Subject: RE: Orthodox beards, gas masks and beepers for deaf persons (was: Re: , [hackers-il] Re: facial hairius extremis)

From: Chen Shapira <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 19:00:02 +0200

> I never neglected refreshing my gas mask when directed so by "Pikud
> Oref".  However, without having also a beeper, it will probably be
> ineffective in saving my life.  So I'm not going to bother carrying it
> around even if everyone else carries his gas mask around.

I was wondering for some time now, what do deaf people use instead of a
phone?
Like if you want to get in contact with someone who is in a diffrent country
or something. Do you have fax at home so your employers can reach you in an
emergency or something like this?

Sorry for being nosey,
Chen.

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From: "Nadav Har'El" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 19:17:50 +0200

> emergency or something like this?

101 signs of being a workaholic

sign #73: When you wonder about how deaf people handle life, you are most
          puzzled by how their employers can reach them in case of emergency

:)

By the way, if a deaf person already owned a beeper or a cellphone, was
somebody (not the government) giving a beeping or faxing service to announce
air-raid alarms? I'd assume it's very easy for the cellphone/beeper companies
to do...
If not, maybe in the next war we should do some ad-hoc thing to use sendsms
to announce these events (hoping that the cellphone service won't collapse
at that times).

-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |       Monday, Jan 21 2002, 9 Shevat 5762
[email-masked]             |-----------------------------------------
Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |I put a dollar in one of those change
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |machines. Nothing changed.

---

From: Omer Zak <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 19:22:18 +0200 (IST)

> emergency or something like this?

20 years ago, the only option was to exploit one's friendly neighbor
and/or one's children and/or one's parents.

Today, the available technologies are:
1. FAX machines (more than 50% of the deaf in Israel have those machines
   at their homes, vs. less than 5% of the general population).
2. Beepers are available - but at regular price.
3. Cellular phones, using SMS and FAX (wherever available).

I have FAX, Internet and cellular phone (Nokia 9110 - for its FAX and SMS
capabilities).

> Sorry for being nosey,

No problems.  Actually, most disabled persons prefer people to be informed
about those aspects of their lives, rather than be too shy to ask this
kind of questions.
                                             --- Omer
WARNING TO SPAMMERS:  see at http://www.zak.co.il/spamwarning.html

---

From: Omer Zak <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 19:30:42 +0200 (IST)

> to announce these events (hoping that the cellphone service won't collapse

The working assumption is that cellphone networks will collapse (or
otherwise rendered useless by seizure of their frequencies by the army) in
case of actual war.

There is also a problem of signal reception inside the sheltered rooms.

About non-broadcast methods of spreading the word:

You need about 30 seconds to send a single FAX message.
You need few seconds to send a precomposed SMS message (can someone
measure the speed of sendsms in such a situation?)

You have about 5 minutes to alert 1000 deaf persons (the total population
of the deaf is about 6500 people, but cellular phones are not in wide use,
yet).  How feasible is this?

                                             --- Omer
There is no IGLU Cabal.  People are busy scheming various schemes to
protect themselves against the Iraqi threat.
WARNING TO SPAMMERS:  see at http://www.zak.co.il/spamwarning.html

---

From: Nimster <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 20:29:22 +0200

[Snipped]
> measure the speed of sendsms in such a situation?)

And how fast is passing the word to the radio stations, readying the staff
for a transmission, and sounding off the alarms throughout Israel? (How do
they do that, btw? Is it automated?)
Sendsms is an application; it can be called directly by the same software or
computerized command which authorizes the existance of a threat. If
anything, the deaf should be the first to know following your scenario.

> yet).  How feasible is this?

6,500 people? I imagined there would be more, actually.

> WARNING TO SPAMMERS:  see at http://www.zak.co.il/spamwarning.html

Love your .sigs.

-Nimster

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From: Omer Zak <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 20:30:52 +0200 (IST)

> they do that, btw? Is it automated?)

After all those preparatory steps are carried out, the message is sent in
parallel to all locations which need it, so the time to send a message to
a single person is not as problematic.

> 6,500 people? I imagined there would be more, actually.

The established estimate is that about 7% of the general population have
some hearing impairment, but most of them get along well (more or less) 
with hearing aids.  So they don't need beepers or equivalent technologies. 

Those, who cannot benefit from hearing aids, and need alternate means of
alerting, are classified as "profoundly deaf", and it is estimated that
they are about 0.1% of the general population. 

> > WARNING TO SPAMMERS:  see at http://www.zak.co.il/spamwarning.html

Thanks.  :-)

> -Nimster

                                             --- Omer
There is no IGLU Cabal.  Reliable statistics were hard to come by, and
without statistics, certain personalities were very reluctant to act.
WARNING TO SPAMMERS:  see at http://www.zak.co.il/spamwarning.html

---

From: "Nadav Har'El" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 21:27:28 +0200

> yet).  How feasible is this?

I think it's quite feasable. Sendsms latency (at least for cellcom) is about
10 seconds. But there's no problem in running several concurrently. I bet
each provider can handle 300 (assuming people are divided among providers)
SMSs being sent on their web site in 5 minutes. There is no problem testing
this at a time of peace (but then you'd have to hope that the cellphone
network and/or internet won't become overloaded around the time of the siren -
I'm not sure how valid such a hope is in reality).

Anyway, I guess that maybe SMSs aren't the most reliable method. I have
another silly idea: how about making a small portable device that "listens",
and when it picks up some sounds with very distinct characteristics (like
a very loud up-and-down air-raid siren) it flashes, or vibrates, or whatever.
This can even be improved to sense the sounds of baby crying - I bet this
could be a useful tool for deaf parents. Maybe it even exists? Unfortunately,
I don't know.

Another, similar, idea: sirens are also broadcast over the radio. You could
have a small radio receiver set to a fixed station, and flash/vibrate when
it senses a siren being broadcast. It would be even nicer if actual text
messages could be broadcast over the radio, and I even saw this being done
in England, but I don't think this technology is being used in Israel
(especially not in Haifa).

-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |       Monday, Jan 21 2002, 9 Shevat 5762
[email-masked]             |-----------------------------------------
Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |A thing is not necessarily true because a
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |man dies for it. - Oscar Wilde

---

From: Nimster <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 22:08:07 +0200

[Snip]
> could be a useful tool for deaf parents. Maybe it even exists?
Unfortunately,

Check out Omer's webpage (www.zak.co.il). It has a link to Tsaad-Kadima,
which has exactly this sort of device (unfortunately, their webpage is
unavailable).

-Nimster