France to Allow Cell Phone Jamming 866
ZuperDee writes "According to this article, the French industry minister has approved a decision to allow cinemas, concert halls and theaters to install cell phone jammers, on the condition that emergency calls can still get through."
Emergency Calls? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:5, Insightful)
Being able to say "Yer sure" and not mean it all in the same breath.
Those wanting to block calls sort of get their way, and those who don't want it blocking get to smile as well.
I think this is the best all round decision.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:5, Informative)
The systems have been available for a few years,
and are apparently very good at blocking out only a well defined area. The stumbling blocks have been entirely legal/regulatory.
I don't know if the available equipment handles it already, but there is no technical reason why the jammer couldn't engage slightly more thoroughly in the transaction and forward select calls.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:4, Insightful)
If this is implemented and my phone ever jangles 2 hours into a movie, I'll probably piss in panic first.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:5, Informative)
The region being affected is easily controlled using directional antennas. Most cell towers already use a 120 degree beam spread, so directional antennas are the usual already, but they can certainly use a narrower beam antenna if they want.
As for routing emergency calls, again, the network tells the phone what the phone is allowed to do. No problem there...
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:4, Informative)
This also means you don't have to drown out any other transmitters, you can just play man-in the middle: you know which phones are in your zone, if a tower tries to contat it, you say you're it, but can't answer. If a phone tries to contact a tower, you pretend you're it an denies service. All you have to do is be first.
Combined, you have a very robust soloution with a well-defined virtual cage that is "invisible" from the outside but completely "dark" on the inside.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, if the cinema doesn't have very obvious warnings, there could be trouble.
The answer is called a pager (Score:4, Insightful)
Set it to vibrate. When it goes off the doctor leaves the theather and makes the call. All problems solved. Just like they do it already and did it long before cell phones existed.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:5, Interesting)
I suppose one solution to this would be to leave the phone with the cinema and the cinema provides a vibrate only pager. Only the pager would be able to receive a notification. When you're finished you exchange the pager for your cell phone. Those who need to be contacted would be willing to go the extra step.
In a place like a theatre or concert hall you could either have the same solution or notify the hospital before you go in of the theatre's number and your seat number. That way they can contact the theatre and the staff would send someone to get you.
The simplest solution would simply to not go out when you're on call. The only catch some people are on call so frequently that this would simply deprive them of a social life.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:5, Informative)
If that's how they're planning on doing it I don't know. But there has to be some way of distinguishing emergency calls, or emergency cell phones from normal everyday calls/phones.
I REALLY WONDER (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I REALLY WONDER (Score:5, Funny)
Emergency service workers like doctors, anaesthetists and consultants had pagers. This device would allow simple text messages to be received (if not just a telephone number), and could be set to vibrate rather than play a polyphonic tune at 120 decibels.
I think I may have seen one in a museum, but that was a long time ago...
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:5, Funny)
Allow the cinemas to install their own Pico Cells in the theatres and jam the outside cells. The pico cell should connect them to the cinema's own mobile operator and charge them 20$ per minute.
They'll think twice next time they get their bill, inconsideratle little twerps
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:5, Informative)
Is it really necessary to be reachable while you're at the cinema ? No. And if it is necessary, you shouldn't be at the cinema.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:5, Insightful)
And while it might or might not irritate you in a movie theater, think about a real theater, a classical concert or any other public performance where live artists are playing.
In any way, this will have a very democratic implementation: If people rush into these "early adopters" theaters that jam cells, more and more will adopt the system, and the mass will be pleased.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't even begin to tell you how frustrating it is to have my lectures interrupted by students' cell phones ringing. One student didn't even bother to turn off her cell phone during her oral exam, as we found out when it rang midway through the examination.
I would certainly welcome a cell phone blocker in my class rooms.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:4, Interesting)
"If your cell phone rings during class or during an examination I will answer it. Further, I will deduct five points from your final grade."
A phone went off once in that class. He told the caller in no uncertain terms where the cell phone being called was located and informed them that future calls to that number should be avoided during his class.
