Online dating, the weird and useless bunch

Well, it's been a bit more than a month since my last 'thoughts' on the concept of dating...

There's a smell of spring in the air, and I'm seeing more people taking a practical approach to the "I'm still single" paradigm.

They tried online dating.

While I haven't seen the results yet, I decided to investigate the idea myself, and do a bit of scouting of the various website first.

Well... let's just say it's a bit overwhelming... I'm up to 26 links now, and still counting...

I won't list all the sites here (they are on del.icio.us anyway: http://del.icio.us/ve2dmn/dating ), but I did notice a couple of interesting site that are out of the ordinary:

Flirting in Traffic is the most bizarre one. You make an account, and they give you an ID tag to put on your car. Anyone who finds you interesting can note the ID and try to contact you online. It's kind of a reverse online dating thing...

PodDater is another strange one. You make a video of yourself, and than people can download the video to their IPods (or any other movie-capable portable media player), like a TV dating service. You can subscribe to it, like a podcast.

On the same idea as PodDater, VerbDate is a dating site made to connect 2 people via voice chat, you can have a sort of phone date.

Than, there's Engage.com , where people vote for who should meet whom. Kind of an interesting concept.

Then there's the free sites:

OkCupid seems to be a very popular one. You can take a test that will then evaluate who you will possibly be most compatible with, based on common answers...

PlentyOfFish is another big free one. Seems basic, but has been going on for a couple of years now...


These are all probably just fine, but none of these would actually work around here, because of how English-centric they are. No French equivalent means it automatically disqualify more than half of the local resident...

Because, in the end, If there isn't a critical mass, it will simply fail...

Cellphone

So I lost my phone (A 2 1/2 year old Nokia 6820) , and I was looking for "something else" to replace it...

I'm saying "something else" but I'm not sure what type of device I'm going to buy. I'm still waiting for the magical device that will do everything my old Palm, my Mp3 player and a phone does and still have the same form factor, but this type of device have yet to materialize...

Still, there are some interesting devices out there, and so, after a bit of searching, I found three intertesting phones: 2 development platform, and 3 consumer devices.

First up, the Greenphone

The Greenphone is Trolltech's development platform for Qtopia.

It's a phone with a software stack based on a Linux kernel and the Qtopia developpement platform. It's a device targeted at software developers, and enthusiasts (which I am, kind of).

On the hardware side, it's a cross between a medium range phone with a camera and a touch screen PDA. Interesting specs includes:

• Touch-screen
• 64Meg RAM (+128Meg Flash)
• MicroSD card slot
  
• GSM Tri-Band
• Bluetooth
• Standard Mini-usb connector
• 1.3Megapixel Camera
• Based on Linux 2.6 + Qtopia
  

It's a bit pricey at 700$US, but the ability to develop my own applications for it using a platform that I am familiar with was interesting... It's a great phone, but in the end, I'll just wait and see...

Next up The Openmoko Based Neo1973

Again this one too is a development platform.

• Touch-screen
• 128Meg RAM (+64Meg Flash)
• MicroSD card slot
  
• GSM Tri-Band
• Bluetooth
• Standard Mini-usb connector
• Based on Linux + GTK

While it's a bit less cool looking, and doesn't have a camera, at 350$US it's half the price of the Greenphone. However, I'm still not sold on such a device because of the amount of work I would have to put up an Mp3 player inside. It's a great future phone platform, and I will definitely keep a eye on this one also.


The next phones I looked at is the Treo 650 and 680.

I prefer the 650 as a form factor, but the 680 has much better hardware:

The 650 has:

• 32Meg flash (23 acceissble)
• SD / MMC slot
• PalmOS 5
• Touch-Screen
• 0.3 megapixel camera
• Bluetooth

And the 680:

• 64 MB onboard NAND (+32 MB SDRAM split )
• touch-screen display
• SD / MMC Slot
• PalmOS 5.9
  
• 0.3 megapixel camera
• Bluetooth

While this phone looks nice, it's getting old. (650 date back to fall 2004). The PalmOS is slowly losing momentum and while I've been using it for years, and I am quite used to it, but It's getting harder and harder to get new applications for this platform.

Both phone also have only a 0.3 megapixel camera, which is kind of low quality compared to other offerings

On the plus side, Both phones have a qwerty keyboard as well as a full SD slot.

The price for the 680 is around 500$CAN without a contract, and 300$CAN with a 2 year contract. Not sure if I'm going to get this one...

The last phone I looked at was the Nokia E61.

This is the closest phone I could find to a Palm phone without running Windows Mobile. It runs on Symbian OS and uses S60 for the smartphone capabilities.

Features:

• Touch-screen
• 64Meg RAM
  
• MiniSD card slot
  
• GSM Tri-Band
• Bluetooth
• Standard Mini-usb connector
• Symbian OS 9.1
  

Plus 2 killer features that are removed on the north America E62 equivalent:

• WiFi
• SIP client

While it lacks a Camera, the wifi and SIP capabilities is very interesting. Also, SymbianOS is a more modern and vibrant OS with lost of third party applications.

