Scott Adams blogs a Blackberry using rule breaker

by on November 1, 2005

Scott Adams, the guy who writes the very funny Dilbert cartoon, is now blogging and doing a bang up job of it too. In yesterday’s post he reveals a rule-breaking executive who uses his Blackberry during flight.

Funny enough I talked with Boeing during the Connexion test flight we took recently. They tell me a cell phone most likely can’t take down a plane. I think it’s fun to think about it this way. Everytime I fly into Oakland Maryam and I pass several hundred feet over the KGO Radio towers. That’s 50,000 watts of AM talk radio pleasure. And my little portable device is gonna do something nasty to the plane that that won’t? Hmmm.

It’s interesting the little rules society just repeats over and over and over without really thinking them through. That said, it’s going to be a sad day when they allow cell phones to be used on planes. If that ever happens getting Ultimate Ears headphones will be a must. Those things really are great. You can’t hear a baby screaming at full volume in the seat next to you.

All due to Bill Kinnon who said he thought that I already was the Dilbert blog. Ouch.

  • A little bit late but oh well. What I find funny is not the fact that cell phones are banned on planes, but those interfering CD players we all own. You know what I'm talking about. Those 40 dollar CD players we buy in Wal-Mart that could "jam" a space station if we got the angle just right. Every take off and landing I did on the way to Greece and Italy we were told our CD players had to be off. Hm, wouldn't want those pesky astronauts to lose communication because of me. :D
  • Mikolaj
    And doesn't a blackberry have a flight mode? Even my oldish P800 has it. Should the guy have waved the thing "fellow passengers, I am entering flight mode" lest they get upset?
  • Fred Beiderbecke
    $900 for a pair of earphones? I don't think so. I cringed when I bought the Etymotic ER-6 and the Shure E2Cs. Too many concerts in the 80s. I doubt I can hear the difference between the Ultimate Ears and the ones I have now (even though the SuperFi stuff is at a reasonable price point).

    Fred
  • J. Random Poster
    A cell phone won't take down an aircraft. The real reason for prohibiting the use of cell phones aloft is that you'll use a frequency slot in every cell you can see. When you're at 35,000 feet, that could be hundreds of cells.
  • /pd
    I dunna but I use a blackberry 7250 and I kinda feel guilty when its on during take off/landing.

    Have I used it during a flight ? never tried ! Don't want to end up behind bars !! But has it been on for the duration of the flight .yes !! And I get vib'ed during touch down. That's when I know I made onflight boo boo !!
  • I like how they said, ..."[cell phones] *most likely* can't take down a plane."

    I'm not really qualified to refute their claim, but I don't like the odds of "most likely" when I'm hurtling through the air thousands of feet above the earth.

    If they don't know for certain, is it necessary for someone to endanger the lives of everyone on board so that they can take a phone call?

    Just my two cents.
  • I'm reminded of a quote from the first episode of 'The West Wing':

    "TOBY: We're flying in a Lockheed Eagle Series L-1011. Came off the line twenty months ago. Carries a Sim-5 transponder tracking system, and you're telling me I can still flummox this thing with something I bought at Radio Shack?"
  • I rather like being able to sleep on flights. People gabbing on the phone would annoy the heck out of me in such an enclosed area.
  • There is also a concern that, we would not be able to listen clearly to signals from outerspace if there were thosands of users on their cell phones in the air. The group of scientists who do this line of work, were the number one lobbying group against the FCC's recent look into lifting the cell phone ban on planes.
  • Farooq
    sorry that's Reader's Digest...
  • Farooq
    I read thia article in Reaser's Digest...they said it's basically a myth...the actual reason is that they want people to pay full attention in the plane...i mean that if we're going through turbulence, it's much better that the person is aware of the air hostesses etc rather than watching an episode of friends...Also, if they do hit some problems they don't want laptops and handphones flying around the plane...
  • jamesl
    The prohibition against using cell phones in an airplane is not concern for the airplane's navigation or other systems. It is to prevent problems with the land based cellular system.

    Cell phones are low power devices and normally can communicate with only one or two cell sites. Your phone (and the site) have the necessary logic to select the best available (can you hear me now?) site and automatically switch sites as you move around. This way, your phone ties up only one communication channel on one or two sites.

    When you are sitting in an airplane, your phone can reach dozens of sites with almost equal power potentially tying up dozens of communications channels and confusing the switching logic.

    The FCC has always forbidden use of transmitters (except for airplane navigation/communication sytems) in aircraft.
  • A pilot I know said that when this rule was created it was on the short flights, and they wanted people to read shopping catalogs and buy stuff during flight, not use their cellphones to chat and talk.
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