Slashdot Mirror
Can You Hear Me Now?
squarefish writes "CNN has this story about a hiker stranded in South America's Andes mountains when a blizzard begins. He reaches into his backpack for his cell phone -- only to find his prepaid minutes are up. Out of nowhere, a phone company solicitor is calling on his cell phone, asking if he would like to buy more time. Is this convenient or what?"
a sales call came in handy.
WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
Okay that's kind of funny but it's about as on-topic as half the other stories this week. What's with all the completely un-geek-related stories that really fit better in someone's tagline or weblog?
as far as i know, you are still able to make emergency (911) calls from a cell phone even if it has no service agreement. however, seeing as it wasn't the united states, more power to the sales guy or something. :))
next we'll be hearing a story about how spam saved someone's life. (i don't care whether its the canned or electronic kind, would be interesting either way
...Even a cellphone which has run out of paid minutes should still be able to make a call to emergency services? It is very poor if it can not.
Besides, chilling your battery will not revive it. It will only slow down power loss.
What a stupid article!
spam let me know my mail server is working.
...any money to be made on making products open source yet?
Just want to know.
Convenient, maybe. But what if he hadn't been stranded. How annoying would it be having a solicitor call you and try to cell you more pre-paid minutes every time you run out. I thought it was against some kind of law that phone solicitors could not call your cellular phone anyway? (Correct me if I am wrong)
~.Evanrude
Hell, I probably would have died in his situation, I would have refused to answer the "OUT OF AREA" call.
RonB
It is human nature to take shortcuts in thinking.
Thats ok if they block people posting crap (goatsex shit or something) but they block people just posting opinions different from their own!
How is that free speech???
I tried putting my old batteries in the freezer, but it didn't make them work again.
I might have been at risk by ingnoring all of those formerly annoying calls. In the interest of my own health, in the future I'm going to take every one of them. Yeah Right....
Law of averages. They call so often, it's really no surprise that they'd call at a point where you'd need someone to call. Has to happen sooner or later.
"...Ok Mr. Diaz you don't need to make up some stupid story about being lost in the Andes mountains. If you are not interested, you could just say so." *click*
Did you just grab this out of someone else's post or are you more durnk than me?
You can't slander Brtiney and then act stupider than her.
Oh, hearzz the fucking NAIL, "It's you I want. Yourself. Jesus wouldn't like us to If he ever knew it"
Then
Fantasy, mutherfucker.
As my father lik@(munch munch)...
I'm not an expert chemist, but according to the article, the mountaineer recharged his cell phone batteries be flinging them in to the snow.
How do frigid temperatures recharge Ni-Cad or Ni-MH batteries, which most cell phones use?
Well, it all makes sense to me!
As my father lik@(munch munch)...
At least in the US, cellphone carriers are required by law to allow all 911 calls through on any cellphone, whether it's activated or not. The law is pretty strictly enforced, too. It's reasonable to assume that wherever he was, a similar service or law exists.
I can imagine that 1) there was some sort of equivalent service in his area, and 2) his service should have a number to call, like '0' or '611' to talk to someone about adding minutes to his calling plan. The guy was smart enough (and lucid enough) to know that chilling batteries rejuvenates them to some extent, but couldn't figure out how to get a hold of anyone on a service that doesn't require "charged" minutes? He's getting more credit than he deserves.
Regardless, if such emergency services aren't available where he was, let it be a lesson to the carriers there. Someone could easily hold them liable for not permitting emergency calls to go through, where life-threatening situations exist.
DUDE!
... you don't have to KEEP ROCKIN!
I fucking told you that you ROCK
CUT IT fucking OUT!
Mr Cranky.
As my father lik@(munch munch)...
you ROCK!!!!!
As my father lik@(munch munch)...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
For example I got blocked when I posted some facts about production-costs associated with non-software related businesses. These where facts, no rudeness, not offtopic or anything, just facts to show why a cheap media (internet) doesn't lower your expenses that much since labour is the most expensive part of any publishing or knowledge-intensive business.
Another time I just asked why slashdot post stories stating that some open source business are well when they are actually heading for bancruptsy. Once again got blocked. It's not unreasonable in anyway that these companies should bring some good news by now, they owe it to their share-holders!
