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seamusTX wrote:Cell phones have opened up a whole new world of rude, selfish behavior. One of the ultimate examples that I heard was a guy in New York (where else?) that was yelling at the people around him on the street to shut up so that he could talk on the phone.

When I worked in an office building, I used to enjoy sneering at the people who would get on an elevator and then spend the next minute or two yelling into their cell phones, "I'm in an elevator. Can you hear me now?" I guess not much has changed since the 1870s, when people felt that they had to yell to make their voice go farther.

- Jim

Actually they did have to yell back then, besides low voltage batteries, that was the only power and the greater the power, the better the distance. It wasn't until the 50s that adaptive amplification was beginning to be state of the art, before then the phones actually had to be "tuned" to the distance they were from the central office, and it wasn't until T1 carrier systems started being used for inter office transport that a reliable sound level became common, and even then the toll network had to be engineered and installed correctly.

I could go on about this stuff all day, I used to teach it after I lived it, but that wasn't the point.

The guy sitting next to me was virtually shouting on his conference call. I don't know if it was a bad conference bridge (a frequent problem) or if he was just trying to top other voices, but it was extremely rude.

I wonder if that would have worked in Panera Bread Co. I was enjoying my espresso and a bagel yesterday, relaxing before heading to work, and the guy at the next table organized a business conference call, talking loudly through the whole thing. I left after telling him he had spoiled my relaxation, and all he did was stare at me as if I was the rude one. I also told the management that I was not pleased.