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Azeem › Likes

Jesse Stay
Recently my cousin's head was run over by a car. This is what's left of her helmet. My cousin completely survived because of this helmet. Please think of this before riding a bike without a helmet next time!
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I've ridden only once without a helmet in as long as I can remember. Felt vulnerable! - Adam Loving from StumbleRead
It's true. They work. - Andrew Feinberg
wow... that's amazing. how old is your cousin jesse? - dave mcclure
dave, my cousin's 30, just 1 year younger than me - Jesse Stay from twhirl
You can read her story, in her own words here. I'm inspired: http://thetopotheworld.blogspot.com/ - Jesse Stay from twhirl
This happened to a friend of mine at the beginning of the month. He didn't do so good in the accident, but the helmet obviously saved his life. Thankfully is on his way home tomorrow: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit... - Steve Lacey
I used to ride my bike without the helmet even though it is mandatory in Chennai, India. But after reading this I am not even going to the next street in my bike without helmet. - Sudar
I never wear a helmet. When hearing things like this, I always think of this article.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1.... In the Netherlands no one wears a helmet. It seems safe to me. - Peter Stuifzand
I was hit while riding to work in summer 2006 & did not want anyone to touch my helmet at all costs. If my brain was scrambled, I did not want anyone to touch my egg:) I highly recommend a helmet especially if you think you will not need one! Mine was almost the same color too & manufacturer, but there is no conspiracy there:) - Roney Smith
Bicyclists/motorcyclists that don't wear helmets are better called future organ donors - Brian Sullivan
Thanks for sharing. I ride often at traffic time between cars. always wear my helmet...itsg good to know that It does work :) - jonathan from twhirl
that's incredible... - Jamie Allen from twhirl
Wow, glad to hear your friend is doing well after that. I agree, helmets save lives. Regardless, I've many intentional close-calls by drivers who don't want to share the road. Unfortunately, this is the common attitude where I live (southern US). - pete
we wear helmets for everything: mtb, snowboarding, wakeboarding, skateboarding & even surfing - skulls are fragile why not put a protective layer around it (i also try real hard to not ride on streets - a high percentage of drivers are oblivious to bike riders)... - mike "glemak" dunn
I always ride in my helmet and stay to bike lanes as much as possible. Nice to know the safety tools work. Now, if I can just avoid that NYPD cop with a penchant for knocking people off their bikes. Hopefully, he won't transfer to LAPD. - Jason Toney
Peter Stuifzand, my cousin would be dead if she did not wear her helmet. That article is BS. Wear your helmet! - Jesse Stay from twhirl
Point blank. You are a moron if you ride without a helmet. Sorry, but that's true and you're just going to play into Darwinian theory should you continue to ride without one. Any 'real' cyclist (e.g - you've been hit by a car - and yes, I have been) will tell you this without reservation. Helmets work without a doubt. - AJ Kohn
I survived a nasty motorcycle crash in my youth and would also be dead without that helmet - which cracked in 2 like an egg (that would have been my head, as the nurse aptly put it!). - Susan Beebe
A friend who's a cop refers to motorcycles as donorcycles whenever she sees someone riding without a helmet. I figure that applies for bicycles, too. - ha3rvey (Ho)^3
I was on the way to work Monday morning while it was raining, when the third car in front of me spun out of control and flipped twice into a ditch. When I pulled over to help her out she was just fine. She only had a scratch on her left shoulder from the broken window and was not hurt anywhere else. THE REASON: She was wearing her seat belt. It's nice to hear that these devices are actually helping us! - David Cook
Awesome. I ride my bike to work everyday and I see a lot of people with no helmets on. I don't know how they do it. - Clint Ecker
Wow! I wear mine! Didn't for years - I was lucky I guess. Thanks for posting that! - matthew hunt
OMG... Jesse, do you have a link other than here on FF? I have friends whose kids refuse to wear theirs, and seeing this may help. - Cyndy
Cyndy why not just link here - http://friendfeed.com/e... - Brian Sullivan
Dutch don't wear helmets and they don't get killed by cars http://www.ski-epic.com/amsterd.... - Peter Stuifzand
Actually they do get killed by cars. But culturally they are not inclined to wear helmets. - Brian Sullivan
Cyndy, with this being dug out of the grave, I just noticed your question. That particular picture is from my cousin's blog here: http://thetopotheworld.blogspot.com/2008... You can read the full story here: http://thetopotheworld.blogspot.com/2008... Search for "run over by car" and you can read about her entire ordeal. - Jesse Stay
My brother would not be alive today if he did not wear his helmet while riding his motorcycle; please wear a helmet! - Sandra
If it's nice enough to ride, I probably won't be bothering with the human-powered bike any longer. I always wear a helmet on my gas-powered bike. - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
As long as we won't have mountains, we Dutch will not wear those things. Otherwise we won't be able to recognise the tourists on bikes. - Ton Zijp
Thanks for sharing - I had a mishap with a car, wasn't wearing a helmet at the time, was lucky. If they don't see you, it doesn't matter either way. Wear the helmet! - Rick Bucich
This isn't as extreme as this but when I fell off my bike onto a sidewalk and broke my arm, I thought I was fine for a while. Later, my dad noticed that the whole front of my helmet was all scratched up and the visor in front was torn off! I realized that if I wasn't wearing my helmet on the 2 minute trip down the road, I probably wouldn't be typing this comment right now! Not that I'd be dead but I would have suffered some head damage, limiting my ability to do most things. - Kevin Lyons