He also followed through on the grade policy. It was never a problem again.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:3, Funny)
I believe these have been available for some time. They're called 'F's.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:4, Insightful)
They better damn well inform me in big letters on the back of my ticket that my cell phone is jammed. I've taken my phone into theaters (on vibrate), and I've had to leave in the middle of shows because I've gotten a call or SMS, but that's something I'm prepared to do, and plenty of people used to have pagers and also had to leave in the middle of the show, so it's nothing new.
Why should I be penalized just because some retard either can't figure out how to turn his phone to vibrate or thinks everyone should hear Mozart's "Ode to the Piezoeletric Buzzer"?
In fact, I'm confused. Everyone gets all up in arms when some big mean company tries to restrict 802.11b, or blocks local hotspots by installing their own for-pay system, or whatever, but when the *movie theaters* (I thought we hated big media and the MPAA?) start jamming cell phone tranmissions (which are more useful than 802.11b to the average user), it's suddenly a great idea? I don't get it.
People with ringtones on in theaters is a social problem. Social problems cannot be solved by technical means. Even if you jam cellphones, they're still going to be talking loudly, or having some kid playing his gameboy, or crying, or throwing popcorn, or whatever. It won't solve anything. What they should do is take the money they were going to use for this, hire a couple of bouncers, and if your cell phone rings, you are asked to leave and you get your money back (or maybe a gift card, to prevent people from getting calls in the last frame of the movie and then getting money back), as per the back of your ticket. End of story.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:4, Interesting)
And if people are too stupid to remember to turn their cells off (and apparently they are), then I want to go to a theater where they have no choice. So that I am _sure_ I will not be bothered (at least by that). That is still a little less disturbance.
People will eventually be divided in three categories:
1. The people that don't care, which I suspect will be the vast majority
2. The people that want Phone Jams installed in their favorite theater and that are willing to change theater for that reason.
3. People that want no cell jams.
The ratio between 2 and 3 will rule the implementation of these little things. I am in 2.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't be so damned obtuse. Of course you "get it." Cell phones make noise. The wireless aether doesn't.
Now, if people started bringing their PDA's along with them to theaters to play loud or obnoxious games on them while paying customers were trying to watch a movie, you can be sure they'd try and bloc
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:3, Insightful)
That's a reasonable heuristic, but it's foolish to state it as a general law and then make deductions from it. Theft is a social problem, but very few people bother stealing from vending machines these days because the anti-theft technology makes it so hard.
And really, I don't think this is a social problem. The main problem here is not that people are trying to be jerks, it's that they forget to
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:3, Insightful)
You're not a parent, are you... I think by the very nature of "emergency", it's something unplanned. Are you suggesting that anyone/everyone that might have an emergency occur in their life, avoid the cinema? You must be better able to predict those things than most folks I know. To be sure, there's a distinction between, "Like oh my god Britney, James called me and I just had
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:3, Funny)
right, because he has a magic parent locator that can tell him in what seat you are sitting, and can magicly float over the 20 people between you and the isle.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd like to see an option for a "quiet zone signal", which would be a small transmitter put in places like movie theatres, etc, and phones could be equipped with an option to go into silent mode when the signal is present. It would be dirt-cheap to implement from the theatre's end.. it could probably be done for less than $100. The only problem is that everyone would need a new phone. Of course, the way people go through phones these days, if they started implementing this now, most people would have it on their phones in a couple years.
I really think that 99% of people that have their phones start ringing in a movie are embarrassed, and not just trying to piss everyone off - they just forgot to turn the phone off. This way, people could just have this setting enabled on their phone and not have to worry about it.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't all cell phones have a "vibrate" mode?
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:3, Insightful)
The flaw in this line of thinking is your complete lack of discipline in monitoring the functionality of your own phone. You said it yourself, If I actually remember to turn my phone off when I enter a theatre, I forget to turn it back on when I leave.
That's your own negligence for which you should be accountable. As should everybody else who's toting their phones around with them in places where quiet is proper etiquette.
Suddenly there's this HUGE issue of emergency situations and cell phones. As if
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:3, Informative)
Is my phone the only one on the planet that has "Vibrate, then ring"? I get 3 rings of time (about 10 seconds or so) to look at who is calling and answer or push them to voicemail. If I'm not wearing my phone (it's on my dresser at night, for example), I'll hear it after the first 3 rings.
