Every Sunday I will post a Weekend Fun post, with some comics, YouTube clips, or funny things on the Web. Don't know how much original content I will present, but there might be a story or two.

The Sunday-strip of Dilbert will be a regular.

Wolfram|Alpha

I recently posted something about Web 2.0, and I got a question in the comments about what Web 3.0 might bring. I answered that people speculate that it might be what is called semantic web, in which the machines do some of the processing work that people have to do today. You can get a sneak-peak at a site that does this today. It's called Wolfram|Alpha, and it answers questions. It accesses wast amounts of data, from different places on the Internet, and works out the question for you.

You simply enter a search query, and it tries to answer. Sounds similar to Wikipedia? In a way it is. If you enter a simple query, such as

Norway

it will reply by stating facts about Norway. However, you can get more advanced, and ask questions that selects specific data from one place:

Q: Who won silver medal in downhill
in the 1994 olympic Games?
A: Kjetil Andre' Aamodt, Norway,
1 minute  45.79 seconds

Not too impressive. After all, a search for '1994 Olympics' will probably contain the top 3 athletes in every event. Let's make it impressive then:

Q: what is the weight of aluminium 
times the average weight of a human 
divided by the area of Norway?
A: 5.852 g^2/(km^2mol)  
(grams squared per kilometer squared mole)

I will be the first to admit that this question doesn't make any sense, but the way the engine collects information from several different sources, processes them, and presents the answer in a smart way is remarkable. Try it out yourself!

YouTube

Finally, here is two funny YouTube clips. The first is a April day joke at a university or collage. The second is a snooker compilation. Enjoy!