Years ago, when I first started writing code, I learned a powerful lesson: Complex systems are counterintuitive. They often don't behave as we think they will. That leads to the conclusion that simpler solutions are always better. Moreover, specialized or weak solutions are Band-Aids; it's best to deal with the whole problem, as simply as possible.

Three recent events bring the issue into focus. First is the moronic New York state law banning the use of handheld cell phones while driving. What about people who eat, shave and even read the paper while driving? A "distracted driving act" would have been more appropriate: One may not operate a motor vehicle on a public way unless one pays attention to what one is doing. Of course, that's common sense-a quantity often in short supply both in state legislatures and on the road.

Next, your mailbox has undoubtedly been flooded in recent weeks with privacy notices of various flavors. They're driven by another moronic law that, in my case, leaves me virtually no time to instruct all of the 8,754 companies with which I do business to please keep anything I do with them private. The default case, if I do nothing (and that's of necessity my choice), is to allow those companies to feel free to distribute to third parties what I had assumed was private.

Who writes these laws? The default should be that my privacy is protected unless I authorize otherwise. And the issue has disturbing implications for upcoming location-enabled wireless technologies: If I don't wish to be found, will I need to file a form somewhere?

Finally, I recently chaired a conference session on 3G in Europe. One panelist, a wireless-LAN executive, dropped a bombshell: Suppose we take the money that will be invested in 3G (perhaps as much as half a trillion dollars), and instead spend it on upgrading existing 2G networks to 2.5G-or at least adding voice capacity and coverage via more cells-and on building a public WLAN infrastructure, of the type found today in some airports and hotels? In other words, why not have separate networks for voice and data (something I've long advocated), and use existing technology to get there?

While we can't underestimate the challenges of installing hundreds of thousands of microcells or ignore the fact that current wireless LANs don't support high-speed roaming, this is a fabulous idea. Of course, given the roughly $200 billion already sunk into auctions (a really dumb idea), maybe we're too far down the road already. But think of the possibilities!

Craig Mathias is an analyst with the Farpoint Group (Ashland, Mass.).