Stormin Mormon wrote:
My cell phone died. LG VX-5500. A year and a half old, not that old.
Took my old backup phone to the cell store, and got the service moved
over.

New phone arrives tomorrow, Fed Ex. I'm amazed how essential cell
phone is, in my life. Not sure what I did before they were invented.


Same here. They're much handier than the business band radios of
old. We can leave voice mail for each other with the phone which is a
big advantage over the radios. We can call our farmer customers if we
need to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers, a
very handy feature.
My co worker has a camera phone. It was handy once. He tried to
describe an electrical component to me without success. He showed me a
picture of it the next day.
I bought the first personal ones for my parents. They needed one if
they had problems traveling on country roads in Nebraska.
A list here of prepaid cell phones if anyone happens to be
interested: http://tinyurl.com/dfyvn

Our phones use one of the big national systems for coverage, so we've
never
had trouble making calls anywhere except way out in the boonies.

CY: I think Verizon customer service is lacking. but they have good
towers.

I did get
a camera phone for Christmas (which I'd hinted at) and it's come in
handy on
many occasions, having the ability to take snapshots without carrying
a
camera is kind of cool. The first phone was defective, they replaced
it at
no cost to me and so far the second one is working fine.

CY: As a repair man, the phone camera comes in handy. I can send
pictures of equipment to people at a distance. One friend of mine
works for an airline. He says that most of the camera cell phones
around him get used for either photographing stewardess bending over,
or guys out behind terminal hanging a leak.

I also have no
interest in web access etc. on my phone, although it does do all that
extra
nonsense. This phone has a 4 gigabyte memory chip, my first PC had a
20
megabyte hard drive, it's amazing....

CY: Yes, the memory is amazing.

The Fed Ex guy did leave a door sticker. The lady on the telephone at
their switchboard said I could sign it, and he'd leave the package
tomorrow even if I'm not home. I've got four service calls to do.

The Fed Ex terminal is about 30 miles, on the far side of the next
county over.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"DGDevin" wrote in message
m...


"Stormin Mormon" wrote in message
...

Curses to Verizon and their signature required. Curses
to the Fed Ex driver who doesn't pound on doors.

I track incoming packages and make arrangements accordingly if I won't
be
home. If it's UPS the best I can hope for is they won't just toss it
on the
porch and drive away, that they'll at least shove it behind the
shrubs.
FedEx always follows instructions if I leave them a note asking them
to
leave a package next door or whatever. I prefer to use USPS because
our
mail carrier is an ace, he takes care of our packages. Depending on
how far
away the FedEx terminal is you can also pick up a package there if you
act
fast.

On 10/7/2010 8:34 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
Stormin Mormon wrote:
My cell phone died. LG VX-5500. A year and a half old, not that old.
Took my old backup phone to the cell store, and got the service moved
over.

New phone arrives tomorrow, Fed Ex. I'm amazed how essential cell
phone is, in my life. Not sure what I did before they were invented.


Same here. They're much handier than the business band radios of old. We
can leave voice mail for each other with the phone which is a big
advantage over the radios. We can call our farmer customers if we need
to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers, a very
handy feature.
My co worker has a camera phone. It was handy once. He tried to describe
an electrical component to me without success. He showed me a picture of
it the next day.
I bought the first personal ones for my parents. They needed one if they
had problems traveling on country roads in Nebraska.
A list here of prepaid cell phones if anyone happens to be interested:
http://tinyurl.com/dfyvn


The best cellphone I ever had was my 1996 Motorola Nextel push to talk
radio/cellphone. It put out a full watt of RF and was stout enough to
club a mugger over the head with and still function to call the cops.
It was big too, big enough for my big hands and didn't break like all
these dinky little inexpensive overly complicated wonders of technology
that we have to put up with now. I JUST WANT A CELLPHONE THAT FREAKING
MAKES PHONE CALLS AND FITS DARNED HAND!!! Phew! My head hurts.....

TDD

In article ,
"DGDevin" wrote:


Nothing gets authorized unless Congress says so, but the Executive Branch
does most of the spending. Nobody held a gun to Reagan's head and forced
him to resurrect the B-1 bomber, but as in my analogy above when asked to
choose between the B-1 or the B-2, Reagan decided to buy them both. As the
wags at the Pentagon say, few billion here, a few billion there, pretty soon
you're talking real money.

Of course if you can put the entire deficit at the foot of the two
bombers go ahead. Interesting stat from the Statistical Abstract of the
US. There was only one year in the entire RR administration that the
year-to-year increase in defense spending was more than the year-to-year
increase in revenue. Saying the build up was the cause of the deficit is
sorta like getting a $1 raise, having your insurance go up 25 cents and
then blaming the insurance company for the $1.50 overdraft in your
checking account.

It takes two to do this tango, Congress votes the money, but they don¹t
spend it, and I fail to see why the branch that actually does spend it
should get a pass.

They do have to spend it. During Nixon, the Supremes said it was
illegal to sequester or otherwise not spend the money appropriated by
Congress. RR tried something similar (can't remember what that was
officially named) with the same outcome.

--
I want to find a voracious, small-minded predator
and name it after the IRS.
Robert Bakker, paleontologist

In article ,
"DGDevin" wrote:


Don't forget, most of it has or will be paid back, some with a profit.

Yeah, that's a startling change of pace, the *******s have actually paid off
their tab (although the jury is still out on AIG).

And most of the stock is still out there. GM and Chrysler will be the
interesting ones.

--
I want to find a voracious, small-minded predator
and name it after the IRS.
Robert Bakker, paleontologist

In article ,
aemeijers wrote:


Uh, I forget which POTUS tried (mebbe Nixon?), but Congress gets REAL
snotty if executive branch sits on appropriated money. The Prez in
question wanted to just stonewall the programs he disagreed with and
thought wasteful, but got told by the Fools on the Hill to do what he
was told, or forget about getting anything passed for the remainder of
his term. I think that is one of the reason recent laws get down into
such ridiculous detail of how programs and stuff will work, versus just
doing broad strokes and directing the cabinet department or agency to
figure out the details.

It was RMN, they called it sequestering. It was "outlawed" by ³Budget
Impoundment and Control Act² in 1974. I think the Supremes also weighed
in.

--
I want to find a voracious, small-minded predator
and name it after the IRS.
Robert Bakker, paleontologist

On 10/7/2010 3:05 PM, DGDevin wrote:
"George" wrote in message
...

It is a shame and shows how corrupt both sides are. Congress is the
only one who can authorize such payments and the democrat Congress
with Pilosi having the gavel in her hand as speaker approved "helping"
the pirate organizations.

Hundreds of billions of dollars were poured into the banks and auto
companies with the agreement of the Bush administration/cabinet and the
personal approval of the President. Bush expressed reluctance, but he
signed at the bottom of the page. So let's not pretend it was an
all-Democratic deal, the Republicans have never been too bashful about
helping out their friends in the corporate world.

