Geeked.Info - Latest Comments in Cell Phones at Burning Man

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

Vive La Communicacion — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:43:39 -0000

Me and my boyfriend are experienced burners, but since I haven't been able to afford even the low income ticket he had to go alone. We've always spent every second of our lives together and not knowing if he's safe is excruciating. It is hard not to cry knowing I have to go to sleep alone every night. Not only that, but he doesn't know if I'm safe. I don't live in the best neighborhood and we've recently had a lot of scary stuff happen, so this week is really painful. He called me right before he lost his signal (we don't even own cellphones, he borrowed it) and it really hurt to have to hang up. Maybe some people just don't have the same connection to that one person we have and I almost wish he hadn't gone without me, but I didn't want to keep him from it. I will definitely support having a method of communication over there. It is fine to be disconnected from those who don't matter, but to want to disconnect from the one person that makes you whole is pretty sad. If I could speak to him with my mind I would, but since I don't have psychic powers I will keep hoping that they will eventually come up with a reasonable method to communicate with that person. We should trust our fellow burners to be responsible with the use of cellphones just like we trust them to be responsible with giant flamethrowers. I have no trouble putting together a task force that will 'artistically interpret' someones attempt to either destroy or block someone's cellphone by reading them vogon poetry incessantly. But really, stop hating because some people actually have people they love outside the playa. If someone makes a call in the privacy of their own tent, they have the right to do that, just as much as you have the right to display your pierced wrinkly junk. And what if the theme is 'the future' or 'technology' or even 'communication'? Burning man is not about becoming an isolated country of naked cavemen. Considering everyone that lives around that area can hear explosions and smell the smoke a mile away, we definitely aren't isolated anyway. Everyone goes to the playa to have their own unique experience, and if that means they need to know that they won't be coming home to a dead wife, or their apartment burned down, then that's their right. We're still in America and if we can freely run naked, take drugs, get drunk, and burn so much material that we create our own localized global warming, then we definitely have the right to keep in touch with those we love.
This is where the true movement begins.

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

Stephen Kosciesza — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:24:45 -0000

I've got it!

Sure! Cell phone coverage on the Playa. Erect an 8 foot tower, and have coverage in a 10 foot diameter circle.

Then, put it outside the front gate. And collect all those fees for reentering.

Alternatively, put that 10 foot circle somewhere on the open playa within the BRC limits. Then it can be an art installation. We can all stand around and watch a few hundred people crowded in there, jockeying for space and signal and yelling at the others to hold it down so they can talk.

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

Stephen Kosciesza — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:15:44 -0000

Probably, when that pompous buffoon Al Sharpton got a lot of racists and a few thousand fools to descend on a small town, to have a violent racist hate crime declared a civil right--PROVIDED it's perpetrated by blacks on whites.

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

Stephen Kosciesza — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:33:10 -0000

Good point about the old days. The main pressure I've had to break down and get a cell phone has been from people who can never be bothered to be on time or keep their commitments; they've actually told me I should get one so they can get in touch when they don't show up.
I might get a cell phone some day, for some reason. That won't be the reason. Those people (who always know what everyone else should be doing) should try some other old-fashioned notions--following through on commitments, and just plain old good manners. That's good on the Play or off it.

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

Stephen Kosciesza — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:28:00 -0000

There's also a watch. That's an easily-carried "time peace" (or, as I think I've seen it somewhere, "time piece").
It works on the Playa. I wore mine, even when I wore nothing else. (Well, until it broke.)

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

Stephen Kosciesza — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:21:13 -0000

Times have changed since we were young. A lot of parents nowadays wouldn't dream of letting their kids get on the school bus and go to school without their cell phones. Now, this thing that didn't even exist when we were in school is seen as indispensable.

When we would go to camp, we'd live in tents (or MAYBE cabins), and sometimes cook over a fire. Probably at some, they'd set aside a time when kids were supposed to WRITE LETTERS home. In case of emergency there would be a camp headquarters where contact could be made if necessary.

Now, they apparently all have themes: computer camp, camps to learn how to invest and get rich! And of course, they're all in instant communication. It wouldn't surprise me if they wouldn't allow a kid to show up without a cell phone.

Personally, I think it's pathetic.

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

Stephen Kosciesza — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:09:44 -0000

Again, for the record, there has never been a restraining order against me.

And once again you've shown--even more blatantly than usual--that you don't bother to read what you're arguing against. I've heard about your vaunted communication skills from others.

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

burninggirl — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:10:00 -0000

Hmmm. Once again, you choose to spread falsities about me. I'm not the one with multiple restraining orders against me, kettle. If you bothered to read anything from the website, you would know that the phones hadn't worked in the past. No one needs people like you at Burning Man. Cry for yourself. You walk like a penguin. You waddle to your own drumbeat...and no one cares....

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

majoro4 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:48:56 -0000

Wow! How many children does she have? When did being a black woman actually become a good thing, instead of belonging to a class of people who suck up unemployment while having illegitimate children in excess that they never intend to provide for.
Also, when did "street fighting" become something other than moral decay and criminal behavior?

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

Stephen Kosciesza — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:02:10 -0000

I heard about those public sex acts, from one who allegedly did it. That would have been interesting. I really wish I could have gone sooner.

