Apple’s updated Siri now quotes Strunk, Jefferson, chiding users’ long-winded requests

“In a quiet server-side update, Apple has given Siri the ability to respond to requests with quotes, notably to suggest that the user is being too long-winded,” Phil Dzikiy reports for iLounge.

“When asking the assistant a question — presumably one that Apple’s servers find too long or difficult to parse,” Dzikiy reports, “Siri responds with William Strunk and Thomas Jefferson quotes alluding to brevity.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacNN reports, “Although Siri is marketed as a built-in component of iOS, in reality the feature won’t work without a connection to Apple’s servers, where the actual interpretation of commands happens. This does however allow Apple to improve Siri without updating iOS, which could take substantially longer. The need to discourage lengthy commands suggests that Apple’s voice recognition system still has trouble deciphering complex phrases.”

Read more in the full article here.

Apple Siri, Jefferson, Strunk quotes

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]

31 Comments

      1. Ah yes. As generally accepted, one of the longest, grammatically correct sentences written in, or translated into, English without the use of scientific or medical terms. I had pretty much forgotten that one. (There are much, much longer sentences, but they tend to be run ons and/or not grammatically correct.)

        1. More info on this matter of vital importance is found here: http://www.gavroche.org/vhugo/sentence.shtml

          The Longest Sentence in Literature

          Many people attribute the longest sentence in literature to Victor Hugo. The claim is that a sentence in Les Miserables, 823 words long, earns that title.

          The source most often given for this, if a source is given, is Timothy Fullerton’s Triviata: A Compendium of Useless Information, published in 1975.

          Unfortunately, Fullerton was in error. At best, it is the longest sentence in French literature, though I can’t confirm that.* Traditionally, the longest sentence in English Literature has been said to be a sentence in Ullyses by James Joyce, which clocks in at 4,391 words. Past editions of The Guinness Book of World Records have listed this record.

          However, Joyce’s record has recently been surpassed. Jonathan Coe’s The Rotters Club, published in 2001, contains a sentence with 13,955 words. I believe he currently holds the record in “English Literature.”

          However hold on to your seats…

          There is also, apparently, a Polish novel, Gates of Paradise, with a 40,000 word sentence. I have been unable so far to find absolute confirmation on an author. Bramy Raju, written by Jerzy Andrzejewski, and published in 1960, translates as Gates of Paradise, but it has been described as a novella. And while there is no absolute definition of that term, novellas are usually shorter than 40,000 words.

          Finally, there is a Czech novel that consists of one long sentence — Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age by Bohumil Hrabal. It is this novel that Coe has said inspired his 13,955 word sentence. Hrabal’s ‘novel sentence’ is 128 pages long, though I have been unable to find an exact word count. It most likely takes the award for longest sentence. Even if it doesn’t, it dwarfs Hugo’s significantly.

          — John Newmark – Nov, 2003

          *Aug 2004 — I have received an email stating that Sodom et Gomorrhe, Volume 4 of À la Recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust contains a sentence that’s 847 words long in the original French. If this is true, Hugo doesn’t hold the French literature record.

  1. Can we have Oscar Wilde or GBS please, would be rather nice to hear Siri out sarcasm some of her detractors. Or perhaps some Shakespeare to simply show her superior vocabulary and instant disdain for the intellectually challenged.

  2. Why is Siri quoting some of the most famous grand wizards of the 8th Degree Masonry? Is Apple hinting at joining the Illuminati? These people were responsible for many of the most controversial acts in history. Don’t tell me Siri is a member of the Illuminati.

    1. They no longer fear showing their hand, as they control all the important social institutions—government, religion, and academia included. Political parties are a deception. Power is its own justification and reward. While we as rabble clutch at each others’ throats in a ritual game played out for the amusement of the overlords, they do as they please, for reasons sometimes rational, sometimes perverse.

      Reminds me strongly of the Olympian gods…

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