I talk to my computer. Depending on my mood, my headset and speech recognition are optional. When I’m not apologising for the coffee stains, procrastinating, shall we say, positively willing it to hurry up, or punching the keys, I’m dictating. And sometimes, I’m misquoted. Hemingway thinks I should be more interesting. Or grammatically incorrect.
Some recent examples are:
I Said: She wished she could speak French like French people.
He Heard: She wished she could speak Brent like I was winners.
I Said: Quick and mysterious
He Heard: Quaking and WRONG
I Said: There was nothing mysterious about her.
He Heard: There was nothing is doing well.
I Said: She worked in a flower shop, and had a cat.
He Heard: In working order and bed-head (found poetry?)
I said: Whose idea was death-metal first thing in the morning?
He Heard: Who’s idea was death-metal first thing in the morning? (Interesting)
I said: She stole her lipstick.
He heard: She stole her relative’s take. (More interesting)
Has your computer ever misquoted you?
Image by Sean MacEntee via Flickr
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8 Comments
I called in to refill a prescription yesterday and was asked to enter the rx number. Each time that I did so, the computer on the other end added a digit somewhere in the number:
me: 987445
computer: 9877445
me: 987445
computer: 9874455
After four of these, it gave up and turned me over to a human.
I suck at grammar. Thank you, now I know it’s whose instead of who’s :P. These were way to weird! Most didn’t even resemble what you said at all *insert ‘thank you Captain Obvious’ here*.
Thing is, my accuracy is either really high, or not.
What a hoot! It would be kinda mesmerizing to just sit there dictating to Hemingway all day, to see how he would render it.
Ha, I misquote myself enough without the computer throwing in it’s 2 cents. I’d say I mispell my own first name more often than I get it right.
Read the words and hear them in the voice of Andy Rooney. “J’ever notice how when you spell check a document that contains lots of people’s proper names that every time it highlights a name it thinks is mispelled and you click on alternatives, that the computer seems to instinctively know who the bad guys are amongst your friends and work colleagues? Like Dave Schwartz/damn shite, and Steve Allen/thief Allan. I’ve learned to trust the pc’s instincts.”
I’ve learned…
Love,
Lauren (Oops, damn!)
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