The cell phone is 40 years old today

[MisterCairo]

While serving at the naval base in Esquimalt, BC, I was having a conversation with one of our local reservists, a well-known lawyer in his day job. He had one of those Borg-like blue tooth things stuck in one ear. As we spoke, I became confused as his responses to my comments made no sense. It was fully 30 seconds before I realized he had, mid conversation with me, "taken" a call on the damned blue tooth and was speaking to the caller.

All the while continuing to look directly at me and not having said "sorry, I need to take this".

I told him if he ever did that to me again, I'd shove the blue tooth down his throat and he could take his calls after his next visit to the loo.

And I meant it.

 

[GHT]

I rarely use mine--it's a 'relic' compared to today's Smartphones (it doesn't have web access AND it has a handy-dandy antenna extension!). I've had it for just over a decade with no intention of upgrading. I appreciate the convenience of mobile phones when out-and-about, but only for security reasons--if there was an emergency, I wouldn't even consider relying upon the assistance of a complete stranger and am therefore grateful that a relative or acquaintance is merely a phone call away. I would trade my mobile phone in a heartbeat for a society in which I could trust the kindness of strangers in times of need.

Well said, I couldn't agree more.
I do tend to keep things that go on working rather than change for the sake of it. My God-son thinks that the Romans left phones like mine behind. It'an Alcatel analogue, the version that followed the brick. Had it since 1996. It has a little pull out ariel, a sim card the size of a credit card and it's about the size of a one pound bar of chocolate. It only has text and talk and a black & white screen. It would have been redundant with the advent of digital, but a very clever geek, in a local phone shop, fitted it with some amazing piece of electronic wizardry, and so it continues to serve me well.

 

[vitanola]

My apologies, Sir. Perhaps my sources were mistaken:

• http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203518404577094881332782996.html

• http://www.examiner.com/article/hed...tist-actress-and-inventor-of-wi-fi-technology

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/shortcuts/2011/dec/04/hedy-lamarr-wifi

• http://digitaljournal.com/article/315458

I had no ideal that Miss Lamarr was born so early that she was able to invent a product which was commercialized before 1910!

Actually if one actually reads the biographical sketches of Miss Lamarr, one finds that she invented a "sort of a boullion cube that when dissolved in water produced a cola-like drink". This is an impressive achievement, but hardly the "invention of the boullion cube".

The easy acceptance of the assertion that Miss Lamarr invented the boullion cube is, I think, symptomatic of our profound historical amnesia. A bare familiarity with early Twentieth Century cookery would immediately give lie to the error. Even here on this board, where one would assume a greater than average interest in the minutiae of our history such a canard can go largely unchallenged.

 

[vitanola]

It wasn't Mr. Oxo????

No, the modern boullion cube was a gift of the Maggi.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I always assumed a Mr. Herbert Ox was responsible.

No slight against Ms. Lamarr, though -- she was living proof that not all show-biz celebrities of the era were manufactured rattle-brained mannequins. She and Zeppo Marx were among the most underrated intellects of their generation.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

...She and Zeppo Marx were among the most underrated intellects of their generation.

Beside having the ability to make people laufg, what did Zeppo do yhat contributed to society?

Thanx!!!
Charlie

 

[vitanola]

Beside having the ability to make people laufg, what did Zeppo do yhat contributed to society?

Thanx!!!
Charlie

Zeppo was an engineer and a principal in Marman Products, a manufacturing firm which is still in business. The quiet Marx Brother held the patent for the clamps which supported the atomic bomb "Fat Man" in the belly of the B-29 "Bock's Car"