Let Facebook know, not the authorities!

[pwnst*r]

Moron alert?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/07/2678945.htm

[scragar]

Yeah. live journel is so much better than facebook. They must be morons not to realise that.
</humour>

[KiwiNZ]

They are 10 and 12 lets not get into name calling those so young.

[LowSky]

might sound odd but SMS messages can work when cell phone service does not.
And facebook does accept SMS if you link your phone to your account
http://mashable.com/2009/04/24/facebook-pages-sms-updates/
I dont know why they didn't directly text a friend or authorities but people are idiots in crisises. Maybe they had a "deer in headlights" moment and forgot to use the emergency number...

[pwnst*r]

They are 10 and 12 lets not get into name calling those so young.

true, i should've called their parents morons instead.

[pwnst*r]

might sound odd but SMS messages can work when cell phone service does not.
And facebook does accept SMS if you link your phone to your account
http://mashable.com/2009/04/24/facebook-pages-sms-updates/
I dont know why they didn't directly text a friend or authorities but people are idiots in crisises. Maybe they had a "deer in headlights" moment and forgot to use the emergency number...

explain to me how SMS works with out cellular service.

[JillSwift]

Fear overrides "common sense".

Children tend to uncritically go for what's familiar, especially when afraid.

Give them some friggin slack, you vultures. Kids screw up. Get over it.

[Chronon]

explain to me how SMS works with out cellular service.

I could see how sending a burst of data could be a lot more reliable than trying to maintain a sustained connection with enough fidelity to communicate recognizable voice (in an environment with poor SNR). I'm not sure if SMS invokes error correction or not, but even without this it would seem to have slightly better range than voice.

[LowSky]

explain to me how SMS works with out cellular service.

SMS needs much less bandwidth than a phone call. So instead of trying to repeatedly make a call, a SMS will go out on the smallest amount of signal. Its also great in disaster where phone lines get overused.
http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/emergency-sms.html

dont believe me then try an experiment.. go somewhere were service is poor, and try to make a call, then try to send a text. if the call doesn't go through the text surely will.

[cmay]

When i had a fire I called the nurses who comes here every once and a while. It was somehow quicker to have them call the fire department while I was trying to put the fire out my self. maybe same kind of rationale in this case :)

[pwnst*r]

SMS needs much less bandwidth than a phone call. So instead of trying to repeatedly make a call, a SMS will go out on the smallest amount of signal. Its also great in disaster where phone lines get overused.
http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/emergency-sms.html

dont believe me then try an experiment.. go somewhere were service is poor, and try to make a call, then try to send a text. if the call doesn't go through the text surely will.

no, you said NO cellular service, which was my point. not limited service.

[pwnst*r]

Fear overrides "common sense".

Children tend to uncritically go for what's familiar, especially when afraid.

Give them some friggin slack, you vultures. Kids screw up. Get over it.

i still blame their parents. you can get over this thread now.

[magmon]

Phale...

I really can't blame them though, common sense seems to be anything but common.

[pwnst*r]

my point is, if you give your child a cell phone or even access to a phone of any sort, the first thing you teach them is to use 911 or whatever your country's emergency # is. if you don't know your country's code, you shouldn't be on the phone, period.

you can say "give them some slack" all you want, but they could have died because they didn't know it. that's not lesson learned for the next kid that gets a phone unless the parents hammer that in their cranial turrets.

[magmon]

my point is, if you give your child a cell phone or even access to a phone of any sort, the first thing you teach them is to use 911 or whatever your country's emergency # is. if you don't know your country's code, you shouldn't be on the phone, period.

you can say "give them some slack" all you want, but they could have died because they didn't know it. that's not lesson learned for the next kid that gets a phone unless the parents hammer that in their cranial turrets.

You argue they need to know how to use the phone. I argue they need to know to stay out of the sewer system.

[Tristam Green]

Well, this would have been a viable option here in the States at least, because unless something drastic has changed, I don't think that 911 calls are accepted from cell phones - something with the routing?

I do think that emergency calls are allowed from the phones, but those might be a bit different.

Also, they may very well have attempted to call their parents or even their friends, and not been able to reach anyone?

[KiwiNZ]

@pwnst*r please keep the personal stuff out of this.

[pwnst*r]

You argue they need to know how to use the phone. I argue they need to know to stay out of the sewer system.

damn you got me there.

[NCLI]

They are 10 and 12 lets not get into name calling those so young.
I'd read Hawkins' A Brief History of Time 2 times & LOTR once, installed Windows XP to replace 98 SE on my fathers PC, and replaced an HDD by the time I turned 12. No excuse.

[pwnst*r]

Well, this would have been a viable option here in the States at least, because unless something drastic has changed, I don't think that 911 calls are accepted from cell phones - something with the routing?

I do think that emergency calls are allowed from the phones, but those might be a bit different.

Also, they may very well have attempted to call their parents or even their friends, and not been able to reach anyone?

US cell providers are REQUIRED to accept 911 calls. the difference between a call from a landline and a cell is that the dispatcher can only get a estimate of your location via cell towers.

[KiwiNZ]

I'd read Hawkins' A Brief History of Time 2 times & LOTR once, installed Windows XP to replace 98 SE on my fathers PC, and replaced an HDD by the time I turned 12. No excuse.

Oh I forgot , we are all the same :rolleyes:

[MaxIBoy]

Well, this would have been a viable option here in the States at least, because unless something drastic has changed, I don't think that 911 calls are accepted from cell phones - something with the routing?

I do think that emergency calls are allowed from the phones, but those might be a bit different.

Also, they may very well have attempted to call their parents or even their friends, and not been able to reach anyone?
They are not rejected. However, you get routed to a call center for a very large region, and you need to tell the answerer where you are. For example, if I were to dial 911 on my cellphone while I was in Los Angeles, the person on the other end would be in Vallejo (I think.)

If you think of 911 as a symlink to whatever the local emergency number is, it will make sense. This is why it's always good to keep the local emergency numbers to your area and the surrounding areas in your cell phone contents.

[Chronon]

US cell providers are REQUIRED to accept 911 calls. the difference between a call from a landline and a cell is that the dispatcher can only get a estimate of your location via cell towers.

That's right. They must accept them, even from a phone with no service contract. I gave my daughter an old phone without a SIM card. It can't be used to make regular calls, but can be used to call 911 in case of emergency.

[PurposeOfReason]

Darwins rules.

EDIT - Not saying they deserve it or anything, but honestly panicked or not you should not go so low as to forget 911 (or 000 I guess).

[Tristam Green]

US cell providers are REQUIRED to accept 911 calls.

See, I was under the distinct impression that this wasn't the case. Things must have changed.

[Chronon]

See, I was under the distinct impression that this wasn't the case. Things must have changed.

Here's info relevant for the US. http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/wireless911srvc.html


Basic 911 rules require wireless service providers to:

* transmit all 911 calls to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), regardless of whether the caller subscribes to the provider’s service or not.

[Namtabmai]

There's only one good reason why someone wouldn't know their countries emergency telephone number.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWc3WY3fuZU