Kindle or Smartphone

[patrickt]

As my mind was wandering this morning, which is often does, I wondered, what if the government said you could own a Kindle or a Smartphone but not both. Having both would be a felony. Hey, if you keep track of the laws in the U.S. nothing is too ridiculous to be true. In the city where I lived it was illegal to carry and lunchpail in public and in the state eavesdropping was a felony.

Anyway, I'm deaf and don't take phone calls but I love my calendar on my phone, and messaging, and having access to the internet to find answers to questions.

But, given the choice, I'd keep my Kindle. I've been a compulsive reader for 70 years and don't want to change now. I live in southern Mexico and read in English so my Kindle is my lifeline.

What about you? Kindle or Smartphone. I have to admit I've never seen anyone walking into on-coming traffic reading a Kindle.

[jhowell]

For me it would be a large screen smartphone...with the kindle app installed on it.

[Cinisajoy]

Why not a Kobo or a tablet?
Now I want to know what city it was illegal to carry a lunch pail.
That sounds like you lived in a company town. *
Eavesdropping is not a state crime. It is a federal crime. Hence the felony. If I remember correctly, all federal crimes are felonies.

*For those not familiar with a company town, it is where a town is set up for the workers. Everything is sort of provided. You get a house (rent comes out of your paycheck), they have entertainment venues like a movie theater, the company hosts events, they even have shopping (more expensive than the surrounding area), The catch was the company typically paid in script not real money that could only be used at their places of business. Google Thurber Texas for an example.

[Deskisamess]

In Las Cruces New Mexico you may not carry a lunchbox down Main Street.

I would love to know the reason behind this law.

My answer to this silly question would be my smart phone.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Why not a Kobo or a tablet?
Now I want to know what city it was illegal to carry a lunch pail.
That sounds like you lived in a company town. *
Eavesdropping is not a state crime. It is a federal crime. Hence the felony. If I remember correctly, all federal crimes are felonies.

*For those not familiar with a company town, it is where a town is set up for the workers. Everything is sort of provided. You get a house (rent comes out of your paycheck), they have entertainment venues like a movie theater, the company hosts events, they even have shopping (more expensive than the surrounding area), The catch was the company typically paid in script not real money that could only be used at their places of business. Google Thurber Texas for an example.

No, you don't remember correctly. Eavesdropping is not a federal offence. Electronic eavesdropping is but not real-life person-to-person eavesdropping. It was in Colorado for two years. It was one of the few laws repealed quickly when everyone was guilty of eavesdropping. It was simply defined as listening to a conversation to which you were not a party and were visible to the participants. A high booth in a fancy restaurant, people in the hallway outside your office, or the two guys in the toilet stall next to yours. Eavesdropping. Felony.

The lunch pail was also in Colorado. I was the one who got that city ordinance, and many others, revoked. The reason it was passed was that many years before a new courthouse was being built and the mayor owned a cafe across the street. He envisioned all the workmen eating in his cafe. Instead, they brought their lunch or, more often, their wife brought them a hot lunch shortly before their lunch break. So, he made it illegal to carry a lunch pail.

My efforts were pointless, though. With it just me facing hundreds writing new laws I was bound to lose. I got rid of needing to have a pigeon trapping permit and a tent pitching permit along with the ordinance preventing single women from loitering near a tavern. You can carry a lunch pail through town now but you can't own a chicken. You can smoke marijuana but you cannot smoke a tobacco cigarette within 25 feet of a window...that doesn't open. When I left they were fighting over outlawing birdfeeders. I don't know how that turned out.

And your company town sounds a lot like neighborhoods in large cities where people are paid with EBT cards, live in government house, eat government food, and get government healthcare.

Now, back to Kindle or Smartphone. We've had some creative suggestions to avoid the law but I'm sure those loopholes will be closed in the next session of the legislature.

So, if the Kindle app were also made illegal which would go...Kindle or Smartphone?

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Why not a Kobo or a tablet?
Now I want to know what city it was illegal to carry a lunch pail.
That sounds like you lived in a company town. *
Eavesdropping is not a state crime. It is a federal crime. Hence the felony. If I remember correctly, all federal crimes are felonies.

*For those not familiar with a company town, it is where a town is set up for the workers. Everything is sort of provided. You get a house (rent comes out of your paycheck), they have entertainment venues like a movie theater, the company hosts events, they even have shopping (more expensive than the surrounding area), The catch was the company typically paid in script not real money that could only be used at their places of business. Google Thurber Texas for an example.

No, you don't remember correctly. Eavesdropping is not a federal offence. Electronic eavesdropping is but not real-life person-to-person eavesdropping. It was in Colorado for two years. It was one of the few laws repealed quickly when everyone was guilty of eavesdropping. It was simply defined as listening to a conversation to which you were not a party and were visible to the participants. A high booth in a fancy restaurant, people in the hallway outside your office, or the two guys in the toilet stall next to yours. Eavesdropping. Felony.

The lunch pail was also in Colorado. I was the one who got that city ordinance, and many others, revoked. The reason it was passed was that many years before a new courthouse was being built and the mayor owned a cafe across the street. He envisioned all the workmen eating in his cafe. Instead, they brought their lunch or, more often, their wife brought them a hot lunch shortly before their lunch break. So, he made it illegal to carry a lunch pail.

My efforts were pointless, though. With it just me facing hundreds writing new laws I was bound to lose. I got rid of needing to have a pigeon trapping permit and a tent pitching permit along with the ordinance preventing single women from loitering near a tavern. You can carry a lunch pail through town now but you can't own a chicken. You can smoke marijuana but you cannot smoke a tobacco cigarette within 25 feet of a window...that doesn't open. When I left they were fighting over outlawing birdfeeders. I don't know how that turned out.

