Unsuspecting cellphone users may find themselves saying that more often now that cellphone jammers — illegal gizmos that interfere with signals and cut off reception — are selling like hotcakes on the streets of New York.
"I bought one online, and I love it," said one jammer owner fed up with the din of dumb conversations and rock-and-roll ringtones.
"I use it on the bus all the time. I always zap the idiots who discuss what they want from the Chinese restaurant so that everyone can hear them. Why is that necessary?"
He added, "I can't throw the phones out the window, so this is the next best thing."
Online jammer seller Victor McCormack said he's made "hundreds of sales" to New Yorkers. "The interest has gone insane in the last few years. I get all sorts of people buying them, from priests to police officers."
Police officers? Priests? Law abiding citizens of NYC to violate other people's properties by jamming their cell phones? That'll be news one of these days.
Jammers come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from portable handhelds that look like cellphones to larger, fixed models as big as suitcases.
Their sole goal is to zip inconsiderate lips. The smaller gadgets emit radio frequencies that block signals anywhere from a 50- to 200-foot radius. They range in price from $250 to $2,000.
At least I'll be wise when my phone suddenly stops working. I'm sure some enterprising individual will find a way to track where the jamming signal is coming from. But, if it does jam, just go on talking as if nothing happened and maybe you'll find the perpetrator with a perplexed look on his face on why his jammer is not working. Or just walk 200 feet away from where your cell phone stopped working and see if anybody is following you but continue talking.
Now, with the proliferation of camera phones, it wouldn't be a surprise to see somebody's face on the internet as a "Jammer Joe" under a vigilante version of a "Public Blogsheet" reporting offenders (e.g. Mugshots of those you see at the Post Office) someday.
Just be careful on how you interfere with other people's cell phone activities. It could cost you $11,000, jail time, and maybe a fist to the face. And certainly this GOP idiot had to go to jail for his (different method) attempt at phone jamming the Democratic telephone lines in several New Hampshire cities during the 2002 election. I don't condone phone jamming (I'll let that one up to the CIA/FBI) or defacing a website via hacking, even if it's just meant to be a joke.
No comments:
Post a Comment