New Keyboard Accessory Shocks Users When They Try To Go On Facebook 125
cartechboy writes "Two Ph.D. students from MIT have created a keyboard accessory, the Pavlov Poke, that shocks you every time you go onto Facebook. The project comes as a result of the students finding the waste over 50 hours a week combined on the social network (instead of working on their dissertations) So the pair created an Arduino-based keyboard hand-rest that shocks computer users who spend too much time checking the social network. The hack is 'intended to generate discussion' — not actually turn into a business." Inventor Robert Morris describes it as "something of a joke," but I'm sure there's a market out there.
Pavlov..Interesting... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The real market (Score:1, Interesting)
2 things.
A) Privilege of owning the business, I get to decide whats acceptable and whats not.
B) My employees don't read Facebook at work, slashdot is not the same thing is it? Having a bunch of geeks spend 5 minutes a day on slashdot isn't really a bad thing, the gains far outweigh the 5 minutes of cost. You can't waste that much time on slashdot, its not that kind of site.
Facebook on the other hand offers no benefits to my business and can certainly become a massive time sink for those with no self control.
I do not ban Facebook however, it makes my life much easier. You get hired, if during your first 90 days I see Facebook opened on your machine, you get released on the spot. Facebook is an easy one to pick on because its easy to spot, but its not the ONLY one that triggers termination.
End result: My employees (all 5 of them, we're tiny :) do not Facebook at work and I don't have to go bitch at them about it or block it or anything else, I just don't deal with those kind of mooches. It simply doesn't come up.