Re: WATPA: FW: Two-Way Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)

About this list Date view Thread view Subject view Author view Attachment view

From: Patrick J. Colvin (pcolvin@wlsmail.wls.lib.ny.us)
Date: Thu Jun 10 1999 - 15:25:17 EDT


While it is true holding a phone to your ear, or even worse - keying in a
phone number to call while driving is a hazard, their are safer ways of
using a cell phone while still driving. Using a car kit that converts your
hand held phone to a stationary speaker phone for hands free communicating
is a great step in the right direction. If car phones were outlawed while
driving, how will their be a market for inventing a much safer car phone?

I'll surely agree that this new media causes an increase in car accidents,
as statistics are kept on car accidents. On the flip side, imagine how many
lives are saved by fast dialing motorist who dial for help when an accident
is spotted. I'm sure police dispatchers could site many reasons why cell
phones have been a life saving help. I could go on and on with a list of
all the good reasons to have a cell phone with you at all times.. personal
safety being the most important. Now we just have to keep cell phones out
of movie theaters and other needless places. You want to make a call, go
outside in the lobby.....

I did run across another media that is really useful in this day and age...
two-way radio's. I just purchased a pair of Motorola TalkAbouts. They are
about the size of a cell phone, with a range of about two miles. They use
the Family Radio Service (FRS) frequency, which is designated by the FCC.
I had a purpose for doing this. My daughter is always out and about with
her friends in the neighborhood (sorry folks with teenage drivers, this
won't help, go back and read about the car phones..). I am constantly
trying to locate her when I need to run out to do errands. I thought if I
had these talkabouts, that it would be easy to contact her when I needed
her.

I did have my doubts about a teenager accepting this invasive "Hi, it's Dad,
just checking on you" sort of device. I figured she wouldn't turn it on
because she wouldn't want me bothering her while she was with her friends...
Well, just the opposite happened. She is constantly checking back to me to
see if she had any phone calls, or in to see if any one stopped by looking
for her. In teenager terms: this is really neat... In Parent terms: THIS
IS REALLY NEAT!! (no per minute charges either :)

If your interested in looking at these things, they are sold at electronic
and computer stores. If your a web shopper like me, you can see what they
look like and get the specs at: http://www.computersbynet.com/postcard/ .
If you want to search the web, try the keyword "talkabouts". You should get
the intended results...

-- Patrick Colvin

----- Original Message -----
From: vin munch <vmunch@wlsmail.wls.lib.ny.us>
To: <watpa@westnet.com>
Cc: 'Norman J. Jacknis' <njacknis@ix.netcom.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 1999 2:03 PM
Subject: RE: WATPA: FW: Two-Way Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)

Problems with new technologies:
Users cannot determine for themselves when it is appropriate to use cell
phones; contact your local AAA office and ask about the increasing # of
accidents caused by drivers with cell phones glued to their ears while
driving.
There is no reason for it. If we allow these calls, why not faxing,
e-mailing, etc. while we drive? No call is that important as to further
distract those inconsiderate motorists!


About this list Date view Thread view Subject view Author view Attachment view

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri May 31 2002 - 23:55:01 EDT