Prevent Gmail From Emailing Under the Influence 258
mikesd81 writes "Google has developed 'Mail Goggles,' a Gmail add-on that makes sending email from Gmail more difficult during certain times (which you can set). If you have Mail Goggles installed, it will force you to answer a series of math questions before sending out any new messages. You can adjust the math difficulty and times this option is in effect. If you get any of the questions wrong, Mail Goggles will say, 'Water and bed for you. Or try again.' Of course, if you set the math settings too high, you may have a tough time solving some of those problems in under 60 seconds, even when sober. Then again, if you're sober, you could just turn Mail Goggles off and hit send on that impassioned letter to your ex-boyfriend/girlfriend or that flame to your boss."
Insensitive! (Score:5, Funny)
I can't do math unless I'd drunk, you insensitive clod!
Re:Insensitive! (Score:5, Funny)
Can't type unless you'd drunk either, eh?
Re:Insensitive! (Score:5, Funny)
All that drinking in high school. You should have known. Didn't you ever hear that you can teach goldfish tricks when they're drunk, but they can only remember them when drunk?
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Insensitive! (Score:5, Funny)
Reminds me about one exam in Uni, which, interestingly, ended up sort of like that...some heavy math exam next day, heavy drinking party developed in front of my room (it was in a good place for such things, end of the corridor with sofa/etc.). Though they realised I'm learning when trying to get me out of the room, so kept quiet. Nonetheless, somebody managed to get me out "just one shot" (of vodka, might I add). And we all know how such things end...
Interestingly, even though I was basically late few minutes, no math exam before and after was passed by me so flawlessly...
Re:Insensitive! (Score:5, Funny)
Reminds me of a Maple mid term I had way back when as an undergraduate.
10 minutes after the start, one of the class arrives late and proceeds to sit down in front of his PC. The examiner hands him the question sheet. He settles in. He was obviously a bit tipsy, and there was a not so faint smell of alcohol, particularly as he spoke. After a few minutes, we had something similar to the following exchange:
Him: (whisper) Hey man. How'd you turn on Maple again?
Me: Start. Programs. Math Software. Maple.
Him: Cheers man.
A few minutes later....
Him: Hey man. Sorry, but, are we supposed to answer ALL the questions on this sheet?
Me: Just four out of five.(or whatever the requirements were)
Him: Aww right! Cheers man.
A few minutes after that....
Him: Hey man. Sorry, again, but... Is this a test?
If I remember correctly, he got an A. Great guy.
Re: (Score:2)
I had a friend in high school who took her PSAT while stoned out of her mind (I think it might have been prescription meds for something she caught that week, but that could have just been what she said in front of the teacher). She claimed there was a pink rabbit sitting on her desk her told her the answers.
Apparently it was a smart rabbit, as she scored pretty close to the top of her class.
Not just a funny (Score:2, Funny)
But that's LISP for you. Perhaps getting drunk helped shut down the C side of my brain or something....
Re:Not just a funny (Score:4, Funny)
Perhaps getting drunk helped shut down the C side of my brain or something....
.. or perhaps your hands just happened to fall on the parentheses.
Re:Insensitive! (Score:4, Insightful)
That's not funny, don't drink and derive.
slashdot needs this (Score:5, Funny)
im so wasted right now
Re: (Score:2)
I don't have a problem emailing drunk, but I have a bad habit of phoning drunk. I don't know how many times Charlie or Tami or some other woman played back an extremely embarrassing voice mail I'd left drunk, and didn't even remember sending.
I hate cell phones! Back when the phone was tied to the wall that never happened. Like email, I never thought about it at home, always when I'm staggering home from the bar.
If Only Slashdot had it... (Score:5, Funny)
mods would have more free time. Oh, wait...
Re:If Only Slashdot had it... (Score:5, Funny)
Informative?? I think the mods need it too....
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
No substitute for self control (Score:3, Insightful)
All this means is that people will phone or sms or worse, show up drunk on their ex's door more often (perhaps even drive there). Sure it's a lot easier to send a drunken email than go see someone in person so that'll stop some of it but the reality is if you're a serial drunk, you need to get some help. Nothing else is going to fix it.
I've never understood why Western society (and others) glorify the pissup.
Re:No substitute for self control (Score:5, Funny)
Mod -1, Buzzkill.
Re:No substitute for self control (Score:5, Insightful)
I've never understood why Western society (and others) glorify the pissup.
