November 07, 2010, 12:01 PM — I’ve done it, you’ve done it, and probably most of your friends have done it too. Had a couple glasses of wine, downed a six pack, or huffed a can of Sterno and logged onto Facebook or Twitter, where you proceeded to make a complete jackass of yourself.
Hey it happens. As the world of social media resembles more and more the world of actual society, the same stupid behaviors crop up. Well, Webroot has a solution for helping you avoid binge-fueled embarrassments on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, etc, as well as your personal blog: a Google Chrome plug in called The Social Media Sobriety Test.
[ See also: This ad has been brought to you by you, part I ]
The idea is essentially the same one Google introduced with its Gmail Goggles: At specified hours of the day or night, the SMST will make you pass a timed test challenging your dexterity and mental alertness before you can log on. It’s not a breathalyzer, but it’s the next best thing.
This sounds easy. It’s not. One test has you count to 30 within a specified period of time while the screen displays various numbers and images to distract you. (I did it in 31.68 seconds – pass!)
They get trickier. Another displays two lights. When the right one flashes green, you must press the R key. When the left one flashes, press L. And sometimes both will flash at once. I had to take that one ten times before I passed (and I was sober, I swear).
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