Females are generally supply side, males demand side in traditional sex economics. Rejection of same through toys is therefore empowering to women and degrading to men. Thus labelled "weird."
Not to be too pointed, but that attitude is socialized, largely by people who make statements like "It would be weird if it were for men." Also, I think that there is less of an imbalance than you would believe. As we know, people are quite good at saying one thing in public and doing another in private. Especially when it comes to sex.
Not to be too pointed, but that attitude is socialized
I would disagree with at least the strong form of that assertion, on the grounds that evolution actually does stuff. Males and females have very different genetic payoffs for having lots of sexual partners versus holding out for a high quality mate.
Is reverse engineering the wireless protocol easy? I imagine hacking hardware involves a lot more work than software.
I also love how she 3d printed out some plastic cases for her toy. I see cheap 3d printers eventually being so ubiquitous that a quick prototype may be just as easy to hack up as a working software program.
On power-up, it sends an initialization sequence, copied from the trace from the original remote. This has a bunch of settings that you can look up in the manual. Then for each packet, it sends a start sequence (essentially, "finish sending anything queued, and stand by"), puts a packet into the transmit queue (packet = 0x0100a5[power][power]00000005, where power is the power level byte), and then tells the radio to transmit.
And then of course you can debug this by comparing the traces it generates to the traces from the original remote.
I can't wait for easily and cheaply 3d-printed electronics. Just the thought of buying the parts and plastic stuff, putting them in a machine, and letting it work, building a complete device.
But there are plenty of 1-off or small run PCB manufacturers, which will surely be higher quality than anything produced by some 3d printing experiments.
It's true for now, and for the near term (read: couple of years). The trend for the 3D printers is that they'll both get faster and use different materials (or same material with different properties). That way, you can print everything in-place, from batteries, the board, and enclosure. You won't be able to replicate chips for a long while, besides really simple electronics, so it will probably be pick and place.
Well, the more I looked into this possibility, the more I think it's not going to look like traditional electronics that we know. Chances are, somebody's working on this right now, and we just don't know about it.
There's been some promising blips here and there with the reprappers:
How about a web-based design tool that lets you make a custom case, which will then be 3d-printed on demand? Alternatively, you could accept customer uploads of certain 3D design formats.
Well, I meant more of an all-in-one product: the company would provide a few different options of base vibrator units with minimum case size/dimension requirements, and the customer creates the custom case; the product would be shipped fully assembled. I suppose they could outsource the printing to Ponoko, though.
Any takers to found a startup in order to dive in and disrupt the sex toy industry with some cutting edge innovation? Imagine the millions you'd rake in if you re-invent sex.
I'm looking forward to at least one ero-toy applicant in the next round of YC apps.
> I'm looking forward to at least one ero-toy applicant in the next round of YC apps.
I nearly applied with one this year. I came up with a technique to "3d print" custom sex toys a while back and have been iterating on the idea slowly, but it's not far enough along to throw my weight behind it as a real business.
Some unsolicited advice from someone who's just heard about your product for the first time :)
* Avoiding the word "vibrator" is a good thought (sadly it has too many negative connotations), but I'd recommend never shying away from discussing the underlying problem you are trying to solve because it's both serious and real. ie: "People are busier than ever and are spending increasing amounts of time apart. We're taking steps forward to helping couples maintain a level of intimacy and connection in our dynamic world."
* Alternative language to just talking about "intimacy" can be a focus on the positive side-effects of intimacy, such as: happier lives, higher level of trust, and greater relationship satisfaction.
* The settings screen in your screenshot has a lot of sliders. I hope there will be some good presets for those who would otherwise get overwhelmed by the number of choices.
* Similarly, fingers crossed for a PC/Mac client (or otherwise the ability to video-chat over Skype) since holding two small devices (a phone and the massager) can get tricky.
As for the pitch, maybe a tongue-in-cheek: "Vibease lets you reach out to your partner and maintain intimacy from across the room... or across the world."
Sounds like you'll have a ton of (challenging, unique) fun with this product. Good luck!
This is a sexist remark. It all depend on the content of the article.
Did you take time to read the article? It's just great - full of technical details, including the reasoning behind the creation of the hack.
Many times I've seen dumb things in the front page - complex pointless hacks (I remember one about locales and printf which advocated a libc recompile while I suggested a perl oneliner).
This is a genuinely interesting and creative hack.
EDIT: as I mentionned below, "The title is misleading" - it is linkbait. But the content is there.
Scientists See Promise in Deep-Learning Programs
Machine Learning: Neural Network vs Support Vector Machine
Suite of 300 icons for web and user interface design
But you are right that there is a lot of link-baitiness on HN. Doesn't mean we can't wish for better.
I think there might be a misunderstanding here, just want to make sure you guys are on the same page (as I am perceiving it).
I don't think he is saying it shouldn't make it on HN, if anything he's speculating as to whether or not it would be on the #1 spot if it were a male sex hack instead..
Fixing bugs in widely used Unix software, maintaining compatibility with the existing related components and promoting cross-platform portability, for the benefit of thousands of future users, and documenting the experience as an educational tidbit for others, is not dumb.
Probably not. Then again the majority of HN's visitors are developers or designers, right? If so, they're job is to be as open-minded as possible, in which case it should last quite long. But probably not.
/me open-mindedly wonders what's going to happen to HN and everyone else who links to the article in the age of "SafeSearch" filters, search engines sinking pages using sexually explicit content etc. ... We may still be open-minded, but we are surrounded by software that isn't.
Apparently that word is automatically deleted from titles. Coincidentally, I had just tried submitting an unrelated article about Miiverse drawing detection and had to replace it with "P*nis".
