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American `Cell Phone' = British `Mobile' = German `Handy'
(Ugh!)
Mobile(s) Sometimes Off Or Not Receiving !
MOBILE OFF IN OWN OFFICE & AT HOME etc.
- I prefer people first use normal phone or email.
- No point incurring un-necessary microwave radiation to
brain via mobile in own office.
- Avoiding mobiles allows a full size desk hand- set that
can jam between head & shoulder, leaving both hands free
for computer, or to be able to switch to desk head set.
- Android smart phone may be
busy, not available for mere phone calls when in own
office.
- I don't want any SMSs !
Exception : After Payment For : Computer Consultancy
Business
Company & personal
policy is NO Mobile Numbers Until After First Payment Received (may be
advance partial payment on account). We've been in business long
enough to know offers of work, purchase orders, &
contracts may be nice, but only Money Talks !
MUNICH OFFICE BLOCKS : MOBILE PHONE, SMS & EMAIL
PROBLEMS
If your company is not in Munich & you have difficulty
contacting me or other of my
company's consultants, Please Realise:
Numerous newer Munich offices occupied by computer,
electronic & pharmaceutical industries etc, have thin
metal film on windows. It blocks or degrades mobile phone
usage, including SIMs on smart phones for email. It's
purposes /[intended?] effects might include:
- To block solar gain, reduce air conditioning cost.
- Visual privacy: Obstruct industrial espionage eg
binoculars into conference rooms.
- Electronic privacy: block RF transmissions from
monitors (long supposedly a method of copying
screens).
- Block mobile phones, so employees don't chat on flat
rate to friends.
- Block mobile phones, so business calls can't be
monitored by competition with a base station.
- Block mobile phones, so business lines can be
monitored, including business calls from visiting suppliers
to competitors.
- Block mobile phone data links, to prevent disastrous
internet firewall back door avoidance.
- Look shiney/ modern to attract purchasers (office block
purchase is very cyclical, many stood empty in 2006,
Muenchners are notoriously trendy).
Thus
- Mobile Phone & SMS
Communication may not work reliably or at all (depending on
single/dual band, location, provider).
- Internet by company internal WiFI base station
undoubtedly blocked by firewall etc.
- Internet by WiFi to external LAN base station won't
work unless perched by open window, & finding an
insecure external adjacent WiFI base station (fat
chance!).
- Internet via GPRS & SIM card (if equipped) may not
work reliably or at all (depending on single/dual band,
location, provider).
- Internet access for email
&/or via http to remote server likely blocked by
company firewall.
- Don't be surprised if you find it difficult to contact
my company's
consultants visiting such buildings.
- If such a building belongs to your customer, &
my company's mobile
consultants are visiting there on your behalf, if you need
to make urgent contact, do it through your contact who is a
registered permanent employee there, who has a terrestial
phone line &/or firewall access for email.
- It's hard to contacts consultants if we're working
shifts & after an RF screened building after midnight;
we don't hang around outside on cold wet dark nights to
check for phone calls mails & SMS missed, or answer
incoming mobile calls driving in the dark, both v.
dangerous & illegal in Germany, & on arrival home
after midnight we're not trying to avoid answering you, but
merely about to Sleep.
- Sensible customers understand: If you send consultants
to work in 3rd party customer RF screened buildings, with
no cabled phone & internet access while at work,
business communication Will degrade.
- Do NOT phone me at 3 in the morning
! :
A Canadian multi- national had management too agressive for
such explanation, they repeatedly phoned at 3 in the
morning, then evaded payment for work done, & wrote
evil threats to evade debt brokers; We sued; They
paid.
DRIVING CARS
I do NOT answer mobile phones while driving a car.
- It's long been a criminal offence in Britain & then
in Germany too. Punishable by
- (Initially ?) 60 Euro fine in Germany
- Points endorsed on driving licence in Flensburg
- It doubtless counts as culpable for potentially heavy
liability damages if there's an accident.
- It's Dangerous & Immoral: I won't put pedestrians,
other drivers, my passengers, or myself at risk for benefit
of your business or pleasure.
- I've never used a mobile phone when driving, even before
it was a criminal offence.
- As passenger: I rarely am, but keep it short, or
talk at motorway stops/ car parks: Mobiles in cars transmit
at higher power to defeat the partial Faraday Cage of the
car. How much does one want to irradiate the brain just to
chat on the phone ?
- City Driving: Reports suggest hands free kits are
distracting. I won't use one alone for city driving, It might
possibly be OK for light rural traffic, but then I often have
a passenger who can answer for me. My business trips tend to
be short distance in heavy & aggressive Munich traffic,
not safe for `hands free' verbal distraction.
- Longer business trips: if driving my associates
have my mobile & can answer. Be aware a metal car is a
semi Faraday cage, mobiles automatically increase their
microwave transmission power. Localised warming of brain
cells occurs at normal power (to unknown effect). Not all
adjacent passengers or driver want to radiate their brain
faster than normal. Keep the call Short! If I want to call, I
often stop the car to stretch for a brief break.
- Petrol Stations: (American: Gas, German Benzin):
Use Illegal. Radio Frequency pulsed energy could produce a
spark Anyone who even leaves their phone powered up in pocket
near the fuel nozzle during tanking is foolish, mobiles
periodically poll for contact, & if your trouser leg is
leaning on the Faraday cage of the bodywork while you fill up
... ? Some petrol stations ban mobiles Not because of RF but
for rik of dropping them, & battery causing a spark.
ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT
- Munich U-Bahn
(City underground railway) : Phone use illegal. SMS legal
- Munich S Bahn
(suburban trains travelling further: mobiles allowed.
- German National Trains:
legal.
- European Planes: Illegal to power on transmitter device,
thus no acoustic mobile phone , no SMS,
(even consulting eg calendar or calculator illegal, as phone
will poll base stations).
PUBLIC VENUES
SPORTS TRIPS: Cycling, Skiing, Mountain & Flat Land
Walking, Wind Surfing
- I wont answer most of the time, unless by chance sitting
in a cafe, or on a mountain, stopped for a break.
- Cycling: I never answer a phone while cycling. It
would be far too dangerous. I go Fast. By the time I've found
a safe place to stop, & pulled phone out, you'll have
hung up, I'll have wasted energy, & you'll have made me
late[r] than maybe I already was, & I'll have become
extremely hot for lack of air cooling. So I won't
answer!
- Skiing: Similar for skiing, plus also there are
some situations too perilous for self &/or others to pull
out a mobile from a backpack even if stationary. Plenty of
ski mountains I know where coverage
doesn't work half the time.
- Mountain walking, it depends, sometimes not
convenient/ safe.
- Flat land group walking trips I can usually
receive a call most of time (but not call out so easily,
squinting at small screen is a great way to trip over rocks,
& maybe down a mountain, else need to stop & lose
group ahead, or if leading a group, inconvenience them all by
stopping for you - guess what ? I may not answer.
- Wind Surfing Trips: Even when on dry land, mobile
may be in locked car, car key buried, waterproof, in pocket
under wet suit, under trapeze. Takes ages to access. I won't
even try to answer.
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