A Cellphone Rant

Well, a bunch of you knew this one was coming ...

Packet radio was never intended to be the plague that it's turned into. Who'd have guessed? Now, I like my cell phone. When I need to call someone, I turn it on, make a call and turn it off. Works great. It's like having a fold-up portable phone booth I can stick in my pocket. Of course I won't turn it on in:

1. Theatres
2. Restaurants
3. Libraries
4. Churches
5. Air Route Traffic Control Centers
6. Operating Rooms

Which is becoming all too common. What the HELL are these guys thinking? I was actually watching some experimental surgery and some idiot's phone went off. Get this -- he took the call! It was important, I suppose ...

It's been said that Politeness is the lubricant that makes the machine of society run. It doesn't make it run any better or any faster, just cooler, quieter, and for much, much longer. When my dinner is interrupted by some guy's loud Bling Ring (last week it was Uncle Fucker from South Park, now that was classy) it makes me a little less relaxed, a little edgier; a little happiness burns away. Kind of like getting a telemarketing call during the best part of a movie; it doesn't do you any real damage, but it invades your space and makes you an unwilling participant in someone else's personal drama.

Ten years ago it wasn't possible to be a 'Net connected Gargoyle with three pagers two cell phones and a Blackberry. Does it enhance the quality of life to have a bell strapped to your hip that anyone in the world can ring by remote control? I'd say no, although I'm clearly bucking the trend here. If you've got more Ethernet and Blue Tooth on your body than a typical server rack, maybe it's time to recognize it for the crutch it really is.

There's a lot of interesting people out here. Hang up and talk to some of us. If you can't, please put your phone on vibrate and be quiet so the rest of us can enjoy life without you. Cool?