Gibberizer: Automated gibberish.

Hey all,

I'm writing a mostly goofy software tool called Gibberizer. You give Gibberizer some text, and it produces gibberish that is somewhat similar.

Mostly the thing is just goofy fun. I've enjoyed using it to warp The Gettysburg Address into nearly-meaningful nonsense that sounds like Lincoln on smack. If that ain't fun, I don't know what is!

But there's a use for it. Fantasy and Science Fiction writers working in invented worlds and cultures can use it to invent names for people, places, and things. Given a list of names from a culture, Gibberizer will invent other names that seem (somewhat) to come from the same culture.

For example, I entered a list of 50 names from Lord of the Rings into Gibberizer, and it created these 25 "similar" names: Fimbreth Nimrodo Maggins Galad Peregolas Fladriel Nimroden Theodel Bregrin Elladriel Elladrif Fladan Elberegalad Pereth Halbaramir Boromiel Farad Beregalad Baggot Froden Beregrin Bregolas Bregond Brandalf Bereth. Most of those names fit the Lord of the Rings culture.

I'm making Gibberizer available for free for any use whatsoever. You can download it at:

• http://code.google.com/p/gibberizer/

To run it, just download the file and double-click on it.

As far as I know, this will also work on any Windows, Mac, or Linux computer, as long as you a Java Runtime Environment installed, version 1.5 or later. (I don't have Max or Linux computers available, so I haven't tried it on those operating systems myself.)

The sketchy documentation includes:

• A sketchy User Guide.
• Some ways to play with Gibberizer.

Enjoy,
Dale

If anybody uses this on a Mac or Linux computer, I'd love to know whether it works. I have no way to test it on those operating systems.

By the way, Laurie, Fahim may like to know (if he doesn't already) that Plot Craft was mentioned in the latest Writer's Digest, in the yearly software roundup article.

Dale