Honestly, I can't why more people don't use that:
Re:Emergency Calls? -- True Friend (Score:5, Funny)
Do you live in New Jersey? Oh well, you know what they say "A friend will help you move. A true friend will help you move a body."
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:3, Funny)
I am on call 24/7, people NEED to be able to reach me and I have my phone on in the cinema, but of course I mute it to vibration only and to out side to answer it.
But since the pager network were closed down here a few years ago, the cell phone is the only way people can connect to me.
Don't be so narrow minded.
Plenty of people needs to be available.
Doctors, fire fighters, people waiting for a organ transplant, technicians at your small hosting company.
Specially those working in small towns or companie
Where R the +27 "Funny" Mods When U Need 'em? (Score:5, Funny)
(I have this image of weary, grim-faced grimey first-responders -- the firefighter in helmet, with his axe; the policeman, in cap, with his gun drawn; the doctor, stethescope around his neck, medical kit in hand; all emerging slo-mo through a thick curtain of smoke that blankets a rain-slick urban landscape. Background sound effects include sirens wailing, women sobbing, a toddler crying out for her mommy, the crackle of a police radio, maybe even the chum-chum of helicopter rotors overhead. Soundtrack is something suitably somber, like Enya's "Only Time," or perhaps a solo bagpipe rendition of "Amazing Grace." Suddenly, a high-pitched cry cuts through the scene and the mood: "Hey Guys!! Wait Up!!" The battle-weary first-responders turn slowly to see a technician from a small hosting company, "Buckaroo Banzai" baseball cap on head, router under his arm, racing out of an otherwise abandoned movie theatre (Marquee: "Star Wars Marathon!") to join them. The emergency-response professionals then look on in helpless horror (and a smidge of amusement that will haunt their consciences for months to come) as an Armored Personnel Carrier loaded with a troop of National Guardsmen barrels around the corner and flattens the hapless tech into the damp asphalt.)
Yeah, sure, I got better things to do then give it away on
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:3, Interesting)
Let him be not forgotten.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:5, Informative)
Trivial. The same way that you handle calls in a large shopping mall or other localised concentration of people. You setup a micro-cell. The difference is the one in the cinema will only route emergency calls; the rest get a recorded message saying "fuck off you sad bastards: try watching the film." QED.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, so it takes a minute longer. None of the scenarios I've seen are likely to suffer from a minute or two delay. People did manage to receive emergency phone calls before cell phones. They also did things like find capable baby-sitters.
Yeah, I can see why you'd want to know ASAP if little Betty broke her arm while you were away. Use your cellphone to call the sitter -- outside the theater -- and make sure she knows what movie you're in and what the theater's phone number is. Then, let it be blocked during the film. A delay of a few minutes before you find out about that isn't the end of the world.
In reality, the number of people who get calls from a girl/boyfriend or somesuch during a movie far outnumber those who get emergency calls. So, since the theater is more than willing to convey emergency messages, why have the cellphone on?
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:3, Insightful)
Nope. According to the article;
So they indeed have to implement some sort of selective jamming.
easy (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Mod parent up (Score:4, Informative)
Emergency calls OUTSIDE, people.
RTFA man, it says
"Devedjian specified however that emergency calls and calls made outside theaters and other performance spaces must not be affected."
It says nothing about emergency calls OUTSIDE.
Re:Emergency Calls? (Score:5, Funny)
I for one really welcome this. (Score:3, Insightful)
For me atleast it causes a loss of the "magic" that I get from a good preformance and thus it really affects the overall impression.
Like once in middle of a serious scene there were double mobilephone rings with some really annoying happy tunes at highest possible volume. If I had been armed at the moment there might have been two extra bodies...
Re:I for one really welcome this. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I for one really welcome this. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I for one really welcome this. (Score:5, Funny)
I've gone to a number of live performances that do something very much like this...
I've heard a number of variations, and seen them carried out about half the time (just the threat helps remind people to act civilized and turn the damned things off)... My favorite (at a play), the entire cast just stopped in mid-sentence, all turned toward the idiot with the ringing phone, and the main actor on stage asked him to answer it, insisting over rude-boy's mumbled apologies, that he please go ahead, take his call, all the rest of us would wait politely.
