At the moment I’m still in Maui. I’ve become friends with one of the waiters at the Grand Wailea poolside burger shack. (He refilled my ice tea once. I love the man.) I told him my son Matt was due to arrive the next day and would he help play a prank on him? Matt is an engineer for Apple computers and as you can imagine, there’s nothing he loves more than people asking for tech support (myself included). So I said to my waiter chum, “When Matt comes tomorrow tell him you’ve got a problem with your Mac laptop and that I said he’d be happy to help you.”
Sure enough – next day, we’re at lunch, the waiter ambles by, and asks Matt if he’d look at his laptop. Although steam was escaping from his ears, Matt graciously said he would. At that point we let him in on the joke.
He said he would get back at me.
She answers: “I don’t know, Jackass!”
You can imagine the laugh this got at the table. Getting royally insulted by my iPhone.
And as we were driving home a new concern crossed my mind. Based on the input she receives, Siri “learns” things. Does she now just assume I'm a giant asshole? I mean, calling me a Jackass was pretty rude!” Was I forever to be hated by my cellphone?
Well, it turns out Matt programmed Siri to call me that. You can do that I guess.
Good one, Matt!
I’m currently reading the Steve Jobs book. In it, I've learned he loved pulling practical jokes. I’ve always been proud that my son works for Apple Computer. But now I know, he really belongs.
For the record: Siri now calls me Kenny. At least to my face. Behind my back – God knows.
Great story but Steve Jobs was the jackass not you Ken. Only the good die young? Not in Steve's case. Ironic how a cancer got cancer. I'm guessing you are referencing Walter Issacson's book, he also wrote a really nice bio of Enstein which was actually readable for dummies like me and had hardly any, thank christ, math equations.
ReplyDeleteWow Stephen, what a horrible comment. Are you feeling better getting that off your chest?
ReplyDeleteThe traditional test of a user interface is the Tourette's Turing test. The command "fuck you" should return "your place or mine". An elderly American couple, somewhat the worse for wear, first demonstrated this to me in 1981 with a PC running CPM. Also the first time I heard the phrase "since Doris Day was a virgin".
ReplyDeleteThe other traditional test of a user interface is that the Sales Director must receive a profane & physically impossible request, left by a disgruntled employee, while demonstrating the product during an important sales pitch. First encountered circa 1990.
I guess Doug doesn't like Walter Issacson
ReplyDeleteYour son works at Apple? I'm surprised this blog doesn't charge $25 a month.
ReplyDeleteAnd that the readers don't brag to all their friends how much they visit.
Most of our funniest stories come not from tv shows but from our dinner tables. I know mine do. And... like Steve Jobs or not, the company he founded employs 80,000 people. That`s a legacy.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone wondering how Matt got Siri to call Ken a Jackass -- he would have changed Ken's address book entry for himself to "Jackass Levine". Now I guess you can pull this trick for yourselves :)
ReplyDeleteA comedian friend of mine added a shortcut to his wife's iPhone: A simple 'x' (kiss) became 'die in a pile'. He feigned ignorance as his wife got more and more confused and frustrated by her own texts.
Fun with iPhones!