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Interesting enough if anyone cares, iridium the element was discovered when dissolving platnum using aqua regia (acid).

Satellites are expensive. Remember Iridium? Don't be confused...that web link is for the new Iridium, which bought all of the old Iridium's assets after it launched a ton of satellites and went bankrupt. What's wrong with fibre optic landlines? And maybe a fibre optic line into your house one day?

ok, this project is really kewl ;-)

i read a while ago about a guy who was building wind-up flashlights, for everywhere, and things like wind-up radios and televisions for places like rural africa. no batteries! (except internal lithium rechargeable? can a capacitor handle the charge storage? i dunno.) the radio just needs a few cranks every now and then and it will pipe out broadcasts for a few hours before needing a new crank. here's a link i found.

so we have all these failed (business-wise) iridium satellites flying around and other satellite networks with a few extra bandwidths here and there that might be persuaded to have something alloted from them for this project.

so make a pda that has a handcrank, uplinks to a satellite, and is basically nothing but a glorified Instant Messenging App with some sort of Babelfish (the fish!) built in that translates whatever native language is involved into a neutral heuristic. then that xml heuristic is uplinked via satellite, downloaded to a recipient, and retranslated into whatever language the recipient is using on their pda.

i'm certain that would be kewl enough for these kids to take home with them after a few days, get hooked on, and use as long as the handcrank still works, the supposed lithium batteries don't bleed away, the ruggedized case survives kid-friendly drops and crunches and unfriendly monsoons and drops in streams and drainage ditches, and the satellites stay in orbit and their bandwidth backers stay interested in the program.

i think that your biggest challenge, whatever tech you implement, will be keeping them interested. it would be a shame to blow all that dough on something that stops working after a few days or the kids just plain lose interest in because of complexity or lack of compelling features.

ok, kind of ambitious, but it sounds like you have some money to burn ;-) i was thinking illiteracy would be a problem, but not really: can you think of a better motivator for a rural poor kid to get reading or what? good luck! look forward to reading about how it is all received on slashdot in 2005 ;-)

You sure can buy airtime.. check iridium.com for a list of service providers. Rates are around $1.50 a minute. They have both direct internet service and dialup data.

Iridium already has data services just about anywhere in the world... Of course, you have to be willing to pay for it and the throughput is only 10Kbps for (i'm guessing) anything that is easily compressed (ie text). According to their site, "Graphics and images will result in lower throughput."

Seriously though, the battery power required to transmit to a LEO satellite is a bit much to ask for in a portable phone that any joe can use - at least with today's technology. Just think of the EMF from that thing! And they say current cell phones will fry your brain!

As for laptop batteries, mine already only lasts 3 hours on a GOOD day...

Thanks, I'll stick to CDPD.

I'll buy it as soon as someone tells me what a "holographic Display" is which is listed as one of the features of the Motorola 9505.
(It's the 10th bullet of the "Features" column on the right at http://www.iridium.com/product/iri_product-detail. asp?productid=446)

According to this page, you have to contact one of their service providers to find out if there's an additional charge. Being that their prices in general are pretty f'ing high, I wouldn't be surprised it doubled the cost per month. Just a g

Hey folks - why not aggregate some bandwith from Iridium for applications like this one? Surely you could get some bandwidth from them for cheap with a little cross-promotion marketing deal.

ANSWER: The Iridium system design is predicated upon line-of-sight access to the satellite. Therefore, in-building coverage for handsets is generally not available. The Iridium pager provides a better means of receiving messages in urban locations and can be used inside buildings. In any case, callers who are unable to reach the subscriber on an Iridium handset for any reason will have the option of leaving a message that will be delivered the next time the handset has line-of-site access to the satellite constellation.

OR, get an antena/receiver & link for the top of your vehicle which is so "1st generation cellphonish".

--Clay

http://www.iridium.com/

tiny, worldwide coverage, dependable.

Although Iridium is defunct, you wouldn't know it from their web site. Except for some fine print mentioning an "urgent message", the site looks just as it did before the operation went bankrupt. You can look at the latest handsets and even send messages to Iridium subscribers from the web site. Hey, 2400 baud, worldwide!

