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France to Allow Cell Phone Jamming

ZuperDee writes "According to this article, the French industry minister has approved a decision to allow cinemas, concert halls and theaters to install cell phone jammers, on the condition that emergency calls can still get through."

19 of 866 comments (clear)

  1. Emergency Calls? by SultanCemil · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How do they allow emergency calls through? Aren't most cell jammers simply frequency based white noise generators?

    --
    Cemil.
    1. Re:Emergency Calls? by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think thats the icing on the cake.

      Being able to say "Yer sure" and not mean it all in the same breath.

      Those wanting to block calls sort of get their way, and those who don't want it blocking get to smile as well.

      I think this is the best all round decision.

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    2. Re:Emergency Calls? by famebait · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, GSM jammers of this type work by impersonating the local base stations by responding before them, but not actually letting anything through.

      The systems have been available for a few years,
      and are apparently very good at blocking out only a well defined area. The stumbling blocks have been entirely legal/regulatory.

      I don't know if the available equipment handles it already, but there is no technical reason why the jammer couldn't engage slightly more thoroughly in the transaction and forward select calls.

      --
      sudo ergo sum
    3. Re:Emergency Calls? by weighn · · Score: 5, Funny

      i'd say they would use a white-noise generator and have a member of staff monitor slashdot for emergencies at which point they turn off the white-noise.

      --
      Mongrel News all the news that fits and froths
    4. Re:Emergency Calls? by leonmergen · · Score: 5, Informative
      No it's not. It's irritating when the same (kind of) people always leave their mobiles running, the hip, young, gadget people having their latest top40 tune as their ring tone... now really, when some kind of polyphonic f*cked up version of Usher or whatever starts blasting at way-too-loud volume through a room, or even a cinema, i'm irritated. I turn my mobile off so I won't disturb anyone, I expect the same from others.

      Is it really necessary to be reachable while you're at the cinema ? No. And if it is necessary, you shouldn't be at the cinema.

      --
      - Leon Mergen
      http://www.solatis.com
    5. Re:Emergency Calls? by pklong · · Score: 5, Funny

      Your on to something, but you're not quite there.

      Allow the cinemas to install their own Pico Cells in the theatres and jam the outside cells. The pico cell should connect them to the cinema's own mobile operator and charge them 20$ per minute.

      They'll think twice next time they get their bill, inconsideratle little twerps ;)

      --

      Philip

      Signatures are broken

    6. Re:Emergency Calls? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      there were days without cell phones.. and parents went to the theatre anyway ....

    7. Re:Emergency Calls? by The+Limp+Devil · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And while it might or might not irritate you in a movie theater, think about a real theater, a classical concert or any other public performance where live artists are playing.

      I can't even begin to tell you how frustrating it is to have my lectures interrupted by students' cell phones ringing. One student didn't even bother to turn off her cell phone during her oral exam, as we found out when it rang midway through the examination.

      I would certainly welcome a cell phone blocker in my class rooms.

    8. Re:Emergency Calls? by CountBrass · · Score: 5, Informative

      Trivial. The same way that you handle calls in a large shopping mall or other localised concentration of people. You setup a micro-cell. The difference is the one in the cinema will only route emergency calls; the rest get a recorded message saying "fuck off you sad bastards: try watching the film." QED.

      --
      Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
    9. Re:Emergency Calls? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      its easy to jam cell phone signals - they should just move all buildings to North Wales - I can never get a signal on my phone ;)

    10. Re:Emergency Calls? by MmmDee · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yep, and in another reply here somewhere I mentioned that parents/business people/relatives left phone numbers with others as to where they'd be during the day and evening. It was common to have 4 or 5+ phone numbers on the refrigerator outlining the course of a night's outing (friend's house, restaurant, theater, nightclub). Each of these places knew that someone might call. On arriving to a friend's house, you'd say, "I left your number with the sitter, hope that's okay." Restaurants, theaters, and nightclubs had PA systems or wait-staff and ushers to ask among their patrons looking for recipients of emergency calls. Believe me, "emergencies" are not a creation of the new millennium or the now/me generation. They have been around awhile and people (especially parents) have always pre-arranged someway to be contacted.

      --
      No man's an island, unless he's had too much to drink and wets the bed.
  2. Re:Yes! by quetzalc0atl · · Score: 5, Funny

    >Seriously though... who REALLY needs to be contacted IMMEDIATELY 24-7?

    superheroes

  3. How lame can you get? by pedestrian+crossing · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would personally be quite pissed that just to watch a movie, I would be out of touch for three hours. Not a good idea.

    And I would be quite pissed if you took a phone call while I was trying to watch the movie. Your attitude is so frigging self-important. If you cannot be out of touch for 3 hours while you watch a movie, stay at home!

    I swear, you see all of these posts that claim, "I must be reachable at all times", I call bullshit. You know what I hear when someone takes a call in a movie theater? I'll give you a hint, 100% of the time it is banal blather. Grow up.

    --
    A house divided against itself cannot stand.
  4. Re:Yes! by caitsith01 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The comment about someone dead or dying is absolutely stupid. If someone's been hit by a car and they're not dead yet, but will be soon, I'd rather like to go and say goodbye.

    Thank you, your comments are extremely stupid too.

