Jay Goodman Tamboli is a (non-practicing) lawyer in Washington, D.C. who (like me) graduated from Georgetown University Law Center. He also has a degree in computer science, and his day job is to serve as the Legal Affairs Correspondent and IT Director for the Talk Radio News Service.
Tamboli came up with a unique idea for an iPhone app. Let’s say that you are walking through the halls of Congress in D.C. and you see someone who you know is a U.S. Senator, but you can’t remember the name. Put the info that you know in this app, and it helps you figure out who it was that you just saw. So let’s say that you see a man with brown hair who was wearing an elephant pin. Just plug in Male, Brown Hair, Republican and you see all of your possible hits:
Find the face that matches who you just saw, and then you can remember — oh yeah, that was George LeMieux. You’d think you would remember that considering that LeMieux and I are friends from both college and law school, but let’s say that I forget all of that and want to get more information. I can just tap his face and a screen pops up with more information about the good Senator:
Obviously I’m being a little tongue-in-cheek in this review, and I’ll admit that I find this app amusing as much as I find it helpful, but Tamboli’s website suggests that the app is “perfect for anyone who interacts with Senators and needs a little help putting names to faces” such as “staff assistants,” “press,” “lobbyists,” “teachers and tour guides” and “tourists visiting DC.”
Tamboli tells me that he plans to update the app by January to account for the new Senators elected last week. Perhaps he will come out with a version for the House of Representatives as well. Frankly, I wish there was a version of this app for all of the people in my address book, so that when I see someone and cannot place the face I could do a quick search and find them.
Click here for Senator Who ($4.99): 