Today happens to be a certain Hallmark holiday, the fact of which the tech world has hardly failed to notice. It’s not just dating sites and assorted fun-lovers looking to peg a story: Microsoft, which has been sniping at Google’s privacy practices in a series of ads over the last few months, decided to unveil the latest in its Scroogled campaign. Read More
It’s Valentine’s Day, and whether you’re in a steady relationship or planning to cap off the night watching porn and eating ice cream, you’re probably having a lot of feels. With no desire to express them in a mature adult fashion, why not unleash anonymous Internet compliments on unsuspecting semi-strangers? Read More
Valentine’s Day, a holiday that exists largely to guilt the coupled into spending money and to drive the uncoupled to shell out for Match.com, falls on a Thursday this year. This is a problem, because Thursday might very well be the least romantic of all weekdays.
Well, the unlikeliest of saviors is riding to your rescue. On February 14, Uber will be offering in several cities the option of ordering a “Romance On-Demand” package, via its app. Included are a dozen long-stemmed roses and a personalized card. (Well, personalized in the sense your beloved’s name will be printed on the card. If you wanted to send something handwritten, you should have planned in advance.) Read More
Love in the Time of Algorithms
It’s almost Valentine’s Day, which means heartbroken people everywhere are hanging black trashbags on their windows in an attempt to mute the light, drinking screw-cap wine and binge watching The Notebook as a form of self-torture. But if you have a special someone that you’re aching to win back in time to celebrate this romantic holiday, might we suggest chocolate or a heartfelt letter as opposed to a horrifyingly web 2.0 alternative that only Fake Jeff Jarvis would approve of? Read More
Love in the Time of Algorithms
Scroll Kit, the latest brainchild from the Bushwick-based team of Cody Brown and Kate Ray, demoed their new product at last week’s New York Tech Meetup to an admiring crowd. As Mr. Brown’s elevator pitch goes, the publishing tool lets anyone “make magazine-style layouts for the web and iPad without knowing how to code.”
Now that they’ve got your attention, they decided to have some fun with it, by putting the DIY back in Valentine’s Day love notes. Read More
Love in the Time of Algorithms
Did you just watch the love of your life exit the L train without asking for her digits? Digital renaissance man Luke DuBois is here to help. As the Brooklyn Paper reports, Mr. DuBois, an instructor at both the Polytechnic Institute of NYU and the Brooklyn Experimental Media Center, has built a website to help the Craigslist crowd find their “Missed Connections.”
The site scrapes Missed Connections listings in nine different cities, including New York, then uses an algorithm that matches descriptive words from from listings in the same city. If it’s a close enough match (upwards of 85 percent), users are prompted to email the authors of the initial posts to let them know you may have found their subway soulmate. Read More
