NYT: Ringing Finally Ended, but There's No Button to Stop Shame (fwd)

[Frank Forman]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2012 02:43:11 +0000 (GMT)
From: Frank Forman <che...@panix.com>
Subject: NYT: Ringing Finally Ended, but There's No Button to Stop Shame

Ringing Finally Ended, but There's No Button to Stop Shame
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/nyregion/ringing-finally-stopped-but-concertgoers-alarm-persists.html

By DANIEL J. WAKIN

They were baying for blood in the usually polite precincts of Avery
Fisher Hall.

The unmistakably jarring sound of an iPhone marimba ring interrupted
the soft and spiritual final measures of Mahler's Symphony No. 9 at
the New York Philharmonic on Tuesday night. The conductor, Alan
Gilbert, did something almost unheard-of in a concert hall: He
stopped the performance. But the ringing kept on going, prompting
increasingly angry shouts in the audience directed at the
malefactor.

After words from Mr. Gilbert, and what seemed like weeks, the
cellphone owner finally silenced his device. After the audience
cheered, the concert resumed. Internet vitriol ensued.

But no one, it seems, felt worse than the culprit, who agreed to an
interview on Thursday on condition that he not be identified--for
obvious reasons.

"You can imagine how devastating it is to know you had a hand in
that," said the man, who described himself as a business executive
between 60 and 70 who runs two companies. "It's horrible, horrible."
The man said he had not slept in two days.

The man, called Patron X by the Philharmonic, said he was a lifelong
classical music lover and 20-year subscriber to the orchestra who
was friendly with several of its members. He said he himself was
often irked by coughs, badly timed applause--and cellphone rings.
"Then God, there was I. Holy smokes," he said.

"It was just awful to have any role in something like that, that is
so disturbing and disrespectful not only to the conductor but to all
the musicians and not least to the audience, which was so into this
concert," he said by telephone.

"I hope the people at that performance and members of the orchestra
can certainly forgive me for this whole event. I apologize to the
whole audience."

Patron X said he received a call from an orchestra official the day
after the concert. He had been identified by his front-row seat. The
official politely asked him not to do it again, he said, and the man
took the opportunity to ask to speak to Mr. Gilbert, to apologize in
person.

The men talked by telephone (it was a land line) on Thursday
afternoon. Mr. Gilbert said he told Patron X, "I'm really sorry you
had to go through this," and accepted his apology.

Before that, the disruption became the marimba ring tone heard round
the world, prompting feverish commentary on blogs and comment forums
about performance interruptions.

In a Twitter message, the composer Daniel Dorff said, "Changed my
ringtone to play #Mahler 9 just in case." A YouTube poster
superimposed a marimba sound over a performance of the piece by
Leonard Bernstein.

The episode seemed to serve as an extreme example of how one of the
staples of modern life can disrupt a live performance, because of
both Mr. Gilbert's reaction and the guilty party's long delay in
shutting off the cellphone.

Actually, Patron X said he had no idea he was the culprit. He said
his company replaced his BlackBerry with an iPhone the day before
the concert. He said he made sure to turn it off before the concert,
not realizing that the alarm clock had accidentally been set and
would sound even if the phone was in silent mode.

"I didn't even know phones came with alarms," the man said.

But as Mr. Gilbert was glaring in his direction, he fiddled with the
phone as others around him did, just to be sure, pressing buttons.
That was when the sound stopped. It was only in the car going home
that his wife checked the settings on his phone and found that the
alarm had been set.

Cellphones often go off during all sorts of performances, but the
Mahler incident was a rarity: It happened during one of music's most
sublime moments, it did not stop after a few seconds, and it
emanated from the front row, where it was impossible for Mr. Gilbert
to ignore.

The Philharmonic said the ushers at Avery Fisher Hall--who work
for Lincoln Center, not the orchestra--should have intervened.
Lincoln Center said it was investigating.

Both Mr. Gilbert and Patron X found something positive in the
episode.

