Wordsmith.org: the magic of words

Wordsmith Talk

About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us  

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 1 of 2 1 2
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
musick Offline OP
Carpal Tunnel
OP Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Not that I need any, mind you.... and pardon my uneducated (ab)use of latin, however, the meaning behind the terms "post-facto justification" (as I understand them) seem to fit nicely here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/20703.html

Anyone else have any examples of computers or any other machine (non-fictional or not... c'mon, be creative) to perform a task "better suited" for humans or a less "sophistimicated" machine (all you gutter folk need not apply)... Here's my personal example:

Lighting a cigarette with a gas stove.


#36839 07/28/01 06:42 PM
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
W
wwh Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
W
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Somebody wrote a program to have computer act as psychiatrist. Patient would make statement, computer would ask psychoanalyst type question. It was something less than a success.


#36840 07/28/01 09:04 PM
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
W
wow Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
W
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Heavens! Talk about stress ... do I have to count all the times I use "I" or "I think" (the slogan of all Aquarians) oooh. I ..., I ..., I ..., just feel so ...so... depressed.
Wadda' ya say, Musick, let's go out and Party hearty !



#36841 07/28/01 10:14 PM
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
wow,
not to mention Aquarian snakes, I think


#36842 07/29/01 01:41 PM
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 218
B
enthusiast
Offline
enthusiast
B
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 218
Somebody wrote a program to have computer act as psychiatrist.

Back in about 1982, my family bought a computer (it was top of the line, I think it had 64K RAM!). We had a BASIC program that played the psychiatrist, and I tell you, it freaked me out (I was only about 7 at the time). I could type in "I like to play kickball" and it would respond with "What is it about kickball that you like so much?" I would answer, of course, that I like kicking the ball. He'd come back and say "Sounds pretty violent."

It was almost as scary as the Shining was (which I also saw that year, stupid me).


#36843 07/29/01 04:29 PM
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
musick Offline OP
Carpal Tunnel
OP Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Stress reduction for all!


#36844 07/30/01 10:36 AM
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 609
R
addict
Offline
addict
R
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 609
This link is not for those of a delicate disposition, but does, I think, fall into category proposed by musick.
http://www.delphion.com/details?pn=US05501650__


By the way, and this is a very big hint as to what the link contains, the term "wanker" is often coupled (no, I'll rephrase that), is often combined with "useless" to form the phrase "useless wanker", implying that the target in question is both useless and ..er .. useless, rather than useless at .. well, you know what I mean. As in the phrase "Pompey (football team) are nowt but a load of useless wankers". After we found the link above a couple of years back, we used the phrase "he's a one-six-fifty" for a while to imply someone required assistance at the task and hence was a "useless wanker".

Apologies for the blushes
Rod


#36845 07/30/01 12:18 PM
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
R
Pooh-Bah
Offline
Pooh-Bah
R
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Leaving aside any prurient curiosity as to why you accessed this site in the first place, rod
I was particularly taken by the following;
"The receiver is designed with an inner liner compliant enough to accommodate a plurality of sizes and shapes of..."
Could one read that as meaning that it can - um handle (!!!) more than one at a time?


#36846 07/30/01 12:31 PM
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Ho-lee cow, Rod! No blushes, just...shaking head. Yup,
people will do anything. (Remember, I am born unshocked--hi, Bob!) BUT--I noticed a mighty irony: I couldn't figure out if this was a catalog, a list of patent applications, or what, so I went to the "about Delphion" tab and found that it "provides the most comprehensive intellectual asset management (IAM) software and services available today.
Intellectual??? Yeah, right!
Psst--you ain't no one-six-fifty. NOW, I'm blushing!



#36847 07/30/01 12:38 PM
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 609
R
addict
Offline
addict
R
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 609
why you accessed this site in the first place, rod

If you'll pardon the expression, I just came across it by accident! It was when IBM hosted the patents data base and was boasting about it internally. I was looking for patents on Directory Synchonisation and this one was included in the results (synchronization is in the text).
And that, yer 'onerr, is the case for the defence.

Rod



Page 1 of 2 1 2

Moderated by  Jackie 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,317
Members9,182
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members
Ineffable, ddrinnan, TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV
9,182 Registered Users
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 596 guests, and 1 robot.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days)
Top Posters
wwh 13,858
Faldage 13,803
Jackie 11,613
tsuwm 10,542
wofahulicodoc 10,534
LukeJavan8 9,916
AnnaStrophic 6,511
Wordwind 6,296
of troy 5,400
Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site. Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.

Home | Today's Word | Yesterday's Word | Subscribe | FAQ | Archives | Search | Feedback
Wordsmith Talk | Wordsmith Chat

© 1994-2024 Wordsmith

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5