Sunday, March 4, 2012

Ask Siri to Sing Happy Birthday

At a friend's birthday party dinner this evening in a very fancy Italian restaurant as we all finished dinner and everyone somehow felt it was appropriate to whip out that iPhone and start texting the buddies at the other long end of the table, the guy beside me suggested let's play Ask Siri!

I don't have an iPhone, I don't even own a cell phone really. I'm very curious who is Suri (I didn't even know how to spell it). The "Industry Canada RF Bandwidth Allocation Committee member" rolls her eyes and says,  you folks are wasting bandwidth! I suppose this is true, asking age old questions like why did the chicken cross the road, what is the meaning of life, who's your daddy, and How big is the Pacific Ocean? (that's a good one) Siri gives the answers in Liters with extra information about the comparative volume, 51% of the all the earth's oceans. I'm hooked.  I ask, What is Pippa Middleton wearing? Siri displays button to perform a website for that.  I'm giggling too much at the idea of asking a computer for answers. I get one of the guyz to ask, what are you wearing Siri? But I miss the answer because it's just too funny.

We're at a birthday party so buddy asks, Siri would you sing happy birthday to my friend please?
Siri answers, Daisy, daisy, give me your answer do.

It wasn't quite the answer I was searching for. People keep texting each other or playing Angry Birds, but I desire an explanation! The Cisco guy at the end of the table explains that it is a cultural reference to the IBM computer that became the first computer to sing Daisy Bell.

In the late 1950's  a computer sung a song for the first time. Here is a nice clip from  YouTube.
Daisy, daisy, give me your answer do.
I'm half crazy all for the love of you.
It won't be a stylish marriage -
I can't afford a carriage,
But you'd look sweet on the seat
Of a bicycle built for two.

This is quite a cute response. I guess it's an AI joke that's preprogrammed in, but it's still very cute. Well here are some other questions to ask Siri though personally I think people should really talk to their friends at a party and not play with their phones too much. Tweet tweet.

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