Uhm, to be frank, there are prostate "hacks". Explore at your own volition. http://wiki.malegspot.com/index.php?title=Main_Page (Not associated with them, and note that the wiki is run by a company selling the tools mentioned in the wiki)
Though it's admittedly lower tech. I would welcome technological advances for men as well. Why not? It interests both the human and hacker in me.
You can buy e-stim boxes especially made for zapping the nether regions on males and females alike. One of the configurations on the ET312, called "tri phase", combines a two-conductor plug placed near the prostate with pads placed at each feet, and the end result is utterly wild. It's really unfortunate that most guys are too hung up about their own bodies to explore it.
ET-312 software interfaces are some of the most advanced out there right now, too. The community at http://smartstim.com is absolutely amazing to watch.
I sympathize with that point, but there's more to it than "what about teh menz?"
The question is this: is this doing well on HN because HN is full of progressive-minded feminists upvoting a neat DIY project on its merits, or is it doing well on HN because it serves as fodder for the nerd-girl fantasies of a primarily male readership?
I really think this is an important point that often gets missed on male dominated social news sites. Readers are quick to pat themselves on the back for the community's mature lack of slut-shaming, while neglecting to realize that an entirely different form of sexism and woman-objectification is taking place.
I don't think the majority explicitly thinks like that. Probably, if you asked them why they upvoted, their post hoc justification would be about how not-sexist they were. They'd be proud of it.
But the post hoc justifications people come up with when they actually think about their motivations are very often not the original reasons for their actions, especially when the original reasons are not admirable.
Don't get me wrong here - I don't think that men should feel guilty about their gut reactions to stories like this. If the "female nerds are popular on the internet because they fuel male nerd-girl fantasies" problem is one that needs to be addressed, I have no idea of how to address it. I just think we should recognize that that's what's happening instead of congratulating ourselves on being so modern.
My deleted comment was "I don't think the majority thinks like that" , which i deleted because i don't have data to back it up.
But after reading your reply, what the hell dude/gal? Can't it be that people upvoted the article because sexy subject+technology is double win? Can't it be because i am actually jealous i haven't hacked my penis yet? And i'm not even a Feminist. Now your theory about guilt and nerdgirl fantasies... i think you 're really reaching there
>Can't it be that people upvoted the article because sexy subject+technology is double win? Can't it be because i am actually jealous i haven't hacked my penis yet?
Yeah, it can be. I just doubt that it is. Sure, that may be the case for some people, but I'm talking about majority behavior, not universal behavior.
>And i'm not even a feminist.
That is apparent.
>Now your theory about guilt and nerdgirl fantasies... i think you 're really reaching there
Go to reddit and look at posts that fulfill the nerd-girl archetype. Now read the sleazy comments. We don't have those here, but that's because we have strong standards as a community for what is acceptable to say in comment threads, not because there aren't a lot of people here who would post those comments in the absence of those standards.
You have absolutely zero evidence or basis for your assumption. The truth is that nobody has any idea what people's motivations were for upvoting it, but it deserved to be upvoted. The only person who has made this conversation sexist is you and those who brought the topic up.
I have plenty of evidence and basis in experience, and anyone can see exactly what I mean by following what I mentioned above.
>The only person who has made this conversation sexist is you and those who brought the topic up.
Ah yes, the same thing that anyone steeped in unchecked privilege says when they've got nothing left to argue. Black people are racist for complaining about discrimination, feminists are sexist for pointing out objectification, blah blah blah. Bored now.
Ah yes, pre emptively insulting anyone that disagrees with you. A fine debate tactic if there ever was one.
Look, we really really don't need every single Goddamn topic that involves females to turn into an ultrafeminist soapbox. At the very least it seems to attract a certain amount of crazy negativity (see SRS on Reddit), at best it's highly offtopic. This is Hacker News, not Feminist News.
Here you're judged by the coolness of what you do, not your gender.
The problem with your argument at the bottom is that black people actually are at a disadvantage because of discrimination. Whereas society treats men poorly in some areas and women poorly in others.
I needn't continue this thread but how is this apparent? Are my comments sexist or sth? If anything, you are the one who sees a sexist angle in an article that doesn't have any. Does it mean you 're more sensitive to these issues - no, perhaps you feel you have to overcompensate for something even in a neutral environment.
Careful with this: A number of people think that 'feminist' means 'in favor of gender equality', so if you distance yourself from any kind of feminism you're painted as being against gender equality. Also, in their minds no form of feminism is possibly counter to gender equality, even the feminists who think less of women who want to be housewives.
Wow, what a round about way to attack feminism. You have a chip on your shoulder up and down this thread. It's good that you can manage to dismiss it and feel superior about it and pretend you're the moral superiority and champion of gender equality.
I agree that it deserves to be upvoted for those reasons. I just don't think that's necessarily the primary reason it has been upvoted. Examining the "would this be ranked this high if it were about penis hacking instead?" question is productive because it addresses that.
It probably would be (assuming the ban on penis-related article titles could be circumvented). This is actually a seriously good article of the kind that frequently get upvoted and I don't think this case has much to do with gender.
It has everything to do with gender, a man hacking a fleshlight would get none or almost none upvotes, I bet it would even get flagged by a few. Its a predictable fantasy of the average reader of HN, the equivalent of a photo of a pretty woman doing charity with a cat in reddit.
Is not only the fact that she is a woman, is the surrounding context of a sexual stimulation device that provoque so many upvotes. Personally I would downvote this if I could, I don't like my tech articles biased by hormones.
