Just 2 days after the earthquake of January 12, 2010 hit Haiti, the first ever EIR (Emergency Information Service) was set up and in place to help. The goal was to provide SMS messaging on cell phones to the disaster-torn country. Working with InSTEDD, the Haitians were able to sign up for a free subscription to the Digicel and Comcel networks to receive our free Creole-language alerts.

Cell Phones in Haiti are key to emergency services

Text messaging has saved countless lives in Haiti so far. One man trapped for 5 days in a collapsed building text messaged for help. The EIR was able to track him through GPS and saved his life. EIR has also been able to broadcast emergency treatment center information to the people.

Entrepreneurs have capitalized by offering cell phone charging stations for the disaster victims. One man was charging 40 gourdes (75 cents) for a 15 minute charge for the phone. The line is long even though a Digicel location is offering free charging just down the street from the man.

Haiti’s cell phone networks were mostly restored within one day of the earthquake. This is amazing to me, but thank goodness. SMS networks were the most robust of the systems, providing Port-au-Prince’s emergency services a main point of contact for the government.

Even though SMS subscribers are growing every day, the radio remains the most efficient source of information. Internews, a media development organization, has been broadcasting a daily Creole-language program called “Nouvelles-Utiles” (News You Can Use) on 12 radio stations since January 21.

CDAC (Communications with Disaster Affected Communities ) has been working to improve communications with the disaster survivors. This is an inter-agency working group comprising Thomson Reuters Foundation, Internews, BBC World Service Trust, the Red Cross, Save the Children, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and others.

The whole world is rallying around the disaster survivors. BRAVO! But why does it take a disaster to bring us together? Shouldn’t we be helping our fellow humans anyway? What’s your take?

The U.S. DOT (Department of Transportation) clamps down on truckers and bus drivers. Commercial drivers now face a fine of up to $2,500 for texting or using hand held cell phones while driving.

Truckers Face Severe Fines for Texting

With 23 states are considering a law to ban texting, 19 have already passed legislation outlawing it. Some of the states actually have laws that ban novice drivers from texting. (Hellooo… Is that a no-brainer?)

Again the problem seems to be enforcing these laws. Alberto Gutier, director of the Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, asks “How do you know the person was texting and not dialing a number? We need to go after distracted driving, but distracted driving can be so many things. I see people doing all kinds of stupid things. … People reading their mail. I see people putting in contact lenses.”

Awareness is growing over this national problem. President Obama and public figures like Oprah are on the band wagon to stop this ever growing trend. An estimated 1.4 million traffic accidents are due to cell phone distraction. (See my blog 1.4 Million Car Accidents Per Year Directly Related to Talking on Cell Phones.)

Is the fine facing the truckers too severe? Perhaps it is. But if you think about the magnitude of the kind of traffic accidents big rigs can cause, perhaps the fine isn’t great enough. What are your thoughts?

Obama has declared war on driving while using cell phones! Driver distraction based accidents are becoming an epidemic. In the last year, over half a million people were injured and 6,000 were killed due to driver distraction. This includes talking on cell phones and texting.

Obama’s war on cell phone usage while driving…

Eighteen states have passed laws making it illegal to text while driving, while only seven states have banned driving while talking on a cell phone with no hands-free device. California is one of the states banning both, and yet I see people talking on their cell phones all the time. Texting isn’t as easy to spot, but I am sure a lot of that is going on as well.

Perhaps Obama ought to start his war on cell phone drivers with some of the famous, high profile people in the spotlight. California Governor Schwarzenegger’s wife, Maria Shriver, was spotted in October 2009 by TNZ.com while talking and driving. The video was subsequently posted on the Internet. (How embarrassing for Arnold!)

Will Obama be any more successful with this campaign than with the seat belt law? We can only hope! It IS dangerous to drive one-handed while talking on the phone. Some argue that even using hands-free devices makes driving and phoning hazardous. For that matter, having a screaming kid in the car is far more distracting to me than talking on the phone. Can we ban that as well?

Should the federal government or the individual states be responsible for passing and enforcing the ban on cell phone driving? Do we want more big government control? Will it be effective without severe punishment? What do you think? More cell phone laws?

An Irish firm has released new software, Bully Stop, allowing parents to monitor and block text messaging and both identified and unidentified callers on their children’s phones. The idea behind the software is to stop text bullying and abusive calls which both fall under the guise of cell bullying.

Bully Stop or Another Case of Big Brother Watching…

Is text bullying the elementary school version of sexting? (See Teen Sexting… a whole new way of flirting?) Is this new Irish variation of Big Brother Watching the answer to the teen sexting challenge parents face as well?

The whole subject of text bullying does beg the question, why do elementary school children have cell phones anyway? And what is it teaching our children about standing in their power? Bullying has been around since the beginning of time. It is and has been a fact of childhood life. No child is immune. Parental intervention has never been very effective in my opinion. Children have to learn to deal with bullies in the growing up process. Yes it can be devastating. Yes it can be traumatic. But in the end, the bullying only stops when the child being bullied stands up to the bully or figures out a way to ignore it.

Bully Stop is just another way to invade privacy. Let’s nip this trend in the bud. Don’t you think there is enough monitoring of our privacy? Do you really want more?

LG is sponsoring PSA ads on YouTube to influence teens who are sexting. The theme of these ads is to “Stop and Think” before sending that sexting. The ads also concentrate their efforts on mean rumor texting. (See the ads at Give It a Ponder.)

Sexting: Give It a Ponder before you text.

Mean texting or sexting is much like writing messages on bathroom walls back in the day. The result is vastly different though. Back in the day, having your name and phone number written on a bathroom wall was easily washed off or painted over. It was a local problem, not world wide. Today your private parts may be on display for the whole world.

