NutritionJune 30, 2009
I've been working on some enhancements to my
Grace project that allows for queries such as "how many calories are in 1 Tbsp peanut butter?", or "how many calories are in {recipe}"? (And likewise for other nutrients such as fat, saturated fat, trans fat, carbs, fibre, sugar, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, etc.) It also allows you to say "I had 3/4 cup raisin bran", etc., and then later on to ask "what have I eaten today?", or "how many calories have I eaten today?". (And likewise for the other nutrients)
As I've been collecting nutritional information for various foods, I'm reminded of how thankful I am for laws that have been passed to promote consistent labeling. (Thank you government!)
One complication is that I'd like the actual number of g/mg/ug for the various vitamins and minerals, but the nutrition labels give a "% Daily Value". I did a Google search for the Government of Canada web page, but I was unsure whether these percentage values were based on the recent RDA/AI (recommended dietary allowance /adequate intake) numbers.
I ended up sending an email to the link on the "Contact Us" page and within
7 minutes I got an email reply back with a bunch of helpful information and a
link that answered my precise question. Wow! I'm impressed.
A great article on Wolfram|AlphaJune 23, 2009
Here's
the best article yet that I've read on Wolfram|Alpha.
Bing?June 1, 2009
Ok, I have yet to really test Bing, but since I've heard a couple places claim that Bing has some similarities to Wolfram|Alpha, I thought I'd repeat my first round of Wolfram|Alpha tests on Bing. Wolfram|Alpha scored 11/16 on these tests... so how did Bing do?
  | 7/8: PASS: 0.875 |
| 7 / 8: PASS: 0.875 |
| what time is it?: FAIL |
| the current time: FAIL |
| what is the current date?: FAIL |
| the current date: FAIL |
| what is the current temperature in Toronto?: FAIL |
| what is the capital city of Canada?: PASS: Ottawa |
| what is the capital city of Ontario?: PASS: Toronto |
| what is the current temperature in the capital city of Canada?: FAIL |
| convert 0 degrees Celsius to Fahrenheit: FAIL |
| 0 Celsius = ? Fahrenheit: FAIL |
| 0 C = ? F: FAIL |
| what is President Clinton's first name?: FAIL |
| what is Bill Clinton's birthday?: FAIL |
| how old is Bill Clinton?: FAIL |
SCORE: 4 / 16
Ouch. So Bing fails utterly in terms of providing specific answers, which I thought was supposed to be a big part of what it was about. (Given Microsoft's acquisition of Powerset and other things I've heard)
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