


What Ever Happened to 'Toothing'? 323
Jim Hanas excertps from his very funny article on the quiet disappearance of last-year's promised digital bacchanal. "Remember 'toothing'? It was a craze that was sweeping England last year as bored commuters arranged sexual encounters using Bluetooth-enabled cellphones. You probably read about it over at Wired or Reuters or the BBC. There's a decent chance you even blogged about it. Well. What happened?" Update: 04/05 00:10 GMT by T : Hanas writes with a followup: "The original source on the whole toothing thing has just admitted it was a hoax -- in response to my email and your picking up of my post."
a/s/l (Score:5, Informative)
I was Feeling-Google-Lucky with "toothing" (thanks FireFox!) and this Toothing Blog [blogspot.com] was last updated on April 28 2004.
And finding partners for sex using bluetooth mobile is as productive as asking a/s/l on IRC channels, or Mrs Gump's box of chocolate.
Seriously, no matter how horny you are, you wouldn't simply jump on bed with anybody, would you?
Re:a/s/l (Score:5, Funny)
You're a girl, aren't you?
Re:a/s/l (Score:5, Funny)
Re:a/s/l (Score:5, Funny)
That's great! I see they have made many improvements with these bots since I last played...
The fembots used to just run around and circles and got confused when they ran into a corner.
Now, they can dodge and shoot around corners.
Great work to the fembot designers!
Re:a/s/l (Score:3, Funny)
Stronger, faster. Better than a regular girl!
Re:a/s/l (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Conspiracy (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Conspiracy (Score:3, Funny)
Oh wait...
Re:a/s/l (Score:5, Insightful)
Losing track of my point here. Mostly, I think people who do have something resembling a regular/normal sex life might not realise just how desperate a small but vocal minority of
I'm giving up now, taking the karma bonus off, and hoping this isn't too much babblage.
Re:a/s/l (Score:3, Insightful)
I think you yankee types are have fallen for the British sense of humour. Toothing was a wind up from the beginning. If you think about it toothing pretty much amounts to going up to a stranger and saying 'wanna fuck'.
This
Re:a/s/l (Score:3, Interesting)
I take it from your post that no one has ever done this to you? Hell, that's happened to me at the supermarket.
Although, truth be told, I brushed her off, so I suppose that makes me supporting evidence
Re:a/s/l (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:a/s/l (Score:5, Funny)
Wait - this is the craze that was sweeping ENGLAND?
Re:a/s/l (Score:5, Funny)
Yes is so much the wrong answer, isn't it?
Re:a/s/l (Score:4, Interesting)
I've not done this myself, and /. is not the best place for an honest discussion of sexuality by damn sight.
First: There is one criterion for hooking up: looks. Man, woman or otherwise, you know whether you'd screw person x within a half second of meeting them. Chatrooms are a waste of time. thefacebook.com and okcupid.com are a bit better because of the addition of pictures, but those can be faked or obfuscated and the whole process isn't immediate enough, which is key if you're looking to do impulsive.
Second: There is a reason this happened in England. Mainstream American women have tons of hangups about sex that British women simply do not.
This is an excellent example of my last point. Some people, especially women, only acknowledge three roles for women: the virgin, the mother and the slut. That's pretty sad. It's not about doing anybody, it's about finding someone mildly attractive who wants the same thing as you do, and it's more conveniant if you're a commuter than going to a bar.
Re:a/s/l (Score:2)
Re:a/s/l (Score:5, Funny)
Sorry, if they won't touch your pot-belly, nacho stained D&D shirt in North America, they won't touch it in London either....
Re:a/s/l (Score:5, Insightful)
I met my ex wife of 5 years asking ASL in an IRC chat. She is also the mother of my child.
I also meet most of my dates and yes sexual partners in chat rooms. Not because I don't go out, I do, but there are more nights at home than nights at the bar, and chatting and flirting are more fun and more social than watching television.
No matter how horny you are, you wouldn't just jump into bed with anybody, would you?
Which would you prefer, to jump into bed with a hunk you met at the bar and had some chemistry with, only to find out later that he's a selfish, obsessive, jealous boar who doesn't like to go down, or to jump into bed with someone who is compatible with you in their values and interests and quirks, who shares your likes and dislikes where sex and relationships are concerned, but is on the attractive side of plain. Because when people meet through chatting, when they actually meet face to face they can see pretty quickly if the person is a no-go in the physical department and call it off at the eleventh hour, while the bar-goer generally probably won't find out until it's too late.
Looking back, I had more fun with the plain jane lookalikes who caught my attention because they were my kind of lighthearted kinky in the bedroom that with the look-at-me gorgeous women I've brought home from the bar only to find out that they were plain boring in bed.
Plain vs gorgeous (Score:5, Funny)
"Looking back, I had more fun with the plain jane lookalikes who caught my attention because they were my kind of lighthearted kinky in the bedroom that with the look-at-me gorgeous women I've brought home from the bar only to find out that they were plain boring in bed. "
Yes, those gorgeous women sure are boring in bed. I am tired of the wasted effort pleasuring gorgeous women that I bring home from the bar. Please, let's just concentrate on the plain ones.
