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Posted by Monty Solomon on November 5, 2007, 1:49 am
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Devices Enforce Cellular Silence, Sweet but Illegal
By MATT RICHTEL
The New York Times
November 4, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 2 - One afternoon in early September, an
architect boarded his commuter train and became a cellphone
vigilante. He sat down next to a 20-something woman who he said was
"blabbing away" into her phone.
"She was using the word 'like' all the time. She sounded like a
Valley Girl," said the architect, Andrew, who declined to give his
last name because what he did next was illegal.
Andrew reached into his shirt pocket and pushed a button on a black
device the size of a cigarette pack. It sent out a powerful radio
signal that cut off the chatterer's cellphone transmission - and any
others in a 30-foot radius.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/technology/04jammer.html?ex=1351828800&en=e7b62041a51fdae5&ei=5090
***** Moderator's Note *****
[RANT]
The fight between the "always on" users of electronic devices and
their opponents, the seekers of peace-and-quiet, has been going on
since the first guy with a pager on his belt boarded a public transit
system.
At issue is an ongoing change in the rules of etiquette that relate to
such vehicles: cell phone users see the time spent as an opportunity
to increase their efficiency and avoid wasting time reading or
thinking.
More traditionally-minded passengers see the cell phone as an
electronic wall that cell users erect around themselves, in effect
demanding that those they travel with sacrifice another tiny bit of
their precious personal space to make some stranger's life easier.
Personal space is a precious commodity, and becoming more so by the
microsecond, as urban and suburban commuters are forced to endure
intrusive advertising, crowded conditions, and now even the moronic
din of hand-held electronic toys.
Needless to say, I don't like enduring the knowlege that I'm an
unwilling audience member in a public convenance, forced to listen to
the sales pitches, lovers' quarrels, and administrivia pouring from
the mouths of arrogant and inconsiderate cellphone users who feel that
somebody else's ears are fair game for their personal ego trip.
You might ask how this is different than a conversation between two
passengers, so I'll suggest that anyone making that comparison attempt
to hold a dialogue, via cellphone, with someone sitting three feet
away: the unnatural nature of the communication becomes clear
instantly, as each side compensates for digital delay, dropouts,
chopped-up words, and distorted voice tones. Of course, people three
feet away from each other don't need a cellphone to converse, and the
dynamics of face-to-face communication make such a conversation
much less irritating and intrusive to other passengers, because people
who are face-to-face communicate a lot more with nuance, with facial
expression, and with body language than most people realize.
Af far as I'm concerned, cell phone users on public transit systems
should have a new version of a "smoking car" - a place where they can
go and yell their hearts out while trying to be heard over the din of
all the other battery-operated boors.
We now return you to your regular program.
[/rant]
Bill Horne
Temporary Moderator
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