"It shows how important people still feel live performance is," Mr.
Gilbert said. "This is something people either consciously or
implicitly recognize as sacred."

The patron agreed. The incident underscored "the very enduring and
important bond between the audience and the performers," he said,
adding, "If it's disturbed in any significant way, it just shows how
precious this whole union is."

James Barron contributed reporting.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 12, 2012

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of the
composer who sent a Twitter message about the cellphone interruption
as Dorf.

[herman]

On 22 jan, 03:16, Frank Forman <chec...@panix.com> wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------


>
> Correction: January 12, 2012
>
What does this tell you?

[Joe Roberts]

"herman" <her...@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:a8415739-86b6-41b3...@h12g2000yqg.googlegroups.com...

Choose one:

(1) 'Dorf' is misspelled.

(2) Cellphones and all other sounding devices should be banned from concerts, checked in at the door.

(3) Cellphones and all other sounding devices should be turned on, and a music composition should include their impromptu voices ad lib whilst the audience stands, holding them aloft, wafting them around toward the orchestra and each other, not unlike the moment in the Messiah chorus. Tuttily.

Joe

[John Wiser]

"Joe Roberts" <cd...@comcast.net> wrote:

[snipiathan]

> (3) Cellphones and all other sounding devices should be turned on, and a
> music composition should include their impromptu voices ad lib whilst the
> audience
> stands, holding them aloft, wafting them around toward the orchestra and
> each other, not unlike the moment in the Messiah chorus. Tuttily.

It's on the way.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10409695-1.html

JDW

[Mr. Mike]

>He said he made sure to turn it off before the concert,
>not realizing that the alarm clock had accidentally been set and
>would sound even if the phone was in silent mode.

The problem was: he did NOT "turn it off."

[M forever]

Exactly. And it's not like cell phones and smart phones fell from the
sky the day before the concert. This guy is "running two companies"
but he can't figure out how to make sure his phone does not ruin a
concert? No, one doesn't have to be a "tech geek" to figure that out.
Cell phones are designed to be very easy to operate, and perhaps none
more successfully so than the iPhone. The reality is, he just didn't
care, it's that simple, that's why he didn't even attempt to silence
it when it went off.

And if he isn't sure how the phone works, why doesn't he make sure
it's completely off - not just set to silent? On the day I got my
iPhone, I had a rehearsal that night. I didn't have enough time to
familiarize myself with the phone, so the first question before the
rehearsal I asked my stand neighbor who already had one was "how do I
make sure it is completely off?" It's really no big deal. Unless you
don't give a shit.

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Jan 22, 5:56 am, Kirk McElhearn <kirkmc (at) mac (dot) com> wrote:

> The problem was that he didn't know how. He said he had just been given
> the phone by his IT department. To be fair, turning off an iPhone is
> not intuitive.

It was not the ringing of the phone, it was the going off of the
alarm.

There is no connection between the two phenomena, and why would
someone suppose that a phone includes an alarm, and why would someone
had out a new phone with an alarm set to go off around 9 pm?

[Mr. Mike]

On Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:42:19 -0800 (PST), "Peter T. Daniels"
<gram...@verizon.net> wrote:

>There is no connection between the two phenomena, and why would
>someone suppose that a phone includes an alarm, and why would someone
>had out a new phone with an alarm set to go off around 9 pm?

Anyone who takes a cel phone to a classical concert (and knows NOTHING
about it) is obviously clueless, just like someone taking a
6-month-old kid to same concert. The guy should have left the phone in
his car.

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Jan 22, 12:41 pm, Mr. Mike <m...@spamcop.net> wrote:
> On Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:42:19 -0800 (PST), "Peter T. Daniels"
>

> <gramma...@verizon.net> wrote:
> >There is no connection between the two phenomena, and why would
> >someone suppose that a phone includes an alarm, and why would someone
> >had out a new phone with an alarm set to go off around 9 pm?
>
> Anyone who takes a cel phone to a classical concert (and knows NOTHING
> about it) is obviously clueless, just like someone taking a
> 6-month-old kid to same concert. The guy should have left the phone in
> his car.

