BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?

Subject: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Mr Red
Date: 28 Jun 01 - 06:00 PM

At Alcester FF Bob was brandishing a mobile phone in a session. After pointing it at every instrument he explained that some friends could not be there so he was taking it to them.
Bob lives in a caravan, Commuting from festival to festival. He leaves actual session sounds on various friends/daughters' answer machines.
One wag suggested he should plonk it in a glass beer so the virtual sessionist could have a drink as well!
I was secretly applauding this imaginitive role for the "Yuppie Hearing-aid"
What next? webcasting from the snug at the "Firkin & Video Phone".
virtual music instruments? Oh p'raps not, we already have the banjo!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 Jun 01 - 06:09 PM

Why not - I've had Alice Cooper played down mine!!! And bloody good it sounded too. Regrettably the friend did not repeat the action at the Bon Jovi concert he was at recently. Rotten sod.

You could always programme your own tunes into it - then you'd never forget that important chorus in the session. When Manitas phones my mobile, it plays 'sorry the day I was married'. He wants to put 'Wish I was single again' as my tune, but he (copmputer programmer and supposed brainy sod) can't work out how to put new tunes in!!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Jun 01 - 07:43 PM

Mobiles are great for buskers and travelling people. I'm scared of frying my brain, so I never speak more than a couple of seconds on them, which keeps the costs minimal. But it's great when you lose each other in a crowd.

Still, I cringe at the sight of those people who wander round the streets holding lengthy conversations with the hand to the ear, like Ewan MacColl clones. But I suspect it can't be long before the handsets are gone, and it'll be throat microphones and minimal hearing aids hidden in the ear, and a world of people wandering around for all appearances talking to themselves and listening to the voices.

The troubled people who have been doing this all along for hundreds of years will just melt into the landscape.

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Sorcha
Date: 28 Jun 01 - 08:17 PM

The year Harry Chapin's daughter got married Tom had to be at the wedding instead of at Winfield, so John McCutcheon called him from the main stage during his night perfomance. They sang a duet with Tom on the phone, and Tom got a phone call from 3,000 fans all at once!

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: artbrooks
Date: 28 Jun 01 - 08:45 PM

McGrath: I had the unfortunate experience of having to spend several hours at the San Jose (California) airport recently. Headphone and mics have arrived and about as obnoxious as you can imagine. They apparently save people from the problem of having to lower their voices while talking on the phone, and allow them to carry on conversations with another party elsewhere in a normal (loud) speaking voice.

My suggestion for the most sensible use for a mobile phone would be to throw it at the jerk who is talking on one while driving too fast down a winding mountain road, thus guaranteeing his/her participation in the process of evolution in action.

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 02:13 AM

Yeah, they are pretty good at weeding the gene pool - witness the one whose caller got the message 'no I don't think I can .... JEEESSS what the f**k was that, gotta go just hit someone....'

Regrettably, it isn't always the right weeds that get dumped....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Jim Cheydi
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 05:36 AM

Put two mobile phones ten inches apart and call one from the other so that they're both on. Place a raw egg between them and it will cook in about twenty minutes.

Reckon my brain must be done by now.

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: KingBrilliant
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 05:40 AM

A couple of weeks ago Hammerite & I sang 'Bad Connection' at an open mic. Its a Yazoo song from the eighties.
She had her phone on the 'setting the ringtones' menu & managed a perfect 'brrring brrring' as the finale of the song.
So it's a proper folk instrument now.

Kris
PS. the other proper use of the mobile phone is to provide me with a decent job passing text messages around the networks.

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: paddymac
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 05:49 AM

One of the states (NY ?) recently outlawed use of the hand-held models while driving. There are enough "distractions" out there without trying to drive, hold the wheel and the phone, and be focused on a conversation at the same time.

