Cell phone - in lines and on coasters? C'mon!!

The thing that bugs me about cell phones, and it's not just in parks, but people who use them and totally ignore the other people in their party. Or the idea that anytime their phone makes any kind of sound (call, text, IM, e-mail, upgrade, new app, whatever) they must respond immediately, again to the detriment of whoever is around them or whatever is going on. There seems to be no sense of "I can take care of this later" like they would say to a live person.

Lord Gonchar said:
If you have OnStar, get the app for your phone. You can do everything they can (lock/unlock, start the car, etc) right from your phone.

Can you also sell your data to the police, like the folks at OnStar can? :)

A friend of mine removed his OnStar device/module and replaced it with a device that allows him, via Bluetooth, to control his vehicle's computers with his cell phone. He can control every imaginable variable in his car's engine, and it's pretty damn sweet.

The only thing that really irritates me about cell phones is when they are the primary cause of someone nearly causing me to wreck my car. When someone veers into my lane, cuts me off, runs a red light, almost rear-ends me, or hits the gas 10 seconds after a light turns green, it's almost a guarantee that person has a cell phone glued to their ear.

I used to oppose a law requiring hands-free devices when using a cell phone while driving, but not anymore. It's become an epidemic in my area.

Lord Gonchar said:

Jerry said:
I hate to say it, but I abuse that little service at GM called Onstar - I lock my keys in the car and call for a door unlock whenever I'm ready to go home.

If you have OnStar, get the app for your phone. You can do everything they can (lock/unlock, start the car, etc) right from your phone.

It doesn't work on 07/08 Onstar equipped vehicles - mostly the '11s but thanks

Ahh, I see.

Jerry said:

I prefer that then taking the chance of losing my keys on a ride. They have a cell phone app that will do the same thing too now.

All that stuff is cool. But I will leave it to my higher-primate friends. I feel more safe with my key, zip-locked in a bag, and safety pinned (and usually also zippered/buttoned/Velcro-ed in). I've smashed a relatively small digital camera that was in my pocket a few years ago (Kentucky Rumbler). I also have a tendency to fumble and drop my phone, so that wouldn't work for me.

Luckily for me, I am often with a friend who has a smart phone (I still have an old "Razr") who can do a bunch of fancy on the spot look up stuff.

rollergator said:

LostKause said:
...I usually wear cargo shorts with zipper pockets so nothing can fall out. Just not at Camden Park last Summer with Billy...

:-X ;)

HA! :)

I love it when I say something funny and don't realize it until someone points it out. Thanks!

:) So what's the :-X mean?

^It means "I'm saying nothing."

Of course, now that's become moot, so.... ;)

:)

According to this website, :-X means "Big Wet Kiss".

HAHAHAHA!

RatherGoodBear said:
The thing that bugs me about cell phones, and it's not just in parks, but people who use them and totally ignore the other people in their party. Or the idea that anytime their phone makes any kind of sound (call, text, IM, e-mail, upgrade, new app, whatever) they must respond immediately, again to the detriment of whoever is around them or whatever is going on. There seems to be no sense of "I can take care of this later" like they would say to a live person.

Kinda makes me wonder how did society ever survive without everyone having a cell-phone jammed up their ass.

Vater said:
I used to oppose a law requiring hands-free devices when using a cell phone while driving, but not anymore. It's become an epidemic in my area.

Personally, I'd rather just make it much harder to obtain a driver's license and much easier to lose it permanently. It would solve multiple problems at once by just eliminating most of the bad drivers. Although I'm guessing that's about as realistic as the US adopting the metric system.

Vater said:

I used to oppose a law requiring hands-free devices when using a cell phone while driving, but not anymore. It's become an epidemic in my area.

I think the fines/penalties should be more strict, since it's really not all that difficult to pull over to the side of the road/nearby driveway and take a phone call if it's important. Which, is typically what I would do. Or just ignore calls and answer voicemail when I'm done driving.

As various groups which have attempted it will tell you, there is really no compelling reason* for the US to fully adopt the metric system, and a ton (standard or metric, take your pick) of reasons that it simply doesn't make economic sense to do so. This is why the State of Ohio, with much fanfare, switched all of the specifications for highway engineering projects to metric about six years ago....then quietly switched back a couple of years later when they found out it was causing more problems than it solved. There's no reason to fully switch, therefore we haven't done it, in spite of the fact that our schoolchildren generally *haven't* been taught the US system of weights and measures in the past 30 years. Somehow they still manage to figure it out...

With regard to phones...

It is pointless to make it illegal to talk on the phone. Better to increase the penalties if a phone call was a contributing factor. That is easier to prove and doesn't require law enforcement to peer into the vehicle and try to figure out what the driver is doing.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

* "Because everybody else is doing it" isn't a compelling reason. It's a compelling reason to be able to deal with it in trade, hence the switch from 55-gallon (209.52 liter) to 42-gallon (160 liter) "barrels" for certain commodities, but it isn't, by itself, a compelling reason.

That's kind of what I was arguing. I'm not saying the fuzz should be able to take you down to the station in cuffs because they looked in your window and saw a cell phone up to your ear. I mean it should be more like the seatbelt law; where an additional fine can be tacked onto the violation that got you pulled over in the first place.

jonnytips said:

I think the fines/penalties should be more strict, since it's really not all that difficult to pull over to the side of the road/nearby driveway and take a phone call if it's important. Which, is typically what I would do. Or just ignore calls and answer voicemail when I'm done driving.

Blah. In-Car Bluetooth FTW.

LostKause said:
I usually wear cargo shorts with zipper pockets so nothing can fall out.

Hehehe!

And no need to censor any on-ride pics.

This is one of my BIGGEST Pet Peeves, :( I have an Appointment somewhere. Arriving at the place I find that parking is at a premium, EVERY Space is taken. A person exits the building, I follow him or her to their car. They get in, the Brake Lights go on. You wait for them to back out, but then nothing happens! A couple of minutes go by, now other vehicles come up behind you, and they start honking their horns. I get out and go up to the car and.....Invariably they got one of those INFERNAL Electronic Devices jammed into their ear, yammering away. You do not want to know what I'd like to do to these imbeciles. :(

Here's what I never got. Why does talking on the phone while driving make the plebeians go stupid?

For years we've held conversations with passengers while driving...often doing so while fiddling with the center console or eating or drinking or whatever. I would think the end result should be the same, but no one ever wanted to remove radios from cars or make it illegal to talk or eat while driving.

So what is it about holding a phone up to your ear while talking that suddenly makes it more dangerous?

And I'm not arguing that it isn't - I've seen it too. But mechanically speaking, my logic says there should be little difference from some old driving habits that were perfectly acceptable.

I don't get it either. I can talk on the phone and stay in my lane just as well as I can stay in my lane while I adjust the AC or tell someone what to look for on a map. But it seems the majority of people immediately turn into swerving, blind drivers who can't keep their car in their own lane when they're talking on a cell phone. I have noticed that drivers behind me talking on their cell phones tend to look down at their wheel/console and only occasionally glance up, so maybe there's some reason people look down rather than ahead when talking?