Secret. » technology is so awesome

Laura has some issues with predictive text

Benjamin Parzybok — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 19:21:22 +0000

Whenever I pick up Laura’s old school phone I’m always amazed she doesn’t use predictive text (T9) for texting. Trying to be a helpful husband I then talk about how useful it is and turn it on.

Then I forget to turn it off. The following exchange is a good reminder to let working systems be…

Are you ready to become a smart writer?

Benjamin Parzybok — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 23:50:56 +0000

Sylvie, in her infinite 3-year-old wisdom, found this at a rummage sale.

Ever since, it’s taunted me, calling out in its helium voice: “Are you ready to become a smart writer?” Apparently my plodderly, non-smart-writer-footfalls shakes it into sudden, optimistic action. It wants to save me. It wants to pump me up.

Link to file if it doesn’t play
Go head, play it a couple of times. Now a couple of more. Now imagine you’re up in the dark of the morning trying to figure out how in the hell to resolve the inverted convolution that is your plot. That snarled, brambly, thorny patch of chaos? Yes, that one. The cat wants out, the cat wants in, the coffee maker is slowly leaking, and this guy, this guy is asking you if you’re ready to become a smart writer. Well, are you?

Here’s a close-up of his face.

You can tell by his coked-up eyes, he’s quite confident in his own writing ability. He just wants to help you with yours. On the bright side, there’s a button on the gizmo that I’ll be using to write my next book, or possibly I’ll use one of the others to create a smart doodle or a smart shape. The future is mine!

That’s all.

Fashions for privacy / self-defense

Benjamin Parzybok — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 21:21:22 +0000

This seems so obvious and brilliant:

A designer reverse-engineered face detection algorithms to find face painting patterns/make-up that could hide your face from detection.

In other words, fashion camouflage.

Adam Harvey is a designer and technologist with NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.

via io9

The truth will drown in a sea of irrelevance

Benjamin Parzybok — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:34:32 +0000

There’s an excellent post over at Fake Steve Jobs about what, I expect, we all consciously or instinctively know about our culture right now. Fake Steve’s rant is inspired by this great comparison of the fears of Aldous Huxley vs George Orwell in comic form, the words of which were taken from the book Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Stuart McMillen, which will definitely be going on my must-read list.

Brave New World is still one of the most amazing books I’ve ever read.

I recently finished Feed by M.T. Anderson, which was an incredibly adept, modern take on Brave New World and highly recommended.

Now then, I’m off to play Risk on my iPhone. And did I mention it’s efffking hot here?

WTF? I live in Portland! The city will drown in a sea of heat wave.

The spam I send myself

Benjamin Parzybok — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:17:09 +0000

I’ve been sending myself some very interesting spam recently, at least according to my Gmail spam folder:

I have had some trouble hooking up with myself lately — phone tag, standing myself up, etc. which has caused some confusion about the house. Sometimes I arrive and when I ask, people tell me I’ve just left. Damn! Thus the bevy of emails sent from me as to my whereabouts. I do occasionally call myself darling, so that secret is out. Also, if anyone knows what kind of accident I was in, please let me know post haste.

When I open these up, Google tells me:

Alas! I already know almost all of my personal information!