Agreed. Then again many here glorify taking drugs.
Re:No substitute for self control (Score:5, Funny)
Agreed. Then again many here glorify taking drugs.
That's because taking drugs is glorious!
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
I'm tripping balls! And its GLORIOUS!
Re:No substitute for self control (Score:5, Interesting)
Some may, but don't misinterpret the substantial opposition here to the "War on Drugs" as glorification.
I don't glorify holocaust denial, but people have a right to say, and believe, stupid things.
Re:No substitute for self control (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree. But because people have a right doesn't mean they should. I'm ambivalent about this thing because if somebody needs restraining perhaps they need another hobby.
Fortunately I have learned the hard way that self restraint is very necessary. It's a sign of the times that people need stuff like this or the other stuff that censors the free exchange of information.
As for free speech, it is unfortunate that the people who actually have something valuable to say restrain themselves to much; while those who are simply full of $#!+ have no restraint at all.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, most mangled Yeats quote ever. For the record, the original (from The Second Coming) [wikipedia.org] is:
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Re: (Score:2)
Then again many here glorify taking drugs.
Fear and Loathing at Slashdot!
Re: (Score:2)
I've never understood why Western society (and others) glorify the pissup.
That's 'cos you're a square. Like a cube, man!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's 'cos you're a square. Like a cube, man!
I'll take square over sloshed any day. I don't enjoy the taste of alcohol. In fact I don't enjoy a thing about it. There are plenty of things I do enjoy. Like the irony of a bloke who calls a slashdotter a square.
Re: (Score:2)
You, my friend, are thinking TOO hard!
(wonder if there is a version when people think TOO hard, or are overloaded on caffeine, probably helps here on slashdot)
Homonyms (Score:2)
if you're a serial drunk
I have visions of John Belushi pouring beer on his cereal, "Little chocolate donuts: breakfast of champions!"
Millennium Prize (Score:2)
We might as well apply the monkey-typewriter theorem and have the hardest setting require a successful proof of a Millennium Prize [wikipedia.org] problem.
Just tried it. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Just tried it. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Just tried it. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Just tried it. (Score:5, Funny)
Uhh...9x4=36, not 46.
Apparently, it does work, assuming you're telling the truth about being drunk, and aren't just bad at math.
Chaos math (Score:3, Funny)
Assume that 9 and 4 aren't just numbers but place holders for chickens and the "X" means crossing as in there are 9 Hens and 4 Roosters that you cross. In order to determine the number you have to factor in time as in at present the total it 13 but in six months the total number of chickens might be 46. The problem is based on time and other factors like disease and early death the total number could easily range from 0 to 100 over the next six months and range into the thousands over a period of years. Wit
Re: (Score:2)
Damn I misstyped it! Well, I guess it kind of works well then. And yes I was drunk.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Just tried it. (Score:5, Funny)
Check your font server. I believe its busted.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Sorry, but what does being able to answer 9x10 and 9x4 have to do with intelligence? Just a matter of practicing enough to know a number of basic multiplications and divisions by heart at some point.
If only (Score:5, Interesting)
They had this for mobile phones :/
*me waits for google android*
Re: (Score:2)
Already exists. [gizmodo.com]
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Virgin Mobile in Australia offers a similar service [virginmobile.com.au] - call them up and they'll blacklist all calls to a given number from your phone until 6am the following morning.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
This is insane. I get the humour of all this, but if such a service actually exists, that suggests there are people who really do need this. How can such people exist?
Quite easily... (Score:2)
How can such people exist?
...in a society that supports and glorifies getting shit-faced drunk every night.
They just go out on an evening, get hammered, drunk drive their way back home somehow while the cops are busy pulling over speeders (who, in many countries, get tougher punishments for going faster than the sign says is safe while totally alert), then wake up with a nasty hangover and drag their asses to work. Heavy alcohol use is seen as OK (and abuse seen as no big deal) because the gubbymint hasn't labeled it an illegal drug
Very useful .... (Score:5, Funny)
I'd probably be in contact with more people from college and a few exes if I'd had that 10 years ago. ;-)
Cheers
Re:Very useful .... (Score:5, Funny)
Why did you have to drag Windows into this discussion? Is this some corollary of Godwin's law that I am unaware of?