Helmets for cyclists are mandatory in Australia. Still gives me the shudders when I'm travelling and see bareheaded bicyclists on the roads. - Kate Foy
Akiva Moskovitz
NO, SIR. I HAVE *YOU* IN *MY* EYE. - Akiva Moskovitz from Bookmarklet
Must... hide.... but.... can't... move... hand..... - Ladybug Heather
Damn I just flipped back to firefox and I got a cat staring at me. I'm now freaked out. - Chris Rivait
Now that is a cat I'd have - Mo Kargas
Shhhhh! It's trying to tell me something... - Josh Haley
EXORCIST!!! aaaaaaaaahhhh!! - Susan Beebe
holy freakin cow! so funny. :D - vijay
redrum, redrum. (So much Awesome!) - AJ Kohn
I have been annoying my WoW guild mates for months in the forums with this avatar. :D - Haggis (Sean Loyless)
Yikes. - Steven Perez
I would like to meet that cat. - Rochelle
I think that cat has already met you... - Akiva Moskovitz
Dogs have owners, cats have staff. - Dave Martin
that cat is creeping me out. his eyes go right through me! - BEX
catstare.gif FTW! This cat has been in our livingroom for an entire week. - veo
this is why I'm a dog person. - marthalib
Stares the crap out of that hamster.http://au.youtube.com/watch... - Will Higgins™
I'd worry when I was sleeping if that cat lived in my house. - Thomas Hawk
Freaks me out! - Mike Reynolds
lolwut?! - ax0n
woah! Have you joined the cat room yet? - orionstarr
lolcats - Noah David Simon
"I gonna kill you.." - Kristian Salonen
I can't help but stare back at crazy kitteh every time this post pops up. Gah! lol! - Carmen
Seriously. Would you people stop liking/commenting on this? It keeps popping up to the top of my stream and I have to stare at it again. - Akiva Moskovitz
Nothing wrong with that. - Jordan Hofker
Sorry ^^" ...AGAIN, muhahahahaa! - Kristian Salonen
Akiva: No problem. - Chris Baskind
Ok, that would freak me out. - Jason Shultz
I have seen this a million times on myspace for years... we all have I'm sure. it is just great to comment here because then we can snag new people that are stupid enough to comment. ....you were the one who posted it Akiva. Fresh Fish for the TROLLS... hey Igor... 86 likes here means the bounty is ours. mo ha ha ha ah Fresh fish were looking at the stupid cat. - Noah David Simon
Let's convert everyone to Trollism! ;-) - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
now you know why kitty is paying attention - Noah David Simon
STARING CAT IS STARING - Akiva Moskovitz
I've already liked this! - veo
holy crap that scared me - Alfredo from fftogo
creeptastic! - CAJ, somewhere else
Sleep well, cameraman...sleep well... - Craig Durling
I want to like this again. - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF
If it just raise its paw, it would be a perfect Maneki Neko (japanese beckoning cat - good luck symbol) - Gilgamesh
I don't think that this cat wants you to have any good luck. - Akiva Moskovitz
NOT AGAIN! - Steven Perez
he is a mesmerist!!! - Mauricio Businari
Happy Caturday ! - johnpiercy
Go away, scary munchkin cat! - Bec Rowe @d0tski
Is this a moving image fakery? I think the cat's head is CGI. - Marg Uerite
"I know he didn't just call me a Ho?!" - Carlton Hackett
I've got one thing you'll understand (Dr. Feelgood)/ he's not what you'd call a glamorous man (Dr. Feelgood)/ Got one thing that's easily understood (Dr. Fee lgood)/ He's the one they call Dr. Feelgood - Christopher Harley
NEVER FORGET - Akiva Moskovitz
Augh! I hate those round-headed Japanese domestic cat breeds. Bleagh. - Spidra Webster
*sniff* one of my first animated gif experiences on FF evar. - Josh Haley
It's the only animated GIF I'll actually tolerate. - Akiva Moskovitz
but...but...so many gifs! - Josh Haley
I've said it before and I'll say it again: if I want animation on my desktop, I'll grab a window and then whip it around the screen with my mouse. - Akiva Moskovitz
It seems to be the only animated gif that doesn't crash my browser, too. COINCIDENCE?! - joey
LOVE IT! Can't believe I missed this back in November. - Mathew™ one of a kind
I feel so guilty about...something - s t e v e
One of the Classics ,, - johnpiercy
that cat freaks me out every time! - Jannifer @wordsforliving
STILL THERE! - Christopher Harley
geezus that's still freaky - Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ
Josh Haley
LOLcat paparazzi
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LOL - Alfredo
I swear one of those is Scoble and he just doesn't want us to know. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Is that @sockington? :P (P.S. I don't think Sockington looks like that) - Jalada
LOL good find. Love it. - Drew Lucas
LOL....cat - Bwana ☠
The cat's face is priceless. - Josh Haley
LOL - Jay
My cats have gotten used to it. Indiana poses and trys to get in shots that aren't supposed to include her. - Rachel Lea Fox
Rachel, that sounds like my son Seth :p - Josh Haley
Oh God ((((((((((: - yasin ghasemi
It's Good ... :)) - Alooche
if only i had a cat to photgraph......... :( - Roberto Bonini
I LOVE photography - H.M.Nasrabadi
BEST post ever! - Merry Xmas FFeeders - AJ
LOL - Arash
LOL at the guy lying on the ground to get the shot. - Rahul Das
I actually LOL - Valley
HA!!! - David Cook
is that scoble with the mullet? - Jim: Dead Like FF
damn. Killed another one! - Jim: Dead Like FF
Yeah, its scoble :) - Roberto Bonini
That's the most likes I think a post of mine has ever recieved. And they say they don't like LOLcats anymore huh? - Josh Haley
thought it was socks the clinton's cat LOL - BEX
BEX, I love how your profile bit says "I can kick your ass!" :) Not only do I believe that 100%, but I also think it might be enjoyable for some reason. - Josh Haley
I'm sure that I could get a little whimper out of you ;) - BEX
Yep, I was right. I'll be in my bunk. - Josh Haley
:)) - Shandiz
I love how cats pose when initmidated with admirers- not this one though - and hey we are looking through lens of 2nd order paparazi (paparazi of paparazi !!!) - Rahul Deodhar
نمي دونم حرفامو مي فهمي رفيق يا نه ولي خيلي جالبه - ramezanifar