Re:a/s/l (Score:5, Funny)
I met my ex wife of 5 years asking ASL in an IRC chat.
Oooh.. good example!
Re:a/s/l ::: you have NO life (Score:3, Interesting)
What a pitty.
Whatever you say. Did you read my post? I don't do ALL my socializing on the internet. I don't say "hmm... it's friday night and the little one is at her moms... ah hell fuck the bar I'm just going to hang in a chat room". I just picked up a new phone number and a date for next week with a cute little redhead while returning movies to the video store an hour ago. If you're painting a picture in your head of some pasty-faced introver
Girls (Score:3, Funny)
Re:a/s/l (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, duh. Give girls a lifetime of sexual repression and two beers and the rest takes care of itself. I find that the less repressed they are, the better they control their urges.
Re:a/s/l (Score:4, Funny)
Toothing has been filed as novely item #127345 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Toothing has been filed as novely item #127345 (Score:2, Funny)
Jennifer Beals? (Score:3, Funny)
Wasn't that the movie with Jennifer Beals?
Re:Toothing has been filed as novely item #127345 (Score:5, Funny)
The people who hunt flash happy web designers with torches and pitchforks? They called it quits?
Does that mean they got them all? : )
Re:Toothing has been filed as novely item #127345 (Score:5, Funny)
What happened? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:What happened? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What happened? (Score:4, Funny)
Experience? On Slashdot? You must be new here. :-D
Re:What happened? (Score:2, Funny)
Well, the story does mention it was in England after all -- so the bad teeth thing may not be a huge stretch. =)
[ sorry to any Brits, I know you don't all have bad teeth ]
Re:What happened? (Score:2)
Re:What happened? (Score:3, Interesting)
He looked at me a bit funny, as if he didn't know what I meant, and then said "What's with you Americans being so obsessed with how straight and white your teeth are?"
It suddenly dawned on me th
Re:What happened? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What happened? (Score:2)
I can't seem to remember where I saw it at though for the live of me. The article did mention that the scene was a little guy heavy though.
Re:What happened? (Score:5, Funny)
Or discovering that the big, hairy 50 year old bear daddy you were trying to pick up is some cute-but-straight 20-something who's just playing with you.
Re:What happened? (Score:4, Funny)
It turns out... (Score:5, Funny)
Welcome to the Internet.
Ouch. (Score:5, Funny)
Those who... (Score:5, Insightful)
Those who read about it, never blogged about it.
Those who blogged about it, never read about it.
Those who remember it, were too busy to either read about it or blog about it.
Being a geek, I'm kind of amazed I even wasted the time to read about it.
What happened? (Score:5, Funny)
Toothers were all wiped out (Score:2)
Toothing quickly went out of favor. (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Promiscuous Mode: Off (Score:5, Funny)
(Its a good way to prevent virus transmission.)
Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
News for nerds, stuff that might have been.
Re:Slashdot (Score:2)
What do you mean "might have been?" :)
By the number of dupes lately it should be (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot. News for the amnesiac, stuff that mattered.
Uhh... (Score:2, Offtopic)
Here's what happened (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Here's what happened (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Here's what happened (Score:5, Funny)
Yea they have to learn a new language but IT's WORTH IT!
like most media-hyped crazes... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:like most media-hyped crazes... (Score:2)
Up in Scotland we had some more crazy ideas about dating than our neighbours south of the border , we decided not to use those old school toothing tech and went to the more advanced tounging
Re:like most media-hyped crazes... (Score:2)
Not at all.
You just have to be on the lookout for important stories that have a profound impact on Nerddom,
I can't begin to tell you the tragedy of what happened to the unsuspecting herds of nerds that were not up to date on this important news item.
I always thought Spencer Tracey said that: (Score:3, Interesting)
-- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957.
Too Hard (Score:5, Funny)
On second thought, just get a Lovegety [wired.com]
Re:Too Hard (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds good to me. I hereby dub it bodCasting.
iCopulate (Score:2)
High school bluetoothing (Score:3, Interesting)
i know, not setting up sexual encounters... but still a fun use for bluetooth
Re:High school bluetoothing (Score:2, Informative)
Re:High school bluetoothing (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:High school bluetoothing (Score:2, Insightful)
I think I am just getting to the age where I understand what "generation gap" means. I know what bluetooth (my Palm has it), and I get the principle behind what you were doing. And I even once went to high sch
Advent of Cell viruses (Score:2)
It wasn't called "toothing" (Score:2, Funny)
it was called bluejacking [google.com]
so that probably accounts for why you cant find out any information
Re:It wasn't called "toothing" (Score:2)
Greedy Cell Phone Operators? (Score:2)
what happened (Score:2)
Silly media term was retired? (Score:2)
Who knows, or cares?
It appeared in Wired (Score:5, Funny)
Well duh (Score:5, Funny)
What do you think happened? It ended up being a bunch of blokes chasing after another bloke named "Shelly".
Happy Slapping (Score:2, Interesting)
this is much worse. It never happend to me (I live on the continent) and I hope that it will never ever become popular here, but you can never trust those bored and ringtone-buying half-grownups.
it went underground (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:it went underground (Score:3, Funny)
Second rule of Toothclub : You don't talk about Toothclub.
