Mal you need to come back to Australia mate, we have lots of areas that don't get mobile phone coverage.

*Mal you need to come back to Australia mate, we have lots of areas that don't get mobile phone coverage.*

Including (astoundingly), swathes of North Sydney...

Block phone signals? why would we want to do that? So that we can't eavesdrop at will on the miscreants in our midst? Make public space a safe place for extremists to exchange intell or instructions?

Having said that, let me say this. I pay top dollar for my mobile service, have difficulty receiving inbound calls and seem to have my former internet and email service blocked?

So, I'm not in favor of more blocking or the blackmailed commercial results it tries to engender, with the mobile I'm using at this very minute, displaying a no wi fi excuse it reports, as the reason for the blockage or withdrawn former service!?

Strangely, none of the service fees for this very service have ever been withdrawn or withheld or BLOCKED! Could it be that what is meant in the philippines by the term, a medical priority service? Onya outsourcing, maximised profit before people, Telstra and tax paying Google!
Alan B.

Correction and apologies.
The mobile I'm using at this minute should be read as the laptop I'm using.
Alan B.

Further correction and more apologies. The corrected messaged should read as originally stated and underlined by the fact that I'm penning this lines on a wi fi connected laptop!

The very wi fi that the mobile claims as not to exist! But might exist for a suitable fee that allows a philippines based technician? To rumble through my data, to find the problem!?

They don't need to rumble through my data to do that, just remove the program they placed there, that is blocking my paid for former access!?
Alan B.

A test for the suitability of american software such as Facebook:

If it can't be used as toilet paper, don't bother using it.

No mobile reception where I live.

Would it not be though, mans' obsession with his IT devices, is grounded in his equal obsession of personal acceptance, and his desire to achieve that aim in his increasingly desperate search in "others", through his device?

Is it knowledge or acceptance that man seeks with his obsession with communication devices?
One would wonder, as evidence to his obsession is drifting into madness, chasing an invented creature "Pokemon", off the cyber plains and into the physical world!

Or is the apparent obsession with IT devices, simply more evidence of the success of modern-day advertising; which has succeeded by tapping into mans' common and natural obsessive personality traits? Something similar to gambling addiction. (A humorist could take this point up to a successful conclusion).

I haven't decided as yet, if this obsession is good or bad: So far it appears as a "two bob each way" conclusion to me.

Interesting article and I have often thought to myself how counterproductive and obstructionist portable communication devices can be. It's taking away the concept of introversion, or conscious contemplation of anything and anyone. An unpopular area of existence in this mad social media fueled society we live in now. I can't begin to tell you how incredibly annoying it is watching something on TV with a twitter feed appearing at the bottom of the screen about something or someone... lucky my TV habits are infrequent.

Another way to look at it might be, is minding your own business a bad thing these days? IF you don't share something about yourself or your life via electronic communication means, are you hiding something?? Why don't you have a facebook page or use twitter? or any other form of digital communication systems that can connect with these types of services?

Personally, I have the BEST quality of life when I am NOT online, period.

Diver Dan, you make some good points too, the ICT industry in the sphere of portable communication devices is very clever at manipulating folks into providing "content" about themselves and their life. Without that content, they would have no reason to sell us any of those types of devices in the first place. Any knowledge is useless unless it can actually be used and applied in the real practical world, but knowledge on the internet is just more "content" to justify selling you something.

Heck, after saying all that, I've contradicted myself by sharing my opinion via these very systems we are talking about... ;)