Jeff, >>>> The place where mobile phones have the most value is the so-called Third World. In countries where towns and villages could never be wired because of the cost, people who were completely out of touch with relatives, with emergency services, with job hunting, with friends - mobile phone technology ended that. I've seen it in the mountains in North Africa and in remote farming villages in Mexico.<<<< I wasn't trying to suggest there wasn't a need, just suggesting there isn't a need for excess. >>>> The cameras in the phones will do the same things. Try getting film processing in the Middle Atlas mountains. Then think about how people can send images of a new baby over the phone to relatives in another country.<<<< "I can't imaging how they go along without those cameras" he says with a sly grin. That sounds like marketing. >>>> I'm sure the quiet space in Virginia is wonderful, but that comes from a perspective of having lots of communications capability and a lot of mobility. Most of the world doesn't have that, which is why cell phones have caught on in some of the poorest places - it's the only way they will get some of the things people in the more developed countries have had for decades<<<< The Western mind hard at work. We have come to assume these things and these ideas have a newly found importance. Greenbank, Va. is not about mobility. It's science now being threatened by the consumer who needs to send a picture of their newborn to some distant relative, as the regular postal service just isn't fast enough for their tastes, in too much of a hurry to be patient. If on the other hand, that were the only users, we would be in great shape, but too many of the users mentioned in the original post were just having fun using a new toy. Show me that your fair in your opposing arguments by keeping that aspect in mind as well. What is the Hummer? It's a military vehicle, needed on the battlefield to increase mobility of the troops. Marketing took it to the consumer and for no other reason it sells because people want it. It's cool, it's different. You can argue, "but it allows ambulances to get into those very remote areas." You would be right, that application carries a real need, but to pick the kids up at school? To own one because you can is to turn your back on limited resources. Take care, Gregory david Stempel FIREFRAMEi m a g i n g www.americanphotojournalist.com "The brave ones were shooting the enemy, the crazy ones were shooting film"
