[bookport] Re: The Melissa Effect

  • From: "Barbara Lombardi" <k1eir@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 20:38:56 -0400

Nolan, that is a wild story indeed. That is truly amazing. 73, Barb
----- Original Message ----- From: "Nolan Crabb" <ncrabb@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2006 3:09 PM
Subject: [bookport] The Melissa Effect



Several days ago, Melissa wrote to report that her Book Port and wireless
phone had engaged in some kind of nasty dialogue that resulted in her Book
Port being reset.  (my paraphrase, not her exact words).

I have replicated this situation, quite by accident, and it was mildly
entertaining.

I have truly horrific wireless phone reception inside my house. Lots of
reasons for that, most of them unimportant and inappropriate for the list.
Yesterday, in frustration, I placed my wireless phone, a Motorola Razr V3,
next to my Book Port and thought, "if that stupid phone can't talk to the
world in general, it can perhaps cozy up to this other miniature appliance."


Probably five minutes later, I overheard the Book Port say "defaults
restored." Sure enough, my wireless phone, in its attempt to talk to the
Cingular mother ship, apparently swept the poor Book Port off its feet, so
to speak. None of my data was damaged in any way, but everything was reset
just as it is when you download new firmware and such. If I remember
correctly, even the date and time were gone.


So, for what it's worth, Melissa's experience isn't quite the fluke we might
have thought. I didn't allow the two devices to remain quite that cozy with
one another again for the remainder of the day, so I don't know whether the
reset would have been a once-only experience or would have happened every
time my struggling little phone tried to call it's big, bad, no-nonsense
corporate mama. But for what it's worth, it's not just Melissa's wireless
and her Book Port.


Now here's the absolutely strangest part of the entire experience. As long
as the Book Port and the Razr were all cuddled up to one another, I had just
incredible reception! So, APH marketing people, take careful note: Any
time you want to see your revenues for Book Port sales go through the roof,
market the thing to sighted users as a wireless phone signal amplifier that
happens to be a reading machine, and to blind/low-vision users as a reading
machine that inexplicably boosts the reception of at least one make and
model of wireless phone in at least one location in the country.


Folks, I know just enough about radio wave propagation for the subject to
fascinate me to no end. But I don't know enough to explain why the Book
Port appears to be some kind of antenna. My sighted daughter assured me
that when the two devices touched one another, the reception bars in my
phone increased by at least one bar--from one to two. Now that part's
probably a fluke or something. But I've seen stranger things happen with
appliances. Just wrap a conventional telephone cord around some makes and
models of Kenwood handheld amateur radio units, and you'll be amazed at what
can happen. But the Book Port and a Razr? Ah, just another of life's
mysteries to keep us thinking deeply all weekend...uh...yeah, not so much, I
guess.


Nolan






Other related posts: