Using Technology To Enforce Good Behavior 249
Ismellpoop writes "With the new year upon us and resolutions being made to change unwanted behavior, many tools are now available to help people stay in line, such as a GPS-enabled app that locks down texting once a car gets rolling and a program that cuts off credit-card spending. Another device monitors your workout and offers real-time voice feedback. Have we entered an era in which electronics serve as mother, cop and coach because we can't manage our own desires?"
How is this any different than my alarm clock? (Score:5, Insightful)
How is this any different than my alarm clock?
Is it my mother because it wakes me?
Re:How is this any different than my alarm clock? (Score:4, Insightful)
Why not just fit everyone with a V-chip. If they have impure/illegal/un-patriotic/ thoughts they get a shock.
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Why not just fit everyone with a V-chip. If they have impure/illegal/un-patriotic/ thoughts they get a shock.
AT least then we will all have the means to send Saddam back to hell if he ever escapes.
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Fry: Jeez, doesn't that shock collar hurt?
Leela: Actually, feels kind of good. I guess I'm starting to associate it with the pleasure of beating people up.
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Now that would make me quite pissed off.
What, I can't say pissed off?
OWWWWWWWWWWW!
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Is it my mother because it wakes me?
Only if you dream of having sex with it
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It is your mother if the manufacturer programmed it to go off every day at 7.00, even if you don't have school/work.
Your alarm clock goes off because YOU instructed it to. Not because someone else is enforcing their habits and/or rules on you.
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It is your mother if the manufacturer programmed it to go off every day at 7.00, even if you don't have school/work.
Your alarm clock goes off because YOU instructed it to. Not because someone else is enforcing their habits and/or rules on you.
From TFA these devices/apps/programs are all voluntary. Well, I guess buying the 7:00AM alarm clock would be too, so nevermind.
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# M H dom mo dow
35 06 * * 1-5 mainuser play
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Re:How is this any different than my alarm clock? (Score:5, Funny)
What is this 'alarm clock' app you speak of? The iPhone doesn't appear to have such a thing.
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The difference is the purpose. When I am sleeping I don't know what time it is, the alarm clock is there to notify me when I should wake up. In the case of these programs, the person knows they should or shouldn't be doing something. If a person is driving down the freeway they know they shouldn't be texting on a cell phone. The only reason they would download this program is if they lack the will power to not send text messages.
It would be the same as buying an alarm clock without a snooze button becau
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How is this any different than my alarm clock?
Is it my mother because it wakes me?
The difference is that if taken to an extreme we'll develop a society where everything's okay to do until you're physically prevented from doing it. (If you've ever paid attention to all the frivolous lawsuits filed in the last two decades, you can already see this happening.)
Here's a scenario: Imagine in the not too distant future it becomes a standard feature of cell phones to automatically go silent when in a theater. Pretty soon restaurants start silencing phones because people get extra noisy in the
The blurb misses something in the proposition. (Score:5, Insightful)
Have we entered an era in which electronics serve as mother, cop and coach because we can't manage our own desires?
If you're the one setting up these utilities for yourself, then you are managing your own desires.
Re:The blurb misses something in the proposition. (Score:5, Funny)
I refuse to let anyone tell me what to do, especially past-me. Who does that fucker think he was, making decisions for me? When he told our wife "I'll pick up groceries on the way home," did he have any idea how tired I would be after work? No, and he didn't care, because it's not him picking up the groceries, he is gone, he is only a shadow of the past, and I am the one who has to pick up the groceries. Well, fuck it. It's not like I'm hungry now. If future me gets hungry, he can get his own damn food. But knowing him, he'll blame me for not getting it for him now, the sanctimonious prick.
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Ahahahaha.. man, you killed me!
