Man vs. Machine

On this date in 1996, IBM's Deep Blue became the first machine to win a chess game against a reigning world champion, Garry Kasparov. You can view a short documentary about the 1996 and 1997 matches between Deep Blue and Kasparov on YouTube. Next week, another round of man vs. machine is scheduled. IBM's Watson, a computer that rivals a human's ability to answer questions posed in natural language, will challenge two Jeopardy! champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. The challenge begins on February 14. You can see an introduction of IBM's Watson on NOVA Smartest Machine on Earth on the PBS site. To find out when Jeopardy! The IBM Grand Challenge can be viewed in your area, visit the gameshow's site.

I'm a technologist -- otherwise fondly called a geek. I love gadgets. Where would we be without the great technology? I often wonder what my dearly departed grandparents would think about the gadgets of today.

• My iron automatically shuts itself off
• My phones show me who is calling -- there is no longer that surprise when answering
• If I'm on the phone, I can send a text message to the waiting caller without interrupting my discussion
• I can schedule multiple automatic wakeup calls at my home and also pre-record reminder messages for automatic delivery to me
• A gadget tells me how many steps I've taken and a gadget tracks my heartrate and total calories burned during exercise
• I can see a report of the current weather and future projections for basically anyplace from my computer -- my Grandpa could have used that for planting his fields
• I often can view the street, neighborhood, and house from my computer for addresses that I plan to visit -- excellent when househunting
• My car tells me how many miles that I have traveled on a tank of gas and how much farther I can go
• I can view missed episodes of many TV shows when I choose, either on my TV, my computer, or phone
• I have several little gadgets that easily fit in my purse or on my keychain and hold hundreds of documents and files that I may need to reference or to share
• I have a tiny little gadget that stores hundreds of songs that I frequently like to hear -- no more narrowing down the list of CDs to pack with my CD player on trips
• I have a tiny little gadget stored in my camera that allows me to take and store hundreds of photos. I can view them immediately and delete what I don't want -- no more waiting for film to be processed to find out that the Kodak moment was not really captured.
• A single item on my desk rotates digital copies of photos throughout the day.
• A navigator tells me what restaurants or shops are in the area and then gives me turn-by-turn instructions to the location.
• I can logon and see thousands of recipes online wherever I am cooking
• I can view my grocery store sales paper online, select the items I want to purchase, and then print the shopping list from my computer.
• My printers warn me when the ink is low and let me see the levels.
• A tiny gadget attaches to my music stand to give me feedback on my tuning as I play and will keep the beat for me too. Those functions are now even phone apps.
• I receive text messages when billing statements arrive to my e-mail and when bills are automatically paid.
• I get notices of email received by text message on my phone to view and to even respond
• I can login to securely see the results of all medical tests ordered by my physician
• My exterior lights are programmed to come on at dusk, off at dawn, and vary while I'm on vacation.
• I have controllers in most rooms to control the lights in that room (or in any other room)
• A controller easily programs the times to water my lawn and is smart enough to not start after it has rained or a freeze
• My refrigerator signals when the water filter needs to be changed
• My crockpot can automatically switch from high to low temp, saving me a trip to the kitchen
• A small gadget will warn me in advance if there is a leak from my air conditioner before water gets near the new flooring in the hall
• I receive a notification if anyone updates a webpage on my wiki website and I can easily remove vandalism to restore content with a single button
• I have a new gadget to set up automatic file backup for all the computers on my home network
• I have a new gadget that uses speech recognition for my shopping lists -- and it even automatically sorts and prints the items in similar groups for the grocery store
• I have a new gadget that will weigh my food and even show me its nutritional value

I'm always on the lookout for new gadgets. My family thinks that it's difficult to buy for me at Christmas, although they know my love for gadgets. There are some gadgets that I would like:

• I'd like a timer on the shower for my nephews when they come to visit
• I need the gadgets to put on opened containers in my refrigerator to track expiration dates, based on my prior blog post.
• I'd love a refrigerator that would order supplies when out, or at least make a list.
• I need the gadget that scans and helps to organize paper items to help me tame the paper tiger in my life
• I'd love for my car to automatically parallel park for me -- I totally avoid that
• I would love for my clothes washer to store and automatically dispense the right amount of the detergent, bleach, and softener needed
• I would like a compactor feature for my shredder to automatically compress the paper
• I would like a sensor in my mailbox to notify me when mail was picked up or delivered
• I would like the 'getback' feature that was previously on a mainframe-based email system to automatically return to me email that I mistakenly sent or sent too early
• I would like a text message to warn me that the garbage truck is in my area so that I can get the trash out to the street in time (since a critter has torn into the bags at night).
  

As great as my gadgets are, there are times when there are woman vs. machine challenges at my house. At times the smart machines seem rather dumb (or at least stubborn) or get the best of me.

• I can't successfully enter decimal weight when defrosting items by weight on my microwave
• My dishwasher program often freezes if I open the door prematurely to quickly toss in one more item after it starts
• My sprinkler system does not automatically detect daylight savings time schedule changes
• My phone is on the old daylight savings time schedule
• I still have at least 5 gadgets whose time must be manually reset after a power outage -- those flashing lights annoy me
• My visiting family does not understand (and has expressed annoyance) with the light controllers -- I usually disconnect them on long family visits
• The gadget my Mom bought me for Christmas to easily turn off the bedroom lamp across the room (an advanced version of the Clapper), annoyingly turns on the lights during the night if you cough in your sleep. That was quite a surprise.
  

Today I hope that you're winning in the man vs. machine challenge. I've also just set an automatic reminder to watch Jeopardy! The IBM Grand Challenge next week.