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 07:03 AM

The thing about throat mikes is that you can speak through them without making any audible sound. At least with the ordinary ones people have to speak out loud, which is sometimes a bloody nuisance - but the idea of a world where all around us there will be a kind of electronic telepathy going on all around us, with no clues as to when it's happening - I find that a bit disturbing.

They apparently save people from the problem of having to lower their voices while talking on the phone - in my experience people don't do that unless they are trying not to be overheard, or being considerate to others. Otherwise they tend to raise their voices.

In today's paper I read that nine out of ten children under 16 in England now have a mobile phone. Fair enough, it could save a lot of risks. But 10% of them talk on them more than 45 minutes a day, which is pretty worrying really.

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: KingBrilliant
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 07:54 AM

How do they afford to talk for 45 mins per day????
Perhaps they'll end up doomed to a life of crime to support a heavy phone habit.

Kris

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 08:15 AM

Parents pay for it... it's supposed to be for 'their safety when they're out at the clubs' although what 16 yr olds are doing clubbing I don't know. We didnt' even get a land line until I was 20 and had left home!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Kim C
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 11:07 AM

I talk on mine. I have a headset. I am frequently out alone after dark, thanks to tae bo and violin lessons, not to mention being held up by perpetual road construction, and I like to let Mister know where I am and if I'm going to be late so he won't worry.

Why is it rude to have a phone conversation in public, but not an in-person one? I don't really follow the logic, unless it's simply because the people eavesdropping are irked because they can only hear one side of the story. Why should I have to lower my voice on the phone but not in person? An airport isn't a library, anyhow, and besides, is too damn noisy to make a phone call, if you can get a signal to begin with.

Some of us like our phones and manage not to make jerks of ourselves with them.

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 12:43 PM

With buses and trains being so very reliable, having a mobile phone can stop panics for parents. And children.(And some of the phone tariffs give unlimited calls to selected numbers etc.)

I can envisage a future where they won't have PA as such in concerts, and they won't charge admission. They'll let you in free and then charge you for a headset to allow you to hear the performers.

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 01:17 PM

In that case you MIGHT be able to actually HEAR the performers over the crowd screams!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: gnu
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 01:44 PM

I can talk and drive AND chew gum at the same time. If you had to make rules for every idiot out there, you'd never have enough ink. And I really don't think we need another law. Cell phones don't kill people. People kill people. I'll vote for a law that outlaws idiots, but leave my cell alone.

As for the microwaves frying your brain, I wish I didn't HAVE to have a cell. I hate the damn thing.... my electronic leash. But, there are a lot of idiots out there who can't leave a message on my answering machine and won't wait four or five hours for me to return their call. So it's simple. If I don't have a cell, I lose business.

BTW, consider this. Four rings is all you get. Driving and celling is outlawed. When that cell goes off, you have to get to a place to stop so you can answer, in four rings. I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that the "cell" accident rate will dramatically increase. Increase the number of rings ? Of course, but get compliance on an increased number of rings from the phone companies before you go willy-nilly with the laws, OKAY ?

SHITE !!!!! I just tried it on my cell and guess what !!! It's been changed !!! Seven rings !!! Okay, make another law for the idiots.

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 01:54 PM

With my phone you just push a button and it tells you the last few people who tried to phone you, with their names if you have already entered them in your phone book, otherwise their numbers. No need for them to leave a message on your answering machine.

So gnu, you switch off the phone when you get into the car, and then every now and again you pull off and halt, and chase up any call attempts that have been made. Beats killing yourself and other people because some other driver is driving one-handed at the same time as you, because your both answering the phone, and one of you makes a manoeuvre that requires two hands. As you said, people kill people.

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: gnu
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 02:25 PM

Not as technologized here in the boonies of New Brunswick, Canada yet. But soon, I hope. Here, all you get is, "1 missed call", IF your cell was on when it came in. Unless, of course, they changed that too, and didn't call me to tell me. Must check that out !!! Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: grumpy al
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 05:31 PM

There isn't one. unless it is to shove up the a**e of any inconsiderate moron who thinks they have the right to invade my privacy with their inane babbling.