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I refuse to let anyone tell me what to do, especially past-me. Who does that fucker think he was, making decisions for me? When he told our wife "I'll pick up groceries on the way home," did he have any idea how tired I would be after work? No, and he didn't care, because it's not him picking up the groceries, he is gone, he is only a shadow of the past, and I am the one who has to pick up the groceries. Well, fuck it. It's not like I'm hungry now. If future me gets hungry, he can get his own damn food. But knowing him, he'll blame me for not getting it for him now, the sanctimonious prick.
Bastard ate my emergency donut, too.
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Just that?
My past-me was clogging the internet posting lame "Ahahahaha.. man; you killed me!" comments.
So actually, my past-me ate parts of everyone's donuts!
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If I input my physiological information et al. into a health management program that plans my different foodstuffs intakes, am I managing my desires when I only eat what the software tells me? What if I was only allowed the food that the software determined, and was physically incapable (or restrained) from eating food not specified by the software? How far off do we think this future really is, 10, 15, maybe 30 yrs?
As we march towards the singularity (the one in which te
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No, if you're utilizing an application to determine your diet and you eat accordingly, you're choosing to make use of tools likely developed by those who have spent their life specializing in something (nutrition, dietary needs, etc) that you likely have not and therefore have accepted the benefit of their expertise through the piece of software. The same way I use a piece of software to help me file my taxes every year, because I am a software engineer and not an economist or tax advisor or a CPA.
Of course
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people were able to manage their own desires previously. This is just another tool for it. Doesn't mean it works, though.
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I already have it by setting my ringtone to:
"Bad boy, bad boy, whatchou gonna do if they come for you"
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Flamebait summary (Score:4, Insightful)
Have we entered an era in which electronics serve as mother, cop and coach because we can't manage our own desires?"
Poppycock. These technologies aren't for government, aren't for ME keeping YOU from texting; they're tools for helping you help yourself.
Here's one not covered in TFA -- your alarm clock. Don't have the discipline to go to bed early enough to get to work on time? Set this handy little gadget and it will wake you up in the morning, just like your mom used to do.
Did all that with my PalmVx (Score:2)
back in late 90ies... with the huge GPS "dongle" mind you.
This Mountain Dew moment brought to you by me.
Credit card spending ? (Score:3)
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Flamebait! (Score:2)
Have we entered an era in which electronics serve as mother, cop and coach because we can't manage our own desires?
Flamebait question. Computers? Being used to automate things? STOP THE PRESSES!
Re:Flamebait! (Score:5, Funny)
We can't! They're automated too!
Employers using it (Score:2)
My BMI is just a little higher than the value my company's insurance policy requires, so I am going to be required to carry a digital pedometer and record a minimum number of steps per month in order to get the same insurance at the same rate that someone who weighs 20 pounds less would get.
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They won't be able to download the data from the pedometer because the damn micro-USB connector will be clogged with paint!
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I also have to submit to a blood test for nicotine, and get a note from my doctor saying I'm not suffering from depression.
Are there any other medical conditions you are forbidden from having?
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I also have to submit to a blood test for nicotine, and get a note from my doctor saying I'm not suffering from depression.
Are there any other medical conditions you are forbidden from having?
He's also not allowed to be less that 6'0" or taller than 6'2", can only consume vegetables on days that are prime numbers, and is not allowed to smile if he sees puppies. The employers don't seem to make the connection between that last one and depression.
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Quit, find a better job with a better insurance plan.
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At least these days we know about BMI. When I was in the USAF in the early '70s, they were having a fit about obesity. During basic training if you weighed too much, they put you in the "fat boys squadron", and you doubletimed everywhere, and had a strict diet (there was actually an armed guard by the milk machine any time the fat boys were in the mess hall).
I was stationed with a career man (he'd been there for 8 years alreadY) who was a weight lifter. This guy looked like Governor Arnold; he probably didn
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You should have your doctor do a proper BMI test. Or just do what the lifer guy did, dehydrate yourself before getting weighed.
