The e-commerce startup Sqoot could not believe the shitstorm. All they had done was advertised their Boston hack-a-thon by listing some of the perks they were offering at the event, you know, things like DJs, massages, food trucks, top-notch booze, energy drinks, snacks…

And women. Not women hackers, mind you. Clearly Sqoot doesn’t think women are capable of any technology-related task (except maybe using their phone cameras to snap n00dz to send them), because when they mentioned women as one of the perks along with all the other things they had available, they added: “Need another beer? Let one of our friendly (female) event staff get that for you.”

The internet rightfully exploded, causing Sqoot event sponsors to drop left and right. Eventually, the startup released a statement, saying: “While we thought this was a fun, harmless comment poking fun at the fact that hack-a-thons are typically male-dominated, others were offended. That was not our intention and thus we changed it.” This isn’t an apology. Apologies say something along the lines of “we screwed up. We’re sorry.” This says, “we thought it was funny. Some don’t. Fine. It’s gone. Party poopers.”

So they issued another apology, which said: “When we put together the original event page, we used language that we now realize was reckless and hurt efforts to diversify gender in tech. We immediately and deservedly received an enormous backlash. While we aimed to call attention to the male-dominated tech world through humor and intended to be inclusive, the gravity of our wording was just the opposite. Our words completely undermined our intentions and went further to harm the world we’re trying to have a positive impact on.”

They tried to call attention to the male-dominated tech world through humor and be inclusive? You don’t “call attention” to a male-dominated industry and foster inclusion by enforcing sexism. It’s only slightly better than the initial apology, but we are heartened by the swift and brutalizing reaction to the ad.

Get with the program, people! Technology isn’t just for guys.

Header image features a screengrab from an episode of the The X-Files called “Kill Switch” (season 5, episode 11), featuring Kristin Lehman as computer whiz kid Esther Nairn.

Topsy is an indexing platform primarily developed to enable businesses to understand social trends. As such, their dealings are of primary interest to people in the social marketing space, so when Topsy released their Google+ comment searching tool in October of last year, the reception was limited to people in that niche.

In the past could of days, however, the function has been spreading among regular users of the network, creating something of a frenzy. Usage is simple: all you need is a Google+ user number, which appears in their profile URL. You take that and input it at the end of the Topsy Google+ search URL (http://plus.topsy.com/googleplus/), hit enter and voila! All public comments made across the social network appear before you awaiting your perusal.

Many have hailed this tool as revolutionary for finding older comments they have made that they can no longer find using Google+’s limited search function. But as someone who posts content that largely deals with issues relating to sex and sexuality, this concerns me. I do not think it is dishonest as some have suggested to want to be able to comment on certain issues without making everything you say accessible to your boss, your family, your congregation, the people in your building, the people who live in the town where you summer, your children’s school administrators, your insurance company, your ex-spouses attorneys, etc.

Most of us lead compartmentalized lives. We go to work, we have great parties, we give our time to causes in the community, we have our sexual proclivities, we attend church (maybe only during holidays), we support certain political causes — and so on. The first rule of courtesy is to understand the place and time. You shouldn’t speak about your delight with new anal beads at work. You shouldn’t regale your family at brunch with endless details about a merger. You shouldn’t speak about your wild parties at church. And you would do well not to divide the room by mentioning religion or politics at a cocktail party. Real life allows us to keep the various facets that make us who we are separate so they do not cause discomfort to ourselves or others. This is for a variety of reasons, some dishonest, many not. It doesn’t make us dishonest to encompass our share of contradictions. It makes us human.

The problem with the web is that it largely began as a world separate from meatspace. Today, most people use their real names, but this wasn’t always the case. When I started going online in the mid-90s, no one even knew my gender. I preferred that, not because I was hiding, but because I feel very strongly that I should be judged by my thoughts, not who people assume I am by seeing I am a woman, by attaching a handful of preconceived notions to what I am saying because they see my photo and think I’m too young or too old or attractive or unattractive.