That doesn't answer the question: Why would someone hand out a new
phone with an alarm set to go off around 9 pm? The guy was sabotaged.

[Gerard]

M forever <ms1...@gmail.com> typed:

So you had to ask someone else, because you didn't know how to do it,

[Matthew B. Tepper]

Kirk McElhearn <kirkmc (at) mac (dot) com> appears to have caused the
following letters to be typed in news:4f1beb71$0$10956
$426a...@news.free.fr:

> On 2012-01-22 05:46:16 +0000, Mr. Mike <m...@spamcop.net> said:
>

> The problem was that he didn't know how. He said he had just been given
> the phone by his IT department. To be fair, turning off an iPhone is
> not intuitive.
>

> Kirk

Steve Jobs seems to have believed that Apple devices are "intuitive," so no
instructions are necessary, I suppose because one is expected to "just
figure it out." Since he was obviously not a classical music aficionado
(he is supposed to have liked the 1955 Gouldbergs, which seems to me in his
case to be a man following crowds rather than leading them), he probably
assumed that "concert" = "rock concert," and an alarm going off at one of
those is no big deal.

Perhaps concert venues should display placards with specific instructions
on how to turn OFF an iPhone, and Apple should pony up for the expenses,
because frankly, it's partly their fault. Or maybe docents could be on
hand to assist. I think it would be a better solution than "just leave it
in the car."

Ironically, I'm listening right now to Levine's recording of -- Mahler 9.

--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
Read about "Proty" here: http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/proty.html
To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of my employers

[herman]

On 22 jan, 11:56, Kirk McElhearn <kirkmc (at) mac (dot) com> wrote:
> On 2012-01-22 05:46:16 +0000, Mr. Mike <m...@spamcop.net> said:
>

> The problem was that he didn't know how. He said he had just been given
> the phone by his IT department. To be fair, turning off an iPhone is
> not intuitive.
>

There is no reason to take a cell phone into a concert.

It's uncomfortable for yourself (iPhones are heavy), and it is
detrimental to other people's pleasure in the concert.

There is no excusing this guy.

[Alan Dawes]

In article
<053f128b-e6f4-4f3a...@v14g2000vbc.googlegroups.com>,

Peter T. Daniels <gram...@verizon.net> wrote:

> That doesn't answer the question: Why would someone hand out a new
> phone with an alarm set to go off around 9 pm? The guy was sabotaged.

To remind him to ring a partner company in China where it would be midday?

--
alan....@argonet.co.uk
alan....@riscos.org
Using an Acorn RiscPC

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Jan 22, 2:00 pm, "Matthew B. Tepper" <oyþ@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Kirk McElhearn <kirkmc (at) mac (dot) com> appears to have caused the
> following letters to be typed in news:4f1beb71$0$10956

> $426a3...@news.free.fr:

>
> > On 2012-01-22 05:46:16 +0000, Mr. Mike <m...@spamcop.net> said:
>
> >>> He said he made sure to turn it off before the concert, not realizing
> >>> that the alarm clock had accidentally been set and would sound even if
> >>> the phone was in silent mode.
>
> >> The problem was: he did NOT "turn it off."
>
> > The problem was that he didn't know how. He said he had just been given
> > the phone by his IT department. To be fair, turning off an iPhone is
> > not intuitive.
>
> > Kirk
>
> Steve Jobs seems to have believed that Apple devices are "intuitive," so no
> instructions are necessary, I suppose because one is expected to "just
> figure it out."  Since he was obviously not a classical music aficionado
> (he is supposed to have liked the 1955 Gouldbergs, which seems to me in his
> case to be a man following crowds rather than leading them), he probably
> assumed that "concert" = "rock concert," and an alarm going off at one of
> those is no big deal.

I refuse to believe that an out-of-the-box iPhone is set for its alarm
to go off around 9 pm.

