A nerd programs his way into her heart (Scores real woman)

Star-Ledger ^ | 4/15/08 | BY KELLY HEYBOER

[Dutchgirl]

Attention, computer geeks: Bernie Peng has raised the bar for the ultimate nerd wedding proposal.

The Jersey City man spent a month reprogramming his girlfriend's favorite video game, "Bejeweled," so when she reached a certain score a ring and a marriage proposal popped up. After his sufficiently impressed girlfriend said yes, Peng posted the details of his feat on his blog. Then the fun really began.

Peng's site received thousands of hits and more than 500 comments. The story was picked up by video gaming sites and spread across the internet until the video game manufacturer eventually heard about it.

Instead of being angry that Peng hacked their video game and rewrote it from scratch, company officials were so impressed they offered to pay for part of his wedding to Tammy Li of Basking Ridge.

[Dutchgirl]

Insert your own line here....

[babble-on]

The goobers shall inherit the earth

[Always Right]

[thecabal]

That looks like a great wedding proposal...for me to poop on.

[PGR88]

I have a feeling this guy is going to make quite a bit more money than if he worked at the local Monro Muffler shop. I know quite a few girls who would find that attractive.

[MrB]

Heck, they look made for each other anyway.

Not sure why he had to resort to this gimmick.

Kinda cool though.

[Always Right]

Yeah, it wasn’t like she was an out of his league beauty, but she appears to be a nice match for him. It was a romantic jester regardless.

[martin_fierro]

I proposed to Mrs. F. via a webpage that I’d created.

Yeah, yeah, ho-hum now, but pretty edgy stuff in 1997.

[MrB]

romantic jester

Like this guy?

nice typo, classic. ("gesture", I believe, is what you were looking for)

[Dutchgirl]

I have some fears that the bar has been raised very high indeed. He not only hacks the program but the company whose material he violated is so thrilled that they agree to pay for part of the wedding. What will the next evil genius do when puberty kicks in?

[LucyJo]

Cute couple...cute story.

[Always Right]

Hey, layoff. It passed the spell check.

[martin_fierro]

Oh, sure, now his computer hacking is romantic.

But later come keyloggers and recriminations.

[12Gauge687]

Spell check only does so much. But with antonyms and synonyms, it can be useless.

[TalonDJ]

Heck, I proposed in an FR post. She made me do it again in person though.

[laotzu]

marked

[antiRepublicrat]

The story was picked up by video gaming sites and spread across the internet until the video game manufacturer eventually heard about it.

I was waiting for the word "lawsuit" but was pleasantly surprised that the company isn't full of idiots and went with it. Give their head of PR a raise.

[Still Thinking]

No, he was a romantic jester. It was a romantic gesture.

[grey_whiskers]

Can you provide a link? That's very romantic!

(Congrats to both you and JenB, btw, on the FReeper marriage.)

Cheers!

[Grizzled Bear]

Need an “Awe” ping?