Data Mining Stuff

[ Big Post. Look at PS, at the end, if lazy to read  ]

I actually don't know much of Data Mining and hence have some aversion to it ( weird. Ikr ! I don't even know much about it and then this. ). But some cool Data Mining applications amaze me ! May be these things will motivate me to learn some stuff and know something about Data Mining

The two things that amazed to a good extent was - Blinkist and WrapItUp Apps.

Some of you might have heard about Blinkist, probably not about WrapItUp. But I got to know about both of them, only recently through Quora. You should really, try Quora if you haven't already ! It's for everyone !

Now. Back to these Apps. Blinkist was suggested as a really good Android App in a Quora answer. So, I started checking about it. It's a service provided through a Website and Apps (iOS and Android), which "summarizes" Non Fiction Books and provides you a "short" version of it. Like, a really short and sweet version, which needs a maximum of 15 minutes only to read. Yes! Only 15 minutes!

Now, this is what is called "Text Summarization", that we learnt about recently, in our Data Mining course in College. Here's one old post talking about it.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/blinkist-helps-read-book-15-minutes/

This is their official site : https://www.blinkist.com/en/

Looks like Blinkist is old enough from what the article says and from the date of article. Now the article mentions that Blinkist has an actual person to do the summarizing work. But when I first checked their website, I was just wondering how cool their "algorithm" would be and thought that they were using computers. But then, that way, they would have almost every Non Fiction eBook in their shelf, because they would have an algorithm ( executed in a matter of mins/secs in a computer, for every eBook ), which summarizes stuff given an input. But I never thought so much at that time, even though I did notice they had only a few hand picked eBooks in their shelf. I just got to know they don't use computers, when I saw the above post, which I found to let you read about it. The below link approves the post, and tells how the blinks (summaries) are created in a skillfull manner by humans. (And oh, did I mention ? Blinkist is a paid service! Of course! Good business ;) You would know if you read the post or saw the site.) 

https://app.blinkist.com/en/making_a_blink/

And I was just imagining that it should be really cool for algorithms to summarize Non Fiction eBooks, based on emotions and key ideas/thoughts and stuff. Would require a lot of knowledge for an algorithm to do it. I suppose, we need Artificial Intelligence, to do such stuff, and yeah, which would be based on lots and lots of knowledge in literature and emotions.

Now, talking about such algorithms, which could summarize text, I found out later, about WrapItUp and then some similar Apps like it.

WrapItUp is an iOS App (iPad/iPhone), that takes text content as input, and summarizes it. Yes. You read it right! Now, that did amaze me. And that was when I was first introduced to the term "Text Summarization" but later, when it was taught in Data Mining, I understood how many applications it actually has and I could relate to these Apps and write about them now, in this post.

Here's a link to the App : https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wrapitup-text-summariser/id1017676504?mt=8

The fb page of the WrapItUp App : https://www.facebook.com/wrapitupapp?_rdr=p

As far as my tech knowledge goes. The App cannot do such a lot of processing on it's own, because this process requires a lot of knowledge - data. Of course, the App would have some App server, to which the text content is sent to, from the App, and then the Server would process and summarize it and then send it back to the App, for the user to view it. I m not that sure though, about all the working, because I don't have an iOS mobile device to check the App. So I have asked my iPhone friends to try the App :p But yeah, I think that's the only possible way. Or else the App size would be reaaaaallly large with all the data necessary to summarize any type of text that the user types. Same thing applies to a lot of Apps, that require too much processing, that too based on lots of data.

Anyways. From what I believe, WrapItUp is basically a software as a service. Where the software is actually present at the server side. Such an App just contacts the server to do the service by giving the input. The App is just like a medium to access the service. And the load on the App itself is very very small, compared to the load on the server, which has the summarizing software to do all the work, in the case of WrapItUp.

Does it ring it bells ? The term "software as a service" (SaaS). Our Distributed Systems course talks about such stuff and about how it's a new trend in the tech world. Cool stuff right ? How all the tech come up one by one. Text Summarization. Software as a Service.

And oh yeah, WrapItUp is free.

Finally, If you read the above message (surprisingly! Please ping me if you did! :O), you don't have to read the summary in the PS section :P And by the way, find some Text Summarizer App to read my long posts in a short manner :P ;) Just in case you care to read, but then feel lazy to (like me! :P) But I wasn't lazy to write this big post (O.o). Did drag a bit though. Took me a few hours. May be 2 or 3, i guess. I m too slow a guy.

PS (summary of the post):

Go check about these two stuff.

Blinkist : https://www.blinkist.com/en/

WrapItUp : https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wrapitup-text-summariser/id1017676504?mt=8

Blinkist summarizes handpicked famous Non Fiction Books. The summaries called blinks, can be read in 15 minutes. And you would be able to know all the critical thoughts and ideas of the book. It makes you save time, which is one perspective. Another perspective is, it makes you wanna read the whole of the Non Fiction book, by providing a good summary - basically, a good review. And Blinkist is a paid service! And yes, many users say it's a worth it thing. Blinkist service is available in Web, iOS App and Android App too.

WrapItUp summarizes any text content given as input, by the user. Helps you understand "big content" stuff by giving a good summary. I m yet to try the App though. May be you could try if you have an iPhone or iPad, and tell me how the App is. WrapItUp is free.

Find a Text Summarizer App to read my long posts in a short manner, if you are lazy to read (like me! :P) But I wasn't lazy to write this big post (O.o). Did drag a bit though. Took me a few hours. May be 2 or 3, i guess. I m too slow a guy.