wolfram alpha

Wolfram Alpha is a new way to search for stuff but it is not an exact replacement for a dedicated search engine like Google.

Here is a test:
1. "What's the GDP of Malaysia?"

Wolfram Alpha: GDP: $186.5 Billion (2007 Est.)
Google: GDP: $186.5 Billion (2007 Est.)

But here is something interesting...















Here is a question: What is the relation between Maldives and Malaysia? There should be better links such as Economy of Malaysia from Wikipedia.

2. "What happened on May 13, 1969 in Malaysia?"
General answer: The racial riots.
Google: May 13 Incident
Wolfram Alpha: No results.

Despite listing "People and History" in their database, it seems that they are pretty much focused on major events and most of them would be based on American history I presume.

What do I think of it? Please slap it with a large BETA notice. Thank you very much.

Related:
Boing Boing Gadget's take on Wolfram Alpha

testing google maps malaysia

Google recently launched a localized version of Google Maps for Malaysia. One of the features that I was curious to test is the "Avoid toll" function in "Get Directions".

To test how much Google knows about our highway tolls, read the test result below:
Test: From Subang Jaya to Bandar Puteri, Puchong, Selangor

Results:
Google's direction

My expirence:
To get to almost any part in Puchong, most will think that it is hard to by pass any of the tolls regardless of tolls from either direction of the Damansara-Puchong Highway (Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong/LDP). For this specific direction, Google missed the U-turn near the West Puchong Toll Booth. Supposedly that U-turn was done by the request of the residents near that area. However this road is longer and takes more twists and turns to get there.

Opinion:
Maybe to the map suppliers, the U-turn may looks like an illegal one and that's why it was not taken into account into their maps. The second theory I have is that maybe the LDP people (especially the "ones") did not want this to be mapped. Hmmm... After all, there is a disclaimer saying they might not be accurate.

Overall I have a feeling this might get better any time soon.

I may test again from time to time on certain roads to avoid "contributing" to cronies.

to buy or not to buy

First it started with my phone, a Sony Ericsson K508i, pretty decent phone. Bought during my first year in college (2005) and now it's acting weird... Some of those include names of the person not showing on the screen when they call despite the entries in the phone book. I suspect the software is buggy at the moment. The second thing is the battery. It hasn't been replaced in quite a while (my fault...). Third, the colour. This phone's silver colour has been degraded a LOT. Seriously...

Solution:
Buy a new phone. Why? They are now in the transition of phasing out their older battery models. What I have in mind? There are 2 regions at the moment I trust them for making good handsets: Scandinavia (including the half-Japanese one) and Canada (by Canada I mean Research in Motion, the creators of the BlackBerry phone). In this case, I don't want to spend so much for a BlackBerry, I decided to go for something of the usual. Nokia at the moment is quite tempting but I am still most tempted to buy the C702 phone. 3G, rugged, spaced out keys, battery life.

What's the delay:
Me. Lazy.

Next...
My computer.

The lightning struck my USB controller on my motherboard.
Good news: The PC is still working.
Bad news: USB ports are not working.

Remedy: Install USB PCI card.
Result: Failed to boot.

Q: What do you do with such a PC like this?
A: I don't really know...

P.S.: This is utter nonsense. If you read through this, you can clearly see how bored and frustrated I am.