Third rule of Toothclub : You don't tell that the girl that is toothing, is actually a fifty-something named Bob.
Simple... (Score:5, Funny)
Never existed (Score:4, Funny)
Aptly named (Score:4, Funny)
here's the deal (Score:3, Informative)
So, therefore, since it never took off in the U.S.. it never took off.
Every now and then I look for the "TOOTHING!" forum that sort of started the whole thing.. guy keeps getting shut down, everywhere he hosts...
Maybe it never did happen? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Maybe it never did happen? (Score:2)
I forget which media mogul is attributed to the quote "Never let facts get in the way of a good story", but that's what readers/listeners want, so that's what they get.
Look at your teeth in the mirror (Score:2)
Jim Hanas [networkmirror.com] excertps from his very funny article on the quiet disappearance of last-year's promised digital bacchanal [networkmirror.com]. "Remember 'toothing'? It was a craze that was sweeping England last year as bored commuters arranged sexual encounters using Bluetooth-enabled cellphones. You probably read about it over at Wired [networkmirror.com] or Reuters [networkmirror.com] or the BBC [networkmirror.com]. There's a decent chance you even blogged about it [networkmirror.com]. Well. What happened?"
suckers (Score:4, Insightful)
Nerds have to find better ways to get laid!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
No nibbles? (Score:2)
Two words (Score:3, Funny)
Bluetooth Protocol (Score:4, Interesting)
I believe that even if the phone is in 'hidden' mode, on some models, one can still find a user's address by testing out every address. Redfang [securiteam.com] does that. This is brute force however and quite slow. In fact it could take up to a few years, as it takes about 20 seconds per address.
One thing I noticed while living in an apartment and playing with Bluetooth.. it is possible to tell when other people are in their homes or not. I was tempted to make a little app and compile statistics as to when/where people came and left, but then I remembered I wasn't the US federal government
There are a bunch of other programs available to the Googler.
First rule of tooth club... (Score:5, Funny)
The first rule of tooth club is: You do not talk about tooth club.
The second rule of tooth club is: You DO NOT talk about tooth club.
Third rule of tooth club, someone yells "Stop!", goes limp, taps out, the toothing is over.
Fourth rule, only two people to a toothing.
Fifth rule, one toothing at a time, fellas.
Sixth rule, no shirt, no shoes.
Seventh rule, toothings will go on as long as they have to.
And the eighth and final rule, if this is your first night at tooth club, you have to tooth.
If it weren't for toothing I'd know who... (Score:3, Funny)
the only people this will work for... (Score:3, Insightful)
Shameless Self-Promotion (Score:3, Interesting)
Should anyone care to read this (possibly amateurish) story, please leave a comment on the comment page [jaytv.com] (currently empty) if you give it a try.
There are adult themes in this story, so I don't know whether to state that as a disclaimer or inducement (probably both).
What about podjacking? (Score:3, Interesting)
Supposedly, a good-looking chick will go up to you, pull out her white headphone miniplug, and look at you expectantly. You're then supposed to remove your white headphone plug, put it into her ipod, while she does the same to yours, and you each enjoy the other's music for a time.
I was skeptical of the craze when I read about it over a year ago. The "craze" has been mentioned in other magazine articles. But I'm beginning to feel it was manufactured by magazine article writers who were desperate for something to write about.
Conceivable? (Score:3, Insightful)
Or, in other words, just because it doesn't exist online doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Toothing never existed, so it'll be on Oprah soon. (Score:4, Funny)
1) Toothing seemingly never existed outside the media;
2) it involves sex;
3) it's supposedly a secret, almost cultlike group;
4) it involves modern technology of a sort not understood by soccer moms but possibly used by their children.
Therefore:
"Tomorrow on Oprah: 'Toothing!' Is your little girl sending a message that she wants sex and she wants it now?"
And they can have an 'expert' on, who's met 'toothers' and knows that bluetoothers just give blowjobs, but redtoothers are into anal sex, and blacktoothers want to be sodomized by the entire football team, including the mascot.
--
Tonight's secret passphrase: The cautious cow from Azerbaijan is acrobatic and Snoopy nukes the railroad quietly.
Newman? Is that you? (Score:2)
Hello, Newman.... You're just waiting for Kramer to come down from sunbathing on the roof, aren't you?
Re:Simple (Score:2)
You know, when I was young I thought all those prejudices were just crap..
Then I visited London..
Then I visited Paris..
Then I met Americans travelling..
So far, the only place which hasn't been one large trip of getting prejudices fullfilled was New York, however I did get my ass kicked by one white trash wrestling maniac in a, off all places, fairly arty pub.. I still have no idea why, although I think he thought my mate was trying to hit on his girlf
Re:Simple (Score:2)
I went to france and found the people to be really nice and freindly
Though i have met
Re:Simple (Score:3, Funny)
A: Because the sheep can hear a zipper a mile away.
Re:People turned off Bluetooth. (Score:3, Funny)
I thought they were only in jokes...