    How did people manage as recently as 1990? When people were dead or dying, however did relatives get by not knowing the *instant* their loved ones were crushed by that tractor/mauled by that pit bull/swarmed by those killer bees? What about earlier, say 1900... without phones at all, you would have had to wait a shocking couple of hours for a telegram delivery guy to find you... or in the Old West, you might have had to wait weeks and weeks to hear news of a loved one's passing.

    But you can't wait 2 hours? 2 lousy hours. 120 minutes... 180 if it's an Oliver Stone film. Well, maybe you should sit at home crouched over your landline muttering "can't go out... loved ones might die... might miss the call... could all die at any second... can't miss their deaths...". Or maybe you could get out there and live your life without the need for the constant psychological umbilical cord of your mobile phone, taking the outrageous chance that if your entire family is slaughtered by cannibals while you are at the cinema the police will probably fill you in on the parts you missed when you get home.

    Better yet, why not kill your family now? That way you wont miss a precious second of it, and I can enjoy The Bourne Supremacy in peace.

    --
    Read Pynchon.
  5. Re:First Post? by BasilBrush · · Score: 5, Funny
    And besides, people are getting far too anal about things these days. It's just a fucking movie.

    If it's just a fucking movie, then don't fucking go. It's not place to decide how important an event is to the other people there. I've just visited your blog.

    A) You look very young, which probably explains your selfish anti-social attitute.

    B) You go on about some concert as if it was the second coming of Christ. Don't you realise it's just a fucking concert?

  6. Can I take these jammers with me on a date? by TheLoneCabbage · · Score: 5, Insightful


    Here's something you won't read too often on /.

    #1 pet-peve on a date, just short of picking your nose, is picking up a cell phone.

    I take my phone with me, and it goes OFF the second I am within talking distance of my date. If it goes back on again, that means I'm more concerned about a random friend asking me (for the 50th time) what sites are best for downloading mp3s, than I am in the flow of our conversation.

    Is there anything more uncomfortable than to be mid-stride in conversation, and having that blasted ring interupt. So now she's giving driving directions to a friend and your picking at your food. (or your nose, as at this point it's a lost cause)

    So help me, if that phone rings it better be your family priest/rabbi/immam telling you that your mother/brother/father/sister/dog is dieing.

    Now that I think about it, I don't want a portable jammer with me on a date. I want to know as soon as possible that the womman is a classless waste of my time.

    Here's a better idea though. Let's install electroshock devices on cell phones, that are like that video game James Bond (Sean Connery) played in "Never Say Never Again". When you start talking it's all good, but as time passes the voltage/pain goes up. If the conversation isn't worth having you hang up before you have to feel the pain of everyone else sitting near you.

  7. Performer's perspective by kottos · · Score: 5, Informative

    I think that this is great. I'm a classically trained musician and a sound engineer so I spend a lot of time either performing or recording concerts. When I'm onstage, I'm already a bundle of nerves and have to concentrate like hell for fear of messing up. Whenever I hear a phone go off, it is very distracting. I can ignore it and carry on, but it does throw you for a moment. 99% of the time it won't result in any audible wobble, but if it happens at the wrong time it can throw you completely and you screw up bigtime. When I'm recording, it is even worse. Even if somebody has their phone on silent but are sitting close enough to some of the gear, you can get the lovely du-du-du-du, du-du-du-du, du-du-du-du-duuuuuuuuuu sound captured in your recording. Again, this happens very rarely, but when it does I have to be physically restrained... I also lecture at a university - whenever students use their phone in class, it shows a distinct lack of respect for me and for the other students, some of whom are finding it difficult enough to follow the course content as it is.

  8. Where R the +27 "Funny" Mods When U Need 'em? by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 5, Funny

    The funniest thing I have read today -- and probably for the week -- was you putting "technicians at your small hosting company" in the same sentence as "doctors, fire fighters, [and] people waiting for an organ transplant." It is, as they say in The Biz, "comedy gold."

    (I have this image of weary, grim-faced grimey first-responders -- the firefighter in helmet, with his axe; the policeman, in cap, with his gun drawn; the doctor, stethescope around his neck, medical kit in hand; all emerging slo-mo through a thick curtain of smoke that blankets a rain-slick urban landscape. Background sound effects include sirens wailing, women sobbing, a toddler crying out for her mommy, the crackle of a police radio, maybe even the chum-chum of helicopter rotors overhead. Soundtrack is something suitably somber, like Enya's "Only Time," or perhaps a solo bagpipe rendition of "Amazing Grace." Suddenly, a high-pitched cry cuts through the scene and the mood: "Hey Guys!! Wait Up!!" The battle-weary first-responders turn slowly to see a technician from a small hosting company, "Buckaroo Banzai" baseball cap on head, router under his arm, racing out of an otherwise abandoned movie theatre (Marquee: "Star Wars Marathon!") to join them. The emergency-response professionals then look on in helpless horror (and a smidge of amusement that will haunt their consciences for months to come) as an Armored Personnel Carrier loaded with a troop of National Guardsmen barrels around the corner and flattens the hapless tech into the damp asphalt.)

    Yeah, sure, I got better things to do then give it away on /., but you inspired me, dude, and for that I thank you.

  9. Re:Emergency Calls? -- True Friend by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    Did anyone else pause while reading this?
    I've had fairly serious things happen, such as my friend trying to call me when his brother died because he needed help moving the body.

    Do you live in New Jersey? Oh well, you know what they say "A friend will help you move. A true friend will help you move a body."