questions

IBM "Jeopardy" Challenge Day One Ends in a Tie

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on February 14, 2011 at 4:55 pm PT

Day one of the IBM “Jeopardy” challenge ends with a human player and the computer tied, and with some interesting wrong answers from the computer. Plus: “Final Jeopardy” author Stephen Baker fills us in with some first-hand details.

Talking Schmidt: Google’s CEO in His Own Words

John Paczkowski in News on January 20, 2011 at 1:30 pm PT

Eric Schmidt once said Google’s “policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.” But during his soon-to-end tenure as CEO he happily high-stepped across that line like the grand marshal of the Tone-Deaf Technocrat Parade, as I once joked. After the jump, a collection of some of his more remarkable pronouncements.

Apple’s Cook Aims to Reassure Wall Street on Apple’s Future

Ina Fried in Mobile on January 18, 2011 at 2:32 pm PT

We’re several questions into the earnings conference call and no analyst has yet directly asked about the health of CEO Steve Jobs. However, analysts have probed as to just how far out Apple plans its products, something Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook declined to state.

This Supercomputer Defeated Human Champions of a TV Game Show in 2011

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on January 13, 2011 at 3:19 pm PT

Answer: What is IBM’s Watson? The supercomputer training for an expected TV debut next month on “Jeopardy” won a practice round today.

Stealthy Start-Up Sponge Builds Community Q&A for Companies

Liz Gannes in Social on December 22, 2010 at 2:25 pm PT

I recently stumbled across a venture-backed start-up that has managed to keep itself out of the news despite doing what appears to be pretty noteworthy stuff. Sponge, which calls itself “the future of Q&A,” powers pages for businesses to share and build community knowledge.

Twitter Triples Team in One Year, Acqhires Q&A Start-Up

Liz Gannes in Social on December 21, 2010 at 10:01 am PT

Twitter announced today it has acquired the talent behind Fluther, a Q&A start-up, in order to beef up its efforts to help users discover content. The company specifically said this is a talent acquisition of four engineers and one designer, and that the Fluther product will remain independent, though mostly unmaintained.

The Fail Owl-Bear and the Down Clown: Twitter's Ev Williams and Biz Stone Answer (Some of) Your Questions

Peter Kafka in Media on November 18, 2010 at 11:15 am PT

A nice Thursday afternoon treat from the folks at Jimmy Fallon’s show: Backstage footage of the Twitter dudes responding to viewer questions after their appearance last week.

Red Bull Alert for Facebook Engineers: Mark Zuckerberg Promises Many More Feature Launches Coming Soon to a Social Network Near You!

Kara Swisher in News on August 19, 2010 at 11:20 am PT

During his introduction of Facebook’s Places geo-location offering yesterday afternoon, like any good geek on launch day, CEO Mark Zuckerberg was hopping excitedly onstage about the rollout and promising more to come in the months ahead. “We have a lot of other interesting launch nights coming out this summer,” he said to the crowd of journalists gathered in the decked-out cafeteria of the social networking behemoth’s HQ in Palo Alto, Calif. Since summer is ending in a few weeks, he and I had a short chat after the presentation about exactly what that meant.

The Answers to Your Questions About the iPad

Walt Mossberg in Personal Technology on April 7, 2010 at 6:05 pm PT

Walt answers common questions about the Apple iPad, from printing to how to handle getting a replacement once the battery dies.

You Ask, Jimmy Wales Answers: A Crowdsourced Interview With Mr. Wikipedia

Peter Kafka in Media on March 11, 2010 at 3:51 am PT

Jimmy Wales’s Wikipedia relies almost entirely on free contributions from users to create a mammoth Web encyclopedia. What if an enterprising/lazy blogger used the same technique to interview Wales?