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Is that even legal? The BMI is an utterly discredited measure of health. Comparing someone's height and weight is in no way meaningful, since it assumes that any extra weight you're carrying is fat. My BMI puts me squarely into "obese" territory, despite not even being particularly fat (1.86m, 100kg, or to translate into American units 6' and 220lbs) - but I'd like to see how many "normal" BMI, low-fat, no-carbs, no-caffeine, no-gluten skinny freaks can carry a 10m scaffolding pole up 24 floor's worth of
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We can and do manage our behavior, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
We can and do manage our behavior, but we also like to have some sort of silver-bullet placebo. It's the only way some people can convince themselves that there will be results for some exertion of effort.
It's particularly bad, though, when we make major purchases under the pretense that we will guilt ourselves into conforming to a regiment or else risk wasting a significant investment. Bikes, gym memberships, new running shoes, etc -- these are all things that most people buy as a means to shift a desire from second level (I want to want to...) to first level (I want to...).
In the end, people just stop using those crutches (for the most part) and recede to prior, bad habits.
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Timed padlock for sweets: Has multi-day delay before it can be opened again. Padlock is sufficiently expensive that one wouldn't want to break it to get a few dollars' worth of chocolate inside box locked with it. This way lock doesn't have to be metal; could be plastic.
Clock for people who set their clock ahead, but then mentally adjust time and so are late anyway: Time displayed by clock is always ahead, but by a random amount whi
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I would actually pay for both of those devices. Not for myself, but for my S/O who, of all things, lacks "will" and "drive" for most things in life. She's the kind of person who would buy the silver-bullet placebos I described without fail.
She took up knitting and invested in a massive amount of yarn (high quality stuff on bargain when she could find it) with the assumption that the investment will guilt her into using it. I'm pretty sure she's quit 80% of her attempted projects since her start.
I'm pretty s
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"Not behaving as RazzleFrog would like" != "weak willed".
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He's just giving examples of what people frequently regret, I think... not prescribing appropriate human lifestyle choices.
(Yes, children are frequently regrets as infrequently as parents like to admit it.)
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I don't "like" anything. I am talking about unhealthy behavior. I don't care if you smoke and eat yourself to death.
What about the rights of passengers? (Score:2, Interesting)
I understand that driving is a privilege and therefore you give up certain rights when driving. In MA it's illegal to text and drive, don't know how they would actually enforce such a law. I cannot imagine a scenario where it would be illegal for a passenger in a vehicle to do anything with their phone they wanted to. It doesn't sound like this technology is going to differentiate between a driver and a passenger just if the vehicle is moving or not, sounds pretty lame to me!
I don't think technology can
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As a resident of MA, I will say that though I completely support the concept of banning texting while driving, the current law is useless. Even local cops urged the State government to slow down and think, because now they are obligated to enforce an unenforceable law.
"Texting" is illegal. But other phone functions like talking, dialing, or using GPS Nav applications are still legally ok. This makes it functionally impossible to enforce.
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Sorry, Officer, but I was *not* texting. I'm blogging with the Wordpress app on my Android phone, and live-tweeting status updates to my followers. Twitter couldn't geolocate me because my Epic4G's GPS was borked by Samsung & Sprint. I accidentally swerved across the middle lane and almost hit the old lady on a scooter because I had to disable 4G so Sprint's firewall won't block the GPS ephemera download, dial *#1472365# to get the phone in debug mode, forcibly flush the cache, launch the diagnostics, w
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In Oregon it is illegal to use a cell phone while driving, with limited exceptions. The law actually refers to mobile two-way communications devices and thus includes two-way radios, but contains exemptions for amateur radio, CB, and fire/police. It was quite a fight to get a ham exemption into the law, and other federally licensed radi
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Don't know how they would actually enforce such a law
If you have a serious accident they check your cellphone records. If you just sent a text message before the accident you are totally screwed. Simple really.
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I understand that driving is a privilege and therefore you give up certain rights when driving. In MA it's illegal to text and drive, don't know how they would actually enforce such a law. I cannot imagine a scenario where it would be illegal for a passenger in a vehicle to do anything with their phone they wanted to. It doesn't sound like this technology is going to differentiate between a driver and a passenger just if the vehicle is moving or not, sounds pretty lame to me!