Got blocked presumable because some people don't want their perception of reality where all services can be free to be altered (?).
I respect your opinions, you should respect mine slashdot editors!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Do not do this. Alcohol dilates the capillaries, thus actually lowering the body temperature. You feel warmer because of the desensitizing effect, but booze will just make you freeze faster. Details can be found e. g. here.
... is whether or not they made him buy the minutes before they would help him.
they dont.
I worked in a battery shop for a few months. Cooling batteries makes them discharge slower, and freezing them destroys them (expanding/crystalizing electrolite destroys the membrane between the plates). Last month I left my cell in the car overnight, it got a bit cold (in the 40s), and my phone wouldn't work until the battery warmed back up.
...also, as Jeff67 points out:
"Alcohol only gives the perception of warmth. It does it by dilating blood vessels in the skin. The result is you lose heat faster. Drinking when you're really cold is a good way to get dead."
So, fake longer battery life, and fake warmth. In short, this looks like a bogus story. I guess CNN is taking it's cues from the Chinese news media these days...
Never never never smoke crack before geometry class!
Can you hear me NOW? No? Hum, get a crew out here...we need another tower.
Ah, can you hear me NOW? Good!
--MonMotha
"Then suddenly, at above 12,500 feet, Leonardo Diaz hears a familiar ring."
was his girlfriend by any chance named Cameron Dicaprio?
anyway can someone shed some light on how cellphone batteries get recharged by cold temperatures?
...people have to get stranded in the Andes before the world realizes that telemarketers are a viable part of the harmony of the world?
If you prick a spammer, does he not bleed?
"There are more important things than stopping terrorism. Upholding the Constitution is one of them." - Ars Forumer.
This is probably the one and only time someone was completely glad they got a telemarketing call in all of history.
I should have picked out the nickname Demosthenes!Tecumseh.
Do not click on that link, that is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen.
True, but if I'm going to freeze to death, I'd much rather do it drunk.
They have cellphone coverage at the top of a mountain? I find that someone difficult to believe. Also why would anyone take their phone climbing with them and not have any credit on it? Ok, so I'm sure they didn't just make it up, but it does seem stranmge
Sig is taking a break!
It's more convenient than you think. How did the hiker get stranded in the first place? My theory is that the phone company had a hand in getting him lost in the first place. Who benefits? Suddenly here is a heartwarming story that makes the phone solicitors look like benign life-saving angels rather than annoying pricks paid to disrupt our most precious moments of peace....
I am using GSM standard phone here. If you turn it on and call emergency number (better not give it,people know it already), even if you don't have a SIM card installed, it will rise the power like 5x (antenna) and call it.
I have read that same there in USA (911) too... So, who the heck he tried to call I wonder? Its well documented on ALL mobile phones as a part of standard.
...throw the "Can you hear me now?" guy into the snow for 30 minutes.
and God answered, how most unusual.
A mouthful of tequila just shot out my nose, and all over my keyboard.
YOU can make emergency callls (911) every hear on the planet. My cell phone at this moment is the only thing it does. But probably on the top of the Andes he wouldn't have connection to nowhere. Except on a sattellite phone. And those are not prepaid, as far as I know.
------I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either.------
Oh wait nevermind. random chance saved this guy right?
Who is calling who the sheep.....
Free Unix? Free Windows. http://www.reactos.com
I've got that cd by the gurge, its kick ass. Are you an aussie by any chance on by?
Plus, keep posting monotony reports. The battle must have the stats!
- A loyal fan of yours.
Think nothing is impossible? Try slamming a revolving door.
What the HELL are you people doing up? It's like 5 am EDT, 2 am PDT, and there's already 50 some posts....
Oh. Wait. Nevermind.
...dumbass goes hiking in the Andes and doesn't check the "minor" details like "Is my phone working properly?" before departure?!
World of sleaze by regurgitator is another good one to put on. Fits in with slashdot editors nicely.
Think nothing is impossible? Try slamming a revolving door.
I don't even get decent reception at home! Which network covers the Andes??
