How to pack light, some tips

"sharx35" wrote in message
news:UOAyi.95$Pd4.84@edtnps82...


And what are the odds about breaking your leg on a hike in Connecticut and
someone NOT coming along with seconds? I've hiked all over the Canadian
Rockies WITHOUT breaking my leg and WITHOUT a cell phone OR a GPS unit.
Never got lost. Never got injured. You pansies are a bunch of nervous
Nellies who can't get off the electronic teat.

He's going to die, lonely and afraid...

--
William Black


I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland
I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate
All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach
Time for tea.

"sharx35" wrote in message
news:rLAyi.92$Pd4.21@edtnps82...

"William Black" wrote in message
...

"Markku Grönroos" wrote in message
ti.fi...


I have arranged my travels so that there is little need to be instantly
available. When I want to be in touch to outside world I lease a
computer for a moment to send and receive mail. Sometimes it can be
beneficial to book for mass transportation in advance by phone but I
leave this to the hotel personnel. That's why they are there in the
first place (typically the language barrier hinders me to contact the
agent anyways).

Why do you restrict yourself to environments where you don't need a
phone.

Mine is mainly used as an alarm clock when I'm on holiday, and a means
of contacting my wife if we separated somewhere we're unfamiliar with.

--
William Black

So, how exactly did you manage to survive BEFORE this great invention?


I carried an alarm clock and at that time wasn't married.

I've had a mobile phone for about twenty years now.

Look, there was a time when your car breaking down on a remote road was a
crisis and it would take hours to sort out and if the weather was bad you
were going to be physically uncomfortable, possibly to the point of death.

These days you sit in your car a phone for 'the man' who comes and mends the
car or tows you to someone who can.

Stop pretending mobile phones don't make life easier.

--
William Black


I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland
I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate
All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach
Time for tea.

"Magda" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:38:04 GMT, in rec.travel.europe, "William Black"
arranged some electrons, so they looked like
this:

...
... "sharx35" wrote in message
... news:fLyyi.87$Pd4.76@edtnps82...
...
... Those guys who are saddled with "high maintenance" wives, take note.
...
...
...
... Define 'high maintenance' in this case please.

Do you really need further explanation?


I do need further explanation, I don't even understand the explanation he
posted.

--
William Black


I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland
I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate
All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach
Time for tea.

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007, me wrote:

Actually, it is more of a case of society organizing itself around
the presumption that one will have a cell phone.

Unfortunately. Which explains why coin operated phone boots are
disappearing. Which I regret.

We passed innumerable signs for various services on these
mountain paths, all listing phone numbers to call.

Just for the sake of curiosity, which country are you talking of ?

The only reason by which I could consider to consider the opportunity of
having a cell phone was the insistence of my mother about having one
during walks in the mountains. Then during a walk with a guy (which is a
volunteer for "soccorso alpino" and actually had a cell phone) I
discovered in most of our Alps there is no coverage.

In a different "organization" could your "signs for services" in a
presumably poorly populated area be replaced by "totem poles" with
hardwired phone access to the service (sort of those things do exist in
the Alps to call for first aid in case of accidents) ?

Society is organizing itself around the presumption of a mobile phone.
It is not much different than when it organized itself around a check
book. It is rapidly doing so with respect to ATM's and debit cards.
It long ago did with respect to credit cards. (Try renting a car in
the US without one).

It might be partially also a matter of perception of (economic)
convenience. Which may vary place to place. You mention that credit
cards in the US were popular much before ATM debit cards. Things are
different elsewhere.

I got my first credit card in Italy around 1988, only because I had to
make a mission to US. At the time there was some convenience in using a
credit card (the yearly fee was rather small, the payment occurred up to
2 months later, and the interest rate on current account was high enough
that the small interest on the delayed payment covered the fee even with
little usage).

Then ATM debit cards came (in this country usually optionally linked
with credit card functions), with no fee at all for withdrawal at any
bank and diffused very fast.

Then the state imposed a tax on credit cards (more or less at the same
time it was imposing a tax on the first cell phones), while interest
rates were going down, and I just surrendered my credit card, because it
was not convenient for my usage rate.

I just went along with my ATM card. In the meanwhile banks adopted a fee
for ATM withdrawals using other bank cards. I tend to make use of my ATM
card as Pagobancomat (debit card in shops and offices) to avoid carrying
cash, but I do withdrawals only from my bank ATMs in order not to pay
the 2.7 eur per withdrawal fee.

Later I re-enabled my ATM card to be also a credit card, but that was
because the state tax was dropped, and the yearly fee was reduced. Even
if now my personal yearly fee is zero (but that's not an usual deal), I
use my credit card rarely (when travelling abroad, or to pay for a
deferred service) because there is still a 1 eur monthly fee on the
account statement.

And I'm rather wary of using my card with vending machines (e.g. ticket
selling) even for small amounts because of the possibility of it getting
lost or damaged by an unattended device.

Similarly one of the further reasons not to have a cell phone (one is
the habit of not needing to be contacted when out of home or office ;
the other is that my nearby sight is getting poor and the displays are
too small to be seen without changing glasses) is the fact I do not like
to carry around a fragile object which could be damaged or stolen, or
the fact that the fare system here is a jungle [also elsewhere I
understand] ... so I have the impression I could be paying far in excess
of the "right".

Curiously enough this last issue (value vs money) seems to affect here
in Italy the diffusion of credit cards but not of cell phones. Much more
people have a cell phone and spend sums to "recharge" it, while the same
people do not have a credit card to avoid paying the fee.

