vvvexation: (Default)
vvvexation ([personal profile] vvvexation) wrote2006-02-04 02:19 pm
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Maximizing the phone-spelling annoyance factor

I just entered a name into my cell phone that consisted entirely of letters that were each the last letter on the corresponding number key, meaning that I had to press every single key three times. It's always mildly annoying when you have to press that many buttons to enter a word, but this struck me as a special case of maximized annoyance.

I quickly realized, though, that even greater annoyance could be achieved by spelling an even longer name with the same property. Unfortunately, I can't come up off the top of my head with any particularly long ones using the letters C, F, I, L, O, S, V, and Z.

Can anyone else?

[identity profile] mckenzee.livejournal.com 2006-02-04 10:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Slobodan Milosovic

[identity profile] catamorphism.livejournal.com 2006-02-04 10:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Czeslaw Milosz almost works, should you ever need to call him.

[identity profile] catamorphism.livejournal.com 2006-02-04 10:50 pm (UTC)(link)
(that is, should you ever need to call him, using one of those fancy new cell phones that can talk to the dead)

[identity profile] somebodyelse.livejournal.com 2006-02-05 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
Of course, it only compounds the annoyance when you have double letters and so have to wait 2 seconds or so in the middle of typing. So I think the most annoying possible entry (though probably not name) is "Floozy" as you have two o's and a z followed by a y.

[identity profile] vvvexation.livejournal.com 2006-02-05 07:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, I actually meant using only those letters, but I guess a longer name could be even more annoying even if it didn't use only those letters, and that's certainly a good use of them.

[identity profile] hitchhiker.livejournal.com 2006-02-05 08:09 pm (UTC)(link)
viscoff for 7. for bonus points he could be clovis z. viscoff

[identity profile] hitchhiker.livejournal.com 2006-02-05 08:14 pm (UTC)(link)
three google hits for szilovicz!!

[identity profile] flwyd.livejournal.com 2006-02-06 07:45 pm (UTC)(link)
egrep '^[cfilosvz]+$' /usr/share/dict/words
Result includes:
colossi
fossils
silicosis

One could conceivably have the phone number for Oslo Volvo. And then there's Mr. Cliff Folios.

with a bigger wordlist...

[identity profile] hitchhiker.livejournal.com 2006-02-06 10:03 pm (UTC)(link)
$ egrep '^[cfilosvz]+$' ~/sowpods | grep '........'
locofoco
locofocos
scissils
scoliosis
silicosis
slivovic
slivovics
zoccolos
ext_171739: (Frank-n-Choo-Choo-Bear)

[identity profile] dieppe.livejournal.com 2006-02-09 12:49 am (UTC)(link)
"The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human."

Just sayin'...