Sort of. But Watson is probably too small (or primitive) a system to be efficient at a large scale (as in, serving a Google-sized audience). I have no idea how DARPA wants to tackle that. But hey, that's why they call it research! ;-)

I certainly understand peak and average.

It has a low-wattage speaker mismatched with a high-wattage driver circuit. The driver circuit overpowers and damages the speaker when you play a high-average-amplitude sound file at full volume.

It's like a flashlight with low and high settings, where the high setting sends 6 volts to a 3 volt lightbulb. It will be extra bright for maybe two seconds while it destroys the lightbulb. Obviously if your max power output is 6 volts then you need to pair it with a 6 volt bulb.

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I believe that the presence of the words "information extraction" and "information retrieval" in the summary means that the search engine should be able to answer questions of the type "which kings were assassinated less then two years after their coronation?" by going through the facts available on the web, extracting them, and figuring stuff out. For any given random question, it's unlikely that someone already has it answered on the web, but the facts are all there anyway.

I studied physics in the US -- both at high school and university level -- and I can tell you that nobody actually does physics using US units. Typically an introductory course will include an early segment on converting to and from metric, but the students can generally forget all about it because the coursework will all be in SI units.

I've seen a couple old textbooks where the authors seemed to get a kick out of forcing people to convert back and forth (exercises would include mixed units), but I've never seen a book or a class in the last 20 years that did that beyond some initial work on making sure that the students know how to convert between units.

Oh, I don't disagree that doing science or engineering with imperial units is a bad idea. In reality, though, even in the U.S. everyone in the sciences uses metric in that context. I studied physics in the US, and I couldn't tell you the conversions or even the names of all the imperial units -- we don't use them either.

Apparently there are some engineering fields that actually do commonly use imperial units -- which I think is totally strange, and ought to change.

Phones usually have Bluetooth, so they can easily work with keyboards and mice. Also, modern TVs can receive video signal from phones, using wireless, so output is also served. When you have all this, you can carry your desktop around just like with a USB stick computer, only you don't have to carry around the stick computer AND the phone. (Also, the stick computers usually don't have a phone module, so the phone has the advantage of being able to push your backups onto the network in the background. No hassle involved.)

Actually, x86 already *is* an abstraction layer - a lousy one, admittedly, but still, most current CPUs have to perform all sorts of moderately complex computation to massage the x86 stream into something that can be executed quickly. So QEMU and the like are massaging it into something else. There's little technical reason for the ARM version of WINE to be slow, beyond the actual computational performance of a single ARM core.

SI is better, but ease of unit conversions is at best a minor advantage. You know when the last time I had to convert between centimeters and kilometers was? Probably when I was in school, learning about using metric. I don't convert between inches and miles either -- there's just no point in most people's lives.

In fact, the only units that I have to convert between regularly are time units, and metric doesn't help you there.

If your doing the sort of "compromise engineering" that results in the product self-destructing, then part of your "compromise" is the legal obligation to pay the warranty cost of repairing/replacing/refunding that product when it does self-destruct.

If I set the volume to full and I'm not satisfied with the sound level I get, sure, I'll go get external speakers. But using the laptop at full volume should never result in permanent damage. It should never self destruct just because I play a music file that happens to contain clipping.

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Simple solution, stop browsing at -1 and you won't have to see the "Fuck Beta" comments.
And then we won't have to see your "fuck 'fuck beta'" comments.

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Dell paired a high wattage amplifier with a low wattage speaker, which any engineer knows will result in speaker damage.

Dell had several choices. They could have spent a few cents more on a bigger speaker and sold a same-volume-laptop for $200.50, or they could have saved a few cents on a smaller amplifier circuit and sold a slightly-less-loud-laptop for $199.50.

What they can't do is sell a defective product that self-destructs and refuse to honor the repair warranty.

Baloney. They paid for a product that was advertized as having certain capabilities, in specific including a working sound system. Further more they purchased a product that came with both a legal implied warranty of fitness-for-purpose, as well as an express warranty.

What they were given was a product that unexpectedly self-destructs when you play some sound files.
(The only way the software is relevant here is that the software causes common sound files to resemble those uncommon sound files which trigger the self-destruct effect, making the hardware defect more commonly visible.)

The only way "Dell purchasers are getting what they paid for" is in some loony radical libertarian ideology where you call it "getting what you paid for" when someone sells a hair drier with low-and-high settings which unexpectedly melts whenever you use the high setting.

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You're missing something important here.

Lets say a recording has volume numbers 01210.
Amplifying (doubling) that would give you 02420.
If the maximum hardware volume is 2 then the software clips it to 02220. (The 4 gets reduced to 2.)
The important point here is that a music file could have had 02220 in the first place!

Most music files won't have 02220 because it sounds like crap. But a music file can have 02220, and there do exist music files that have 02220.

So this has absolutely nothing to do with the software - the issue is that the Dell speakers get damaged if you play certain sound files! A sound system that damages itself when you play certain music files is clearly defective hardware. The only way that the software is involved is that it makes "common" music files look like those "rare" types of music files which trigger the hardware problem.

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I will consider myself happy if I die of a lung condition at 82. Because that will mean, well, that asthma and my lousy pancreas won't kill me off before that!

Having said that, I sure hope he gets better.

You are lucky to have such female friends.

Except that there's no requirement for programming to be a social activity (as is not the case with many other things). There are no "alpha geeks" in your room if you don't let them in, and there's no "misogynistic BS" if you decide to simply sit down, write something useful, and push it onto GitHub.