Re: (Score:2)
I'd probably be in contact with more people from college and a few exes if I'd had that 10 years ago. ;-)
or not... :-)
The homemade version (Score:2, Funny)
and google helps you solve them (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're not sober enough to do the math, perhaps you're sober enough to copy/paste them into google so it can give you the answers ;)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:and google helps you solve them (Score:5, Funny)
Aside from the inherent unreliability with internet connections
Good point! With this method, if your internet goes down you wouldn't be able to finish the math problem required to send an email message via your web-based email service.
Wait for it...
Re: (Score:2)
486?! Babbage analytical engine wouldn't be taxed by those questions...
If you make owning a gun a crime... (Score:5, Funny)
I'm reminded of the old saying, "If you make owning a gun a crime, only criminals will own guns."
If you hide drunk mailing behind math problems, only Engineers will drunk mail.
*shudders*
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
24+3? That's approximately 24, I guess.
Actually, it's 10 as an order of magnitude calculation. Of course I'm drunk right now, so I could be off a bit.
stop the discrimination! (Score:5, Funny)
But what if you're a mathematician? There really should be some option to replace it with sports questions.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
But what if you're a mathematician? There really should be some option to replace it with sports questions.
There's a difficulty level. Presumably, mathematicians can crank it to 10 and get questions like "For a^n + b^n = c^n and n > 2, show that there are no solutions for a, b and c. (Show your working in this margin.)"
Re: (Score:2)
Without the word "Integer" before "solutions", it is really easy to find solutions.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:stop the discrimination! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:stop the discrimination! (Score:4, Insightful)
I am a mathematician and you sir are insulting the abilities of drunk lemurs. I personally worry that I would never send any e-mail if I had to answer arithmetic or sports questions.
What they should do for us is to add the option of deep philosophical questions. I would happily give a brief answer while sober, but if I were drunk I would be so distracted that I would be sober by the time I finished formulating my answer.
Re:stop the discrimination! (Score:5, Funny)
Re: But what if you're a mathematician? (Score:2)
Friends don't let friends Drink & Derive.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Please, people! Could you quit calling it mathematics? I've looked at the site, and it offers you some basic arithmetic questions. I can do those after ~15 shots of whiskey and a doobie or two. And I suck at Maths.
When I read "mathematics", I think it would be more interesting if Google put some problems where you have to integrate functions with more than three variables, or differentiate functions or some such.
Imagine... (Score:5, Funny)
All that effort solving the math problems on time, just to type "You're a dick" and stagger off to bed.
frist! (Score:5, Funny)
THE LAWS OF THE NAVY (Score:5, Funny)
Dost think in a moment of anger
'Tis well with thy seniors to fight?
They prosper, who burn in the morning,
The letters they wrote overnight.
Not going to work for me. (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
SMTP - CMTP ? (Score:5, Funny)
Complex Mail Transfer Protocol - coming soon!
Turn it off (Score:3, Insightful)
Typo? (Score:5, Funny)
This would have been helpful (Score:2)
Better suggestions (Score:5, Informative)
2. e-Bay goggles.
2. Keep your computer in a cabinet or room with a combination lock. (Ever try to open one o' those babies after too many cups of liquid courage?)
3. AOL. (Your email will probably get lost anyway.)
4. Use an email address like v1agera694Ucheap@gmail.com or r0llexxBargains@gmail.com. (Your message will be flagged as spam and never read anyway.)
5. Don't email after more than two drinks. Ever, no matter how innocuous your message may seem.
6. Don't drink more than you can handle, especially on a regular enough basis to need something like this, you moron.
Another Typo in Better suggestions? (Score:2)
1. /. ogles
WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]
ogle
v : look at with amorous intentions
'Cos we've always known /. is over endowed with testosterone.
Drunken Captcha (Score:2)
This seems to me like a drunken captcha. I expect a new outsourced market to develop - dictating email messages (while hammered) to armies of third-world operators to put in on your behalf to get round this.
I've planned on making my house do this (Score:5, Funny)
For a long time, my plan has been to build something like this into my house. When I want to adjust my thermostat, for example, I want the house to give me a quick little test to see if I'm mentally alert. Regardless of the outcome, the house would then let me adjust the thermostat.
However, it would remember the results. And if it determines over a long period (say, a couple months), that I'm suffering significant mental degradation, to the point where I'm likely to not be able to take care of myself, the house will wait until I'm sound asleep one night (which it can determine by monitoring my temperature with infrared sensors, and listening to my respiration, for example), and then do something to kill me in my sleep (gas, probably).
When the house is sure that I'm dead (no breathing for a long time, and body temperature down to ambient room temperature), it will then call the coroner's office to report my death.
