Slashdot Mirror
Date Pagers
Structured Audio writes: "Found this in Dvorak's Forbes column. These
are hip in Japan,
China,
and Germany.
See those links for details, but it's essentially a pager-like
device that you program with details about who you'd like to
date. When it detects you're near someone who also is wearing
one of these, and your profiles match, it gets the two of you
into a conversation. Wow!" These frighten me.
I wouldn't get one of these devices myself, but hey! Supposing two violent homophobes with baseball bats get the same idea...
--
Xenu loves you!
I wonder...
...if Natalie Portman likes pouring hot grits down her pants, too!
by Anonymous Coward on Tue March 14, 12:13 AM CST (#5)
It appears some of the moderators didn't understand this post. It was both on-topic and not a troll. Allow me a moment to explain.
The idea behind the post, obviously, was that this particular troll would be ecstatic if he could find a mate who shared his excitement when he pours hot grits down his pants. This goal, combined with his obvious Natalie Portman fetish, is a rather common topic on slashdot.
Now to the on-topic part. This "troll", if you prefer to call them that (I don't, it doesn't match the proper definition of "troll"), looked at this particular article, and, suddenly, saw a possibility for all his dreams to come true at once!
Wistfully, he/she posted "I wonder...if Natalie Portman likes pouring hot grits down her pants, too!" Now consider what would happen if this poster, equipped with one of the devices the story references, were to run into Miss Portman, and discovered that she did, indeed, like hot grits down her pants? I think, and I can imagine you all agree, that he would be both on-topic, and scored +5/interesting.
But, it appears, the moderation system has failed yet again, and an obviously on-topic post has been moderated down as a "Troll". I metamoderate frequently, and believe me, "Troll" is not a valid definition in most cases. Indeed, I'm under the opinion that "Troll" should be, often, a bonus. True trolls catch those of us who post before thinking in a tight spot.
My guess is that some of these moderators have been caught by true trolls, and now associate "Troll" with any post they don't like. If the above post were to be moderated down, it should obviously be moderated down for "Overrated" since Offtopic and "Troll" don't apply here.
Moderators, use a dictionary.
-Ed
this
...to totally overlook the possibilities:
You walk into a pub and spot a total cutie. You bring out your hacked DatePager, point it at hers/his, and WHOAH... all of a sudden her/his DatePager goes off, identifying your sexy self as being a perfect match.
Dishonest, yes, but all's fair in love and war.
-- I can't think of anything witty to put here. Sorry.
Scary indeed.
And even aside from these nefarious uses, would you ever trust a person to program those things *honestly*? What woman's going to program hers with "nagging b*tch who only wants men for their money"
---
The real thing here is to be able to list not just optimal "dating configurations" but configs for other things as well:
2-Hour layover? No worries! You'll be automatically notified if any Linux-minded persons enter your area!
Comdex sucks rocks this year? Link up with everyone else who agrees with you, and go get tanked somewhere fun!
Car battery died? Let everyone in the parking lot know that you could use a jump, without having to raise your voice!
Okay, I probably made the whole thing look even stupider, but there's a lot of networking potential here. Society (and population density in some areas) gets in the way of getting to know our neighbors--with the right application this system could introduce us to the true "neighbors" we might never otherwise become aware of.
But that's just my own spur-of-the-moment, ill-considered .02gp
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.