Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

[3930dave]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

The phone pesters me half to death ringing while I'm driving, alerting me of a text message, wanting a charge and worst of all nagging to be unpluged when the charge is complete. I hate the $#@*'! things.

Don't Worry...... Be Happy......

Do a Bill Murray..... toss the phone altogether. (I'm not sure he ever carried one.....)

Short of that, try what I do - Airplane Mode most of the time..... helps battery life too. I rarely have the ringer on either.

^ Two ways to pay less tribute to Pavlov....

Rgds, D.

 

[Jstpssng]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

For emergencies and/or checking in with marginal reception this Garmin inReach seems to be the most reliable around. You can send and receive texts through the satellite system for a subscription fee. It's not something for your teenage daughter to use, but for those of us who work alone in marginal or no cell coverage it's a way to stay in touch, and call the cavalry if things go south for you.

 

[3930dave]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

Interesting option Jp. Makes sense, on Iridium. IPX7 is nice for outdoor use.

Personal plan looks to be $65/month with unlimited texts. Not bad (at least compared to the high-priced Canuck market), considering the global coverage.

Garmin | inReach

Rgds, D.

 

[Al 2]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

I don't use my phone very much. A few times a day possibly. I'm a firm believer that you should carry your phone on your person at all time in case of an emergency. Not on dash of the car or whatever. You never know exactly when you might need it . A few years ago a local trucker was hooking up his rear trailer to his tandem truck in the winter time in a remote location at night with his driving clothes on and not his winter clothes. Somehow when he activated his air hitch he got his hand jammed in the hitch and couldn't release it. Fortunately he had his phone in his shirt pocket and he was rescued but almost lost his hand. People get pinned or in trouble on their tractor or machines and the phone is in the cab. Not a good idea as far as I'm concerned. On another note, take a look at this video re cell phone use. Some good lessons here for discussion. May have to rewind video to start?
Levi Wolff - Parents you must watch this....actually...
Al

 

[Jstpssng]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

^^^^^^^
For those of us who aren't FB friendly, click on the fine print if you want to watch it. (Am I the only person who sees the irony of doing an anti cell phone rant on the above mentioned media platform?)

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

I do lots with my smart phone. I can't even log onto my work computer without it.

 

[Diggin It]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

Do we talk plans?

Mine runs me about $10/mo with time, data and messages rolling over each month to the point I don't think I'll ever use it all. Maybe if the home DSL goes down for a few days.

 

[Wakey]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

Here is something useful if you have a smart phone. The (free) app is called Our Groceries.

You can sync it to as many phones as you like so your spouse can add to the different lists you create and everybody's phone auto updates.

I have a grocery list for 2 different stores.

Hardware store

Lowe's

Research

Buy it

Doctor question list

CPA list

And my two favorites..

Grab it list. When I'm about to start a project i fill that list with all the tools and parts I need while having my morning coffee. What a time saver.

And the Daily do list. Every evening I fill that list with all the things I want to do tomorrow.

And of course the grocery list. A big time saver so I never run out of anything and 2nd trips into town are rare,

 

[stuckmotor]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

Don't Worry...... Be Happy......

Do a Bill Murray..... toss the phone altogether. (I'm not sure he ever carried one.....)

Short of that, try what I do - Airplane Mode most of the time..... helps battery life too. I rarely have the ringer on either.

^ Two ways to pay less tribute to Pavlov....

Rgds, D.

Family emergencies come up so I can't toss the phone all together. I don't know what airplane mode does. I hate the #$%@&$! thing.

 

[k0ua]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

I love my smart phone, I use it maybe 6 to 8 hours per day.

 

[ovrszd]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

I consider it a tool. Less than 10% of my use is talking to someone.

Best Apps ever:

Latitude Longitude, quickly pinpoints your location with 911 mailing address and Latitude/Longitude numbers. I use it when calling Dig Rite to locate underground utilities.

Angle Meter Pro, has multiple selections of data reporting. I use it to determine slope of road banks. As a simple Level. Construction slopes such as roof.

Compass, self explanatory.

Google Maps, self explanatory.

Climate.com, use primarily as a rain gauge. I have a dozen locations pinpointed across a 10 mile area, including my homesite and my farm. Averages 80%+ accuracy. Good enough to save me a 6 mile trip to the farm just to find out it rained an inch.....

Unit converter, converts any measurement you can think of to something you understand. Great for old timers that refuse to learn the metric system.

Group Me, great for texting in groups larger than 10. Use it to group communicate with the offroad gang I hang out with.

I keep all these on my Home Screen for handy access.

My usage is usually in short spurts. Frequency dependent on how busy I am that day. Cell Phone was my families idea because I'm out alone at night pushing snow in the Winter, somewhere on 50 miles of sparsely populated rural roads.

 

[3930dave]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

Family emergencies come up so I can't toss the phone all together. I don't know what airplane mode does. I hate the #$%@&$! thing.

They have affected our sense of immediacy, quite a bit.

Airplane mode switches off the transmitter portion(s) of the phone. As we are covering here, many people use their phones more as a mobile computer interface, than for talking or even texting. The reason for that option was so that you could have your screen and local functions still work, but setting Airplane Mode On prevented you from potentially creating interference with the airplane's onboard electronics (fly by wire controls, Navigation....).

I like that my phone is booted up ready to go, but is saving power (transmitters Off) until I need to do something. Basic time mgmt courses used to teach setting aside 15 minutes at appropriate intervals to sit down and return business calls in a batch..... today, we seem to have devolved into a state of constant interruptions with phones.

That's the other thing I've come to like about Airplane Mode - I schedule when my interruptions occur on the phone.

