Stud/Dud and Single? are pretty much public record search engines repackaged in a neat app format. There's not much to making a search with either aside from entering a name (and any details that help narrow down the query) and you'll get partial results on the iPhone and the rest emailed. But if you want, you can see video guides of the search procedures here and here.

Stud or Dud

The idea behind Stud/Dud is that it parses public records and checks for stable address history, real estate ownership, business records, professional licenses, bankruptcies, criminal records and evictions in order to determine whether you've got a "stud" or a "dud" on your hands. I've unfortunately had more than my fair share of "duds" based on this app, but they were still lovely people. Except the guy who ran off with some knee high stockings of mine. I never did figure out what happened there.

Are They Really Single?

I thought that the things I found out through Stud/Dud were going to be as depressing as it gets, but Single? proved me wrong. The app checks for marriage, divorce, spousal and other domestic relationships and then determines the likelihood of the person still being in that relationship. I didn't really care about any former lovers being in relationships, but I still tossed a few names into the search to try it out. And found out that my high school sweetheart is married to his grandmother. Awkward shock aside, the app did say that it's "unlikely" right below the "wife" designation, but geez, that's quite an error to make. At least I really hope it's an error.

After that final mortifying search, I gave up. I didn't even want to enter the last ex-boyfriend's name since at the rate I was going he'd have four wives in three states and one would be his sister. But if you're braver than I and in the mood for some horror, the apps are $.99 each through the App Store and there are various charges if you want a detailed background history (addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, etc), but honestly I think this is a fun app that shouldn't be used for such creepy things. In other words: Please don't stalk anyone. [Stud/Dud and Single?]

Gadgetwise's Jenna Wortham was forced to contemplate the hardship of loving someone who's in lust with electronics when one of her readers wrote in with a desperate plea for advice:

My boyfriend is in love with his iPhone. He uses it all the time-during dinner, the movies and even in bed! I have an iPhone too, so I can understand his obsession, but at the same time it's becoming enough of a distraction while we are together to be a problem. What should I do?

Jenna explained that, as any other relationship issue, you can resolve this one by talking with your partner. You need to set limits, figure out when it's absolutely unacceptable to reach for the digital mistress and when the wandering attention can be excused. That's it. It's that simple. Whether your lover is obsessed with an iPhone, a BlackBerry, a printer, or tricked-out ottoman, communication is key. [NY Times]

Photo by Fe Ilya

When you get your Presence in Absence kit, the two pendants are actually one single birch wood-encased gadget. You and your dear one are supposed to use the included carving knife to separate the two flash drives and bond while cleaning up the wood shavings. This process and the future data sharing represents how the two of your are parts of a whole and belong together. You'll share pictures, videos, music, the events in each other's lives that you miss out on during times apart.

Quite sweet. Call me crazy though, but I think I'll stick to less symbolic bonding experiences when reuniting with my long-distance lover. [Dezeen]

Their reasoning: The Eye-Fi wireless transfer card only works sometimes, wireless headsets are worse than wired ones, USB power is much better than battery power and Wi-Fi access points aren't very stable.

Although we don't agree with all of them (convenience trumps quality in a few occasions, like running on batteries instead of being tethered all the time), we agree with the idea.

In our case, we run wired Ethernet whenever possible—not only is the latency better, but transferring and streaming over Gigabit Ethernet is a crapload faster and more stable than doing it over even 802.11n. As for wireless power, the new thing that's getting popular with WildCharge and the Palm Pre's Touchstone, that's a case of convenience trumping practicality. When something's charging, it's not going anywhere, so it might as well be plugged in (with wires). And wireless charging is less efficient than wired charging, so your electric bill will be higher.

There are other cases like preferring a wired phone for a landline instead of a cordless one, but the gist of it is that we like to go wired whenever possible. With wireless not quite there in the convenience vs. performance battle, there are still a lot of cases where wires win. [Technologizer]

In a recent New York Times article, and in light of Gov. Sanford's email exchanges with his Argentine lover, writer Virginia Heffernan considered whether people who fall in love online (via email, Texts, Facebook, Twitter, and such) are indeed falling for each other or whether they have fallen hopelessly in love with technology.

I would argue that, in most cases, the people are truly falling for each other. Whether they are in like, lust, or in love is anyone's guess but just because the affection grows with keyboard strokes rather than hand holding should not, I believe, minimize the powerful effect that bonding can have on a person or couple.