I like yor attempt at emotional manipulation, labeling as "awkward" people trying to have a civilized discussion about a strong bias and doble-standard; also calling it sexist when if anything we are asking for gender neutrality wish is the opposite of sexism for all I care.
We have completly different definitions for that word then.
For example If a boss needs to hire a good secretary for one of his employees; and assign him the task of finding one and then tells him "Don't let your hormones decide for you" is pretty clear what he means; that sexual attraction and gender should be irrelevant in the selection proccess and he should focus in practical skills a secretary should have. And there is nothing sexist about that; because sexism is discrimination based on gender and this is an enforcement for the lack of that kind of discrimination.
Do men still have to be told not to let their hormones affect their choice of hires? I didn't realize that was still a thing.
Also, why does it have to be a secretary? Are they 100% female now? If he was looking for an engineer, would he need to be told not to let his hormones decide?
Dude, I agree with your basic premise that it should be possible to discuss bias and double standards. I agree that sometimes bias against male opinions and experiences can happen and, when it does happen, it's not easy to get anyone to accept it because it doesn't fit our accepted narratives about sexism. Gender neutrality is definitely a noble aim.
But in this case I think you're wrong. This thread is a totally legitimate discussion of a very interesting, detailed and inventive technical post and I find it hard to believe that an equally detailed and well-written post from a male perspective would not be received in much the same way.
I don't think you're being sexist, but you are being wrong about something in a way that an average internet commenter would find hard to distinguish from sexism (and the average internet commenter is not particularly capable of nuanced thought).
> I find it hard to believe that an equally detailed and well-written post from a male perspective would not be received in much the same way.
I can only assume that you are very naive; for the average male is impossible to read this article without imaging a woman using the device; wish does not mean that there aren't legitimate and interesting discussions in this thread; but is clear that the exponential popularity grow of this article is strongly correlated with that fact.
Not everyone fits into neat little boxes. I read the article imagining using this device myself (and I'm a man!), or using it with a partner (man or woman).
Ahem. You'd be surprised how many white straight males are indeed interested in that. We've been pleasantly surprised by the popularity of Violet & Rye's straight-couple pegging #realworldsex video on https://makelovenotporn.tv/....:)
This seems to imply it can't be fixed (if it can, why do you assume the worst now?). If it is something that can't be fixed, what's the point of your bringing it up?
Biologically biased doesn't mean it can be changed; for example we are biologically biased to be polygamous just like most mammals; but we are socially configured to be monogamous so most of us are.
So how do you know that the majority of people who voted this article up aren't already there? I have to be honest, your post strikes me as karma fishing.
Almost everyday several articles that have nothing to do with women are voted up a lot on HN. I think that answers your question. You could perhaps ask if there would be a penalty for penis content, but that is a different question.
> The question is this: is this doing well on HN because HN is full of progressive-minded feminists upvoting a neat DIY project on its merits, or is it doing well on HN because it serves as fodder for the nerd-girl fantasies of a primarily male readership?
Yes. (With the caveat that "is full of" == "has more than 3")
I don't think it's hard for men, frankly - I think it's a bit too easy for women. Our culture has really become too carefree about showing off sex toys - but only for women, it seems. Compare the mental image of a woman accidentally dropping a dildo or a vibrator out of her purse, and that of a man dropping a rubber vagina out of his bag.
But there's a problem beyond the double standard. It's like public nudity: it sounds cool when you're a hormone-addled teenager, but then you realize that most people's bodies aren't a nice sight at all. That's why I'm thankful for common decency, and why I'm concerned about all the public dildo-waving: in most cases, I don't want to see your filthy body, and I certainly don't want to picture you having sex.
Of course, I have no problem with this blog post - but the "openness" that's bothering some of these posters does have the potential to impinge on my rights of peaceful enjoyment of our public meatspace.
Probably because when women write about masturbatory experiences it's "awesome" and "liberated" and when men write about masturbatory experiences it's "gross" and "sad". So that commenter probably observed that double standard and questioned whether a, say, Fleshlight hacking article would be well-received or soundly mocked.
But since women are universally disadvantaged in absolutely all aspects of life, it's simply rude to try and discuss the double standards biased against men. Because they are fictitious, of course.
I have no problem with articles on sex appearing on HN-I assume most of us are adults-but it's disappointing that there aren't similar topics for men. I'm not sure whether it's because male sexuality is narrower (yet, strangely, far more accepted if it's accepted at all) or because an article on female sexuality is more popular among the (presumably) male-dominated site.
Anyway, this is the first article of it's kind I've ever seen on HN, so I'm not too worried. I haven't seen anything remotely approaching the misogyny that feels absolutely rampant on the rest of the internet (e.g. Reddit) that drove me here.
In any case, more directly addressing your comment, I think it's a great question to ask- gender and sex differences in society are always interesting/potentially fruitful discussion topics, IMHO.
There aren't similar topics for men because men's sexuality is thought as being bestial, mechanical and obscene and vulgar, while women sexuality is thought as being sensual, soft, sweet and so on.
Plus the nerd's world is full of men who are fascinated by women, and so they obviously are by women's topics. That's the reason why this article is that successful - even if the content and the descrition of the technical process is nice, there is nothing really incredible here, it's a soft easy reverse engineering and basic electronics hacking ... Nothing to justify the fist rank on HN during several days.
There should be a study about that. "How a women's sexuality topic make the nerds thinking with their wand only".
I urge you to try it. Do some hardware hacking, have fun playing with wires and microcontrollers and whatever else strikes your fancy, and then write an interesting article about it. This can be a very rewarding hobby.
