... a day late. My work has been occupying the bulk of my time recently, so other more enjoyable pursuits have fallen by the wayside. BUT, in order to not let a good idea go to waste (as is my wont) I've decided to share a tidbit I've picked up. Those of you with smartphones know the joy of predictive text. My keyboard of choice is Swiftkey. It provides three (usually excellent) guesses at what I'm trying to say. It not only predicts what word I'm currently typing, it will try to guess what word I'm likely to type next. Don't ask me how it does this because I'll probably guess magnets. My scientific ignorance aside, it's a VERY handy tool, but it does sometimes make some odd guesses. I'd never thought much about it until I came across this comic at XKCD.com (used and modified without any permission whatsoever):
If it doesn't seem very funny it's because it's not. I've truncated the final panel in hopes of keeping our blog mostly "G" rated, but it poses an interesting question: When given the opportunity and no real constraints, what does my go-to technological sidekick think I'm most likely to say? While typing the three guesses appear in a row directly above my keyboard. In general the middle guess is the primary; if I hit space my phone will insert whatever word appears there automatically. The one on the right seems to be the next most-accurate, followed by the one on the left.
I've run three tests, one each for the guesses on the left, right, and middle. All I'm doing is mashing the next predicted word that comes up in that slot until I hit a period or it continues into an infinite loop.
Middle (main): "I am a beautiful person."
Right (secondary): "If you're a star, but the best of all time to meet your family and I have to say."
Left (tertiary): "The following item is in a bit more about it, and I am not a bigger club, or the information you have a look."
Well there you have it. Jesse's three "typical" sentences. I don't know that I've ever uttered or texted the phrase "I am a beautiful person," but my phone seems to think I need some self-affirmation from time to time. As for the others, I didn't say they'd make sense. I only said magnets.
NOW, comes the audience participation: If you have a smartphone with a predictive keyboard like this, please post a comment with what your phone thinks you'd like to tell the world. I'll be interested to see what comes up. Feel free to offer interpretations/explanations/excuses/apologies along with your sentences.
If you don't have a predictive keyboard, Swiftkey is the best one I've found and only costs a couple bucks. That's less than the cost of 30cc's of gasoline, so pony up. Click here to download it for Android. Sorry, no iOS/WP7/BB love, but go see what you can find and POST THOSE COMMENTS! Check back every so often. There could be some good stuff.
PS: If any of our MANY (i.e. 3) readers is wondering what happened to "The Retroactivity" post from last week, I got to doing it and realized I have almost nothing to say (and certainly nothing entertaining to say) about past events. For whatever reason it didn't seem worth pursuing. If you'd like me to do it, post that in the comments as well and I'll be happy to oblige. Otherwise onward and upward.
If it doesn't seem very funny it's because it's not. I've truncated the final panel in hopes of keeping our blog mostly "G" rated, but it poses an interesting question: When given the opportunity and no real constraints, what does my go-to technological sidekick think I'm most likely to say? While typing the three guesses appear in a row directly above my keyboard. In general the middle guess is the primary; if I hit space my phone will insert whatever word appears there automatically. The one on the right seems to be the next most-accurate, followed by the one on the left.
I've run three tests, one each for the guesses on the left, right, and middle. All I'm doing is mashing the next predicted word that comes up in that slot until I hit a period or it continues into an infinite loop.
Middle (main): "I am a beautiful person."
Right (secondary): "If you're a star, but the best of all time to meet your family and I have to say."
Left (tertiary): "The following item is in a bit more about it, and I am not a bigger club, or the information you have a look."
Well there you have it. Jesse's three "typical" sentences. I don't know that I've ever uttered or texted the phrase "I am a beautiful person," but my phone seems to think I need some self-affirmation from time to time. As for the others, I didn't say they'd make sense. I only said magnets.
NOW, comes the audience participation: If you have a smartphone with a predictive keyboard like this, please post a comment with what your phone thinks you'd like to tell the world. I'll be interested to see what comes up. Feel free to offer interpretations/explanations/excuses/apologies along with your sentences.
If you don't have a predictive keyboard, Swiftkey is the best one I've found and only costs a couple bucks. That's less than the cost of 30cc's of gasoline, so pony up. Click here to download it for Android. Sorry, no iOS/WP7/BB love, but go see what you can find and POST THOSE COMMENTS! Check back every so often. There could be some good stuff.
PS: If any of our MANY (i.e. 3) readers is wondering what happened to "The Retroactivity" post from last week, I got to doing it and realized I have almost nothing to say (and certainly nothing entertaining to say) about past events. For whatever reason it didn't seem worth pursuing. If you'd like me to do it, post that in the comments as well and I'll be happy to oblige. Otherwise onward and upward.