I don't think technology can fix this it will only frustrate consumers forcing them to go to extra measures to make their devices behave as they want (jailbreaking, etc).
Did you even RTF. . . oh forget it. It's an app for your phone! If you passenger doesn't want it, he wouldn't install the app!
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There are already passenger sensors in most new cars which trigger a check that the passenger seatbelt is connected. It should be simple to connect this decision to the function that prevents texting.
If we really wanted to use technology... (Score:2)
Cybernetic heartbeat
Digital precise
Pneumatic fingers nearly had me in their vice
Automatic sniper
With computer sights
Scans the bleak horizon for it's victim of the night
Managing Our Own Desires (Score:4, Interesting)
In one sense, I think the question "Have we entered an era in which electronics serve as mother, cop and coach because we can't manage our own desires?" is flamebait, but, on the other hand, it does pose an interesting question.
First of all, using technology to help humanity - whether it is something major, like producing more/better food, or something minor like making sure we can wake up at the correct time in the morning - is what it is. It's the growth of technology. So, in that respect, nobody is doing anything different than any other person who has had technology...it's just different technology.
However, I find it interesting that the summary posts a question about managing desires. While I know everybody likes to think they are more special than anybody else, and that THEY have no problem managing their desires and wants and needs, all you have to do is pick out any person out of a crowd and there were be SOMETHING that they struggle with. Eating too much. Spending too much. Pornography. Too much time in front of the TV. Overexercising (yes, I know someone who does that). Smoking. Drinking. Whatever. Everybody has something that brings them a great deal of pleasure - so much that they go overboard with it.
So, the question is, is it a bad thing to use this technology that we have at our disposal to get in control of some of our foibles? I would say no. For example, I have a friend who looked at a great deal of pornography. While he enjoyed it, it was greatly affecting his marriage because his wife couldn't live up to the standards he was setting in his mind. In addition, he also neglected his marriage due to his addiction. So, my friend began to use an application on his computer which monitored his web browsing habits. It blocked him where it could, and would email out a weekly email to his wife, myself, and his mother (!!!) regarding websites he visited. When he would screw up, we would be able to call him out on it.
Now, you could say, "Weakling. He should have managed his own impulses." And, I know he wanted to. He knew he was destroying his marriage and didn't want to do that, but, the ease of pornography access was too great for him to resist. He had to control it. Using that application helped a great deal and, after some counseling, he and his wife are happily married. (And, yes, I still receive weekly emails.)
In any case, I think making a statement like, "Have we entered an era in which electronics serve as mother, cop and coach because we can't manage our own desires?" is not only flamebait, it's also seriously judgmental and unrealistic. I do think none of these things should be FORCED on anybody...but there is absolutely no shame in using technology to help control or manage a part of your life that you need help with.
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Now, you could say, "Weakling. He should have managed his own impulses." And, I know he wanted to.
But, of course, deciding to activate the "weekly emailer" program, and deciding to NOT deactivate it, are precisely aspects of managing his own impulses. Good for him.
The point is that a person has multiple conflicting internal motivators. The balance of these motivators was tuned by evolution for a time period quite different from our current one (scarce resources, limited data, relatively short lifespan, etc.), which is why it produces perverse results in a modern world (e.g. over-eating).
my gps came with this (Score:2)
new garmin nuvi. if you try to punch in directions for it to start navigating to, while the car's in motion, it won't let you. You have to go into the settings and disable the safety.
"That's right officer, I was distracted trying to disable my GPS's nav safety feature when I ran into that tree." Wonder how that would turn out for Garmin?
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in your hypothetical you're still the idiot who drove into a tree, right?
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"That's right officer, I was distracted trying to disable my GPS's nav safety feature when I ran into that tree." Wonder how that would turn out for Garmin?
