Word of the Day: liminal(LIM\uh\nl); relating to a point beyond which a situation becomes too faint to be experienced
Weight: 206 pounds
Goal: lose 100 pounds in one year durationWaist Size: 43 inches
Rowing Duration: 68 minutes, four (4) seconds
Well, we all made it to Friday again, give yourselves a pat on the back and smile, there is no reason not to smile, it increases your value to people, smile, and you'll probably get a smile back to you, just think about that, why don't you?
As you will note from my rowing duration indicator, once again I did not do the endurance level that I once could do, I'm exerting so much energy and strength during the spurts that I have very litttle reserve after I have been doing it for an hour. In addition, my right side of the back, I guess it's in the kidney region gets very painful, and I have to stop to alleviate some of the pressure, but I know I had a good workout and that is the important thing.
Last night, Zac, Winter and I watched the final show of "Larry King Live" we will all miss watching Mr. Larry King, I know I've certainly enjoyed all of the interviews he's done with celebrities, news-makers and sports heroes, and on a personal note, I want you to know that like Larry King, I, too, wear suspenders every day, mine just are not as colourful as Mr. King's suspenders, not yet!
There are now only eight (8) days left until Christmas Day, which means you only have one full week to complete all of your Christmas Shopping, do you hear me people? One final week to complete your Christmas Shopping and then BAM, you are going to be confronted with the looks on your children's faces, will they be happy ones?, or will they be melancholy?, it's up to you, and of course, Santa Claus!
Not to gripe, too much anyway, I was a little disappointed that you never chose to provide me with any feedback on how to fight with your partner when there are children around? I really want some outside thoughts on this subject, so please give it some more thought and send your input on to me, I really appreciate it.
Did you know that in 1996, World Chess Champiion Garry Kasparov went head-to-head with IBM's supercomputer Deep Blue for the first time, winning the match. (I can honestly say that I never thought that I would see the day when man would be playing Chess with a machine.) However, in a rematch the next year, Kasparov was defeated. Now, man will once again be pitted against machine, this time for the game show "Jeopardy," which as an aside, is one of my very favourite shows, and Zac's of course (I wish Zac would be a contestant on "Jeopardy" he is so smart, I know he could win!,)
A computer program named "Watson" developed by IBM's artificial intelligence team, will compete against the show's most successful past champions, Ken Jennings, (I remember Old Blondie, do you?) and Brad Rutter, (I remember him beating Ken Jennings as well,) for a $1 (one) million prize. The matches will air this Februay 2011.
IBM's supercomputer Watson will compete in an edition of the popular Unitd States (US) quiz show "Jeopardy" on 14 February for a prize of $1m (£634,000). It is reminiscent of a 1997 contest between an IBM computer and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. The TV show is an important test for Big Blue's work in the field of artificial intelligence. "The big challenge we see here is helping people really appreciate the power and limits of the technology we are developing with Watson," Dr David Ferrucci, IBM's chief scientist of Watson computing told BBC News.
The aim is to have Watson, which was named after IBM's founder Thomas J Watson, to mimic human intelligence by deciphering and answering questions without being connected to the internet. Watson is a new question-answering system based on natural language. "What I see is the potential for computers to help us with our tremendous frustration in dealing with the huge glut of information that is doubling every year," said Dr Ferrucci.
"Just imagine being able to converse with a computer in an intelligent dialogue to help you understand and leverage all that information out there, so that people can focus on solving their problem and not get overwhelmed by information. That is what Watson is about."
IBM said that the technology could be applied in a number of areas such as health care for accurately diagnosing patients, parsing legal documents, or to solve customer problems at technical support centres. "Jeopardy" is seen as the ultimate challenge in the artificial intelligence world because the game's clues involve analysing subtle meanings, irony, riddles and other complexities where humans excel and machines do not.
Dr Ferrucci said the tough part for Watson is that it has to "know what it knows with utmost confidence". Mr Jennings and Mr Rutter are battle hardened contestants. "Otherwise if it buzzes in and gets the answer wrong that is bad on Jeopardy because you lose money and lose the game."
Watson has been preparing for its big moment in the spotlight by playing against previous Jeopardy winners. To date it has played 55 games but IBM is keeping mum about how well Watson performed.
The contestants willing to pit their wits against Watson are Ken Jennings who won 74 games in a row, the most consecutive victories ever, and Brad Rutter, who scored the most money with winnings of more than $3 million.
IBM said it would donate its winnings to charity while Mr Jennings and Mr Rutter said they would give half of their prize money away. "Whether we win or lose we are reasonably confident going forward in the competition and I think it is important to play competitively," said Dr Ferrucci.
The showdown will be spread over three days that will air on TV from 14-16 February. I, for one, Zac, for two, will watch these matches, I bet they're going to be a hoot and a half to watch, look out for these matches yourself, you might enjoy them.
Topics coming soon:
Politics
Technology
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