PCalc Profanity Filter, Or: Satire Is Dead When It Comes To iPhone Boobies
7:49 am, October 2nd, 2009, Craig Grannell
When I was a kid, digital calculators were roughly the size of a brick, and had satisfyingly chunky displays. They also, in those pre-internet days, provided a means of minor technical mischief. Type in 5318008, flip your calculator upside down, and it appeared to say ‘boobies’. If you were five, this was the most hilarious and original gag in the history of the world.
In this modern and rather less innocent age, the media would have you believe that personal technology devices in the hands of children merely teach them how to joyride while murdering innocent puppies and simultaneously fashioning bombs out of string, jelly babies and bits of twig. It’s presumably for this reason that Apple considers it a good idea to warn you (Every. Single. Time.) when you download an eReader from the App Store that it—shock!—potentially enables you to view content that some people might deem objectionable.
Enter, stage right, James Thomson, creator of iPhone/iPod touch calculator PCalc. In a minor slice of design genius, he combined the two issues mentioned above and PCalc now slaps a huge ‘Censored!’ sign across ‘naughty’ words when your device is flipped, thereby ensuring fragile little minds aren’t warped beyond all recognition.
This is a smart, funny, satirical swipe at the recent trend towards over-zealous censorship. Unless you’re, say, Sajid Farooq of NBC, who, inexplicably takes Thomson’s joke seriously (and, sadly, he’s not alone) and states PCalc’s change would “make even George Orwell shudder in his grave”. I’m thinking Orwell would be more likely to laugh his CENSORED off.
PCalc is available on the App Store for $9.99/£5.99.
This article originally appeared on Revert to Saved.
Posted by Craig Grannell in Humor, News, Opinions, iPhone Apps | Comment on this article
Boobies is good but we used to do 55378008. That is more accurate to the girls of grade school.
Michael, on October 2nd, 2009 at 10:56 am
This isn’t satire, it’s stupidity. What a pointless waste of code.
Marky Mark, on October 2nd, 2009 at 1:57 pm