I have never seen another human turn that shade of red.
Most importantly, about six seconds later (you could almost hear the cogs turning in peoples' heads), a wave of soft little clicks and low bleeps moved across the theatre as all the other potential rude-idiots-that-ignored-the-initial-warning turned off their phones. Truly beautiful.
Who needs technology when plain ol' public humiliation will work? Unfortunately, most for-pay venues don't have the balls to carry through on threats like that.
next, the cafes and restaurants (Score:4, Interesting)
Pretty soon, we will see little icons in windows:
*WiFi ici!
or
*cell non!
Re:next, the cafes and restaurants (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes! (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously though... who REALLY needs to be contacted IMMEDIATELY 24-7? I would suggest that if you are really that important, you might want to skip the movie and stay in the Oval Office doing your job.
And if a friend or relative is dead or dying, well, if it takes until the end of the movie for you to find out, they'll be just as dead after as they were during. Plus you will have had an extra 2 hours of Matt Damon (or Gerard Depardieu?) induced happiness before the terrible news reaches you.
Basically anything that reduces our addiction to instant satisfaction of our every wish is ok with me. We don't NEED to be hooked up to a communication network all the time. They should also install these things in:
- university lecture theatres
- conferences
- crowded public transport
- you could have one in your house to turn on during mealtimes and other gatherings to encourage actual social interaction with people who are physically present
Re:Yes! (Score:5, Funny)
superheroes
Who needs to be contacted 24/7? (Score:3, Insightful)
A buddy of mine who is a volunteer fireman has a pager at all times. I've seen him have to take off from all sorts of situations to respond to calls. That w
Re:Who needs to be contacted 24/7? (Score:3, Insightful)
I would still be overjoyed if that non-fireman fucktard three rows in front of me couldn't discuss the weather with his buddy while I'm wat
Re:Who needs to be contacted 24/7? (Score:3, Insightful)
Which leads me to one, main question .
My cell phone is always, always set to vibrate. I NEVER set it to ring. When a call does come in, I excuse myself from the theatre, and answer the call in the thatre lobby. Why doesn't everybody else do the same thing? Simple, common sense.
Because common sense isn't.
Re:Yes! (Score:5, Insightful)
So basically you think we should all be like George W Bush?
Explain to me how it's not ok for me to be annoyed by some dickwit talking on his phone in the middle of a quiet bit in a thriller that I have paid to see, but it IS ok for you to be annoyed at me for being annoyed?
As for you and your child... well, that's what DVD players are for. Having children involves certain sacrifices, one of which is your ability to go out alone for a while. Either trust your baby sitter or rent a DVD, but don't let your stupid phone ring in my movie!
Re:Yes! (Score:5, Insightful)
There was a time, not so long ago, when cell phones didn't exist. And guess what? Parents still hired babysitters and went out for the occassional movie. The truly paranoid ones simply stayed home until their kid got a little older.
What's wrong with suggesting parents of today do the same thing? As the GP said, having a child requires certain sacrifices. Suck it up and stop complaining, or don't have kids.
What did people do *before* cellphones? (Score:5, Insightful)
People who *really* need to be contacted (doctors on call, for example) had pagers; and a blocking system based on a mini-cell station could be configured to allow such urgent calls/text messages through.
And you are quite wrong about the annoyance value of mobile phone conversations - a study has found them to be dramatically more annoying [useit.com] than face-to-face conversations, probably due to the one-way nature.
Re:Yes! (Score:5, Insightful)
And yes, some calls ARE that important. If I and my wife are out for dinner and a movie sans child, we're using our phones for emergency contact numbers.
I'm sorry, but that's just a load of crap. Everyone is worried about there kid, but unless you're a doctor with ueber-specialized knowledge of your kids deadly medical condition I think others will be able to take care of any emergency better IN PERSON than you can over a cell phone perhaps 30-60 minutes away.