> Perhaps concert venues should display placards with specific instructions
> on how to turn OFF an iPhone, and Apple should pony up for the expenses,
> because frankly, it's partly their fault.  Or maybe docents could be on
> hand to assist.  I think it would be a better solution than "just leave it
> in the car."
>
> Ironically, I'm listening right now to Levine's recording of -- Mahler 9.

Unfortunately they didn't include Boulez's, which was the inaugural
concert when the NYPO resumed broadcasting, in either the huge box of
historic NYPO broadcastts or in the complete set of Mahler broadcasts.

[O]

In article <4f1d0d8e$0$6584$426a...@news.free.fr>, Kirk McElhearn
wrote:

> On 2012-01-22 23:44:33 +0000, "Peter T. Daniels" <gram...@verizon.net> said:
>
> > I refuse to believe that an out-of-the-box iPhone is set for its alarm
> > to go off around 9 pm.
>

> It's not. But there was probably a setting to play tones for reminders,
> and perhaps there was something in the calendar that set it off at that
> time.

There's no indication that it was an out-of-the-box iPhone, but rather
one given the concert goer just prior to the concert by an employee of
one of his companies.

-Owen

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Jan 23, 7:02 am, O <ow...@denofinequityx.com> wrote:
> In article <4f1d0d8e$0$6584$426a7...@news.free.fr>, Kirk McElhearn
> wrote:

>
> > On 2012-01-22 23:44:33 +0000, "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...@verizon.net> said:
>
> > > I refuse to believe that an out-of-the-box iPhone is set for its alarm
> > > to go off around 9 pm.
>
> > It's not. But there was probably a setting to play tones for reminders,
> > and perhaps there was something in the calendar that set it off at that
> > time.

If it was, as represented, a new one, then there should have been
nothing in the calendar.

> There's no indication that it was an out-of-the-box iPhone, but rather
> one given the concert goer just prior to the concert by an employee of
> one of his companies.

Exactly. He was sabotaged.

[Gerard]

Kirk McElhearn <kirkmc (at) mac (dot) com> typed:

> On 2012-01-23 12:02:31 +0000, O <ow...@denofinequityx.com> said:
>
> > > > I refuse to believe that an out-of-the-box iPhone is set for
> > > > its alarm to go off around 9 pm.
> > >
> > > It's not. But there was probably a setting to play tones for
> > > reminders, and perhaps there was something in the calendar that
> > > set it off at that time.
> >
> > There's no indication that it was an out-of-the-box iPhone, but
> > rather one given the concert goer just prior to the concert by an
> > employee of one of his companies.
>

> Exactly. So the IT guy might have set up something that the
> concert-goer didn't know about. And he clearly didn't know how to turn
> it off.
>

Right.
But not necessarily "the IT guy". It could have been done by anyone who had that
iPhone before the concert-goer received it.

[Matthew B. Tepper]

Kirk McElhearn <kirkmc (at) mac (dot) com> appears to have caused the

following letters to be typed in news:4f1d6252$0$15750
$426a...@news.free.fr:

> On 2012-01-23 12:02:31 +0000, O <ow...@denofinequityx.com> said:
>
>>>> I refuse to believe that an out-of-the-box iPhone is set for its alarm
>>>> to go off around 9 pm.
>>>
>>> It's not. But there was probably a setting to play tones for reminders,
>>> and perhaps there was something in the calendar that set it off at that
>>> time.
>>
>> There's no indication that it was an out-of-the-box iPhone, but rather
>> one given the concert goer just prior to the concert by an employee of
>> one of his companies.
>

> Exactly. So the IT guy might have set up something that the concert-goer
> didn't know about. And he clearly didn't know how to turn it off.
>

> Kirk

Again I'll make with the Segway comparison. The end-user should have been
trained.

