Remobilisation [entries|reading|network|archive]
simont

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Mon 2007-09-24 11:14
Remobilisation

Well, I lasted just over a year without a mobile phone, but I've given up now: after several incidents recently where it would have been really helpful to be able to make an outgoing call from a random place, I've decided it is after all worth buying the cheapest PAYG handset I can find and keeping it turned off in my bag for the occasional emergency.

I hurt my hand over the weekend while loading planks of wood into my car to take them to the tip (the decorators left me a front-garden-ful of rubbish because I decided it was cheaper than paying them to take it away for me), and since it was still quite painful this morning I went in to town and took it to a doctor to make sure there wasn't anything serious wrong with it. So I thought it would be polite to call my office and let them know I'd be late in at best (or perhaps not in at all if the doctor decided it needed to go in a sling); and I decided the sensible way to do that would be to first buy a phone to call them with. Slightly silly, perhaps, but it should solve my next few similar problems as well.

The doctor prodded my hand for about fifteen seconds and said I'd just overdone it and it was nothing serious; it'll apparently hurt like hell for 7-10 days but then it'll be fine, and in the meantime ibuprofen is my friend. Irritating, but at least that means I don't need to worry about it, and also that it should be recovered in time for me to pack the contents of my home into boxes for the move.

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[identity profile] feanelwa.livejournal.comMon 2007-09-24 10:36
My new bag has the helpful property of, when I put my phone in the phone part a certain way round, pressing a pattern of keys on my phone such that it unlocks the keypad and dials 999. Fortunately it doesn't then seem to press 'call'.
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[personal profile] simontMon 2007-09-24 10:42
I don't quite understand why this still happens. I had that nearly happen to me a couple of times in bloody 2000, FFS; why have the mobile industry not figured out a way to stop it happening by now? Either have all phones be the kind with a hard cover that folds over the keypad, or do something clever in software to make it harder to accidentally hit the wrong combination.

For example, my old phone had the property that in keypad-lock mode the only keys you could press were 9, and Call if you'd typed in three nines. So if the keypad was locked and you just mashed all the keys repeatedly in arbitrary order, you'd eventually dial 999. A more sensible approach, perhaps, would have been to arrange that in keypad-lock mode you could type in any number you liked and press Call, but if the number wasn't exactly 999 then it would say "no". Then random button-mashing in a pocket or bag would make it much harder to make a mistake.
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[identity profile] feanelwa.livejournal.comMon 2007-09-24 11:02
Those two both result in accidental 999 calls from people's pockets, but make it easier for people who've just lost both hands in an accident to call an ambulance. My phone had exactly three nines on the screen at least once.

I think the best way to have it do that is for the unlock buttons to be separate from the actual keyboard and sunk into holes in the sides.

See also my regular rant about why bicycle lights don't have some sort of locking mechanism so that they don't turn on when you put one thing on them in your bag and run out their own batteries/allow your bag to do a good impression of the video for "Danger Danger High Voltage".
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[identity profile] furrfu.livejournal.comMon 2007-09-24 11:05
I'm pretty sure it's a legal requirement that mobile phones should allow people to dial the emergency services (in the UK 112 and 999) without needing to find out how to unlock the keyboard.
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[personal profile] simontMon 2007-09-24 12:14
But that doesn't rule out the idea that only the specific sequence 9-9-9-call needs to work, whereas sitting on the keypad and generating 4-6-3-4-6-9-3-4-5-9-4-2-3-5-9-2-0-call could usefully say "stop being silly".
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[identity profile] furrfu.livejournal.comMon 2007-09-24 12:30
Yes, but laws (and the interpretations of laws) rarely take silly into account. Either that or they're just being lazy; I think, however, that they're mostly just covering their arses to avoid a lawsuit from someone trying to dial 999 whilst wearing boxing gloves.
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[personal profile] mair_in_grenderichMon 2007-09-24 13:52
or a timeout? leave the first 9 on the screen for X seconds and then give up and go back to a clear screen
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[identity profile] senji.livejournal.comMon 2007-09-24 14:45
A quick test suggests that mine only reacts to any substring being 9-9-9 (so 9-7-9-9 won't do).
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[personal profile] aldabraMon 2007-09-24 10:50
I think unlocking the keyboard is superfluous in that manoeuvre; I've just tested mine and you can dial 999 with keyboard lock on. Because obviously the *over-riding reason* for using keyboard lock isn't to stop small children dialling 999, oh no. Head desk.
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[identity profile] hairyears.livejournal.comMon 2007-09-24 10:40
The thing that always worries me about wrist injuries is that, if you're over-using it on the keyboard and the mouse, any mildly strained and inflamed ligament might tip the balance into RSI.
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[identity profile] sphyg.livejournal.comThu 2007-09-27 15:02
My phone has a cunning keylock, apart from when it's ringing and I accidentally hang up on people when I'm scrabbling around in my bag trying to find the damn thing.
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