Hikers are all assholes anyway.
...except maybe Linux beer hikers
Contrary to popular belief, it is easier to get signals on top of mountains. Why? Because at the top of the mountain you have line-of-sight with many different ground antennas. It is the same reason that you get a good 'view' :)
Also, from my personal experience in the Alpes, phones seem to work pretty well at high altitudes - so much, that I even get signals from neighbouring countries' networks sometimes. The major problem with large height is that your cellphone might appear in many cells simultaneously and the networks might become confused. (And this could be one of the reasons why you can't use a cellphone inside an airplane)
As far as the batteries are concerned.. I am aware that lower temperatures lower the reaction strength => the internal resistance of the battery increases => it becomes unusable very quickly. However it works again when it becomes warm. This does appear bogus...
... what do you expect from a story related with telemarketers and reported by Journalists working in US Media Conglomerate B]
I miss my rubber keyboard.(Homepage)
If an emergency call rises the power at 5x, it could explain why a frozen battery could not make an emergency call. That would be a poor design. It would also explain a story i heard two years ago, about a girl on a wrecked yacht drifting somewhere close to malaysian coast. She could not make an emergency call, but send an short message to her friend in Great Britain. He called emergency services, which contacted the malaysian Coast Guard who rescued the crew.
Possible, but not probable...
I'm close to someone involved in low level local politics... What you'll find is that news such as this is about 40% fiction (They call it creative writing, or some such in journalism schools.)
Most news agences embelish the truth, and often resort to such common argument falacies as taking quotes out of context as well as employing sensationalism and plain old fiction.
In general, stories have seeds of truth; some are just larger seeds than others... Remember that the best lies are those based on reality.
Side quote: "The US media is unique not in the ability to provide an un-tainted viewpoint; Rather, it is unique in it's ability to convince the american population that it is without bias."
Alcohol is a vasodialator, so you do get increased bloodflow, especially in surface capillary veins. So you do suffer from hypothermia at a greater rate, but you also prevent frostbite. Depending on the amount of exposed skin, drinking small amounts alcohol is often considered a good thing. If your boots get wet and then freeze, drinking is the only thing you can do to help keep the circulation going and save your toes. Alcohol and water are both vasodialators, but alcohol works best. Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor, which is a bad thing for frostbite. Brandy contains lots of sugars, so would have an overall warming effect, assuming he had reasonable clothing.
Chilling batteries can cause the output voltage to rise, because the internal resistance is a complex function based on temperature. I've seen the graphs of battery output for satellites, very non-linear, with several peaks and dips for different temperatures.
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
"Help! I've fallen, and I can't sign up!"
...for a new long distance service, until you rescue me from this cliff...
-- Terry
Now we can't even DIE in peace, without some ($*%&$ing phone solicitor bothering us.
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
It sounds like a urban legend to me.
To give the story some credibility it should have stated where he was found.
This fact could be compared with known base stations, and verified the claim or if it was possible.
On a side note, the ad on the page was for prepaid phone cards!
Carbon based humanoid in training.
I'll admit to not having very much of a clue how cell coverage works outside my region, but if someone told me that a cell phone was reachable on top of a fucking mountain, I'd take some convincing.
If I'm wrong, I'd like to know. Is this something along the lines of Iridium? I don't gather so from the article.
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
Even if the stroy does describe people doing things that are based upon false premises, that doesn't mean that the story must be false.
The guy may not have known that emergencey numbers work without available minutes, or that chilling the battery doesn't help.
People have been arguing in this forum about the benefits of brandy. Sugar vs. Alchohol. My guess is that small enough doses spead over time would provide sugar without much heat loss, but it doesnt matter what I think because the only relevent thing is what the guy in the snow thought.
The guy may have been just been incredibly lucky to survive being as stupid as he was.
None of this makes tha story necessarily true either.
-- That which does not kill us has made its last mistake.
Well the posts seem to all say the same thing, here's a summary:
In most places, Emergency Calls are free.
An obscure mountain path durring a blizzard doesnt seem like the most likely place to get cellphone coverage.
Soliciting on Cellphones is illegal in many places, just like soliciting on Fax Machines.
so is it real?
