I still definitely use it for teaching big O comparisons in a live / malleable way. Not sure I know of a comparable resource for that but maybe someone out there in the HNstroverse does?
Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?
141–150 of 281 posts
Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?
#142I use it to check some results from derivative exercises for my calculus class.
Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?
#143I only ever use it for date math For whatever reason, I like keeping track of 1000 day anniversaries https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=1000+days+after+today Shortly before any kind of 3rd anniversary or birthday I try to remember to check this.
You might like this little toy website I made a couple of years ago: https://interesting-anniversaries.com/ From my readme: “Have you ever wanted to know when you turn 2 billion seconds old? How about 33,333,333 minutes old? When do you get to celebrate your 555,555th hour of life? As it turns out, all three of those milestones occur in the same 24-hour period!”
Wow Hackernews never ceases to amaze me, I enjoyed this. TIL I missed my 1 billionth second. You should also make a programmer mode, one that shows you powers of 2 (like 1024 days old)
Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?
#144I use it a couple of times a week. Sometimes it’s brilliant, and sometimes I have to find my answer somewhere else. Most of the time it does its job.
Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?
#145I 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…
> You really need to see these results to appreciate them.
Seems more like the quality of the queries rather than the results. Many of the complaints I see about google and friends is related to them dumbing down search for the global common denominator.
Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?
#146"how many 3mm circles pack in 15mm circle" WA offers answers with drawings. Google cannot do that. https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=how+many+3mm+circles+p...
You're severely underselling Google's incapability, e.g. https://i.imgur.com/UoIZSU2.png
I don’t understand the problem. You are asking what is 48*6, and the correct answer is right at the top.
Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?
#147I 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…
Just asked a friend about this: > 1 egg, two slices whole wheat bread, one slice of cheddar, two.. leaves of lettuce .. and he said it's wrong and useless (!) - giving me examples and numbers as: protein assimilability from bread is 40% etc. Is there a way to get correct answers from Wolfram regarding this ? ( assimilability of doesn't work) Edit: Excuse me, what's wrong with you downvoters - it's a legit question. O…
Wolfram isn't reporting how much protein you'll get from eating something; it's reporting how much there is in the bread. Protein assimilation depends on a huge range of factors, and varies significantly between individuals (based on everything from gut microbiome to health factors to how much you chew your food to your saliva production to... Well, it's a long list). There's no way a website could report the amount of protein you will get from bread. Reporting how much is in the bread makes much more sense. It's a shame your friend didn't explain that.
This is something that actually annoys me immensely when people say "you eat too much!" to fat people. Two people can have the exact same diet and the exact same exercise regime, and if one assimilates particular foods more effectively they'll be getting more calories, and put on weight. Food intake is far more complex than many people believe.
Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?
#148A more important question: what happened to Wolfram? I think they missed an opportunity to have an enormous market by pricing themselves into a niche. They had so much cool stuff that could have played a much larger role in most developers lives. And which would have funneled more users into higher end premium products.
Every now and then I go to their site to have a look -- and then realize that I'm not going to go subscribe to some piece of software I'm unsure I will be using enough to justify the cost.
Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't beleive this works.
I don't think it's accurate though. It says I'd be at around half of the DUI limit after 2 glasses of wine in one hour. That's certainly not right.
How much do you weigh? That sounds close to right for most people I think.
Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to Wolfram Alpha?
#150I 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…
Just asked a friend about this: > 1 egg, two slices whole wheat bread, one slice of cheddar, two.. leaves of lettuce .. and he said it's wrong and useless (!) - giving me examples and numbers as: protein assimilability from bread is 40% etc. Is there a way to get correct answers from Wolfram regarding this ? ( assimilability of doesn't work) Edit: Excuse me, what's wrong with you downvoters - it's a legit question. O…
It might help to explain what your friend says is “wrong and useless” so others could provide feedback.
It also might help to avoid insinuating things about strangers online in order to promote discussion and not stifle it.