Slashdot Mirror
Jerk-O-Meter to Meter Jerks
prostoalex writes "The Jerk-o-Meter from MIT will analyze voice patterns of phone conversations and display a relative value of jerkiness factor on the scale of 0 to 100. For now, the Jerk-O-Meter is set up to monitor the user's end of the conversation. If his attention is straying, a message pops up on the phone that warns, 'Don't be a jerk!' or 'Be a little nicer now.' A score closer to 100 percent would prompt, 'Wow, you're a smooth talker.'"
Think of the usefulness of this thing in monitoring political speeches....
Forget that device, what we really need is Caller IQ!
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
When you're getting advice in social graces from MIT... you know something's wrong
BA-DUM CHING
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Without a doubt. That's how women manage to keep dating the biggest jerks they can find, and complain to their "nice guy friend" who "they don't think of in that way" because "he's so nice and understanding."
Well, not necessarily. There are basically 4 groups of customers:
- With a clue, nice. They ask you a specific question and expect specific answer. Easy to deal with if you know your job. If you are a moron, jerkometer could work against you, deservedly. Few, pleasure to deal with if you have a clue. Usually people who have worked in user support.
- With a clue, jerks. They want more to unload their frustration than to have a problem fixed, and for example set you a task they found unsolvable earlier, trying to earn you "dissatisfied" ticket, etc. Not easy to get rid of. But if you're an ace, you'll beat them with their own weapon proving them they are morons after all. (say, give them a page number in the manual together with the answer to their "unsolvable".) Most of tech people that get frustrated with something that isn't directly your fault, but, say, your company's. Generally, pain in the ass but luckily few.
- Clueless, nice. Usually victims to support jerks - they are desperate to get help, and you are their last hope. They hate tech, but withstand the suffering quietly (sometimes with a smile) as you guide them through, and are grateful if you solve the problem. Difficult, challenging (sometimes in a painful way) but generally okay. Bunch of moms, secretaries, grandmothers, tech people new to given field etc.
- Clueless jerks. They think they know better, but they don't. So, you're in pain because even if you know the solution, they won't accept it and make it all as painful to you as they only can. These would be best filtered through the system. Less time wasted, better success ratio (they wouldn't count towards the success average) and if you're told by a machine that you're a jerk, you may rethink what you do.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
So - what do men do? Become "bastards"
Actually I think it's more to do with confidence. Women find confident guys attractive. Bastards are confident. They are also very good liars, and have discovered that saying things like "I understand", or "Actually, I do like to go down" are more likely to get them laid rather than "shut up, the football is on" or "no, but you can do me".. which is what it turns into when enough condoms have been used.
The lesson I drew was to simply be confident and have a laugh. Nothing wrong with being a Nice Guy, and you won't get laid as much (especially when one has to turn down a damn good offer cos the woman is a bit emotional and vulnerable) but not getting laid ain't the end of the world.
Good friends (female or otherwise) are always a good thing.
I'm done; my Bloke Club membership will almost certainly be revoked now, and I will unable to discuss football down the pub any more, because I'm obviously really a big girl's blouse.
'No rational religion claims "supernatural" exists, that's an atheist slander.' - seen on slashdot.
Layman terms:
Both sides of the brain compete to read a word:
You try and 'read' the letters, and 'look at' the word. Which means many times the people see the words as shapes, not information.
When writing, we always look back on what we type, even visually (when assembling words).
The only pertinent parallel I can think of is when a hot chick in a shirt shirt skirt walks into the room, but is showing all her cleavage, and you mind fights itself, as your fovea centralis tries to split and focus all its cones on both her assets.
Dyslexia is like that, and then having a pop quiz if you noted her name on her id badge.
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com