Evening Folks,
We've been approached by a company which is producing a very clever and unusual device and offering it to PassionFord, and a number of other car clubs.

The device sits on your dash board, and is programmed with your "club" ID and your username / id. EG: "PassionFord: ImaRacing 700" (Unlikely to be spotted roadside i know )

When you get in range of another car with a device like this fitted, their club and username pops up on the LCD screen on the device to tell you who they are and what club they're from.

The idea is that you can see whom is whom when you go to shows etc, and also meet folks with similar interests in your area whom you didnt already know. (How many times have you been to a show and still never got to meet anyone from PF, yet there were 1000+ of them there?) You can also then plug it into your PC via a usb socket and upload your history to the server. There is then a leaderboard by club, etc to show who has been seen the most, who has seen the most other people, etc.

I think this sounds like a great bit of fun, so we're really interested in it but do acccept that its initial problem will be userbase. If it hits off, it could get to teh point where everyone wants one, but until it has a solid userbase, most will be sceptical. Interesting for sure, so i thought id get your opinions to gauge possible interest in it. They are suggesting the cost of the unit will be around £90.

I have no idea whether this would be of enormous interest here or not but im sure your all about to let me know. Please feel free to be honest.

 

great idea.. but not 90 quid great IMO

 

sounds cool but £90 seems a lot for what it is

 

Honestly Stu mate I feel this is a gizmo for the Max Power lot. Whatever happened to talking to people at shows and meets.

No offense intended mate

 

Cannot see many people paying for this tbh.

Seems a good idea but its the price.

just about get people off here to pay £20 membership,lol.




Dave.

 

None taken pal, its not my idea at all, like i say, ive been approached and find it of interest so thought id gauge opinion. cant hurt to ask you all..

 

Very inventive and sounds like it could be a bit of fun but £90 I'll stick to the stickers!!

 

good idea, but im not paying £90 to for it to tell me theres someone off passionford nearby

 

My initial concerns would be:

1) You go to a show where there are 500 PF users carrying these devices. What happens? Does it just give you a big list of who is there? I can image it being next to useless unless it can pinpoint the position of each user it recognises and tell you the direction they are in?

2) Is it removeable from the car to carry around at a show? As you are rarely in the car..

3) Security? Someone gets a hold of a device with the sole aim of driving down streets and findind garage containing cars from people in specific owners clubs? it could be used to find someone then read up on them on the net and find a lot of personal details etc. Also imagine if a sexual assault occured if a female member was tracked using this device.

Initially it sounds like a great idea, but possibly a bit of overuse of technology to find a solution where a name sticker would suffice in many situations. At £90 I think it is too expensive for what it does. Don't get me wrong it would not be a cheap system to develop and operate, but it doesn't produce £90 worth of gains for me from what I can see. It is hard work getting members to pay £20 towards the running of the site, so £90 for a gadget to help identify them when not on the net seems a little over-prices IMHO.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

Fantastic feedback Phil.. top man

 

"looks theres someone off passionford just gone by me the other way at 100MPH!!"
wot ya gona do go chase him and tell him to pull over for a chat!

 

Stu @ M Developments, it's what I do all day every day

 

good fun bit of kit but £90 is too much

 

Stu, can you ask if they can add a feature whereby you can program in people you don't want to meet. The device would give you a warning whenever one of these people comes within a 100 yards of you.

Agreed with most, £90 is a bit much really.

 

Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 10:46 pm Post subject:

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Stu, can you ask if they can add a feature whereby you can program in people you don't want to meet. The device would give you a warning whenever one of these people comes within a 100 yards of you.



piss funny !

 

I tell you what they should do..

Develop the system as a Java application compatiable with many of todays mobile phones, using Bluetooth to search for members in range who have the program running also. At a place like Santa Pod you could get quite a range on the Bluetooth

It would basically be a glorified copy of when you search for bluetooth devices in range and it brings up the names of peoples phones.

They could produce that for a much lower cost as there would be no hardware requirement

 

Was going to say almost what Phil wrote especially the first bit.

Sounds like a nice idea but pointless unless looooooads of people buy it etc, which they wont for that money

nice idea in theory though

 

sounds like a good idea
but after phils reply dont sound so good

 

Theres something like this already, its called Mobiluck.

www.mobiluck.com

 

Non starter IMO. It might be amusing to use once or twice but not for £90.

Window stickers and or name tags (pit pass sort of thing) would do the job for pence.
T shirts might be a bit of a geeky thing to do - but name tags that are obviously PF could break the ice at meets.

 

Is this a late April fools gag Stu

 

Good idea but very flawed, as pointed out by Phil

 

Was you eckers like , you were going to contact the company and ask them to go one stage further for you and your gay contacts

Hello Sailor

 

Nope...certainley wouldnt consider buying one

 

Yeah we know you post on here all day every day

 

thats what i was wondering!! lol

 

My thoughts exactly. Could be a great shopping list provider for thieves

 

 

thats a cool idea, theres a older version of this available and a even older version available too

theres the passionford jackets thats the model before this and the window stickers from a few years ago

oh and me and lewis got a muich better idea, its called a personal plate

 

amazing idea, please sell them here.......





none

 

Last time I was in Tokyo a device for finding your ideal mate was just hitting the market. You program in what you want in an ideal mate and when you are within x number of yards it starts beeping and then the beeps get louder and closer together as you get nearer to your potential soulmate.
A far more sophositicated version is now in use on Jap 3G mobiles and there has been quite of few cases of paedos using them to trick victims into meeting them etc. I think its something that initially seems like a groovy idea but when one considers the possible sinister abuses that it could be used for on balance its a no no IMO.

 

I am sure it comes with a switch so you can disable it though

 

Nice idea! possibly a lil sad!

but fook payin £90 for it! most ppl on this site know what i look like so dont need a lil lcd jibber to meet me!

 

wonder if they flash up in red

"warning, you are entering a Chip abuse zone "

 

for £90 i think you could buy lots of sticky lables and marker pens

 

Awaiting Dave's reply with anticipation

 

Will it ONLY work exclusively linking with the "club" or group you belong to?

If it picks up EVERY club and say, changes the header of the alert to the name of the club [for sake of argument, I'd be "PassionFord - Paddy - Reg Number" but I could also see a mate "BMWClubGB - Name - Reg Number" , it could be a lot of fun and the possiblity of getting sex with bendy young 17 year old saxo driving nymphos.

I'll buy one and be a guinea pig

 

It seems a good idea in theory but like most have said security wise its not good it's not just a case of someone driving past your garage cos you must be able to turn the thing off, its a case of what if your spotted and followed home. Something is needed tho i agree i'm a newbie and although i speak to a few peeps on msn i don't know anyone by face, and £90 is way to much!

 

Good idea, but not for £90, also I doubt it would have much configuration on it, i.e you could probably only have one ID with one club at a time, if it had a few clubs/ids that would be a bit more useful, I would say £20 tops tbh or stick to stickers

 

Like most other people have said, good, fun idea, as long as the formentioned problems can be ironed out, just a bit pricey. 20-40 quid would be more attractive.