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On Aug 21, 11:05 am, Giovanni Drogo
wrote:
On Tue, 21 Aug 2007, me wrote:
Actually, it is more of a case of society organizing itself around
the presumption that one will have a cell phone.

Unfortunately. Which explains why coin operated phone boots are
disappearing. Which I regret.

As do I. Part of the reason I initially got a cell phone was
because
the distribution of public phones was getting bad.

We passed innumerable signs for various services on these
mountain paths, all listing phone numbers to call.

Just for the sake of curiosity, which country are you talking of ?

England, although in past years I saw similar effects in Ireland
and Spain (Sierra Nevadas).

The only reason by which I could consider to consider the opportunity of
having a cell phone was the insistence of my mother about having one
during walks in the mountains. Then during a walk with a guy (which is a
volunteer for "soccorso alpino" and actually had a cell phone) I
discovered in most of our Alps there is no coverage.

I was a tad surprised when walking in a deep valley that I could
still find a signal. Up on peaks it didn't surprise me as much.
When approaching population centers though, signals usually
start to pop up.

[snip]
Society is organizing itself around the presumption of a mobile phone.
It is not much different than when it organized itself around a check
book. It is rapidly doing so with respect to ATM's and debit cards.
It long ago did with respect to credit cards. (Try renting a car in
the US without one).

It might be partially also a matter of perception of (economic)
convenience. Which may vary place to place. You mention that credit
cards in the US were popular much before ATM debit cards. Things are
different elsewhere.
[snip]

Yes, these things can be quite variable by region. We have some
system slowly spreading in which one doesn't even have to
insert the card, but merely wave it over a reader. No PIN.
There is talk of imbedding this feature into cell phones so that
each vendor can leave info on your phone. (Cookie like info).

society [is] organizing itself around the
presumption that one will have a cell phone.

Yes, according to a recent study 73% of adults in the U.S. own a cell
phone.

And of those adults who don't own one, a large percentage is retired
folks who don't feel the need for one since they're at home most of
the time.

A recent article said that phone companies now believe that almost
everyone who wants a cell phone already has one, so their marketing is
now aimed mostly at getting switchers from their competitors, rather
than first-time customers.

James

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007, me wrote:

mountain paths, all listing phone numbers to call.

Just for the sake of curiosity, which country are you talking of ?

England, although in past years I saw similar effects in Ireland
and Spain (Sierra Nevadas).

Mountains in England ? I'd barely call mountains those in Scotland
(sorry I could not resist :-) )

Yes, these things can be quite variable by region. We have some
system slowly spreading in which one doesn't even have to
insert the card, but merely wave it over a reader. No PIN.

I suppose you mean some RFID device. Though good for a metro season
card, I won't like the idea of an ATM card without the further PIN
check.

There is talk of imbedding this feature into cell phones so that
each vendor can leave info on your phone. (Cookie like info).

Cookies are one of the first things I nearly disabled in web browser
since ages

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"Magda" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 14:35:13 GMT, in rec.travel.europe, "William Black"
arranged some electrons, so they looked like
this:

...
... "sharx35" wrote in message
... news:7KAyi.91$Pd4.28@edtnps82...
...
... "William Black" wrote in message
... ...
...
... "sharx35" wrote in message
... news:fLyyi.87$Pd4.76@edtnps82...
...
... Those guys who are saddled with "high maintenance" wives, take
note.
...
... Define 'high maintenance' in this case please.
...
... In a nutshell? Demanding entitlement bitches who think that their
butt is
... made out of gold.
...
... Well the words seem to be in English but they don't make any sense.
...
... Does anyone know what this means?

Yes. He is right, too.


Oh great.

Another one who likes to play word games.


--
William Black


I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland
I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate
All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach
Time for tea.

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:01:58 GMT, the renowned "sharx35"
wrote:


"Markku Grönroos" wrote in message
ti.fi...

"Chris Blunt" kirjoitti
om...

No, I certainly don't *need* GPS, but its was very nice to have while
driving around Thailand a few weeks ago. On several occasions it made
finding locations we were visiting a lot easier.

True. I find GPS gadget typically very practical too. Did you have a
roadmap of Thailand installed to the phone?

Gawd, it makes one wonder how everyone survived WITHOUT GPS for all those
centuries of exploration. The Vikings STILL discovered America WITHOUT GPS.

Bloody Vikings! They sailed from these fiords, assembled at Trondheim
and waited for the strong north-easterly winds to blow their oaken
galleys to England whence they sailed on May 23rd. Once in Bromley
they assembled in the Green Midget café...


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

Make credence recognised that on Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:55:47 +0200,
Giovanni Drogo has scripted:

Why? When travelling on holiday, you need a phone. I don't need one.

Until you need one, and then you need one.
Phones are very handy devices in some situations.

Do not know if the last sentence is a pun (I believe in Germany they
call "handy" a cell phone, what in Italy is called a "telefonino").

It was accidental!

I'm one of the few Italians who do not have a cell phone, and do not
regret it. What I regret, is that with the diffusion of cell phones,
there are less and less phone boots around, specially the coin operated
ones.

I don't have much confidence in anything coin operated in Italy,
except for a well used coffee machine!

BTW, you meant "booth".

In general I do not have need to be contacted when travelling (or simply
when out of home or office), and if so I can leave contact numbers
(offices or hotels). Similarly I generally do not need to call anybody
when travelling, and if I'd need there is usually a phone in my hotel
room, or there are phone boots (unfortunately less now) or other public
phone points.

I don't like talking on the mobile, so I tell everyone to SMS me
instead. I really like SMS, as it's a very unobtrusive means of
communication, people get straight to the point, and you can carry
them around. Any technology that can be both useful and ignored is
good.
--
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DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
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