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
*chortle* *guffaw*
Quoth the article:
He was able to keep talking to her until rescue teams arrived seven hours later - - with the frigid temperatures acting as a natural recharger for his cell phone batteries.
"I remembered that when I was a boy I put batteries in the freezer," Diaz said in a newspaper interview describing his late May adventure. "So, I took off (the dead) battery and flung it into the snow. After half an hour, it was working again."
When a battery is dead it's dead, and no amount of sub zero temperatures will change that. Moreover I would expect the moisture from the snow to actually harm the battery and cell phone as he warmed it up so he could use it.
Contrary to popular belief the Andes are not in the USA (and therefore a call to 911 might be somewhat problematic.)
.. who claim that you shouldn't drink alcohol in extreme hypothermic conditions?
Alcohol dilates the blood vessels and the rush amplifies your body heat. True, you lose heat faster and in 'normally' cold conditions you shouldn't drink alcohol. But if you're stuck in a freezing mountain, you need to keep comfortable to keep awake, which is essential to your survival. And the article says the guy is relying on carefully measured doses of brandy. Limiting intake is essential.
Alcoholic beverages are actually present in most hikers' backpacks for this purpose (and also for treating wounds, due to its antiseptic nature).
And what's up with "you shouldn't drink anything at all in hypothermic conditions"? In fact, you should drink adequate amounts of liquids. Water, as most liquids, preserves your temperature. The only time you shouldn't intake liquids is when you're already victimized by hypothermia (in other words, you're already unconscious or near unconsciousness so you can't really do anything anymore, but this is handy advice for people who encounter hypothermia victims -- don't give them food or drink).
Pet peeve: Profane people propagating perfunctory pedantry.
In detroit, I lose coverage every other street corner. What kind of service does he have that he can get service in the Andes?
Just experiment until you get more bars on your signal indicator. And hope like hell there is no cell tower on the summit of K2!
Surprised it wasn't a nimba infected cell phone sending him it's address book.
In Canada we use CDMA [on a tri-band xmitter no less]. You can dial 911 if the phone is user-locked [e.g. enter code] or just locked [hit two keys to unlock]. You have to pay 0.25$ a month for a 911 "connection fee". Without a service plan I'm sure the phone will call 911 but I have never tried.
Another little tidbit. If anyone has ever dialed 911 on a phone its somewhat interesting. My motorolla v120 will sit in "emergency mode" and do a funny beep. You can't dial any other number until you reset the phone [e.g. power down].
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
...was that the baker kicked the butcher and the candlestick maker out of the tub.
When lost in the Andes, a cell phone is the next best thing to a soccer team. :)
Yeah, the subject tells it all. You do *NOT* need a SIM card (and therefore you don't need to pay) if you are dialing to emergency numbers, such as 911 in USA, 112 in Finland etc.
Are the Andes Mountains between his home and the local liquor store? or is it common practice to carry Brandy with you while trekking through the Andes? ...and alone (a missing detail if he was with a friend)? Wondering if we'll be seeing a number of Trekkies wandering aimlessly through mountain ranges next winter, planting batteries in the snow. This article does seem to be missing some details.
Doesn't really matter who paid for the story to get run. There are too many incongruities in it for it to be even close to truth. Discussing it only gives them more ad revenue for it.
A guy I know ended up with a phone someone left at his place after a party. It had no service but if you called 911 and hanged up, you would be able to make one more call for free.
After the call, he told the salesman to put his number on the "do not call" list.
I beg your pardon..
..
..
"The Colombian mountaineer slowly begins freezing to death, surviving for 24 hours with his only warmth coming from carefully measured doses of brandy"
a mountaineer in the Andes,
what the hell was he thinking drinking Alcohole
now i live in Australia,
a genraly nice warm place..
ive seen snow twice in my life..
and i know that the last thing you should do
when in a situation that you may frezze to death
is drink any form of alcohole
why do you feal warm when doing so??
because all those blood vessles that closed
up to put all your heat inside where it
will keep you alive sudenly open up..
and you losse all that heat..
bad move..
You have 5 Moderator Points!