Sadly the sustained value women can get from a sex toy is so much more than anything a bloke can briefly get. This article deserves to make it to the top for the hackery alone. I doubt if a tube of lube would be as worthy. Hopefully there will a surge of women into the technical fields now they realise they can hack their own sex toys because everything else seems to have failed to attract and retain them in numbers. If they are all like this one it can only be a good thing.
Being a generally excellent article aside, there are really very few articles on HN that deal with women, and even fewer that have a feminist bent, such as this one could be easily argued to have.
There is also a noticeable lack of women in tech, so an article for and about women is more notable and interesting than articles about dudes wanting to be or being entrepreneurs. Those are being written roughly the same way twenty times per day.
Now if you're curious about how big your hypothetical penis article gets, the best way to find out is probably not by posting thinly veiled sexist comments. Instead I suggest finding out how to hack your penis (literally, if you want) and then writing an article as well as this woman has.
Ok, lets create an article named "how those nerdy geeks can think just with their wands only when reading a women's sexuality related topic" ...
You are sexist. This article is not "excellent". It's good. Plus, it's been written by a woman. Maybe ovaries' smelling will push up its rank for you, weak person.
The title is misleading. But the idea of haptic sex toys, and the approach of the hack - especially identifying that the remote was the problem- is great.
We will see if haptic sex toys become mainstream. I didn't even know they existed in the first place!
I love the breadth of skill that went into this project. It shows good knowledge of software, hardware, reverse engineering, and its even tied together in a really neat package.
She is inventing an industry for something every human on the planet does pretty much every day. Big market, disruptive technology. Yet somehow I don't see it on techcrunch.
I am reminded of pg's discussion on finding the taboo's in society.
"Ingenious remote control vibrator, We-Vibe 3, boosts sexual intimacy and bettersex. Definitely among top couples gifts ideas and romantic gifts." This is what I get when I search remote vibrator. She isn't inventing an industry. She's just bored and wanted to customize the vibrator.
I cannot express how much I admire this post. This is how I think women should address gender equality: not by antagonizing men, but through sound and assertive work like this.
Not at all. I truly admire it. I recognize I don't even have the technical skills to replicate it (I wish). It was never my intention to belittle her efforts, I'm sorry if my comment came out like that.
> Men getting antagonistic when their sexist behavior is called out
That isn't all that happens, as you can see from the comments like "Oh, yes, men have it so hard" whenever a situation that favors females over males is brought up.
It's part of a culture, one men perpetrate just as much as women if not more, that says "women are the only victims of sexism." If that statement doesn't seem immediately idiotic to you, the best I can offer right now is this:
No one says that. No one here is saying that. To portray the reaction that has taken place here, scoffing because it is female and sexual, is in and of itself sexist.
Reverse discrimination sucks for whites, maybe I should question every submission that is authored by someone who isn't white?
You'll note that I address male taboos about sex in other posts, but ironically it's probably not what you want or what you're really getting at without being explicit about.
Do you understand that "any female-positive topic" -> "what about the menz" is exactly the problem with this attitude?
> Do you understand that "any female-positive topic" -> "what about the menz" is exactly the problem with this attitude?
It would be nice if "gender equality topics" weren't exclusively "female-positive topics", and that the topics about how men get the bad end of sexism weren't immediately met with sarcasm and derision.
The irony is that one of the rare articles by a woman hacker is written by someone who was a hacker long before he became a woman. But maybe it can also encourage other women to hack? Fingers crossed..
Cool hack! And maybe I don't read enough, but I thought it was especially interesting since it was one of the first builds where I saw someone create a custom circuit AND a custom enclosure using a 3D printer.
Though it involves a sex toy, I think the build was straightforward, technical, and decidedly un-sexy. I don't know where the feather ruffling is coming from besides the discussion of the link's title.
And, being one hour old, having a much higher score as the second highest which is five hours old. And having the highest score of the entire front page by quite a wide margin.
This is a really cool hack, but my problem is that I don't understand the sex part. What's better about waving your hands around to control the motor speed, vs. using a dial?
This is not out of prurient interest. I just can't understand the engineering without understanding the use case. Maybe you have to be female to get this?
I would almost say that it would make more sense to have something you touch to create the changes in speed or intensity or whatever vs. air waving? And I would think it would be possible to actually use a smartphone (with vibration feedback) that you rub,touch whatever which would be better than air.
The feedback is important also. I fly rc helis and once you get used to using the sticks and the channels on a traditional radio using the iphone (say on an ardrone) and tilting to do the same (for me at least) is not as satisfying. It doesn't feel real or challenging.
I'm the founder btw.
We help couples to stay intimate, even from a distance, by using mobile app and long distance vibrator.
We use Bluetooth and internet.
http://mashable.com/2012/10/26/vibease-sex-toy-app/
This is alluded to in the article - the "programming a VCR" comment. I can see how using a dial or buttons to control it just wouldn't feel right. Waving your hands? Maybe not quite there yet either (how about a NeuroSky?), but a neat hack regardless.
This is being worked on as we speak, actually. There's a few companies (and, uh, me) working on biometric interfaces for sex toys. I reverse engineer biometrics stuff as well as sex toys, so there's a whole range of sensors available, and it's honestly the best interface we're probably going to get, since it doesn't require manual controls. :)
Simple gesturing is a much more organic or natural experience than fiddling with dials and buttons in a very specific manner. Focus is a big deal for a lot women (anecdotal evidence) when it comes to achieving sexual climax. So the mor natural the controls are the less they have to focus on anything except the way they feel. It makes sense to me.
