Scratch

Here you will find older scratches, musings and other detritus that once were located on the front pages, but have now faded.

Filed away here to collect dust and cobwwwebs in perpetuity, links may break, facts may change and data may corrupt.

On occasion I may come down here to tidy, but for the most, I prefer to leave the past where it lies.

A Mobile Life

I remember when I got my first mobile, not necessarily the exact details (me being at the end of my second year of University) but most of the facts. The where was Chatterbox Telecom - 184a Cowley Rd, Oxford. The who was John. The what was an Orange badged Motorola StarTAC. The when was 15 May 1998 (10 years ago today) and the why... well thats one of the facts I can't quite remember.

They were heady days. Texting the three or so other people we knew with phones to see if they had escaped from their 10am lecture in sufficient time to be in a position to stand at the bar and order at 11am*.

Time passed, and the numbers with phones that we knew rose into double figures. I remember the conversations when 'The Matrix' came out, and everyone marveled at the bananaphone which was quickly redesigned into the Nokia 7110 which if memory serves**, I think Stu was the first to get. He was also I believe the first to break it. On a reassuring note, even with the Navi wheel as it was then, he has never escalated into a crackberry, though he now has an iPhone...

Over the decade that would follow I have been through, by my counting 2 free replacements, 5 upgrades and 2 freebies. There would be shares of ups and downs. Happiness and sadness can be transmitted from or to wherever you were. The flaw in the plan is the word 'mobile' always there, ready to bleep when you least want it to to make or break your day... I would say when you least expect it, but I guess by definition it will only beep when you are staring at it really not wanting it to and so that means you are expecting it, or perhaps in some sixth sense-esque way making it ring.***

Ignoring the cost to ones sanity, relationships and general well being, one key element however can be quantified.. the cost to the pocket. Before I divulge this cost lets see what milestones I have 'achieved'.

Over the last ten years, I have:

Talked for a total of 26 Days, 13 hours and 50 minutes

June 2001 was the highest with 20h, 53m & 30s;
Febuary 2006 was the lowest with 29m & 44s;
the average being 5h, 19m & 07s

Texted a total of 30,028 message

November 1999 was the highest with a staggering 1032 texts (which also accounted for the longest bill of 29 pages, compared to the average 9 and lowest being 2);
March 2006 was the lowest with 14 texts;
the average is an unhealthy 250 texts a month (although if you only go back 5 years the average is a marginally better 77 texts a month)

These are just differing scales of markers on the road that is my mobile life. They are more easily resolved against other peoples mobile lives as they do not change with time - a minute or a text are exactly that whatever phone you have or whatever plan/network you are on. There is another set of markers however that we traditionally put more weight and relevance on:

July 2007 was the cheapest bill at £22.20;
October 1999 was the most expensive bill at £207.46;
the average is £63.62 (although for the past 5 years this drops to £40.36)

The cost though, the bottom line cost, for the long calls to friends, the arrangements to meet down the pub, the moral support, the wrong numbers, the condolences and the celebrations, the memories - both good and bad, the accidentally leaning on the phone and calling the police, the replacement handsets... the sum total of my mobile life to date is £7884.70.

Not a small amount by any means. Whilst not wishing to change the past, I shall however be bearing this in mind for the future as I watch to see what other devices (crumpet toaster anyone?) can be added to phones... When I first got a phone you could (just about) make calls and send texts, now, you can do a hell of a lot more, take photos, watch tv, replicate PC functions... ...If only I could get a signal at work.

As a closing note, if you are interested, you can click here and see a graph of my minutes, texts and bill totals...

Remember kids, practice safe text.

* This was quite a chore for me since unlike the Nokia 5.1s I seem to remember John and most others having, I couldn't access the phone book from the StarTAC's SMS menu.. a flaw I persevered with for at least 2 replacements as I stuck dogmatically to what even now would be a small phone. I put my ability to remember stupidly long numbers down to the skills I developed in this period in my life. That and ordering large rounds at the bar.

** Though it often is found wanting

*** Perhaps this is a thesis topic in the making. John and I were only recently talking about going back to uni... perhaps we could obtain funding to sit in bars, waiting to be told off for being late/drunk/etc.. all in the name of science of course.

15 May 2008 0:24 | (2) comments | Technology | Things | Thoughts

Comments

The why was because we were drunk and you had just won 60 quid on the fruit machine at the S.U. I remember clearly. You must have been more drunk.

Posted by: The Who | May 15, 2008 4:19 AM

Hmmmm. the fog clouding my memory doth lift somewhat... damn fruit machines. If only it had a slightly higher jackpot... I appear to have been some £7824.00 short in my original budgeting. Possibly less if I was buying the beers...

Posted by: skitz | May 15, 2008 12:39 PM

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