OT: Technology and Geek Stuff Thread

[Panoptes]

Pagers still work just fine.

I page you, you call me back.

I page my daughter, she is required to call me back within minutes because she is supposed to be somewhere where I know there is supposed to be a phone (even, gasp, a pay phone).

Doesn't matter. By the time she thinks she needs a cell phone, I will have had a chip implanted on her that allows me to follow her by GPS.

Hey, it works for my wife in tracking me.

;)

As for vehicle breakdowns, I'll take my chances that my well maintained vehicles will not breakdown more than once a decade on me and in the mean time, I will have saved $15K (for full cell phone/internet connected capabilities at an avg of $129/mo (todays dollars)) in that time.

[Darl McrBride]

We keep one of those pay as you go phone's in my wifes ride. The piece of mind is worth the $8/month. I keep pistol in mine and figure I'll just take a phone from a passerby if needed (also doubled as my 'earthquake kit' when I lived in socal).

[Panoptes]

DM,

We also use Pay as you Go phones by T-Mobile. Our monthly expense for two phones is $16 and change. We buy $100 worth of minutes (I pay $90/per) that last a year for each phone and we don't even come close to using the amount of minutes available to us in that time. We use half of the allowable minutes in fact.

I like the idea of rolling with my buddies Smith & Wesson but the police are not too kind to those that they catch with them in their rides.

[Darl McrBride]

As for the police, I'll take my chances that my well maintained vehicles will not be searched more than once a decade.

[Jdoggie]

I have a well maintained vechile now, but when I was 16 that was a different story.

Actually just used my phone for some good on Friday. Say a hit and run on the freeway. Followed the running driver to a street a few blocks of the freeway. Called the police and they came and took care of it. Had I not had a cell phone, I would not have been a HERO to the Metaler in the totaled Camero.

[Panoptes]

JDOGGIE,

Good on you for stepping up like that.

I also apprehended a hit-n-run (mojado) driver about a decade ago in the city of Tustin. I chased his truck down in my car, cornered him in a lot and placed him under citizens arrest. I had a witness who ran out from the nearby offices call the police from their land line.

I'm sure it would still work that way today.

[DanO]

I have a TracPhone which is pay as you go. The single time I tried to use it while driving(seni emergency) I was all over the road. I also don't know how one can concentrate on the road and all the awareness that goes with it and also concentrate on a conversation. When I'm in heavy traffic I'm concentrating so much on the traffic I don't even hear the radio, My mind tunes it out.

GO LIONS "07" !!!!!!!

[Daytona John]

Ditto DanO. My feelings also.

[dwt1]

Pagers still work just fine.

I page you, you call me back.

I page my daughter, she is required to call me back within minutes because she is supposed to be somewhere where I know there is supposed to be a phone (even, gasp, a pay phone).

Doesn't matter. By the time she thinks she needs a cell phone, I will have had a chip implanted on her that allows me to follow her by GPS.

Hey, it works for my wife in tracking me.

The beauty of a cell phone, she'll likely dig out the GPS device with a carving knife, no way she seperates herself from a cell phone, and cell phone have GPS tracking systems in them.

[YT]

Good for you Doogie & Gonz!

I tried to report a reckless driver one morning on my way in to work a few months ago. Instead of calling the Ga. Highway Patrol (*GSP in case you're interested) I called into the MARTA Police dispatch number on my work cell phone.

This woman answers the phone, I report what I see and she puts me on hold! For 2 minutes! Then I loose signal and the call is dropped.

I figured I'd make a stink about it and talked with our asst. chief of poilice about it. She requests that the tape of the call be pulled (actually it's a digital recorder) and surprise surprise the recorder isn't recording any calls or radio transmissions.....it's been out of service for 8 months!

So for about a week the emails and accusations flew, but I don't believe it ever got fixed.

I just chalked it up to another one of MARTA's SNAFU's

[Jdoggie]

The accident was on the freeway but I called the police form the city I was in. When I got them on the line after about 2 mins, they said it wasn't their jusidiction and transfer me to the Highway patrol. I stayed on hold there for about 2 mins and said fuck it and hung up. I then decided to call the local poince again. I told the dispacter that the car was parked on this street. She asked for my name and I told her only my first. She said I need to tell them my last so they could identify the assilent. I pointed out that I didn't want to get involved, just reporting it and to look for the wrecked and smoking car with the 300 pound woman orbiting around it. I then hung up!

[THE STEE]

hell I don't like drivin a fire truck with the siren blowing and talking to dispatch let alone a cell phone, i usually tell my shotgun to grab the radio-play with the siren and i will get us there safe.

[Daytona John]

STEE; Sounds like my old Fireman buddy exactly. He was a driver and went blind.

Nothing like a blind Firetruck Driver.

ps: he's no longer on the force

[Larsky]

Three of my four cars are manuals - I know it's a bitch to talk on a cell phone, drink coffee and shift all at the same time

Tell me about it. Between the cell phone, the coffee, the shift knob, and keeping the beat on the steering wheel, I practically never take the effort anymore to give the finger to vehicles with pro-gun control bumper stickers.

[dwt1]

who has time to put thier hands on the steering wheel? That's what knees are for, though clutching makes that difficult