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Jan 23, 8:36 am, Kirk McElhearn <kirkmc (at) mac (dot) com> wrote:

> On 2012-01-23 12:02:31 +0000, O <ow...@denofinequityx.com> said:
>
> >>> I refuse to believe that an out-of-the-box iPhone is set for its alarm
> >>> to go off around 9 pm.
>
> >> It's not. But there was probably a setting to play tones for reminders,
> >> and perhaps there was something in the calendar that set it off at that
> >> time.
>
> > There's no indication that it was an out-of-the-box iPhone, but rather
> > one given the concert goer just prior to the concert by an employee of
> > one of his companies.
>

> Exactly. So the IT guy might have set up something that the
> concert-goer didn't know about. And he clearly didn't know how to turn
> it off.

More than that, he didn't realize the noise was coming from his
pocket.

This is a problem with many modern noise-makers -- these newfangled
siren-surrogates on emergency vehicles, for instance, are perhaps more
penetrating than traditional sirens, but they are often very difficult
to localize, so that drivers don't even know whether the vehicle is on
the same street as they, is going in their direction, etc.

[herman]

On 23 jan, 17:00, Terry <b...@clown.invalid> wrote:
> On Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:36:18 +1100, Kirk McElhearn wrote
> (in article <4f1d6252$0$15750$426a7...@news.free.fr>):

>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > On 2012-01-23 12:02:31 +0000, O <ow...@denofinequityx.com> said:
>
> >>>> I refuse to believe that an out-of-the-box iPhone is set for its alarm
> >>>> to go off around 9 pm.
>
> >>> It's not. But there was probably a setting to play tones for reminders,
> >>> and perhaps there was something in the calendar that set it off at that
> >>> time.
>
> >> There's no indication that it was an out-of-the-box iPhone, but rather
> >> one given the concert goer just prior to the concert by an employee of
> >> one of his companies.
>

> > Exactly. So the IT guy might have set up something that the
> > concert-goer didn't know about. And he clearly didn't know how to turn
> > it off.
>

> > Kirk
>
> Oh, yes, the easiest way out for a crap CEO is to blame the anonymous "my
> people". This guy was an ignorant, selfish fuckwit who got nowhere near the
> punishment he deserved.
>


Correct. This guy turned a wrecked concert into an opportunity to have
a one-on-one with the conductor.

He's probably still bragging about it.

[weary flake]

herman <her...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> On 22 jan, 11:56, Kirk McElhearn <kirkmc (at) mac (dot) com> wrote:
> > On 2012-01-22 05:46:16 +0000, Mr. Mike <m...@spamcop.net> said:
> >
> > >> He said he made sure to turn it off before the concert,
> > >> not realizing that the alarm clock had accidentally been set and
> > >> would sound even if the phone was in silent mode.
> >
> > > The problem was: he did NOT "turn it off."
> >
> > The problem was that he didn't know how. He said he had just been given
> > the phone by his IT department. To be fair, turning off an iPhone is
> > not intuitive.
> >
> There is no reason to take a cell phone into a concert.

Symphony houses (and record stores!) are often (always?)
located in crime-riddled areas, where thieves watch members
of the public looking for prospective victims. Conspicuously
stashing stuff that thieves find highly attractive like cell
phones in cars makes your car more likely to be broken into.

> It's uncomfortable for yourself (iPhones are heavy), and it is
> detrimental to other people's pleasure in the concert.

They ought to be turned OFF, you are suggesting? So where
is the OFF switch? Aren't electronic devices deliberately
designed to exclude OFF switches? Isn't the very concept
of a simple on-off switch a violation of a design concept
that deserves to be violated? Isn't the built-in design
flaw the fault of the sellers, not the buyers?

> There is no excusing this guy.

The guy is a victimizer and a victim, but much more
importantly, his experience was caused by bad design, and
this bad design should not be defended merely because
it is "industry standard". If EVERY cell phone has the same
bad design then EVERY cell phone has the same bad design,
and hardware/software companies deserve all the aspersion
they deserve, which is far more than they actually have
been getting. The industry has been given a free ride by
the public and lawmakers, wallowing in our uncriticality,
so blaming the end-user after the fact is useless, but
holding up companies to the flame of public criticism can
only lead to changes for the better, and better sooner than
later, as eventually, if nothing changes, technology
companies will be subject to the same rules that car
companies are subject to, and be flooded with lawsuits and
regulations, because they refused to consider their
customers on their own, and merely complied with
"industry trends".

