Hard-hitting IT commentator Dr Simon Moores gives his personal take
on the hot issue of the day.Even the most advanced technology
available today still seems to be at the mercy of the
telephone.
I was flying around the Kent countryside over the weekend,
listening to other pilots complaining that the French air traffic
controllers weren't responding to their calls.
"Calais and Le Touquet aren't answering the phone either," replied
the controller.
This can be a little awkward, as the airspace over the English
Channel becomes rather crowded on a Saturday afternoon and, after
all, the strike was supposed to have finished the day before. But
perhaps nobody told the French, or, if they were back at work, they
may have been on a long lunch, perhaps?
When I landed back on the little farm strip, coincidentally owned
by a friend from Unisys, I found a police officer, a single
constable tasked with defending Kent from the airborne threats of
terrorism and drugs, waiting for me.
"Expecting any flights from Ireland today," he asked?
"Not that I know of," I replied.
"Been anywhere interesting?"
"Just Sangatte to smuggle in more refugees and cigarettes!"
"Some people have all the fun," was his reply.
The irony of seeing the policeman was reflected by an earlier
experience, two weeks before, when an aircraft had called "mayday"
with an engine failure and subsequently made a forced landing on
the isolated strip.
When I arrived, I found the pilot was on the phone, trying to call
Kent police, to announce that he and his aircraft were in one piece
and to cancel the emergency. It came as no surprise that the police
weren't answering the phone, with anything but a recorded message.
When I left, he was still trying to get through.
Of course, the trick about using the telephone in an emergency is
having the luck to find someone at the other end. If it's my wife
or mother-in-law, there's little or no chance of rescue, as their
mobile phones never appear to be switched on or, if they are, then
they are engaged. But in general, mobile phones have proved
themselves time and time again as lifesavers.
Last year, I was making an approach to a busy airport, when my
aircraft radio suddenly failed. I fiddled with the connections as
best I could, which left me able to receive but not transmit.
Worrying about the circling group of much larger aircraft that lay
ahead of me, I had a flash of inspiration. I grabbed my mobile
phone and speed-dialled the number of a friend at the local flying
club next to the airport.
Bellowing down the phone, because I couldn't hear him over the
engine noise, I gave him my position and call-sign, and a few
minutes later I was relieved to hear the approach controller,
calling me on the radio with instructions to guide me through the
traffic to a safe landing.
But mobile phones probably cost more lives than they save. Last
month, a friend called his wife from the car, to tell her he would
be home for dinner soon. He never finished the conversation.
Misjudging a bend in the road, he drove head-on into a tree and was
killed instantly.
He was the second person I've known of to become a mobile phone
statistic. The first, an IT director, drove his BMW into a bridge
support on the M1.
Hands-free communications should, I believe, be a strict rule for
both cars and aircraft and even motorbikes. But with the arrival of
a new generation of multi-functional, colour-capable mobile phones
just around the corner, together with the distraction of wireless
devices like my GPRS Blackberry which constantly receive e-mail,
man's best friend, his car, is becoming a more dangerous place than
ever before.
Mobiles - a blessing or a dangerous distraction ?
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ZentelligenceSetting the world to rights with the collected thoughts and
ramblings of the futurist writer, broadcaster and Computer Weekly
columnist Simon Moores.