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The Complete and Unabridged Blackberry Custom Dictionary

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

I have had my Blackberry Pearl since September 2008. A Pearl user lives and dies by their dictionary; the half-QWERTY keyboard makes typing words not present in either the built-in dictionary or the learned custom dictionary a significant pain.

The earliest entries in this dictionary date from the device’s last software reflash, which was no earlier than January 2009. Since then, I have gone through the list and trimmed it occasionally. Most of the words removed were misspellings. As the Blackberry OS 4.5 does not have a Polish dictionary, I don’t normally use it for communicating in Polish, and I remove Polish words I feel I will never use again. This is my complete and unabridged* custom dictionary as of September 19, 2010.

#firstworldproblems
1a
52′s
accidental’s
adbusters
africa
ageist
ago’s
aha
ahoy
aint
Aint
Alcatraz
alright
alvie
americano
Americano
amirite
amoled
amorkans
amputee
android
angoss
ap
apple’s
apps
april
arcestra
arduino
Armini
armoured
artsies
artsy
ascii
asobi
Asobi
aspie
ass
aurora
autocompletes
autolux
avant
avp
aww
azerbaijan
azn
bah
barby
barclays
barista
basc
basia
bathurst
bbq
bbs
bbva
bbw
bering
beverley
bex’s
bff
bhm
birrer
bitching
bittorrent
biutiful
bixi
biznazz
blarg
blase
blogto
bloor
bluur
bmh
bobbie’s
bombardier
bono
bosko
boyz
branson
brb
bronfman
brunswick
bs
bsa
btw
bulat
Bulat
bullshit
bumfuck
bunching
burrito
buskerfest
busywork
bux
buy
byob
ca
Calgary
california
caltrain
canadian
cantonese
Cantonese
Caribana
carleton
carpooling
catharines
cc
ccs
cecca
cecs
CECS
centric
cera
Cera
cfa
CFA
charset
chcesz
cheques
cheung
chillax
chinese
clamshells
clive
cm
cnd
cne
coat’s
cobol
coed
colour
comfy
commenters
commie
congrats
contraire
corktown
couture
Couture
croquet
cs
CS
ctv
cyprus
czechs
czesc
dagenham
danforth
Danforth
darwinian
db
DB
dd
declasse
deedy
deemphasized
delicje
Deutsche
dev
dia
distillery
distracting
dnd
doable
dobry
doherty
dolce
dossier
dov
Dov
dt
dufferin
duh
dun
dundas
dunno
dzien
eatons
eduroam
eeeemo
eg
Eglinton
emailed
embraer
emiliana
encoding
engsoc
eom
er
estonian
etobicoke
euclid
Euclid
eurocent
european
expresspost
eyjafjallajokull
fab
fab’s
facebook
fanboy
fancyish
fanfic
faved
favourites
fb
fedbus
ferdydurke
Ferdydurke
fests
fff
fffuuu
fg
FG
fhl
fido
fiera
fifo
filenames
fillmore
finnance
firstworldproblems
fixie
flimsiest
fml
fob
foodie
forrealz
francisco
frapp
freaking
free
friday
fridge
friggin
frigging
ft
fuck
fucked
fucking
fucks
fwiw
fydp
fyl
gamers
Gamers
gelato
genitive
gentrifying
gentsia
germaphobe
germaphobes
gerrard
gg
gifs
gilead
gj
gladstone
Gladstone
gladwell
gmail
gn
goertz
goliath
Gombrowicz
goth
gotta
govt
gowalla
grainge
grillo
grimsby
gs
gsm
GSM
gsmarena
gtfo’d
guelph
gulag
guu
Guu
GUU
haha
halfie
hangings
harbord
hashtags
hazelnuty
headached
headdesky
heartthrob
heh
hella
hellenic
hf
hibernia
hipper
hipster
Hipster
hipsters
hitman
hk
HK
hn
hoodie
hookahs
hoorj
hr
hrish
hsbc
hspa
HSPA
Hummer
hura
huron
Huron
i’ll
i’m
ibook
iceland
icelanders
idiocies
idk
iglesias
iirc
IIRC
imo
indie
instituting
internets
iowa
ipa
IPA
ipad
iphone
ips
irl
ish
italy
itunes
Ixpress
jarek
jarekp
jaymis
jenny
jesusprof
jez
jk
jnessap
jobmine
joke’s
jomsie’s
jose
juno
jw
kanata
kanetix
katz
kay
kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
kbaied
kenny
kitchener
kk
klassy
knaan~
koenigsegg
krugman
kto
kurma
kwan
Kwan
lacoste
laurier
Laurier
lawls
layter
lcbo
lekarz
lenos
lenz
Lenz
lexus
lib
libs
licensing
liek
lightbox
linda
lindt
linkedin
linux
linuxcaffe
liveblog
lolol
Lolol
lololololol
lolterview
lolz
longish
lookalike
looong
lunix
luv
lx-5
macchiato
mah
makeout
markup
masa
maserati
matlab
maui
mayjames
mb
MB
mccaul
mcnuggets
me
meh
mels
menaji
merly
metre
mhm
mia
micalief
microswitch
midterm
misformatted
misplacing
mississauga
mkay
mlia
mobiroo
mochas
moldava
monetize
moneyz
morag
motherfucker
mpass
mr
mre
msn
mulan
munro
myspace
nabokov
nah
najs
natch
neighbours
nemo
nerdy
netwren
newsfeed
nfc
nie
nigiri
nki
nm
nn
nokia
nomming
noob
Noob
noobly
noobs
noonish
notl
np
ntfs
nubly
nuff
nuit
nutella
nvm
nyc
nyt
NYT
obnoxiousness
och
OCH
ofe
offline
ofina
oic
oicky
omg
OMG
onoz
ontario
ontario’s
oooh
ooooh
openbeak
orangatame
OS
ottawa
Ottawa
owen
panini
paperz
parkdale
passat
pasteur
Pasteur
paul
pay
paycheque
pd
pda
pdf
pebkac
pedophile
perl
Perl
phd
phds
php
Php
pics
pilsner
pincus
piorkowski
pirating
pismo
pix
plx
plz
pmall
polski
Polski
poserdom
postings
poutine
poutini’s
profs
pronouncable
psci
pupusas
qa
quebecois
qviri
RA
rajesh
ratatat
RBC
rbccm
rch
RCH
rcmp
realz
reboot
reflash
repartee
repaste
resetting
rfd
ricoh
riesling
rihanna
riiiight
ripoff
rl
rly
rn
roffles
rofl
rom
ROM
roncey
rong
roomba
rss
rumours
ryerson
samba
sasha
Sasha
sauga’s
sbucks
sbux
sbuxing
schadenfreude
schnapps
scifi
scotia
scott
secondcup
sedaris
Sedaris
segue
seksu
Seksu
sez
sherbourne
shhhh
shilling
shit
shitall
shits
shitty
showbiz
shteyngart
siebel
sketchier
skype’s
slc
slr
SLR
snd
snippy
sociale
soho
Solzhenitsyn
soonish
sorite
soundsystem
soviet
spadina
spcom
sql
srs
srsly
sry
starbucks
starcraft
stata
staten
stats
steeles
stinky
stoners
strachan
sublets
suburbanites
suicide
sukho
sunburnt
sup
superhero
sustainability
sux
suzie
sysadmin
tacs
takethegrt
takk
taleo
tao
tbbt
tbh
tbilisi
tegan
tempura
tenses
tesh
tetley’s
that’d
thinkpad
thnx
thomson
ths
tia
ticketmaster
tiff
timeframes
tinyurl
tipsy
tix
tldr
tmr
tofu
tomatoey
toronto
torontonian
torrenting
torrini
torx
tp
tpl
transliteration
trendier
tshirt
tshirts
tsk
tt
ttc
TTC
ttcu
ttd
tufd
tuts
tweet
twinnings
tyvm
ubuntu
uhhhhh
unawesome
unhipster
unmotivated
unscaredness
uploadings
url
usf
uw’s
uwaterloo
uWaterloo
van
vancouver
vespa
vi
voip
von
voteto
vta
warszawa
watcard
waterloo
wats
wb
weatherlolz
webpage
wednesdays
weeabooing
weeaboos
welland
whatsherface
whoa
why’s
wifi
wikipedia
wiktionary
workopolics
wsj
wtf
wunderkind
wut
xenophobes
xing
yall
yao
yay
yessss
yeye
ymmv
yonge
Yonge
yoo
york
yorkdale
youtube
yvr
zakrecona
zzz
ZZZ