I guess you missed what I wrote: "shows how corrupt both sides are."

On 10/7/2010 6:59 PM, Bob F wrote:
DGDevin wrote:
wrote in message
...

It is a shame and shows how corrupt both sides are. Congress is the
only one who can authorize such payments and the democrat Congress
with Pilosi having the gavel in her hand as speaker approved
"helping" the pirate organizations.

Hundreds of billions of dollars were poured into the banks and auto
companies with the agreement of the Bush administration/cabinet and
the personal approval of the President. Bush expressed reluctance,
but he signed at the bottom of the page. So let's not pretend it was
an all-Democratic deal, the Republicans have never been too bashful
about helping out their friends in the corporate world.

Don't forget, most of it has or will be paid back, some with a profit.


So the pirates are still conducting business as usual thanks to the
government because they really learned their lesson..

Do you or anyone you know trust anyone in the financial sector? The
right thing to do would have been to totally let them fail and let the
more honest institutions pick over the carcasses. It was total complete
nonsense when the pirate marketing arm (Congress) pushed the too big to
fail nonsense. Everything is a computer entry and just wouldn't have
simply disappeared like my congressman who was one of the biggest
cheerleaders for the pirates claimed.

On 10/7/2010 2:50 PM, DGDevin wrote:

"Gordon Shumway" wrote in message
...

Here's where you should have gotten your new phone.

https://www.safelinkwireless.com/Enr...blic/Home.aspx

That way if you were too lazy to work our great leader in Washington
fixed it so you could get a free phone and free service at the expense
of the tax paying citizens.


Did you read your own link?

https://www.safelinkwireless.com/Enr.../benefits.aspx

There is no "Obama phone" or other newly created federal program to
provide free cell phones. As you may know, this is a myth that is now
circulating on the Web via email and blog sites. It has been thoroughly
debunked by independent groups. (See for example: FactCheck.org at
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/10/the-obama-phone/, which notes:
"Low-income households have been eligible for discounted telephone
service for more than a decade. But the program is funded by telecom
companies, not by taxes, and the president has nothing to do with it."

The federal "Lifeline" program was created during the Reagan
Administration. Lifeline is a federal program created by the Reagan era
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1984. The program was
enhanced under Telecommunications Act of 1996, which was supported on a
broadly bipartisan basis in Congress. The FCC's Low Income Program of
the Universal Service Fund, which is administered by the Universal
Service Administrative Company (USAC), is designed to ensure that
quality telecommunications services are available to low-income
customers at just, reasonable, and affordable rates. Lifeline support
reduces eligible low-income consumers' monthly charges for basic
telephone service.

Thanks to SafeLink, Lifeline support is now available for wireless
phones. Traditionally, the Lifeline program was only available as a
discount on a consumer's landline telephone bill. SafeLink Wireless was
created by TracFone Wireless, Inc. when the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) recently approved the company to offer Lifeline -- a
public assistance program that ensures telephone service is available
and affordable for low-income subscribers. SafeLink Wireless applies the
Universal Service Fund subsidy to an allotment of free airtime minutes
and TracFone provides the wireless handset at the company's expense.
Instead of receiving a subsidized monthly telephone bill for Lifeline
service, SafeLink converts the total amount of discounted service into
minutes each month for one year. The cell phone offers in-demand
features: voicemail, text, three-way calling, call waiting, caller ID
and access to 911.

SafeLink phones are not paid for by taxpayers or the federal government.
TracFone Wireless pays for the phones and also the cost of promoting its
SafeLink program to make sure that eligible consumers know about the
program.

But that would be incorrect. I posted this earlier in this thread:

The USF (Universal Service Fund) is used to pay for the program and the
USF is a mandatory tax on carriers who typically pass it on to the end
user as a universal service charge.


Here is the cite right from the tax collector:

"Contribution Factor & Quarterly Filings

Proposed contribution factor for the fourth quarter 2010 is 0.129 or
12.9 percent.

Contribution Factor: Telecommunications companies must pay a percentage
of their interstate end-user revenues to the Universal Service Fund.
This percentage is called the contribution factor. The contribution
factor changes four times a year (quarterly) and is increased or
decreased depending on the needs of the Universal Service programs. You
can read more about the contribution factor in the FCC's Fact Sheet on
Universal Service."

http://www.fcc.gov/omd/contribution-factor.html




SafeLink Wireless is making the vision of universal access to
telecommunications services for all Americans a reality. As of October
2009, SafeLink has over 2 million customers and is available in 31
states - Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, DC, Delaware, Florida, Georgia,
Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan,
Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York,
North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South
Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and
Wisconsin. Today, there are over 1,700 companies in the United States
currently providing discounted telephone service. But, thanks to its
extensive outreach promoting SafeLink, TracFone Wireless is one of the
largest providers of Lifeline services in the United States, second only
to AT&T.

Only certain Americans are eligible for SafeLink. Eligibility guidelines
vary by state but in general individuals qualify if they participate in
a public assistance program such as Food Stamps, Medicaid, Supplemental
Security Income (SSI), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF),
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), National Free School
Lunch, Federal Housing/Section 8 Assistance, or if they do not receive
any of these public assistance programs, they may also qualify based on
total household gross monthly income. Customers can learn more or apply
by calling 1-800-SAFELINK or visiting www.SafeLink.com

Your exact benefits, including the number of free Minutes you will
receive, depend on the state you live in.

New phone arrives tomorrow, Fed Ex. I'm amazed how essential cell
phone is, in my life. Not sure what I did before they were invented.


Same here. They're much handier than the business band radios
of
old. We can leave voice mail for each other with the phone which is a
big advantage over the radios.

CY: Yes, that's good. I'd guess that there was once in a while when
the cell towers were overloaded, or the power was out. That the
business radios worked. But, that's not very often.

We can call our farmer customers if we
need to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers,
a
very handy feature.

CY: Ah, so you have call ID blocking. I did that for a while. I'm
considering unblocking for the new phone. Nice to have my customers be
able to get a hold of me.

My co worker has a camera phone. It was handy once. He tried to
describe an electrical component to me without success. He showed me
a
picture of it the next day.

CY: Yes, that's good. The phone I had, was able to email pictures to
others computers. Which came in handy.

I bought the first personal ones for my parents. They needed one
if
they had problems traveling on country roads in Nebraska.

CY: I have suggested a phone for my parents, but they don't seem
interested at the moment.

A list here of prepaid cell phones if anyone happens to be
interested: http://tinyurl.com/dfyvn

CY: Thanks, that looks useful.

Sadly, the phones of today are miniature, and too complicated. I had a
look for "handicap cell phones" and found this:
http://etoengineering.com/elderly.htm
Big buttons, simple featurees, etc.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"The Daring Dufas"
wrote in message ...

