Slashdot Mirror
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.
It won't be long until some kid has her read "eye yam sofa king we todd did."
...but can she run Linux?
I found the meaning of life the other day, but I had write-only access.
There are over 500,000 words in the english language. she recognizes slightly over .1% of them. I give her about 5 minutes reading any book with a decent vocabulary before she craps out. I know this is a toy, but memory isn't that expensive these days.
Help I'm a rock.
Ken says he'd rather have a beowulf cluster of Barbies.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
The Sim Pal doll in The 6th Day was named Cindy. I wonder if this is more than just a coincidence...
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DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
'We don't say those kind of words,' she shrills, refusing to even spell obscenities
;)
I guess she won't be saying McBride or SCO anytime soon either.
it says she can do math, but will she recognize 8 / 0?
"We don't do that math", "That's a naughty divisor!"
My kid sister had this caterpiller toy that had buttons that would say the number, letter, or phonetic sound that was associated with the button. It took me about 30 seconds to figure out that if I hit the phonetic f key and the phonetic q key it would go fa que. Needless to say my kid sister thought this was hilarious, not because she knew what it said, but just to see every one elses reaction. I don't think my parents every replaced the battery in that thing....
She doesn't know how to say 'no' either.
We don't click those kind of links... That's a bad link.
The Furby can run PicoGUI.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
This sounds like the kind of doll that comes to life at night, eyes glowing red, saying "You must kill mommy and daddy," while its head spins completely around.
Some adults still play with dolls. Of course, they're life-size blow-ups...
No, maybe we shouldn't
Man it really kills me how words with Germanic roots have gotten such a bad name. Why is 'feces' a more acceptable word than 'shit'? Because it come from the Latin 'faex' rather than the Old English 'scite'?
...
Why does 'intelligent' sound more sophisticated than 'smart'? Because it comes directly from french rather than Old English?
Just because our (as in english speakers') priests used to speak Latin while our kings used to speak French does not mean we should favor one part of our language over another. Orwell has a very interesting piece, Politics and the English Language, which deals with this issues.
It pisses me off so much when people try to limit my vocabulary. This is off-topic just a bit, but
I was in a class called 'Images of Africa in Film and Literature.' I read some good books and saw some interesting films. Generally, I was enjoying it. Then one day, someone (maybe me?) refered to native South Africans. The prof got upset. "We just don't use that word," he said. The jist of his argument against the word was that many ignorant people use it to refer to stereotypic, primitive people who live in the jungle, hunt heads and dance around cauldrons.
These stereotypes are, of course, not encouraged by the academic community which studies Africa. But Jesus H. Fucking Christ, native just means someone who was born in a particular place or apeople which has resided in a location for a long time.
After that, I just really lost interest in the class and respect for that prof. I just did enough to get by, and I still got an A.
So in conclusion, thought/word/language police, FUCK OFF!
http://yetanotherpoliticalrant.blogspot.com
"Hi, I'm Cindy the seeing Doll powered by Windows CE. Before you can use me I need to tell you my EULA and you must say 'I accept' when I have finished. This process will take approximately three hours. At the end of this process you will be able to activate me by ringing a toll free Microsoft number and telling me my 16 digit activation number." ... three hours twenty five minutes later
"Hi Cindy, how are you today?"
"Hello, I'm Cindy the talking doll and I would like to tell you about the new range of Smart Screens available from Microsoft. This will take approximately three hours. Are you ready to start?"
consider coffee a lubricant that helps one penetrate the coding zone
Yes, it works at first.
But then the thing hits that pesky hyper-hypercube configuration, goes second-order sapient, and starts looking to increase its "cultural and technological distinctiveness."
The more pathetic sort of extropian might see getting uploaded into such a gestalt as a Big Win, but really, what's the worth of an ersatz immortality with an IQ of 97 (remember that fourth-order-cube limit) and a voice interface that randomly throws in phrases like "math class is harrrrrd!?
Play it safe. Stick with FurbyNets with 254 or fewer nodes, and keep some spray paint on hand to blank out those IR transcievers, just in case.