[O]

In article <wearyflake-A15FE...@news.giganews.com>, weary

Flake, you're absolutely right, especially with Apple, who prides
itself on good design, and has hired people like Bruce Tognazzini and
Don Norman, who are experts on human interface design (Norman devoted
an entire chapter of his book "The Psychology of Everyday Things" to
door knobs).

A good phone would have a switch that silences everything. A good
alarm clock would ring the alarm even though other functions have been
silenced. However, the iPhone is first and foremost a phone, not an
alarm clock, and phones are currently taken with people everywhere. You
might rail at the fact that they *shouldn't* be taken everywhere, but
your railing will not change the fact that they are taken everywhere.

-Owen

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Jan 23, 2:51 pm, O <ow...@denofinequityx.com> wrote:
> In article <wearyflake-A15FE7.11403023012...@news.giganews.com>, weary

I like your tautologies!

> Flake, you're absolutely right, especially with Apple, who prides
> itself on good design, and has hired people like Bruce Tognazzini and
> Don Norman, who are experts on human interface design (Norman devoted
> an entire chapter of his book "The Psychology of Everyday Things" to
> door knobs).

Unfortunately, when it came to the design of his own book, he was
completely tone-deaf. (I bought a recent reprint.) It is _extremely_
user-unfriendly, with what turned out to be the major section headings
within each chapter set in small bold type flush right, and the
subsection headings at the left -- entirely contrary to expectations,
and not countered by some other graphic device to elevate the salience
of the primary heads over that of the secondary heads.

[herman]

On 23 jan, 20:51, O <ow...@denofinequityx.com> wrote:

>You
> might rail at the fact that they *shouldn't* be taken everywhere, but
> your railing will not change the fact that they are taken everywhere.
>
> -Owen

Then why not bring food, drinks, dogs and small screen tvs? Why stop
at phones?

[O]

In article
<e6051d93-0d67-4116...@i25g2000vbt.googlegroups.com>,

If the public felt the same way about food, drinks, dogs and small
screen tvs, then they would bring them as well.

-Owen

[Kip Williams]

O wrote:

> Flake, you're absolutely right, especially with Apple, who prides
> itself on good design, and has hired people like Bruce Tognazzini and
> Don Norman, who are experts on human interface design (Norman devoted
> an entire chapter of his book "The Psychology of Everyday Things" to
> door knobs).

If you're sitting down, here's something else to think about. Carmakers
are all ga-ga over switchless, knobless design. There is a prototype
that replaces all the tactile tools on the dashboard with two touch
screens. It's a remarkably bad idea.


Kip W

[O]

In article <mjyTq.989$Rh4...@newsfe21.iad>, Kip Williams

Car designers have been going for flash over utility for years now.
Remember the old push button radios? Everyone could figure them out.
Now we've got in dash radios with tens of buttons that you need a
manual for.

-Owen

[John W Kennedy]

On 2012-01-23 07:34:39 +0000, Kirk McElhearn said:

> On 2012-01-22 23:44:33 +0000, "Peter T. Daniels" <gram...@verizon.net> said:
>
>> I refuse to believe that an out-of-the-box iPhone is set for its alarm
>> to go off around 9 pm.
>

> It's not. But there was probably a setting to play tones for reminders,
> and perhaps there was something in the calendar that set it off at that
> time.

No, that's not the same. Audible alerts from the Calendar, etc., are
all suppressed by the silence switch. The only things that aren't are
the Alarm (alarm at a certain time) and Timer (alarm after a certain
interval) features of the Clock app, on the assumption that if you set
an alarm, you really wanted an alarm.

