Is Watson Elementary?: Pt. 2

I used to be on top of  Artificial Intelligence -- I wrote a column for and ultimately went on to be the Editor-in-Chief of AI Expert, the leading trade magazine in the AI field at the time. I've tried to stay, not professionally competent, but familiar with the field. That has …

more ...

Top 10 Watson Answers

  1. What is Lady Gaga?
  2. What is Batman would totally defeat Godzilla?
  3. What is boxers, because the boys need to breathe?
  4. What is the Butlerian Jihad?
  5. What is Team Edward?
  6. What is orange you glad I didn't say banana?
  7. What is antikythera mechanism? ("Sorry, we were looking for 'Who is Adam …
more ...

Is Watson Elementary?

We have to be very quick to ask if the astonishment we feel at Watson's performance on Jeopardy is a projection. Eliza, the computerized Rogerian psychoanalyst does little more than slightly disguise the question "why do you feel that?" -- a question that people are so delighted to answer that they …

more ...

Computer Tackles Jeopardy This Week

The TV quiz show Jeopardy this week will feature an IBM Computer ("Watson") competing against the two winningest Jeopardy champions. My prediction is that the computer is going to win. I base that on the name of the machine -- not Blue J but "Watson." That's the name of IBM's founder …

more ...



Kickstarter: A Crowd-Sourced Dragon's Den

Kickstarter is a service that allows you to raise money for projects easily: write up a proposal, come up with a set of bonuses that your funders get (You've watched PBS, you know the drill: "For \\(50, you get a lifetime license and a tote bag! For \\)100, you get …

more ...

Goldilocks: A race-aware Java runtime - Microsoft Research

Goldilocks: A race-aware Java runtime - Microsoft Research.

This one's been in my backlog to post about for awhile. Not only is it interesting as a concept, I find it also interesting that it's a Java runtime and not based on the CLR. Technical reason or just researcher interest?

more ...

Surfing "Jaws" At Night

The Eddie did not go, but the winter storms that have kept the waves big all January gave someone an opportunity to do something truly nutsy -- surfing Maui's "Jaws" break in the middle of the night.

Sure, it was a stunt and, for surfing, stinks of dissipation and decadence, but …

more ...

Sho -- A "Playground for Data" Written in IronPython

Sho looks interesting, a .NET set of libraries, utilities, and an interactive console for rapid prototyping, data analysis, and visualization.

I am not sure how or if this interacts with Pivot, another Microsoft tool that seems to cover the same ground.

more ...