This is my most "liked" picture to date, I believe. Long live the LOLcat! - Josh Haley
A superstar cat ! - Renchin(Reina)
haha :P - Michael
kind of celebrity - امیرریدر
So where are the pictures of the cat? I must see them! - Chuck Baggett
I saw this seane in Tokyo, :) - microwalrus
بله همونطوري كه گفتم خيلي جالبه - ramezanifar
"Stupidity- hoomans haz it" - Roberto Bonini
Yes this is the Bill Clinton's cat :) - Nenko Ivanov
I can haz privacy? - George Brickner
I SED, NO PICTUREZ! - Rick Cogley
poor thing.... - theNetImp
What is the actual story behind this picture? - Mellissa Claus
حالا چرا اينا اينطوري بند كردن به اين گربه؟ - ramezanifar
This is my best of to date, according to number of likes. - Josh Haley
Emma
A Kind Of Magic ~ Soap Bubbles photographed by Bogdan Chesaru - http://www.akindofmagic.eu/
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oh wow...stunning! <333 - Live4Emma (L4S)
Beautiful. Best share of the day :) Thanks, Emma. - Baard @ Pixum
awww...thank you, Baard! :) - Emma
L4E: :* <333 - Emma
I LOVE the 3rd one and the 5th one. Awesome - Fa La La La Lindsay
I thought the first one was a flock of sperms. - Yolanda
Beautiful patterns. - John (a.k.a. dendroica)
Cool - Mitchell Tsai
Me too Yolanda, i thought gee that's some pretty sperm, all rainbowy, must be a gay dude. - Steve C
Beautiful! - Michael Fidler
Wow. Hey, @iamdioniscio, look at this. Let's see if this inspires you to write a part 2 to your recent risque post. lols - jan geronimo
Shey, Jamaican of FF
looks like gi away for me - Tyler Gillies
You don't have to leave, you just can't stay here =) - Micah Wittman
Looks like an infinite loop. They'll never leave. - Todd Hoff
Steve Rubel
Two Georgians Say They Have Bigfoot’s Body - NYTimes.com - http://www.nytimes.com/2008...
Two Georgians Say They Have Bigfoot’s Body - NYTimes.com
OK, I now know what my Halloween costume is... "on Friday at a hotel in Palo Alto, Calif., a pair of Bigfoot hunters say they will present what they contend is the most definitive proof yet of an animal that science says does not exist: DNA evidence and photographs of a dead specimen they say they found in a remote swath of woods in northern Georgia." - Steve Rubel from Bookmarklet
1) I can't believe this is in the New York Times and 2) I *so* want it to be true. - Sprague D
@Sprague it's always been true! The Toot Fairy told me when I was a kid. - Steve Rubel
What time is the Press Conference? If this is a viral marketing scam I hope someone cockpunches those guys. - Chrimmus Tad
The press conference is at noon, and I'll be there! - John McCrea
"This is 'Eureka!' man...I touched it!" I'm not holding my breath on this one. - cmiper
@John you must Twitter it. - Steve Rubel
“I’m not asking anyone to believe us,” Mr. Dyer said. “I’m just asking them to sit and watch, because you’re going to eat your words.” - WOW. I'd like to eat my words. Nom! - Merry Xmas FFeeders - AJ
Is Geraldo going to be there? - Dave Pelland
@John you HAVE to live blog or twitter - hey i've been working on this story for days since my daughter got on a bigfoot craze BEFORE the people up the road actually found him. Or a costume resemblance thereof. "RickMat" as they call him. http://searchingforbigfoot.com/ - jeneane sessum
I beeeeeeeelieeeeeevvvvveeee! - Steve Rubel
Their advertising and PR firm looks a little... uh... hmmm - http://www.barrows.com/ - jeneane sessum
Apparently the dude does some hip hop in his spare time -- YEAH that guy barrows: http://www.barrows.com/RunforO... - oh it's worth the click. - jeneane sessum
Imagine if it is human. I would be thinking murder. This could backfire on these guys. - Admiral70
their ad agency guy also developed the ahead-of-its-time cemetary of lies video gravestone. GAH! http://www.barrows.com/inventi... - jeneane sessum
@Jeff all you have to do in Georgia is drag him inside, and it's self-defense. Word. - jeneane sessum
Damn those Russians! ;-) - Brent Logan
Did the Russians shoot him? - Morgan Warstler
I guess if you suffer from hypertrichosis, you shouldn't visit Georgia. - Ken Morley
Bump an old post meme - Eric @ CSTechcast.com
Matthew
Ahead of its time.Time to make it? Would make a great electric car. - Emsquared
Roberto Bonini
Zoooooooooooom - Simon Wicks
höhhöhöööööööytt :))) - Mücahit Yılmaz
cooooooooooool - irfan ÖZTÜRK
HOW did you post this animated gif? - Brad Williamson
Now THAT is a racing snail. - Jennifer Dittrich
The Neverending Storrrrrryyyyy.......... Zoom! - Daynah
more than meets the eye? snails in disguise? - chrisofspades
Haha that was great. - Alp
I really hope they make a Pixar movie out of this. :) - Daynah
Awesome work!! - Praveen Vasudev
woooooow! - marika
Excellento! - Chris Loft
Go turbo-snail! - Rick Cogley
OH SNAP - Alfredo
Haha! Nice. - zephyrlily
haha! super snail! - Michael
that's awesome! - Brandon
epic - Duncan Riley
Very cool! :-D - Kol Tregaskes
lolol - Caroline
Too funny :) - Nir Ben Yona
One word: Upgrade. - Bwana ☠
look at him goooooo - ♥ Stephiepooos ♥
My son will love this. - Hutch Carpenter
Brilliant! - mlazopoulou
awesome! - (jeff)isageek
How Ingenious!! - Mike Andric
look at that escargot :) - Stephanie Segel
Stephanie, Bwana - haha! - Micah Wittman
Wow................................................ - Brucebot
I hope to one day see something like this happen in real life. - Jon, the Chilled Beartato
yo, this snail's got this sh*t together! mad impressive. - Freddie Benjamin
哈哈,鸟枪换大炮 - 阿石
Epic Snail! - Berkin Bozdoğan
Bumping this again as this is class! :-) - Kol Tregaskes
Fssssiiiiiihhhh... Vroaaaaarrrrrhhhhhhh.... - Thierry R. Andriamirado
Confirming that my kids loved this. 2 1/2 old Annika couldn't get enough of it. - Hutch Carpenter
Swinging from Web to Web 2.0 !!!!! - pierangelo carbone
Another bump, if a cat on a fax machine can get 685 likes here: http://ff.im/2dD0Q then this can get more! :-) - Kol Tregaskes
Perhaps if you changed out the snail for a cute kitty - Moved to Facebook
Ditto to all replies! - Mark Harai
AWESOME! Next he'll go to Warp 5. - Zach Flauaus
I'm to fear ! - Filiz Benera
Matthew
bookofjoe: Best T-shirt label of the year - http://www.bookofjoe.com/2009...
