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ICE, In Case of Emergencies

11:19 / 09.07.05

I got sent an email with this in it.

ICE

Basically you store your next of kin, partner, parent, close friend etc on your mobile under the name ICE (in Case of Emergencies).

Seems like a very simple idea to me, especially given the current situation in London

12:12 / 09.07.05

I got that email too, and I don't get many email forwarding problems.

I'd hope that anyone with half a brain would compare my surname, from my wallet, to the several people with identical surnames in my phone, and do the math.

paranoidwriter waves hello

12:16 / 09.07.05

I have "Mom-mobile", "Dad-mobile", and "Mom & Dad" in my phone. But the ICE idea is still a good one.

13:58 / 09.07.05

I'm not sure i get this. Surely ID'ing is only a problem if one's wallet, face, teeth and fingers have been destroyed, and if that's happened, how would one's phone have survived?

Mind you, I see Vodaphone support this plan of action, and I can't imagine for a second that's anything other than general goodwill on their part. Only a very cynical person indeed would see that as product placement agogo...

15:27 / 09.07.05

I'd hope that anyone with half a brain would compare my surname, from my wallet, to the several people with identical surnames in my phone, and do the math.

You'd need a psychic brain in my case. I don't think I've got anyone's surname in my phone - certainly not any members of my family.

This sounds like a reasonably good idea to me, as these things go. For one thing you might not want a member of your family to be the first call in case of emergency.

Surely ID'ing is only a problem if one's wallet, face, teeth and fingers have been destroyed, and if that's happened, how would one's phone have survived?

I wouldn't have thought that it's that sort of emergency where this idea would be most useful. If it's the stage at where they'd be identifying you by your teeth, then it's probably not exactly urgent. (I assume dental records are used to link a missing person to a body rather than the other way around.)
I expect this would be most useful in the first moments following an accident - 'Do we know if this person is allergic to penicillin?' kinda thing.

Tryphena Absent

15:43 / 09.07.05

I've heard that there are currently three unidentified women under heavy sedation in London hospitals. Presumably they weren't carrying any ID at all. I often leave the house without my purse, which contains all of my ID and only carry my mobile phone. The only way of identifying me would be to phone someone and ask them to come and see who I was. An ICE number is a very good idea, particularly if you don't have your parent's numbers in your contacts list.

13:57 / 10.07.05

okay, in the light of the last two posts I am coming round to the idea. (I think some people with pre-existing medical conditions do something like this anyway with bracelets or necklaces. Oh and I think some soldiers have their blood group tattoed on them, unless that's a myth of war films.)

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:20 / 10.07.05

Paleface- you actually put surnames in your phone? Whoah.

Bill- I'd imagine checking a phone address book is a lot quicker than trying to match dental records or whatever. If you're trying to contact next-of-kin quickly, are you gonna wait for forensics or make a quick call on the off-chance?

How universally recognised is this, is my only question. Do the emergency services KNOW that they should be calling the number marked ICE? I think it's a good idea, but only if it's a standard.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:28 / 10.07.05

Oh, and my other objection- what if you're a painfully hip character from a painfully hip comic or something, and you actually KNOW someone called ICE? And what if they're the last person on Earth you'd want contacted in case of emergency? Like they've got a contract on your special superduper cybercorneas or something, and way dodgy underworld connections and guns and stuff, and they know the secret that could CONDEMN YOUR FAMILY TO DEATH or at the very least A BRUTAL MINDWIPING?

...it's just me, isn't it?

Believe it or not, I think it's a good idea.

That ICE guy's a cunt, anyway. Why the fuck would you have his number?

16:47 / 10.07.05

I'm coming round to the idea too. Cause, yes, someone could phone 'Mum' but they wouldn't know my name, so my Mum wouldn't know if it was me or my sister, and anyway, I'd want them to call Loomis.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

17:54 / 10.07.05

Well, I emailed this round F&F then thought, 'oh no, they might think I'm friends with Vanilla Ice. Oh the embaressment!'

18:14 / 10.07.05

Don't see any harm in it.

When I lost a mobile at a tube station a few years back, the fine citizen who picked it up just phoned the first name in my address book - my friend K - and told her his phone number. She phoned me, I phoned him, picked it up the next day.

