Sweet but Illegal

[yakers]

Originally Posted by tightasadrum

Maybe I'm locked in the past in some ways, but I long for the days when leaving the house or work meant no one could contact you. It just was not possible. I suppose I could just turn off the d**n thing like my wife does, ("Didn't I get you that thing so I could get hold of you?" "No. I have it for emergencies.") but will DD off at school, and wife needing to find me often , I leave it on unless I'm at some event. Still I find myself irritated every time it rings.

And I'm about the opposite of that. I remember, 15-20 years ago, carrying a radio so the office could keep in contact with me in emergencies, even on vacation

But cell phones are a miracle to me. I go out to some isolated spot like kayaking out to the middle of Morro Bay and I have this urge to call people and let them know where I am. Its just amazing I can do that. One of the Star Trek movies starts with Capt Kirk rock climbing and he reaches into his pocket to retrieve a phone call. It was meant to show a miracle/advannced technology. Young kids will probably miss the point entirely. I really like to stay in contact with my wife, so we may be shopping at Target and call each other to find which isle the other is on.
I welcome the Star Trek idea of the communicator as a button you just hit and talk to the computer or anyone else. Maybe folks who retire stop wearing a watch (opportunity for a poll?) but I just wear mine all the time, keep reading glasses around and now add the cell phone. No going back on technology.

[youbet]

Originally Posted by yakers

But cell phones are a miracle to me.

I'd stop a little short of calling them a miracle, but all in all, they've made my life easier rather than tougher.

Yes, Megacorp supplied most of us with cell phones. But very few of us were expected to be "on call." If you were occasionally on call, you would have been so even without a cell phone which would have meant sitting home waiting for the land line to potentially ring. With the cell phone, you were free to be out and about. Perhaps my employer was just more reasonable than what many of you have experienced.

Maybe I'm just lucky with friends and relatives who have common sense, because I seldom get chatty/nuisance calls from them.

And I don't hesitate to us the off button. Of course, I also don't hesitate to turn off the ringer on the land line either..... And that means ringer off with NO answering machine. Actually, we're close to canceling the land line. Last month we made ONE outgoing call!

I do admit to being annoyed by folks who use cell phones in inappropriate places.

[tightasadrum]

Nords, that's the funniest/saddest story I've heard all day. So many enabling parents out there that can't abide their child being unhappy about anything! It really worries me. I'm just glad I won't have to deal with any of these whining darlings...and then, on the other hand, it could be quite entertaining passing out a little dose of reality to these little darlings.

[MikeD]

I bought our first cellular phone in '85. We were charter subscribers of Bell Atlantic in the DC area. I got it for my wife as an anniversary present. She'd always thought it was cool when she'd see important government dignitaries on the phone in the back of a limo on the beltway ever since she was a kid.

I carried a beeper for my first transplant back in '96. Now they just assume you have a cell phone and ask for the number. Until 30 days ago I *had* to carry my little cell phone everywhere in case they called. When it would ring my stomach would flip.

Mike D.

[samclem]

I've alse noticed that the cell phone has significantly reduced the willingness/ability of people to pre-coordinate. When I was a kid and Mom dropped me off somewhere, I was darn sure to have worked out the arranged pickup time and location and a backup means of getting in touch ("If you can't make it, call Mike's mom and let her know when you'll be able to come. If you aren't here at 4:00 I'll call her to find out when you'll be here"). Instead, today the rendezvous plan is entirely dependent on cell phone contact.

[Andre1969]

I remember an episode of "Mr. Belvedere" back in the 80's, where the wife just got a cell phone (I think they usually called them "car phones" back then, and they were about the size of a TI99/4a ) The wife just went crazy with the thing, talking all the time. At one point, she called the house while she was parked in the driveway. The studio audience (or the laugh track) burst into gales of laughter.

In today's environment though, it doesn't seem so hysterical. Heck, I'll even confess to having done that! I've lost track of how many conversations end with "I'm hanging up now, I'm in the driveway!"

That being said though, I know where the "off" button is, and am not afraid to use it!

[Gumby]

I simply cannot understand what it is that requires people to constantly talk to each other on the phone. Most of the calls I have overheard on the train (and in the grocery, at the restaurant, etc.) are incredibly banal. I can't imagine calling when you have nothing interesting to say.

[RetireeRobert]

I wonder if there is any survey study data indicating % of all cell phone calls initiated by women and % initiated by men? And % of cell calls where both talkers are women, or % where both talkers are men? Etc.

From my informal obervations of crazy drivers I observe and swear under my breath at (and sometimes swear outloud at) where I then note they were talking on cell phones, I believe the large majority to be women.

Of course maybe my observations are skewed, in that they having nothing to do with the cell phones. Maybe most crazy drivers just happen to be women anyway, whether talking on cell phones or not!

Know what I mean?

[samclem]

Originally Posted by RetireeRobert

Maybe most crazy drivers just happen to be women anyway, whether talking on cell phones or not!

Know what I mean?

Oh, I know what you mean. But I'd think it prudent never to say or write that, ever. Even if it were true. Which it is, of course, not. It's not true.
Nope.
Come to think of it, I don't know what you mean after all.

[Bigritchie]

People on cell phones while trying to place their orders drove me batty when in my restaurant. They might as well have hung a sign on their heads that said IDIOT.

I would tell stories of the cell phone horrors, but I don't wanna stress myself out thinking about it.

[tightasadrum]

Administrator, could you please delete RetireeRobert's last entry? Duck and cover!

[ERD50]

Originally Posted by samclem

Even if it were true. Which it is, of course, not. It's not true.
Nope.
Come to think of it, I don't know what you mean after all.

