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Re: How well do cell phones really work?

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  Re: How well do cell phones really work? Dean Hoffman <dh0496@win*&dstr$%em.net> - 2015-06-04 21:20 -0500
    Re: How well do cell phones really work? micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com> - 2015-06-05 00:28 -0400
      Re: How well do cell phones really work? "Dean Hoffman" <dh0496@windstream.net> - 2015-06-05 19:08 -0500
        Re: How well do cell phones really work? rbowman <bowman@erewhon.com> - 2015-06-05 22:08 -0600
          Re: How well do cell phones really work? "Dean Hoffman" <dh0496@windstream.net> - 2015-06-06 06:05 -0500
            Re: How well do cell phones really work? rbowman <bowman@erewhon.com> - 2015-06-06 21:23 -0600
    Re: How well do cell phones really work? "Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> - 2015-06-06 09:11 -0400
      Re: How well do cell phones really work? micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com> - 2015-06-07 23:51 -0400

#3502 — Re: How well do cell phones really work?

Mayayana wrote:
>   Even though I read that watching a movie
> | on the NJ turnpike didn't work so well, surely phone call coverage is
> | complete??
> |
>
>    It depends on where towers are, and the US
> is a big country. I have relatives in NH/VT who
> can't use their cellphones from home. Parts of
> NJ are rural.
>    In cases I've tried to use my Tracphone in bad
> spots in VT, which can use any of 3 networks,
> I think, and it also gets no signal. The phone
> company maps show lots of gaps in coverage, yet
> I know they're overstating what they do cover
> because their maps show coverage in areas
> where I know there is none. So I'm guessing that
> they fudge it by doing something like marking an
> area covered if there's some coverage with, say,
> 20 miles.
>
>    I think that people living on their phones is mainly
> an urban phenomenon.
>
>
    You might be surprised.  Farmers use theirs quite a bit.
They can order supplies, check the weather and markets etc.

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#3505

On Thu, 04 Jun 2015 21:20:19 -0500, Dean Hoffman
<dh0496@win*&dstr$%em.net> wrote:

>Mayayana wrote:
>>   Even though I read that watching a movie
>> | on the NJ turnpike didn't work so well, surely phone call coverage is
>> | complete??
>> |
>>
>>    It depends on where towers are, and the US
>> is a big country. I have relatives in NH/VT who
>> can't use their cellphones from home. Parts of
>> NJ are rural.
>>    In cases I've tried to use my Tracphone in bad
>> spots in VT, which can use any of 3 networks,
>> I think, and it also gets no signal. The phone
>> company maps show lots of gaps in coverage, yet
>> I know they're overstating what they do cover
>> because their maps show coverage in areas
>> where I know there is none. So I'm guessing that
>> they fudge it by doing something like marking an
>> area covered if there's some coverage with, say,
>> 20 miles.
>>
>>    I think that people living on their phones is mainly
>> an urban phenomenon.
>>
>>
>    You might be surprised.  Farmers use theirs quite a bit.
>They can order supplies, check the weather and markets etc.

But walking into light poles is an urban phenomenon.   Farmers walk into
trees. 

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#3507

On Thu, 04 Jun 2015 23:28:43 -0500, micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 04 Jun 2015 21:20:19 -0500, Dean Hoffman
> <dh0496@win*&dstr$%em.net> wrote:
>
>> Mayayana wrote:

>>>    I think that people living on their phones is mainly
>>> an urban phenomenon.
>>>
>>>
>>    You might be surprised.  Farmers use theirs quite a bit.
>> They can order supplies, check the weather and markets etc.
>
> But walking into light poles is an urban phenomenon.   Farmers walk into
> trees.

     Not likely in my part of the U.S.  They might drive their tractors  
into something
if they're busy yapping or playing games on the cellular device if the  
auto steering fails
  or they fall asleep.  The GPS on row crop tractors is accurate to within  
one inch.   A bit here
 from John Deere.
http://tinyurl.com/pxp6bo3
-- 
Using Opera's mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

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#3508

On 06/05/2015 06:08 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
>      Not likely in my part of the U.S.  They might drive their tractors
> into something
> if they're busy yapping or playing games on the cellular device if the
> auto steering fails
>   or they fall asleep.  The GPS on row crop tractors is accurate to
> within one inch.   A bit here
> from John Deere.

Why do the tractors need a driver? One of the more boring things I've 
ever done was drive a tractor. Of course it was an elderly Minneapolis 
Moline without air conditioning and the entertainment center the new 
ones have.

