Monday, May 16, 2011

Single? Married? It’s Complicated? Wear Your Relationship Status With Buump



Facebook may have over 600 million users but there's still one problem: all the info is online!  How on earth are you supposed to know if that cutie you just met is single or married without access to his or her profile?! Ok, yes, you could just ask - but that's not very tactful now, is it? So, rather than having to muster up any courage and attack the subject head on, we could all just wear our relationship status and make it easier for everyone. At least, that's what Buump thinks we should do. The company sells colorful plastic bracelets featuring the 5-different relationship status options in English for €5.99. There is also an additional pack with the 5 "looking for" options sold for the same price. And you can buy all 10 bracelets for €10.99 (the site also lets you buy in bulk and customize your own bracelets for orders of 1,000 or more).

Friday, May 13, 2011

How to Take Spiffy Self-Portraits

If you really must take a picture of yourself, try turning the camera upside down or mug in front of a mirror.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Can't Hack Marriage? Try Quantum Entanglement Instead

Wired Top Stories

In his latest science-themed prank, concept artist Jonathon Keats will marry anyone -- or anything -- using quantum entanglement as the tie that binds

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Ouch! 8.5 billion for a non-profitable Skype

Did Microsoft overpay for Skype? I know they are desperate for an
online presence brand in addition to Bing, but is Skype worth the 8.5
billion Microsoft paid? Microsoft's plan to deeply integrate the
product into their operating system is a risky one and it may pay off,
but it may also backfire. Let's wait and see.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Argh, I am sick of the House Wifes

Once again, it is Monday and I am laying down in bed. I am suffering
the consequences of my broken leg and feel completely useless. I feel
bad for my wife for taking much of the pressure of our daily
activities on her back and I am trying to please her as much as I can.

However, she wants to watch the House Wifes and I am once again stuck
at watching that dumb show. Pretentious people fighting about anything
and everything. This show makes no sense and it is a complete waste of
time: mine and my wife's, but there is nothing I can do. I am at her
mercy.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Zin.gl Mines Social Network Data To Help Singles Find Their Perfect Match

via TechCrunch

The online dating industry majors rely on a fundamentally broken model, which may be good for their short-term balance sheets and providing people with meaningless entertainment but, as matchmaking service providers, severely limits them in offering people a genuinely optimal way to find that special someone, Zin.gl founder Alexander Dresen told me in a recent meeting.

In that meeting, I was given a preview of the new version of Zin.gl (now live), Dresen's take on the perfect online matchmaking service. Zin.gl was designed not to appeal to masses of users, most of whom sign up for online dating sites only to get disappointed by those services when they fail to find a genuinely good match anyway.

Zin.gl instead aims for quality, not quantity, having developed a way to mine existing social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Foursquare for valuable 'dating information', and then feeding that wealth of data into its 'social matching' systems, all in an effort to connect singles with others when they have common interests, live nearby, and so on.

The company says this is all done securely and with utmost respect to user privacy, but obviously this approach isn't for everyone. I, for one, find Zin.gl interesting as a concept, and potentially one that could help solve a real problem faced by many worldwide.

Dresen says he and his team have developed technology that enables people who sign up for Zin.gl to find only truly compatible dating partners, with unquestionable real identities (something that he says is extremely rare with traditional online dating sites).

In other words, no questionnaires to fill out, no psychological tests to be carried out, and a minimum of lying upon profile creation. Dresen says a lot of information about people is already out there, and can be mined to find qualified matches for singles.

That is, of course, an easy thing to say but a much harder feat to actually accomplish, so the proof of Zin.gl will be in the pudding. Be sure to let me know if it works for you, or not at all.

Zin.gl was founded by Dresen, who previously started place.to.be, the first chat site in Belgium, as well as its first social network, LookNMeet, and Brice Le Blévennec (founder of Belgium's largest Web agency, Emakina).

The company has raised $600,000 from angel investors, including Fred Destin from Atlas Venture.