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Google praises 86-year-old for polite internet searches

theguardian.com

11–20 of 49 posts

Re: Google praises 86-year-old for polite internet searches

#11
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always speak politely to digital assistants. Not sure why, I guess I inherently don't like barking orders at people or things. Or I'm just preparing to be one of the "good ones" after the inevitable robot revolution. I FOR ONE WELCOME OUR NEW ROBOT OVERLORDS

I'm happy to provide politeness to the digital assistant. Until it's misunderstood the request several times now and I couldn't be clearer or in a quieter room ... Subject change: it'd be nice if these things provided feedback like how much noise it hears, how clearly it thinks I'm speaking, how well it thinks it understood, etc. This would go a long way to helping those moments when I'm being impatient because it's…

I once got very frustrated with Siri until I realized I had left my earbuds plugged in and the bell mic was hanging under my countertop.

Classic ID-10-T error.

Re: Google praises 86-year-old for polite internet searches

#13

My girlfriend does a similar thing with Siri. As a result, a lot of the reminders she creates on her iPhone end in "thank you". She's well aware it's a program and not a human being; I think, in her case, something about speaking a request aloud just automatically engages the politeness filters.

I've caught myself saying 'thank you' in a really sarcastic way after my xbox finally fucking understands what i'm saying.

"Xbox volume down." "cancel. select. xbox select. xbox. xbox. select. cancel. volume down. no. fuck you you piece of shit x box volume down. THANK YOU."

Re: Google praises 86-year-old for polite internet searches

#14

Good to know The Guardian is covering the hard hitting issues such as frivolous tweets.

It started a bit before he left but it feels it's gone rapidly downhill since Alan Rusbridger left. So many headlines ending in question marks. Twitter based articles. Unimportant topics etc

Re: Google praises 86-year-old for polite internet searches

#15
post #2

The query is asking Google to do the translation, but ironically, it's not really Google that answers that query...but it does manage to find the software company that has created an app that enumerates all the Roman numerals in a SEO-friendly way. The answer does exist on the page, but only after scrolling past a huge ad for some translation software: http://translation.babylon-software.com/english/Mcmxcvii+(ro... I…

The same with phone numbers -- whenever I get one on my caller ID I don't recognize, I google it and it returns a number of sites that collect comments on scammer phone numbers -- and they enumerate every phone number so that it turns up in searches.

Re: Google praises 86-year-old for polite internet searches

#17

My girlfriend does a similar thing with Siri. As a result, a lot of the reminders she creates on her iPhone end in "thank you". She's well aware it's a program and not a human being; I think, in her case, something about speaking a request aloud just automatically engages the politeness filters.

I always speak politely to digital assistants. Not sure why, I guess I inherently don't like barking orders at people or things. Or I'm just preparing to be one of the "good ones" after the inevitable robot revolution. I FOR ONE WELCOME OUR NEW ROBOT OVERLORDS

I say thanks to my slackbot when it reminds me of something; it just feels natural. And slackbot replies, which is fun. I know it's not real but it's just nice to have a little bleep-bloop of feedback.

Re: Google praises 86-year-old for polite internet searches

#18
post #15
post #2

The query is asking Google to do the translation, but ironically, it's not really Google that answers that query...but it does manage to find the software company that has created an app that enumerates all the Roman numerals in a SEO-friendly way. The answer does exist on the page, but only after scrolling past a huge ad for some translation software: http://translation.babylon-software.com/english/Mcmxcvii+(ro... I…

The same with phone numbers -- whenever I get one on my caller ID I don't recognize, I google it and it returns a number of sites that collect comments on scammer phone numbers -- and they enumerate every phone number so that it turns up in searches.

You might not be able to get the exact caller ID info, but try this: https://www.alcazarnetworks.com/data_services_lnp_lrn.php you can at least look up carrier details

Re: Google praises 86-year-old for polite internet searches

#20

My girlfriend does a similar thing with Siri. As a result, a lot of the reminders she creates on her iPhone end in "thank you". She's well aware it's a program and not a human being; I think, in her case, something about speaking a request aloud just automatically engages the politeness filters.

I've caught myself saying 'thank you' in a really sarcastic way after my xbox finally fucking understands what i'm saying. "Xbox volume down." "cancel. select. xbox select. xbox. xbox. select. cancel. volume down. no. fuck you you piece of shit x box volume down. THANK YOU."

Oh man, you reminded me of one of my favorite Youtube classics, the Windows Vista speach recognition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyLqUf4cdwc
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