And your company town sounds a lot like neighborhoods in large cities where people are paid with EBT cards, live in government house, eat government food, and get government healthcare.

Now, back to Kindle or Smartphone. We've had some creative suggestions to avoid the law but I'm sure those loopholes will be closed in the next session of the legislature.

And for those who can't tell, the thread was intended to bring a smile to a subject that isn't totally serious...yet.

So, if the Kindle app were also made illegal which would go...Kindle or Smartphone?

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by patrickt

No, you don't remember correctly. Eavesdropping is not a federal offence. Electronic eavesdropping is but not real-life person-to-person eavesdropping. It was in Colorado for two years. It was one of the few laws repealed quickly when everyone was guilty of eavesdropping. It was simply defined as listening to a conversation to which you were not a party and were visible to the participants. A high booth in a fancy restaurant, people in the hallway outside your office, or the two guys in the toilet stall next to yours. Eavesdropping. Felony.

The lunch pail was also in Colorado. I was the one who got that city ordinance, and many others, revoked. The reason it was passed was that many years before a new courthouse was being built and the mayor owned a cafe across the street. He envisioned all the workmen eating in his cafe. Instead, they brought their lunch or, more often, their wife brought them a hot lunch shortly before their lunch break. So, he made it illegal to carry a lunch pail.

My efforts were pointless, though. With it just me facing hundreds writing new laws I was bound to lose. I got rid of needing to have a pigeon trapping permit and a tent pitching permit along with the ordinance preventing single women from loitering near a tavern. You can carry a lunch pail through town now but you can't own a chicken. You can smoke marijuana but you cannot smoke a tobacco cigarette within 25 feet of a window...that doesn't open. When I left they were fighting over outlawing birdfeeders. I don't know how that turned out.

And your company town sounds a lot like neighborhoods in large cities where people are paid with EBT cards, live in government house, eat government food, and get government healthcare.

Now, back to Kindle or Smartphone. We've had some creative suggestions to avoid the law but I'm sure those loopholes will be closed in the next session of the legislature.

So, if the Kindle app were also made illegal which would go...Kindle or Smartphone?

I think we lived in the same county in Colorado. I don't think my town had a courthouse. I know it didn't have the county courthouse.
Thanks for the correction, as I was thinking wiretapping not just overhearing.
We were talking about different definitions of eavesdropping. Overhearing as in your example is not the same as purposely listening in while trying not be to seen or heard. Example: little brothers picking up the phone in the other room. No wonder it got repealed.

I think all US cities have "government" towns not just large cities. Only difference is in a company town all the men had to work.

Now give me a smartphone in answer to your original post. Kindle is not the only game in town.

I think most places have some silly laws.

[GlenBarrington]

The smartphone is just too handy, sorry Kindle.

[Sirtel]

Kindle. I can make do without a smartphone. Now, if Kobo would put page-turn buttons on their reader, then I could make do without a Kindle too.

[graycyn]

I'd ditch the Kindle, keep my Kobo AND my smartphone!

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

[barryem]

I remember reading an article in my Mom's Readers Digest about silly laws that were still on the books back then (probably the 1950s). Some examples I remember because I've talked about them from time to time:

In New York it was illegal for red headed women to play professional baseball.

In Texas shoplifting raw beef was covered by cattle rustling laws and carried the death penalty. By the way I know this one to be true because I lived most of my life in Texas and I remember when they finally got around to repealing it. As far as I know it was never enforced.

There was also some baseball regulation somewhere about whether a fly ball carried away by a low flying airplane could be considered a home run. Okay it's not a law but it fits the pattern anyway.

These are just the few I remember from a much longer list.

So never doubt that silly laws exist. After all, laws are made by people who are voted in by voters and that gets some silly results sometimes.

Barry

[Anthem]

I would keep my smartphone.

[Atunah]

I would have to give up my smartphone. I can't read on a tablet type screen and I don't want to live without being able to read so I'd keep my kindle and not be able to make calls or use my apps. I am pretty sure I survived back in those days just fine without it. I still had my books of course.

[barryem]

I'm reading my current book on my phone instead of my Kindle. I'm not sure why. I just felt like doing it. It means a different reading pattern, forcing myself to take a short break every little while. The book has short chapters so I've been reading a chapter and taking a 5 minute break and I'm enjoying it.

The phone is, for me, the perfect way to read except that the screen with it's backlight limits how long I can read without a break. So far I'm enjoying it.

I did this as a kind of test a few months ago. I decided to read exclusively on my phone for a month. I ended up doing it for a little over 2 months and then I went back to my Kindles, fearing they'd get lonely. I find either works equally well as long as the book doesn't require a lot of dictionary usage, and this one doesn't. When it does the dictionary on the Kindle is far superior to what Moon+ makes available.

Barry

[nicolasmart]

Originally Posted by patrickt

As my mind was wandering this morning, which is often does, I wondered, what if the government said you could own a Kindle or a Smartphone but not both. Having both would be a felony. Hey, if you keep track of the laws in the U.S. nothing is too ridiculous to be true. In the city where I lived it was illegal to carry and lunchpail in public and in the state eavesdropping was a felony.

Anyway, I'm deaf and don't take phone calls but I love my calendar on my phone, and messaging, and having access to the internet to find answers to questions.

But, given the choice, I'd keep my Kindle. I've been a compulsive reader for 70 years and don't want to change now. I live in southern Mexico and read in English so my Kindle is my lifeline.

What about you? Kindle or Smartphone. I have to admit I've never seen anyone walking into on-coming traffic reading a Kindle.

I would keep the Kindle but only if it's 3G and jailbroken.

Else, I would pick the smartphone.