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Science Technology

Another Reason to be Annoyed by Cell Phones 427

lotussuper7 writes: "This story at newscientist (free, no registration, unlike the NY Times) has some insight into the amount of RF you may be getting from all those cell phones people around you are using. Might be time to buy a cell phone jammer."
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Another Reason to be Annoyed by Cell Phones

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  • by maharg ( 182366 ) on Friday May 03, 2002 @04:51AM (#3456058) Homepage Journal
    I'd be more worried about the cumulative effect of loads of commuters repeating the mantra..
  • by Em Emalb ( 452530 ) <ememalb.gmail@com> on Friday May 03, 2002 @04:58AM (#3456076) Homepage Journal
    "Might be time to buy a cell phone jammer."

    No thanks, my cell phone came with a free jammer...it's called AT&T wireless service ;-)
  • by geoffsmith ( 161376 ) on Friday May 03, 2002 @04:59AM (#3456079) Homepage
    While everyone else is getting brain cancer, I've been wearing my Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie [zapatopi.net] for years.

    Just a myriad of uses for these things...

    Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon [stumbleupon.com]
  • by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Friday May 03, 2002 @05:01AM (#3456085) Homepage

    Get your multi frequency digital cell phone jammer here [cguard.com], or just skip the sissy stuff and build a disruptor [com.com].

  • by MosesJones ( 55544 ) on Friday May 03, 2002 @05:24AM (#3456129) Homepage

    Radiation found to be harmful, largest Radiation source found to be the Sun, blow up the Sun advises Slashdot.

    Scientists claim radiation can be use to kill cancer, carry more mobile phones advises Slashdot.

    Living in City can lead to lung disease, move to the country advises Slashdot.

    Living in country results in lower salaries, move to City advises Slashdot.

    Car pollution causes Global warming, buy bigger cars advises Slashdot.

    Is there a risk from this RF, yup, is there more of a risk from people driving while using a mobile than from this... oh boy yes. Is there a risk from Coal fired powerstations from radiation... oh wow yes.

    Passive Mobile phone usage, Caligormia to legislate.

  • by Geek Boy ( 15178 ) on Friday May 03, 2002 @05:32AM (#3456157)
    Sounds like all the more reason to use a car instead! That way we can justify building more roads!
  • by keithdowsett ( 260998 ) on Friday May 03, 2002 @05:55AM (#3456201) Homepage
    OK - so let's get geeky about this. Why do we need to broadcast continuously to disrupt mobile phones. Why not listen for outgoing packets and emit a nice big rf chirp when the base station tries to handshake.

    Benefits -

    prevents users dialling out
    prevents users accepting calls
    low rf power requirements
    reasonable battery life
    difficult for law enforcement to track down

    Disadvantages -

    illegal
    more difficult to design

    Any final year electronics students looking for an interesting project??

    Keith.
  • Re:ECM (Score:3, Funny)

    by Peyna ( 14792 ) on Friday May 03, 2002 @07:39AM (#3456399) Homepage
    * Brick Houses

    What about adobe bricks?
  • by Unanimous Backward ( 569494 ) on Friday May 03, 2002 @07:51AM (#3456438)
    Another reason jamming is a bad idea, other than that it will increase your exposure to RF by a factor of several times, the FCC having you thrown in prison/fining you large sums of money, is: if people do start carying around portable jammers, "ECM", the phone makers will have to start making ECCM phones, such as Spread Spectrum, possibly with other antijam features. Then the amount of power your little annoyance device will have to put out will go up enormously.

    How much RF will you soak up when you have a device in your pocket that will have to put out a 50-100 watt RF spike into every 1 khz of a 50-100 MHz wide frequency BAND? Your ass will melt. Besides: you're not soaking up that much RF from other people's mobiles, not compared to what they do, and if I were you I wouldn't worry so much about a few watts from a tower: if you want something RF to cry about, how about that 50+ kHz wide 50 MEGAWATT radio station that you live only a few miles away from, that's blasting you much harder than a tiny little cell phone tower. Sheesh!

    I will agree with you, though, if you say a no-phone section ought to be created in resteraunts. You don't just drop your pants and crap on the floor at a restaurant, do you? No, you get up and excuse yourself and go to the bathroom. That's what people should do when the get or have to make a call in a busy social situ. Plus, all CP's should have a silent ringer.

    Indeed, if you're in a restaurant, and someone starts gabbing and laughing on a cellphone right at his table, just go over to his table, pull down your pants, and take a shit right on his table, (preferably in his food, or his lap). When he says "hey!" Tell him, that that is what he is doing to your meal by yacking on his phone while you're trying to eat.

    Just a suggestion anyway.

  • by orcrist ( 16312 ) on Friday May 03, 2002 @08:08AM (#3456473)
    we happen to know that electromagnetic radiation isn't very good for your health.

    What's even worse is there's never been a full-scale study about the dangers of Light bulbs. Just look at them (figuratively, I mean) radiating electromagnetic radiation everywhere. I mean, your house is full of the damn things, and those evil light bulb companies don't want us to know the truth.

    Turn off the lights!!!

    -Chris
  • by Restil ( 31903 ) on Friday May 03, 2002 @08:25AM (#3456511) Homepage
    But if every extremely vocal teenybopper with a cellphone and unlimited minutes suddenly develops cancer and DIES.... I'm supposed to feel SAD about that... right?

    It was nicer back in the day when it cost 30 cents per minute to use your cell, and thats if you were only making a local call. A lot of people had them, but nobody used them unless they HAD to, and even then they kept the conversations short and to the point. There was no fear of idle chitchat while in a movie theatre.

    And no offense to women, but they're abusive phone users. This is nothing new. But before cheap cell phones, they were isolated to their own homes and didn't seem too compelled to share their hours long conversations with the rest of the world. But now, go into any large grocery store and I can almost certainly guarantee you that there will be at least ONE woman in there gossiping up a storm with someone over the cell, almost completely oblivious to the world around her. Its worse when they drive.

    So hey, I'm all in favor. LET the phones cause cancer. Hell, make them even MORE dangerous. And the louder the user speaks, make it emit more radiation. Its the perfect way to rid the world of the people that seem to dedicate their lives to annoying others.

    -Restil
  • by GungaDan ( 195739 ) on Friday May 03, 2002 @08:52AM (#3456603) Homepage
    So don't jam. Snatch the offending pieces of technology and beat the users about the head with them. Worked for Suge...

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