Cell Phones

IMHO it's the tech age and like the news everything is constant reporting. The bike riding while talking is worrisome but what gets me is when people use them in movie theaters. The light is most distracting. Just last week a young couple sat down beside me at the theater. The movie was playing and this guy is texting. I give him the benefit of maybe telling someone he is at the movies but no he keeps texting. Soooo i just stare at him and no response. Now his gf pulls her phone out and starts texting. I'm like you've got to be kidding me. THEN he pulls out a 2nd phone to make a call!!! That was the straw. I said "Hey we're in the movies!". He and his gf put away their phones thank God. Of course now my gf is pissed because I said something to the prick.

It's not a Vietnam thing either. Maybe even worse in other countries - particularly USA. My 18-year-old niece will sit in my mother's living room and text with her boyfriend, who's also sitting in my mother's living room! Apparently, they're having a "private" conversation she doesn't want her grandmother to hear.

Electronic telepathy.
Isn't technology great?
Soon we wont need to talk... or learn another language!
We just communicate by thinking!

hELLnoi wrote:

Electronic telepathy.
Isn't technology great?
Soon we wont need to talk... or learn another language!
We just communicate by thinking!

It's happening already. There are certain looks my gf gives me and I know exactly what she is thinking!!!

If I a trying to talk to someone and his phone keeps ringing  I'll just leave.  If I'm meeting someone for lunch and it ends up as a series of long phone calls I just say this is the last time I take time out to meet until you can turn that damned thing off while we eat. 

I was at one of those yellow tent tiệc things a few months ago and some girl at my table got like twelve calls in 30 minutes, with an excruciatingly annoying Extremely Happy pop music ring tone, each time she ended up getting excited and breaking into that yelling they do here.   It was just rude as hell. 

But in the USA I had some guy tell me to turn off my phone during the ads in a movie.  I shut it off during films but ads?  Forget it.  I told him if he liked ads so much to go home and watch television and he could have all the ads he wanted.

Well, this looks like a business opportunity to develop a mobile cell phone signal blocker.  Could make millions selling them to movie theaters, quiet upscale restaurants and other places where the owner wishes for a cell-phone free zone.

Who will help me create a business plan to get some VC (that's Venture Capitalists) backing?

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

Well, this looks like a business opportunity to develop a mobile cell phone signal blocker.  Could make millions selling them to movie theaters, quiet upscale restaurants and other places where the owner wishes for a cell-phone free zone.

Who will help me create a business plan to get some VC (that's Venture Capitalists) backing?

Well crap...would you take a look at that...done already

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_jammer

Ooo...but not "illegal" in Việt Nam.  How about an import business?

It would be much better to have the functionality in the  phone  with short range broadcasts defining quiet zones that put the phone into vibrate mode.  Blocking reception is a good way to get sued by making people miss legitimately vital calls.

I first heard the quiet zone idea more than ten years ago.  Not sure why nobody has done it.  It has to be part of the OS, it can't be done in an application or I'd write it myself.

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

Well, this looks like a business opportunity to develop a mobile cell phone signal blocker.  Could make millions selling them to movie theaters, quiet upscale restaurants and other places where the owner wishes for a cell-phone free zone.

Who will help me create a business plan to get some VC (that's Venture Capitalists) backing?

The device to block radio waves already exist.
You could use the excuse the you were in a "white area" for not pick up calls.
Long ago, it was RUDE to read the newspapers while at the table.
Guess what, technology took over.

I can understand why a couple of you guys don't need that sugar "rush"!! And I resemble that remark!!

Solo1 wrote:

I can understand why a couple of you guys don't need that sugar "rush"!! And I resemble that remark!!

Hey Solo, this is the "Cellphone" thread. Are you sure you didn't mean to post on the "Sugar" thread?

saigonmonkey wrote:

Solo1 wrote:

I can understand why a couple of you guys don't need that sugar "rush"!! And I resemble that remark!!

