Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Randomize His Life

Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by reustle on Monday August 07, 2017 @12:14PM (#14948622)

I actually met Max while we both happened to be in Thailand in 2015. We spent the day on bicycles following the directions his script told him, without hesitation. Regardless of where it was in the city, that's where we went next (a laundry mat, daycare, cafes, and the zoo iirc). Nothing was skipped, because it was what the software told us to do.

Here are some pictures from that day https://goo.gl/photos/gyCNRz2rs7zLJrt79

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by notdang on Monday August 07, 2017 @03:28PM (#14950456)

Just stay alert, in some parts of the world it can end tragically: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/07/british-woman-...

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by corobo on Monday August 07, 2017 @05:40PM (#14951508)

Oh damn wait, she made it? I read the article with the context "it can end tragically" - I love reading the news when the twist is someone survives.

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by jpatokal on Monday August 07, 2017 @06:20PM (#14951736)

What does accidentally making a wrong turn into the bad part of town and getting carjacked have to do with the original article?

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by coldtea on Monday August 07, 2017 @06:42PM (#14951888)

Obviously the concern of the grandparent is that if you do like the article says and you blindly follow some randomized scripts to where they tell you to go, you can easily end up "into the bad part of town".

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by Kiro on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @04:41AM (#14955794)

Well, you obviously don't jump into a volcano just because the app tells you to. Unless you're going full Dice Man with it.

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by coldtea on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @06:25AM (#14956292)

No, but you obviously also don't necessarily know if some streets it asks you to go to are in bad areas, unless you know about the city/country it has you visit in a lot of detail.

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by 33W on Monday August 07, 2017 @02:32PM (#14949972)

Reminds me of a "game" some friends would play in the early days of turn-by-turn GPS.

"Garmin Knows Best", where you input a location and follow the GPS exactly. Driver beware.

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by giggles_giggles on Monday August 07, 2017 @07:07PM (#14952042)

Michael, that's a lake!

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by dopeboy on Monday August 07, 2017 @12:30PM (#14948766)

That's really interesting. I was thinking of doing a social experiment that's similar but the script would be crowd sourced and determined at the last possible moment.

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by tdb7893 on Monday August 07, 2017 @01:11PM (#14949135)

If you followed a crowdsourced script wouldn't that essentially just be "twitch plays pokemon" for real life?

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by maxhawkins on Monday August 07, 2017 @01:39PM (#14949396)

You might like Lauren McCarthy's work: http://lauren-mccarthy.com/Social-Turkers

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by jimjimjim on Monday August 07, 2017 @05:57PM (#14951603)

crowd sourced... boaty mcboatface.

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by ng12 on Monday August 07, 2017 @02:51PM (#14950132)

Just imagine if it took them to a park or candy store where there were also children around. Terrifying!

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by ctrl-j on Monday August 07, 2017 @02:53PM (#14950165)

> I'd feel pretty uncomfortable with a random stranger and his friends showing up to my kid's daycare. I hope the apps have gotten better location filtering in place since 2015.

Wouldn't this be the onus of the daycare? To allow/disallow strangers?

If the app points them to a high-security military installation, they're not going to get in.

Other strangers not using the app can still show up at the daycare...

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by codyb on Monday August 07, 2017 @06:30PM (#14951815)

And presumably as soon as you see it's a day care you can say "neat" and move on to the next location.

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by dexterdog on Monday August 07, 2017 @02:58PM (#14950210)

I'd be less worried about a few guys showing up because a randomness app told them to than a guy showing up because he wanted to.

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by HeyLaughingBoy on Monday August 07, 2017 @04:04PM (#14950809)

Trust me, daycares unfortunately already have to deal with unwanted people, often non-custodial parents who may or may not have restraining orders against them, showing up.

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by raarts on Monday August 07, 2017 @03:58PM (#14950743)

Maybe you should give the apps a go too. To get out of your tiny little bubble.

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by eljimmy on Monday August 07, 2017 @03:39PM (#14950568)

Would you feel uncomfortable if the author was a woman?

It is sad that in today's society men are immediately perceived as a potential threat to a child.

The fear mongering is getting ridiculous.

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by davidcelis on Monday August 07, 2017 @04:23PM (#14950943)

I made no mention of the fact that the author is a male.

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by vageli on Monday August 07, 2017 @05:59PM (#14951618)

> The app took you too a daycare? Where people leave their children? Did you actually enter it, or just move on? I'd feel pretty uncomfortable with a random stranger and his friends showing up to my kid's daycare. I hope the apps have gotten better location filtering in place since 2015.

Sure you did. Emphasis mine.

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Re:Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Rand... by ambicapter on Monday August 07, 2017 @04:44PM (#14951113)

You didn't answer the parent question either.

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