I don't know if you know this.. but before cell phones people trusted their kids to babysitters and didn't sit on pins and needles worrying about little Johnny every single second (and thus needed cell phone contact for some emergency). Ok, some insane parents probbably still did, but cell phones have only seemingly broaded that insane impulse. I recall some episodes of crappy sit-coms making fun of such parents. Children can survive quite nicely for the length of dinner and a movie in the care of others. In the event of true emergencies some babysitters even know to call 911! Believe it or not there are better resources for emergencies than you on a phone (poison centers, 911 operators, and good babysitters).
Re:My god this makes me feel old... (Score:3, Insightful)
Phones don't annoy people... assholes annoy people (Score:3, Insightful)
Well obviously.
How do we manage the 'assholes'? Let them piss us off by taking calls during the movie/conference/lecture? Or block their asshomophone so that their asshole friends can't call them repeatedly to chat about the latest in asshole fashions? I know which I think is better for the non-assholes of the world.
Likewise regarding the silent vibrate feature on most phones - OF COURSE it would not be annoying if people all turned their pho
Re:Yes! (Score:3)
And therein lies the flaw in your solution.
Re:Yes! (Score:5, Funny)
Thank you, your comments are extremely stupid too.
How did people manage as recently as 1990? When people were dead or dying, however did relatives get by not knowing the *instant* their loved ones were crushed by that tractor/mauled by that pit bull/swarmed by those killer bees? What about earlier, say 1900... without phones at all, you would have had to wait a shocking couple of hours for a telegram delivery guy to find you... or in the Old West, you might have had to wait weeks and weeks to hear news of a loved one's passing.
But you can't wait 2 hours? 2 lousy hours. 120 minutes... 180 if it's an Oliver Stone film. Well, maybe you should sit at home crouched over your landline muttering "can't go out... loved ones might die... might miss the call... could all die at any second... can't miss their deaths...". Or maybe you could get out there and live your life without the need for the constant psychological umbilical cord of your mobile phone, taking the outrageous chance that if your entire family is slaughtered by cannibals while you are at the cinema the police will probably fill you in on the parts you missed when you get home.
Better yet, why not kill your family now? That way you wont miss a precious second of it, and I can enjoy The Bourne Supremacy in peace.
So dumb, when we resort to technology (Score:4, Interesting)
This will not stop idiots who have a 50,000 ansi lumens bright display playing some dumb-ass mobile game right in the corner of your eye when watching a movie (wtf, why did they go to the cinema?)
Also, those stupid giggly-bitches who laugh/scream/cry at the dumbest of moments, or who have not left the house for months on end, and the cinema is their biggest social event, and they catch up on all the gossip until about 10 minutes into the start of the film, at which point the hushes from other cinema goers has long since drowned out thier mind numbing dialogue.
The worst, when the stupid do not use your mobile advert comes on (Orange has some great ones - but trigger happy tv should be commissioned to do them worldwide) people take out thier mobile, check for messages, and then slide them back, not even switching them.
Or if they are on silent, they bloody answer them and talk in that hushed-shouting whisper that is actually about 50 decibels above normal talking.
Using technology to enforce peoples social awareness is lame. Just make it legal to hit them repeatedly with a length of lead piping until they learn.
Re:So dumb, when we resort to technology (Score:3, Funny)
That's some fierce punk-rock concert whispering...
-- n
Re: So dumb, when we resort to technology (Score:5, Insightful)
This is exactly comparable to the current fuss about P2P software. Mobile phones have perfectly legitimate and non-infringing uses. (SMS messages, for example. Genuine life-or-death emergencies. Incoming calls where the user doesn't speak, or leaves the cinema before speaking.) Jamming prevents all those, whilst still allowing all the antisocial behaviour people have the rudeness to pull off!
A jammer is just a tool for management too cowardly to enforce a proper nuisance policy.
And of course, this is the thin end of the wedge. If jammers become accepted in cinemas, theatres and churches, they may well spread to restaurants, galleries, museums, shops, cafés, pubs, stations, workplaces...
What's worse is that in this case there is a possible technological measure that would do pretty much what people want. Instead of jamming the phones, how about a short-range transmitter which told the phones to go into 'silent mode', turning off the ringtone, and maybe the microphone, whilst still allowing vibrating alerts, text messages, and maybe incoming calls. It's a bit more technology than phones currently have, but it can't be too hard to implement.