Expensive though it was, it's still cheaper than INMARSAT, the only other satellite cellular system up and running. I'm suprised somebody didn't want to keep it up until a better satellite service came on-line. You'd think they could sell enough service at a lowered price to cover the operating costs, writing off the launch costs.

It's less than that, even. The designed lifespan is 5-8 years. Read about it here at the Iridium corporate website.

Motorola has posted a deboost schedule for the 66 satellites

However, in the event that no qualified buyer comes forward and provides additional funding by Wednesday, March 15, 2000, Iridium expects to terminate its service at 11:59 pm (EST) on March 17, 2000.

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However, in the event that no qualified buyer comes forward and provides additional funding by Wednesday, March 15, 2000, Iridium expects to terminate its service at 11:59 pm (EST) on March 17, 2000.

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However, in the event that no qualified buyer comes forward and provides additional funding by Wednesday, March 15, 2000, Iridium expects to terminate its service at 11:59 pm (EST) on March 17, 2000.

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While Iridium does use Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites about 800 kilometres up, ICO are using Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites about 10,000 kilometres up. That's why they can get away with using less of them (12 as opposed to Iridium's 66) but each needs to be larger.

ICO are insured against the loss of up to two satellites and are using Proton, Delta III, and Atlas IIAS as well as Sea Launch. So they should still be able to get a functional network up in a reasonable time (no, I don't work for them).

All the information came off the websites: ICO, Iridium

If you go to the Iridium home page, everything is just fine. You can still order an Iridium phone. No indication that the service may go down within a week, except a vague note about the McCaw deal falling through. Are they in denial over there, or what?

Look in the upper right-hand corner of this page:

http://www.iridium.com/docs/copyright.ht ml

I don't think they implied the meaning to be what we are thinking! Haha!

EC

Microsoft Jumpstarts Subsaharan Africa

Seattle, WA (UIP)
In a startling business move with profound geopolitial ramifications, Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, today announced a moratorium on the enforcement of Microsoft's copyrights within Subsaharan Africa for at least the next 10 years. "The struggling nations of Subsaharan Africa need to leapfrog into the global internet economy and bypass the stages of economic development that have, historically, destroyed indigenous cultures and their ecologies." said Mr. Gates as his wife, former President Bill Clinton, Craig McCaw, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, South African President Nelson Mandella and Zulu historian Credo Muthwa looked on. He continued, "The wanton rape of the environment and tribal societies is perhaps beyond hope elsewhere in the world, but Africa still possesses much of the deepest heritage of mankind. It is not too late to protect it from modernization. Postmodern economies can leapfrog and preempt such destruction."

Craig McCaw also announced, "We are pleased to announce unlimited access to Iridium/Teledesic internet satellites within Subsaharan Africa for the duration of Mr. Gate's moratorium. Our satellite infrastructure is underutilized in the Southern Hemisphere generally, and Subsaharan Africa in particular. This will be a small investment with tremendous global benefits."

Mr. Gates announced additional endowments from the his private foundation to provide ground stations for McCaw's internet satellites and thin client PC's with access to computer-based training for African school districts. In a move labeled by many pundits as "eccentric" Gates targeted his largest endowment, $1 billion to The Bonobo Protection Fund. The Bonobo Protection fund will install an enormous array of cameras and microphones throughout the entire ecological range of the Bonobos in the Congo and Zaire. Real time unedited multimedia feeds of Bonobo social dynamics will become available around the world on the internet. These raw data streams are expected to make their way into academic institutions, but also the entertainment industry. Bids are already coming in from various internet pay per view channels on the theory that natural Bonobo social behavior will serve a viewing public that has come to expect primitive primate behavior on everything from talk shows to political debate. The profits of "Bonobo TV" are expected to pay for policing of the habitat as well as maintaining the array of sensors. The policing will be aided by the video cameras which are expected to provide unprecedented security for the Bonobo habitat against intrusion by careless or hostile humans.