h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Why do so many people think Mobile Phones are just for posers or yuppies. I'm neither but I use one on a daily basis. Not because I need to but because it is convienient to be contactable in this way rather than have to spend time plodding through messages and phoning people back

Oh vey! *smiles* I only recently got a mobile, and it was out of necessity really, but still I was scared to tell a few of my friends because I knew they'd just ~hate~ me for it. Heheh. Anyway, I got sick of leaving messages for people and maybe being told, "He'll ring you back in a couple of hours." and then I'd feel compelled to stay home and wait for the darned call. Needless to say, most tradespeople don't ring back when they say they will. If, however, you dare to dash up the road for exactly 7 minutes and 14 seconds, just to buy milk so you can have a really good cup of tea, they ring, and leave a rude and unhelpful message on your answering machine, and when you ring them back they're of the opinion that since you didn't selflessly devote yourself to Waiting For Their Call, they couldn't be bothered helping you anyway.

As for the brain cancer, I don't know. The call costs are prohibitive enough to put me off using it any more than absolutely necessary.

Ah! but maybe it's just you that doesn't recognise yourself as a yuppie or poser

I refuse to dignify that with a cotehenr swaner.

Yes, I can see that in many circumstances mobile phones provide a
fantastic service - but! Do we really need to be subjected to the
endless amount of "Hello? I'm on the plane/train/bus/bicycle..."
messages that us poor members of the general public are continually
subjected to? It's a mobile - of course they're NOT AT HOME!!!

And another thing - those "distinctive" rings that typically
murder pieces of classical music - they're about as exciting as those
pathetic novelty ties that drones in suits wear to mark them out as
really exciting and zany people - "yes, I wear a grey suit all day,
but look at my amusing tie/socks/underpants and just imagine how cool
I really am...".

Arrrrggghhh!!! (frustrated train and bus user)

I think mobile phones are AWFUL!!!!
When I'm out I'm out.thats what answer phones are for and even they are an encumberance.When someone leaves a message you feel obliged
to respond.
Some people actually use this to their advantage,by phoning you when the KNOw that you will be out so you have to pay for the phone call
when you respond.
Anyway I digress!!
Mobiles are an intrusion into your private life.
I don't always want people to know where I am and I really don't want
to hear about other peoples private lives when I'm on the train,bus,
in the pub etc.
Actually in the pub its quite amusing-but for all the wrong reasons!

Well I find mine useful cos I'm never at home. I have an answerphone at home but sometimes it's essential I
can be contacted when I'm out and about, especially with the friends I've got. Anyway, the great thing with digital
phones is that you don't have to make calls at all if you're worried about annoying people in public - you can type
out text messages and send them to other phones.

Mind you, I bought my ex-girlfriend one and the cow never gave it back to me.

Sorry about your ex girlfriend. Try changing her callback message for her, to something erm
"more amusing".Most folk seem not to bother changing the PIN on it. For UK Cellnet for
instance, just dial the number, wait for the message to start, press * , then 8705 and you're in!
Good luck!! (Not, of course, that I condone this sort of behaviour myself you understand...)

Can somebody suggest why the friend of humanity at the desk next to mine brings his mobile phone to work, leaves it switched on, and then goes away and leaves it on the desk so that when it rings, I have to answer it? Do I look like an answering machine? Well, obviously you don't know what I look like, but let me assure you that I don't.

He probably leaves it on his desk then runs off and phones himself in a disguised voice so that everyone thinks he actually has some mates but doesn't...

Why Do people leave their mobile phones switched on when they are at work?
Anyone calling can phone the land line which is usually on the persons desk!!!!!!!
I think they are just posing.
And if I hear the Sailors hornpipe one more time today i'm going to stick the pipe where it hurts!!!!!!

But mobile phones are so common and inexpensive these days that nobody thinks "Wow, a mobile phone, how cool," anymore (if they ever did). Therefore there is absolutely no posing value to be had from leaving it switched on at work, and I can only assume that he's doing it to piss me off.

I can think of two reasons why people have mobile phones switched on at work.

1) They are often not at their desk, but want to be 'contactable'. Some companies provide mobile phones for staff who often aren't at their desk, or are often out of the office. This does not excuse staff from leaving their mobile phone on their desk, switched on. If someone's mobile phone rings, I ignore it. I will answer their land line, however.
2) They are contractors. I am a software engineer and have worked with a lot of contractors. Contractors change companies at intervals, and it would be a horrendous task to tell all the job agencies that their phone number has changed. Consequently, all the contractors I've worked with recently have mobile phones, and give out the phone number to the agencies. If a mobile phone has been left on someone's desk, it doesn't belong to a contractor. Contractors can only be separated from their mobile by a surgical procedure.

Not everybody that uses a mobile phone is away from home. As a software contractor, my mobile number is the one I give to job agencies. Consequently I sometimes am at home with my mobile phone on, as well as using a land line.

In my experience, you can tell the contractors' phones because they have programmed them to play jaunty tunes instead of just going "beep beep". The phone offender here isn't a contractor, and only seems to use his mobile for receiving personal calls. I would ignore it, but it's one of those attention-seeking ones that get louder the longer you ignore them. I might start bringing a bucket of water to my desk, so next time it rings it can mysteriously fall in.... bzzzz, fizzle...

Hey! AAAProblem to solve. All you have to do, is to make animal noises when you answer his phone, or maybe sleazy remarks about the person in the other end, concerning his/her looks, or possibly lack thereof. The problem will go away when your desk-neighbour talk to the harassed.You must of course never admit to having done this. It will teach the Mobilehead

I use one. don't want to. used to want to. sick of work phoning me when its not time to work. don't answer it. don't like to talk to Mr.Unavailable or Mr.Anonymous.... anyone who has had to deal with switchboards that don't reveal their numbers on a mobile knows these people. Then my F-ing mates move out to Spain and become Mr.Anonymous and I can't tell the difference between that and work.... DOH! - and don't mention land-lines to a person who lives on the road.

Personally the one thing I like most about them is that they all come with caller id standard. that way I can really decide which calls I want to answer.

yeah, thats cool. unless you have dealing s, as I do, with MRs. Anonymous and Unavailable - who are rude enough not to tell us who they are!

Captain Mobile has struck again. Now he's taken to holding the receiver of his desk phone to his ear, dialling a four digit extension number, hitting the button to cancel the call, dialling again, cancelling again, and so on ad infinitum. Therefore, all I've heard from his desk for the last ten minutes has been "tap, tap, tap, tap, clunk; tap, tap, tap, tap, clunk; tap, tap, tap, tap, clunk; tap, tap, tap, tap, clunk..." It's like Chinese water torture. Does anyone know a good travelling lobotomist?