Re: So dumb, when we resort to technology (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not suggesting that mobile access be a right. Just that there should be a more important reason for jamming it than just "It gives some people an excuse to make a nuisance of themselves."
Of course people shouldn't rely on their phones for anything absolutely vital. Coverage can be lost due to intervening architecture, weather, or heavy use by others. Batteries run out. Networks go down. And so on. You can't assume you'll be in coverage in restaurants, cinemas, or anywhere else.
But the 'Jam them' reaction makes me very uncomfortable. Have we become so intolerant of others that anything we don't personally like should be banned? Do we want to live in a society where we're only allowed to do things if everyone explicitly agrees?
Remember: you can't force people to be nice to each other. You can only encourage them by example, and where necessary punish gross infringements.
Jamming phones is a coward's way out. If people are making a nuisance of themselves, then ask them to stop it, or have them thrown out. After all, that's what would happen if people spoke loudly to their neighbours in a theatre; why should speaking loudly into a phone be any different? If a kid takes in a handheld game that makes loud beeping noises, then it should be removed or disabled; again, why it different if a phone makes loud noises? Just because something's technically possible doesn't make it a good solution.
Jamming treats people like children. It effectively says "Since some of you aren't using their phones responsibly, we'll stop anyone using one." And, like many other childish reactions, it doesn't teach people anything. If someone got bounced out from using their phone inconsiderately, then they'd learn something from that! But is it right to punish the majority because of a small minority of inconsiderate people?
As I said, it's exactly the same argument as for P2P. In fact, more so -- if you believe the figures, then the vast majority of P2P traffic is illegal, whereas it's only a minority of mobile users who behave obnoxiously. Most people argue that the former should be allowed for the small proportion of legitimate traffic; yet you're asking to jam phones where a much larger proportion of use is considerate!
I understand why you're sick of obnoxious bastards using their phones offensively, and I share your feelings. I just think that jamming is the wrong solution. Use your feelings in a constructive manner! Stand up and tell someone that they're disturbing everyone! If you want to say a big 'Screw you' to them, then do so -- to their faces, loudly and publicly! If necessary, threaten to stick the phone somewhere anatomically impossible! (Seriously. I expect you'll get cheers from most of those around you.)
Rudeness is the problem, so fight rudeness. Don't fight phones, otherwise the rest of us will suffer, and rude people will just find some other way to be obnoxious!
Jam at the network level (Score:3, Interesting)
In places where there are a great number of cells already, it may even be possible for the networks to triangulate positions, and stop reception of non-emergency calls when they can see that the cellphone is currently within an area on their 'quiet' list.
Best of all (for the networks), they get to be in control and charge for the service.
Jolyon
ps. Somebody print this out and keep it in the Prior Art folder just incase someone tries to get rich
A great idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
-- n
In the meantime, in China... (Score:3, Interesting)
Unfortunately, even if they DID install scramblers, it wouldn't prevent all the people from explaining the movie to their neighbors. Sigh.
What about personal emergencies? (Score:3, Insightful)
This system would block the sitter's call to me, yet that is no less valid as an emergency than a 999 call is.
Nope - I'd like to be in favour of a tech. solution to this problem, but the difficulty in knowing what's important and what isn't cannot be surmounted by base-station filtering. The only answer is just to throw the offenders out.
Cheers,
Ian
Re:What about personal emergencies? (Score:3, Insightful)
Here in Denmark ... (Score:5, Interesting)
In (most) Danish cinemas, just after the trailers and before the movie starts, there's a little funny reminder for people who forgot to turn off or silence their mobiles. It's actually a commercial - a joint effort by various mobile phone service providers.
The lights are dimmed and the screen is completely black. Suddenly a phone rings in some corner of the cinema, only it's not a phone, it's actually coming from the surround sound speakers. One of the commercials has one of those annoyoing teenage girls answering the phone - you know, the kind who is blabbering on and on about everything with one of her friends. :-)
It's very humerous and convincing at the same time. Of course in the end the reminder on the screen tells you to turn of the phone.
IMO, this is great way to handle the issue.
zCan I take these jammers with me on a date? (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's something you won't read too often on
#1 pet-peve on a date, just short of picking your nose, is picking up a cell phone.