bookofjoe: Best T-shirt label of the year
too funny!!! - Morgan Haley
ahahah :)))))) - Ahmet Kakıcı
Matthew
Goodnight Friendfeed.
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This thread was discussed on the FFundercats (http://www.ffundercats.com/2009...) - Josh Haley
Thanks for the heads up Josh Haley. Wonder how saw he an extra "W" in matthewmiddle - Matthew
That was me. My bad. For some reason I thought I saw an extra "w". Sorry! - Josh Haley
Paul Buchheit
Like Google, Only Much, Much Worse. Wolfram Alpha is yet another pretender to the search giant's throne. - http://www.slate.com/id...
Like Google, Only Much, Much Worse. Wolfram Alpha is yet another pretender to the search giant's throne.
"Wolfram has discouraged comparisons between his new site and Google, insisting each serves different purposes. But that doesn't make any sense; you'll use both sites to look up stuff you don't know, so it's irresistible to compare the two. On a side-by-side test, Google wipes the floor with Wolfram Alpha. Using the search engine, I found life expectancy information for California and Kansas, the murder rate in South Africa and Baltimore, M.I.A.'s album sales, economic data for San Francisco, and the top speed of a Veyron: 253 mph. When you ask Google how many calories you'd burn on various sports, you find this page on NutriStrategy.com, which lists caloric measures for all those activities and dozens more, including playing drums, horse grooming, and raking the lawn. That example illustrates the difficulty Wolfram faces in trying to match Google. Much of the data that we look for online aren't found in formal, structured tables like the CIA Factbook. Even Wikipedia misses mountains... more... - Paul Buchheit from Bookmarklet
When I met with Microsoft's search team a couple weeks ago, they said most of tech media covers search engines "wrong". So I have held off on giving this a full spin, but I've been quite underwhelmed with the tests so far. Why should it be so difficult to determine what is the right kind of query and the wrong kind? Why should I feel like it's user error when the product doesn't easily define what it is supposed to do? - Louis Gray
I disagree, I think this is a great tool for research-based searches but not so great for trying to find a specific item - mjc
It still doesn't seem like a search engine to me. And it's actually hard to define what is and, specially, how to use it. - Arnaldo M Pereira
@Michael, inspecific research is almost an oxymoron - Лосось норвежской выделки
Yes but can google divide the amount of calories burnt playing drums by the weight of a slinky and provide the output in joules per slug-fortnight? - Mitch
"That example illustrates the difficulty Wolfram faces in trying to match Google" --- a complete straw man, disingenuous and foreshadowed by the opening commentary. Who said Wolfram was trying to match, or even play in the same game as, Google? - Isaac Hepworth
His test queries were very similar to the Wolfram demo queries though. I ran into the same thing -- it seemed like a cool idea, but I couldn't get it to actually give me any interesting answers even though I tried to construct problems that it should be good at. - Paul Buchheit
The most succinct response to this question that I've heard comes from Tim O'Reilly: "Why are you asking Wolfram Alpha questions that would be answered by a search engine. Kind of like using excel as a word processor" (http://twitter.com/timorei...) - DeWitt Clinton
@Alex, I didn't say nonspecific research. what I meant was if you are looking for a specific piece of content, wolfram alpha doesn't have a big enough index yet. if you are however looking for data on a subject that doesn't have to be from a specific piece of content (eg, plotting/solving equations, data about persons or trends...) then you will likely do very well with alpha. it's of course not as mature as google yet though. don't knock it until you've used it for a math course! - mjc
@DeWitt++ - Isaac Hepworth
DeWitt, I agree with the idea of it being something else, and like the concept, but it just doesn't work very well for me. Have you actually gotten anything useful out of it? (not using a suggested search, but one you thought of yourself) - Paul Buchheit
Criticism is easy. Innovation is hard. - Gregg Scott
I wouldn't think of Alpha as a search engine any more than I would consider Wikipedia to be one. - Gabe
wolfram alpha is much closer to public semantic data and querying platforms such as freebase than to search engines like google - Mike Chelen
Gabe: further innovation exists in mathematic queries and comparison to wikipedia is apt because of integrated data set - Mike Chelen
Paul, try searches that take disparate pieces of data and compute an answer, e.g. http://www91.wolframalpha.com/input... (or try population of USA/population of India) - Deepak Singh
You need to use your imagination a little bit to grasp that the comparison of life expectancies in all US states, or all countries in the world, is really within the reach of Wolfram|Alpha, even if "it doesn't know, *just now*, what to do with your input", when you ask it about these things. Same remark about homicide rates. Sure, those may not be easy numbers to get at for some... more... - François Dongier
Paul: practical usage similar to online spreadsheets, for calculation of frequent tasks such as finding equations by regression http://bit.ly/18FZD7 - Mike Chelen
I get the concept Deepak, but was that an actual query for something you wanted to know, or a demo of Wolfram? My question remains, has anyone actually used it to answer an actual question they had? When I tried (something about the mass of oxygen in a 20cm sphere), it didn't answer. I go to go to Google for answers. I go to Wikipedia for answers. I could go to Wolfram for answers. In that sense, they all compete. - Paul Buchheit
@Paul -- in response to have I gotten something useful out of it? -- no, nothing other than a contrived query for weather data (http://www16.wolframalpha.com/input...) that I heard would work well (it did). But I don't see that as a failing of Alpha. I don't use Excel much either, and never Mathematica. But I do know what they're good for, and if I ever needed a spreadsheet or a computational software I'd know where to turn. I'm fine with Alpha being designed for a specific need. - DeWitt Clinton
Google (and Wikipedia of course) were in a much less advanced state than Alpha when they launched. - François Dongier
I agree that it could be very useful as "Mathematica on the web", but the demo video and other hype made it out to be much more. Hopefully it will get better though -- I do like the concept of what they are trying to do. - Paul Buchheit
Forget the hype, think for yourself. Alpha is Mathematica 7, 8, 9 on the web. - François Dongier