My folks appear as Mum & Dad in the list, so they'd be easy to identify. Ganesh only appears as another male first name in the list, so maybe I should bump him nearer the top of the list by calling him Bum Chum or Arse Bandit. I could maybe just put NOK next to his name on the list.

At the moment, because of her current alphabetical supremacy, if I am blown to smithereens in a terrorist outrage but my phone miraculously survives, the emergency services would probably be phoning the fair Ariadne to find out who I was. Perhaps I should take this opportunity to warn her!

19:01 / 10.07.05

ooh, the things I'll tell them. Well, at least I'm a useful-ish contact, in that I could call Ganesh!

19:05 / 10.07.05

I do have one concern, but I may be being overly cautious. Do you (anyone) foresee people nicking phones and then calling the ICE contact with 'bad news' for a laugh? Or do I just have a sick imagination?

19:43 / 10.07.05

Genius.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:24 / 10.07.05

Just thought I'd check who came up first in mine...

...and it's ACS, or Hackney Alcohol Counselling Services.

"We've found some guy in the street. It's pretty nasty... he's totally mashed."

"Aah, just another day at the office..."

sorry

09:02 / 11.07.05

I'd want them to call Loomis.

I hope your phone has enough characters to type: "ICE - Loomis. Please text in advance as Loomis has a habit of not answering his phone."

09:38 / 11.07.05

Do you (anyone) foresee people nicking phones and then calling the ICE contact with 'bad news' for a laugh? Or do I just have a sick imagination?

Well, having your parents' numbers on your phone carries the same risk (if they're listed as Mum and Dad).

23:03 / 13.07.05

Poor old Vanilla Ice!

23:08 / 13.07.05

IN CASE OF EMERGENCIES

23:27 / 13.07.05

, baby

Mummy's Pork Verb Noun has an emergency number.

To my heart.

07:03 / 14.07.05

This sodding thing has confused my phone. Now that I have Ariadne and ICE in my address book, both having the same number, when she texts me it doesn't know which one of them it's from and so it just shows in my inbox as the number (you know how it looks when you get a text from someone who isn't saved in your phone).

Am I missing something?

07:40 / 14.07.05

That doesn't happen on mine. Maybe you should just put 'ICE - contact Ariadne' and then, if it insists on a number, make it 555 or something.

08:05 / 14.07.05

I thought the idea was to prefix an existing contact with ICE. So, find Ariadne --> edit name --> ‘ICE Ariadne’. I don’t think you need a second entry.

08:11 / 14.07.05

I thought of that but don't want it to come up as that every time she calls.

09:00 / 14.07.05

That's the price you pay for letting your nearest and dearest know that your arse has been ruptured in a bank raid and your in hospital with your arse in a cast!

09:01 / 14.07.05

AAAHHH! I can't spell

10:06 / 14.07.05

It seems a bit over dramatic to have ICE Ariadne every time I text to say 'do we need tomatoes?'. Maybe you could call me Ariadne on the standard contact, and my real name on the ICE? But that's letting Barbelith encroach a leeeeetle bit too much on real life.

10:07 / 14.07.05

oh god, I'm stupid - it'd still be the same number, so same problem. Ahem, ignore me.

10:25 / 14.07.05

You mean Ariadne isn't your real name? Since when?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:28 / 14.07.05

Can we do all the "stranded on an island with nachos" jokes again? I liked those.

07:57 / 15.07.05

WARNING - ICE IS PHONE BASED VIRUS, SEE BELOW!!
>
> Be very careful with this one - although the intention is great it is
> > unfortunately phase one of a phone based virus that is laying a path
>for
> > propagating very quickly. Passing it on is part of the virus
> > interestingly, such is the deviousness of the people who write these
> > things. We have already seen the "second phase" where a program is
>sent as
> > part of a ring-tone download that goes into your address book and
>looks
> > for something it recognises - you've guessed it, an address book
> > entry
>
> > marked "ICE or I.C.E." or whatever. It then sends itself to the "ICE
> > list", charging you for the privilege.

09:07 / 15.07.05

Sigh. That's a hoax, the ICE thing is genuine. East Anglian Ambulance confirm the mobile virus thing is nonsense

09:10 / 15.07.05

Sorry, that last link just goes to their main site. This is the release on ICE.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:30 / 15.07.05

Ah, virus hoaxes. Like hacking for people who can't be arsed to learn how to code.