MetaFilter posts tagged with Watson

The Fore River Shipyard

rmd1023 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:17:07 -0800

The Fore River Shipyard was in service between 1886 and 1985, first under the management of the Fore River Ship and Engine Building Company, then Bethlehem Steel, and finally General Dynamics. She helped to close out the age of sail with the construction of the largest sailing vessel in history without any kind of engine. Besides providing a substantial number of liberty ships, surface warships of various classes, and submarines during WWII, it may also be the source of the "Kilroy was here" graffiti. The shipyard was home to a notable feature of the skyline south of Boston: the Goliath crane, which stood from 1975 to 2008. In 2008 it was disassembled (with one fatality) and transported to Romania. The shipyard, and the Fore River Ship and Engine Building Company, were founded by Thomas Watson, who is more generally remembered for one of his previous jobs.

More than just Google on Steroids

filthy light thief — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:45:40 -0800

IBM Research is planning on working on taking artificial intelligence beyond master-level Chess (previously), and on to question answering with a computing system that has been in development for the past two years. Named "Watson," after the I.B.M. founder, Thomas J. Watson Sr., the system will challenge human contestants at Jeopardy (previously). Watson's success depends as much on its ability to understand and respond to the subtleties of human language as it does on the extent of its knowledge database. Don't worry, Alex Trebek knows what's in store. (via)

The great Doc Watson.

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:10:56 -0800

Doc Wat son: his warm and unprepossessing voice and rolling guitar stylings (both flatpicking and fingerpicking) are treasures of American music. The following video clips will be a treat for any Watson fan, but especially for guitar players: they feature closeup shots of Doc's left hand fretwork as well as insets of his right hand picking. So, without further ado: Deep River Blues, Blue Railroad Train, Black Mountain Rag and Bluebell. See also: Earl Scruggs & Doc Watson (and sons) play "John Hardy". Doc & Merle Watson play "Tom Dooley". Chet Atkins and Doc Watson: 1, 2, 3.

This ought to make the insurance companies happy

chuckdarwin — Sun, 27 May 2007 05:29:35 -0800

Controversial geneticist Jim Watson will soon be the first man to receve a fully-decoded copy of his own DNA blueprint. Watson and Crick discovered the structure of the DNA molecule and won the Nobel Prize in 1962. Watson is also known for his frank opinions. Very frank, indeed.

Apple: Innovator & Oppressor of Independent Software:

aladfar — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 06:55:17 -0800

Apple: Innovator & Oppressor of Independent Software: As they once did with Karelia's Watson software and, to a certain extent, Panic's Audion, Apple has "borrowed" a concept from an independent, third-party developer without credit or compensation. It would seem that Steve Jobs is not as far removed from Bill Gates as he would like the Mac faithful to believe . . .

Lamont, you dummy!

ColdChef — Fri, 28 Feb 2003 14:30:23 -0800

Stupidity should be cured, says DNA discoverer. "People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be great."

Dome-O-Rama — Thu, 18 Jul 2002 22:33:14 -0800

It's Elementary Watson Apple is a big fat thief, and stealing fromthe third-party devleopers it claims to support no less. An Apple faithful, this ticks me off. Apple stole the look, very features and functions of a shareware app called Watson and put it into Sherlock3. Watson is the the very product Apple itself named a few months ago as the "Most Innovative Mac OS X Software". So, they know it exists and what it does, and instead off topping it, they took it. Pure and simple. Did Apple pay for this? Did they buy them out? Did they even ask? Nope. This is the final word from Watson's developer. Man they sound mad. I know I am. If anyone can get the word out, MF can.