Blog posts
July 7, 2020: Virtual Assistants and Source Citation
It has been very hot in Waterloo for the past week, and this week shows very little sign of letting up. I don't have AC in my apartment, so coping with the heat has been a challenge. I've taken to asking Alexa for the temperature multiple times a day, in the hopes that the forecast has changed and I can look forward to cooler weather ahead.
This past weekend, when I asked Alexa yet again for the temperature that night, I was informed that there would be a low of 16℃, and I got so excited. That might be enough to get my place cool enough at night to last the entire next day! I immediately checked my phone for an hourly forecast, so I could get an idea of when it would hit that low and how long it would stay there. Imagine my disappointment when the Weather Network showed that it would only hit a low of 18℃, only reach that around 4AM, and then immediately start climbing back to the low 30s.
Had Alexa given me false hope? Where does she get her weather data from, anyway?....read more.
April 15, 2020: Data Presentation of COVID-19
In a crisis, I like to look at the data. I want to know exactly how bad things are and how worried I should be. So for about a month, I have been obsessively checking various websites for the latest updates on COVID-19 cases in my city, my country, and around the world. (I know this isn't the best for my mental health, and recently I installed a browser plugin to block myself from visiting those sites for more than 10 minutes a day).
In this time, I have noticed a trend in the governmental sources of data, and it worries me. I'm not talking about the trend of COVID cases rising, which is worrying enough, but a trend in how the data is being presented. In short, data is being presented to create the most hopeful impression. Let's take a look at two examples....read more.