In Chicago this weekend I heard an interesting commentary on one of the classical stations. Seems that during a recent CSO concert, the Bruckner symphony was drowned out by a cacophony of other noises.

Cell phones, 2-way pagers, even someone's hearing aid emitting a high-pitched signal that its batteries were low: all combined to ruin the quiet movement. The CSO directorate was in the lobby trying to pinpoint the offenders on the seating chart. The radio commentator advocated a "no tolerance" rule. Maybe even banning for the season those who violate the rule.

I certainly would favor a signal jammer at concert halls and movie theaters. The liability issue could be resolved by a waiver posted at the entrance. Or published on the back of the ticket, acceptance of which is implicit in the purchase of the ticket (similar to the rules on the airlines).

For those of you who work or live in northern Virginia, there is a patch of asphalt there that has jammers in action, near Langley. The CIA blocks inbound and outbound calls in that area.

Alright, I admit it, I love my cell phone. I use it for all my long distance calls ... and most of my local ones. But then, I spend less than 10 minutes a month on local calls and typically between 1000-1300 minutes a month on long distance calls.

I almost always eat alone. If a call comes in, I see no problem in talking on the phone ... not yelling, talking. If someone doesn't like it from another table, too bad. Once I was talking as I was walking with an earplug in place. I was stared at by an administrator here at the Medical School. I asked him whether or not he had seen a cell phone before or whether or not he was still in the primordial world of land lines only.

However, I do have some use rules. Whenever I am in a public setting, I put the phone on vibrate mode (e.g. at a restaurant, at a meeting, etc.). I do not answer the phone if I am already engaged in a conversation with someone else (regardless of who it is that I am talking to). (I don't answer the phone if there is someone else in my office talking to me; I don't answer the other line if I am already on the phone.)

There are a number of small circuits available that will jam a cell phone in a small area. You can turn one on when someone is being obnoxious and be able to turn it off if they suddenly suffer a coronary from no cell phone access and need to dial 911. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

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"Sire, it is not a revolt. It is a Revolution!"

the cell-yap bothers me when: 1) someone is driving and blabbering and is totally oblivious to the road--I've seen one serious wreck occur because of this and dozens of near-misses. maybe it's just Minnesota drivers http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif and 2) the yapper is LOUD, esp. when they're in the seat next to me on a plane, and esp. when the yapper is some idiot corporate d*ckhead making sure everyone around him knows how important he is. or she.

if Canada implements the jammers, maybe it's time to think about emigrating north.

Butcher Bird was only partially correct with the "cell phones are useful some professions". You forgot to include drug dealers, prostitutes, burglars, pimps etc. In HI about half of the loud cell phone conversations I unfortunately hear seem to begin with "I"ll bet you cant guess where I am calling you from?", as they stroll along the beach ear to the phone. They're loud cell-yell drowns out most of the nice ocean sounds. !@#$%^&*(!!!

MisterNice

1. Jamming is a terrible idea. It's illegal in the United States and should continue to be. Cell technology is still very new and there are better ways to modify people's behavior. There are a lot of important conversations besides 911 calls that I would not want to be a party to preventing. I can remember to turn my cell phone and pager off or on silent when entering theaters, meetings, courtrooms, etc. So can everyone else. Remember when every other yo-yo had their digital wristwatch set to beep on the hour? Don't hear that too much any more, do we? No. People's behavior has changed.

2. I use almost the opposite protocol from Non-NonRev regarding the cell phone & pager, with (I think) even more effective results. I encourage my office to use the cell phone for routine calls. I leave it off or on silent if I don't want to be alerted. This way the calls go to voice mail, and I get to decide later, based on the message content, how urgent it is. My office (as of about a year ago) has been instructed not to use the pager unless there is something extremely urgent. Otherwise they would page me every 20 minutes. This way people can feel free to call me on the cell phone about anything they would say to me if I were present, and the pager is available is someone is certain that something needs my attention immediately. YMMV, but this has worked well for me for over a year.

Some people actually don't know how to put their cell phone or pager on silent. These people should not be allowed to own one. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

3.NoStressHere is correct about the yelling. AT&T found out almost 70 years ago that the speech level people use when talking on the telephone is effectively regulated by the amount of sidetone.

Sidetone refers to the amount of your transmitted signal (even on a wireline telephone) that is injected into the receiver so that you can hear yourself. More sidetone -> you speak more softly; Less sidetone -> you speak louder. Most cell phones have little or no sidetone. My guess is that the cell phone manufacturers don't want to run the battery down by feeding you plenty of sidetone. The effect on battery life would definitely be measurable.

