17 Mei 09 - 21:00Wolfram Alpha

On Monday, May 18 Wolfram|Alpha will be officially released. The new search engine generates direct information instead of links to webpages. Wolfram|Alpha generates systematic data, like the outcome of calculations and objective knowledge on a great many domains. In their own words:

Wolfram|Alpha's long-term goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone. We aim to collect and curate all objective data; implement every known model, method, and algorithm; and make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything.

The inventor of this ground-breaking 'knowledge engine' is the scientist Stephen Wolfram, founder of Wolfram Research and best known for the popular mathematical application Mathematica. You could say that he made his successful application Mathematica available by the internet.

But Wolfram|Alpha is more. Ultimately it is supposed to gather all systematic knowledge from essentially any domain that is based on systematic knowledge. On Friday, May 15 the first step of this ultimate goal has been taken. The website went live with the usual hick ups. After two days of testing Wolfram|Alpha will be official released tomorrow, Monday, May 18.

It looks like Wolfram|Alpha stands between Google and Wikipedia on the web. Wolfram|Alpha can do things which Google and Wikipedia can't and vice versa. All three internet enterprises claim to be world leading knowledge bases. Hereby is the ambition of Wolfram|Alpha probably the biggest of all:

We want to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers to factual queries

Finally, we will find the ultimate truth! Or maybe not?

Check out the introduction movie.

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Gebruikte Tags: wolfram_alpha

16 Mei 09 - 14:20Da Piano Funk

Daft Punk goes classical. It doesn't surprise me that the songs sound great on piano.

Performed by The Napkin Holder
Via Synthtopia

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Gebruikte Tags: daft_punk

14 Mei 09 - 20:20Record

This week Propellerhead Software has launched a beta version of their new audio recording tool Record. Record is a standalone application, but Propellerhead's popular virtual studio rack Reason can be approached within Record. For years Propellerhead claimed that audio recording didn't fit in their approach. They obviously changed their minds.

Check out the product trailer and the first demo's: part 1 and 2 and 3.

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Gebruikte Tags: demo, propellerhead, record

14 Mei 09 - 19:13Against all odds

Off topic, but this soccer report from Belgium is really funny. In soccer it's a good habit to play the ball out off the field when a player is injured. When the game continues, the team which has shot out the ball gets it back from their opponent. This is not based on an official rule but on fair play.

I have always wondered what will happen when you ignore the habit of returning the ball to your opponent. Finally in Belgium a player refuses to do what everyone expects from him. The outcome is predictable and hilarious.

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Gebruikte Tags: miscellaneous

10 Mei 09 - 09:00USB flash drive gadgets

Portable USB flash drives are not very outstanding in design. But now you're flash drive can look like the legandary E-mu SP1200 and AKAI MPC 2000XL drum machines. W00T! Ultra nerdness.

If you're looking for a more businesslike solution, check out the LaCie iamaKey USB flash drive. Fits nice to your domestic keys.

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Gebruikte Tags: iamakey, lacie, mpc2000xlflashdrive