Patent on computer dating!

[staph]

Confirmed!! Mac users meet sexual partners on the interweb!

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/05/28/love.patent.ap/index.html

And to top it off, they're taking out a patent on it:

EHarmony.com Inc. this month received U.S. Patent No. 6,735,568, which describes a "method and system for identifying people who are likely to have a successful relationship."

I'd love to see the negligence suits out of this one!

EHarmony researchers rank people in 29 categories, including "sexual passion," "mood management" and "spirituality." The company will only pair two people when it is 95 percent confident their compatibility rating falls in the index's top 25 percent. A dominant individual only gets paired with a wallflower if highly compatible in many other areas.

This must make it less than useful for fetishists. I suppose you can't make an omelette etc.

"Opposites might attract, but in our research they don't stay together," said Dr. Galen Buckwalter, vice president of research at eHarmony, which attracts marriage-minded traditionalists of all faiths and began advertising on Christian radio stations in 2000.

Hmm.

This is a bit sad, isn't it?

and finally:

Researchers reject one in five people who complete the free questionnaire and, according to the index, aren't the marrying type.

"We try to be nice," Buckwalter said. "We tell them our services probably won't be useful."

How charming. ;)

[Moogs]

That all sounds reasonable enough in certain respects, and I'm sure eHarmony is one of the better services out there, but they cannot avoid the one tremendously huge pitfal common to all dating services: people will often lie about themselves when trying to make first impressions.

I'm sure online dating forums are rife with stories of people who "didn't quite fit the description they gave". No one will ever convince me it's a wise way to meet someone for that reason. Better to just take life as it comes and meet someone at a bookstore or when hanging out with a bunch of friends or whatever.

There's a certain amount of desparation required to let someone else pick your date, no matter how much information you give them....

[Windswept]

I think in this age of technological efficiency, such a service would be highly practical for a lot of people. People who are working and are busy with various other activities don't have time to throw away in the wasteland known as the 'single scene'. They don't have to be 'desperate' to see the value in such a time-saving service as is offered by eharmony.

I think people who sign up for this would want to tell the truth about themselves, because it's in their interest to find the closest match.

My ex-husband and I matched on SO many levels and interests; but he was emotionally undemonstrative, whereas I am emotionally outgoing and open. That ONE disconnect made the marriage not work. It would have saved us both a lot of heartache, time and trouble had we been matched up in some more efficient manner than just physical attraction. I mean, he was a total, absolute babe and a half. I could never have passed him by after even one look.

I walked into the university library one fine, sunny morning in October of my freshman year, and saw an exceptionally nice pair of shoulders leaning over some engineering books. I sat down right in front of him on the other side of the table. It was totally shameless. :D hahaha. Naturally, I pretended to study, and I didn't look up ;) ; but I could see from the books and assignment papers he was working on that he was in upper division physics and engineering classes. Plus, he was an incredibly gorgeous hunk. *sigh*

Too bad we weren't emotionally compatible. :( And it took us years before we finally went our separate ways. As I said, we wasted a lot of time, and had lots of heartache to show for "meeting up" the old-fashioned way.

So, I think a more efficient way sounds like something worth trying. Just my opinion.

[Moogs]

Sorry. I don't mean to imply that everyone who signs up for such a service is desparate, only that a fairly large percentage of the people might be a little "over-anxious" to find that right person. Even say 30% would be a very high number IMO, were I to be considering such a service. I don't think it's unfair to assume that 20-30% of the people available on online dating services, are going to be the same people who've had very little or no success on their own (for whatever reasons or shortcomings).

I also don't mean to impy desparate people are "bad" or ill-adjusted necessarily. Some are obviously, but sometimes there can be very kind, attractive people who simply have terrible luck at these things... I understand that as well.

All that said, I suppose that this type of service might be very attractive to someone who works 55 or 60 hours a week (for example)... but by the same token, to not make enough time for yourself to meet the right people... that in itself is going to be a problem once you meet someone. People should not treat dating services like one hour photo places. In order for you to really find someone who is compatible you will by definition need to spend some real time with them on a consistent basis.

So while you may be able to save some valuable time in the initial stages of dating, that "I have too many things to do and no time to do it" problem won't disappear once eHarmony sets you up. You're either going to make some lifestyle changes to give yourself more personal / dating time, or you may as well not even sign up. Unless that is, you're seeking someone who has equally little time to spare as you do and so don't care if you only see them say two or three times a month.

I guess it all depends on what you're looking for. eHarmony seems to be set up for long-term relationships, which would sort of be at odds with the person who is so incredibly busy that they don't have time to go and meet someone on their own. Kind of a catch-22.

[Defiant]

text removed

[Windswept]

Hmmm, Defiant. I see that you have a strong death wish. :p

At least change the age to 28, or I'll simply have to delete your post. :mad: hahaha

(I knew this power would come in handy eventually. heh :D )

*YOU* need a spanking !!!!! :mad: ;)

Besides, she has a face somewhat reminiscent of a horse. :p

[Defiant]

(I'll leave the answer to that to the PM system :p)

[Moogs]

Be gentle, Carol... I'm sure Defiant digs that kind of stuff but you never know when you might break a man's will.

:D

[Windswept]

Be gentle, Carol... I'm sure Defiant digs that kind of stuff but you never know when you might break a man's will.

:D
*sigh* Well, I said what I really thought, because he did too.

Perhaps complete honesty is over-rated. You'd think I'd know that by now. :(

[thuh Freak]

this patent crap really bothers me. i always thought patents were supposed to be given to people who came up with new or innovative ideas. i was reading through some of the legalese (of course, not being a lawyer, i may have got lost in the lingo). the patent covers a dating system which asks a person a bunch of questions, rates the answers, and returns other users whose answers were close to the first person. it hardly seems like something that is patent-worthy, and its terribly obvious to any programmer (perhaps even to regular people) trying to compare people's answers over several questions. i will now place some smileys to visualize my discontent. :mad: :no:

[Moogs]

Carol: nothing wrong with speaking your mind. And it's not that complete honesty is over-rated in our society... it's underrated. Most people don't reward you for complete honesty (by say being equally honest with you), instead they use whatever sensitive information you gave against you (or someone else). People cover their ass first, tell the truth later ... sad but true.