Gramsci looked up from his breakfast. "I read," he muttered, "some time back, about some Japanese solution in the press - some technological gizmo that emitted 'I'm interested' signals when set to do so. The gizmo would in turn pick up signals from other such, set either to 'just friends', 'not interested', or 'also interested', and where there was a match, convey this to the owner, who then, presumably, would be a little less nervous about the advance."
"Ah!" said the Cow. "And is there a 'I'm interested - but not in you' emergency setting one could switch to in case the person who came bearing down on one turned out to be the incarnation of their worst nightmare?" Gramsci wasn't sure about that.
But then, quite by accident, the Cow strayed across something else that seemed to address the same predicament. Enigma offers an anonymous way to gauge interest, via email. One enters one's email address, and that of up to ten recipients, and sends off a message into the unknown. The recipient is then informed that "someone" is interested, and invited to respond, typing in up to ten recipients in whom they may have an interest. If there is a match, then identities are revealed.
Otherwise not. One is left merely with the uneasy notion that _someone_ out there has the hots for you... someone that doesn't rate highly on yourvleislys, and right now is feeling miserable that you don't share their same sweaty-palmed feelings. Someone, you hope, that has been taking their medication regularly. The Cow felt a bit nervous about this. She knew how quickly medical aids ran out, and how widespread the incidence of emotional-support-in-a-tablet was among colleagues. She wasn't sure that Campus was really equipped to deal with a sudden epidemic of Unrequited Lust and wholesale rejection, but she hoped, desperately, that some website out there had the answer for that, too.