Probably not a good idea (Score:4, Funny)
With the end of year approaching it's reasonably likely that the frequency and severity of alcohol consumption will steadily increase for the next few months.
Your house might interpret your state as a physical and mental decline rather than a mere seasonal variation and bump you off early on the first of January.
Of course when you wake up with that hang over you might wish it had, however it's only a short term feeling and you'll forget about it in time, certainly by the following New Years Day.
I wish they had this on.. (Score:3, Funny)
Please ignore the last post (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
heheh http://www.sloshdt.org/ [sloshdt.org]
news for nerds that don't know better.
Re: (Score:2)
Obligatory XKCD ref (Score:2)
This is just google's elaborate ploy... (Score:5, Insightful)
...to gather drunkard statistics. I bet you'll see a lot more alcohol related google ads after failing a few of those tests.
A better thing would be, NOT to tell you you were wrong but to pretend to send the mail and then notify you few hours after (when you are PROBABLY sober) about your failure.
Best Art. for years! (Score:3, Interesting)
Although this has been one of the most fruitful sources of real hilarity on /. for many years, thanks commentators. I feel compelled to just note that the most laudable side effect of Google's Giggles will be a huge boost to the mental numeracy of the world's technocrats. I can't help but wonder if that was the intention all along?
Perhaps a better test for alcohol intoxication might be to turn off the browser's spell checker, yet not allow the mail to go until the spelling is word perfect.
Aw, so sorry, can't do that! It'll put the primary school teachers to shame, and Little Johnney /. Snooks might actually lean to spell, albeit somewhat belatedly.
But I am a Mathemetician!!!!! (Score:5, Funny)
An "Are You Sure" send delay would be nice (Score:3, Interesting)
Based on many of the emails I see flying around the office regularly that probably should have been rethought, it would seem to me a nice feature to add to any email client is the ability to set a delay on the outbox, then ask the user the annoying Are You Sure? before actually delivering the email. Make this an option, and maybe there would be fewer Oh Crap moments or hot-blooded emails sent.
I'll be surprised if nobody else has said this... (Score:4, Funny)
[Looks at stack of Atari 800 program cassettes that he has nothing on which to run them...]
Re:hurp (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
1) This would only be comparable if Allow/Deny happened at times when you're likely to be drunk.
2) Even a drunk person can hit Allow if given enough time.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually? I wish they had this for /. really. Err... I've come on in the morning and seen what I posted. I've seen what other people have posted.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:hurp (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe if this is popular enough, we'll see it in the next version of Windows? Can't wait!
I don't like the idea of where that might go. "It looks as if you are trying to uninstall Vista. Please prove the Riemann Zeta Hypothesis"...
Re:hurp (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe if this is popular enough, we'll see it in the next version of Windows? Can't wait!
I don't like the idea of where that might go. "It looks as if you are trying to uninstall Vista. Please prove the Riemann Zeta Hypothesis"...
Hey, it's working for the ReCAPTCHA initiative, so why not get a few unsolved mathematical problems solved in the process?
Re: (Score:2)
This is kind of sad really.
Next we'll be issuing CUI (Computing Under the Influence) tickets against drunken internet users. Why not? Information Highway sounds like a road to me. And it's a great source of revenue.
So who's going to be the first to install breathalizers on notebooks?
Re:hurp (Score:5, Insightful)
How about this: don't get drunk, don't use drugs. Side effects include, but are not limited to:
- sending stupid emails you will later regret
- driving right into the next tree
- chopping up your neighbor with an axe because it seems like a fun thing to do
- nausea, headaches and a general crappy existence
Don't underestimate no. 4, it's a real killer.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Then I assume you HAVE chopped up your neighbour with an axe because it seemed like a fun thing to do?
Re:hurp (Score:5, Funny)
HEY!
I derive better when I'm drunk!
Mod parent drunk! (Score:4, Funny)
Do Obama and the Democrats deserve a lift in the polls...
Perhaps the best use for such a measure here on Slashdot would be preventing posting from another story! [slashdot.org] ;-)
Re: (Score:2)
I'll build you one for a suitable fee:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8880 [sparkfun.com]
Re:Perhaps they could just delay sending (Score:5, Insightful)
Would end Web 2.0????
Excellent. Please implement at once. While you're at it persuade the media and public at large to accept that 'the web' != 'the internet' ('the web' 'the internet')