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#3509

On Fri, 05 Jun 2015 23:08:15 -0500, rbowman <bowman@erewhon.com> wrote:

> On 06/05/2015 06:08 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
>>      Not likely in my part of the U.S.  They might drive their tractors
>> into something
>> if they're busy yapping or playing games on the cellular device if the
>> auto steering fails
>>   or they fall asleep.  The GPS on row crop tractors is accurate to
>> within one inch.   A bit here
>> from John Deere.
>
> Why do the tractors need a driver? One of the more boring things I've  
> ever done was drive a tractor. Of course it was an elderly Minneapolis  
> Moline without air conditioning and the entertainment center the new  
> ones have.

      Farmers say the GPS sometimes fails when they get over a certain hill  
or to
a certain spot in their fields.  They have to turn the tractors around at  
the ends
of the fields and operate the equipment when they do.  Someone has to keep
an eye on the planter or fertilizer monitors also.  Then there's refilling  
the
sprayer tanks, the planters with seed etc. at planting time.
    I've meant to ask someone if the tractors have dead man's switches but
haven't thought about it at the right time.
   It's been maybe a dozen years or so since I've even climbed into a  
tractor.
  The familiar levers for the hydraulics had been replaced by rocker  
switches even then.
    There's one nearby farmer who still uses a Minnie tractor.   A few of  
the irrigation
wells are still powered by Minnie power units.  Those things must be close  
to fifty
years old.




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Using Opera's mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

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#3512

On 06/06/2015 05:05 AM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
>     There's one nearby farmer who still uses a Minnie tractor.   A few
> of the irrigation
> wells are still powered by Minnie power units.  Those things must be
> close to fifty
> years old.

Must be. White bought them in the '60s and dropped the brand name in the 
early '70s. M-M had the first enclosed cab in the business on the DeLuxe 
model, but the one I spent time on wasn't deluxe in any way, shape, or 
form.

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#3510

| >    I think that people living on their phones is mainly
| > an urban phenomenon.
| >
| >
|    You might be surprised.  Farmers use theirs quite a bit.
| They can order supplies, check the weather and markets etc.

  IF they can get a signal. As I pointed out,
many can't get a signal at their home.

  Actually, though, you raise an interesting
point. I've noticed that cellphone addicts
often don't really seem to notice how bad
the service is. It's often difficult to understand
what they're saying due to gaps or static.
One would think that at home they'd use
the superior technology of a landline phone,
rather than subject friends and family to
1950s-quality phone communication.
But they seem to just be out of the habit
of using regular phones.

  Lase week I was on the Boston subway when
a young man approached and asked to borrow
my cellphone. He was very anxious. His iPhone
battery had died and he needed to call his father
to get picked up at the station. I told him sorry,
but I don't use a cellphone. He repeated his
story and then slowly wandered away. He seemed
to think I was suspicious of him, never considering
that maybe I meant exactly what I said -- that
I didn't have a cellphone.

  I thought of offering the young man that I
could call his father as soon as I walked home
from the station, but I decided that by that
point he probably thought I was unfriendly
at best and an anti-social weirdo without a
cellphone at worst, so maybe it was best to
leave him to his own devices.... or lack thereof. :) 

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#3514

On Sat, 6 Jun 2015 09:11:47 -0400, "Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam>
wrote:

>| >    I think that people living on their phones is mainly
>| > an urban phenomenon.
>| >
>| >
>|    You might be surprised.  Farmers use theirs quite a bit.
>| They can order supplies, check the weather and markets etc.
>
>  IF they can get a signal. As I pointed out,
>many can't get a signal at their home.
>
>  Actually, though, you raise an interesting
>point. I've noticed that cellphone addicts
>often don't really seem to notice how bad
>the service is. It's often difficult to understand
>what they're saying due to gaps or static.
>One would think that at home they'd use
>the superior technology of a landline phone,
>rather than subject friends and family to
>1950s-quality phone communication.
>But they seem to just be out of the habit
>of using regular phones.
>
>  Lase week I was on the Boston subway when
>a young man approached and asked to borrow
>my cellphone. He was very anxious. His iPhone
>battery had died and he needed to call his father
>to get picked up at the station. I told him sorry,
>but I don't use a cellphone. He repeated his
>story and then slowly wandered away. He seemed
>to think I was suspicious of him, never considering
>that maybe I meant exactly what I said -- that
>I didn't have a cellphone.
>
>  I thought of offering the young man that I
>could call his father as soon as I walked home
>from the station, but I decided that by that
>point he probably thought I was unfriendly
>at best and an anti-social weirdo without a
>cellphone at worst, so maybe it was best to
>leave him to his own devices.... or lack thereof. :) 

I just called his father.  He's home already and that's exactly what he
thought of you.   He said he saw you looking at him atterwards and he
reached for the knife in his pocket, to have it in his hand, in his
pocket, just in case. 	

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