Being an intangible essence allowed me to be more myself than I’d ever been before. Posting on different niche boards enabled the level of frankness that we experience when we’re in a group of like-minded people with whom we can openly debate or discuss topics. But this is no longer how the web operates and the transition hasn’t been an easy one. In a world where employers can easily find out everything about you, where insurance companies can decide to give or deny coverage because they see some status update as representing a liability, where a judge at family court can take away your children because — God forbid — you had a photo taken at Playboy West some Halloween… It’s not a matter of the web exposing you. It’s a matter of no longer having the ability to segregate different aspects of your life as we were once easily able to do and the concern is entirely valid.

This is why, for example, the page I manage on Google+ for this blog doesn’t list the people who follow it. It is no one else’s business that you care enough about sex to follow a blog about it. I have spent a lot of time debating whether the page should be private to enable people to comment openly and if Google+ allowed pages to circle more people, I wouldn’t hesitate. But closing the doors means I might eventually reach the cap and then I would have to consider opening it to enable more people to join — and having to retrain everyone who is used to the privacy to understand that they can no longer enjoy the conversation they once did. It doesn’t seem right.

I dealt with this adding a Like box for Facebook as well. There is no way on that network to shield who has Liked a page. I wish there was. It’s not surprising that a lot of people follow the blog by subscribing to my personal feed on Facebook instead of Liking the Sex and the 405 page itself.

And I faced the same question when I implemented Disqus as the primary comment system on the blog as a means of dealing with a growing spam problem. Disqus enables people to look at comments users have made all over the web, simply by accessing their profiles. I didn’t like it then and I don’t now, and it doesn’t surprise me that comments disappeared almost entirely when I finally chose to implement it. Most often, people prefer to e-mail me when they have something to say. I understand why this is, but it saddens me because of how completely it limits the exchange of ideas.

To pretend that we can have a complete life by posting only what our mothers and bosses will read, as someone suggested in a conversation about the Topsy tool, is to rob ourselves of experience and to rob the community of valuable engagement. Comments don’t simply break down into valuable and inappropriate. There are many topics that are valuable but not something you’d want on the first page of Google when someone searches for your name. There is nothing wrong with wishing that it were possible to compartmentalize your digital conversations in the same way you do your meatspace exchanges.

Unfortunately for us, this is not the direction the web is going, which is why pseudonymous accounts and the networks who accept them are so very, very important. Those who accuse pseudonymous users of hiding and being dishonest are, in my opinion, the ones who are the most dishonest. People using pseudonyms do so mostly to protect themselves in a world they know has no walls and retains everything they’ve ever said. Are they less honest, really, than people who continuously self-censor and refuse to weigh in on important issues because they’re afraid of the repercussions?

You’re out on the town. You see someone you like. You strike up a conversation, you buy the second round. They buy the third. You’re laughing, having a good time. You’re thinking you could take this conversation home and see what happens.

You pull out your phone. They pull out theirs. You bump phones and receive each other’s STI and HIV results. All clear. You step outside together and grab the next cab.

We’re that much closer to this scenario, with Chec-Mate, an iPhone app that allows you to share your sexual health status with someone instantly. Created by STFree Certifications, this is the first app of its kind. STFree Certifications, launched in 2004, is responsible for the Safer Sex License, a personal smart card that allows potential partners to access your test results by phone.

The license, recognized by the Centers for Disease Control, can be acquired through any clinic or private doctor. You get screened and ask the entity providing the screening to send your results to STFree, which issues your license. When you meet someone new, they call the number on the back of your card, give your number and they verify your STI and HIV status.

As Boinkology noted in 2008 when the license reached critical mass, however, this is not a perfect system:

Of course, knowing the date of someone’s last STI test doesn’t guarantee that they’re STI free — but STFree is very clear that that’s not the purpose of the program. What they’re trying to do is encourage couples to talk about STIs and getting tested, and encourage people to be educated and responsible.

And it’s certainly better than going into it completely blind.

Now, STFree has upped the ante with Chec-Mate, which provides a similar service without cards or phone calls.

“We are excited that advancements in technology have provided us with an opportunity to be the first to provide the world a secure platform to safely exchange lifesaving information” says Eli Dancy, founder of STFree Certifications.

The app, which is currently only available for iPhone can be downloaded at the Apple App Store for $1.99, which includes a year of activation. Users download the app, register and receive a confirmation e-mail which includes a “Screening Verification Form” (SVF) attachment.

The user then uses the app to find an authorized screening facility. They make an appointment, take their form, turn it in, and get screened. When their screening is complete, the SVF form is returned with the screening results. Users then follow the instructions on the SVF form to submit their results to STFree for full app activation.

