We'd still prefer something like Cingular's FastForward cradle, which forwards calls in the opposite direction, from cellphone to landline.

ENGADGET: Device lets UK cellphone customers forward calls on the cheap

And if (this would be a truly unrealistic haystack) the haystack were one-dimensional, so that you could only move forwards and backwards along it, your chance of success would actually be quite high, even if the direction of each step was random.

ECONOMIST: How (and why) to find a needle in a haystack | The