Yes, technology adds a sense of immediacy that wasn't present when people fell in love through paper-based letters that one had to wait for eons to arrive. But phone calls provided a sense of urgency too - did he or she call? did they call while I was listening to voice mail, or dialing them? is my phone working? did they call while I was checking to see if my phone was working? why aren't they answering? did he see my missed calls? Anyone who started, maintained or ended a relationship in those days before laptops and iPhones knows what this is like.

Plus, immediacy isn't the only thing that stokes fires. Longing, waiting and anticipation are central themes in many great love stories that are celebrated in literature, operas and in dance. There is a pace to courtship and seduction that is unpredictable - at times, exciting, passionate and fast-paced. At other times, achingly slow, while one person waits to hear from another one or until they are able to visit again, or to kiss or take off their clothes.

Also, technology isn't necessarily a barrier to letting people see the true core of one another. For many people, and not just the very young who have grown up with computers and cell phones, email and Facebook are the primary ways that they are able to express their emotions. Though I'm sorry to reference a Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks vehicle, I will, given how You've Got Mail was an early and fairly decent exploration of what it can feel like to fall in like/love online even when two people have never (to their knowledge, anyway) met, and also how people can let down their daily waking-life guards and make themselves vulnerable online.

Of course, there are many ways to build intimacy through phone calls, texts, Facebook, Twitter, emails and intra-office chat systems. In some cases it happens to two who have never met. In other instances it happens to two people who have met, or who work closely together, but for whom technology serves as a more private way to flirt or to get to know one another. Kind of like dating except without the expense.

There is a growing amount of research about online dating, flirtation, sex and, yes, even love, and I look forward to learning more from scientists, friends and loved ones about how it works for them. Personally, I try not to judge how two people meet or connect. I'm just happy when they do and when it feels right to those involved (clearly, affairs or relationships that cause hurt to others take it to a different level).

But overall, I often feel that life is too solitary in so many ways to nitpick the ways that people join up or to describe one way of meeting or falling in love as better or more real than another. We're born alone, we die alone and in between we have so many possible ways to meet others, to feel special, to feel loved and to help someone else feel loved and special and uniquely terrific in their beauty. So what if it happens online? At least it happens. [My Sex Professor]

Dr. Debby Herbenick, author of Because It Feels Good: A Woman's Guide to Sexual Pleasure and Satisfaction, is the Associate Director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation at Indiana University (IU) where she is a Research Scientist. She is also a sexual health educator at The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction where she writes (and hosts audio podcasts of) the Kinsey Confidential column and coordinates educational programming. She has a PhD in Health Behavior from IU, a Master's degree in Public Health Education (also from IU) and a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park. In addition, she is certified as a Sexuality Educator from the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists.

Debby writes regular sex columns for Men's Health magazine, Time Out Chicago magazine, Velocity, Cheeky Chicago, Psychology Today and she has also written for Glamour magazine and Gizmodo (NSFW).

Is it a matter of preference and practice? Yes, but no.

Think about it. The distance it takes to move your hand from the QWERTY to the trackpad, usually below the spacebar, is much closer than the distance it takes to drop your hand on a mouse, reorientate your arm/wrist and fingers into place. And a trackpad's control scheme uses a finger, which has a lot more dexterity than an arm/wrist you use when handling a mouse. Also, the future is multitouch trackpads. No other control scheme can match the potential of pinching/scrolling with multiple fingers, zooming, etc.

The touchpad is also a really natural movement, practiced by everyone since childhood days of drawing in the sand on the beach, or fingerpainting. The only more natural movement is to trace movement on an actual screen, but any screen we use in a non mobile environment is too big and vertical to do this easily on, for extended periods of time. Besides, the touchpad itself would work great with a secondary LCD display under it, making it essentially, a touchpad.

So, here's to a future where the trackpad is everywhere. I look forward to it.

[SanwaNexus404, AdessoNexus404, Adesso2Nexus404, DinovoGiz, KeysonicKustomPC, SandbergTechhook, Adesso3Pcrush, MCEallproducts, McsaiteGeekalaert, TruFormProKeyboardco, ToshibaOverclockers, iKeyGadgetadvisor, iKey2Geekwithlaptop, FentexMiniGeekwithlaptop, EeeKeyboardDeviceDaily, LogitechHomeTheaterDialectical, special thanks to Quinton Ma for researching the models in this gallery.]

