| Author | Message | ||
     Court |
But . . could you do if a little faster? I fear . . . watching some of the people I deal with from time to time . . . that we've been lured into a mindless bunch of text-o-philes. They do it when they drive, they do it in the car, they do it when they walk, they do it in a bar. I watch some of the millennial age folks I work with enter something akin to the state of a junkie 2 hours away from a Methadone treatment if kept from their phones for more than 2 or 3 minutes. The only way I prevent my students from playing is my "if I see your phone during the semester you fail the course, period" policy which is clearly communicated in red letters in the course syllabus. I was in a quite important meeting on Wednesday when 2 young EH&S folks were invited to join. They say next to me and I'm quite certain that neither looked up from their phones for 90 minutes. This social phenomenon is, admittedly, a double edged sword. For those of us who honed our skills in the age of 13 column columnar pad rather than spreadsheets, it makes us appear like the smartest folks in the industry. I've tried to retire twice and been sucked into "you're the only one with the highly specialized skills" . . . I'm hesitant to tell them they are light years smarter than I . . . but their ability to focus is confined to about 2 minutes out of every hour. I damn sure don't want one for a pilot. Anyway . . . I'm headed to the legendary Woodstock Magical Meadow drum circle tonight to watch aging hippies get stoned and beat on drums. Somehow I expect a more coherent group than I've dealt with throughout the week. Anybody else seeing this behavior? http://nypost.com/2017/06/09/texting-lady-tumbles- through-open-sidewalk-doors/ | ||
| Glitch |
Kdan's (Dan) daughter got married last weekend. The priest had to tell everyone to "please turn off all cell phones" And there I was thinking it would be rude to even have it on my person. ya think the inventor thinks now "I am become death, The Shatterer of Worlds." he ought to | ||
| Greg_e |
I can't believe you are allowed to fail someone who pulls out their phone! That would never fly here and the teacher would eventually be removed. Every meeting the faculty go to that has the president or provost "present" they comment how either/both are on their phone continuously during the meeting. Our department recently had our 5 year review with external reviewers to make sure what we are doing is still in the best interest, our provost showed up dressed for a day at the beach, clearly an annoyance with needing to be present, and did nothing but fool with her phone the entire time. It's not just the students. | ||
| Hybridmomentspass |
"Kdan's (Dan) daughter got married last weekend. The priest had to tell everyone to "please turn off all cell phones" And there I was thinking it would be rude to even have it on my person. " what is the issue with having a phone in your pocket during a wedding??? Also, Ive heard the 'turn your phones off' thing before during a wedding - typically so that a guest doesnt ruin a picture the photographer is taking when they hold their phone up above head to take a shot etc. "ya think the inventor thinks now "I am become death, The Shatterer of Worlds." he ought to" Why?. | ||
| Aesquire |
I often tell people to read "The Machine Stops", available free out there on the interweb. http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster. html Written in 1909, it misses a few of today's tech bits, but the new generation of tech gazillionaires might just install tubes to deliver groceries to our homes instead of drones........ The overall story hold together very well, considering, just think of all the kids you see on the swings at the playground and the ones flying U-control home built models.... what? the playground is empty of internet aged children and it's all milfs with baby carriages? ( excuse me while I go to the park. ) | ||
| Tq_freak |
Also, Ive heard the 'turn your phones off' thing before during a wedding - typically so that a guest doesn't ruin a picture the photographer is taking when they hold their phone up above head to take a shot etc. Exactly, I have several friends who are professional photographers and they all rant about how many wedding photos get ruined by some relative in the isle trying to snap a pic with the phone. | ||
| Aesquire |
I also suggest, if you are comfortable with reading plays ( some folk just don't like to ) Rossum's Universal Robots by Karel Cepak from 1920. It not only coined the word "Robot", ( Czech for slave ) but pretty much made the mold that almost all robot fiction since has copied. http://preprints.readingroo.ms/RUR/rur.pdf Man makes machines to do his work..... and they rebel. Yep, the plot from Battlestar Galactica, and pretty much every movie with 'bots Like I ask every time they talk about autonomous killer drones, "which movie was it that building an unstoppable killing machine was a Good Idea?" Luckily, until Musk builds the robot run self sufficient factory to build robots, we only have to stop making killer 'bots to slow the erasure of mankind. Unless the Internet AIs decide to kill everyone first. Probably by spreading rumors that vaccines are bad, using the image of a big breasted actress with no knowledge of medicine. | ||
| Airbozo |