I JUST WANT A CELLPHONE THAT FREAKING
MAKES PHONE CALLS AND FITS DARNED HAND!!! Phew! My head hurts.....

TDD

On 10/7/2010 9:34 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
Stormin Mormon wrote:
My cell phone died. LG VX-5500. A year and a half old, not that old.
Took my old backup phone to the cell store, and got the service moved
over.

New phone arrives tomorrow, Fed Ex. I'm amazed how essential cell
phone is, in my life. Not sure what I did before they were invented.


Same here. They're much handier than the business band radios of old. We
can leave voice mail for each other with the phone which is a big
advantage over the radios. We can call our farmer customers if we need
to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers, a very
handy feature.

I simply don't answer if the CID is blocked. That idea is something from
the past when cell phones were a lot more expensive to use and not as
common. Some people thought it was a big deal if they had your cell #
and would sometimes abuse the privilege. Now all you do is annoy someone
if you block CID.


My co worker has a camera phone. It was handy once. He tried to describe
an electrical component to me without success. He showed me a picture of
it the next day.

It comes in very handy for me. What is the saying, a picture is worth a
thousand words?


I bought the first personal ones for my parents. They needed one if they
had problems traveling on country roads in Nebraska.
A list here of prepaid cell phones if anyone happens to be interested:
http://tinyurl.com/dfyvn

"Kurt Ullman" wrote in message
m...

Nothing gets authorized unless Congress says so, but the Executive Branch
does most of the spending. Nobody held a gun to Reagan's head and forced
him to resurrect the B-1 bomber, but as in my analogy above when asked to
choose between the B-1 or the B-2, Reagan decided to buy them both. As
the
wags at the Pentagon say, few billion here, a few billion there, pretty
soon
you're talking real money.

Of course if you can put the entire deficit at the foot of the two
bombers go ahead.

It was what is known as an example. In broader terms the Reagan
administration doubled military procurement spending, to the tune of
hundreds of billions of dollars.

Interesting stat from the Statistical Abstract of the
US. There was only one year in the entire RR administration that the
year-to-year increase in defense spending was more than the year-to-year
increase in revenue. Saying the build up was the cause of the deficit is
sorta like getting a $1 raise, having your insurance go up 25 cents and
then blaming the insurance company for the $1.50 overdraft in your
checking account.

Can you quote me saying military spending was solely responsible for the
deficit? No? Then why are suggesting I did?

It takes two to do this tango, Congress votes the money, but they don¹t
spend it, and I fail to see why the branch that actually does spend it
should get a pass.

They do have to spend it. During Nixon, the Supremes said it was
illegal to sequester or otherwise not spend the money appropriated by
Congress. RR tried something similar (can't remember what that was
officially named) with the same outcome.

Which ignores that the money is often appropriated because the
administration asks for it and applies considerable public pressure to get
it. When Carter cancelled the B-1 bomber, the reaction from some
Republicans was to tell the public that in the Kremlin they were breaking
out the vodka and caviar in celebration. The reality was the opposite, the
Soviets were more worried about many hundreds of cruise missiles being
launched from B-52s than they were worried about a small number of B-1
bombers which it turned out were not especially better bombers than the
B-52. So let's not pretend that Congress forced that money on the Reagan
administration which spent it only with great reluctance, because that isn't
how it happened.

Besides, as then VP Cheney said to then Treasury Secretary O'Neill, Reagan
proved deficits don't matter, and who am I to argue with as august a figure
as Dick Cheney when it comes to assigning blame for Reagan-era deficits.

"George" wrote in message
...

It is a shame and shows how corrupt both sides are. Congress is the
only one who can authorize such payments and the democrat Congress
with Pilosi having the gavel in her hand as speaker approved "helping"
the pirate organizations.

Hundreds of billions of dollars were poured into the banks and auto
companies with the agreement of the Bush administration/cabinet and the
personal approval of the President. Bush expressed reluctance, but he
signed at the bottom of the page. So let's not pretend it was an
all-Democratic deal, the Republicans have never been too bashful about
helping out their friends in the corporate world.

I guess you missed what I wrote: "shows how corrupt both sides are."

No, I noticed how you singled-out the Dems.

On Thu, 7 Oct 2010 14:11:18 -0700 (PDT), Hilary
wrote:

On Oct 7, 1:40Â*pm, Jules Richardson
wrote:
On Thu, 07 Oct 2010 12:10:39 -0700, DGDevin wrote:
"Jules Richardson" wrote in message
...

I've not had one for three years now, and it's a liberating experience.
If people need to contact me in an emergecy, they'll find a way. For
everything else, I'm either near a land-line, or email, or whatever it
is can wait until I get to it. Life just shouldn't be so fast that we
have to be at someone's beck and call every waking second of the day
:-)

My wife and I both use pay-as-you-go cell phones, the only condition is
we have to pay at least $20 every 90 days but we can bank that airtime
if need be. Â*Most of the time the phones are not even turned on, we use
them when *we* want to, so they aren't a means for other people to annoy
us. Â*Works pretty good.

Yes, I used to have one before I moved to the US (no restriction on
minimum spend, either), but it wouldn't work on the US system (well, at
least not outside major cities). I was lazy about spending money on a new
phone (which would probably break reasonably quickly anyway, because they
all seem to be built to the worst possible quality) and as time went on I
just found less and less need to have one.

I think there are probably a handful of times a year now where I think
one would be useful - but that's not enough to justify buying a phone and
then spending $80/year just to make 4 or 5 calls.

(a side issue is that I've only ever used a cell phone to make voice
calls and send the occasional text message. I couldn't give a hoot about
playing games on it, or Internet access, or it having a camera, or any of
the other "extras" that they seem to insist on tacking on these days :-)

cheers

Jules- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I have a Tracfone which I only use in an emergency, plus 1-5 times a
year for "I'll be there in 10 minutes, are you home yet" or "Do we
need XYZ from the store?", etc. I have no idea if it texts or not,
since texting seems to me to be the biggest waste of time EVER!! Just
call the person and TALK. But then again, I'm a grown-up, not trying
to text during math class. I don't care if you can text using one
character for every word, it is still WAAAAY faster to actually TALK!

I have about 800 minutes (which came with the airtime) saved up and it
costs less than $80/year. Totally worth it, since the last time I used
it I was stranded in a snowstorm, in a dead car, up in the
Adirondacks. Would probably still be there if I hadn't had that
phone...
The beauty of texting is the message gets through whether the
recipient is driving, sleeping, busy talking to someone else, or
whatever. He reads it at his convenience and replies or not -

Also, no long distance charges. And you don't get stuck on the phone
with some longwinded character when you have work to do.

Definitely worthwhile as far as i'm concerned.

