Uses for Wolfram Alpha in programming

Answer 1

I might 'save time' by not playing around with it and doing real work instead. :)

Answer 2

Calculating lift coefficients of NACA profiles (example).

(I made a program for this, but it's nice to have the option to do it quick)

Answer 3

Someone double check me here: The MD5 hash of "Wolfram Alpha" (no quotes) is: 882b 0be2 79eb 7e88 86cd 3dae 19c1 d267 And not: a615 9984 9aee b7be 3091 68bc 0ab7 ?

EDIT: The hash changes every time given the same query...what kind of hash is this? http://www14.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=MD5%22Wolfram+Alpha%22

Answer 4

I probably won't use it for anything. I don't know about you, but I deal with enough black boxes on a daily basis, and I'd rather use the ones that have been tried and tested thoroughly.

Answer 5

This might come back to haunt me later, but it strikes me that although there might be a point to WA used in a mechanical manner, from my perspective I'm thinking it's not the hard calculable information questions which are the problem which needs to be solved, it's the soft human data which defies classification or rigid modelling. Google seem to understand this, not sure Stephen Wolfram does.

OTOH it could be that anyone can be Colin Laney now.

Answer 6

I agree with Brian. Wolfram Alpha is a waste of time. The problem is that the task of creating an encyclopedia with a query language and a computational "engine" is so vast and non-trivial that only the megaloman Stephen Wolfram could imagine himself doing it, or rather imagine his team of laboratory assistants feeding answers for questions such as

Can you pass the Turing test?