Bluetooth message saves scousers' livers

Hundreds of scousers downloaded an application to calculate how many units of alcohol they had drunk on New Year's eve, from Bluetooth servers supplied by Liverpool trading standards and Merseyside Police. Unlike previous campaigns, which required those carousing to have Bluetooth devices enabled and receptive, the Liverpool …

[Ben Mathews]

What they don't tell you....

The app was most likely largely used as a way of keeping score in very manly displays of 'who's had more lager'.

Rather than detering people from drinking it probably encouraged it.

[Fred]

How long ...

Nice use of bluetooth but how long until someone exploits this situation? What better way could there be to get your malware on multiple phones than by masquerading as an application that the police are advertising .....

[paul brain]

Bill Ray .. United Fan then

Good man.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Ben Mathews

That is probably true, but it would also make people aware of how much they're over the limit - so it probably worked - even if the app was used as a scorecard!!

[Filippo]

Genius!

Hey, we need to get people to drink less. Ooh, I've got just the right idea - let's add a score to drinking. People will totally not drink even more just to get more points than their buddies.

I have an even better idea: get the bluetooth app to talk with nearby devices and create a scoreboard. Surely this will make people drink less, in order to race to the bottom of the chart!

Srsly, who comes up with this stuff? I mean, from my point of view it's fun, but if anyone believes that making drinking into a competition - because this is what the app does, even if the developers didn't intend it to - can make people drink *less*, he's deluded.

[Dave]

Reliability?

Scores get more unreliable as evening progresses..... *hic*

[Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse]

So...

I'm not allowed to smoke in pubs.

Now I'm not allowed to go out an enjoy myself and have a few without some arsehole taking the fun out of it by telling me that I have to "watch how much I drink".

Fuck off. Leave me alone.

[Anonymous Coward]

Surely though

they risk deadly deadly cancer from the RADIATION from those bluetooth thingies? Plus having a bluetooth near a car can make it more likely to crash. FACT.

</dailymail>

Tracking the amount of booze someone ingests should be possible with a mobile phone- it affects the vocal chords so couldn't it measure the change in voice pitch over a night?

It's not a direct measurement, but it's an improvement.

Or for measuring drunkenness, send a text and have them read it back to the program, measuring their voice patterns to reflect a lack of confidence in what they're reading / struggle to read / etc.

[Joe Harrison]

Only when sober

Seriously, is any normal person (nerds and geeks excluded) going to install this then actually key data into it all night after every drink? Not to mention if you can reliably get bluetooth connectivity AND all those jad and jar files actually working then you're obviously not drunk. Sounds to me more like someone who likes bluetooth had a "use it or lose it" budget.

[Anonymous Coward]

Accuracy of this app?

It's all very well putting in how many pints of what you've acquired, but are there options to reduce the units actually consumed? I'm thinking of "Oi! You shpilled my pint!" and "Izzat mine? Where'd I put mine? Fuggit, I'll just gerranuvver in"

[Anonymous Coward]

Soaring Crime Rates ??

I hope the app written in Scouse-Talk for those little darlings ??

Hey Hey Calm down ya drinkin' like, like mate ...

Eh-La, Gissa-a -pint or I'll doyous...

Errr, can I lob dis moby at da next footy match I go to - like errrrm like cos I'm well 'ard...??

I wonder what the increase in mobile phone thefts were in the "Capitol of Culture" during this period....

[Anonymous Coward]

@Dave

"Scores get more unreliable as evening progresses..... "

evening????

[Doug Southworth]

I can't be drunk Officer!

My phone says I'm sober! See? Seeeeee????

I'm waiting for the first court case siting this app as a defense.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

If someone simply suggesting to you that you don't drink too much can really be "taking all the fun out of it" for you, I'd suggest that you're not much good at having fun. Sounds like you have such a chip on your shoulder that you'd willingly cut off your own nose to spite your face. So if you set out to have a bad time and got exactly what you wanted, why are you complaining again?

Maybe it's your own fault for being such a sulky grumpy old miseryguts.

[Anonymous Coward]

Java application?

Like, a cup of coffee in place of that next pint?

[Chronos]

But was it...

...compatible with the scousers' laptops?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=scousers+laptop

Of course, it's a bit late by then ;o)

[Britt Johnston]

its a start...

Coming next year, an applet taking advantage of smartphones' accelerometers to capture wobbles in a straight-line-walk, and send them on to the plodserver.

What's better: sold via i-shop, or embedded in a virus?

[Timo]

can use this calculator backwards

back in college, a few years ago, they had simple calculations of how many drinks per hour you would need to get to the legal limit. We used it the other way, determining first how drunk we wanted to get, and then applying that to our night's activities.

Does this automate that process?

Sort of like the informational speed boxes they are putting out to show what your speed is. These can be used to figure out how FAST you can go too! (many things can be used for good and evil. or the law of unintended consequences.)