On Thu, 07 Oct 2010 23:21:27 -0500, The Daring Dufas
wrote:

On 10/7/2010 8:34 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
Stormin Mormon wrote:
My cell phone died. LG VX-5500. A year and a half old, not that old.
Took my old backup phone to the cell store, and got the service moved
over.

New phone arrives tomorrow, Fed Ex. I'm amazed how essential cell
phone is, in my life. Not sure what I did before they were invented.


Same here. They're much handier than the business band radios of old. We
can leave voice mail for each other with the phone which is a big
advantage over the radios. We can call our farmer customers if we need
to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers, a very
handy feature.
My co worker has a camera phone. It was handy once. He tried to describe
an electrical component to me without success. He showed me a picture of
it the next day.
I bought the first personal ones for my parents. They needed one if they
had problems traveling on country roads in Nebraska.
A list here of prepaid cell phones if anyone happens to be interested:
http://tinyurl.com/dfyvn


The best cellphone I ever had was my 1996 Motorola Nextel push to talk
radio/cellphone. It put out a full watt of RF and was stout enough to
club a mugger over the head with and still function to call the cops.
It was big too, big enough for my big hands and didn't break like all
these dinky little inexpensive overly complicated wonders of technology
that we have to put up with now. I JUST WANT A CELLPHONE THAT FREAKING
MAKES PHONE CALLS AND FITS DARNED HAND!!! Phew! My head hurts.....

TDD
I've still got my old Nokia 9100 GSM phone and about 4 batteries for
it . Nothing but a phone. No extras, and it just works, and works.
Better range than my Blackberry too.
I keep it around as a backup/spare.

On 10/8/2010 2:45 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 07 Oct 2010 23:21:27 -0500, The Daring Dufas
wrote:

On 10/7/2010 8:34 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
Stormin Mormon wrote:
My cell phone died. LG VX-5500. A year and a half old, not that old.
Took my old backup phone to the cell store, and got the service moved
over.

New phone arrives tomorrow, Fed Ex. I'm amazed how essential cell
phone is, in my life. Not sure what I did before they were invented.


Same here. They're much handier than the business band radios of old. We
can leave voice mail for each other with the phone which is a big
advantage over the radios. We can call our farmer customers if we need
to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers, a very
handy feature.
My co worker has a camera phone. It was handy once. He tried to describe
an electrical component to me without success. He showed me a picture of
it the next day.
I bought the first personal ones for my parents. They needed one if they
had problems traveling on country roads in Nebraska.
A list here of prepaid cell phones if anyone happens to be interested:
http://tinyurl.com/dfyvn


The best cellphone I ever had was my 1996 Motorola Nextel push to talk
radio/cellphone. It put out a full watt of RF and was stout enough to
club a mugger over the head with and still function to call the cops.
It was big too, big enough for my big hands and didn't break like all
these dinky little inexpensive overly complicated wonders of technology
that we have to put up with now. I JUST WANT A CELLPHONE THAT FREAKING
MAKES PHONE CALLS AND FITS DARNED HAND!!! Phew! My head hurts.....

TDD
I've still got my old Nokia 9100 GSM phone and about 4 batteries for
it . Nothing but a phone. No extras, and it just works, and works.
Better range than my Blackberry too.
I keep it around as a backup/spare.

I have a Nokia 2600 TracFone and it's about the simplest cellphone out
there. I have actually use the stopwatch function to time a gas fired
conveyor oven but I rarely even play with any of the other functions
and I have NEVER used the texting function. The fracking buttons are
too small.

TDD

And, at the speed of light. Unlike postal mail.

Very often, text messages will go through the towers when the voice
system is overloaded.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..



wrote in message ...


The beauty of texting is the message gets through whether the
recipient is driving, sleeping, busy talking to someone else, or
whatever. He reads it at his convenience and replies or not -

Also, no long distance charges. And you don't get stuck on the phone
with some longwinded character when you have work to do.

Definitely worthwhile as far as i'm concerned.

On 10/8/2010 3:40 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 7 Oct 2010 14:11:18 -0700 (PDT), Hilary
wrote:

On Oct 7, 1:40Â pm, Jules Richardson
wrote:
On Thu, 07 Oct 2010 12:10:39 -0700, DGDevin wrote:
"Jules wrote in message
...

I've not had one for three years now, and it's a liberating experience.
If people need to contact me in an emergecy, they'll find a way. For
everything else, I'm either near a land-line, or email, or whatever it
is can wait until I get to it. Life just shouldn't be so fast that we
have to be at someone's beck and call every waking second of the day
:-)

My wife and I both use pay-as-you-go cell phones, the only condition is
we have to pay at least $20 every 90 days but we can bank that airtime
if need be. Â Most of the time the phones are not even turned on, we use
them when *we* want to, so they aren't a means for other people to annoy
us. Â Works pretty good.

Yes, I used to have one before I moved to the US (no restriction on
minimum spend, either), but it wouldn't work on the US system (well, at
least not outside major cities). I was lazy about spending money on a new
phone (which would probably break reasonably quickly anyway, because they
all seem to be built to the worst possible quality) and as time went on I
just found less and less need to have one.

I think there are probably a handful of times a year now where I think
one would be useful - but that's not enough to justify buying a phone and
then spending $80/year just to make 4 or 5 calls.

(a side issue is that I've only ever used a cell phone to make voice
calls and send the occasional text message. I couldn't give a hoot about
playing games on it, or Internet access, or it having a camera, or any of
the other "extras" that they seem to insist on tacking on these days :-)

cheers

Jules- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I have a Tracfone which I only use in an emergency, plus 1-5 times a
year for "I'll be there in 10 minutes, are you home yet" or "Do we
need XYZ from the store?", etc. I have no idea if it texts or not,
since texting seems to me to be the biggest waste of time EVER!! Just
call the person and TALK. But then again, I'm a grown-up, not trying
to text during math class. I don't care if you can text using one
character for every word, it is still WAAAAY faster to actually TALK!

I have about 800 minutes (which came with the airtime) saved up and it
costs less than $80/year. Totally worth it, since the last time I used
it I was stranded in a snowstorm, in a dead car, up in the
Adirondacks. Would probably still be there if I hadn't had that
phone...
The beauty of texting is the message gets through whether the
recipient is driving, sleeping, busy talking to someone else, or
whatever. He reads it at his convenience and replies or not -

Isn't that is what email is for?

--
aem sends...

On 10/7/2010 6:07 PM, wrote:
On Oct 7, 8:42 am, Kurt wrote:
In ,

wrote:
On 2010-10-06, Gordon wrote:

That way if you were too lazy to work our great leader in Washington
fixed it so you could get a free phone and free service at the expense
of the tax paying citizens.

You mean like the near trillion dollars of taxpayer money given to
crooked financial institutions?

nb

Yet yesterday, the Administration was touting how much of that had
already been paid back or would soon be paid back. Which is it?