I wrote the original Second Life trancevibe control layer in 2005 (i.e. click on virtual genetalia, real vibrator vibrates), which was later integrated into in-world genetalia by one of the larger virtual sex object manufacturers. After the Drmn trancevibe went off sale, they created that last one to sell to customers.
There's a toy called the vstroker, that's basically an endcap to the fleshlight for doing accelerometer readings. (http://www.vstroker.com, NSFW). It also uses a CC25XX radio chip, and comes with a USB dongle that's basically the reference implementation. So, since these two talk on the same controls, you should be able to take the dongle from the vstroker and the lelo toy, and have full USB computer control.
Boom. Teledildonics capabilities, using a combination of toys that are (vaguely) gender incompatible.
What we need is a Kickstarter for this stuff, or some sort of prize or bounty system. I don't even know how long I've been reading about individuals online trying to design Random Vibrators (changing speeds in an un-learnable pattern to prevent acclimation, obviously not as simple as sending random numbers to the motor) and various individuals claiming to have homebrewed the even more legendary Intelligent Vibrator (with some sort of sensor that can detect when you get close to an orgasm and stop)... and yet neither of these are ever showing up for sale online. Ever. What's wrong with this market?
And companies like lovepalz (http://lovepalz.com) and vibease (http://vibease.com, where the hell ARE you in this thread, Dema! I know it's like stupid AM over in Singapore but get on here and market, damnit :) ) are co-opting the "kickstarter look" even though they aren't running as actual crowdfunded projects.
In the end, you don't see a lot of products make it to market for 2 reasons. First, making hardware is difficult, but that's been covered here a bazillion times over. The contextual issue with sex tech is that people are scared to install a damn printer on their computer. Putting their private parts near it? Yeah right. If you can't design a user interface for an OS that someone is comfortable with, something as intimate as sex is sooo far off your damn radar.
I've seen 10s of companies come and go without ever getting a product to market since I started tracking this in 2004. There's a ton of factors that just aren't thought about yet.
If you want to see the state of the industry circa 2007:
That's a presentation I did back then. A lot of the info still holds, though there's many new players in the game now. I did an updated presentation in May, will see if there's video around. Or if anyone wants a presentation at their meetup of choice around the Bay Area, just lemme know.
I'm working on an article about sex tech startups (failed/succeeded, and current) that I'll hopefully get posted sometime this week.
I agree with Qdot. The common problem with most hardware startup is manufacturing. You need lotz of upfront money. Most VCs don't invest in hardware startup. The only available option is kickstarter. If you notice, even with lotz of money, most of kickstarter projects are delayed.
Making prototype and hacking hardware is now easier compare to 10 years ago. But it's still challenging.
We do own pre-order site, http://www.vibease.com
In all seriousness, somebody needs to disrupt internet porn again.
If you trying and look for it on google all you get is shitty "tube" websites full of autoplaying livejasmin ads and links that go round in circles.
The content is terrible too, either staged "reality" BS , stuff designed to shock more than titilate, unwatchable crap made with a smartphone or weird softcore stuff that tries to be "arty" or "feminist".
Vibease is trying to disrupt the sex toys industry and bring it to mainstream market.
I'm the founder btw.
We help couples to stay intimate, even from a distance, by using mobile app and long distance vibrator.
We use Bluetooth and internet.
http://mashable.com/2012/10/26/vibease-sex-toy-app/
I believe https://makelovenotporn.tv/ tries to fill that space a bit. It's definitely good quality and isn't limited to the very softcore movies even if the name suggests otherwise.
Thanks for that testimonial - much appreciated :) Anyone interested can read more about what we're building on our blog: http://talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv/ + email cindy@makelovenotporn.tv and I'll fast-track you into beta (we hope to be able to take the site out of beta next month).
Techno-porn: how the sex industry drives mainstream technology
Star: "I don’t think most people have a clue how much life today is in debt to the porn industry. Online banking and shopping are secure because porn distributors needed to make their transactions with consumers secure."
Wow, this is easily the strangest top post I have ever seen on hacker news. I actually can't stop laughing. I guess it's because most people just don't think about technology and sex in the same thought unless you are thinking about internet porn. An interesting read no less.
After everyone was feeling stuffed and mellow in the house, I brought out the old PS2 and hooked it up to the projector and the stereo, then put in Rez. (Has been called "Tron on Ecstasy.")
I think there's a lot of hacking potential. I think it would be cool to have a back room in a club where you have Rez on a game console on a big HD screen with a nice sound system. One could also implement a wireless protocol for the trance vibe info and publish the protocol, so spectators would casually walk in and wirelessly experience the "synaesthesia."
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 523 ms ] threadWhy?
And yes, certain demographics turn the equation on its head. As expected of economics.
I would disagree with at least the strong form of that assertion, on the grounds that evolution actually does stuff. Males and females have very different genetic payoffs for having lots of sexual partners versus holding out for a high quality mate.
Is reverse engineering the wireless protocol easy? I imagine hacking hardware involves a lot more work than software.
I also love how she 3d printed out some plastic cases for her toy. I see cheap 3d printers eventually being so ubiquitous that a quick prototype may be just as easy to hack up as a working software program.
1. The specs for the radio chip are easily available, so she could identify the actual packets from looking at the voltages on four wires.
2. Each packet had two identical bytes that went up when she turned the remote up, and down when she turned it down.
3. There were some bytes which were always constant, and didn't seem to do anything.
From there, the code ended up being fairly simple:
https://github.com/scanlime/arduino-lelo-remote/blob/master/...