I think the underlying thread in this thread, as it were, is that we want to believe in something innovative and new, but we are frustrated as to how we are expected to modify our behavior to work around its limitations (intended or otherwise). - Louis Gray
It's qlpha, right? Let it go through beta and then full release--and then if it doesn't execute mathematical computations go ahead and dismiss it. - Gregg Scott
So you're waiting for WolframBeta Gregg? :) - Paul Buchheit
Yes! Gmail is still in beta after 5 years. I don't think it was intended for widespread use by non-academics anyway. It's machinery is for researchers, mathematicians and scientists. We should always support the innovators. Remember those black and white Apple ads? - Gregg Scott
Raise your hand if you use Google or Yahoo to search the web. Keep your hand up if you think Alpha is overrated. Now put your hand down if you *don't* use Mathematica or NumPy or Maple or Matlab on a regular basis. How many hands are still in the air? - DeWitt Clinton
Gregg, do you think the media coverage was an accident, and that they only intended for academics to use it? - Paul Buchheit
When Alpha (or Beta) will incorporate some simple logical reasoning ability, its applicability and overall usefulness will explode. - François Dongier
Paul. I don't know about their media strategy. I do know that tech journalism loves a new story so they may have inflated expectations by misunderstanding it's application. Or that could've been WA's marketing mistake. I heard Leo's interview with Paul Wolfram and I didn't get that he believes this is an app for the masses at all. - Gregg Scott
Leo's interview was excellent: go 2/3 towards the end of http://www.podtrac.com/pts... - François Dongier
Paul, WA may be guilty of inhabiting that bubble that all of us who love new technology inhabit by thinking that all the world is just like ourselves. It's a niche but potentially very powerful application. I think over time it will become more non-academic friendly. I could be totally wrong. Of course. - Gregg Scott
It didn't help that Doug Lenat gave a ringing endorsement. :) - Ray Cromwell
Comparing Google to WA is like comparing a cell phone to a graphing calculator. - Gregg Scott
Search engines always have this problem where you don't know their domain coverage exactly. If you don't like the results, are you asking the question wrong, or does it not have the answer? Even Google has this problem, but when you can't tell who has what, you end up always using the search engine with the broadest coverage -- which is Google right now. - ⓞnor
What I would like from WA is a nice hierarchical directory of all the data they have broken down by subject area. Their directory of examples is close, but isn't quite authoritative enough. That way I could really get my head around what they have. A well-curated set of general data banks with a good calculation engine on top seems like it could be really useful, especially if they make it possible for the community to participate in the data curation process. But it's not a search engine. - ⓞnor
The thing which seems to be missed by a lot of people is that Google has a pretty decent "computation engine" right now. See, for a useless example http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub... vs http://www30.wolframalpha.com/input... Obviously Google isn't exposing many entities ("facts") to it now, but the possibilities are pretty clear (See Google Squared...) - Nick Lothian
Wolfram|Alpha reviews seem to be a very interesting litmus test... there are those that grok the concept who may be disappointed by what it delivers - in this very early incarnation - but they don't write off the ideal. Those that don't grok it end up comparing the service directly to the Google in one way or another (often while proclaiming that they aren't) and write off the company... more... - David HC Soul
I think the underlying thread in this thread, as it were, is that we want to believe in something innovative and new, but we are frustrated as to how we are expected to modify our behavior to work around its limitations (intended or otherwise). - Louis Gray -- Think so too. I tried lots of things for kicks and was unable to get to anything really interesting, I had to look elsewhere for... more... - ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0,
Pretty good for crosswords though ;p http://www22.wolframalpha.com/input... - ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0,
I agree with François. It is just "Mathematica on the web". And only this "mathimatica" part of the system works well. Other parts are data integration/inference and NLP they both are unsolved problems now. Wolfram|Alpha does not propose any new solution to these problems. It uses state-of-the-art methods and as result it does not work. - Maxim Grinev
Nor: http://reference.wolfram.com/mathema... gives a good idea of the currently available datasets. Clearly incomplete. The interesting question is whether making it complete enough to be useful is or not realistic. - François Dongier
From what's new in Mathematica-7: http://reference.wolfram.com/mathema... , the fun exercise is to imagine what new computable datasets will be included in future versions. Things could go very fast if the community contributes. - François Dongier
Most of my searches,questions and answers are on Twitter and FriendFeed based on my trusted friends(experts).Main trend. - Igor Poltavskiy
The data representation is great but the problem is that Wolfram expects the user to learn about it instead of it trying to learn about the user - Kiran Patchigolla
I see Wolfram Alpha more as a competitor to Wikipedia than Google. The media are the ones who are pitching Wolfram Alpha as a Google competitor, yet they are the same ones that are saying that it can't compete... crazy. - Stuart Maxwell
I hope the arrival of Wolfram Alpha will make Google start asking themselves the question "are we infallible." And I wouldn't be surprised if, in the near future, Google would begin paying more attention to how it presents what it emits. WA's one big and DISTINCTIVE advantage over typical search engine's output, is that it attempts to enhance and embellish the flow in graphically-palatable chunks (even though they've gotten few things wrong, and abuse small type in graphics-tables far too much). - ianf ⌘
Has anyone tried searching for "swine flu" - Peter Stuifzand
It is not "a great tool for research-based searches" even because it does not provide references to the sources where the answer was taken - Maria Grineva