You know, it's a curious thing that Obama and the Dems haven't made a
point of explaining that 90% of the $787Bil TARP money has either
been paid back or is no longer at risk. The last estimate I heard
recently was that they think the govt will lose $70bil tops, with the
real possibility of it actually being zero or showing a profit. Yet
almost everyone keeps acting like the money was just given to the
banks and other businesses with no repayment. Instead the Dems just
keep taking a beating, which they should for plenty of other reasons,
but not for this.

Why not? What everyone I know and I think is that the pirates should
have been left to fail and more honest institutions should have taken
over just like with any other failure.

Its a behavioral thing. Assuming you have children suppose your teenager
carelessly wrapped their car around a tree. How much of a lesson do you
think it would be if you woke them up the next morning and said "honey,
I know you didn't mean it so hear are the keys to a new car I just
bought for you" or suppose your brother in law was an irresponsible
gambler and came to you for money and you said "OK Bob, let me get my
checkbook, will $100,000 be enough?


It's also interesting that the TARP plan was initiated under the final
months of Bush, was counted towards the Bush deficit that Obama likes
to point to that he inherited. But $700 bil of that deficit the govt
has or is getting back, hence it did not really increase the national
debt. The spending Obama has done after that was the money that was
truly handed out, really added to the deficit, and will never be paid
back.

But the democrat Congress (the division of government that holds the
purse strings) was in control for the last two years of the Bush
administration. They could have simply said no. They didn't so they bear
the lion's share of the responsibility. That includes my congressman who
was one of the biggest pimps of the "too big to fail" marketing campaign.

On 10/8/2010 3:40 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 7 Oct 2010 14:11:18 -0700 (PDT), Hilary
wrote:

On Oct 7, 1:40 pm, Jules Richardson
wrote:
On Thu, 07 Oct 2010 12:10:39 -0700, DGDevin wrote:
"Jules wrote in message
...

I've not had one for three years now, and it's a liberating experience.
If people need to contact me in an emergecy, they'll find a way. For
everything else, I'm either near a land-line, or email, or whatever it
is can wait until I get to it. Life just shouldn't be so fast that we
have to be at someone's beck and call every waking second of the day
:-)

My wife and I both use pay-as-you-go cell phones, the only condition is
we have to pay at least $20 every 90 days but we can bank that airtime
if need be. Most of the time the phones are not even turned on, we use
them when *we* want to, so they aren't a means for other people to annoy
us. Works pretty good.

Yes, I used to have one before I moved to the US (no restriction on
minimum spend, either), but it wouldn't work on the US system (well, at
least not outside major cities). I was lazy about spending money on a new
phone (which would probably break reasonably quickly anyway, because they
all seem to be built to the worst possible quality) and as time went on I
just found less and less need to have one.

I think there are probably a handful of times a year now where I think
one would be useful - but that's not enough to justify buying a phone and
then spending $80/year just to make 4 or 5 calls.

(a side issue is that I've only ever used a cell phone to make voice
calls and send the occasional text message. I couldn't give a hoot about
playing games on it, or Internet access, or it having a camera, or any of
the other "extras" that they seem to insist on tacking on these days :-)

cheers

Jules- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I have a Tracfone which I only use in an emergency, plus 1-5 times a
year for "I'll be there in 10 minutes, are you home yet" or "Do we
need XYZ from the store?", etc. I have no idea if it texts or not,
since texting seems to me to be the biggest waste of time EVER!! Just
call the person and TALK. But then again, I'm a grown-up, not trying
to text during math class. I don't care if you can text using one
character for every word, it is still WAAAAY faster to actually TALK!

I have about 800 minutes (which came with the airtime) saved up and it
costs less than $80/year. Totally worth it, since the last time I used
it I was stranded in a snowstorm, in a dead car, up in the
Adirondacks. Would probably still be there if I hadn't had that
phone...
The beauty of texting is the message gets through whether the
recipient is driving, sleeping, busy talking to someone else, or
whatever. He reads it at his convenience and replies or not -

Also, no long distance charges. And you don't get stuck on the phone
with some longwinded character when you have work to do.

Definitely worthwhile as far as i'm concerned.

Yes, It can be a really good tool. I use it frequently to contact
friends and they contact me when we know the other person is busy and we
need to get a message to each other.

On 10/7/2010 2:11 PM, Hilary wrote:

snip

I have a Tracfone which I only use in an emergency, plus 1-5 times a
year for "I'll be there in 10 minutes, are you home yet" or "Do we
need XYZ from the store?", etc. I have no idea if it texts or not,
since texting seems to me to be the biggest waste of time EVER!! Just
call the person and TALK. But then again, I'm a grown-up, not trying
to text during math class. I don't care if you can text using one
character for every word, it is still WAAAAY faster to actually TALK!

I have about 800 minutes (which came with the airtime) saved up and it
costs less than $80/year. Totally worth it, since the last time I used
it I was stranded in a snowstorm, in a dead car, up in the
Adirondacks. Would probably still be there if I hadn't had that
phone...

Tracfone is heavily advertised but it's actually one of the most
expensive "emergency phones" on the market.

PagePlus requires that you add $10 every 120 days, or about $30 a month.
You can keep a T-Mobile prepaid phone active for $10 a year, but
T-Mobile coverage is not what you want in case of emergency.

On 2010-10-09, SMS wrote:

Tracfone is heavily advertised but it's actually one of the most
expensive "emergency phones" on the market.
You can keep a T-Mobile prepaid phone active for $10 a year, but

T-Mobile coverage is not what you want in case of emergency.

Which is what makes tracfone worth the money. I'm seriously in the
boonies, closest town 10 mi away. Never have probs using my tracfone.
While the cheaper cell-phone models have issues, I can actually hear
my $15 LG ring! It's louder than my deskphone.

nb

On 10/8/2010 5:42 PM, notbob wrote:
On 2010-10-09, wrote:

Tracfone is heavily advertised but it's actually one of the most
expensive "emergency phones" on the market.
You can keep a T-Mobile prepaid phone active for $10 a year, but

T-Mobile coverage is not what you want in case of emergency.

Which is what makes tracfone worth the money. I'm seriously in the
boonies, closest town 10 mi away. Never have probs using my tracfone.
While the cheaper cell-phone models have issues, I can actually hear
my $15 LG ring! It's louder than my deskphone.

nb

Tracfone has some phones on AT&T (not good) and some on Verizon (good).

PagePlus is all on Verizon and any other CDMA carrier. The good thing
about PagePlus is that you get the best possible coverage but it's very
inexpensive. Spending $80 a year for an emergency phone is ridiculous
when you could be spending $30 and getting as many minutes.

CY: I've heard from two other people that the Fed Ex drivers aren't
very diligent. They slap a sticker on the door and run. They don't
make much effort to pound on the door, ring the bell, etc.

to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers, a
very
handy feature.

