Mobile phones playing music on public transport. People answering phone calls in the cinema. Is common courtesy an outmoded concept, superceded by technology?

We’ve all sat there, angered and galled by arrogant, solipsist twats, playing tinny music from their phones.

There’s never a handy baseball bat when you need one, is there
Now it seems there may be salvation on the horizon - DMP or ‘Digital Manners Policy’.

Microsoft has recently filed a patent for DMP, which is intended to work similarly to the RFID (proximity activated) chips that we see in shop alarm systems, etc.. The idea being that public areas like hospitals, cinemas, aeroplanes and (i pray) public transport can automatically switch mobile devices into standby, flight or silent mode. Thereby avoiding the need for public beatings, ABH and destruction of personal property

http://arstechnica.com/…/manners-into-the-digital-age.html

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/08/0340229

Found this today.. Some super clever people with far too much time on their hands (and no doubt a whopping budget courtesy of the military) have been studying the sensations and brain activity attributed to feeling “close to God”.

Basically the idea is that their device stimulates the brain to induce the feeling that there’s an unseen ‘presence’ in the room. Wonder if they could modify it for use in cinemas with horror films.. Now that would be scary!