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Kim C
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 05:34 PM

but that goes back to my original question... why is it inane babbling when only one party is present, but acceptable conversation when both conversants are present? What is the difference?

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: grumpy al
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 05:46 PM

have yu tried listening to someone walking around a supermarket telling person on other end of phone which aisle they are walking down and what products they are looking at? you do not have to hear both sides of the conversation to recognise drivel.

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: JohnB
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 09:51 PM

With regard to the uses of cell phones, I was reading an e mail last week at work on the Stealth Bomber. If you don't know, they spent billions of $$$ making this thing virtually undetectable to conventional radar. All those funny angles, special paint which absorbs radar beams, all sorts of crap. Apparently someone in England has discovered that through a cell phone net you can pin point the thing within about 10 metres. The powers that be had no comment. JohnB

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Kim C
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 03:53 PM

Al, I have heard two people doing that in person. So I still don't understand why just having the conversation is rude when only one person is within earshot. In a place like a grocery or an airport, what difference does it make? Theatre and library, well, that's a whole different story.

Not trying to start a confrontation, just wanting to understand why people think what they think. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: jeffp
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 04:24 PM

I think it is because when two people are talking directly to each other, they know that they can be heard even though they speak softly. People talking on the phone tend to speak as though the phone isn't even there and they must shout to the person on the other end. Also, disembodied conversations just seem weird. Reminds me of the characters I saw when I was working downtown.

jeffp

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 04:56 PM

On principle I think Kim is logically right. I think the feeling people get is not rational, and it's not even fait, but it ties into a feeling of somehow being excluded, turned into a second class citizen in a daft way. And your curiosity builds up about the other end of the conversation.

I find I use mobile phones in a competeely different way to a landline. With a home phone I'll settle into a conversation. With a mobile phone I just use it for a sentence or two, to check something or confirm something. It changes the way you operate.

So instead of arranging in advance to meet up at a particular time, I'll use the phone. "I'm in such and such a place - listen to this band, I think you'd like them... See you here in ten minutes then..."

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 05:13 PM

I am a delivery driver, and I have seen far too many accidents caused by people not paying attention to the road,If you have a phone in your car or van and you cant find a safe place to pull over, when it rings please ignore the call.No phone call can be that important, to risk an accident, I am not exagerating here, I have seen people die on the road(not pleasent).john

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Kim C
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 05:17 PM

Why should anyone be listening to anyone else's conversations in the first place? :-D

Seriously I do not like to use my phone much out in public. If I have to use it I'll go off somewhere quiet so 1) I don't disturb anyone and 2) I can hear.

Once you have had a flat tire, and had your phone handy to call someone to come help you, you will not be without one ever again. Maybe it is a false sense of security but as a woman who often goes on errands alone, I like knowing I won't be stranded.

So there.

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: RichM
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 05:23 PM

It's new. It's different. The old rules are not being followed. I use it in a supermarket. I don't mind if people look at me having a dis-embodied conversation. I usually talk to myself anyway, to remind myself to get certain items...

I do the grocery shopping, and I'm not the most organized cook/shopper. So I phone my wife, and make sure I buy the things she wants too.

As to being annoyed by this, my advice is: ignore it. Eventually it goes away. And so do you! Instant communication devices are here to stay.

Rich

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Kim C
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 05:27 PM

Lemme tellya, having sent Mister to the store to get a specific thing, and having him come back with the wrong thing... well... next time I'm sending the phone with him. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 05:28 PM

Why should anyone be listening to anyone else's conversations in the first place?

Because that's what people are programmed to do. Built in, compulsive. It's why we're here at the Mudcat.

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Kim C
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 05:34 PM

Not ME. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 07:04 PM

My job is designing the chips which go into mobile phones and I have to say that I do not own a mobile phone - I quite enjoy the irony of designing the thing but not seeing the need for one myself. Basically I would rather just be playing my fiddle in my spare time rather than be pestered by the phone - okay I confess that my wife has one just for emergencies.