Another factor is that most people have at least a little trouble hearing voices over cell phones in noisy areas, including almost any outdoor setting. If the cell phones were capable of more receive audio level without distortion people could turn the volume up so they could hear the other party better, get more sidetone level while they're at it, and not feel that they have to yell.

It's nice that lots of research is being done on digital transmission protocols, and efficient RF transmission, but there's a lot of work that was done early in the last century on basic psycho-acoustic phenomena that is being ignored because it isn't very sexy any more.

[End of polemic. I'm sorry, I think about this stuff a lot.]

[This message has been edited by RichG (edited 03-12-2001).]

In the event of a real emergency in a restaurant or elsewhere, the use of a landline dialing 911 would be far better anyway as the 911 operator would also have a confirmed address of the placed call indicated on their computer screen, something a cell phone is unable to do currently.

This will change (in the U.S., anyway).
http://www.fcc.gov/e911/

I just think that the novelty of the things has not worn off, as it has with, say, digital alarm watches. When I first got one, I carried it in my hand, just WAITING for the all important incoming call. Jeez, what a jerk I must have looked like. I think the reality of the matter is for the new kids on the block (and that now includes schoolkids, drug dealers, and everybody else for which the phones were just a few years ago unavailable, now have them and are experiencing the new thrill).

I would favor cell free zones in restaurants, definitely in cars (unless you have a safer way to do it, i.e. a speakerphone/hands free method), libraries, churches, and anywhere else that you simply won't allow any YAYHOO total unconditional access to you. Beepers had the sense to vibrate, and you could respond when you had a moment. It wasn't considered bad form to NOT respond to a page, if you were busy. Nowadays, the incoming call is treated like a "calling", and the recipient is most likely obliged to pick up on the call, and the caller feels put out if you don't pick up.

I guess maybe a protocol for these calls should be identified....hate to think of more regulation, but these **** things are out of control, and IMHO, another depersonalization. Just my two cents worth.

I felt the need to comment here after being at a seminar yesterday where an announcement was made asking people to please turn off, silence, or change their phones to vibrate. Despite this announcement, I heard at least 5-6 phones ring throught the day in this group of 100-150 people, including one nimrod that actually answered it and started to carry on a conversation right in the middle of the group! This all makes me wonder if we do need the jammers.

The problem with the jammers is that they would terribly inconvenience those of us (most everyone on this thread) who I feel use their phones in a socially acceptable manner. For example my cell phone is always on vibrate when in a public place. When in a conference such as yesterday, I can then monitor from my caller ID the calls coming in. My office, wife, and others know if it is urgent to use the pager feature on my phone to either page me "911" or leave me a text page. Also yesterday for example I needed to contact someone whom I had been trying for two days. When he called me back, my phone vibrated and I was able to see it was him. I quietly excused myself, went to an empty corner of the hallway and called him back.

I almost never take a call if I am talking to someone in person, whether I am in my office or out and about with my phone as I consider this to be rude.

Somehow we need to instill people with an acceptable use code for cell phones so we can all get maximum use out of this rescource without being rude or bothering others.

In addition to the previous points made by the posters, they tend to have two adverse organizational behavior effects.

1. Managers are too easy to reach, tending to push decision making up too many levels in the organization, instead of encouraging decisions to be made at the lowest possible level.

2. Those who enjoy micromanagement are given another tool useful for their purposes.

I use my company's cell phone when I travel,only because I was told that we are suppose to use this phone for everything.

Also, out of respect of the others, I always go outside when I really need to talk to the person on my cell phone when I am in a nice resturant, talking to people when I am eating is very rare, for I usually just turn the **** phone off http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif



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Al

Cell Phone Firms Explore Way to Implement E-911
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...9/BU232858.DTL

Cell phones are over abused. Most of the cell phone conversations I hear in airports sound like this to me:

"Yeah, They just called my row, I'm walking down the jet way and now am getting on the airplane. Yeah, the plane is packed. Wow. Now I'm in my seat and putting the seatbelt on."

(In other words, no content at all, just pointless babble that is just noise pollution.)

As a teacher, I've warned my students that if their cell phones ring just once while I am lecturing, their final grade could fall by a full letter.

Adam

Cell phones are over abused. Most of the cell phone conversations I hear in airports sound like this to me:

"Yeah, They just called my row, I'm walking down the jet way and now am getting on the airplane. Yeah, the plane is packed. Wow. Now I'm in my seat and putting the seatbelt on."

(In other words, no content at all, just pointless babble that is just noise pollution.)

As a teacher, I've warned my students that if their cell phones ring just once while I am lecturing, their final grade could fall by a full letter.

Adam