>I just heard from a guy that some restaurants in Japan have installed >devices that block cell phone calls to prevent users from disturbing other >patrons. I have held off for 2 days and bitten my lip. BUT you all seem to assume that mobile phones are a 'bad' thing. That it is a 'rude' minority which are doing it. Well sorry but let me tell you the other side of the story. Here in Hong Kong there is now 53% ownership of mobile phones. There is now majority ownership. My maid has one; some of my workers have them. You travel on the MTR - underground - and maybe 1 in 10 people are on the phone at any time. They are using this previously 'wasted' travelling time to work, gossip and increasingly for the young (sigh!), chat to prospective boy/girl friends. (Companies to facilitate this latter service are booming. One sells you the contact phone numbers in chocolate then if you don't like him/her you eat them and program your phone to block their number so they cannot call you back. In Japan last month I saw a video phone doing the same service - no, not in chocolate!)) I have been in the cinema here and there were once 5 people on phones at one time. There was no chinese peer pressure to stop them. And any westerner silly enough to try post 1997, would risk not getting out in one piece. You just have to face the possibility that list members are in a 'Stop the World I Want to Get Off' mode. Getting grey-haired and conservative. For reasons I don't understand asia and europe (especially Finland) seem to lead the world in mobile phone usage and uses. North america is lagging way behind. Note I am not only talking about handheld phone with the user shouting into it. (And hell many of the locals here do that naturally without the phone.) You can buy the headset and mouthpiece where the user just speaks in a soft voice. (Reminds me of the 'mumblers' you see shuffling along New York streets.) I think there lies the future: the mobile phone will vibrate only to receive calls then the user will use a personal headset to speak in a soft voice when replying. After all the objection now is the 'noise' the mobile phone user makes when talking loudly on the phone - "look I have a mobile phone". When the novelty wears off and people come to see how much more productive a mobile phone will make them then there will be majority acceptance. If not by you then certainly by your children - tucked up in bed at night talking for hours without you knowing! 2. Many thanks for the PLL references. I am looking at doing some kits using and introducing them. regards, Peter Crowcroft DIY Electronics (HK) Ltd PO Box 88458, Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong Voice: 852-2720 0255 Fax: 852-2725 0610 Email: peter@kitsrus.com Web: http://kitsrus.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------