Cindy Smart Knows Better Than To Say Naughty Words

D'Sphitz writes "Cindy Smart, the first doll in the world to be able to read, tell the time and do sums. Cindy Smart 'sees' via a camera located under a bee on her overalls and has a computer 'brain' that can recognise more than 600 words and objects, although she refuses to recite certain 4-letter words. 'We don't say those kind of words,' she shrills, refusing to even spell obscenities. 'That's a bad word.'" Sounds like a good candidate for a personality transplant.

Comments

Re:What's wrong with Germanic roots?

[Fourier]

The word "perogative" lost all its dignity when Will Smith explained it to the masses.

The word prerogative lost all its dignity when everyone started pronouncing it "perogative". :-)

On clearance here

[levram2]

Maybe Cindy Smart didn't pass the child play test. I found it discounted from the original $150 MSRP down to only $29.21 at hsn.com.

Re:How can they really stop it?

[Choron]

Or better, you can try it online http://www.naturalvoices.att.com/demos/ in English, French, Spanish and German.

Re:Old sf story

[MsWillow]

"I always do what teddy says" Harry Harrison, 1963.

"I Always Do What Teddy Says (1963) is set in a utopia where mechanical teddy bears are used to condition children against anti-social behaviour: The Times reported on 1st April 1998 that, "Teddy bears...will soon be fitted with tiny cameras to spy on families across Britain.""

Hope this helps.

Re:And Slashdot is offended by this why?

[LordKronos]

Please don't have kids. The truth is great and all, but the world needs fewer emotionally disturbed children. Children raise in the manner you describe almost always form a negative opinion of themself (how could they not), develop a low self-esteem, and become failures in life as part of some sick, self-fulfilling prophecy. So if that's the way you really think kids should be raised, I beg of you to do this world a favor and not have kids.

Re:Creepy

[hankaholic]

It's almost as funny as when General Motors executives couldn't understand why the Chevy Nova was not selling in South America. Then some bright boy realized that 'No Va' is spanish for 'it doesn't go - it doesn't work'.

...which is to say, not very funny at all, as the GM "marketing blunder" wasn't a blunder at all.

As a simple Google search for "Chevy Nova Spanish" reveals, this never happened.

The first link revealed by Google debunks this myth:

For starters, nova and no va don't sound alike and are unlikely to be confused, just as "carpet" and "car pet" are unlikely to be confused in English. Additionally, no va would be an awkward way in Spanish to describe a nonfunctioning car (no funciona, among others, would do better), just as in English we'd be more likely to say "it doesn't run" than "it doesn't go."

The second linkprovided by Google is slightly better.

My favorite quote from the article:

Assuming that Spanish speakers would naturally see the word "nova" as equivalent to the phrase "no va" and think "Hey, this car doesn't go!" is akin to assuming that English speakers woud spurn a dinette set sold under the name Notable because nobody wants a dinette set that doesn't include a table.

The article also points out the fact that you can't market a car in Spanish-speaking countries without Spanish-speaking people finding out about it. GM dealers in South America would be stupid to sit idly by while GM asked them to sell a car whose very name implied that it was unable to move.

But, I guess it's easier to assume that GM's entire marketing team didn't know enough to realize that people on a different continent speaking another language might have another interpretation for the name of a product, and that everyone in Mexico and South America involved in marketing and selling the car would be too lazy and drunk to mention anything to their regional managers if the name actually was likely to kill sales.

Even if nobody in Detroit knew enough rudimentary Spanish to notice the coincidence, the Nova could not have brought to market in Mexico and/or South America without the involvement of numerous Spanish speakers engaged to translate user manuals, prepare advertising and promotional materials, communicate with the network of Chevrolet dealers in the target countries, etc.

As both articles point out, the Nova actually sold quite well in South America, exceeding GM's expectations.