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Morse Code Migrating To The Net
Rosco P. Coltrane writes "With Morse code slowly disappearing off the air, there seems to be a growing number of people who carry out conversations in Morse over the internet. Several Windows and Linux clients using VoIP or special protocols, such as EchoLink, EchoLinux, MorseMail, CW Communicator or CWirc exist for Morse lovers worldwide to pound brass and make contact with one another. Could the next must-have computer input device be a morse key ?"
Morseall is a morse code input server for Linux using the mouse buttons. Morse is being used to help the disabled use computers . A great way to learn morse code is to work on the computer using morse code instead of the keyboard for a few hours.
I like to build things and wire stuff together.
crypto! now that will throw them for a loop!
Dear Mr Morse
Unfortunately your patent application for a serial binary code device (RFC 1) has not been accepted, as a company called SCO claim prior art.
Humorous signatures are over-rated.
No,it couldn't.
"Comedy's a dead art form. Now tragedy, that's funny."
Well... I can see it's uses for shortening messeges *sort of*, but what else? It's not any use as encryption obviously, I guess just nostalgia?
I have over 70 freaks, do you?
So computer geeks have finally found a way to make the internet appeal to the older generations!
SecondPageMedia - Wha
Ryan T. Sammartino
"Ancora imparo"
No.
That is so retarded. What's next? Scanning in hand-written text and sending that?
Do you people ever get enough. God damn.
I am at a loss for words. Why? Sure, I can see the "fun" in it. But, its like towing your car with a horse.
Just f'n IM the dude man.
As a diehard fan, it's always made a lot more sense to just plug in the radio if I'm going to do comms in morse. It's a lot more gratifying, and believe it or not, a lot more entertaining than over the net. With a radio, you don't have to pay for air time, nor do you have to set up complicated clients.
Many a night has been spent in front of a glowing dim console, applying a feather touch to an old worn dial to a hear a faint signal, a single voice coming from a hemisphere away. Sure, the internet is a guaranteed easy, clean connection. That's a given.... but it's just not the same.
*sigh*
73, VA3CSG
Urban Detail
wasn't there a part in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon where a guy created a morse code interface to his computer?
The next big thing: horse hitch accessories on the front of cars!
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Um, no.
mmm... yeah... You see, we're putting the cover sheets on all TPS reports now before they go out...
When did echolink/echolinux get morse code support? Last I recall, they were both for amateur radio voice operations...
.. MoIP?
Has a ring to it.
You know like the Indians did with the blanket over the fire ? Can we use that on Voice over IP ?
soooooooo LATE
Could the next must-have computer input device be a morse key?
Something wrong with any randomly selected key on the keyboard?
Of course, the real danger is that net.poseurs will use ASCII-to-Morse translators with programmable semi-random delays to simulate mad Morse skillz.
Hey, I hear cuneiform is dying out. Will the next must-have computer input device be a slab of wet mud?
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
Wouldn't a morse key describe the Apple's mouse?
I can't really see this as the next wave in computer usage. Being a HAM (unskilled at morse as it be), I like to see people still using Morse code to communicate, however, I really don't see this as being a huge wave. Although, who knows? Maybe it will teach more and more people (hopefully the younger generation) an appreciation for morse, and might get more people as licensed HAMs.
---
Mike
I'm going to kick the next person that I see with their karma rating in their sig.
So SCO walked into a bar, and ...
:)
Nah, I think it still works.
Entering morse code sounds like it would be worse than trying to type on my cellphone.
I guess that's why it's not my hobby.
-Zipwow
I don't know which is more depressing, that 2/3 didn't care enough to vote, or that 1/2 of those that did are crazy.
I happen to know morse code but I rarely find a use for it anymore.
... -- ... (SMS in morse). My feature is just one step beyond what the Nokia handset already provides! ;-) )
What I would really like to have is an option to my mobile phone that converts incoming SMS messages to morse code, beeping them out! With that feature I would not have to actually pick up the phone to read my SMS messages. Maybe this would be possible to program on the newer Java-enabled phones?