“Today’s smart phones provide people with information on any and everything we can possibly think of — why not information that can save your life?” STFree president Patrick Malcolm says. “Doctors and health professionals have been telling us for years to make informed decision by exchanging screening information before becoming intimate. We are simply providing a simple and safe information path.”

As with the Safer Sex License, Chec-Mate doesn’t guarantee that the individual doesn’t have an STI, but brings one that much closer. Per their site: “The Chec-Mate application was developed to provide application users with a safe, secure and confidential platform to share important STI/HIV screening information and prevent individuals from providing false or misleading screening results that can be produced solely using outdated paper methods.”

Currently, Check-Mate doesn’t have bump technology, but that feature is in development.

What the tech blog doesn’t tell you is that this is the most-watched video from their coverage of the expo.

Last month, Apple took to the courts to begin enforcing its trademark on the name “app store” in hopes of keeping it out of competitors’ hands. They slapped a suit on Amazon’s app store as soon as it opened and are still tangled in a suit with Microsoft that resembles a circus more than a serious intellectual property case, what with all the linguists running about and the endless quibbling about font sizes.

Feeling impotent, no doubt, Apple has since gone after MiKandi, the first-ever adult app store for Android devices. In an effort to avoid costly, interminable lawsuits, the small Seattle-based operation has changed its tagline from “the world’s first adult app store” to “the world’s first adult app market.” We like boutique better, but market does the trick, since Apple’s trademark only applies to this exact combination of otherwise completely generic words.

MiKandi co-founders Jesse Adams and Jen McEwen are on the sidelines watching the Apple vs. Microsoft fight, but there is something to be said for their collected attitude about the whole thing. Unlike Apple, MiKandi knows that a store is more than its name. It’s what it offers. Their philosophy colored a recent interview with GeekWire, providing a breath of fresh air in an otherwise restrictive and oppressive marketplace.

“Companies need to learn to treat customers as adults, and not restrict them out of fear of upsetting another group,” McEwen told GeekWire. “That’s the approach we like to take with customers. We want to treat you as adults.”

Invariably, this lead to the discussion of an open operating system versus a closed one.

“The great thing about Android is that even if Amazon doesn’t want to sell adult content, the Android Marketplace doesn’t want to sell it, at least the platform allows third-party stores to sell more adult experiences,” Adams added. “That’s the big difference. Your phone is very personal. It’s going to be the way most adults connect to the world, over any other device very soon. Even if the other app stores start to offer it, developers really choose app stores as partners, not just as an app store operator. There’s other things they’re looking for more than just being able to sell adult content — partners that will promote and market the apps, and not just treat it as a back alleyway store like adult novelty shops were for a very long time.”

It’s MiKandi’s philosophy and commitment to users and developers that make it worth supporting, even if you don’t have an Android or desire adult apps.

Via Gizmodo.

You can try to take porn out of the technology, but you can’t take technological pioneers out of the porn industry. Somehow they will always find a way to get around you. The industry is used to barriers. They’ve been getting around them since the first dirty books were banned.

Though Apple’s Steve Jobs has been very vocal about the importance of Apple devices being free of pornography, going as far as to tell users to switch to Android if they have a problem with the liberty he has taken in making himself their parent — an ironic turn considering the Apple 1984 commercial of old. Junior Anti-Sex League, anyone? — there’s nothing he can do about this.

Face it, the porn industry has been at the forefront of technology for ages, using it to proliferate and propel itself into society the way any good parasite would. And like a good parasite, porn has a way of changing to get around any new defenses on the part of the host.

Enter the Fleshdrive, a four ($39.95), eight ($69.95) and 16 gigabyte ($119.95) USB drive to store your entire porn library comfortably in your pocket. Don’t have a porn library? The Fleshdrive comes with the porn, natch!

Previously compatible with Mac, PC, Xbox, Playstation and media players with USB ports, now also allows you to enjoy your porn without any web-browsing right on your iPad, with no risk of viruses or a pesky trail on the device browsing history.

All you need is the iPad Camera Connection Kit ($29). Plug the Fleshdrive into it and voila — you can convert and download the files into your iPad to watch your porn whenever you like, no internet connection necessary. Which basically means no buffering, spyware, pop ups, spam — just you and hours of glorious fucking.