* Except unintentional misspellings where correct form is obvious. One entry — the username part of an email address, not otherwise a word — was removed to protect the innocent. Not all words typed are added to the custom dictionary by the Blackberry OS.

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Apple iPad

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

The Apple iPad is out today. (In the United States.)

The device has generated many, many words even before being properly leaked, let alone announced, and more still after the January 27, 2010 announcement.

I’m not here to tell you the iPad is missing features, or underpowered, or overpriced. Features are relative to requirements, power is relative to needs, and price is relative to everything. It might be underpowered and overpriced for some, but others it will be just right. Poking fun at lack of USB ports or multitasking or Flash is cheap, easy, and popular, but it’s totally been done a thousand times over. Personally, I am intrigued by the slate form factor — just not the Apple implementation.

I’m here to tell you the Apple iPad makes me uneasy. Very uneasy.

Much of the more insightful commentary following the iPad announcement focused on the philosophy underlying the device, and not without reason.

I don’t have that much of a problem with iPad the movie watching slate or iPad the game console or iPad the ebook reader: iPad, the appliance.

I do have a large problem with iPad, the future of computing.

Apple seems very intent on expanding the deployment of iPhone OS. It’s spread from a smartphone, to a handheld device to a media slate. This from a company now calling itself a mobile device company. Of course, they should have an interest in expanding iPhone OS’s popularity: it’s likely cheaper and easier to develop and cheaper and easier to run, hardware-wise. I’m all for leaner, user-friendlier software. It probably doesn’t hurt Apple gets 30% of all the (official) software sales.