I bet you'd get laughed out of the courtroom, seeing as it's easier to disable the safety feature before you start driving.
Electric shock (Score:2)
how about an ap that delivers an electric shock whenever someone uses "like" or "you know" at random places in their speech.
It's like, you know, really irritating when, like, you know, someone constantly stuffs them in, like, you know, multiple times in, like you know, every sentence.
Should really come out as the more satisfying
It's OUCH OUCH really irritating when OUCH OUCH someone constantly stuffs them in OUCH OUCH multiple times in OUCH OUCH every sentence.
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how about an ap that delivers an electric shock whenever someone uses "like" or "you know" at random places in their speech.
You know, I really like your idea!
Euthyphro for the new millenium? (Score:2)
When I started thinking about this I couldn't help but draw connections to the Star Trek episode Return of the Archons where a computerized facsimile of a philosopher (Landru) runs the whole planet, deciding what people should and shouldn't do, making them practically zombies, except for pre-programmed times where the restrictions are lifted (festivals). However, after generations of complete control rigidly enforced at all times by an
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What prevents scope/mission creep from turning the whole race into behavior-on-rails zombies?
Hello there, fellow former Ruby developer!
Slap drones! (Score:2)
Once we get super intelligent AI minds all we'll need are slap drones and social norms enforced by convention in our post scarity, anarchic Culture.
The cookie, will it crumble? (Score:2, Insightful)
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Nannystate? (Score:2, Insightful)
Thanks, but I would like to be able to text while riding as a passenger, and even if I am the driver I still want to see SMS traffic updates. I chose not to text of my own free will prior to the nannystate laws which solve nothing, and still won't text while driving. Go pull someone over for failure to yield, running a stop light, failure to come to a stop at a stop sign, or failure to maintain control of their vehicle and leave my pho
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But I don't want some MORON looking at SMS traffic updates on their iphone while I am driving next to them. Endangering your own credit rating is your own business. Endangering my life is another thing entirely.
The fact that you personally may be smart enough not to text while I am next to you does not mean I have to sit back and let every teenage moron that has never had to slam on their brakes once in their entire life do the same.
But fran
What? No self discipline? (Score:3)
I often bemoan the existence of the "snooze" button. An alarm clock is one thing -- a useful tool that nearly anyone who wants to keep their lives on schedule can make use of. And when it comes to not answering the phone or texting while driving? I have a personal policy against that... but have violated that policy once in a while.
Self discipline is tough. It's worth developing though. I have an alarm on my phone for waking up and another for going to work. It's a system that works for me. I don't use the snooze button though. And if I had an app available to me to disable the phone while driving, I would use it.
I had to learn the hard way... a few times... not to get into "bidding wars" on eBay. Now I just set my max bid and walk away. I do things to discipline myself frequently. I am a very successful dieter! But having reminders and other aids to keep you on track is a choice that can be made and helps those who are not naturally so organized. I am just not! I have forgotten my own birthday on occasions, so how can I be expected to remember anyone else's or to do anything else on time without reminders?
I have tried to strengthen some skills in my life that I have finally given up on. Without tampering with my ability to concentrate and focus on problems, (which is something I don't want to compromise) I just find it impossible to have a "sense of time" at all. So you can appreciate just how much my first blackberry phone changed my life! Suddenly my phone was telling me about everything I needed to do.
One might say "can't you just do it for yourself?" To them, I say "nope! I simply cannot." I have tried and whatever ability others may have, I simply do not possess. And the moment I accepted that fact, the less I hated myself.
Okay, to be clear:
I can diet successfully. I can develop and build all sorts of good habits and learn to resist desires. I can, on most occasions, resist driving while using the phone. But I can't be on time without devices reminding me to be. But because I understand that about myself, I can also see how others can have problems with diet, bad habits, addictions and using the phone while driving. We all have our weaknesses. And when there are devices and techniques to help people overcome these weaknesses, I expect people to want to use them. It is those people who know their weaknesses and choose to do nothing about them that really bother me.