On power-up, it sends an initialization sequence, copied from the trace from the original remote. This has a bunch of settings that you can look up in the manual. Then for each packet, it sends a start sequence (essentially, "finish sending anything queued, and stand by"), puts a packet into the transmit queue (packet = 0x0100a5[power][power]00000005, where power is the power level byte), and then tells the radio to transmit.
And then of course you can debug this by comparing the traces it generates to the traces from the original remote.
How does one go about doing this? Is this done on hardware or some wireshark-esque software tool?
[1] http://www.saleae.com/logic [2] http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate
I can dream.
http://www.shapeways.com
http://www.ponoko.com
http://imaterialize.com/
There's been some promising blips here and there with the reprappers:
http://blog.reprap.org/2011/06/new-approach-to-printing-meta...
http://blog.reprap.org/2012/04/some-more-printed-circuitry.h...
http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?2,154755,154835,quote=1
There's gotta be a market for this.
Any takers to found a startup in order to dive in and disrupt the sex toy industry with some cutting edge innovation? Imagine the millions you'd rake in if you re-invent sex.
I'm looking forward to at least one ero-toy applicant in the next round of YC apps.
I nearly applied with one this year. I came up with a technique to "3d print" custom sex toys a while back and have been iterating on the idea slowly, but it's not far enough along to throw my weight behind it as a real business.
I'm Vibease co-founder. We tried and we keep trying. So far no luck.
This is our pitch: Vibease helps couples to stay intimate, even from a distance. It's a mobile app for couples with personal massager integration.
Note, we didn't even put the word "vibrator". The rest of the story you can find it from here: http://tech.co/vibease-vibrator-app-2012-11
Some unsolicited advice from someone who's just heard about your product for the first time :)
* Avoiding the word "vibrator" is a good thought (sadly it has too many negative connotations), but I'd recommend never shying away from discussing the underlying problem you are trying to solve because it's both serious and real. ie: "People are busier than ever and are spending increasing amounts of time apart. We're taking steps forward to helping couples maintain a level of intimacy and connection in our dynamic world."
* Alternative language to just talking about "intimacy" can be a focus on the positive side-effects of intimacy, such as: happier lives, higher level of trust, and greater relationship satisfaction.
* The settings screen in your screenshot has a lot of sliders. I hope there will be some good presets for those who would otherwise get overwhelmed by the number of choices.
* Similarly, fingers crossed for a PC/Mac client (or otherwise the ability to video-chat over Skype) since holding two small devices (a phone and the massager) can get tricky.
As for the pitch, maybe a tongue-in-cheek: "Vibease lets you reach out to your partner and maintain intimacy from across the room... or across the world."
Sounds like you'll have a ton of (challenging, unique) fun with this product. Good luck!
Did you take time to read the article? It's just great - full of technical details, including the reasoning behind the creation of the hack.
Many times I've seen dumb things in the front page - complex pointless hacks (I remember one about locales and printf which advocated a libc recompile while I suggested a perl oneliner).
This is a genuinely interesting and creative hack.
EDIT: as I mentionned below, "The title is misleading" - it is linkbait. But the content is there.
Scientists See Promise in Deep-Learning Programs Machine Learning: Neural Network vs Support Vector Machine Suite of 300 icons for web and user interface design
But you are right that there is a lot of link-baitiness on HN. Doesn't mean we can't wish for better.
I don't think he is saying it shouldn't make it on HN, if anything he's speculating as to whether or not it would be on the #1 spot if it were a male sex hack instead..
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4826621
[edit] I ended up deleting the submission because it turned out to be an Onion-like site.
Though it's admittedly lower tech. I would welcome technological advances for men as well. Why not? It interests both the human and hacker in me.
The question is this: is this doing well on HN because HN is full of progressive-minded feminists upvoting a neat DIY project on its merits, or is it doing well on HN because it serves as fodder for the nerd-girl fantasies of a primarily male readership?
I really think this is an important point that often gets missed on male dominated social news sites. Readers are quick to pat themselves on the back for the community's mature lack of slut-shaming, while neglecting to realize that an entirely different form of sexism and woman-objectification is taking place.
But the post hoc justifications people come up with when they actually think about their motivations are very often not the original reasons for their actions, especially when the original reasons are not admirable.
Don't get me wrong here - I don't think that men should feel guilty about their gut reactions to stories like this. If the "female nerds are popular on the internet because they fuel male nerd-girl fantasies" problem is one that needs to be addressed, I have no idea of how to address it. I just think we should recognize that that's what's happening instead of congratulating ourselves on being so modern.
But after reading your reply, what the hell dude/gal? Can't it be that people upvoted the article because sexy subject+technology is double win? Can't it be because i am actually jealous i haven't hacked my penis yet? And i'm not even a Feminist. Now your theory about guilt and nerdgirl fantasies... i think you 're really reaching there
Yeah, it can be. I just doubt that it is. Sure, that may be the case for some people, but I'm talking about majority behavior, not universal behavior.
>And i'm not even a feminist.
That is apparent.
>Now your theory about guilt and nerdgirl fantasies... i think you 're really reaching there
Go to reddit and look at posts that fulfill the nerd-girl archetype. Now read the sleazy comments. We don't have those here, but that's because we have strong standards as a community for what is acceptable to say in comment threads, not because there aren't a lot of people here who would post those comments in the absence of those standards.
>The only person who has made this conversation sexist is you and those who brought the topic up.
Ah yes, the same thing that anyone steeped in unchecked privilege says when they've got nothing left to argue. Black people are racist for complaining about discrimination, feminists are sexist for pointing out objectification, blah blah blah. Bored now.