Wolfram Alpha is a good first attempt at building a computational knowledge engine, but it needs to massively expand its database to become useful and appealing for most people. It is still a demo, a tantalizing taste of things to come, not a fully realized product. At a minimum, it needs to convert all the facts in Wikipedia into a computational format. - Sean McBride
"Maria - it does not provide references to the sources", yes it does, clik "source information" - Anders
Sean: Wikipedia data could easily be imported through DBpedia right? Haven't heard much about how to bring data from the RDF web (LOD) into Alpha, but that should be relatively easy. The hard part is what to do with it, as long as Alpha doesn't do logical reasoning. Maybe the best way of merging the two would be to extract RDF from the web of data through a SPARQL query, send the data to Alpha's API and have it return some useful interpretation of that data. - François Dongier
Compare Google and Wolfram Alpha for searches on the population of Pakistan: 1. search[Google; pakistan population http://www.google.com/#q=paki...] 2. search[Wolfram Alpha; pakistan population http://www46.wolframalpha.com/input...] The Wolfram result is more elegant and directly informative -- but takes quite a long time to produce. - Sean McBride
Compare searches on GOOG YHOO: 1. search[Wolfram Alpha; goog yhoo http://www46.wolframalpha.com/input...] 2. search[Google; goog yhoo http://www.google.com/#q=goog...] The WA search results are clearly superior. - Sean McBride
I like the concept, but I see two major flaws that need to be addressed. The first is probably easy: You can't, afaict, compare two disparate data sets over time (can you get it to give you a graph of russian gdp vs crude oil price?). The second is that they're asking for "curators" to help shepherd new data sets, but they don't seem to make them publicly available in raw form. I'm not going to volunteer to maintain their private database. - Joel Webber
Sean: Actually I don't really mind Alpha taking a long time to produce its answer, I even seem to enjoy it... Feels like watching the machine thinking, trying to guess what sort of calculation and graphs it will come up with :-) - François Dongier
I'm curious how long it would take google to approximate pi to a million decimal places... Mathematica 6 did it on my x2 3800+ w/ 2gb ram in about 8 seconds. Alas, 2gb of ram was not enough to approximate it to a billion decimal places :( - LarchOye
I think that Farhad Manjoo just wanted to create buzz with this header. It's no sense to compare Google and Wolfram|Aplha. Its like comparing Word and Corel. They can do some same things, but would you use Word to create a graphic? Would you use Corel to write long text? I would use Google to see what food is good for me, and I would use WA to calculate a sum of its calories. If WA weren't any good, Google would not be showing us some of its not-working search experiments lately. - Pablo Yamamoto
Thanks for that rational comment, Pablo. - Christopher A Carr
Pablo summed it up pretty well. Besides WA just launched a couple of days ago and as the users themselves its still in a learning phase. I just wish i had an iphone + WA back in school during all my horrible maths exams lol - Pretty Monkey Studio
I'm not listening to anyone's take on Alpha who isn't a Mathematica user. The rest of you tech journalists can go find something else to hype. - Mr. Gunn
FD: the problem with WA often taking so long to fully display its results: I'll wager that many users move on to another web page without realizing that they've seen only partial results. - Sean McBride
If WA still processes results "behind the window" after first showing them to the user without indicating it explicitly, then this is clearly a design error. - ianf ⌘
hmm... do you always stop thinking after answering a question? - François Dongier
at least they don't have the deletionist cabal ruining it for everyone. - Jon
cuil, anyone? - dario
No, François, but I look extra pensive to indicate more may be coming. Anyway, comparing lifeless computer output to a human answer is taking anthropomorphizing one step too far. - ianf ⌘
ianf: was joking :) - François Dongier
Thx, reading this article an thread give me some insights of the usefulness and reach of this tool - Luis Enrique León
Convention is scary-powerful. We're so used to putting our strings of text into a box and clicking Search that we assume everything with a box and a go button are Google. WolframAlpha seems to be a different beast entirely, and I don't envy the creator(s) in trying to describe what it does. That's not to say it'll catch on if it fails to answer questions, because I believe the majority of people are too lazy to tailor what they ask, to the style that suits the oracle. - Rick Cogley
Stephen Wolfram himself put it best, I think, in his interview with Leo the other day. He said basically that it's going to take some time for people to get used to the kinds of questions that WolframAlpha is going to be good at answering. And I have to add to that, over time the people on that project will discover and add new data sources to the engine, and come up with new techniques... more... - guruvan (Rob Nelson)
That said, I thought this was a poor article, written by someone who really didn't try to understand the project. "Wolfram has discouraged comparisons between his new site and Google, insisting each serves different purposes. But that doesn't make any sense; you'll use both sites to look up stuff you don't know, so it's irresistible to compare the two" Wrong. It's just irresistible to... more... - guruvan (Rob Nelson)
Wrong. - Chris Spizzirri
We noted your cute one-liner, Chris. - ianf ⌘
Rob: I agree with your conclusion (poor article). The structure of the argument is this: 1. Alpha is an answering engine, not a search engine. 2. Alpha does not answer most of our questions (although answers are on the web). Therefore: Alpha is not a good search engine. - François Dongier
I'm compiling some queries that work or don't, either way. Please add a couple if you experiment with WolframAlpha. http://friendfeed.com/rickcog... - Rick Cogley
I agree with Pablo, besides its good to see inventive new services, I will try to get benefit of it instead of comparing to Google. Like I was doing to Google when using Altavista. - Jacque
I like the new service. I can compute my motgage very easily with it. - Derek Wei
There is one thing wrong with WA: I dont want to be trained to use a search engine. - Burcu Dogan
But you've already been trained by your experience to know how to ask Google a question, and get the answers you seek. Why should a different tool be any different? For that matter, don't you need training to use any kind of tool? (even self-training) - guruvan (Rob Nelson)
Simon
Jeremy Clarkson -- Honda Insight 1.3 Hybrid review | Times Online - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol...