I simply don't answer if the CID is blocked. That idea is something
from
the past when cell phones were a lot more expensive to use and not as
common. Some people thought it was a big deal if they had your cell #
and would sometimes abuse the privilege. Now all you do is annoy
someone
if you block CID.

CY: when I got my first cell, I also had a pager. I'd have people beep
me, and I'd ring em back. Much the same, I didn't want to pay for junk
calls coming in. Now days, cells are common. Today I turned off the
call ID blocking for my outgoing calls.


My co worker has a camera phone. It was handy once. He tried to
describe
an electrical component to me without success. He showed me a
picture of
it the next day.

It comes in very handy for me. What is the saying, a picture is worth
a
thousand words?

CY: Yes, I've found that to be the case. I've been able to pop and
send a picture many times, and that's really come in handy.

YEah, that really pushes my buttons.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"The Daring Dufas" wrote in message
...

and I have NEVER used the texting function. The fracking buttons are
too small.

TDD

George wrote:
On 10/7/2010 9:34 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:

Same here. They're much handier than the business band radios of old. We
can leave voice mail for each other with the phone which is a big
advantage over the radios. We can call our farmer customers if we need
to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers, a very
handy feature.

I simply don't answer if the CID is blocked. That idea is something from
the past when cell phones were a lot more expensive to use and not as
common. Some people thought it was a big deal if they had your cell #
and would sometimes abuse the privilege. Now all you do is annoy someone
if you block CID.

We're pretty fortunate from that standpoint. Only one of our
customers blocks our calls. Most agree with our reasoning if we explain
it. I ask "Do you want to pay my boss XX $/hour for me to talk to
Farmer Blue on the phone about his problems?"
I don't see how guys in welding/repair shops track their time. It
seems like they are always being interrupted. I doubt there is such a
thing as flat rate for most of their work.
Our office can handle most of the questions and the scheduling. We
need to concentrate on our repair work. We're like most farm related
businesses. Things get pretty hectic during the growing season. It's
better organized if farmers call the office to schedule work instead of
trying to track us down.

On 10/8/2010 9:44 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
George wrote:
On 10/7/2010 9:34 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:

Same here. They're much handier than the business band radios of old. We
can leave voice mail for each other with the phone which is a big
advantage over the radios. We can call our farmer customers if we need
to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers, a very
handy feature.

I simply don't answer if the CID is blocked. That idea is something
from the past when cell phones were a lot more expensive to use and
not as common. Some people thought it was a big deal if they had your
cell # and would sometimes abuse the privilege. Now all you do is
annoy someone if you block CID.

We're pretty fortunate from that standpoint. Only one of our customers
blocks our calls. Most agree with our reasoning if we explain it. I ask
"Do you want to pay my boss XX $/hour for me to talk to Farmer Blue on
the phone about his problems?"
I don't see how guys in welding/repair shops track their time. It
seems like they are always being interrupted. I doubt there is such a
thing as flat rate for most of their work.
Our office can handle most of the questions and the scheduling. We
need to concentrate on our repair work. We're like most farm related
businesses. Things get pretty hectic during the growing season. It's
better organized if farmers call the office to schedule work instead of
trying to track us down.


I have a pager and instruct people to call that number and leave a
message, I keep my cellphone turned off.

TDD

On Fri, 08 Oct 2010 23:53:08 -0500, The Daring Dufas wrote:
On 10/8/2010 9:44 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
George wrote:
On 10/7/2010 9:34 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:

Same here. They're much handier than the business band radios of old. We
can leave voice mail for each other with the phone which is a big
advantage over the radios. We can call our farmer customers if we need
to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers, a very
handy feature.

I simply don't answer if the CID is blocked. That idea is something
from the past when cell phones were a lot more expensive to use and
not as common. Some people thought it was a big deal if they had your
cell # and would sometimes abuse the privilege. Now all you do is
annoy someone if you block CID.

We're pretty fortunate from that standpoint. Only one of our customers
blocks our calls. Most agree with our reasoning if we explain it. I ask
"Do you want to pay my boss XX $/hour for me to talk to Farmer Blue on
the phone about his problems?"
I don't see how guys in welding/repair shops track their time. It
seems like they are always being interrupted. I doubt there is such a
thing as flat rate for most of their work.
Our office can handle most of the questions and the scheduling. We
need to concentrate on our repair work. We're like most farm related
businesses. Things get pretty hectic during the growing season. It's
better organized if farmers call the office to schedule work instead of
trying to track us down.


I have a pager and instruct people to call that number and leave a
message, I keep my cellphone turned off.

how stupid. You can take messages by having them call your cell phone
with its ringer turned off or set to beep just once. Once less device
to pay service for or to carry around.

On 10/9/2010 12:12 AM, AZ Nomad wrote:
On Fri, 08 Oct 2010 23:53:08 -0500, The Daring wrote:
On 10/8/2010 9:44 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
George wrote:
On 10/7/2010 9:34 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:

Same here. They're much handier than the business band radios of old. We
can leave voice mail for each other with the phone which is a big
advantage over the radios. We can call our farmer customers if we need
to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers, a very
handy feature.

I simply don't answer if the CID is blocked. That idea is something
from the past when cell phones were a lot more expensive to use and
not as common. Some people thought it was a big deal if they had your
cell # and would sometimes abuse the privilege. Now all you do is
annoy someone if you block CID.

We're pretty fortunate from that standpoint. Only one of our customers
blocks our calls. Most agree with our reasoning if we explain it. I ask
"Do you want to pay my boss XX $/hour for me to talk to Farmer Blue on
the phone about his problems?"
I don't see how guys in welding/repair shops track their time. It
seems like they are always being interrupted. I doubt there is such a
thing as flat rate for most of their work.
Our office can handle most of the questions and the scheduling. We
need to concentrate on our repair work. We're like most farm related
businesses. Things get pretty hectic during the growing season. It's
better organized if farmers call the office to schedule work instead of
trying to track us down.


I have a pager and instruct people to call that number and leave a
message, I keep my cellphone turned off.

how stupid. You can take messages by having them call your cell phone
with its ringer turned off or set to beep just once. Once less device
to pay service for or to carry around.

Before you questioned my intelligence, pinhead, you should have asked.
If there is an emergency, I've instructed those who would have reason
to call me in an emergency to punch in 911 followed by their number,
usually the last four digits or a pass-code. I won't talk on my
cellphone when I'm driving, not because I can't walk and chew gum at
the same time but because the multitude of inattentive morons I share
the public roads with requires that I practice extreme diligence.

TDD

On 10/8/2010 9:53 PM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
On 10/8/2010 9:44 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
George wrote:
On 10/7/2010 9:34 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:

Same here. They're much handier than the business band radios of
old. We
can leave voice mail for each other with the phone which is a big
advantage over the radios. We can call our farmer customers if we need
to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers, a very
handy feature.