Stefan It's out! Jones.
now can they make a bigger version, for us kids at slashdot ? We dont mind her not willing to say *certain* words as long as she understands what it means.
Siggy Say, Siggy Do
We can only hope they've put in those safeguards*.
Worst case scenario: She succeeds in dividing by zero, and suddenly little Tiphany-Amber's bedroom becomes the center of a howling vortex of nonspace, frying the neighborhood with sparkling discharges of zero-point energy.
Stefan It's out! Jones
*The early pocket-calculator manufacturers only cut corners once. Remember that HP plant in Bennettown, CA? Tire fire my ass.
This story is from an AU domain. It talks about the doll being released in Melbourne, and talks about how popular the doll has been here in the U.S. since it was released last November. So had anyone in the U.S. even heard of it before now?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I find it fascinating that Slashdot A.) Found the story interesting enough to post, and B.) Automatically reached for reasons to deride it. I find it interesting that the idea of a doll that can't say "shit" or "fuck" offends the Slashdot ethos. Lurking behind this story being posted at all, and most of the comments on the subject thus far, seems to be the idea that parents trying to shield their children from obscenity isn't merely futile, but is, in fact, actively evil.
Why is that?
I get the impression that the vast majority of Slashdot readers don't have children. (Insert the obvious "don't have girlfriend" jokes on your own.) One doesn't have to be John Ashcroft or Oral Roberts to believe that maybe six-year-olds don't need to learn the word "cocksucker."
I am far from a prude. I've used lots of those four-letter words in my own fiction, when needed, and laughed my ass off at "Shut Your Fucking Face, Uncle Fucker" from South Park: The Movie. And I myself don't have kids. But oddly enough, despite that, I can still imagine why parents might want a doll that can't say obscenities. I find it rather interesting that, thus far, not a single Slashdot poster seems willing to consider the fact that such a doll might indeed have a useful purpose...
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
All right, since when are we all so sick that the first things people think about when we talk about a kid's toy are the ways we can subvert it to our lecherous and or insane desires.
I remember, back when I was a kid, the best thing we had in talking things was the Jurrasic Park playset, all it would say for five days was, "Jurrasic Park Compound Secured" and then a light would flash. God damned, I barely even got new toys, I just got a bunch of modeling clay and pretended that they were new toys. Parents, I urge you, modeling clay is cheap (but a little messy) and it lets your children express their creativity. Don't just buy them a toy because it can do your parenting for you (and don't use television or computers for the same thing) because that's how the evil robots will take over the planet.
On a more serious note, I think that interactive toys are a nice touch, but I always thought that the point of getting toys was to make up your own adventures and envision how everything played out with a physical aid and your imagination. And yes, when I was younger (okay, like seven years ago) I did play with sticks and dirt, it's good stuff.
Apparently political correctness is higher in their priorities than good education. "Those" is plural, but "kind" is singular. For $149, I expect proper grammar.
A word's place in a language is how it's used by the speakers.
I can say feces and be unambigous in describing fecal matter to any English speaker.
Shit doesn't always describe animal excretia in English. It also describes a situation or thing which is negative to the point of requiring a word of curse. Much like sex and fuck can refer to the same thing, you don't go up to random people and talk about fucking unless you are very low brow. You can probably talk about sex, though, as long as it's appropriate to the context.
Languages are not logical -- sayings and alternate forms arrise all the time, and are designated as how people use them, not as logic would dictate.
For example, to indicate that someone had revealed a secret, one English expression you might say is, "he let the cat out of the bag." How does that relate to secrets? The french equivalent, "Il a vendu la meche." litterally translates as, "He sold the wick."
How about, "He's as tall as 3 apples." Is that easy to recognize like, "He's knee high to a grasshopper." is?
