[V8] V8 musings.

[Karl Middlebrooks]

> ... if you want to get creeped out ... got a cell phone?  Newer cell 
> phones are required to have GPS receivers in them ... here in the USA 
> anyway ... and they *are* able to transmit their actual location ... 
> perhaps even when the phone is turned off ... 

Yeah, I find that system troubling as well, and the RFID stuff bugs me, too. I'm a total technophile, not some sort of neo-Luddite, but as much as I like technology, the potential for misuse that you'd never even know about and can't do much to avoid, bothers me. Then again, I drive around in a couple of Audi V8's, which people recognize and remember....so....I guess I can't really be all that worried about stealth. Have to trade the V8's in for a couple of Neon's.

 
> Steve B
> San José, CA (USA)
> 
> In point of fact I am skeptical that the phone will report a location 
> when it is turned off ... I just read an article about stupid mistakes 
> made by CIA operatives when they were "afield" and it indicated that 
> certain agents left the batteries in their cell phones and that it wasn't 
> enough to turn them off to prevent tracking them ... 

Presumably, then, the battery keeps the GPS receiver running at all times, even when the phone is turned off. I imagine at some point the GPS receivers will have their own batteries, and will function as an self-contained embedded system, so that the phone can continuously transmit its location even if the phone battery is removed.