I simply don't answer if the CID is blocked. That idea is something
from the past when cell phones were a lot more expensive to use and
not as common. Some people thought it was a big deal if they had your
cell # and would sometimes abuse the privilege. Now all you do is
annoy someone if you block CID.

We're pretty fortunate from that standpoint. Only one of our customers
blocks our calls. Most agree with our reasoning if we explain it. I ask
"Do you want to pay my boss XX $/hour for me to talk to Farmer Blue on
the phone about his problems?"
I don't see how guys in welding/repair shops track their time. It
seems like they are always being interrupted. I doubt there is such a
thing as flat rate for most of their work.
Our office can handle most of the questions and the scheduling. We
need to concentrate on our repair work. We're like most farm related
businesses. Things get pretty hectic during the growing season. It's
better organized if farmers call the office to schedule work instead of
trying to track us down.


I have a pager and instruct people to call that number and leave a
message, I keep my cellphone turned off.

Why would you do that? Set your ringer to silent and let them leave a
message on the cell phone. No need to pay for a pager or carry it around.

On 10/9/2010 2:16 AM, SMS wrote:
On 10/8/2010 9:53 PM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
On 10/8/2010 9:44 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
George wrote:
On 10/7/2010 9:34 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:

Same here. They're much handier than the business band radios of
old. We
can leave voice mail for each other with the phone which is a big
advantage over the radios. We can call our farmer customers if we need
to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers, a very
handy feature.

I simply don't answer if the CID is blocked. That idea is something
from the past when cell phones were a lot more expensive to use and
not as common. Some people thought it was a big deal if they had your
cell # and would sometimes abuse the privilege. Now all you do is
annoy someone if you block CID.

We're pretty fortunate from that standpoint. Only one of our customers
blocks our calls. Most agree with our reasoning if we explain it. I ask
"Do you want to pay my boss XX $/hour for me to talk to Farmer Blue on
the phone about his problems?"
I don't see how guys in welding/repair shops track their time. It
seems like they are always being interrupted. I doubt there is such a
thing as flat rate for most of their work.
Our office can handle most of the questions and the scheduling. We
need to concentrate on our repair work. We're like most farm related
businesses. Things get pretty hectic during the growing season. It's
better organized if farmers call the office to schedule work instead of
trying to track us down.


I have a pager and instruct people to call that number and leave a
message, I keep my cellphone turned off.

Why would you do that? Set your ringer to silent and let them leave a
message on the cell phone. No need to pay for a pager or carry it around.


I've had the same pager number for more than 20 years. I haven't had the
same cell, POTS or VOIP phone number for longer than three. If someone
needs to get in touch with me, they call my pager, leave a voice message
which is kept on a company server or they punch in their number,
preceded by 911 if it's an emergency. I have a combination voice and
numeric paging service which has served me well for many years. I've
been with the same paging company through several owners
since 1984. I've been using a pager for 35 years and it works for me
which is why I will never get rid of it, it just works. My average
cellphone conversation lasts 60 seconds so I don't need to jabber. I
get a message, call the customer back and confirm a time to be there.
I don't spend hours on the cellphone blabbering about this and that.
I get calls to my pager from folks I haven't spoken to in years because
that number is on stickers on equipment, in someone's paperwork or on
an invoice from the time I did work for them.

TDD

On 10/9/2010 12:53 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
On 10/8/2010 9:44 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
George wrote:
On 10/7/2010 9:34 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:

Same here. They're much handier than the business band radios of
old. We
can leave voice mail for each other with the phone which is a big
advantage over the radios. We can call our farmer customers if we need
to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers, a very
handy feature.

I simply don't answer if the CID is blocked. That idea is something
from the past when cell phones were a lot more expensive to use and
not as common. Some people thought it was a big deal if they had your
cell # and would sometimes abuse the privilege. Now all you do is
annoy someone if you block CID.

We're pretty fortunate from that standpoint. Only one of our customers
blocks our calls. Most agree with our reasoning if we explain it. I ask
"Do you want to pay my boss XX $/hour for me to talk to Farmer Blue on
the phone about his problems?"
I don't see how guys in welding/repair shops track their time. It
seems like they are always being interrupted. I doubt there is such a
thing as flat rate for most of their work.
Our office can handle most of the questions and the scheduling. We
need to concentrate on our repair work. We're like most farm related
businesses. Things get pretty hectic during the growing season. It's
better organized if farmers call the office to schedule work instead of
trying to track us down.


I have a pager and instruct people to call that number and leave a
message, I keep my cellphone turned off.

TDD
Pagers are pretty much an historical artifact in many areas. There is
only one carrier left that serves my area and they have lots of issues
because they aren't making any money.

I don't get your logic. If you keep your cellphone turned off for some
reason why not just let folks leave a message on the cellphone voice mail?

On 10/9/2010 1:27 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
On 10/9/2010 12:12 AM, AZ Nomad wrote:
On Fri, 08 Oct 2010 23:53:08 -0500, The Daring
wrote:
On 10/8/2010 9:44 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
George wrote:
On 10/7/2010 9:34 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:

Same here. They're much handier than the business band radios of
old. We
can leave voice mail for each other with the phone which is a big
advantage over the radios. We can call our farmer customers if we
need
to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers, a
very
handy feature.

I simply don't answer if the CID is blocked. That idea is something
from the past when cell phones were a lot more expensive to use and
not as common. Some people thought it was a big deal if they had your
cell # and would sometimes abuse the privilege. Now all you do is
annoy someone if you block CID.

We're pretty fortunate from that standpoint. Only one of our customers
blocks our calls. Most agree with our reasoning if we explain it. I ask
"Do you want to pay my boss XX $/hour for me to talk to Farmer Blue on
the phone about his problems?"
I don't see how guys in welding/repair shops track their time. It
seems like they are always being interrupted. I doubt there is such a
thing as flat rate for most of their work.
Our office can handle most of the questions and the scheduling. We
need to concentrate on our repair work. We're like most farm related
businesses. Things get pretty hectic during the growing season. It's
better organized if farmers call the office to schedule work instead of
trying to track us down.


I have a pager and instruct people to call that number and leave a
message, I keep my cellphone turned off.

how stupid. You can take messages by having them call your cell phone
with its ringer turned off or set to beep just once. Once less device
to pay service for or to carry around.

Before you questioned my intelligence, pinhead, you should have asked.
If there is an emergency, I've instructed those who would have reason
to call me in an emergency to punch in 911 followed by their number,
usually the last four digits or a pass-code. I won't talk on my
cellphone when I'm driving, not because I can't walk and chew gum at
the same time but because the multitude of inattentive morons I share
the public roads with requires that I practice extreme diligence.

TDD

Thats what voicemail is for. If you are busy or need to focus your
attention on something you let the call go to voicemail.