I've seen this behavior a lot. Besides the stupid dolts texting while driving, there was a guy recently who broke his arm because he ran into the back of a parked car while he was texting while riding his bike. The SO teaches High School and has a similar statement as Court does on her class guidelines. The school district will not allow her to fail a student because of it though. Many years ago, a male teacher walked by a female student and took her phone as she was in the middle of a text. The girl went absolutely bonkers and attacked the teacher kicking scratching and biting him. The Student told her parents and police the teacher tried to fondle her and the parents tried to sue. The police got a copy of a students phone video which backed up the teachers story 100% and invited the parents into a meeting with the teacher and administration. The parents screamed for 20 minutes about how their innocent child was attacked and abused and initially refused to watch the video until the police officer told them to shut up and learn why the police and DA refused to file charges. Once they watched the video, they claimed it was staged and walked out. The teacher persisted and filed charges on the girl, who was eventually removed from the school. I had an encounter with one young lady we hired as an intern (paid intern) at my last company. We were in a staff meeting (15 people) when her phone rang and to everyone's surprise, she answered it! The CEO glared at her (she ignored him) and then at me (I was her boss). It was obvious she was talking with a friend as they were discussing the nights party plans. I tried to get her attention and she ignored me, so I slammed my hand down on the table in front of her and in less than a quiet tone told her to hang up. She refused. I then told her to get out of the room and followed her and fired her on the spot. She argued with me for 15 minutes informing me that I had no right to fire her. The CEO came out a couple of minutes later, ignoring her and asked me if I had fired her yet. I told him what just took place, he looked at her and said "young lady, the CFO will have your final check signed by the time you collect your things and meet her in the lobby". He also told her her he would be filing a formal complaint with the college she came from and not to expect to be invited back to the engineering department (where he serves on the board). She filed a wrongful termination suit which was later tossed out of court. Here's a good one: After the F-I-L retired from the FBI, he went to work at SUN as the Director of World Wide Security. He was there when Oracle bought the company and started the process of taking over. The guy in charge of Oracle's security division showed up at a meeting where they were discussing the transition and how everyone should feel good about losing their jobs. The guy was on the phone most of the meeting until my F-I-L got up walked over to the guy, snatched his phone out of his hands and threw it against the wall, looked him in the eye and said: "If you're going to screw my people out of their jobs, you should have the decency to look them in the eye's", then went back over and sat down. The guy never made any attempt to retrieve his phone and the F-I-L never heard any more about it. I have more... | ||
| Etennuly |
Respect is what is changing. Those of us old enough to know how that word was meant to be used were born in the years before phones could be separated from the wall by more than three feet. Hell I remember when the newest thing everyone had to have was that curly 8' phone extension chord, now you can step around the corner of the room for some privacy!!!(well if you had a private phone line) Respect when called for when I was a kid meant stop, stand or sit up straight, pay attention, follow orders or listen to what was said as asked without straying. Good on you Court for your rule. I recall a college professor having a test one time wherein before the test he clearly said "read all instructions completely before beginning test". It was in fact a dummy test form that if you followed instructions when you get to the last line it said go to the back page of the test, there it said "put your name on the front of the test paper, bring it up to the professor's desk, lay it face down on the stack and you have passed the test, now go away until the next class". Everyone who started actually completing the test pages failed. About 3/4 of the class failed. Simple really, but those with distractions or no respect for the professor's instructions did not do so well. Most who failed had their cell phones in their hand, as always. This was during the time that the fanciest phones could barely access the Internet, could record audio, did not have cameras, but could be loaded with games or books. The Professors HATED having their classes recorded! | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
>> I have more... Give GIVE! I'm loving these. | ||
| Glitch |
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| Ceejay |
I was pulling up to a red light a few nights ago, good looking young lady walking near a fellow for which I assume was her boyfriend. I noticed her, but he wasn't - face buried in his phone. She actually had to tug on his shirt to keep him from walking into traffic... | ||
| Cyclonedon |
I carry my cell phone everywhere I go but I NEVER have the ringer turned on! I only use my phone to make calls and never answer it when someone calls me! | ||