--
John W Kennedy
"You can, if you wish, class all science-fiction together; but it is
about as perceptive as classing the works of Ballantyne, Conrad and W.
W. Jacobs together as the 'sea-story' and then criticizing _that_."
-- C. S. Lewis. "An Experiment in Criticism"

[John W Kennedy]

On 2012-01-23 15:51:45 +0000, Kirk McElhearn said:

> On 2012-01-23 15:30:28 +0000, "Matthew B. Tepper" <oyþ@earthlink.net> said:
>
>> Again I'll make with the Segway comparison. The end-user should have been
>> trained.
>

> I agree. And as I pointed out earlier in this thread, it's not obvious
> how to fully turn off an iPhone.

I don't know -- push-and-hold to turn off isn't exactly rare these days.

[Kip Williams]

There's an order of magnitude between something with buttons you can
feel and something that requires you to always peer closely at a small
screen with no tactile feedback at all.


Kip W

[weary flake]

I've seen (and heard) no personal evidence that iphones are
essentially different than other cell phones, in the matter
under discussion of disturbances to the public, unintended by
the user, but I'm going to suggest that these disturbances
are intended by the phone companies, as part of an advertising
campaign to promote the "smartphone lifestyle". The incident
at the concert, disturbances at private and public functions
are part of the "irritation marketing", a popular advertising
trend to deliberately annoy people; these disturbances are
somehow calculated to promote the "Smart Phone Lifestyle",
and so the phones are deliberately designed to encourage
these accidents. This is a serious public safety issue, as
conceivably 10,000 people a year in the USA are killed in
traffic accidents that can be chalked up to cell phones. So,
in all, it's a bit useless to only blame the hapless consumer
when the "tech" industry has the guiding hand in all of this.

[O]

In article <ghBTq.3651$%x7....@newsfe10.iad>, Kip Williams

Or a football shaped device with lines of tiny buttons with inscrutable
icons or lettering that looks good in a four color car brochure but
nobody can figure out how to turn it on.

I spent ten minutes in a rental car last year trying to figure out how
to start it. I had a push button and proximity dongle instead of a key
and whenever I pushed it it turned on a light that seemed to indicate
the brakes were bad or set. After checking the brakes several times, I
finally figured I had to put pressure on the brake and then push the
button in order so that the button would actually start the car.

-Owen

[Wayne Brown]

Considering that I don't like touch-screens even on computers and other
electronic devices, I'm horrified at the thought of having to deal with
them in a car.

--
F. Wayne Brown <fwb...@bellsouth.net>

Þæs ofereode, ðisses swa mæg. ("That passed away, this also can.")
from "Deor," in the Exeter Book (folios 100r-100v)

[Gerard]

weary flake <weary...@hotmail.com> typed:

>
> I've seen (and heard) no personal evidence that iphones are
> essentially different than other cell phones, in the matter
> under discussion of disturbances to the public, unintended by
> the user, but I'm going to suggest that these disturbances
> are intended by the phone companies, as part of an advertising
> campaign to promote the "smartphone lifestyle". The incident
> at the concert, disturbances at private and public functions
> are part of the "irritation marketing", a popular advertising
> trend to deliberately annoy people; these disturbances are
> somehow calculated to promote the "Smart Phone Lifestyle",
> and so the phones are deliberately designed to encourage
> these accidents.

A nice theory.
But only if that phone industry gets some profits of what you describe as their
plan or marketing.
Do more people buy those phones because other people annoy them with them?

>
> This is a serious public safety issue, as
> conceivably 10,000 people a year in the USA are killed in
> traffic accidents that can be chalked up to cell phones. So,
> in all, it's a bit useless to only blame the hapless consumer
> when the "tech" industry has the guiding hand in all of this.

It's always useless to blame the consumer. Specially when those devices were
designed for easy use.

[O]

In article <wearyflake-9BE4B...@news.giganews.com>, weary

In the case of the iPhone, this alarm is supplied and designed by
Apple, and, knowing Apple, the idea of Apple letting a phone carrier
drive what to them is a basic system function, is very unlikely.