If you are on the road a lot one of the best investments you can make is
a BT speakerphone. Mine announces the incoming caller and does a very
decent job of voice calling.

On 2010-10-09, George wrote:

If you are on the road a lot one of the best investments you can make is
a BT speakerphone. Mine announces the incoming caller and does a very
decent job of voice calling.

What's astonishing is, how cell-phones have dozens of features so one
can have/buy/own any number of devices to interact with each of them,
giving everyone more features than they know what to do with, so
everyone can have an untold number of personalized options, yet you
two think everyone should use theirs exactly like you do. What a
couple of pompous asses.

nb

On 2010-10-09, George wrote:

I don't get your logic. If you keep your cellphone turned off for some
reason why not just let folks leave a message on the cellphone voice mail?

Why do you care?

You can FAX me your reply.

nb

On 10/9/2010 6:21 AM, George wrote:
On 10/9/2010 1:27 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
On 10/9/2010 12:12 AM, AZ Nomad wrote:
On Fri, 08 Oct 2010 23:53:08 -0500, The Daring
wrote:
On 10/8/2010 9:44 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
George wrote:
On 10/7/2010 9:34 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:

Same here. They're much handier than the business band radios of
old. We
can leave voice mail for each other with the phone which is a big
advantage over the radios. We can call our farmer customers if we
need
to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers, a
very
handy feature.

I simply don't answer if the CID is blocked. That idea is something
from the past when cell phones were a lot more expensive to use and
not as common. Some people thought it was a big deal if they had your
cell # and would sometimes abuse the privilege. Now all you do is
annoy someone if you block CID.

We're pretty fortunate from that standpoint. Only one of our customers
blocks our calls. Most agree with our reasoning if we explain it. I
ask
"Do you want to pay my boss XX $/hour for me to talk to Farmer Blue on
the phone about his problems?"
I don't see how guys in welding/repair shops track their time. It
seems like they are always being interrupted. I doubt there is such a
thing as flat rate for most of their work.
Our office can handle most of the questions and the scheduling. We
need to concentrate on our repair work. We're like most farm related
businesses. Things get pretty hectic during the growing season. It's
better organized if farmers call the office to schedule work
instead of
trying to track us down.


I have a pager and instruct people to call that number and leave a
message, I keep my cellphone turned off.

how stupid. You can take messages by having them call your cell phone
with its ringer turned off or set to beep just once. Once less device
to pay service for or to carry around.

Before you questioned my intelligence, pinhead, you should have asked.
If there is an emergency, I've instructed those who would have reason
to call me in an emergency to punch in 911 followed by their number,
usually the last four digits or a pass-code. I won't talk on my
cellphone when I'm driving, not because I can't walk and chew gum at
the same time but because the multitude of inattentive morons I share
the public roads with requires that I practice extreme diligence.

TDD

Thats what voicemail is for. If you are busy or need to focus your
attention on something you let the call go to voicemail.

If you are on the road a lot one of the best investments you can make is
a BT speakerphone. Mine announces the incoming caller and does a very
decent job of voice calling.

That's why I have voicemail with my paging service. If I need to write
down information, I pull over to the side of the road or I wait to
get to my destination before trying to decipher what someone is trying
to tell me. I rarely talk and drive unless it's to get directions on the
move and that's usually at slow speeds without a flock of 3000 pound
unguided missiles surrounding me. GEEZ!

TDD

On Sat, 09 Oct 2010 10:19:11 -0500, The Daring Dufas wrote:
On 10/9/2010 6:21 AM, George wrote:
On 10/9/2010 1:27 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
On 10/9/2010 12:12 AM, AZ Nomad wrote:
On Fri, 08 Oct 2010 23:53:08 -0500, The Daring
wrote:
On 10/8/2010 9:44 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
George wrote:
On 10/7/2010 9:34 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:

Same here. They're much handier than the business band radios of
old. We
can leave voice mail for each other with the phone which is a big
advantage over the radios. We can call our farmer customers if we
need
to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers, a
very
handy feature.

I simply don't answer if the CID is blocked. That idea is something
from the past when cell phones were a lot more expensive to use and
not as common. Some people thought it was a big deal if they had your
cell # and would sometimes abuse the privilege. Now all you do is
annoy someone if you block CID.

We're pretty fortunate from that standpoint. Only one of our customers
blocks our calls. Most agree with our reasoning if we explain it. I
ask
"Do you want to pay my boss XX $/hour for me to talk to Farmer Blue on
the phone about his problems?"
I don't see how guys in welding/repair shops track their time. It
seems like they are always being interrupted. I doubt there is such a
thing as flat rate for most of their work.
Our office can handle most of the questions and the scheduling. We
need to concentrate on our repair work. We're like most farm related
businesses. Things get pretty hectic during the growing season. It's
better organized if farmers call the office to schedule work
instead of
trying to track us down.


I have a pager and instruct people to call that number and leave a
message, I keep my cellphone turned off.

how stupid. You can take messages by having them call your cell phone
with its ringer turned off or set to beep just once. Once less device
to pay service for or to carry around.

Before you questioned my intelligence, pinhead, you should have asked.
If there is an emergency, I've instructed those who would have reason
to call me in an emergency to punch in 911 followed by their number,
usually the last four digits or a pass-code. I won't talk on my
cellphone when I'm driving, not because I can't walk and chew gum at
the same time but because the multitude of inattentive morons I share
the public roads with requires that I practice extreme diligence.

TDD

Thats what voicemail is for. If you are busy or need to focus your
attention on something you let the call go to voicemail.

If you are on the road a lot one of the best investments you can make is
a BT speakerphone. Mine announces the incoming caller and does a very
decent job of voice calling.

That's why I have voicemail with my paging service. If I need to write
down information, I pull over to the side of the road or I wait to
get to my destination before trying to decipher what someone is trying
to tell me. I rarely talk and drive unless it's to get directions on the
move and that's usually at slow speeds without a flock of 3000 pound
unguided missiles surrounding me. GEEZ!

Why carry two devices when the cell phone can do everything the pager
does. Why have people leave a message on one device forcing you to manually
dial it on another device? Just leave the message on the cell phone,
and then call back later.

Who the **** said you have to be a roadside hazzard in order for people
to leave messages on your cellphone. Maybe you shouldn't have either
device if you are incapable of prioritizing your attention.

On 09/10/10 8:27 AM, AZ Nomad wrote:

snip

Why carry two devices when the cell phone can do everything the pager
does. Why have people leave a message on one device forcing you to manually
dial it on another device? Just leave the message on the cell phone,
and then call back later.

The cell phone can be set to vibrate when it receives a voice mail, and
of course in the "received calls" it will show who called unless they
have caller ID blocking. What you can't do, unless you send a text, is
to send a number to call back that displays on the screen.