DOES
YOUR CELL PHONE HAVE A MIND OF ITS OWN? IS IT MAKING PHONE
CALLS
WHEN
YOU ARE NOT AWARE? DOES IT DIVULGE YOUR INNERMOST SECRETS
TO PEOPLE? THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS (AND MORE) ARE
MOST LIKELY YES, YES, and YES!!!
Your cell phone might have already turned on you, and if it
has, what it is divulging about you to your business associates,
family and friends can be shocking (not to mention embarrassing)!!
I have to admit that at first I was a skeptic also. How could
my cell phone possibly turn on me and reveal the most intimate
details of my life?
I truly believed that my cell phone was
my good friend, there whenever I needed a voice to speak
with and/or listen to. Any time I was on a jobsite, I could
use
my cell phone to find out why my material delivery was
late, or hear my employee's 512th excuse as to why he couldn't
get to the jobsite on time, again, etc.
If I were stuck
somewhere,
I could always turn to my cell phone for help. When not
in use, it would wait contentedly (or so I thought) in
it's holster
until I was ready to use it again. Little did I know
what mischievous little plans my cell phone was hatching.
Wondering what I'm talking about?
Well folks, it's simple.....
Cell phones have learned how to self-dial, and they
are very much taking advantage of that new-found knowledge.
It started out
slow, but over the past couple months it appears that
the problem is spreading significantly.
What is self-dial,
you ask? First
of all, be aware that this phenomenon occurs only
when you are not looking, so don't even waste your time
trying to see
it happen, because you won't.
These cell phones are
deceptively silent, sitting there in the holster on your
hip. What
usually happens is this: The cell phone dials a
number when you are
not looking (usually the most recent number dialed,
virtually guaranteeing that you will know the person
called, thereby
further enhancing any embarrassment you might experience)
and when the receiving party answers the ring,
he/she is
greeted
with 'sounds'.
What 'sounds' you ask?
Why, sounds
of whatever you are doing at that particular moment.
If you are walking
around on the jobsite, the party on the other
end of your cell phone will hear your footsteps, tools
jingling if
you have
a tool belt on, etc.
If you are speaking with
someone,
the party on the other end of your cell phone
might hear portions
of your conversation and if you are at a
seminar, the
party on the other end of your cell phone might
hear bits of
what the speaker is saying, as well as any
noises throughout the
meeting room, etc.
Now here's the most disturbing
part of this phenomenon - These cell phones have
absolutely NO MODESTY!!
Cell phones are not discerning in choosing
when to self-dial. It can happen at ANY TIME, and it
has.
I
have been present
at meetings that I did not attend, walked
jobsites without ever setting a foot on the property,
listened to
the
radio in someone's truck without being
in or even near the vehicle,
and yes I have even been present during
the 'unthinkable'..... trips to the 'toitie'! I'll
spare you from describing the sounds that are occurring
at those
particular moments! ;)
This
should make you
really stop and think. What private
moments might *your* cell phone be divulging, from where
it
sits in
that holster on your
hip, appearing so innocently inanimate?
It
is very important that you do not forget that anything
goes with
these
cell
phones, they will tell the world
(or at least one person
anyway) anything
and EVERYTHING about you, and you
will never know unless someone tells you, which of course
could be extremely
embarrassing depending upon what it
was
they heard you
doing!
So, if you've received one or more of these phone
calls, you already know to be aware
of your own cell phone, but for those of you who have
been the
unknowing
participant
in
one or more of these (shall we say
'voyeuristic'?)
phone calls, and have not yet had the
'pleasure' of receiving
one yourself,
please be aware of this rapidly increasing
affliction among cell phones which is now known
as the 'Self-Dial Syndrome'
affliction!
Don't get caught with YOUR pants down! :)
(ps: For those of you who have yet to be 'initiated'
by your cell phone, it is the redial button, send button
and/or "one-touch dialing" on the unlocked keypad that is
causing all of this commotion!)
Follow-up: I originally wrote
this article in March 2001. On
February 1 2004 there was an article in our local newspaper
about
cell
phones
and
misdialed 911 calls. These types of calls didn't occur to me
when I originally wrote this article and I felt it important
enough to "republish" the article and include the following
information...
The California Highway
Patrol dispatch center in Barstow gets about six-hundred
911 calls from cell phones per day. Believe it or not, about
50 percent
of those calls are misdials and/or false alarms!
Listed
as the most common reason: People forget to lock their
keypads and the phone will accidentally dial. One of the biggest
problems with this is that the dispatchers have to keep
listening to see if there is an emergency or not. This keeps
the 911 phone lines tied up which can keep a real emergency
call from getting through.
It's a bad enough situation that Assembly Bill
911 has been created which, if passed, will make it an infraction
to make a 911 call without an emergency. Fines would be $50,
$100 and $200.
The bill was recently passed by the State Assembly
Safety Committee and it should be coming to the Assembly
floor for a vote soon.
Most cell phones have the ability to "lock" the
keypad, which keeps the cell phone from dialing due to an
accidentally pressed button. I cannot tell you enough how
important it is to lock your keypad if your phone has that
feature available.
It's bad enough to tie up 911 and get fined
because your cell phone self-dialed 911, imagine how much
worse it'll
be if
it happens
"while
your pants are down"!!
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