I only recently realized that Airplane Mode has a nice option. If your phone is running normally, and you activate Airplane Mode, then all transmitters get turned Off. If you then turn your Wifi setting back On, it will come up, and your cell and other transmitters stay Off. Nice option, when I want to make use of the web, but want the cell network SILENT. (Some airlines now offer onboard Wifi).

^ My version of getting my phone to do What I Want, When I Want...... not perfect, but better than the default settings, for my needs....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

I consider it a tool. Less than 10% of my use is talking to someone.

Best Apps ever:

Latitude Longitude, quickly pinpoints your location with 911 mailing address and Latitude/Longitude numbers. I use it when calling Dig Rite to locate underground utilities.

Angle Meter Pro, has multiple selections of data reporting. I use it to determine slope of road banks. As a simple Level. Construction slopes such as roof.

Compass, self explanatory.

Google Maps, self explanatory.

Climate.com, use primarily as a rain gauge. I have a dozen locations pinpointed across a 10 mile area, including my homesite and my farm. Averages 80%+ accuracy. Good enough to save me a 6 mile trip to the farm just to find out it rained an inch.....

Unit converter, converts any measurement you can think of to something you understand. Great for old timers that refuse to learn the metric system.

Group Me, great for texting in groups larger than 10. Use it to group communicate with the offroad gang I hang out with.

I keep all these on my Home Screen for handy access.

My usage is usually in short spurts. Frequency dependent on how busy I am that day. Cell Phone was my families idea because I'm out alone at night pushing snow in the Winter, somewhere on 50 miles of sparsely populated rural roads.

Lots of Apps to choose from, for most interests/needs....

As mobile computers, smart phones are convenient, and depending what you buy, somewhat ruggedized and water resistant.

For any kind of heavy (data wise) mobile computing needs I prefer a large screen, but I really don't want to be always lugging around a large smart phone.... for business, I prefer something like a Toughbook, or at lower cost, something like a water resistant Chromebook.

One of my favourite phone apps is WhatsApp - good all round performance (voice, text, images, video conference....) and can be PC client based. Like that is based on Signal, not comfortable with its present ownership.

Rgds, D.

 

[drssg]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

For me, it’s a blessing and not a curse. If I don’t want it to bother me, then I use airplane mode. With my smart phone there is a huge list of stuff that I always have with me.

- Calendar
- Contacts
- Calculator
- Camera
- Flashlight
- Misc notes/shopping list/to do list
- Alarm clock (better than my real alarm clock)
- View property network cameras from home or away.
- Google maps. Soooo much better when I don’t know where I’m going.
- Kindle
- Weather
- Voice memo for a quick note that I don’t want to write down
- And of course, TBN.

I don’t even use the phone and texting that much, but that’s also very convenient when I need it.

The most annoying thing is telemarketers, so I don’t answer it for any number not in my contact list.

 

[k0ua]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

For me, it’s a blessing and not a curse. If I don’t want it to bother me, then I use airplane mode. With my smart phone there is a huge list of stuff that I always have with me.

- Calendar
- Contacts
- Calculator
- Camera
- Flashlight
- Misc notes/shopping list/to do list
- Alarm clock (better than my real alarm clock)
- View property network cameras from home or away.
- Google maps. Soooo much better when I don’t know where I’m going.
- Kindle
- Weather
- Voice memo for a quick note that I don’t want to write down
- And of course, TBN.

I don’t even use the phone and texting that much, but that’s also very convenient when I need it.

The most annoying thing is telemarketers, so I don’t answer it for any number not in my contact list.

Shot timer for firearms competition.
Bingo game (I volunteer at a Senior Center as caller)
Notifications of DX stations (spotting network for Amateur Radio)
Endoscope display for cheap chinese edoscopes.
Oscilloscope display
Electronic reference and calculators.
Dozens of Adobe acrobat manuals loaded for all kinds of equipment. On board at your fingertips when ever you want them without needing internet access

Magnifier Glass (thru the camera app)
Insurance Rate Quote tools
Storm App
Decibel meter
Photographic light meter
Recorder (hours of audio recording if needed)
Miller Welding setting for all processes. MIG, GTAW, SMAW
Radio Frequency Scanneer for any city or area (for free no less)
Excell, Powerpoint, and Word platform.

AND thousands more. Thousands. Those are just a few apps on MY smartphone. \

I don't really understand the "hatred" of technology. But then again I am a technical kind of guy. If I fail to grasp how something works, I look it up.

 

[npalen]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

I like the MeasureMap App. It's handy for quickly determining the square footage or acres of a field when doing custom work. Just pick points on the map to outline the field and it reports the perimeter and area as well as the distance between points. Even fields that follow a creek or whatever can be accurately determined by plotting a few points along the curves.

 

[Diggin It]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

So, does anybody use them for ..... you know ..... calling people?

 

[Jstpssng]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

So, does anybody use them for ..... you know ..... calling people?

They really don't work very well for that. I can go for two weeks and never see more than one bar on my phone.
>
What I don't understand about technology in general though is how I was able to open an email this AM with a time stamp of 7:33?
Note the time that I'm posting this.

 

[Diggin It]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

What I don't understand about technology in general though is how I was able to open an email this AM with a time stamp of 7:33?
Note the time that I'm posting this.

It's like they say about drinks after work ... 'it's always after five o'clock somewhere'.

 

[Oldoak]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

So, does anybody use them for ..... you know ..... calling people?

Yep! That is the ONLY thing I use a cell phone for. Making and receiving calls.

I don't even communicate by text messaging. If I want something in print, I use my laptop and email.