Try to pwn that, Steve.

Frightening speculation via The Next Web this morning, though not entirely unsurprising. Apparently, The Telegraph is reporting that a number of erotic novels have disappeared from the top UK sellers list of iBooks.

They report this seems to have occurred overnight. Analysts with whom they spoke told the paper, “Book chart analysts said it was unlikely that all the erotic titles could have dropped out of the list at the same moment without being deliberately removed.”

Apple, of course, declined to comment. Chad Catacchio at Next Web writes:

Let’s for a second say that Apple is intentionally removing them from either the charts and/or altogether (which we’re not saying it is doing either, but just for argument’s sake): this could become a very large issue. Aside from outright censoring of books (which is what this would be) what would it mean for other ebook apps on iOS devices? Does Apple plan to ban the Kindle app because of the kinds of books it sells? And if it doesn’t, why wouldn’t consumers just buy their erotic novellas from Amazon instead, skipping iBooks all together?

While we’re not 100 percent sure this is what occurred here, the fact that we suspect Apple of this is enough. We cannot trust that company to let us make our own decisions when it comes to sex. They have regulated what’s appropriate before and it’s ridiculous to think this will change any time soon.

Think about that next time you buy one of their products, iSheep. If you think hype and “slick design” is worth your freedom, you don’t deserve that freedom.

The new iPhone is out! Lines at all Apple stores, like club openings for unfortunate-dressed people. Sadly, the device is apparently having some issues. A lot of users are reporting reception issues. Per Engadget:

So, we just spoke with Apple and got the straight dirt on the reception issues that have been plaguing users today… and it’s a little surprising. In essence, Apple cops to the fact there are reception issues with the new iPhone — namely, that if you cover the bottom-left corner of the phone and bridge the gap between the notch there with your naked flesh, you could see some signal degradation.

Jobs’ response?

Yeah. That’s what he said.

Via Engadget.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard that Apple banned Pulitzer-winning satirist Mark Fiore from its app store for ridiculing public figures (um, he’s a satirist, like, hello). Apple CEO Steve Jobs has since called the ban a mistake, but he’s not done ruining the fun for everyone.

Last week, TechCrunch published an e-mail from Jobs sent to a consumer asking when Apple became the moral police. Jobs’ response said: “we do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone. Folks who want porn can buy and [sic] Android phone.”

Assuming this email is legit, this isn’t the first time Jobs has suggested users try Android if they want porn. Earlier this month, during a Q&A session after the iPhone 4.0 OS event, Jobs said: “You know, there’s a porn store for Android. You can download nothing but porn. You can download porn, your kids can download porn. That’s a place we don’t want to go – so we’re not going to go there.”

We at Sex and the 405 find it incredibly ironic that Apple is pulling this nonsense. Remember the Apple 1984 commercial? Junior Anti-Sex League, anyone? Who’s Big Brother now?

Bastards.

Image from the Apple 1984 commercial, superimposed on an image of an iPhone screen. Information from TechCrunch.

Text messages. We’re willing to bet that eight times out of 10, these are the reason cheaters get caught — not that we have any experience with this or anything here at Sex and the 405. We never get caught.

Anyway, our dahlias of decadence and depravity, technology is smiling upon us again. Allow us to present to you an app especially suited to the misbehaving sexter (and low-budget spr-sekrit agent): TigerText.

Tiger for Tiger Woods, the professional golfer whose moral downfall was catalyzed by naughty texts? The founders claim the app was named before the debacle. Sure it was.

Interested? The app is free right now, so this is a great time to go snatch it up. Make an account with a username and password using your phone number and specify how much time you want to give texts before they expire.

Lifespan is the length of time a text will exist on the your phone, recipient’s device (whether the text is accessed or not), and the company’s servers.

Turning Delete History ON will remove all history of conversations from your device each time you close the application.

Turning Delete on Read ON will remove the message from the recipient’s phone one minute from the time the text is opened. If the text is unopened by the recipient, the default setting for text lifespan will come into play. In this case, that means the text will be deleted automatically in 15 minutes.

Drawback? The recipient must also install TigerText — fine if you have an iPhone, but versions for BlackBerry and Android are still not available.