Regards

Ian S

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 12:10 AM

In the very early seventies, when I was courting my first wife, a Yorkshire lass, we would frequently observe a well-known local character, an elderly gentleman (seemingly of no fixed abode) who would sit on a bench in York City Centre and talk into his shoe, sometimes laughing , sometimes gesticulating.

Everybody thought him eccentric, but nowadays he wouldn't even get a second glance

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 12:30 AM

Murray-There are loads of people like that in Yorkshire! There is one in Hull, he is about 60,and often runs around shouting weird stuff about aliens etc!

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 12:35 AM

John, I attribute this eccentric behaviour to the Yorkshire custom of eating cake and cheese together. Bound to have strange side effects.

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 02:15 AM

I have one for emergencies and like Kim, I've had to use it when my car had problems and wouldn't start. Being in a less than perfect state of health, I consider it necessary for my well being when I am out driving alone; I would not be able to change a tire, alone, nor walk any great distance for help, which is often the case in Wyoming. Now, I cannot imagine driving the long, lonely distances of Wyoming without one for safety.

Unless I am expecting a specific call from someone, my phone is always turned off until I may need to use it.

I also have used it in the grocery store, just to check with Rog, as he is the cook, to see what I might have forgotten. If he goes to the store, he calls me from the one in his truck before going in. It is a convenience thing for both of us; cuts way down on the stress of shopping.

I do not like the way my daughter and her friends are about them, though. It is the only phone she has; she considers it her home phone, etc. has an answering service and caller i.d. on it. I understand that it is better for her monetarily, as she gets free long distance at certain times, etc., but I worry about the possible cancerous effects and also that she drives while talking on it. In that I agree with the Car Talk guys and their "Hang Up & Drive" campaign.

Years ago, I sold two-way radios and mobile phones to the oilfields. I had a phone mounted on the dash of my car. It was easy to use hands-free. Although it was old technology with patchy and expensive coverage, and was very expensive to purchase (about $2,500 per phone in 1982), it was a great asset and quite "the thing" if one were in outside sales and travelling about as I did.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: bbc
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 09:31 AM

I notice that many people who've posted seem quite angry w/ cell phone users. You might want to think about *why* you feel that way. Unless you have been inconvenienced or endangered by the use of a cell phone, there may be another issue. For instance, do you think folks who own cell phones are rich, snooty, etc.?

I have a cell phone for emergencies. I drive an hour to work early in the morning, usually in the dark. I work for a school. Sometimes, school is cancelled/postponed due to bad weather. Since I leave so early, I might miss the call at home. Also, there are a lot of animals on the roads I need to travel. Twice last year, I hit deer. I also use the phone to keep in touch w/ my kids, if I am away for the day/weekend.

I don't particularly like the cell phone & I never use it when driving (though I frequently eat/drink in the car, during my long communte), but it is a useful tool. Yes, it was New York that passed the law against handheld phones while driving. I think it's only enforced if you have an accident. That's a bit late, if you ask me. Now, if we could just get folks to obey the simple laws of safety & courtesy that were already on the books....

I have to say my favorite accident report said the cause of accident was "driver inattention due to bottled water." I'm guilty on that charge.

bbc

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 09:35 AM

Of course this is all transitional technology. A couple of generations of technology (that's maybe five or so years), and it'll be in-the-head mobiles, and there'll be no way of telling who's crazy and who's not.

Which might be quite good actually. I can envisage how I'll be sitting there in my rocking chair mumbling away to myself, and they'll think I'm doolally, and in fact I'll chasing up obscure songs and arguing about guns on the Mudcat.

Subject: RE: BS: Sensible Use for Mobile Phone?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 06:17 PM

At least they aren't the size of cinder blocks now..... the chap who sold me my latest one apologised for the size of it.... it was the size of the BATTERY of my former phone.......!

LTS