SMS qua source of great amusement - 1370°C

06:09 pm - SMS qua source of great amusement

i don't know how many of you back in the States use SMS on your mobile phones at all--text messaging doesn't seem particularly in fashion there--but positively *everyone* in Ireland texts everyone else. to make this easier, most of the phones that are sold have what's called "predictive text" mode. it's got some entertaining quirks.

ordinarily, if you want to send a text message that says "hello," you have to type 4433555 555666 in order to properly cycle through the letters assigned to each number and get one simple word. with predictive text, on the other hand, you simply type 43556 and the phone gives you the word it thinks you were looking for. if it gives you the wrong word, you can cycle through a list of its known words and choose the one you were after. this is a pretty nice feature: it's *usually* right and you can add new words to the dictionary. however, when texting at high-speed and still trying to pay attention to where you're walking, you often end up actually sending silly things like "i'm heading good now" instead of "i'm heading home now," or "i foot know" instead of "i don't know" (yes, i've actually sent both of these myself).

also, the phone can't "learn" which of its list of suggestions is the one that you're likely to use most often. the biggest problem i've run into in this respect is the simple word "pub." for whatever reason, Nokia thinks i'm more likely to be using either "sub" or "rub" (in that order) than "pub." now, this is a bit of a problem as i have frequent conversations that involve references to the pub, where as i'm fairly rarely (never in fact) texting someone about a sub (either of the temporary teacher, the student gathering, the tasty sandwich, or the giant underwater phallus variety) or any sort of rub. in the plural, Nokia likes "star" better than "pubs" but lists "subs" and "rubs" after, as if it is somehow trying to make up for its error with respect to the singular versions of these words.

you'd think, in Ireland of all places, they could market phones that gave the pub a more high-profile position.

i can see the headline now: pub-goers demand higher text placement! ;P

interestingly, fourth down on the list with "sub," "rub," and "pub" you get "qua." presumably, this is just in case you're riding the Luas and find yourself in a pinch having to engage in a really involved SMS conversation about Philosophy or Latin. or perhaps in case you're from Paris and for some reason have your French dictionary turned off. makes me want to find someone to text "qua" to. perhaps the whole conversation could go something like "do you want to go to the rub?" "qua?" "i meant..do you want to go to the sub?" "i foot know what you're talking about." "Fannit!"