People of a certain age will remember the Ask Jeeves search engine and, more importantly, what fun it was to type in rude questions to see what the long-suffering butler might say.
上了年纪的人会记得Ask Jeeves这个搜索引擎,更重要的是,输入一些无礼的问题来看这个长久以来受苦受难的“管家”会如何回答,那是非常有趣的一件事。
Jeeves may no longer be around, but now everyone with an iPhone or iPad has something similar with Apple's voice assistant, Siri.
Jeeves可能不复存在了,但是现在所有的iPhone或是iPad用户在和苹果语音助手Siri交流时,都会遇到类似的情况。
Siri has been on hand to help since 2010 and, like Jeeves before her, it's also possible to have a little fun with her.
从2010年起Siri就一直在帮助用户,就像之前的Jeeves一样,和她交流也同样有乐趣。
For example, if you ask Siri to borrow some money, she'll sagely reply with, "Neither a borrower nor a lender be."
例如如果你向Siri借钱,她会一本正经地回答你:“我既不是借款人也不是贷款人。”
Sometimes, however, the harmless Siri fun can stray into something more serious - and potentially harmful.
但是,与Siri开一些看似无害的玩笑,有时可能会导致很严重的后果--很可能是有害的。
iPhone users have been taking to Twitter recently telling others to say the number 108 to Siri, adding things like, "You'll thank me later."
最近,一些iPhone用户在推特上要求其他用户对Siri说“108”,并且补充道:“稍后你会感谢我的。”
Saying 108 will in fact put you through to the emergency services in the UK. This is because 108 is the equivalent of 999 in India, writes The Sun.
《太阳报》报道称,事实上,对Siri说“108”会使你连接到英国的紧急服务。这是因为“108”相当于印度的“999”。
So what Siri does is recognise it as an emergency call, and puts you through to the services in your area.
所以,Siri所做的是将它视为一个紧急呼叫,并使你连接到所在地区的紧急服务部门。
Other numbers includes in similar pranks are: 112,110, 000 and the US number 911.
而其他会造成相似的闹剧的号码还包括:112、110、000以及美国的911。
What makes this prank particularly inadvisable are the thinly stretched resources of our emergency services.
这个恶作剧尤其不可取的原因是,它会分散我们的紧急服务资源。