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Post by Alan Palmer on Jul 23, 2008 13:25:15 GMT
Susan,
Until two weeks ago, I didn't have one either. I finally caved in when a planned work meeting went awry and I turned up in the meeting room to find no-one of the other half-dozen attendees had showed up.
I have used it a couple of times so far to make voice calls, but so far haven't puzzled out the mysteries of sending SMS messages. From what I've read of the instruction manual, I don't have any inclination to try, either ...
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Post by Verbivore on Jul 23, 2008 14:05:18 GMT
[...] I seem to look upon it as some silly kind of challenge to fit the message into 160 characters by whatever means are necessary. I see it as an exercise in self-editing - rather like the advice I was given, in seminary, about sermon length: "If you can't say it in 20 minutes, you can't say it efficiently". So if I can't text it in 160 characters, I don't text it at all. On the rare occasion that my phone beeps with an "SMS2" message, I backtrack and remove enough words to trim the message. Send me txtspk if you wish, but I'll answer only in standard orthography. Am I the only person left who doesn't have a mobile phone? Lucky you! I bought (for my work, with my employers funds) the first three brick-sized car phones in my town (1988) and have been stuck with non-housebound phones ever since. Definitely a mixed "blessing".
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Post by Tone on Jul 23, 2008 20:39:36 GMT
SusanB, >Am I the only person left who doesn't have a mobile phone?<
You just might be -- but at least I can join you in not texting on the bloody things (mainly 'cos I can never make texting work properly).
My cellphones are invaluable to me, as a carer, and I would grieve greatly without them. But I've never (successfully) initiated a text message and have only rarely managed to reply to one in some strange lower case, unpunctuated, garbage that the 'phone produces even when I type proper words. (Said replies produced with much swearing and frustration, and sheer hope that some of my meaning will be conveyed.)
Tone
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Post by Twoddle on Jul 23, 2008 21:17:36 GMT
I hate talking on telephones. I don't know why that should be - possibly it's the intrusive nature of the beasts, whereby people can effectively "enter" my domicile without invitation and demand that I talk to them; possibly it's because the callers can say things such as, "We'll pop in to see you on Friday. Is that OK?", and I've got to think up a plausible lie, on the spot, as to why they can't just "pop in" to my sacred sanctum at their convenience; or possibly it's because I spent my career having to be courteous and helpful to the moronic, grasping, aggressive, sub-human underclasses on the 'phone when, given a free choice, I wouldn't have given them the drippings from my nose to help extinguish them if they'd been combusting collectively in front of me.
Whatever the reason for my 'phonophobia, SMS and e-mails were a gift to me from a non-existent god, and are my most tremendously definitely preferred form of communication. I can take the time to ponder my replies to them, my emotions can't be detected from them, and I can ignore them at my choosing.
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Post by Geoff on Jul 23, 2008 22:50:57 GMT
Susan,
No, definitely not; but sometimes I feel the world expects me to have one, just as there is an expectation that, today, everyone has a computer or a credit card.
Twoddle,
I hope you weren't working in Customer Service/Relations at any stage. My son does work at a customer service job, and while he is not as strong as you in his opinion of the people on the other end of his phone, he expresses very similar views. He generally refers to them simply as 'carbon-based life forms'.
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Post by Pete on Jul 23, 2008 23:28:11 GMT
Am I the only person left who doesn't have a mobile phone? No. I have a particularly Luddite friend who considers them to be the Devil's work! Not to suggest that you are a Luddite, Susan.
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Post by Pete on Jul 23, 2008 23:29:31 GMT
At the other extreme, I use my BlackBerry as a mobile phone, too. It has a full QWERTY keyboard, which makes texting in real English a doddle. ;D
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Post by Paul Doherty on Jul 24, 2008 3:11:07 GMT
... if I read "Didn't they find out??" in a book, I'd assume the proofreader had missed a typo. Oh, I agree -- in a book. But I said "if I wrote in conversation ...": I had in mind msn or somesuch. Perfectly valid and rather useful there, in my view. And Twod, "You're judgement's as valid as mine" ??
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Post by Dave on Jul 24, 2008 4:45:15 GMT
... with my employers funds.... Back to the APS!
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Post by Verbivore on Jul 24, 2008 7:42:12 GMT
... with my employers funds.... Back to the APS! O dear - the hock and shorror of it! I'm right out of sackcloth, but have a hessian bag. Will that do? Given today's weather in my neck of the woods, any extra layer of clothing is welcome.
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Post by Vadim on Jul 24, 2008 8:37:48 GMT
... with my employers funds.... Back to the APS! What would we do without you, Dave? ;D SusanB, >Am I the only person left who doesn't have a mobile phone?<Probably, yes! My excuse is that it doubles (doubles OK when I make multiple doublings ) as a diary, alarm clock, phone-book, address book, pager, games console, sat-nav, calculator, pocket translator, spell checker, dictionary, mobile Goggle (therefore anything!), currency converter, 5MP digital camera (with 6 x optical zoom), a modem - Oh! Someone tells me it can be used as a phone as well! ;D What item weighing less than 150g do you have that can do all that? I bet you have some of the items I have listed that weigh a darn-site-more than that. I have it all in one place that I can take with me on holiday, business, or just for every day to day use. I love my "phone".
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Post by Twoddle on Jul 24, 2008 10:35:33 GMT
... if I read "Didn't they find out??" in a book, I'd assume the proofreader had missed a typo. Oh, I agree -- in a book. But I said "if I wrote in conversation ...": I had in mind msn or somesuch. Perfectly valid and rather useful there, in my view. And Twod, "You're judgement's as valid as mine" ?? Verbivore's wearing the communally owned S&A, so I'll use my own.
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Post by Twoddle on Jul 24, 2008 10:41:25 GMT
Twoddle, I hope you weren't working in Customer Service/Relations at any stage. My son does work at a customer service job, and while he is not as strong as you in his opinion of the people on the other end of his phone, he expresses very similar views. He generally refers to them simply as 'carbon-based life forms'. I love the 'carbon-based life forms' description! My job entailed mainly telling peasants that they couldn't do the antisocial things they wanted to do, or avaricious capitalists that they had to do things they didn't want to do. However, there was a nightmare period of about six months when the prats decided I'd be "Customer Services Officer" as well. Square peg and round hole doesn't come anywhere near summing it up.
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Post by SusanB on Jul 24, 2008 11:06:52 GMT
What item weighing less than 150g do you have that can do all that? I bet you have some of the items I have listed that weigh a darn-site-more than that. I have it all in one place that I can take with me on holiday, business, or just for every day to day use. Yes, I do have a few of those items. But I never need them all at the same time. The only thing I regularly carry around is a small diary, so that I don't double-book myself. Everything else I need is where I will need it. I take an alarm clock when I go away, but I leave my diary behind. I don't feel a need to have any of the other things with me when I am away! I don't have any iThings either. No DVD player, no digital TV, etc. (I'm beginning to sound as odd as that unusual paragraph from a couple of weeks ago!)
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Post by Vadim on Jul 24, 2008 12:50:34 GMT
I don't have any iThings either. No DVD player, no digital TV, etc. Susan, cross-referencing another post from Geoff, my phone also doubles as an Ipod (mp3/mp4 player). ;D Oh, and a gym training aid! (I'm beginning to sound as odd as that unusual paragraph from a couple of weeks ago!) Nah you're not! You've too many e's.
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