| Hootowl |
My phone is a work leash. I keep the ringer on the lowest setting. I can't turn it off permanently, but I do flip the silent switch at restaurants, etc. It NEVER vibrates, as I find that the most irritating sound ever devised. It also doesn't make noise when I receive a text, email, or anything else. It's a phone. It rings when someone calls. That's it. Actually, it doesn't ring. It says: Where you going dude? Home Donny. Phone's ringing dude. Thank you Donny. It's the least irritating ring tone I've ever run across. | ||
| Hybridmomentspass |
And yet some think its rude that you would even have it ON your person while in a church... | ||
| Hootowl |
So...there's a basket in which to drop your phone in the narthex?  I've never seen one. | ||
| 86129squids |
I work in a fine dining restaurant, a Prime steakhouse. It amazes me, but not really anymore, how many folks are mesmerized by their dang phones. Even "old" people now too. Given a chance to eat an expensive, delicious dinner, and I bet they barely notice or taste anything... And, I get depressed at how many children have their own little tablets, with some kind of weird little game going on, distracting them from the wide, magical, REAL world. Parents just don't care, or even register what their doing to their kids. Vern... I remember a test like that! I passed.  | ||
| Aesquire |
I was going to post this picture.... but then I found a rant about it... asking me not to post this picture. So I'm going to. With the rant. https://medium.com/alt-ledes/stop-sharing-this-pho to-of-antisocial-newspaper-readers-533200ffb40f | ||
| Hootowl |
A monopoly on information distribution is a good thing? No, thank you. | ||
| Ratbuell |
I think the biggest reason we have no respect anymore, is because we have no concept of personal responsibility. There's always someone else to blame. That's illustrated in all the stories above - "You have no right to fire me, even though I was yapping on a personal call in a meeting". "You have no right to take my phone from me so I'm going to make up a story that you groped me to cover the fact that I wasn't paying attention and I got caught". Rules? Only when convenient. Respect? Getting ready to get pulled from Webster's, along with "common sense" and "common courtesy". | ||
| Sifo |
A few years ago my wife was interviewing people for a job opening. One of the people she interviewed, stopped to answer texts multiple times. She said it was a short interview.  | ||
| 86129squids |
I had an actually pleasant, low traffic commute yesterday, was marveling at this, when I came up on an SUV... I invented a new term. Rumble Strip Rider. This idiot couldn't keep it straight, but their weave L-R was very consistent, so I ruled out drunkydrunk. They'd veer right and hit the rumble strip, then overcorrect left, repeat. Windows had heavy tint- I'm in the habit of looking at EVERYONE I'm passing to ascertain WTF they're doing. I would have called 911 and reported, but lost my window of opportunity... I actually DID do that a few months ago, b&tch was weaving FULL l-r, BOTH lanes, over the rumblies- I passed her and it looked like she was trying to put on makeup. When I reported her to 911, the dispatcher said "yeah, we know." And last nite I passed 2 dingbat b&tches texting, and I ALWAYS lay on the horn when I see/pass a texter. But my stock horn is just stock, adequate but not sufficient. My plan is to wire up 3 Stebels in parallel, with the right voltage- 2 in the front corners of my truckbed, one in my grill. I think that will work... And- I have a dream. I want an app that lets me hack/jam adjacent cel phones when I see these f*cktards, make the screen go blank for a couple of seconds, then a scream of "PUT THE F_IN PHONE DOWN, YOU MORON." Yes, I have a dream. I've read that a couple of manufacturers (Apple?) are designing new phones with lockout upon movement technology- you'd have to wait until you're out of the car or the car is shut down to send/receive messages. We shall see. All I know is that my daily 50 mile round trip work commute has made me a MUCH more aware and sharp driver, so that's good. When I started this job I took the MC's pretty regularly, wised up to that though. Besides, isn't is philosophically WRONG to ride your MC TO work?  I looked forward to that rant, and you're welcome. | ||
| Blake |
Hah. Philosophically speaking.  | ||
| Crusty |
Besides, isn't is philosophically WRONG to ride your MC TO work? That right there is a good reason to retire. I haven't ridden my bike to work since I retired. I also don't ride through Knoxville at rush hour. Just safe places like Boston, New York San Francisco and Salt Lake City. (I avoid Chicago at any time of the day!) | ||
| 1313 |
Besides, isn't is philosophically WRONG to ride your MC TO work? Well, Monday is the 26th annual International Ride To Work Day. Maybe they have a different philosophical viewpoint than our pal "a bunch of numbers and a group of marine animals" does?  Hell, I'm a proponent of riding to work any and every day that one can. But those who prefer to drive a car to work, must also enjoy discussing/debating politics... Where did that $0.02 go? 1313 | ||
| Aesquire |
http://jalopnik.com/car-horns-are-too-angry-so-thi s-guy-built-a-nicer-one-1796130300 Brilliant! Make America Great Again through courteous horns. |
