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07/07/09
PPffttt.. Hell no! I don't text, I email.
Just kidding. Seriously, too many people have enough of a challenge just operating a motor vehicle without throwing in the additional distraction(s).
Some stupid broad (my deepest apologizes to the women-folk around here. This isn't directed at all of you, just this one particular dingbat) almost broadsided me the other day on the way to work. I look over at her to glare and gesticulate my frustration when I see her double-fisting a pink blackberry pearl down low, right in front of the steering wheel airbag (and yes she was that close to me that I could identify the phone she was using), completely oblivious to her surroundings.
Oh how I struggled to control the turbulent rage swelling up within me. I wanted to get in front of her and mash on the brake pedal, just for a chance to trigger that airbag, giving her a well deserved faceplant into her phone.
Sanity ensued and my rage subsided as I tried to ignore her erratic weaving for the next mile. Eventually her texting spree ended. The phone hastily stashed in her purse. A flick of her wheat colored hair and she was gone, exiting off to distant points unknown...
07/06/09
Like drunk driving, it's still dangerous, and it's still stupid.
*shrugs*
07/06/09
07/06/09
If 100 million people text, and no one ever dies in an accident, is it still dangerous?
I tend to think that's how you measure things like this by how many people are hurt.
07/06/09
07/06/09
07/06/09
(would have been +1, but the other ½ was lost texting while chainsawing)
07/06/09
07/06/09
07/06/09
I personally hate text messages. I refuse to engage in the activity period. Women that get into the habit of texting you after you've just met is the most annoying act and should be punishable by flogging (not the fun, kinky kind).
If you text while driving you should be shot, and like the Chinese do (in part inspired by the economy atm) your family and loved ones should have to pay for the bullet.
Good day.
/textingbad
07/07/09
Really? Is it THAT bad. I think most of the people here that are against it just cant multitask.
07/07/09
Multitasking means you aren't doing each task at 100%. Personally, I'd rather that you were at 100% when driving an explosion-powered steel missile near me.
07/07/09
As I said before to someone else on this post. I have fantastic motor skill cause I've been driving for 6 years now with no accidents and no tickets, and Ive been texting and talking on my cell phone for all those 6 years.
And I don't drink beer, tastes gross.
07/07/09
It's like talking to someone named "Hassexwithhamsters" and then saying "so having sex with hamsters is stupid".
07/06/09
07/07/09
You're all going to kill somebody some day. I only pray that you die too.
01/15/09
I can only hope that hours before the next episode my phones will ring, my email lights up, text messages flood my phone, my TV automatically turns on, sentries beat at my door and scream "American Idol... It's On... don't forget!!!" and sirens go off like incoming SCUD warnings so I don't miss so much as one word of Seacrest's opening salvo "THIS... is American Idol!" I mean, why do we load up on all this cool communications technology in the first place if not to use it in the service of a greater good?
01/15/09
01/15/09
I can't believe you think it's alright for a company that you pay a lot of money to every month to turn around and start spamming. Apparently you even think it's alright if they charge you for the privilege. I guess it's not that surprising -- maybe we've all become so inured to advertising everywhere that we don't think about it any more. After all, there are ads at my local DMV that I have to look at when I'm waiting to get my drivers license renewed, there are "special offers" packed in with my electric bill and every box that I get from Amazon. Signs on every building, bus and taxi - even video advertising inside of the taxi itself. Nary an inch isn't covered.
But I guess that's the reason to decry this latest incursion into our peace and quiet (what little there is left of it); the cell phone has remained relatively ad free because of the Do Not Call registry and the phone company's own limitations on cellphone spamming. But because it's primarily the carriers who have been blocking spam, it's pretty easy to imagine them selling your number and the privilege of spamming to advertisers, provided that they can find what the limit is for each customer that isn't going to make them switch carriers. If they can do it, they will. And if people don't bitch about it now, it'll happen more. And then we'll be flooded with SMS messages and calls and emails and whatever other technology they can invent to advertise to us on.
01/15/09
01/15/09
12/29/08
No reasons really other than abbrevs are annoying.
12/29/08
12/29/08
in Japan, the person initiating the call or text pays for the transmission AND reception... the person who answers does not pay for the call while the caller pays up to 40 yen per minute. it's actually the caller paying 30 yen per minute plus the 10 yen per minute the person receiving the call would normally pay (on a landline, cellular is more per minute).
here in the states, the caller AND the receiver pay per minute AND per message. if i send a short mail, i pay 25 cents. the person receiving that same short mail ALSO pays 25 cents. each short mail sent, the carrier makes 50 cents.
12/29/08
the difference being in Japan, very few calling plans include any free calling minutes, or at least that's how it was when i lived in Japan from 1996 to 2002... my DoCoMo calling contract had 40 included minutes, free to receive calls, and 2 yen per short mail.
12/29/08
What are any of you going to do about it?
Are you going to cut the cellphone cord? Are you going to drop messaging plans? Are you going to take even an hour out of a day to send a letter to your representatives in Congress?
If not, you're just hand-wringing.
12/29/08
12/29/08
12/29/08
12/29/08
12/29/08
Before people get their panties in a bind over what I'm going to say, I will agree that text messaging is overpriced. The reason it is overpriced is not because of the size of the messages, but because of the relative time insensitivity of a text message.
Another way to visualize how text messaging is transmitted is to think of it like closed captioning on a TV. Closed captioning is shoe-horned into the space between frames.
There is only a fixed amount of control channel bandwidth. Suggesting that sending small messages over a smaller portion of the overall cellular bandwidth costs nothing is inaccurate. In all likelihood, it requires more overhead relative to the payload than call data, contrary to what the article suggests.
Now, the reason I think they're overpriced is because of the relative insensitivity of text messages to latency. You're not going to realize if a text message gets to you some fractions of a second, or even seconds later than you expected. Now, you can bet the farm on people being pissed about service and call quality issues arising from network congestion and latency issues.
Personally, I really don't care if they treat my precious text messages like insignificant garbage, as long as my calls are essentially guaranteed to be completed. Additionally, I don't mind that they make some money off trying to use their bandwidth to its full potential. (even if it is a killing)
Put the telecoms up against the oil companies and it's apparent that they're not really fleecing anyone.
There really is no winning with some of you people. The same people that will complain about the price of text messages, are the same people that will complain about an "excessively sized" shipping container. When a cellular company uses their excess air (recycling bandwidth) to make a buck, they'll still complain.
12/10/08
12/10/08
12/10/08
12/10/08
12/10/08