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When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

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Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#221

Post by bipson »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #92
TallGuyShort wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah - you're in Europe. In the US that's a very common spam call to receive. It may come from a different number every time and the FCC and FTC (the relevant authorities) can't or won't stop it. I've had it in the middle of the night a couple of times, though I think that's not as common. It's the reason my phone is always on Do Not Disturb now.

Europe is not that serene as you may think. I get plenty of spam calls from entities I'm in a relationship with - like my mobile operator or my bank[0]. It's one of the reasons my phone is on silent during the day[1]. The problem with those is the usual fake "market choice": every mobile operator and bank is pulling this crap, so I don't abandon mine, because alternatives are no better. Then there are occasional rand…

Yes my phone was always on silent as well - until you have your kid in daycare and are supposed to really answer your calls as they arrive.

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#222

Post by bipson »

zaarn wrote: post #197
dheera wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because EM radiation follows the inverse square law Unfortunately sound follows the inverse square law as well, and alarms don't wake me up when they are 6 feet away.

There should be no concern with your phone being 1 meter or less away from you. Even at full wattage, a phone transceiver will give off around 100mW, in most realistic scenarios it will be less than a tenth of that. Even if you used the maximum band power of 1 watt, that isn't really enough to do anything. At rest your body will produce about 80 Watts of heat energy, which is a much higher frequency than what your ph…

That and does GP have a WiFi router a few meters from the bedroom, which they always unplug at night (disclaimer: I used to do that). And the clock next to the bed? Battery or socket?

You also cannot unplug all of your neighbours routers, TVs and other devices.

It is very easy to get paranoid about specific wireless technologies, it is almost impossible nowadays to avoid "electrosmog" or particularly wireless emitters entirely though.

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#223

Post by Kiro »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #92
TallGuyShort wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah - you're in Europe. In the US that's a very common spam call to receive. It may come from a different number every time and the FCC and FTC (the relevant authorities) can't or won't stop it. I've had it in the middle of the night a couple of times, though I think that's not as common. It's the reason my phone is always on Do Not Disturb now.

Europe is not that serene as you may think. I get plenty of spam calls from entities I'm in a relationship with - like my mobile operator or my bank[0]. It's one of the reasons my phone is on silent during the day[1]. The problem with those is the usual fake "market choice": every mobile operator and bank is pulling this crap, so I don't abandon mine, because alternatives are no better. Then there are occasional rand…

It is serene compared to the US where it's common to receive 30 robocalls a day.

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#224

Post by merijnv »

chrisseaton wrote: post #218
austhrow743 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since when do you need someones consent to say a thing about them?

You don’t need someone’s consent to say a thing about them. But they clearly want to tell them, so why are they trying to do it in the middle of the night in a hurry rather than doing it calmly? Why this self-imposed rush?

Nobel winners are all over the world, regardless of when you pick, there will always be a chance it's "the middle of the night" for someone. With the current time slot that happens to be for people in the US.

They could pick a slot that's during the day in the US, but then it'd be night for someone else. What justifies the US importance to make such a change? Using the timezone of the committee as they do now seems as reasonable a compromise as any...

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#225

Post by mFixman »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #37
dheera wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I put my phone in airplane mode at night. Don't a lot of people do that? What are they thinking?

I don't. I considered it, but I decided that the remote risk of there being a real emergency outweighs the even more remote risk that I'll get an unimportant call in the middle of the night. (If I ever did get an unimportant call in the middle of the night, the person on the other end would get an earful.)

I can think of 0 times in my 15 years of owning a cellphone when I received a call that was worth losing sleep to.

Aeroplane mode has two advantages for me: I don't receive calls or notifications for the night, and I aren't tempted to immediately go to my cellphone to check whether I got a notification when I wake up.

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#226

Post by lokedhs »

doikor wrote: post #204
lokedhs wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had my bank call me, wanting to talk about something important (I think it was loan payment that didn't go through or something of that sort) and the first thing they said was: "This is Bank XYZ and I'm calling to inform you of something. But before we do that you have to prove your identity. Can you tell me what your account number is?" I said: "I'd be happy to, but first can you prove your identity to me? Afte…

For my bank they just send a verification request to the app (or web page using your one time code book if you prefer that) to verify who you are. So basically the same process as logging into the bank and/or verifying payments.

Correct me if I misunderstood, but that sounds insecure.

I imagine an attack where someone attempts to log in to your Internet bank account, and at the same time calls you and tells you that they are the bank and that they have sent you a notification on the phone to confirm this.

You accept the notification on the phone and all of a sudden they're not just logged in to your Internet bank, but also on the phone with you, with you trusting that they are indeed the bank.

The only way I see that this could be avoided is if they provide you with a verification code that will appear on your phone.

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#227

Post by chrisseaton »

merijnv wrote: post #224
chrisseaton wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t need someone’s consent to say a thing about them. But they clearly want to tell them, so why are they trying to do it in the middle of the night in a hurry rather than doing it calmly? Why this self-imposed rush?

Nobel winners are all over the world, regardless of when you pick, there will always be a chance it's "the middle of the night" for someone. With the current time slot that happens to be for people in the US. They could pick a slot that's during the day in the US, but then it'd be night for someone else. What justifies the US importance to make such a change? Using the timezone of the committee as they do now seems a…

But why does it need to be done at a single moment? Why not take a day or week to make sure you’ve got in touch with people? There’s no rush except what they create for themselves.

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#228

Post by Metacelsus »

lopmotr wrote: post #201
serial_dev wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did Watson do?

Blasphemed against contemporary morality by taking the "wrong" side in the nature-vs-nurture debate. See his Wikipedia page for details.

Also he's just generally a jerk.

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#229

Post by hanche »

waspentalive wrote: post #217

Does one know one is a runner up for this prize? If you knew you might win wouldn't you stay up and stay near your phone and just take the next day off?

A Nobel prize is often rewarded for work that was done a decade or more ago. That alone makes it difficult to anticipate winning it. Also, there will usually be many worthy candidates. On top of that, the list of nominees is kept secret. So no, I guess that most Nobel laureates did not expect the prize when they got it.

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#230

Post by jiuahweruihawi »

michaelt wrote: post #212
dahfizz wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever been called in the middle of the night that prompted this behavior? I have only been woken by my phone twice and both times I'm glad I was.

Just join a WhatsApp group with some friends in a different timezone. Or have e-mail on your phone, making a sound whenever you receive an e-mail. Or get an SMS from your cell provider when you run out of data, even if you somehow run out of data at 4am. (Of course, I know I wouldn't be anyone's first phone call in an emergency)

> Or have e-mail on your phone, making a sound whenever you receive an e-mail.

Why on Earth would any sane person set their phone up to do this?

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