Is this another WolframAlpha joke? | Hacker News Reader

Is this another WolframAlpha joke?

wolframalpha.com

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Possibly, but this is still my favourite:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=how+many+calories+are+i...

Computable knowledge's killer app!

6.788E52 % daily value of calories.

I just found this one:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=how+many+licks+to+get+t...

It's a snowclone of the "price of tea in china" dismissal.

But I've never heard it used in such a poor context.

I was trying to figure out how much the price of fish fluctuates through the seasons. Instead I got this. Is this another geek joke? What's it referring to?

EDIT: Bonus imaginary karma points to whoever can point me to a graph showing the fluctuations of the price of various fish...

Count on economists to have the lamest jokes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whats_that_got_to_do_with_the.....

It's not a joke, you're just not taking the reponse literally enough. It's trying to tell you that "What's that got to do with the price of ....?" is an idiom which literally means "Your question is unrelated to the current topic of discussion". The idiom is used as a reponse when someone in a conversations asks something that seems like a non-sequitur.

The "...price of fish?" version is the most common version I've encountered, but is probably chiefly British, but I know other variations exist (i.e. "...tea in China?", "...price of rice?").

Have you tried using www.google.com?

Yes I have. It seems you have much better googling skills than myself. If you wish you can try yourself and post your findings.

Captain, I don't see the relevance of your question.

\\//,

wolfram alpha is nothing but a joke.

Welcome to the pinnacle of modern Knowledge Management engineering.

I disagree. It has, in some cases, served me very well. I agree it has a long way to go.

you must have lost your ti-89 then.

Jason, I think you are being too snarky.

Here's an example where Wolfram Alpha served me well:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=distance+between+haifa+...

Nothing fancy, but it did the job and gave me a few bits of information I didn't ask for but were good to know.

i often use it for comparison of company sizes, where it is quite useful, imo. Example: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=microsoft+vs+apple+vs+g...

I disagree. Maybe it's not magic, but it's a very simple way to run things in Mathematica.

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