relationships

Men are misunderstood.

The media, Hollywood, and various other pressure groups have painted them as feral beasts, moved to action and emotion only by the prospect of their target gender's proximity.

Two enterprising tech beings--men, as it happens--decided at South by Southwest Interactive to further this perception of male neanderthalia. Jeff Hodsdon and Danny Trinh, then both at Digg, created a service that collated all those useful Foursquare check-ins in order to inform those who might be interested of the volume of women in any one place.

They did it as a joke. They were mocking all the … Read more

In case you believe that the Web is only being used to cement relationships of a commercial nature, here is a tale that might move you to genuine feeling. Or even to making a YouTube video about the long-lost, ever-missed love of your life.

Kelly Summers, a 53-year-old woman from Nottinghamshire, England, felt the cold chill of a British winter when her boyfriend left her. What made it more painful was that it was actually July. She could have gone to the local pub, sniffled a little over a snifter and poured out her feelings. She could have phoned her … Read more

There is now ample reason to believe that the mere existence of Facebook may cause human beings to do things that they know they shouldn't. Such as poke people and send them dead fish, or whatever virtual beings it is that people send to each other.

Somehow, the temptation seems too great, the user interface too attractive, and the immediacy of the communication just too powerful for anyone to resist.

As evidence, might I bring you the alleged behavior of Harry William Bruder from Florida? According to a report from the Pasco Sheriff's Office, Bruder, an employee of … Read more

There are times, I am sure, when you believe your car is talking to you. Your lawn mower too, no doubt. These machines sometimes groan and squeal as if to say "Ease up, big boy" or "Honey, I have a headache."

I have to tell you, though, that these messages are all in your mind. Machines do not have feelings. They will never truly love you.

Well, all except one. A bike called Precious.

Precious has been fitted with all sorts of clever sensors that reveal the bike's thoughts and feelings at any given moment. As Precious rides along, the sensors send the average of their readings by text message back to servers that analyze the true emotional soul of this extraordinary machine.

This analysis leads, it being the modern world, to tweets at Twitter.com/yesiamprecious. Did I mention that Precious is currently on a 3-month journey from the East Coast of America to the West, in aid of Livestrong? Well, I should have, because it makes for some fascinating understanding of how a machine's brain and emotions really work.… Read more

In a world in which no holds are barred and no stone is only warmed by the sun on one side, one can only lift up one's heart at the merest sign of an antidote.

How beautiful, then, that one faithful husband and wife, Lety and Jose Colin, decided to create YouAndMeArePure.com.

Perhaps it is not the most catchy URL you have ever come across. However, it is a site with the purest of intentions. It exists to bring virgins into contact with virgins. No, not like that. At least, not until they are married (a feat the … Read more

The concept of marriage, as I understand it, is a one-at-a-time affair.

You promise to stay with someone forever--that forever being normally between 5 and 10 years--after which you get divorced and subsequently make the same promises to someone else.

So I am rocked to my Converses by the story of a woman who feared that her husband had already strayed from his eternal promise. Lynn France decided to endure the modern form of detection in order to find out whether her suspicions were founded.

Yes, she logged on to Facebook. There, typed in the name of the woman to … Read more

Relationships come. Relationships go. Sometimes relationships outstay their welcome. But that doesn't mean that scars aren't left and bruises aren't felt, in deep recesses, for days, nay, years.

So might I introduce you to a browser plug-in called Ex-Blocker? This fine invention claims to be able to remove all traces of your Tracy or Sam from the lifeblood of your Web experience.

The Ex-Blocker home page is a little light on how it might actually get rid of those who have caused you pain, grief, or merely bankruptcy of pocket and ideas.

However, at the time of … Read more

I used to live in a haunted house. The lady who wandered around it in a white nightdress seemed benign enough. She never deliberately startled me or said "boo" and never made a mess. I think she was simply looking for something or someone she'd left behind. It wasn't me, as she had died, I believe, somewhere around 1672.

Facebook now has a similar issue to deal with. Around its vastly populated house, there are people who waft away to the next firmament without leaving a note or even saying goodbye. But they're still there. … Read more

There is no point bemoaning what the world is coming to, because it's patently obvious that the world has no idea.

So we look for signs that might indicate tendencies, patterns or merely sicknesses.

How, therefore, could one not be mesmerized by a study by Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research that offers so many edible nuggets about how Facebook has altered people's lives?

This fine piece of investigation asks simple questions and gets simple, if happily disturbing, answers. It shows how we use media such as Facebook to express our inner beings. It also shows just how maddeningly … Read more