[geeks] Now for something completely geek

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com>
>Date: 2006/08/19 Sat PM 02:54:07 CDT
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Now for something completely geek

<snip>

>I'm just wierd enough to think that is stupid.  If I want someone to
>know where I am, even 911 personnel, I'll tell them.

And if you can't? Or you don't know where you are?

When you call from a land line, your address is known becuase they know the number you are calling from, mobil phones being, uhm, mobile, don't have that inherent ability...

>So I want phones where the user has 100% control over them, or I'm
>unhappy at least a little.
>
>I'm also wierd enough that I'm sick of phones with cameras and other
>useless non-phone stuff on them.  With each passing year the cell phone
>market has fewer and fewer *PHONES* in it.
>
>> Longitude/Latitude.  I spent at least 30 min. on the phone with a
>> major nation-wide emergency response company[0] trying to explain to
>> them where I was, since it was out in the sticks of PA.  I offered
>
>That's part of why I would like GPS disabled.

What? They wouldn't take her detailed information, so that's why you want the automatic location information disabled?

>Two friends of mine ran into all kinds of stupid trouble over that.
>
>One of my friends had literally weeks of trouble that would not have
>happened without the GPS location information.
>
>I've used 911 several times in my life and never had any trouble, but
>most of the time there is zero need for location information, and I
>think I should have control over what information is given about myself.

I've never called 911, so since I've not needed it it's not needed by anyone? (OK, I extrapolated a *bit* far on that one ;^)

You seem to be assuming that when *most* people call 911 *most* of the time, they can provide adequate location information "manually" (I would have said orally, but... ;^), but remeber they system is designed for *all* situations, not *most*.

Wasn't it this past year some kids were high on drugs, got lost in a snow bank on a back road, called 911, but couldn't tell them where they were - as I recall, they died... And while one instance easily falls outside of your "most or the time category," I bet they wish their phone could have told them where they were (at least that one time)...

Lionel