"Police had been concerned because the daughter told them Ribas, who is moving to Florida, suffers from occasional blackouts. "

Just what Florida needs! Another idiot behind the wheel.

Why did the article's author feel it necessary to mention twice that it was a pre-paid phone?

"Police had been concerned because the daughter told them Ribas, who is moving to Florida, suffers from occasional blackouts. "



Does make good road trip music

jaylectricity: Absolutely not. I am not going to take on the responsibility to get in touch with anybody that might ever call me just because I'm suffering the extremely minor inconvenience of temporarily not have a little battery-operated gadget that lets me make phone calls from anywhere in the world.

Done in one

Anyone notice, near the top of the page?

"Utes cool on Crist"

And if you ever drop your keys in some lava, let 'em go. Because, man, they're gone.

TFA: ...the daughter told them Ribas, who is moving to Florida, suffers from occasional blackouts.

In that case, I hope the 13-year-old son does all the driving.

Craptastic: Why did the article's author feel it necessary to mention twice that it was a pre-paid phone?

To emphasize the methods of finding a user of a pre-paid phone are drastically different than the methods of finding a user of a non pre-paid phone.

gunga galunga: And if you ever drop your keys in some lava, let 'em go. Because, man, they're gone.

Huh?

/pyoomiceman

My wife gets pissed and psycho when I don't go out with my cell or my son leaves the house without his little prepaid. I ask her if her mom did the same when she was a kid. She looks at me blankly because there were no goddamned cell phones when she was a kid. Then she shouts at me to shut the fark up and get my cell phone. Good times

Please tell me the daughter was making up the blackout thing in order for sympathy or something. My license was suspended by the state of CA immediately after I began suffering from blackouts after a head injury. I've since gotten it back but damn...she needs to stay off the road before she kills someone. Glad I did because my luck is just that bad.

I often have my phone off for days at a time where someone that didn't know that might get freaked and call the cops.

/I have a phone for MY convienence, not yours.

bhcompy: My wife gets pissed and psycho when I don't go out with my cell or my son leaves the house without his little prepaid. I ask her if her mom did the same when she was a kid. She looks at me blankly because there were no goddamned cell phones when she was a kid. Then she shouts at me to shut the fark up and get my cell phone. Good times

Wow! She sounds like a first class biatch

I once set my phone on the toilet paper dispenser ln the bathroom of a Borders. Sadly it was sloped and ploop, in the toidy it went..bzzzt. A day later it cranked back up. A button didn't work, but..

Sin_City_Superhero: Ribas, who is moving to Florida, suffers from occasional blackouts.

That happens to me too, when I drink too much.

You move to Florida?

nickerj1: Craptastic: Why did the article's author feel it necessary to mention twice that it was a pre-paid phone?

To emphasize the methods of finding a user of a pre-paid phone are drastically different than the methods of finding a user of a non pre-paid phone.

How?

jaylectricity: Absolutely not. I am not going to take on the responsibility to get in touch with anybody that might ever call me just because I'm suffering the extremely minor inconvenience of temporarily not have a little battery-operated gadget that lets me make phone calls from anywhere in the world.

Your phone works ANYWHERE in the world???? I have trouble getting mine to work downstairs in my own house. What phone are you using and what service provider?

dave1y: I once set my phone on the toilet paper dispenser ln the bathroom of a Borders. Sadly it was sloped and ploop, in the toidy it went..bzzzt. A day later it cranked back up. A button didn't work, but..

You went after a phone that fell in a public toilet? Dude, just buy a new phone.

If your cell phone falls in the dog's water bowl and dies, it's a good idea to let someone know about it before the cops start the helicopter searches for your body nobody else's business

jaylectricity: Absolutely not. I am not going to take on the responsibility to get in touch with anybody that might ever call me just because I'm suffering the extremely minor inconvenience of temporarily not have a little battery-operated gadget that lets me make phone calls from anywhere in the world.

instant gratification of being able to get a hold of someone, not matter the time, no matter what they are doing, no matter where they are, be it pooping, sexing, or sleeping, we want you to answer your damn phone! haha

it pisses me off, if someone sends me a text, only to call me 15 minutes later, asking if i got it, and why did i not respond? MAYBE I DON"T WANT TO TALK TO YOUR LAME ASS CAUSE YOU TEXT ME EVERY EFFING 20 MINUTES LIKE A 14 YEAR OLD GIRL WITH ADD AND JUST WATCHED TWILIGHT SO SHE HAS A HARD ON AND NEEDS TO TELL EVERY PERSON SHE EVER KNEW ALL ABOUT IT.

lame.

/texting is for idiots
//what if i have no thumbs
/// trade you some slashies for thumbs!

hobblekitty: One time I was on the phone with my Grandmother and the phone died (cordless, battery ran out). I was painting the apartment at the time and the rotary phone was buried under a bunch of furniture or something so I did not call her back. Fast forward about an hour later when the cops knocked on my door to check on me and make sure I was OK. I assured them I was fine. Gram apparently thought I had a heart attack.

/Pro tip: If you have a not immediately life threatening heart condition, don't tell your Grandmother. She will hear everything except "not immediately life threatening" and proceed to freak out.
//She called the cops because my Uncle was late getting to her house one time, so this was not an isolated incident.
///CSB

If my relatives call the cops on me, they better be ready to bail my ass out.

deamonbutterfly:
/texting is for idiots


SMS is part of the normal packets sent between the phones and towers. It literally uses no extra data. Your phone can queue and send a SMS as soon as it gets any kind of signal even when a voice call can't even be initiated because of poor signal strength. With a phone on vibrate it is also ideal for times when you want to communicate but still be quiet. Libraries, meetings, hunting, theaters (not recommended for anything other than emergencies because the bright screen will still annoy everyone else) etc... At the other end of the spectrum you can use it to communicate in environments too noisy to reasonably carry on a voice conversation. Factories, race tracks, concerts, airports, etc...]