Look, we really really don't need every single Goddamn topic that involves females to turn into an ultrafeminist soapbox. At the very least it seems to attract a certain amount of crazy negativity (see SRS on Reddit), at best it's highly offtopic. This is Hacker News, not Feminist News.
Here you're judged by the coolness of what you do, not your gender.
> unchecked privilege
and
> says when they've got nothing left to argue
so ironic.
The problem with your argument at the bottom is that black people actually are at a disadvantage because of discrimination. Whereas society treats men poorly in some areas and women poorly in others.
I needn't continue this thread but how is this apparent? Are my comments sexist or sth? If anything, you are the one who sees a sexist angle in an article that doesn't have any. Does it mean you 're more sensitive to these issues - no, perhaps you feel you have to overcompensate for something even in a neutral environment.
Careful with this: A number of people think that 'feminist' means 'in favor of gender equality', so if you distance yourself from any kind of feminism you're painted as being against gender equality. Also, in their minds no form of feminism is possibly counter to gender equality, even the feminists who think less of women who want to be housewives.
Is not only the fact that she is a woman, is the surrounding context of a sexual stimulation device that provoque so many upvotes. Personally I would downvote this if I could, I don't like my tech articles biased by hormones.
In fact, the only awkward thread, which seems a little sexist is this one... Food for thought.
For example If a boss needs to hire a good secretary for one of his employees; and assign him the task of finding one and then tells him "Don't let your hormones decide for you" is pretty clear what he means; that sexual attraction and gender should be irrelevant in the selection proccess and he should focus in practical skills a secretary should have. And there is nothing sexist about that; because sexism is discrimination based on gender and this is an enforcement for the lack of that kind of discrimination.
Also, why does it have to be a secretary? Are they 100% female now? If he was looking for an engineer, would he need to be told not to let his hormones decide?
The majority of secretaries are female (not all); and is no secret that sometimes people hire based on looks instead of actual skills.
But in this case I think you're wrong. This thread is a totally legitimate discussion of a very interesting, detailed and inventive technical post and I find it hard to believe that an equally detailed and well-written post from a male perspective would not be received in much the same way.
I don't think you're being sexist, but you are being wrong about something in a way that an average internet commenter would find hard to distinguish from sexism (and the average internet commenter is not particularly capable of nuanced thought).
I can only assume that you are very naive; for the average male is impossible to read this article without imaging a woman using the device; wish does not mean that there aren't legitimate and interesting discussions in this thread; but is clear that the exponential popularity grow of this article is strongly correlated with that fact.
So do you always assume bad faith on the part of others or..?
Yes. (With the caveat that "is full of" == "has more than 3")
But there's a problem beyond the double standard. It's like public nudity: it sounds cool when you're a hormone-addled teenager, but then you realize that most people's bodies aren't a nice sight at all. That's why I'm thankful for common decency, and why I'm concerned about all the public dildo-waving: in most cases, I don't want to see your filthy body, and I certainly don't want to picture you having sex.
Of course, I have no problem with this blog post - but the "openness" that's bothering some of these posters does have the potential to impinge on my rights of peaceful enjoyment of our public meatspace.
For the obvious joke?
Immaturity can make the day so bright some times.
But since women are universally disadvantaged in absolutely all aspects of life, it's simply rude to try and discuss the double standards biased against men. Because they are fictitious, of course.
Anyway, this is the first article of it's kind I've ever seen on HN, so I'm not too worried. I haven't seen anything remotely approaching the misogyny that feels absolutely rampant on the rest of the internet (e.g. Reddit) that drove me here.
In any case, more directly addressing your comment, I think it's a great question to ask- gender and sex differences in society are always interesting/potentially fruitful discussion topics, IMHO.
Plus the nerd's world is full of men who are fascinated by women, and so they obviously are by women's topics. That's the reason why this article is that successful - even if the content and the descrition of the technical process is nice, there is nothing really incredible here, it's a soft easy reverse engineering and basic electronics hacking ... Nothing to justify the fist rank on HN during several days.
There should be a study about that. "How a women's sexuality topic make the nerds thinking with their wand only".
1 http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-Libre-Massager-Vibrating-Stimula...
Uh, yeah, speak for yourself.
There is also a noticeable lack of women in tech, so an article for and about women is more notable and interesting than articles about dudes wanting to be or being entrepreneurs. Those are being written roughly the same way twenty times per day.
Now if you're curious about how big your hypothetical penis article gets, the best way to find out is probably not by posting thinly veiled sexist comments. Instead I suggest finding out how to hack your penis (literally, if you want) and then writing an article as well as this woman has.
You are sexist. This article is not "excellent". It's good. Plus, it's been written by a woman. Maybe ovaries' smelling will push up its rank for you, weak person.
We will see if haptic sex toys become mainstream. I didn't even know they existed in the first place!
It seems like a real innovation!
I am reminded of pg's discussion on finding the taboo's in society.
We still have plenty.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/27/boink-box/
http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/29/speaking-of-sex-toys-with-e...
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/24/long-distance-lovers-rejoic...
Hardly. There are plenty of hackers who have been working in this space for quite some time. The field is called "teledildonics".
But you're absolutely right about the taboos in society. If you're interested, this is an interview with me on Inc about my and my team's battle to make https://www.makelovenotporn.tv/ happen. Every obstacle an entrepreneur with a tech startup encounters - have a tech startup dealing with sex, triple them. http://www.inc.com/chris-beier-and-daniel-wolfman/venture-ca...
That isn't all that happens, as you can see from the comments like "Oh, yes, men have it so hard" whenever a situation that favors females over males is brought up.
