarten'. :( https://de.wikipedia.or…

If only there was some way to contribute to the english wiki (article or search) when you are lucky enough to understand the (better) german one... :-)

That's a bit recursive. I'd have needed english translations of the german articles to get to know the english math terms to be able to write about them in english :)

Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?

#109

Post by gadrev » Sat, Nov 06, 2021, 9:10 PM UTC

isoprophlex wrote: post #83

I use it exclusively when I'm drunk, to calculate how drunk I am "4 drinks in 3 hours at 64 kg"

I can't beleive this works.

Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?

#110

Post by cleansingfire » Sat, Nov 06, 2021, 9:12 PM UTC

katzgrau wrote: post #91

jawns wrote: post #82

To understand the state of Wolfram Alpha, you have to understand the guy behind it. Wolfram Alpha was a pet project of Stephen Wolfram, the creator of Mathematica. He had grand visions for it. And for the first few years, it seemed like he was doubling down on it. But then he got bored and started tackling a bigger problem: his own solution to the "theory of everything" problem -- something that has eluded the world'…

I'm not sure you intend it, but your comment kind of makes Wolfram sounds like some sort of crank. He's a leading thinker obsessively interested in this idea that everything around us is the product of a simple, fundamental ruleset. He's sitting on the bleeding edge of human knowledge where, honestly, everyone is at risk of being full of shit. Scientific consensus isn't really any kind of indicator of future breakthr…

He has done some exciting work, but he hasn't done any physics in ages. If you don't (by choice or ability) do the work to prove your ideas, you can't expect anyone else to. If he wants to revolutionize physics, he can't leave that to others. That attitude is a defining characteristic of a crank.

Cranks can do good work, but when they get out of their depth and don't realize it, blaming everyone else, that's when they become cranks.

I like Wolfram, and I think there are some interesting and fundamental insights in among the relentless self promotion, but ANKOS is a painful read, even though I find cellular automata a fascinating model.