For a change, good online adv(ICE)

The Internet is just full of advice these days and sometimes you’ll even find some that is useful.

I’ve covered some pretty bad advice in some of my blogs – spyware programs that damage your computer, and emergency numbers that don’t work. But since I’m not a complete naysayer and debunker, I’ll discuss one Internet nugget that is actually a good thing.

If you have an email account and friends who send mass mailings, you have probably heard of putting ICE on your cell phone. That’s a directory entry, slugged as ICE (for In Case of Emergency) that you can put on your cell phone and emergency personnel know what it is should you be found unconscious somewhere.

Whether this started out as an urban legend and grew legs to the point where it became fact is immaterial here. It’s one of those things that, well, it won’t replace other means of ID or keeping emergency numbers, it doesn’t hurt either. In fact it might actually save a life, and there’s no price tag for something like that.

This ICE thing came to my attention again, during a phone conversation with my parents in California (this wasn’t the main topic of the phone call, but let’s not go there). Anyway, Mom mentioned that she has ICE on her phone, and I’m one of her emergency contacts.

Although I’m not planning to turn up with real bad amnesia in some strange neighborhood anytime soon, I too have ICE on my phone. In fact, I have returned the favor, as my parents and brother are the contacts listed. The rub, of course, is that none of the kinfolk live anywhere near me.

The last time I needed to contact family members for an emergency was 20 years ago when I went down in a rather spectacular bicycle wreck. Fortunately, all family members lived close by, and I had enough presence of mind (despite the painkillers they gave me) to choose the right family member for the initial call. This is important here. While I love my father and wish I could be more like him (and like me, he just gets better with age), he’s just not the coolest head around when there’s an emergency. So my brother Rick became the go-to guy in this situation.

Whether he wants it or not, Rick is still my default ICE number.

Here’s a trick if you wish to ICE your phone. Lead the I C E off with a punctuation character. Mine shows in the directory as . I C E with the period throwing it to the top of the list. If you make it ~ I C E it will go to the bottom of the directory, which also makes it fairly easy to find. This trick holds true with LG phones like the one I have, and also with Nokia phones. You may want to check your own, though, as your mileage may vary.

One drawback to ICE is that there is just not a lot of room in the directory for all the vital information. There are things like drug allergies, active prescriptions, and other warnings to consider. So I’ve taken the ICE step a little further.

In the “memo” portion of my ICE entry, I have the following: “More info on USB drive in R boot”

OK. This sounds cryptic, so I’ll explain. I carry one of those USB thumb drives with me all the time. All of my work files are on it, plus maybe even a whole operating system if I feel like experimenting. But there’s also a text file, easy to find, and called IN-CASE-EMERGENCY that carries all that information. This drive can be plugged into any computer, and when folks in the emergency room pull it up it has probably all the information they would ask for if I was conscious. Besides the usual run of emergency numbers, this file lists my medications, a bit of history, and allergies. This file is in .txt format so it can be read with any word processor, or no word processor at all.

This USB drive has its permanent home, in a pouch in my right boot, unless I’m using it for something else. Like writing this blog, for example.

As I wrote this, I was somehow remembering a staff requirement at one newspaper where I worked. Each reporter had to have his obituary on file. Seriously. But then, many newspapers back then kept files of celebrity obits – just plug in the date and any last-minute details and run it. This does sound beyond morbid, but there’s a point to it. It does save a lot of hassle.

My editor, the late Verne Peyser, insisted on the obits. “I wouldn’t trust anyone else to write mine,” he’d tell us. Some of the staff obits were real beauties. Usually in an obituary you don’t mention how the person died, but that’s where our imaginations really cut loose. Verne, a chain smoker, was sure that lung cancer would get him. My own self-penned obit had me being electrocuted while pursuing my musical avocation, in mid-solo by a faulty sound system. Or something.

One of our sportswriters blew off the obituary requirement, and just happened to get himself killed in a motorcycle accident in Laughlin, Nevada. We had one hell of a time gathering up all the standard information for the news story. I remember bugging the ladies in personnel for any files they had on him. (As a footnote, I was the last to see this person alive, so the cops told me I may have to ride with them to the Clark County Coroner’s Office in Vegas to ID him, but the trip wasn’t needed.)

Now, I’m not getting that far or that morbid with my USB drive. There is such a thing as Too Much Information.

The USB emergency information may well be a wasted step. This might be as useless as some highly-publicized emergency phone numbers. With my luck the next emergency room I get hauled to is one where they don’t have computers but have lots of leeches, and I don’t mean the ambulance-chasing variety either.

But, like ICE, the USB trick is easy to do costs nothing to implement, and may actually help.