I take my phone with me, and it goes OFF the second I am within talking distance of my date. If it goes back on again, that means I'm more concerned about a random friend asking me (for the 50th time) what sites are best for downloading mp3s, than I am in the flow of our conversation.
Is there anything more uncomfortable than to be mid-stride in conversation, and having that blasted ring interupt. So now she's giving driving directions to a friend and your picking at your food. (or your nose, as at this point it's a lost cause)
So help me, if that phone rings it better be your family priest/rabbi/immam telling you that your mother/brother/father/sister/dog is dieing.
Now that I think about it, I don't want a portable jammer with me on a date. I want to know as soon as possible that the womman is a classless waste of my time.
Here's a better idea though. Let's install electroshock devices on cell phones, that are like that video game James Bond (Sean Connery) played in "Never Say Never Again". When you start talking it's all good, but as time passes the voltage/pain goes up. If the conversation isn't worth having you hang up before you have to feel the pain of everyone else sitting near you.
Hmm... (Score:5, Funny)
(Phone goes off) "Hello?
Excellent idea ! (Score:3, Insightful)
Next I'd like to see the use of mobile phones being given the same social status as smoking i.e. not allowed in enclosed public places such as pubs, restaurants, theatres, buses etc. etc.
If you want to make or receive calls you can go outside with the smokers. (Actually wait a minute I'm a smoker so fsck that, they'll have to have the other side of the entrance)
In the case of trains there should be a single carriage in which you can send and receive calls.
For fucks sake society functioned perfectly well before these intrusive, obnoxious devices. If I were to start carrying round a trumpet and intermittently playing it tunelessly and loudly then shouting away to myself I'd get arrested/battered pretty quickly.
As usual its not the technologys fault but the fucking morons who are misusing it...
Now what I'd really like is a portable, unobtrusive, mobile jammer that would put a 5 metre "Phone disruptor" screen around myself.
Necessity (Score:3, Interesting)
Funny coincidence, I've started shopping for a jammer today. Yesterday's train ride was the final drop. When will people learn that your private interest is not more important than the comfort of the 50 other people on the train?
I would expect that people talking on the phone in a crowded, public place would at least have the basic courtesy of not speaking twice as loud as everyone else.
And it's not like it's impossible or hard to do. I was in Tokyo last year, and while everyone there has a cell phone, I never, ever, found anyone using it in an obnoxious way. There were no loud rings, and people talking on the cell phone talked to quiet that they were no disturbance even to those standing nearby.
All it takes is a little respect for your fellow humans.
Until then, I want my jammer.
Performer's perspective (Score:5, Informative)
The FRENCH are enforcing courtesy? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sorry, but I'll repeat what's already been said here: if it's so $%&*ing important, take care of it elsewhere. You have no right to inflict your lack of courtesy on others.
The last time I went to see the Emerson Quartet perform in Atlanta (which has the rudest audiences I've ever seen), the whole experience was repeatedly interrupted by ringing and "hushed" conversations. It screwed up the audience's (and worse) the performers' concentration and made the whole performance an excercise in frustration. I paid sixty bucks--I deserve to enjoy it.
Why must people make this so complicated? (Score:3, Interesting)
Am I the only person to figure this chain out?
411 on the 911 (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, we're all paying jacked up prices to the State for "911" service, most of which is sucked out to pay for other pork^Wnecessary projects. Incoming emergency calls should cost $5:call, covered by the recipient's insurance in the event of an actual emergency.
Even these calls shouldn't just ring out publicly in the venue. One person's emergency is another person's irritating conversation about whether to pick up a loaf of bread on the way home. All these jammers ought to set all phones to silent/vibrate, and allow emergency calls to vibrate for 30 seconds, then ring out loud for another 30s if unanswered at first. If the call is about groceries, maybe their insurance will cover them when I "help them out of their seats" to tend their "emergency".
Re:How is this possible techincally? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How is this possible techincally? (Score:3, Informative)
However networks in the same country might stop customers from competing networks inadv
Re:How is this possible techincally? (Score:3, Informative)
Then put a small cell phone tranceiver (a small version of those cell phone towers) inside the room and program it to only allow outgoing calls to the emergency numbers (e.g. 911).