Which Helpless Linux zealot/MS basher do you want to mod down today?
Stick the phone antenna in a tube of pringels and scan around. When you have the most bars, you'r pointing at a tower. That's what it seems like anyway, i could be wrong.
/.'er should always be armed with a phone with an external antenna. And some potato chips.
So a
FRA: STFU GTFO
I wonder what he paid for roaming ;)
Suncoast Linux - Sarasota, FL
Yeah that was stupid to drink it knowing it cause more heat loss. I'm amazed people still think that. You don't get a cold from being wet and chilled either.
...you know what I think the story is fake, or something is fishy here. Was the newspaper based in China? :-P
Too bad he didn't have one of those new Methanol powered fuel cell phones. I don't know if alcohol would work in place of methanol or not especially full of whatever is in brandy; the impurities.
He could have ignited the brandy with a spark from the battery or caused a short and heated it somehow, but then he'd lose the phone.
Sure glad I wasn't there!
On the other hand, if you eat the snow you can freeze to death trying not to dehydrate. I'm sure a very slow but steady diet of snow is the best way to go.
I'd carry a plastic bottle that I could put snow into, then put the bottle into my clothes. After it melts, then you can drink it. That's much safer.
Do not eat without melting! Eating snow and ice can reduce body temperature and will lead to more dehydration.
Melt ice or snow and boil it if possible. Don't eat crushed ice - it can injure your mouth and can also cause further dehydration.
Lundin says eating lots of snow is a common and potentially deadly mistake.
"Don't eat snow," said Mike Sheets. "Don't put it in your mouth and try to melt it if you're thirsty. You'll use up too much of your body's heat, and you need that energy for yourself."
Drink a lot of water, 8 to 12 glasses a day. But do not eat snow to satisfy your thirst. Eating snow can lower your body's core temperature, triggering deadly hypothermia.
Don't waste body heat by eating snow. Make a fire; heat water before drinking.
Do not eat snow as it tends to dehydrate the body
Do not eat snow to obtain water, it will just make you colder.
"Weapons should be hardy rather than decorative" - Miyamoto Musashi
I think that goes for OS's too
Living in Boston, I frequently hear about stranded hikers who call 911 while hiking in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Cell phones have became so common and these calls happen so frequently that it has actually become a problem. To discourage this behavior (unprepared hikers calling 911 to be rescued), the authorities came to a unique solution: Bill the caller for the cost of the rescue.
Let me be clear; not every hiker who calls 911 will be billed. If you have a genuine emergency, please use 911. But if you're stranded due to your own stupidity, you're going to pay.
"I'm The Bounty Bear. I will find him anywhere. I'm searching."
Yes freezing doesn't "revive" the battery.
Cutting power draw to zero does.
When my cell batteries goes "DEAD" (i.e. the phone powers off), if I wait a bit, I can get it to turn on for a bit (but only 2 seconds of "talk" time).
One time it took a few times to make it unrevivably dead. (I let it go dead because it had a memory effect [less and less capacity over time], even though the manual said that could not happen. My fix worked, BTW).
Some batteries may have a stronger "revival" effect than others.
It probably has something to do with chemical reactions and the capacitance of the cell.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
No Dammit! No More Minutes! I don't have my credit card with me and im starving on mountins in the Andies and *Click*
Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
When I clicked on the story, there was MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) on top of a phone calling card ad. Fitting I think.
I guess that he was just lucky to have a cell tower on top of that mountain, eh?
ThinkGeek sells Shower Shock caffinated soap. IIRC it supposedly gives you close to the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee whilst you shower... variances in body size not withstanding. :-)
mrg
One of the two huge forest fires in Arizona (which have now merged into one) was set by an equally clueless hiker who decided to set a signal fire to attract a rescuer. It worked - a TV helicopter rescued her. But it also set a wildfire (the Chediski fire) which is now part of the record-setting Rodeo-Chediski fire which has been in world news lately. It is burning the largest stand of Ponderosa pines in the world, not to mention hundreds of structures.
Sigh.
If people are going to get lost, they oughta at least prepare for the fact! Of course, if they were prepared, they probably wouldn't get lost in the first place.
