Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The dictionary according to BlackBerry

Dear Guy Who Programmed the Dictionary and Auto-replace feature in the BlackBerry,

I'm curious... What planet are you from?

I mean, I appreciate that the BB helps me replace words with typos, and lots of times it gets them right, but where the heck did you learn English? There are some real doozies that seem to happen pretty often though.

For example, if I mistype "haven't," the BlackBerry replaces it with "ha bent." Riiiight, like those are the two words I MEANT to write.

The other one that really throws me is when I mistype "they" and the BlackBerry INSISTS on replacing it with "thry."

Um...

(a) What the HECK is a "thry?" Note there is NO entry in the www.dictionary.com for "thry" so I'm not sure why it's even offered as a suggestion must less automatically replacing it.

(b) How in the WORLD does it come to the conclusion that "thry" (even if it IS a valid word in the dictionary) was more likely the word I wanted than "they"????

A couple of suggestions:
1) Buy an actual English dictionary. It can't possibly be that hard with all the computerized spell-check programs out there.
2) Use some sort of histogram to tell the frequency of words occurring in the English language to figure out which was the more likely word the fumbling typist intended to type.

In case you were wondering: No, my typing speed has NOT improved with time and experience on the new BB storm keyboard. I try to type faster and make mistakes, and the BB tries to help me out by replacing my mistakes with nonsense words like "thry."

4 comments:

divrchk said...

If you complain about it on Twitter with a hashtag Blackberry, you might get some results. It worked wonders when having install prob with Comcrap. They are coming 6 days sooner b/c of a tweet from me. On a side note, Vince says there is no limit on hunting skunks. He got his hunting and fising license and is reading up.

Nereus said...

I have a work issued blackberry (not a storm, just a plain already antiquated version) that is no limit of fun. The reboots, having to stand in a certain direction to get a signal for a call, sometimes it will do it's vibrate and ring, sometimes it won't. And the autospell dictionary is derived from,mmm either high school sophomore's texting slang or an undiscovered Aramaic dialect.

But since it is a company issued item, I don't complain. I just know that when my current cell phone dies or is finally so obsolete that it will not work (that was the fate of my last cell phone) I won't be purchasing a blackberry product.

BTW, does your's cause an abnormal amount of radio interferance? The version we use causes a horrible buzzing during data transmision that can be heard on radio and stereo speakers. Makes that morning drive even more fun.

Nereus said...

And regarding the first comment on this page, Hunting Skunks?

ORM dude, they turn into clouds of visible stink when you shoot them. My sister was dating a metrosexual who came out to the sticks with me, my brother and his little bitty .25 pea shooter. Thought he was going to be davy crockett and get himself that skunk he spied grubbing for worms.
My brother and I let him.. Hilarity ensued, got to ride back home in the bed of the pickup and my sister didn't talk to us or him for a few days.

blunoz said...

Nereus - Yeah, when my boss sets his BlackBerry down next to the computer speakers on his desk, there is noticable EMI and static on the speakers.