I'm not saying there aren't a lot of idiots using SMS in an annoying way when a normal conversation would work better, but not everybody using SMS is an idiot.

gunga galunga: And if you ever drop your keys in some lava, let 'em go. Because, man, they're gone.

words of wisdom from one who knows

Hacker_X: deamonbutterfly:
/texting is for idiots


SMS is part of the normal packets sent between the phones and towers. It literally uses no extra data. Your phone can queue and send a SMS as soon as it gets any kind of signal even when a voice call can't even be initiated because of poor signal strength. With a phone on vibrate it is also ideal for times when you want to communicate but still be quiet. Libraries, meetings, hunting, theaters (not recommended for anything other than emergencies because the bright screen will still annoy everyone else) etc... At the other end of the spectrum you can use it to communicate in environments too noisy to reasonably carry on a voice conversation. Factories, race tracks, concerts, airports, etc...]

I'm not saying there aren't a lot of idiots using SMS in an annoying way when a normal conversation would work better, but not everybody using SMS is an idiot.

i know i know.. it's not for idiots. heat of the moment. i was using CAPS for gods sake. :) besides, I'm a genius and I text. ;) and I'm a girl.., and twilight is still gay.

and thank you for the riveting education on SMS. ;)

When's the last time someone who blacks out gets a drivers license to start with? I can see wanting to move out of Sandy ,Utah..... or any other city in Utah, after I think about it.

gunga galunga: And if you ever drop your keys in some lava, let 'em go. Because, man, they're gone.

/ If you ever drop your keys in San Francisco, kick them to Oakland before to bend over and pick them up.

what did we obsess about before the days of instant communication and electronic tethers?

This story is way less geeky cool than I thought. After reading the headline, I thought the new i-phone could detect falling into water and alert emergency services to initiate a rescue.

Of course, it would have to have some sort of anti-toilet device...

graeylin: what did we obsess about before the days of instant communication and electronic tethers?

Atuk... Lana.... Zug Zug

graeylin: what did we obsess about before the days of instant communication and electronic tethers?

The commies, and what they was doing to our precious bodily fluids.

namegoeshere: This story is way less geeky cool than I thought. After reading the headline, I thought the new i-phone could detect falling into water and alert emergency services to initiate a rescue.

Of course, it would have to have some sort of anti-toilet device...

I wouldn't be surprised if an iPhone user called 911 because their iPhone fell into a toilet.

pre-paid cellphone = stupid!

Oldiron_79: I often have my phone off for days at a time where someone that didn't know that might get freaked and call the cops.

/I have a phone for MY convienence, not yours.

This this and soooo this.

I tell my family and friends that my phone is to call out, not for them to call in. They think I am the biggest douche. Well, I might be, but it's still MY phone to use when I want to use it, not when someone else wants me to use it.

Bathia_Mapes: Buffet: pre-paid cellphone = stupid!

Why?

It's perfect for someone like me who barely uses an hour of talk/text time per month. I don't really care to talk on the phone anyway, even though my job requires me to be on the phone the entire shift. I see no reason to pay $30 or more plus fees monthly for a phone I barely use. Even the most basic, no frills landline plan in my area costs more per month than my cell phone.

Obviously if you talk/text a lot, a prepaid phone is a bad idea.

Not even that's true anymore.
http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans

Buffet: pre-paid cellphone = stupid!

Maybe for you. I had one for years that cost me an average of between $11 and $12/month. Yep. Real stupid when I could have been paying $30-40/month to be locked into a contract.

This article sounds like a good cautionary tale. "You know you spend way too much time on your phone when...." Become unavailable for a while. It's liberating, but it means you have to give up some control too. Damn everyone else, you'll fin d a payphone if it's that important.

/Says me with my steadily growing Android and iOS habit

Bathia_Mapes: Kar98: nickerj1: Craptastic: Why did the article's author feel it necessary to mention twice that it was a pre-paid phone?

To emphasize the methods of finding a user of a pre-paid phone are drastically different than the methods of finding a user of a non pre-paid phone.

How?

I'm no expert, but I guessing it has to do with the fact that some prepaid phones aren't tied to specific cell towers, Tracfone, for example. If you have a prepaid from a specific company such a T-Mobile, AT&T, etc., it's easier to use the cell towers to locate someone. However, Tracfone uses whichever tower is closest when a call is made.

What towers a phone uses depends on how the firmware and hardware is configured. Most companies don't do roaming charges anymore (at least not the big ones) But a phone can be set to avoid roaming even when there is a tower that is much closer with a stronger signal. Things get further complicated with prepaid companies because a lot of the companies don't own the tower their customers are using so you have to jump through an extra layer of red tape with the actual tower owners in addition to the service provider. And then there are companies like tracfone that add an extra wrinkle. They offer different models of phones that use completely different radio technologies so you have to know what kind of phone they have to even know which types of towers to check.

Link (new window)

2 different radio techs and 3 different cell tower networks. If you didn't know what phone the person had and just the number you might have to work with the legal departments of 4 different companies at once to locate a phone.

Joelogon: If your cell phone falls in the dog's water bowl and dies, it's a good idea to let someone know about it before the cops start the helicopter searches for your body

Sure, okay. How?

Um, borrow someone's phone for a minute? Use a pay pone or store/library phone?

oryx: If your cell phone falls in the dog's water bowl and dies, it's a good idea to let someone know about it before the cops start the helicopter searches for your body nobody else's business

This. I lost count how many times I've told my GF that my cell isn't her personal remote control.