I just used it for the first time myself right now, although I have been following it in the news for a while now. I am impressed. I am going to crown it niche king. Wolfram Apha does something that Google does not, just like Twitter does something that Google does not.
It is fun. It feels like you can play with it like it were a cool toy. It takes you straight to the answer. It does not give you links to sites you might want to explore to get to your answer. It is not preparing to preparing to prepare to give you the answer.
The downturn has seen its worst phase. I don't think we will see an upswing right away, but I don't expect the plateau phase to last as long as the downturn phase did. And there sure will be a takeoff phase. The smartest among us will use this plateau phase to prepare for the takeoff phase.
The US and the world economy have seen much pain. But the US government and G20 took some right decisions. The takeoff was never automatic. Japan had its lost decade and is still reeling.
The US government has taken some right decisions on stimulus. But it still has not done the hard work for banking sector reform. The bankers are in for some tough love if America is to not repeat Japan's lost decade. The world can not afford America having a lost decade.
Don't tell me it is easy to borrow a few trillion from your grandchildren, but tough to show some tough love to bankers.
'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?' 'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat. 'I don't much care where --' said Alice. 'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat. '--so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added as an explanation.