Yes, Things Have Been Quiet, But That’s Only Because We Were Off Learning That Siri Existed 30 Years Ago

Well hello there!

Yes, both we and the site do, in fact, still exist. Things have just been quiet the last little bit because it’s summer and that tends to be how things roll around here regardless of intent. Usually you all have the same idea as us, but for some reason numbers haven’t fallen off of nearly the cliff this go round that they generally do this time of year. I can’t decide whether to credit that to the list or if the lesson is that we can abandon you more often without having to care.

It’s been a good summer, for the most part. Some relaxing, some time with family, some time with friends, some music on our own porch and elsewhere, some relaxing after the friends and music because we’re starting to get too old for this shit and some other, less fun real life stuff that I won’t get into right now.

I can’t promise that we’re back up to speed starting now since it is, after all, still summertime, but in almost 15 years there has yet to be a month in the archives with 0 posts in it, so I had to come up with something since that’s a thing I’m strangely proud of.

So to keep the streak alive and also because it’s good, please enjoy this video demonstration of Siri…the 1980s edition.

As a blind guy I’ve heard a lot of awful computerized voices and have gotten pretty used to them out of necessity, but this one is so over the top awful that even I can’t make some of it out. The only thing I got out of the Nirvana’s first album question was 1967, and I don’t even know where to start on the coolest German song bit. But there’s some nice dumb subtle comedy here when you can understand it and they absolutely nailed the hokey old school presentation, so nice job.

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12 Comments

  1. Um…what did it say at the end? And if I heard it correctly, why? This was a real real thing? If this was from the 80’s, did we have a worldwide web yet? Or did I just read too fast?

    1. At the end it was saying Wonders of the World Wide Web (the name of the series) and telling you to subscribe if you liked the video.  And no, this is not real.  You were reading too fast.

  2. Yeah that voice reminded me of Merlin. Remember Merlin that would read MSN messenger messages aloud? Yeah that German song was awful. I wonder if the subtitles would actually be accurate.

    1. Oh god Merlin.  I forgot about him.  I remember you trying him out briefly because other people liked him for some reason.

      This is the only audio of him I could quickly find.  The entry and exit sounds gave me flashbacks.

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