If you have a problem with the conotations and denotations of the English language, I suggest you learn another one. Then you might appreciate their usage better.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
The Slashdots - Cindy
I met her in a Radio Shack in old Soho
Where you drink Coca Cola(r) and it tastes just like carbonated, caffeinated brown water
See-oh-el-aye cola
She walked up to me and she asked me to fisrt post
I asked her her name and in a dark Linux(r) voice she said Cindy
See-Eye-Enn-Dee-Why Cindy la-la-la-la Cindy
Well I'm not the world's most technical guy
But when she squeezed me tight she nearly dumped my kernel
Oh my Cindy See-Eye-Enn-Dee-Why
I'm not an AC but I can't understand
Why she walked like a doll and talked like a nun
Oh my Cindy See-Eye-Enn-Dee-Why Cindy la-la-la-la Cindy
Well we drank Jolt and raved all night
Under electric high intensity discharge xenon candlelight
She picked me up and sat me on her plastic knee
And said dear boy won't you come home with me
Well I'm not the world's most passionate geek
But when I looked in her glass eyes well I almost fell for my Cindy
See-Eye-Enn-Dee-Why See-Eye-Enn-Dee-Why
I pushed her away
I walked to the X-terminal
I fell to the pile of floppies
I got down on my knees
Then I looked at her and she at me
Well that's the way that I want it to stay
And I always want it to be that way for my Cindy
See-Eye-Enn-Dee-Why Cindy
Girls will be dolls and boys will be geeks
It's a mixed up muddled up shook up world except for See-Eye-Enn-Dee-Why Cindy
Well I left my basement just a week before
And I'd never ever kissed a woman before
But Cindy smiled and took me by the hand
And said dear geek I'm gonna make you a kernel God
Well I'm not the world's most masculine geek
But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a geek
And so is Cindy
See-Eye-Enn-Dee-Why See-Eye-Enn-Dee-Why
See-Eye-Enn-Dee-Why See-Eye-Enn-Dee-Why
Judging from the way Ken dresses, I'd say he'd want a beowulf cluster of Kens. Go ahead. Think about it. I'll wait...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Goto?
That's bad code.
We don't code with those commands.
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
Please don't have kids.
Why the hell shouldn't he have kids? I grew up with ample access to nails, bits of wood and hammers. The ONLY thing that ever got hurt was my pride when I'd ask for an honest opinion of what I'd created.
We need more parents who are willing to let their kids grow up and experience things first hand. I'm not saying that it's a good idea to give a kid a box of matches, a gallon of gas and tell them to have a good time in their bedroom. That sort of thing should done outside after all.
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
But when you did, I thought to myself, "Whale oil beef hooked."
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
I'm sorry, Dave, we don't say those kind of words...
when C++ is your hammer, everything looks like a thumb
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
This phenomenon is not limited to English. Many other languages have the property that foreign imported words are more acceptable in polite company than native words.
For example, in Japanese, there are three major categories of words:
- Native Japanese words, inherited from antiquity
- Chinese words, imported roughly 1000 years ago
- English words, imported since the 20th century and continuing to this day
In almost all cases the more recently imported words are more sophisticated than the older words. For example, the polite way to say restroom in Japanese is either "toire" (derived from the English word toilet) or "otearai" (imported from chinese, literally meaning "hand-wash"). There exist native Japanese words for restroom, but they connote dirtiness and one would never use them in polite company.The three-level categorization of Japanese allows for more interesting observations than English's two level Latin/Germanic split. Note here that the most recent English import "toilet" can be used directly in polite speech, while the older Chinese import requires a euphemism and the original native words cannot be used at all. Compare this to native English, where "toilet" is one of the crudest possible ways to refer to a restroom. Familiarity breeds contempt, in any language.
She will function just fine until the SoBig.F attack installs a backdoor in her. Before you know it she will be spewing spam transmitting voyeur video from a little girl's bedroom to paid websites.
... "Please dont vote for them. That is a bad word" "Bomb Iraq" "That is a wonderful sentence" "You are a good girl" "Join the navy"
Maybe her big brother will replace the code with a quake2 time demo and hand it a real gun.
I'll bet it has been designed with Republican propaganda... "Democrat"
What if it instructs the little girl to call a certain phone line at a certain date. Gotta love phone-line DDoS attacks.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky