…for example, if you’re working with text originally written by a non-native speaker of the language.

I wanted to change the setting on a very simple (kosher) Samsung flip phone, so that instead of answering calls automatically when I open the phone, it will only answer when I press the “call” button to accept the call (this gives me a chance to see Caller ID first).

I knew the setting was available somewhere. Well, I looked and I looked. I hunted through every possible menu (there aren’t many on this phone).

In desperation, I got help from an Israeli colleague, who found the setting in just a couple of minutes. It wasn’t obvious. The function can be found in the “Extra Settings” in the “Settings” menu — fair enough. But the function itself is called “Active Folder”.

As a native English-speaker, I understood “Active Folder” to mean “a group of files or functionalities that are activated”, and therefore didn’t select that function even when I saw it during my original hunt.

My English-as-a-second-language colleague understood “Active Folder” correctly: “the function triggered by folding the phone is active”.

Watching store/restaurant employees use infrared touch-screen point-of-sale (POS) terminals. The old technology isn’t always very responsive, often has low-resolution input, and runs slowly. Thus the following observed accommodation behaviors:

• Using a credit card instead of a finger
• Cutting fingernails to different lengths
• Pressing harder (irrelevant to an IR technology!)
• Pressing longer
• Pressing more often
• On the software end, designing extra-large icons, to reduce false positive inputs

Sorry, no picture of this one.

My spies report from the men’s room in the Hong Kong airport (HKK) that the sign over the urinal reads: “Electronic urinal. No touch needed.”

OK, so I wasn’t going to post anything today. I certainly don’t have time to write (I must get some sleep), but couldn’t resist sharing this YouTube link. Enjoy!

Of course, that those of us who use candy-bar form phones already have random dial functionality…

[via Fortune’s Apple 2.0 blog]

“It’s easier to accidentally completely delete a new MMS than to send it.” [From the Small Surfaces blog]

Enough said.

Ooooh, I just love maps. Check it out: a blog of strange maps! The one shown here is a map of cannibal zones. But don’t miss the story of the State of Absaroka, U.S.A. — what? You don’t know that one?

My favorite books relating to maps:

The Mapmakers: Revised Edition

1066: The Year of the Conquest

1421: The Year China Discovered America (P.S.)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (the endpapers were the place I first fell in love with maps)

The Thomas Guide

And now go away and don’t bother me. I’m looking at maps busy.

What if there were no stop signs… and a major corporation was charged with inventing one?

If you’ve ever worked on the design side of the desk… don’t miss this great YouTube video!

*Why isn’t the video embedded?

If I were one of the people involved in inventing, developing, funding or launching GPS service, I’d be feeling very gratified right now (in addition to being rich). It’s sick that we need this kind of protection available, but it’s also exactly what technology is for. Good on them.

If only we could tag people just before they act.

GPS devices have been used for years to monitor sex offenders. But technological advances have now made it possible for the systems to issue warnings by cell phone if the offender gets too close to a specific victim.

Massachusetts adopted a law last year that lets judges require electronic monitoring of people who violate personal protection orders. Michigan, Oklahoma and Hawaii followed suit this year with GPS laws, bringing to 11 the number of states with related measures, said Diane Rosenfeld, a lecturer at Harvard Law School who proposed the Massachusetts law.

[via CNN.com]

134 issues… that how long it’s taken me to reach the dizzy heights of the Carnival. 

You can see my post on Why Tap When You Can Talk? featured, along with a slew of other posts well-worth reading, on Justin’s MoPocket blog. Go on, have a look.

I got a letter today. In an envelope. With three nice stamps (not all the same). Enclosing an article cut out of a newspaper. And a post-it note with a handwritten message.

When was the last time that happened to you? It made me feel good.