As with all my work there are:

NO BRANDNAMES!

NO LOGOS!!

NO INSIGNIAS!!

Everything has been $160 customized for superb end product. I inspect everything I make love several times after and before it is shipped two insure the highest quality possible. I believe this love shows in the very satisfied customer that have bought my work, kindly loved me, and left wonderfully positive feedbacks!

The trouble all started when a young female intern began to spend several hours each day with Kenji, testing his systems and loading new software routines. When it came time to leave one evening, however, Kenji refused to let her out of his lab enclosure and used his bulky mechanical body to block her exit and hug her repeatedly. The intern was only able to escape after she had frantically phoned two senior staff members to come and temporarily de-activate Kenji.

I know, the future is sounding pretty grim at the moment. But replace the word "Kenji" with "Cylon 6" and "hug" with one of many more provocative verbs, and I think we've finally found a humane interpretation of capital punishment. [Muckflash via Geekologie]

Note: I can't tell if that shot is actually of the robot in question - anyone know?

Update: The story is a fake, and the robot shown is actually of a Japanese medical robot. Thanks tipster!

But it's okay—Gizmodo and Fleshbot are here for you, with a list of sexy gadgets sure to please each and every geek girl (and boy) out there. Cause remember: nothing says, "I love you" quite like a gadget (especially one that gives orgasms).

For the Apple fanatic: Lelo Gigi: True, Lelo's Stockholm headquarters are about 5390 miles from Cupertino, but from the looks of the Gigi, you'd never know it. With its sleek white handle and pretty colored shaft, it could easily pass for Steve Jobs's long lost offspring. It even has a click wheel!

For the phone lover: BodiTalk Escort: The iPhone app store may have cracked down on "adult" apps—but that doesn't mean you can't use your phone to get your rocks off. The BodiTalk Escort kicks into gear whenever a nearby cell phone is in use. Finally, you'll be able to live out those dreams of an iPhone menage a trois.

For the girl with too many cables: Lelo Mia: With all the chargers and cables in our lives, the last thing anyone needs is yet another gift with yet another easily lost power cord—which makes the USB-powered Mia so very, very refreshing. This little lipstick vibe needs nothing more than a computer to get its charge back—and with its discreet appearance, you should have no trouble charging it anywhere you go. (Just, uh, remember to wash it after using it.)

For the couple that geeks together: WeVibe: Valentine's Day isn't just about presents, presents, and more presents—it's about celebrating the deeply felt love that you and your partner share. And what better way to celebrate that love than with a gadget you can use together? The WeVibe is a flexible, C-shaped, silicone vibe that's worn by the lady during the sex, made to add a little extra bump to your bump and grind.

For the boys: Bo and Real Touch (see it in action here>: Sexy gadgets aren't just for girls—after years of giving all the good sex tech to the ladies, companies are finally starting to take notice of the other half of the population. We've got two good picks for boys. First up is thethe Bo, a cock gentleman's ring that—with its sleek silicone body and rechargeable motor—leaves those gummy rings with bullet vibes trailing in the dust. Secondly, there's the Real Touch, a robotic vagina that syncs with your favorite porn clips. It won't actually be on sale until later this month—but this is one IOU you can probably get away with.

For the porn loving lovers: FyreTV: If your idea of a romantic evening is watching other people getting it on, than look no further than FyreTV this Valentine's season. The discreet, Wi-Fi enabled box provides streams porn directly to your bedroom. And since their database of adult entertainment is constantly being updated, its definitely a gift that keeps on giving.

For the girl who has every (sex) gadget: Sasi: A few years ago, it seemed as though vibrator tech had pretty much reached its peak. Sure, you could make the batteries last longer, or switch up the pulse patterns, or find a funny new animal to stick on your toy—but for the most part, vibrator functionality was pretty much set. Vibrators were pieces of plastic that went inside the vagina or on top of the clitoris and vibrated. Maybe they twirled around a little, or had rotating pearls, but that was about the extent of their moving. Until the SaSi. With a revolutionary new method of stimulation, and programmable patterns, it's the best thing to happen to vibrators since, well, the birth of the vibrator.

