AI chat bot 'Suzette' wins the Loebner prize

So, just yesterday Bruce Wilcox's chatbot called 'Suzette' passed the Turing Test and fooled one judge into thinking it was human after a 25 minute textual chat session. You can click here to speak with Suzette yourself. I intend to run an Arnie soundboard or two past her to see how she'll respond.

Oh memories of using the ALICE chatbot plugin to troll my MSN / IRC / Trillian contacts...

D-1 グランプリ - Japanese Spa Prank

Probably my favourite Japanese prank of all time. If only society hadn't become so goddamn serious and litigious, maybe we could still have TV shows like this.

D-1 グランプリ - Japanese Toilet Prank

Now this is just hilarious. Trust comedian / Japanese yakuza cinema legend 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano to be behind all this.

The best yakiniku miso dip recipe (tare - タレ)

Let's face it - you can buy all kinds of yakiniku (Japanese grilled beef) marinades from Korean and Japanese grocery stores - some sweet, some spicy, but mostly all soy-based. However, no yakiniku dinner is complete without a proper yakiniku dip. Some yakiniku restaurants offer their own homemade miso dip for the meat, which is absolutely delicious.

Here's my own miso-dare recipe which you can use to dip your grilled wagyu steak into:

• 2 tbsp red miso (the gritty kind, not the smooth kind)
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tbsp mirin
• 1/2 tbsp cooking sake
• 1 tbsp toasted thinly sliced garlic chips, crushed
• 1 tbsp diced scallions / spring onions
• 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds

The easiest thing to do is mix the sesame oil, sugar, mirin and sake together, then introduce the red miso, followed by the spring onions and sesame seeds. Do not over mix the dip - it is meant to be slightly gritty. I like to wrap the yakiniku beef in lettuce with a small dollop of miso-dare and a slice of green chilli pepper.

Tell me how you like my recipe!

If only he bought Tiffany instead...

maybe I would have said yes.

White iPhone 4 in Australia

So, I heard there's a new iPhone 4 model coming out before the end of the year. Apparently they've fixed the antenna problem, so the antenna configuration looks different to that shown in the photo above. The new version of the iPhone 4 will be available in Apple's famous toilet-bowl white.

Should I wait it out for the white iPhone 4? I have otherwise considered buying a Motorola Android phone or waiting for the Windows Phone, but the number of apps I've compulsively bought for my iPhone 3GS makes me feel like I should stick with Apple products, despite how evil Apple has become in recent years.

my guerlain lipstick. in your face?

I would love to do this to the guy who put talcum powder in my hairdryer.