You can (Score:5, Interesting)
The reason I know you can do it is that there is an area in the building I used to work where signals are intentionally blocked somehow, and my phone comes up with "Emergency Calls Only" when I am in that area.
Re:You can (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:First Post? (Score:3, Insightful)
You will now choose a theater where cells are not jammed, and I will choose one where cells are.
The public will decide.
Re:First Post? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:First Post? (Score:5, Funny)
If it's just a fucking movie, then don't fucking go. It's not place to decide how important an event is to the other people there. I've just visited your blog.
A) You look very young, which probably explains your selfish anti-social attitute.
B) You go on about some concert as if it was the second coming of Christ. Don't you realise it's just a fucking concert?
Re:First Post? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:First Post? (Score:4, Insightful)
People that like cinema go to the theatre to escape for a while. If you don't want to do that, and aren't prepared to cut the umbilical cord for a couple of hours, then don't go to the movies. Watch a DVD.
What do you think people did 10 and more years ago when most people didn't even own a phone? Do you think they never went out because they couldn't afford to be out of touch?
Re:First Post? (Score:3, Interesting)
The obvious thing to say would be "And before pagers?"
Before pagers people called the theater and the manager or an usher came into the theater to find you. Hopefully, you told the manager this might be an issue so he could see where you sat. I was in a couple movies when I was young where the theater got an emergency call and stopped the film and turned the lights on so the manager could announce the names of the people who had an emergency phone call.
A vibrating cell phone and a small lighted scre
How lame can you get? (Score:5, Insightful)
I would personally be quite pissed that just to watch a movie, I would be out of touch for three hours. Not a good idea.
And I would be quite pissed if you took a phone call while I was trying to watch the movie. Your attitude is so frigging self-important. If you cannot be out of touch for 3 hours while you watch a movie, stay at home!
I swear, you see all of these posts that claim, "I must be reachable at all times", I call bullshit. You know what I hear when someone takes a call in a movie theater? I'll give you a hint, 100% of the time it is banal blather. Grow up.
Re:How lame can you get? (Score:3, Insightful)
I swear, you see all of these posts that claim, "I must be reachable at all times", I call bullshit. You know what I hear when someone takes a call in a movie theater? I'll give you a hint, 100% of the time it is banal blather. Grow up.
No, it's you who need to grow up. At some point you're going to acquire some real responsibility in the world, and then you'll begin to understand why people say such things.
In my case, I have four kids. Sure, I get a babysitter who I think is trustworthy, but there ar
Re:First Post? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not the people blaming you for being anti-social that are idiots.
Switch your phone off in the theatre. If you think you are too necessary to someone elses life to be uncontactable for the length of a movie, get a DVD player and stay at home.
Re:First Post? (Score:3)
For some people mobiles mean freedom from sitting home where you can be called.
Fine, but that does not extend them the right to be available anywhere they go.
It's bad enough that I have to listen to the annoying buzz on my headphones that a cell phone causes when it makes a connection while I am trying to listen to music on my portable music device when commuting. I sure as hell don't want to be unnecessarily disturbed when I have paid to see a movie/performance.
Also, people who are on call either sig
Re:This idea sucks. (Score:5, Insightful)
A good point - but, you've completely forgotten a few things:
- Hardware manufacturers design products 1-2 years in advance. Therefore for the implementation of an RFID chip, you're looking at at least a year.
- A protocol would need to be devised that all the manufacturers agree on (both handsets and the systems that will trigger them)
- People would need to purchase these phones. Typically they'd be on high tier phones first. A phones lifetime is approximately 18 months before they are on low tier (ie. your pay-as-you-go mass market) where adopotion is the greatest.
- You'd need all the phones to adopt this before it would work. The first WAP phone I saw was in 1996 (and i'm pretty sure that they were around before then) and only now is it commonplace enough for companies to sell content through it. That is a lead time of 8 years.
So in short, it's a great idea, but you're looking at 8 years+ before its going to be installed on enough handsets to actually work in the cinema. What is the point of blocking 20% of the handsets, when its one of the other 80% that ring?Alternativily you could implement signal blocking today which will work on every phone the moment it is turned on.
Sometimes the best ideas aren't the most practical to implement.