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

Stephen Kosciesza — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:53:21 -0000

I've never known whether to laugh or cry over those people who claim (wrongly, but they'll never know it) to march to their own drumbeat--and then berate me for not doing things "like everyone else" in the world. Also, this last comment just shows that as usual, you can't be bothered to 1) read or listen properly before answering, 2) relate your arguments to the question, or even 3) make sense. So let me try to make it simple:
1) I ordered the satellite phone before there was any suggestion that there MIGHT be cell phone coverage at Burning Man.
2) I went to Burning Man with someone who had a cell phone. Once we got away from Gerlach, there was no signal. So it was useless.
So my choosing not to own a cell phone is completely irrelevant.

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

Stephen Kosciesza — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:49:11 -0000

Not sure what half of this has to do with anything that was said here.

But again, I have to wonder if someone who judges a person by how they'd do in a street fight, someone who "argues" with threats, really belongs at Burning Man. Burning Man is a lot about getting along, about live and let live. I've been told that Burning Man is for the open minded, and now that I've been, I know it's truel The closed minded really don't belong there.

BTW, for the record, and since it was brought up: I don't believe there are, or ever have been, any restraining orders against me. I'm fairly sure that if a competent authority ever issues one, they'd make it part of the process to inform me of the fact. And none ever has. So I conclude there are no such orders.

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

burninggirl — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 04:48:07 -0000

You're a complete dork. If you can't be away from your father, why did you go? Why don't you get a cell phone like everyone else in the modern world?

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

burninggirl — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 04:44:21 -0000

And you killed Stephanie, and you know it.

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

burninggirl — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 04:44:00 -0000

Okay, Kettle. You know nothing about community, because I know who you are. All you do is make people uncomfortable by stalking them. And you will never know what it is like to be a woman--even though you act like one (this is meant as an insult, because you are a pansy), and you will most certainly never know what it is like to be black--er, African-American. You would get your ass kicked in a street fight...period. And you still may not contact me. That restraining order is still valid. So get off your high horse and stop trying to tell women what they can and can't do with their bodies, esp. because you will never be a father.

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

burninggirl — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 04:35:30 -0000

Did you never send your kid to camp?

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

sarastanford — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:31:59 -0000

I went to Burning Man for the first time, and have to say I liked having cell service. We got to call a friend who we had to drop off in Reno with a broken foot and check on him and say we missed him. I got to send a few text messages to our blog for the unfortunate people who could not attend. Other than that I left the phone in the rv, and I didnt' see anyone walking around the Playa talking on their phone.

To be honest we left the 'default world' at the greeters station, we found Burning Man does that to you. Face it we are a connected world now, (note we are all posting on a blog right now), you could say it is Evolution!

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

Stephen Kosciesza — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:01:46 -0000

Well, as I said above, I needed to be reachable by my family because of an elderly relative. So before this news came out (I don't own a cell phone, anyway), I rented a satellite phone.

The "discipline" came, first, from the price of using the telephone: second, the awkwardness of using it. Finally, there was the inconvenience of lugging around a rather heavy, clunky gadget--trying to keep the antenna pointing up--while I was spending virtually the entire week completely naked.

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

Stephen Kosciesza — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:47:47 -0000

Whoa, whoa, whoa! It seems to me that most of the threatening is coming from you! Not to mention some border-line racism! What's the fact that you're an African-American woman got to do with anything? Because an African-American woman Has Spoken, everyone with a different opinion should just shut up?

You remind me of those women in the Senate a few years ago (I hate to dignify them with the term "senators") who surrounded the desk of a long-time senator who said something they disagreed with--getting all up in his face. Later, one of them proudly said, "I know how to street fight!"

She didn't belong in the Senate; she belonged in jail. And perhaps you don't belong at Burning Man; nothing to do with cell phones, but you just don't understand community.

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

thinkaboutitlill — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 07:47:37 -0000

I think its completely stupid.
the main reason of burning man [in my opinion] is that
you communicate with people who are around.

WHY IN THE HELL would you want to call your friend sitting around doing nothing when all this excitment is happening right in front of you.
I, for one, will not use my iphone to call random people. i will use it to take pictures and call someone in case of an emergency.

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

erinwilcoxxxx — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:43:34 -0000

please call me 509 995 5218 my bf is out here and im despreetly trying to reach him please help me

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

jzimmyzz — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:08:36 -0000

Ed is Cute!

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

maureen_m — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 04:05:48 -0000

Two comments:
One- I hope someone has planned some phone booths for those cell-phone users to slip into (if they feel the need) when they use their cell phones so as not to disturb the techno-phobes.
Two- How are people going to practice using their intuition and telepathy if they keep depending on cell-phones?!

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

missfirestarter — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 01:46:41 -0000

Let's not alter "the call of the playa" to "the cell phone call from the playa".
I was surprised to hear this news. I had not the means to make it out this year after four years of going and I had basically accepted that fact. However today - a fresh fall-ish day in New York - a feeling swept over me and I could sense the playa very strongly. I am now seriously forlorn about not being there. One of the best things about the burn is that you make plans to meet under the big flower at dusk, not by calling someone, and if you or the other person(s) doesn't make it, it's all cool. No one will be texting "Where r u??!!"

Re: Cell Phones at Burning Man

Guest — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 22:54:07 -0000

As a Burner who has terrible panic attacks, especially if I'm feeling isolated (i.e., airplanes, hiking, out of cell range) I am so happy there might be some cell coverage. The occasional SMS from a loved one on the outside can be all I need to be soothed out of the beginning of an attack, reminded of my enthusiastic support system, and to get out of my tent to boogie down in the dust :)