It's part of a culture, one men perpetrate just as much as women if not more, that says "women are the only victims of sexism." If that statement doesn't seem immediately idiotic to you, the best I can offer right now is this:
http://www.alternet.org/story/156194/what_about_the_men_why_...
Reverse discrimination sucks for whites, maybe I should question every submission that is authored by someone who isn't white?
You'll note that I address male taboos about sex in other posts, but ironically it's probably not what you want or what you're really getting at without being explicit about.
Do you understand that "any female-positive topic" -> "what about the menz" is exactly the problem with this attitude?
It would be nice if "gender equality topics" weren't exclusively "female-positive topics", and that the topics about how men get the bad end of sexism weren't immediately met with sarcasm and derision.
Though it involves a sex toy, I think the build was straightforward, technical, and decidedly un-sexy. I don't know where the feather ruffling is coming from besides the discussion of the link's title.
This is not out of prurient interest. I just can't understand the engineering without understanding the use case. Maybe you have to be female to get this?
The feedback is important also. I fly rc helis and once you get used to using the sticks and the channels on a traditional radio using the iphone (say on an ardrone) and tilting to do the same (for me at least) is not as satisfying. It doesn't feel real or challenging.
One vibrator that uses a smartphone: http://www.vibease.com
I'm the founder btw. We help couples to stay intimate, even from a distance, by using mobile app and long distance vibrator. We use Bluetooth and internet. http://mashable.com/2012/10/26/vibease-sex-toy-app/
- BodyHeat, by OhMiBod/PerfectPlum: http://www.ohmibod.com/app/
- Closer ToGetHer - http://www.getclosertogether.com/
And I'm sad there's no awesome open source version of Rez to go with her device. Probably NSFW for language and underwear photo (http://www.gamegirladvance.com/2002/10/sex-in-games-rezvibra...)
There's been open source trancevibe drivers since 2003. :)
There's 3 toys based on the protocol.
- The original Trancevibe (ebayable, surprisingly powerful)
- the Drmn trancevibe (http://tim.cexx.org/projects/vibe/), no longer sold
- This weird one: http://www.harnett-tech.com/search.php?act=search&SKU=US...
I wrote the original Second Life trancevibe control layer in 2005 (i.e. click on virtual genetalia, real vibrator vibrates), which was later integrated into in-world genetalia by one of the larger virtual sex object manufacturers. After the Drmn trancevibe went off sale, they created that last one to sell to customers.
http://www.slashdong.org
There's a toy called the vstroker, that's basically an endcap to the fleshlight for doing accelerometer readings. (http://www.vstroker.com, NSFW). It also uses a CC25XX radio chip, and comes with a USB dongle that's basically the reference implementation. So, since these two talk on the same controls, you should be able to take the dongle from the vstroker and the lelo toy, and have full USB computer control.
Boom. Teledildonics capabilities, using a combination of toys that are (vaguely) gender incompatible.
I actually started slashdong as somewhat of a joke 8 years ago, and now I travel internationally speaking on the subject. Life is weird.
http://offbeatr.com/ http://www.passionateproduce.com/
And companies like lovepalz (http://lovepalz.com) and vibease (http://vibease.com, where the hell ARE you in this thread, Dema! I know it's like stupid AM over in Singapore but get on here and market, damnit :) ) are co-opting the "kickstarter look" even though they aren't running as actual crowdfunded projects.
In the end, you don't see a lot of products make it to market for 2 reasons. First, making hardware is difficult, but that's been covered here a bazillion times over. The contextual issue with sex tech is that people are scared to install a damn printer on their computer. Putting their private parts near it? Yeah right. If you can't design a user interface for an OS that someone is comfortable with, something as intimate as sex is sooo far off your damn radar.
I've seen 10s of companies come and go without ever getting a product to market since I started tracking this in 2004. There's a ton of factors that just aren't thought about yet.
If you want to see the state of the industry circa 2007:
http://vimeo.com/451452
That's a presentation I did back then. A lot of the info still holds, though there's many new players in the game now. I did an updated presentation in May, will see if there's video around. Or if anyone wants a presentation at their meetup of choice around the Bay Area, just lemme know.
I'm working on an article about sex tech startups (failed/succeeded, and current) that I'll hopefully get posted sometime this week.
MLNP wants to inspire and stimulate open, healthy conversations about sex and pornography. #realworldsex
Cindy on TED http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV8n_E_6Tpc
If you trying and look for it on google all you get is shitty "tube" websites full of autoplaying livejasmin ads and links that go round in circles.
The content is terrible too, either staged "reality" BS , stuff designed to shock more than titilate, unwatchable crap made with a smartphone or weird softcore stuff that tries to be "arty" or "feminist".
I'm the founder btw. We help couples to stay intimate, even from a distance, by using mobile app and long distance vibrator. We use Bluetooth and internet. http://mashable.com/2012/10/26/vibease-sex-toy-app/
Techno-porn: how the sex industry drives mainstream technology
Star: "I don’t think most people have a clue how much life today is in debt to the porn industry. Online banking and shopping are secure because porn distributors needed to make their transactions with consumers secure."
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/859762--techno-p...
http://www.gamegirladvance.com/2002/10/sex-in-games-rezvibra...
I think there's a lot of hacking potential. I think it would be cool to have a back room in a club where you have Rez on a game console on a big HD screen with a nice sound system. One could also implement a wireless protocol for the trance vibe info and publish the protocol, so spectators would casually walk in and wirelessly experience the "synaesthesia."
Sincerely, Never Touched A Boob