The only good weather is bad weather.
The guy was lucky he wasn't a crusty, battle-hardened American consumer. Otherwise, here is what would have happened:
Man, I'm freezing... This brandy is good (Hiccup)...
Riiiinng...
Hello?
Hi, maybe I speak to Mister Diaz?
Leave me alone, you f&@*$%ing telemarketer bitch! Click. Hey, wait a sec... Hello? Hello? Oh crap...
That's right, boys and girls, telemarketers are not only a nuisance, they also create deeply ingrained reflexes that can hamper your survival if you happen to be drunk, stranded and out of minutes at the same time...
Did you hug a telemarketer today? Good! Keep hugging him until he chokes.
--
Mad science! Robots! Underwear! Cute girls! Full comic online! http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
Well, too bad he forgot the number for 911. or 112. or 611, and hitting 0 to talk to an operator. Or 0 for that matter!
I wonder why this story has been published on slashdot at all... The value of this story is as great as a story about my hamster dying of a heart attack...
This seems to me like an elaborate way to scare people into filling up their pre-paid minutes.
How many morons are saying saying to themselves:
"what if this was me, and I wasn't so lucky to have that heroic salesperson called"
sheesh
titanic baker alcohol
Hit #4
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
The sales person replys: " oh really? how much would you be willing to pay then?"
Funny...if you hit reload enough times, you'll eventually get an ad for 50% more phone minutes on the right side of the page.
QUIT WHILE YOU'RE AHEAD! ;)
You may be the only (fictional) telemarketer to have inspired more gratitude than raw, stomach-churning hatred, so get out of the business right away! And live the rest of your life on cat food and talk show appearances :)
Yeah, actually - as I understood it, the problem with phones appearing on multiple cell towers and causing network problems was a real event with analog cellphones. When they went to digital networks, this was taken care of.
I heard one story of a guy flying in a private plane who used his analog cellphone to make a call. The call went through just fine, but when his bill came at the end of the month, he was triple-charged for roaming calls made at the same time.
Actually, yes....how many hikers have died stranded in snowstorms? This was bound to happen once.
There's only one real answer to this post...
Out of minutes or no, this hiker must have been sitting down to dinner...
If firefighters fight fire, and crimefighters fight crime, what do freedom fighters fight? - George Carlin
I didn't see anything in the CNN article that would lead me to suspect that the hiker was not a local citizen of Columbia. BellSouth certainly provides service in Columbia.
Every prepaid cell phone I've ever used has allowed emergency calls, and/or calls to order more minutes, even when expired. Certainly, it would be in the phone company's interest to have an order line for more time, even if it wouldn't take emergency calls. Why didn't the hiker call it earlier? Or did he forget he had his phone?
"This was bound to happen once."
Based on what model of math? If you try to argue from a statistical model then that means the odd of this happening again and again should go up. Just saying "This was bound to happen once" is a statement of faith.
Free Unix? Free Windows. http://www.reactos.com
Considering Sprint doesn't give me PCS coverage at my house or place of employment, I'm going to doubt he has coverage in the Andes.
the cellphone copany in colombia dont let people call emergency numbers for free they charge for that a monthly fee, i live in colombia and the cell phones suck, can you imagine that there is no PCS, and not even talk about sim cards, this country is very late in technology, but is for the politicians, like always
come on! cellular service lost in the andes? drinking alcohol for warmth? recharging batteries by sticking them in snow? utter lack of names, locations, references?
I call bullshit! what the hell is going on with CNN?
I think the original poster was talking about this story where they lifted a story from The Onion reporting that the US congress was demanding a new 5 star capital with better bathrooms and parking...not making a political statement (although both are true)
In other news, there has been an upsurge of telemarketers calling, even unintentionally on landline phones, asking if the user is stranded on a mountain and would like to buy minutes...
This sounds like a fairly tale. I know for a fact that in all areas covered by GSM networks the emergency number 112 works even if you don't even have a SIM card in the phone. I'm sure the same applies to 911 in the United States.
It ("this article") got you to talk about it. Besides, how else were you going to get that story about your hamster on /.? :)