Wednesday, February 05, 2003Cell Phone Info: You've probably seen the cell phone emergency phone number urban legend e-mail that's been circulating for the past year, about a teenage girl who averts a rapist while driving by dialing #77 on her cell phone to reach the "police." While the gist of the advice -- to store in your cell phone the emergency code numbers of the authorities in the jurisdictions where you travel -- is probably good, as it turns out, cell phone code numbers can vary from state to state. For example, in Louisiana, dial *LSP (*577) from any cell phone to contact the State Police ("to report highway emergency situations, to report drunk drivers, or to request roadside assistance"). See SeniorDrivers.org, for a comprehensive list of nationwide highway emergency numbers, including: Alabama and Mississippi: *HP (*47); Florida: *FHP (*347); and Georgia: *GSP (*477).
And while we're talking cell phones . . . do you ever wonder what to do with your old cell phone after you've upgraded (which I'm itching to do, at present)? How about donating it to a worthy cause? The Charitable Recycling Program is a national organization that will make a donation to your charity of choice for each donated cell phone. A list of the charities represented can be found here and includes St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital (one of my favorites). Motorola's Call to Protect program recycles used wireless phones to help fight domestic violence.
And, finally, I remember being told by my Cingular rep that even an unactivated cell phone can be used to dial 911. If that's the case, then there are lots of uses I can think of for old cell phones (that is, if they're kept charged, of course), such as giving them to elderly or needy people for use in emergencies, or stowing one in your camper or boat. I've heard and read the rumor that there's a federal law that requires this, but I'm not so sure. Gold Wing World investigated this with AT&T and published its findings here. Any in-the-know lawyers out there care to clear up the matter?11:43:05 PM
Update: Is audio the way to go?
As I posted earlier, I've been evaluating some of NextUp.com's audio products, including TextAloud MP3, NewsAloud, and WeatherAloud. I really like TextAloud, and I'll probably end up buying it. I get a lot of lengthy e-mailed stories of the inspirational and political type from my Mom, and it's great to be able to listen to them, rather than read them. To me, listening to this type of e-mail is actually much more effective than reading it. Plus, Brent enjoys hearing them read aloud (who knew?), but he would never have read them himself. I even used TextAloud to proofread this blog post (oops -- one typo caught!), which was kind of neat (the eyes aren't what they used to be, ya know, even with readers on). And I can think of a few more reasons to own a program like this. It would be great as a study aid for school, or to study an oral presentation. And, although I doubt I'll be using it to read any e-books, my friend Betty recently asked if I knew of any programs to do just that. Anyway, I have about a week left on my free trial to get totally addicted to this program before I have to plunk down $24.95 to keep it. It's a well thought-out program, very unobtrusive, and easy to operate -- what's not to like?
Although I really like the news aggregator in News Aloud, I'm already getting more news than I can handle through my Radio News Aggregator (and I can still use TextAloud to read those stories, if I so choose). Finally, I thought Brent would really like WeatherAloud, but he gave it the nix. Brent's an avid hunter and fisherman, and thus is constantly in search of the latest weather report. So, I figured he'd really like this. But, he prides himself on being only as technologically aware as absolutely necessary, so I shoud have figured he wouldn't be interested.
10:47:49 PM
"RSS Sucks! Where's my discussion aggregator? As I was writing the previous post about how sites without RSS feeds don't lend themselves to regular reading, I realized that RSS is only half of the equation. While RSS makes it easier to read many feeds, it needs an equivalent to let us manage discussions. If the Internet is about communication and conversation, RSS on its own isn't enough. RSS is one way, from writer to reader. It makes blogs, news sites and announcements more convenient and accessible than the web browser." [Andrew Raff via The Blawgistan Times] Instead of just a news aggregator, he proposes a news and discussion aggregator. Read the story here.
10:31:04 PM
Internet Legal Research Weekly is a free newsletter published by Inter Alia that "delivers relevant and timely legal research information, and other fun stuff, to your inbox every Sunday." To subscribe to receive the newsletter by e-mail, fill out this subscription form. (I assume that subscribers to Inter Alia's RSS feed will also receive the newsletter, but I just subscribed so I don't know yet.) A must for paralegal bloggers!
3:49:36 AM
"Research Site of the Day. JurisPro is a free expert witness directory with an amazing amount of information. As opposed to other expert sites, here you can review the expert's C.V. (in PDF format), see a photo, hear the expert speak, read their articles, and learn more about the expert's background. You may search by keyword, or browse the list of expert categories, which is pretty extensive -- even more amazing are the subcategories!" [Inter Alia] Paralegals and lawyers ought to bookmark this one. I use these types of directories both to find experts and, more often, to check out the other side's experts. It's amazing what you can find, and for free.
3:46:05 AM
