lovely

Can prof's algorithm reunite Craigslist Missed Connections?

Love is in the air this week. You can tell by the smell of overpriced roses, highly inflated balloons, and restaurant servers who are in the gym early, training to turn tables over four times in a night.

How touching, then, that Luke DuBois, a digital-media professor at NYU-Poly, has used his vast and loving skills to try to bring together those who seek true love on Craigslist's "Missed Connections."

At LukeDubois.com/missed, you are offered hope if you failed to get the phone number or other personal details of someone who stared a little too long at you in your local library or hookah lounge.

DuBois told The Brooklyn Paper that his site uses an algorithm that attempts to find similar words used in different Missed Connections posts in the very same city.

It does sound so much more ingenious than the methods of that slightly wordy lady on "The Millionaire Matchmaker."… Read more

Snappy Valentine's! More women sexting than last year

Sometimes, one is confronted with information so stunning that contemplative navel-gazing will never suffice.

So let me toss this mind-altering grenade and see how it shakes you: women are using technology in a more openly sexual way.

How can I possibly know this? Well, I am leaning heavily (as I must) on the study of women's mores prepared on behalf of Harlequin--yes, those racy people who publish bodice-ripping romances for the everyday commute.

I am grateful to a lady at the Huffington Post for corralling this data and promulgating it electronically.

You will, no doubt, feel light-headed beyond reason … Read more

Top five networking and storage devices that spell L-U-V

We often don't appreciate love till love is lost or broken. The same goes for networking and storage devices.

Do you realize that you're able to read this post this right now because some router and storage device somewhere are both busy at work?

The good news is that every year we have a day to appreciate love. And you may also want to take this opportunity to appreciate the tech tool that's been so underappreciated. Luckily, I am here to help.

Here are the Top 5 networking and storage devices that are not just among the top of their respective categories--including mobile routers, home wireless routers, internal drives, network storage, and external storage devices--but are also collectively sexy, cute, lovely devices that would make a great gift for a special someone. … Read more

Match.com: iPhoners are office romantics, Androiders are loose

You will wish to draw your own loving conclusions. I will merely draw you a picture or two.

For the results of a survey by Match.com have stirred me into deep romantic thought. I am grateful to VentureBeat for having an initial relationship with this data, as it pokes a stiletto into my view of dating.

The data analyzed the behavior of various smartphone owners when it comes to love. Oddly, it declared that Android users are easy, loose, flaunt themselves so much on the first date that they end up having sex far more readily than those with … Read more

Artist vacuum-seals couples for portrait series

If you tend to feel smothered in your romantic relationships, these photos of vacuum-sealed couples might leave you gasping for air.

Yes, you read that right. Vacuum-sealed couples. Because what says love like being shrink-wrapped to your significant other like a couple of old wool sweaters trying to keep the moths away?

First, let us reassure the claustrophobic romantics out there that this isn't a 2012 version of getting pinned. It's "Flesh Love," a Japanese artist's exploration of the intimate ties that bind (very tightly).

"I am currently seeking new dimensions in portrait photography by challenging the majestic theme of mankind, defined through love," the artist known as Photographer Hal writes on his Web site.

New dimensions, indeed. … Read more

The 404 966: Where it's all the same in the end (podcast)

CNET's newest TV editor, Ty Pendlebury, joins us on today's episode for a short lesson in Australian holidays and colloquialisms!

Today we're talking about another billionaire bitten by the space travel bug, even though Jeff seems reluctant to travel in outer space.

We'll also bug Ty to tell us why the FCC doesn't care about eardrums, and he'll join us throughout the second half where we'll premiere a new geek speed-dating show on TLC.

Also, be sure to tune in tomorrow to hear us announce the winners of Target's video voice mail competition. Two winners will get their choice of an Xbox 360/Kinect Bundle or an iPad 2!… Read more

Dumped man sells engagement ring, buys Halo armor suit

Have you ever committed yourself to a lover? Has that lover ever turned on you, trodden on your commitment, and crushed your dreams of a white picket fence and perfect baking every Sunday?

Then please take a seat. For I wish to bring you the story of a man who was in that very position and decided he needed to buy himself something nice.

It just so happens that the something nice was a Halo suit of armor.

I am grateful to an emotional Reddit reader who sent me a link to Bygone Bureau, a culture and travel magazine that … Read more

One-third have broken up by Facebook, text or e-mail--survey

These days, love comes, love goes, love doesn't necessarily even stay the night.

Do you need more proof of this sad and very modern truth? Oh, you do. Then please let me help you. A survey conducted by market researchers Lab 42 declares that 33 percent of human beings have broken up with their beloveds by text, e-mail, or Facebook.

Yes, Facebook.

You might imagine that I am talking about 13-year-olds. Because you definitely, surely have to be 13 to be on Facebook. Yet, no. This survey purports to offer the truths of 550 people older than 18--and, clearly, … Read more

No love for Love AnimatIon Cursor

Love is a wonderful thing--so wonderful, in fact, that you may feel the desire to memorialize it in the form of your mouse cursor. Love AnimatIon Cursor lets you do exactly that. To be quite honest, the program isn't really our cup of tea stylistically; on top of that, it's not particularly easy to use. But if you're in love with love, we suppose it could be a cute addition to your desktop.

We installed Love AnimatIon Cursor and weren't sure what to do next; there was no interface, no system-tray icon, and no change in … Read more

75 percent of in-game marriages end in divorce

I have been a best man at five weddings, but have never myself managed to be a ring-slipper.

However, I understand the need for one human being to permanently attach themselves to another. Even if that attachment is virtual.

So I find virtual tears coursing down my virtual cheeks as I receive information that there is a problem with virtual marriages.

The game-makers (and matchmakers) at online-game site Nexon tell me that of the 26,982 in-game marriages that have joyously occurred in a game called MapleStory, 20,344 have ended in divorce.

Because I happen never to have played MapleStory, nor indeed even wondered what it is, I am grateful to Nexon for offering me correspondence with respect to the details of the world's next great social plight.

"I was young, naive, and thought I had met 'the one'," declared one player from Vancouver. "She asked me what I wanted in MapleStory for my birthday, and I told her that the only thing I could ever want was for her to marry me."

I feel virtual sniffles coming on. My shirt is becoming virtually damp. What could have possibly gone wrong?

Tyler--for that is the Vancouveran warrior's name--continued: "She started saying that I wasn't the person she fell in love with. That I had changed, and that I didn't seem to care about her anymore."

So far, so not very virtual. This sounded like an everyday occurrence in our venal little world. Spouses change their minds. Spouses feel insecure. Spouses decide you aren't "the one" any more. But wait, there was more.… Read more