Jeremy Clarkson -- Honda Insight 1.3 Hybrid review | Times Online
"So here goes. It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more." - Simon from Bookmarklet
Ouch. - Paul Buchheit
Bear in mind that it's Jeremy Clarkson, who is not the most subtle, even-minded or cerebral of chaps :) - Simon
Yeah, I don't understand how he berates the *concept* of a CVT. Civic's had it as an option (the HX) for years, and there's one in every Prius. Maybe the implementation is bad in the Insight. I hate to say it but while I love and respect Honda, I'm happy to see the Insight flop because I feel like they did a real cmd-C cmd-V with the design. It looks like a Prius. Be original, Honda. - Kevin Fox
Kevin: I think the Prius was just a 4-door version of the original Insight (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...), so I don't think it's Honda's fault they look similar. And the two cars have very different CVTs -- the Prius has a planetary gearset with motors and engine connected to different parts; the Insight has a simple variable-diameter pulley system (http://www.insightcentral.net/encyclo...). - Gabe
guy hates the Tesla, the Prius, and now the Insight? Shocker. what *does* he like? Alfa Romeos. apparently he can't be arsed if it doesn't leak Castrol from the dashboard. - Karim
Gabe, thanks for the info about the Prius transmission. I own one and I didn't know that. That said, I don't agree about the Prius design leveraging the Insight's. The 2004 Prius was a pretty big departure, yet the 2006 Civic cribbed the Prius's snub plow nose, and the new Insight took its A-pillar, sub-A pillar, B-pillar, and C-pillar. The side-view is remarkably similar, differing... more... - Kevin Fox
Kevin: from what I read Honda did do independent testing and came to (nearly) the same design as the Prius. Should they sacrifice Cd and thus MPG just to make it not look like a Prius? Also consider yourself Honda trying to compete in the market that the Prius is currently dominating. When people think "hybrid" they actually usually think of the Prius; so if you want people to think of... more... - Benjamin Golub
Oh, it's Clarkson. I won't even bother reading the review. - Paul Grav
Ben: Car companies have been making low-drag-coefficient cars for decades, and the Prius looked awfully different. The original Insight had a lower drag coefficient than the current Prius and doesn't look much like it, so I'm skeptical that Honda's mathematical models suddenly spit out a Prius. I agree that Honda probably sought to leverage off the Prius design because the profile has... more... - Kevin Fox
Shankar Ganesh
The 10 Most Revealing Psychological Experiments - http://brainz.org/ten-mos...
Alex Scrivener
Buzludzha the abandoned communist concrete flying saucer from Bulgaria - http://www.artificialowl.net/2008...
Buzludzha the abandoned communist concrete flying saucer from Bulgaria
Buzludzha the abandoned communist concrete flying saucer from Bulgaria
Show all
crazy commie bastards - andy brudtkuhl
Many more awesome shots at the original site. Actually, the whole site is really cool. It's all pics of abandoned stuff. - Alex Scrivener
Checked out the other pics.... wow - andy brudtkuhl
one marvelous pile of shit, damn commies! - Dobromir Hadzhiev
Mitchell Tsai
I’m Popeye the Sailor Cat… - http://friendfeedlinks.com/show...
Rahul Das
Indian Internet sucks.
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this is a 384kbps unlimited connection. We have higher speeds but with insane caps. 2Mbps with a limit of 1 GB a month! - Rahul Das
I get 256kbps here. They call it *broadband*. I'm on an unlimited connection as well. I wonder for what the heck they don't give us better speeds. - Shankar Ganesh
~750 mi is really too much. Could not you find a nearer ISP? - Alp
Yeah it was in Lahore, Pakistan. Its nearer but had a ping of 500+ ms! - Rahul Das
just checked it now and i hit a 1.28 Mb/s d/w http://www.speedtest.net/result... .. but its usually slower.. on top of that i think my ISP is throttling during unlimited hours - Azeem
Comparing this to what we had two years back, this is awesome. Imagine we using the web on a 28 kbps connection !! We used to. We are getting better and better with the internet and the pipes.' - Aravind Jose
@Aravind: I remember dial up. Used to take me half an hour to download 3MB! Plus the phone bills were legendary! - Rahul Das
remember the sound of the modem dialing? - Azeem
i remember waiting to see the google page load part by part. :) - Shankar Ganesh
Ouch! - David Cook
Funny, but I don't feel so bad anymore - Michael Fidler
Wow. That's only slightly better than modem speeds. Oh, that was covered. Roight. - Phil G
Wow, your the poler opposite of Willem in Amsterdam http://friendfeed.com/got-mem... - Bluesun 2600
holy shit! Amsterdam rocks! - Rahul Das
Rahul Das
Ramayan 3392 AD - Science Fiction retelling of The Ramayana, India's greatest epic.
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RR001.jpg
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Ramayan 08 Page 001.jpg
Too bad Virgin Comics shut down. Their books were awesome. - Rahul Das
They are now known as Liquid Comics, although they don't sell anything in India. - Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
I would love to see the anime it looks like to could be hot - Clarence Coggins
This story is being made into a movie (in Hollywood) and is slated for release next year. - Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
Yeah Liquid Comics bought out Virgin Comics but they haven't done any publishing yet. As for the Indian market, there's no point in buying comics here as most places just sell them randomly and one would be hard pressed to collect a series. At least when Gotham comics used to sell, we had some order but now even they have stopped. - Rahul Das
(jeff)isageek
Hahahahhha! - Mona Nomura
More like Fatman... - Jeff P. Henderson
I wonder what Robin looks like? - Jeff P. Henderson
Mona Nomura
i love this :) - Hayk H.
me too, hayk. :) - Mona Nomura
Mona :) - Hayk H.
geeky comics, i likey! - imabonehead
Yar! - Jay Wiegmann
awesome! - Harold Green
heck yes :) - Mona Nomura
*chuckles* - Kamath (नमः)
what an idea - macro
Sorry for all the bumpage, people. I'm using "search" for the first time ever. - Mona Nomura
Techmeme Firehose
Hello India! Facebook Now Available In Local Languages of Almost 1B More People (Marshall Kirkpatrick/ReadWriteWeb) - http://www.techmeme.com/090507...