> The incident
> at the concert, disturbances at private and public functions
> are part of the "irritation marketing", a popular advertising
> trend to deliberately annoy people; these disturbances are
> somehow calculated to promote the "Smart Phone Lifestyle",
> and so the phones are deliberately designed to encourage
> these accidents. This is a serious public safety issue, as
> conceivably 10,000 people a year in the USA are killed in
> traffic accidents that can be chalked up to cell phones. So,
> in all, it's a bit useless to only blame the hapless consumer
> when the "tech" industry has the guiding hand in all of this.

The "hapless" consumer buys and uses these phones when they're driving,
so who's really to blame?

-Owen

[O]

In article <38589$4f1ef292$53565469$87...@cache1.tilbu1.nb.home.nl>,

Gerard <ghendri_n...@hotmail.com> wrote:


> A nice theory.
> But only if that phone industry gets some profits of what you describe as
> their
> plan or marketing.
> Do more people buy those phones because other people annoy them with them?

Josh Clark, the author of the book "TapWorthy," makes the assumption
that people are motivated to use smartphone apps for two primary
reasons:

1) To find instant information -
What's the weather going to be?
Who won the game?
What price is my stock?

2) Boredom -

I've got to wait for my [doctor, wife, waitress, checkout clerk,
etc.] and while I'm waiting, I'll play a game of scrabble.

-Owen

P.S. "TapWorthy" is an interesting book. He says that the average
lifetime of any particular app is only 8 minutes. That is, on average,
a user only uses an app for 8 minutes, then never uses it again.

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Jan 24, 12:23 pm, weary flake <wearyfl...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> I've seen (and heard) no personal evidence that iphones are
> essentially different than other cell phones, in the matter
> under discussion of disturbances to the public, unintended by
> the user, but I'm going to suggest that these disturbances
> are intended by the phone companies, as part of an advertising
> campaign to promote the "smartphone lifestyle".  The incident
> at the concert, disturbances at private and public functions
> are part of the "irritation marketing", a popular advertising
> trend to deliberately annoy people; these disturbances are
> somehow calculated to promote the "Smart Phone Lifestyle",
> and so the phones are deliberately designed to encourage
> these accidents.  This is a serious public safety issue, as
> conceivably 10,000 people a year in the USA are killed in
> traffic accidents that can be chalked up to cell phones.  So,
> in all, it's a bit useless to only blame the hapless consumer

> when the "tech" industry has the guiding hand in all of this.-

And what, praytell, is the "Smart Phone Lifestyle," and how does
annoying potential participants, i.e. customers, promote its adoption?

[Joe Roberts]

One month ago here, to the day ...

A heady thread was on about the guy's cellphone going off during Mahler. The conductor stopped the music until the ringtone was silenced. The thread quit shortly after 4'33" got injected into the conversation.

Is the subject tacet or on another plane?

Hell, let's just beat it into the ground. If it took, say, 4'33" for the orchestra to sit there in silence while the audience glared at the 'phone perp until he finally found and pushed a button on the thing ... was music made?

Joe

[Steven Bornfeld]

This is the way the world ends: not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Steve

--
Mark & Steven Bornfeld DDS
http://www.dentaltwins.com
Brooklyn, NY
718-258-5001

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Feb 25, 9:52 am, Steven Bornfeld <bornfeldm...@dentaltwins.com>
wrote:

> On 2/24/2012 10:40 PM, Joe Roberts wrote:
>
> > One month ago here, to the day ...
>
> > A heady thread was on about the guy's cellphone going off during Mahler.  The conductor stopped the music until the ringtone was silenced.  The thread quit shortly after 4'33" got injected into the conversation.
>
> > Is the subject tacet or on another plane?
>
> > Hell, let's just beat it into the ground.  If it took, say, 4'33" for the orchestra to sit there in silence while the audience glared at the 'phone perp until he finally found and pushed a button on the thing ...  was music made?
>
> > Joe
>
> This is the way the world ends: not with a bang, but with a whimper.
>
> Steve

We are the world!