The only real downside is the price: 600$CAN, and can only be bought as an unlocked phone.

For now it's a toss between the Nokia E61 and the Treo680.

War on Terror, the board game TM - a satirical board game from TerrorBull Games

War on Terror, the board game TM - a satirical board game from TerrorBull Games

Do the war on terror thing at home!! Be the corporate-sponsored corrupted leaders or the religious-fantic terrorist.The objective of the game is total dominiation... er.... liberation... :)

Crypto-Gram: March 15, 2007

Crypto-Gram: March 15, 2007

I hate to say this, but Schneier is right in his latest newsletter... a piece called "CYA Security"... CYA for Cover Your Ass...

A worthy read... and a depressing one if you ask me...

What Could Possibly Be Worse Than Failure?

The daily WTF "changed" name recently (or rather defined the WTF part) and the owner has posted an explanation for the new name:
What Could Possibly Be Worse Than Failure?
It is an interesting question and I think it represent the current state of much of the public sector in Quebec. In his explanation, Alex Papadimoulis (the author) explains that keeping the bad working system is actually worse than simply scrapping it and starting over. Even worse, the final perception of such an endeavor to the designed is "It works!", thus the lessons that should have been learned from the failure aren't... And thus the problem is repeated over and over again... It is the logic behind things like voting machines problems in the US: no matter how bad it is, as long as it does the minimum at the lowest price, it will be bought.

Of course, the real problem is that it will only be dealt with after it's too late...

The Problem with music by Steve Albini

The Problem with music by Steve Albini

It's an old story but it's worth reading... kinda of like this one:
Courtney Love does the math

Ideas behind educated dating problems

In my last post, I talked about how most of my well-educated friends are all single... I have my own little theory on the idea... Of course, this is my own interpretation, based on personal experience and it might not apply to everyone, but it's still a pretty good explanation for my own social group.

So, the idea behind dating is to meet people, see if they share a or several common interest and try to see if this relationship would work. It's not really hard to do, but there seems to be some limiting factors in those I see in college. Sometimes seems like an almost impossible task.... Why? Well, first let's break up the meeting concept a bit. It boils down to a couple of things things:

• A place
• A social context
• Shared or mutual interest

In addition to this, you need:

• Spare time
• Motivation

I think these are the primary reasons why most of the single individuals I know tend to stay that way...

• It's hard to find spare time (Time)
  
• It's harder to find someone who share your field of interest (interest)
  
• Don't feel at ease in the 'Traditional' meeting places, like bars (Place)
  
• Lack of some social skills (social context)
• Seeing how poorly you fare, you bury yourself in your work/study (Motivation)
  

I'm still unsure how exactly to break this sort of vicious cycle... I've got my own ideas on the subject, but could not come to significant conclusions in almost 2 weeks. It's such a simple yet complicated topic at the same time... I think I'll revisit the problem in a month or more to see if any significant developments can get me a fresh perspective...

Depressing Febuary 14...

In the last message I talked about how I had more intimate reasons to hate valentine's day, well the answer is simple: I've always winded-up single (and alone) on that day.

There is nothing more frustrating to a single guy that a days reserved for couples. It's sort of like everywhere you look there is a reminder that you suck terribly at finding or keeping a mate. It is as if everyone else could be happy except you.

It's very depressing and hard on the self-esteem.

But I am not the only single guy. There is a clear trend among all of my friends : the more educated the person is, the less likely he is in a relationship. All those with university degrees or higher are still single, while those who don't have a college degree are almost all in a stable relationship. It is as if getting accepted in any college puts off everything for 3-4 years, and when you come out of it, you realize what your opportunities where back then... and that you simply missed out...

It's not really true but it give a good idea what the real reason is. It revolves around the inner workings of dating. I've been reading a tech-based humorous book about dating (link) and it just confirmed my own personal theory I had as to what the initial phase of dating is, and how it plays out badly to those that have already graduated from college (or those well-educated).

I think I'll keep the little theory for tomorrow. For now, I'll just say this: it's hard to meet people when you work all the time, and it's even harder to find someone with mutual interests...

Feb 14

Tomorrow (or right now elsewhere on the planet) is February 14. Valentine's Day.

While I like the ideas behind this holiday, I hate almost everything in it. It has basically become a commercial reasoning pushing people to buy stuff. If you don't you look like you don't really love your significant other, or that you are too cheap to do anything. (I've got deeper more intimate reason to hate this day but I'll keep that is for another day.)

The best gift you can give on this day is the one that doesn't cost any money, it's what's missing in most couple.:

Time and Attention.

Show you care. Any material gift will probably buy you time or a little peace of mind, but it's only short lived. Quality time together can hardly be bought but the memories can last a lifetime...

Apple - Thoughts on Music

I never thought that an accurate portrait of the DRM problem would come from the one who has a lot to lose from it, Steve Jobs from Apple:
Apple - Thoughts on Music