Hello India!  Facebook Now Available In Local Languages of Almost 1B More People (Marshall Kirkpatrick/ReadWriteWeb)
Rahul Das
There really is a website for everything! - Rahul Das from Bookmarklet
Rahul Das
RT @punkdoggy: Macs: stronger than PCs, literally. http://twitpic.com/4hu09
RT @punkdoggy: Macs: stronger than PCs, literally. http://twitpic.com/4hu09
Dave Winer
To be clear @cluelessnewbie is a robot, who follows the top 100. When someone falls off he unfollows and replaces them with the new one.
Benjamin Golub
vijay
Happy Republic Day!
india.jpg
We have come a long way; we have a long way to go. But in the company of each other no journey is too far. :-) - vijay
And I'm not talking about India alone :-) - vijay
Congrats guys! I'm rooting for you! - Chrimmus Tad
Thanks guys :-) w00t! - vijay
You too! - Kamath (नमः)
Dave Winer
YouTube video of Steve Jobs demonstrating the Mac for the first time publicly on 1/24/84. http://www.scripting.com/stories...
Chris Baskind
Aerial photos: Dutch tulip farms - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news...
Aerial photos: Dutch tulip farms
Aerial photos: Dutch tulip farms
Like pouring out a paintbox across the Dutch countryside - Chris Baskind from Bookmarklet
These are quite beautiful. - shelisrael1
Aren't they? I looked twice to make sure they were real. So ... imagine a hot air balloon tour of Holland when the tulips are in season. - Chris Baskind
Imagine a world covered with tulip farms and salt ponds : http://www.flickr.com/search... - Ken Sheppardson
Good link, Ken! We need to find more ... - Chris Baskind
Is this where they grow plasticine haha??? - Joe Dawson
I've always loved tulips. I would LOVE to fly over & see something like this. I'll have to check whether anything like this can be seen on Google Earth. - Kamilah Gill
Way Cool. I'd love to see them up close. Believe it or not they used to grow bulb flowers like that in Fremont California of all places. But the fields and greenhouses are now long gone, replaced by condos and high tech office buildings.... - Jeff P. Henderson
Breathtaking! - Nicholas Kreidberg
I think the tulip is the most underrated flower. - MG Siegler
WOoOW! Tulip is one of my favourites. - Maryam Ardakani
oh my god. no way! wow. - edythe
fantastic - Greg
If I were an alien, this is where I would choose to land my spaceship. Clearly a sign of an advanced civilization. - Karim
Amazing colors - johnpiercy
That's really nice. - Nicholi from twhirl
That's pretty impressive stuff - things that most people would never see or dream of. Thanks for sharing. - Benjamin "Zeus" Heide from twhirl
That's amazing. - Sawyer
That's a beautiful photo. I love tulips. We visited Keukenhof when I lived in The Netherlands and it was extraordinary. - Trish R
that's fantastic !! - Mahdi Ebrahimi
Very pretty. - Alex Hammer
I remember how fascinated I was as a child when we drove through tulip farms in Holland. It was amazing. - ※Fu※
We've got some big tullip farms around Holland, Mich, not far from here, but like that is only a town mimicing a country, those farms do not compare to this - Michael W. May from twhirl
There's a similar patch of bliss in Lompoc, California *just north of Santa Barbara. - Susan Beebe
My favorite. We put in 1K bulbs in our beds for a spring display. - Mrsth
A thousand bulbs? Wow. I hope you post pictures the next time they're in bloom. - Chris Baskind
All sorts of gorgeous - Dominik Hofmann
Wow that's really cool stuff. - Robert Occhialini
Oh wow. Thanks for sharing those. Gorgeous! - Kimberly J from NoiseRiver
Great stuff - Jeduan Cornejo
awesome. don't we have some tulip farms somewhere in the States? - Pete Delucchi
cool!I love flowers! - alexandra baskind
Mona Nomura
Take THAT Firefox - IE Can Do Something You Can't Do! - http://pixelbits.wordpress.com/
Take THAT Firefox - IE Can Do Something You Can't Do!
I think that's more of a Windows problem (GDI?). ;) - l0ckergn0me
Go away Chris this is a joke - as in HAHA. Almonds, folks! - Mona Nomura from IM
At least I have almonds to make fun of, Mona. - l0ckergn0me
^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H - l0ckergn0me
You forgot the snort! - Mona Nomura
That looks familiar! - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
What're you doing here anyway. You only ping.fm! - Mona Nomura from IM
Is that using the Solitaire API? - Jesse Stay
Spider Solitaire, Jesse. Spider. - Mona Nomura from IM
How post modern. - Bryce Roney
I somehow knew what was coming... Still hilarious. - Dai Freddie Toyama
It's almost hypnotic! Must... fight... urge... to install... Vista. - Bill Sodeman
Solitaire!!! hahahahahahahaha!!! awesome - Susan Beebe
Live4Emma (L4S)
This Should be a Box Office Hit - http://www.photobasement.com/this-sh...
This Should be a Box Office Hit
I'd buy that for a dollar. - tinypants - Hagitha of FF
PIRATES KNOCKED UP FIONA - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
The Shrek franchise is running out of ideas, I guess... - Live4Emma (L4S)
i would watch it :P - ♥ Stephiepooos ♥
LOL - Amit Morson
Rule 34. - Nine
It's in the torrents already... - Jemm
Ninth nailed it. - Christopher Harley
But I didn't knock it up. - Nine
AJ Phoenix
aarghhh .. my eyes.. ! - AJ Phoenix
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