Here's something you might be interested in.
I saw this story in the Union-Tribune last week. Then I heard Jim Rome talking about it on his radio show.
Google's free Gmail service is putting "Mail Goggles" on their computers.
It's funny. We all know about "beer goggles." Well...this, too, involves beer. You see, if you've downed too much, and send your boss an email telling him his toupee looks like crap, or that you peed in the coffee pot...well, it could cost you your job. So, inebriated e-mailers would have to correctly answer five math questions before they can send an email.
I guess they figure if you can add 138 + 126, you're good to go. Who knows what would happen if you had a calculator nearby.
The service would be activated from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., which I'm guessing, is the time most alcoholics consume.
Is it harsh that I said "alcoholics"? Well, I stand by that. Because, if you need to order some service to keep you from doing something stupid on your computer because you're drunk, maybe you should try putting down the bottle first.
Rome went on this big rant about who it actually is in your address book. It wasn't that funny. It's one of the reasons he's hard to take in large doses.
He did say something funny about why it is math questions they decided to go with. He said, "Why not have the person name the 13 original colonies." He then yelled, "It's 2:15, and I can't name all the planets, damn it! I want to send this email to my ex-girlfriend!"
He brought up another good point about how they need to create a service that lets you take back an email you accidentally sent to the wrong person.
It reminded me of a time I complained about an editor on a music piece I had written. They felt when I mentioned the word "bling" (it was a story on a rapper, who had a song title with this). They wanted an explanation of what that word meant in paranthesis. I told them it wasn't necessary, because everyone knew the word. And if they didn't, it wasn't important to the story anyway. We went back and forth in email. They wanted a five sentence explanation, and it got edited to a few words...I guess that was a victory for me. But I still thought it killed the momentum of the story.
I was then venting to my friend Peg, who is a thousand times worse than me in dealing with bosses. But, I somehow emailed one of those nasty emails to my editor.
I sent another email quickly saying "Sorry, that last email was for someone else. You can just delete it."
Not sure if they read it or not. I surely would. But, that editor always complained about being super-busy, so I really think they did.
And, it was never brought up to me.
I saw this story in the Union-Tribune last week. Then I heard Jim Rome talking about it on his radio show.
Google's free Gmail service is putting "Mail Goggles" on their computers.
It's funny. We all know about "beer goggles." Well...this, too, involves beer. You see, if you've downed too much, and send your boss an email telling him his toupee looks like crap, or that you peed in the coffee pot...well, it could cost you your job. So, inebriated e-mailers would have to correctly answer five math questions before they can send an email.
I guess they figure if you can add 138 + 126, you're good to go. Who knows what would happen if you had a calculator nearby.
The service would be activated from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., which I'm guessing, is the time most alcoholics consume.
Is it harsh that I said "alcoholics"? Well, I stand by that. Because, if you need to order some service to keep you from doing something stupid on your computer because you're drunk, maybe you should try putting down the bottle first.
Rome went on this big rant about who it actually is in your address book. It wasn't that funny. It's one of the reasons he's hard to take in large doses.
He did say something funny about why it is math questions they decided to go with. He said, "Why not have the person name the 13 original colonies." He then yelled, "It's 2:15, and I can't name all the planets, damn it! I want to send this email to my ex-girlfriend!"
He brought up another good point about how they need to create a service that lets you take back an email you accidentally sent to the wrong person.
It reminded me of a time I complained about an editor on a music piece I had written. They felt when I mentioned the word "bling" (it was a story on a rapper, who had a song title with this). They wanted an explanation of what that word meant in paranthesis. I told them it wasn't necessary, because everyone knew the word. And if they didn't, it wasn't important to the story anyway. We went back and forth in email. They wanted a five sentence explanation, and it got edited to a few words...I guess that was a victory for me. But I still thought it killed the momentum of the story.
I was then venting to my friend Peg, who is a thousand times worse than me in dealing with bosses. But, I somehow emailed one of those nasty emails to my editor.
I sent another email quickly saying "Sorry, that last email was for someone else. You can just delete it."
Not sure if they read it or not. I surely would. But, that editor always complained about being super-busy, so I really think they did.
And, it was never brought up to me.