In the ads James Lipton, most known for Inside the Actors Studio, is lending his beard (literally) to teens to stroke and ponder before they act. While the idea of the ads is great, I think the ads themselves may be reaching the parents more than the kids. Still, some awareness is better than none. I do like his clever quip, “the last thing he needs is tweets about his beets.”

As stated in my previous blog Teen Sexting… a whole new way of flirting? trying to tell a teen what to do or not do is futile. The best you can do is to educate them and then let them take responsibility for their choices.

Ad campaigns on FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media forums may be the way to reach the teens with the information. My question for you is will it effectively change their behavior?

photo credit: Safe Sexting

Teen Sexting… a whole new way of flirting?

Is sexting a dangerous practice for teens? More than even any paper trail, digital communications are open for wide spread distribution. What may seem an innocent flirtation with a suggestive photo, may end up on the Internet. After a nasty breakup, a vindictive ex-partner may post the photo on the web.

Sexting may affect future job applications or college admittance. Teens especially seem to have no long term vision as to what will affect their future lives. With the age of Internet searching, our private lives have become open to everyone who can spell our names in a search. (They don’t call it the World Wide Web for nothing.)

Should there be legal ramifications to under-aged sexting? I think there is enough legislation out there that cannot or will not be enforced. Yes, sexual photos of minors is already against the law. It is considered child porn. But if the teen is taking their own photo and sending it, who is to be prosecuted? And what will you do with the teen to stop them?

photo credit: Sexting Laws in Action

What is the solution? As with most situations in life, education seems to me to be the most practical solution to any challenge. By educating and counseling our teens about the risks and consequences of sexting, we give them control. By the time they are teens they should realize all choices have results, and taking responsibility for those choices is what growing up is all about.

Ultimately we have no control over teenagers. Anyone who thinks otherwise has never raised one. It is futile to tell a teen what to do or not do in social situations. The best we can do is give them the needed information and encourage them to make wise decisions. We can only be a safety net for them. We cannot be there to make all their choices for them.

Do you have a teen with a cell phone? Are you concerned about the content of their texting or in this case sexting? What will YOU do about it?

Vanity or stupidity? As a woman was walking home from a train station near her home in Olney, Maryland, she was accosted by an unknown man, heard a click and felt a gun pressed to her neck. The robber demanded she drop her purse, leave and not look back. She did exactly that and left unharmed.

Shallow end of the gene pool?

A self-portrait photo of the robbery suspect holding a gun to his own head appeared on the victim’s computer a little while later. The robbery suspect didn’t know that the woman had programmed her phone to send any photos taken using the phone to her home computer. The woman called the police and gave them the photo to assist their investigation.

This story qualifies for the stupid crook file for sure! It’s right up there with using your own bank deposit slip to write a robbery demand. Of course in defense of the poor robbery suspect, how could he know technology would be his downfall? It looks like his vanity has put him at risk of being caught with the smoking gun! If he still has the phone and is using it he may even be tracked by the built in GPS chip.

The only way this guy could be any more cooperative with the cops is to text in his own robbery tip… (See blog posting: Be a Narc via Texting)

He is definitely a contender for the contest in the Shallow End of the Gene Pool. Are we hopeful that this guy hasn’t added to the population yet? ]]> http://www.cellplaza.org/blog/1127/shallow-end-of-the-gene-pool/feed/ http://www.cellplaza.org/blog/1101/be-a-narc-via-texting/ http://www.cellplaza.org/blog/1101/be-a-narc-via-texting/#comments Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:44:49 +0000 MobileMaiden http://www.cellplaza.org/?p=1101
photo credit: moriza

There’s a new software application named TipSoft that allows you to report crimes anonymously via text messaging. The obvious target market is the texting generation who already live by their thumbs. This same group also witnesses more crimes than the average middle aged person, so the idea is have them help law enforcement agencies by anonymous reporting.

Be a Narc via texting

Just how anonymous can a texter be? The article from Democrat and Chronicle.com reports that when someone texts a message to the call center, the software TipSoft gives the user an alias name and the investigators can not trace who sent the text message. The text crime tip should start with SAFETIP, which alerts the call center that it’s a crime tip. The TipSoft software system then sends back a message to the texter with their alias so they know their tip was received.

Just how gullible do they think we are? Anonymous texting? Yeah sure… just like the anonymous calls to 911. I seriously doubt in this day and age of “Big Brother Watching” there are any anonymous communications happening. Not only can they track the texter’s phone number, but with the GPS chips in the phones, they can track the location of the texter. Of course this could help with fraudulent reporting if the texter is in an entirely different location than the crime reported.

Is this crime reporting software a good thing? I think it is, but please don’t insult me by trying to assure me it is anonymous. Really, do you believe in the tooth fairy?

Most phones nowadays come with a generic camera that allows you to spontaneously capture your surroundings with that certain fuzzy quality many of us cellphone camera clickers have come to (unfortunately) know. But now, thanks to Brando’s Generic Mobile Telescope, the days of the blurry cellphone picture may be over.

The package (selling for a cool $22) includes an adjustable adapter that fits phones up to 22 mm thick and between 91-109 mm in length. A movable attachment base for the 7×18 telescope allows you to easily line up the telescope with the eye of your cell’s camera.

Besides the usual black, this nifty device comes in other colors, including red and blue.

Some popular models that were tested with the camera include Treo 750v, Treo 680, Blackberry Pearl 8100, and Blackberry Curve 8300. While I have not tried the product myself, I am a big fan not only of the convenience of the camera phone, but also of the idea of fuzz-free cellphone photos.

Has anyone tried one of these?