Hey Solo, this is the "Cellphone" thread. Are you sure you didn't mean to post on the "Sugar" thread?

My bad!!!!!

hELLnoi wrote:

....
Long ago, it was RUDE to read the newspapers while at the table.
Guess what, technology took over.

It would still be rude.  I once was invited to teach English to a class of high schoolers because their teacher was a Vietnamese teacher who had a medium accent in English (You can converse with her but you'd have to listen very carefully.) and wanted the students to hear how a native speaker talks.  I was going about it pretty good and 99% of the class was following along.  Then I noticed a girl texting (you can tell cuz they stare down at their book which is "floating" on the desk).  I warned her once and told her it was rude to be texting (ignoring the teacher who is teaching you English that your parents paid for you to attend and by you texting, you're essentially saying you don't want to be here and wasting your parents money).  She put the phone down and I continued.  About 5 minutes later...I caught her again - what I really wanted to do was kick her out of the classroom but it wasn't my classroom so I stared at her, put the chalk down, and just left the room mid-sentence.

Just to let all the kids know that one-texting inconsiderate peer (who was warned) blew it for them all.

I see people texting on motorbikes in heavy traffic with two kids riding.  It's hard to fathom how people could be that stupid.  Not even looking at the road at all.

ChrisFox wrote:

I see people texting on motorbikes in heavy traffic with two kids riding.  It's hard to fathom how people could be that stupid.  Not even looking at the road at all.

Ahhhh...
multitasking!

hELLnoi wrote:

ChrisFox wrote:

I see people texting on motorbikes in heavy traffic with two kids riding.  It's hard to fathom how people could be that stupid.  Not even looking at the road at all.

Ahhhh...
multitasking!

Human mind is single threaded.  Actual studies show that multitasking leads to poor performance.  As many corpses as one sees in the road here, as carelessly as people head into traffic, taking one's eyes off the road is insane.

Solo1 wrote:

hELLnoi wrote:

Electronic telepathy.
Isn't technology great?
Soon we wont need to talk... or learn another language!
We just communicate by thinking!

It's happening already. There are certain looks my gf gives me and I know exactly what she is thinking!!!

The look, woman are good at sending messages that way.

Agreed. Been through that.
Stopped being a mind reader.
Especially, cross cultural mind readings... 100% FailSAFE!

Talk about the epitome of stupidity: 911 operator send ambulance to the wrong location and man dies while supervisory trainer is texting!

http://news.yahoo.com/video/texting-911 … 38040.html

ancientpathos wrote:

The look, woman are good at sending messages that way.

That's why most of the women have 2 phones. A small Nokia that they can text with without looking at the keys while driving and an Iphone to text and talk with other times.

Solo1 wrote:

Talk about the epitome of stupidity: 911 operator send ambulance to the wrong location and man dies while supervisory trainer is texting!

http://news.yahoo.com/video/texting-911 … 38040.html

So when we dial 115 here and the ambulance shows up four hours later, we'll know the Vietnamese operator was texting.

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

So when we dial 115 here and the ambulance shows up four hours later, we'll know the Vietnamese operator was texting.

Nope, that means the operator was actually awake, alert, and doing their job!

The isolating effect of cell phones is coming up on a lot of forums I'm on.  I'm of two minds about it .. on the one hand I know when a friends on the other side of the world comes online; on the other hand I see people who should be connecting face to face each staring at their phones texting or on social networks.  I have to work to keep my objectivity because I write software for cell phones and social networks, but I do think that while, yeah, I can go to some place here, see something cool, share it with hundreds of, uh, "friends" on Facebook, but I'm not as present as I might be. 

However I already have well-developed habits of interacting with people (OK, shut up, yes I am a tech nerd and a reader more than a social power), and I see a lot of people who don't live in this world at all.

Now some shops in OZ won't serve people who are on there phones. When our group of friends go out for tea we all have to turn our phones off until its time to leave the restaurant.