We need data !

No, I'm not going to provide it

-ERD50

[ladelfina]

shouldn't even take the bait, but.. I guess that's why insurance companies give women a discount? Because they are so 'crazy' when they drive?

I guess they are just the particular TYPE of 'crazy' (obeying speed limits?) that cause the boys to speed around changing lanes recklessly.. the gals are all miraculousing CAUSING accidents while managing to actually AVOID said accidents?

[travelover]

Originally Posted by ladelfina

.......... the gals are all miraculously CAUSING accidents while managing to actually AVOID said accidents?

Yes. You gals make us guys do it!

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Originally Posted by ladelfina

shouldn't even take the bait, but.. I guess that's why insurance companies give women a discount? Because they are so 'crazy' when they drive?

If driving in my area is any indication, that may be coming to an end. Some of the really stupid and aggressive driving I've seen in the last year has been delivered by middle aged women.

Couple of anecdotes. I was going up an entrance ramp to the highway and actually had a 50ish woman pass me on the right in the breakdown lane going up the ramp so she could cut a guy off and end up...in the same solid morning traffic with no hope of going anywhere any faster or better than if she got on the highway behind me. At one point a short while later I ended up next to her and gave her the "what the hell was that?" motion. She tapped her wristwatch and looked away. That 1.2 second advantage was apparently worth risking her life and vehicle, and my families well being.

I'm driving up a major road. I see a ramp merging ahead and see a car trying to butt into the traffic. Car next to him wont let him in. They jockey for position until the merging car has no more room and the cars are about an inch apart. Finally the merging driver breaks it off and swings in behind the other guy, and then for the next half mile keeps trying to cut off people in the left lane attempting to pass the driver who wouldnt let him merge. That guy keeps swerving back and forth to prevent the other driver from getting around. Bear in mind that this is stop and go solid traffic thats moving at 5-10 mph on occasion. Finally the driver that was trying to merge in gets along side the other car and the fingers start flying, the windows go down and I can see the heads whipping around as they hurl invectives at each other, they start swerving back and forth like they're threatening to sideswipe each other.

Finally the traffic separates the two. Over the next 5 miles I end up alongside each of them. Expecting a couple of teenage or early 20's boys, i'm surprised at what I see. Couple of mid 40's women, hair all done up nice, makeup, nice clothes. Looked like a couple of librarians.

My wife has commented a few times that it seems that women are trying to break the glass ceiling into mens territory as overly aggressive drivers.

[cube_rat]

This subject just gets my thong panties in a wad. So much so that I've come out of hiding to add my rant.

I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to conk people over heads with their cell phones at the gym! WTF?? These idiots just carry on and on about a whole lot of nothing while I have my Ipod up on full blast to drown out their incessant chattering. The chattering women are usually the ones complaining that they can't lose weight. I wonder why? They're walking on the treadmill at 2.0 speed so they could concentrate on talking!

I run a tier one application for a fortune 500 company and I provide GLOBAL support. I don't even bring my cell phone to the gym floor. It's called managing my time. If I can't find a 90 minute slot in my day without the use of electronic communication devices then I have serious issue.

[samclem]

One thing that makes the cell phone use in public so annoying is the volume of the conversation. Most people don't know that cell phones have one key difference from a regular "wired" phone: There's no auditory feedback to the individual speaking. With a traditional telephone, when an individual speaks he hears his own voice in the earpiece (this is called "sidetone"), and this provides an important cue as to how loud me needs to speak to be heard. Mobile phones don't have this--when you speak into a cell phone, nothing comes out of the earpiece. This is a major reason people shout into their mobile phones (people used to shout into their wired phones, too. That's why sidetone was introduced). It would not be especially challenging to intoduce sidetone into cell phones (it would take no bandwidth, it is done entirely within the instrument--though it would need to be turned off when in "speaker" mode). I don't know why cell phone companies don't add this feature--maybe it's time to make it standard for everyone's benefit.

[RetireeRobert]

Originally Posted by cube_rat

This subject just gets my thong panties in a wad. So much so that I've come out of hiding to add my rant.

I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to conk people over heads with their cell phones at the gym! WTF?? These idiots just carry on and on about a whole lot of nothing while I have my Ipod up on full blast to drown out their incessant chattering. The chattering women are usually the ones complaining that they can't lose weight. I wonder why? They're walking on the treadmill at 2.0 speed so they could concentrate on talking!

I run a tier one application for a fortune 500 company and I provide GLOBAL support. I don't even bring my cell phone to the gym floor. It's called managing my time. If I can't find a 90 minute slot in my day without the use of electronic communication devices then I have serious issue.

This gets back to a point I wanted to explore before I veered off in reckless abandon on the tangent subject of women drivers.

And that original subject was cell phone usage by sex. Which sex initiates most cell calls? What percentage of cell calls involve two women, what percent involve two men? Etc, etc.

Of "female" cell calls, what percent are strictly business related, and what percent personal. Same for "male" cell calls.

I am just wondering if those who indulge in all the "chattering" type of personal non-business cell calls are more done by one sex or if they are equally distributed by sex.

In other words, who do we blame for that type of "uselss, banal, pointless, chattering" cell call that seems to annoy an awful lot of us?

[REWahoo]

Originally Posted by RetireeRobert

In other words, who do we blame for that type of "uselss, banal, pointless, chattering" cell call that seems to annoy an awful lot of us?

Blame the chatterer on the phone doing the irritating.

Doesn't matter who makes the most calls, who initiates the call, etc. All that matters is the goofball bugging you at the time. Gender is irrelevant.

Nothing good can come of pursuing that line of questioning...