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I often bemoan the existence of the "snooze" button.
My line of thinking on the snooze button is: If your alarm goes off, and you have time to hit the snooze button without it mattering, stop setting the alarm early. The fact it's an alarm means nothing if people can say "oh I can wait 10 more minutes".
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It's not that the 10 minutes doesn't matter. It's "I feel tired enough that I can justify getting in trouble for being 10 minutes late(r)". Possibly multiple times sequentially (much like *1* ice cream sandwich won't make you fat, saying that every time you want one *will* make you fat).
so to answer yo
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You probably can. I have controlled my wakeup time before, but I usually rely on an alarm clock... as poorly as you do. But it's not that you cannot, it's that there's a far better solution than expending the effort. Hell, if there was a pill that made people perfectly fit, I'd im
Software police? (Score:3, Insightful)
So far I haven't had any iPhone apps kick my door in at 4am, shoot my dog, drag me around the house half-naked while pointing guns in my face, make sexual remarks about my startled wife, stand on my chest so I can't breathe even though I'm not resisting, and then drop some coke when they fail to find anything and then admit to having entered the wrong house 10 years later after I'm financially ruined from lawsuits and losing my job.
So no, we haven't entered a time when apps and gadgets are taking the place of cops.
I've done this for a long time. (Score:3)
Ever since I've had a pda I've done things like this.
Every evening 30, 15 and then 5 minutes before I usually leave the office, I get a meeting reminder: "Maybe you can walk home today instead of taking the bus?" Maybe half the time I say "Oh, yeah, good idea."
I wrote a pretty simple application that will send me an email before I leave work; the email contains a suggestion for a meal based on recipes I've collected over the year with the ingredients broken out into a shopping list. A few times a week I'll detour to the market to make that meal rather than go home and do delivery.
When I quit smoking some years back, I put my cash and credit cards into a ziplock baggie with "Remember: You quit smoking" on it because, after smoking for years, it was simply my habit to walk to the store and get a pack, and I'd find myself doing it by rote without thinking about it. The baggie and the note made me stop and say "Oh, yeah, duh, why am I here?" and break out of my routine.
Little nudges can help loads. You might disregard them sometimes, or even most of the time, but they can help you start to do healthier things.
as a psychologist (Score:3, Interesting)
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I so wish these were legal in the UK. There are so many ignorant retards about. Train companies here were seriously considering painting windows of the so-called quiet carriages with something that blocks mobile phone signals to stop fuckwits using their phones there, despite the signs all over the place saying "please don't use your phones here".
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On one hand I can understand why it's annoying when people use their cellphones in quiet train cars (even though I never use them myself), on the other hand I can understand how people may be reasoning that the purpose of the quiet cars isn't to enforce complete silence but rather to get away from the teenager who insists on chatting on his/her cellphone non-stop and similar annoyances. That is to say, people probably figure "it's supposed to be a quiet car but this call is very important". The problem of c
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I don't mind "Hi I'm 5 minutes away pick me up" calls, it's the 20 minute wittering that drives me up the wall.
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If everyone on the quiet car thinks that he can make one important call, then the car isn't quiet anymore.
Society works if people don't think they are so special that they deserve an exception.
If you want to know how cell phones can be used responsibly, travel to Japan. I was in Tokio for a week, and during that entire time I heard two cell phone rings, both belonging to foreigners. Everyone keeps their phone on vibrate, and for some reason they understand that you don't have to yell into the phone - you ca
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I don't want to block people using cellphones completely, I spend an hour a day on the train and I'd like to read a book, study or just sit there in peace in the carriage designated for that purpose. It's not that much to ask surely. There are at least 3 other carriages on the trains I catch where people can make as much noise as they like.
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I hate assholes like you. Wile you can feel smug because you shutup the one annoying person, how do you feel about the woman further down trying to connect with her kid, or the doctor trying to manage prescriptions, or the 10 quiet business people just trying to check their email. You fucked up their connections as well. Congratulations, you made the problem even worse by inconveniencing even more people than the original offensive individual.