You will have no problem finding people to tell you the iPad is the future.

Many have commented on the tinkering, exploration, and play angles of the iPad Question; of those, Alex Payne’s and Mark Pilgrim’s posts caught my particular attention.

(Alex’s verdict: disturbing. Mark’s: a real loss.)

The general idea is that by encouraging playing, tinkering, and messing with things, computers of yore allowed their users to develop creativity, analytical thinking, and curiosity. Appropriately, for both the writers, the computers in question were made by Apple.

I have similar experiences — not on Apple computers, there weren’t a lot of those in Poland in mid-to-late 90s — but the personal stories are not the point here.

One of the responses to those arguments, by Faruk Ateş, charged:

When these men became programmers, they didn’t do so because tinkering was “so much fun”; they did it because there was no other way. [emphasis original]

He and many others manage to impressively miss the point.

Children don’t tinker because they want to become programmers, because they want to learn to program or learn anything else. Children tinker because it’s fun. There is no ultimate goal. They do not, at least initially, kick a football around because they want to be on Manchester United’s first team. They do not play in the kitchen because they want to become world-famous chefs, nor do they play with LEGO because they want to become mechanical or civil engineers. They play and tinker because they are curious and that is what children do.

Luckily, they do develop very important skills while tinkering, trying things out, pushing the boundaries, breaking things occasionally. This is a side effect — a very important and happy side effect, but a side effect nevertheless.

The iPad is a LEGO set that can only be assembled into what’s drawn on the box.

The iPad is a microwave. You can’t realistically do whatever you please with a microwave, and most people won’t expect to. But the future of food delivered from microwaves — quick, easy, user-friendly, one-button — is a bleak future. No one will become a world-famous chef by playing with making food in the microwave when they’re 12. The stove presents much more opportunity to mess up and spend hours cleaning up the aftermath, or even burn down the place. It also presents an opportunity for expression and exploration that just cannot be realized in the limited nature of the microwave oven.

It looks like Apple would really, really like it if more people would get rid of their stoves and only use microwaves.

The “it’s either secure, user friendly, easy to learn, or it’s tinkerable” line of thinking commonly used against these arguments is a false dichotomy. Mac OS X comes with a command-line terminal and a variety of other ways to mess with and, yes, break your system. Compared against the iPhone OS, the primary reason OS X might be considered more difficult is not because it’s easier to break; it’s because it’s more overwhelming with its functionality.

As Cory Doctorow wrote in a recent post that was otherwise less than pointed:

Buying an iPad for your kids isn’t a means of jump-starting the realization that the world is yours to take apart and reassemble; it’s a way of telling your offspring that even changing the batteries is something you have to leave to the professionals.

This isn’t about us not understanding a paradigm shift. This isn’t about us not understanding how the new world moves. We understand it — and we are very afraid it will lack supremely important features of the old world.

Here’s to tinkering.

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Montreal Streets

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

This is an expansion to my thoughts on Montreal, as ~~threatened~~ promised. (more…)

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Montreal

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

Much of this was written in mid-September, forgotten in draft hell, put off for months, and occasionally augmented. I’m not sure it’s perfect yet, but it’s good enough.

A friend and I went to Montreal for four and a half days in September before classes started. My first visit to the city, though with any luck it won’t be the last. Here are some random thoughts collected by the end of the week. Not a proper blog post, but spamming all of this on Twitter would have been excessive. I have pictures; they will make their way to Flickr eventually.

(more…)

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2009

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

3B, my best term by academic performance since first year, by a fair margin, not fully related to sudden spikes in intelligence or work ethic. Fun times with 4 midterms and 12 job interviews in four days just before the reading week. I finished with more job offers than midterms failed, so I consider it a success.
Last work term, went reasonably well.
4A, went pretty okay in the end, though at some points it felt like more work and less results than 2B two years ago. Special thanks to ECE, as usual.
Two projects I wanted to do, Take the GRT one of them, pretty much fizzled out. Not too thrilled about that, but that was the year.
Fell in love with Toronto. Because every building is a shop and every person is a shopper.
Fell in like with Montreal. The visit was too short, I will be back.
Became significantly jaded with Waterloo. Not its fault, really, but on categories influenced by size it can’t compete, and those became important.
Wheels fell of the Flickr train, and I now have a 11-month backlog. The fact I insist on uploading chronologically except in special circumstances does not help.
Managed not to buy another camera(s), but it doesn’t look like I will last long into 2010.
Completed my conversion into an appalling hipster. Music spam: Year of Broken Social Scene in the first half, and Cocteau Twins in the second half. Unsurprising, really. Four great releases to start off: Junior Boys, Metric, Phoenix, and Röyksopp. A new múm album leaked just before summer started and it proved to be the perfect summer album.
Other notable new albums from Young Galaxy, Think About Life, Mew, The xx (just barely, listened in late December).
Saw live: Bloc Party, Hexes and Ohs, Goran Bregović, Bell Orchestre, Broken Social Scene (@ Harbourfront, yes), M83, Think About Life, Young Galaxy, múm, Junior Boys.
You don’t have a clue.
Love and mathematics.

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