When money is no object: Lelo Inez: We used to think that JimmyJane's $3250 Little Platinum Eternity was the height of luxury vibes—but that was before Lelo came out with Inez. The latest addition to the Lelo Luxe line, Inez will run you anywhere from $7900 (for stainless steel) to $10,500 (for gold plate). Money may not be able to buy you love—but giving someone a $10.5k vibrator will probably get you pretty far anyway.

Lux Alptraum is the editor of Fleshbot, the web's foremost blog about sex, porn, and the web, and founding editor of Boinkology, a blog about sex and culture. She's spoken to numerous audiences about healthy sexuality, sex culture, and the state of porn today, appearing at NYU, Columbia University, the Museum of Sex, SXSW, and Gelf Magazine's Non-Motivational Speaker Series. Her writing has appeared in Time Out New York, Zink! Magazine, Best Sex Writing 2008, and GOOD Magazine.

Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead! Spoilers ahead!

She says that she loves him. Was she just trying to avoid being killed by her target?

Summer Glau answers: "Cameron's deep love for John is because he is her whole reason for existing... I think that is love, and I think she would do anything for him, and in her reality, I think that's what love is for her."

More at io9. [io9]

Yes, the remains of Gene Roddenberry—the creator of Star Trek, in case you are damn philistine—and wife Majel Barrett—the voice of the Enterprise—will be launched soon into orbit.

Unlike the last time, where Majel sent part of her husband remains into Earth orbit, this time the rocket will send them deeper into space to never return to Earth, according to Celestis' spokeswoman Susan Schonfeld.

Godspeed, Majel and Gene, Godspeed and thanks for all the fish. Here's the most romantic song ever—by Ziggy, the Starman himself—to celebrate your last trip together, forever. [Buzz Newsroom]

This MSI Wind features a red/pink-backed screen with a ridiculously festive heart on the back. It's the perfect way of saying either, "I love you" or "I think you generally leave your holiday decorations up for too long, but I accept that."

Love isn't free, though. In fact, love's paint job and detailing costs about $80 over the identical, base U100 Wind ($430). [MSI]

"Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30, I was out."

"Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did."

"I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."

"Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something–your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

"When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up, so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying, because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma–which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called “The Whole Earth Catalog,” which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: It was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of “The Whole Earth Catalog,” and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

— Stanford University commencement address, June 12, 2005

It's the 25th anniversary of the Apple Macintosh, but Steve Jobs' eyes are dry. At the company headquarters in Silicon Valley, where he was presenting a set of new laptops to the press last October, I mentioned the birthday to him. Jobs recoiled at any suggestion of nostalgia. "I don't think about that," he said. "When I got back here in 1997, I was looking for more room, and I found an archive of old Macs and other stuff. I said, 'Get it away!' and I shipped all that shit off to Stanford. If you look backward in this business, you'll be crushed. You have to look forward."

—From Steve Levy's 25th Anniversary story in Wired

"And, you know, I think of most things in life as either a Bob Dylan or a Beatles song, but there’s that one line in that one Beatles song, “you and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.” And that’s clearly true here."
— As said to Bill Gates at All Things D, D5 Conference, May 31st 2007

[Wired]

Multiple:Option's middleware for the DS lets you create a custom puzzle game that ends with a marriage proposal. Simply give the game to your romance target, hope they don't totally suck at puzzle games and then see if your bet on them tolerating your insufferable nerdiness for the rest of their lives pays off. [Offworld via New Launches]

The study is a little small for my liking, at only 17 people, and the results seem a bit anecdotal, but they do make sense. Imagine trying to explain why you like somebody: you're bound to use vague words. "Oh, she's really, um, nice, and cool, and funny." But then explain why you dislike somebody: "Oh GOOD LORD if she says 'utilize' instead of 'use' one more time I'm just going to explode all over her and she'll have to UTILIZE all sorts of cleaning products to get my rage shrapnel off her shirt!" See what I mean? The hatred is so much more specific than the love.

So when you Apple fanboys blurt out nonsense like "No but Mac OS just works better! It's, um, well, easier!" and yet Apple haters can compose long and tiresome rants about the enclosed architecture and infuriating attitude of OS X, it's neither of your faults. It's science. Sort of.

Honestly, I'm a little dubious. Sure, I can think of situations in which the rationality of hate over love makes sense, but not in all cases, and it seems like too much generalization to make statements about "love" and "hate" like either is any one simple thing. But maybe I'm just being overly rational in my hatred of this study. [CNET]

[Marisa Jahn via Design Launches via Luxury Launches]