There's a reason why jammers are illegal, and they are everywhere
Re:Cel phone jammers! (Score:5, Insightful)
how do you feel about the woman further down trying to connect with her kid, or the doctor trying to manage prescriptions, or the 10 quiet business people just trying to check their email. You fucked up their connections as well.
Not to mention anyone else not on the train but still in range of the signal. Running one of those things on a bus or subway is like setting up a big mobile bubble of "fuck you" for everyone in the city.
As gratifying as it might be to dickishly and anonymously kill their signal, the grown up thing to do would be to simply ask the person to pipe down. If the GP is so socially backwards that he can't even manage that, I humbly suggest that he does not belong on public transportation.
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Risky. Some people could take such a request badly, even respond violently, and there is no way to know before asking.
Some people are known to response to "hello" badly, too. That doesn't make the GPs statement any less true.
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how do you feel about the woman further down trying to connect with her kid, or the doctor trying to manage prescriptions, or the 10 quiet business people just trying to check their email. You fucked up their connections as well.
Not to mention anyone else not on the train but still in range of the signal. Running one of those things on a bus or subway is like setting up a big mobile bubble of "fuck you" for everyone in the city.
No, it's like setting up a tiny mobile bubble of "fuck you" to everyone within about fifteen feet. These don't have the power to extend their range beyond the devices that are locally audible to the user, and certainly not beyond the metal walls of a bus or train. I don't own one, but I did read the poster's link and discovered that while they have a published range of 3-15 meters, their effective operational range is only about 3-5 meters, and is further attenuated by shields such as leather jackets.
Also
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I know what you mean, I've been trapped in too many inescapable situations with somebody who couldn't simply ask people to talk quieter instead resorting to passive-aggressive jackassery like jamming a cell phone signal.
This may come as a surprise to you but many people don't actively try to be assholes, nor are they always aware they're inconveniencing someone else with their actions. If something someone is doing bothers you try politely talking to the person to give them a chance to work with you, impro
Re:Cel phone jammers! (Score:4)
1. not legal in the USA
2. if I caught you I sure as hell would be involving the authorities.
Re: (Score:3)
I use a different technology to solve this problem on the commute. Noise canceling headphones. [bose.com]
I figure "since I'm the one with the problem with how you are talking, I will make my problem go away with a flick of the switch and some tunes." It reduces all kinds of noise problems, not just cell phones: train horns and bells, loud and boorish conversations, crying children.
If the offender is right next to me and overpowers even the headphones' ability to cancel their idiocy out, I can move. And I don't infri
Re:Cel phone jammers! (Score:5, Insightful)
I own two cel phone jammers. I have been trapped in too many inescapable situations (bus, train, lines, etc) with somebody having a loud and/or annoying conversation near me that even my headphones cannot drown out. I jam their cel phone signal and shut them the hell up. And I feel good about it, too. I'm like a secret superhero to everyone else within earshot.
I use a P20B jammer [dealextreme.com], which seems to jam most ATT, T-Mobile, and Verizon phones. It isn't 100% effective - Cricket and MetroPCS seem to to completely immune, not sure about Sprint/Nextel, and Alltel doesn't exist in my area. I recommend it for just about everybody.* If anyone knows of a jammer that ALSO works on those other carriers, I'd love to know about it.
* May not be legal in your jurisdiction.
I have to say, your pretty rude.
I own a mp3 player. I use it to drown out conversations, peeps on cell phones, teenagers who think that the whole bus cares about the convo they are having with the kid sitting next to them, so on. I don't step on anyone's rights listening to my mp3 player, I don't keep people from making or receiving calls.
While I understand the usefulness of a cell phone jammer, I can't see using it because you find peeps on cell phone's annoying. Grow a backbone, learn to ignore, or get a mp3 player.
Ya, i'll get off your lawn, you probably about to let an emp loose anyways.