(The standard "ring tone" on my Nokia for a SMS message is
)9TSS
.._...__._._._ _..... __._.._._
What do you mean Morse code is 'junk' characters?
Punch cards?
VRML smoke signals
Dear editors,
The year is 2003, not 1903. We don't want to read about Morse code and rechargeable batteries!
The unofficial
dididit dah dididah didadadit didit dahdidit (space) didit dahdidit dit didah didididit
Amazing magic tricks
_ _ _ . . . _ _ _
Save our souls from these sorry stories...
sounds like MSN "10 things you MUST have"..
"Could the next must-have computer input device be a morse key ?"
-- everyones not everybody and neither is everybody like everyone.
Now somebody just has to implement IP over Morse, and we come full circle. I expect the RFC to come out sometime in April.
ding ding ding dong dong dong ding ding ding
Look, I said "dong"
Did anyone know that slashdot has a filter to prevent me from posting in morse code??!?! The irony is striking.
It blinks out the problem in morse code using the num/caps/scroll lock lights on your keyboard. Here is the code that does it
Nero-burning ROM for Linux!
To paraphrase: There are 10 types of people in this world. Those that know that Morse Code is obsolete, and those that don't." :)
Still, it sure does come in handy in the movies...I don't know how many times I've seen the world saved because two people remembered Morse Code. "I _could_ be sending him the dimensions of this month's Playmate..."
Praise be to our "step backwards" regime, for today, in 2008, a brand new technology has been revealed to us, the people of the world.
It has been discovered that by using a sheet, or other covering, disruptions can be made in the smoke that comes from burning uncured/wet materials. These distruptions, when agreed upon in a certain format, can be used to communicate messages great distances.
The Berkely campus was set ablaze today by techno geeks attempting to create the first "smokey net". MIT students held a joyful party claiming "It's the first method created that you HAVE to let the smoke out to use!"
Of course, being an emerging retro technologie, it is not without it's limitations. Currently there is no capability for P2P or Secure networks, shy of committing genocide on a grand scale.
SCO International Dominion Corporation, in response to this announcement, stated "That's actually OUR wireless communications system, and we want royalties. As our evidence will certainly show, we introduced the genetic make up of trees, and it was US, not prometheus, who gave fire to the masses. Of course, we will not disclose this evidence at the time. But it's mine... gimme!
krystal_blade
It will be easy to motivate our fellow man; there is hardly anything people treasure more than not being annihilated.
VoIP.. Nahh.. *woosh* *woosh*
Video over IP? Might just catch on.
Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
dit dit da dit -- dit dit -- dit da dit -- dit dit dit -- da -- dit da da dit -- da da da -- dit dit dit -- da!!!!!
Slashdot discriminates against us morse code users. Calls us lame, no less. Looks like ASCII art. hmrph.
Junk characters indeed!!!!!
dit dit dit -- dit dit da -- dit!!! dit dit dit -- dit dit da -- dit!!! dit dit dit -- dit dit da -- dit!!!
Quite so. As an old guy, I learned Morse long ago, and use it to this day, but only on the radio. It is fun to be able to send and receive it (in my head - I do not bother writing it down) as fast as I can type, or even faster. I can listen in and follow along with the conversation, without having to take my eyes off of my work.
On the other hand, the most efficient communication I have ever been involved in involved using a sound board on my PC, hooking it up to the audio in/out of the radio transceiver, and using the computer to generate PSK31 encoded signals.
Hansi Reiser has written linux software for doing this: http://www.qsl.net/dl9rdz/#psk
73,
W4TI
Soli Deo Gloria
Not to piss off my diehard CW ops frineds and elmers. Learning and passing the Morse requirement to get my Amateur Radio Operators License from the FCC was one of the most crappy experiences of my life. I wanted to do RTTY and that was my reason for getting my Ham ticket. I still do FSK 45 baud RTTY when I can get a chance. Now PSK31 is in and is almost as good as CW for weak signal and narrow bandwidth. The only thing I use a CW key for tuning up. I have no intentions of wrecking my internet experience by adding a key to my computer some how.
Call sign withheld on account of my neck.
As you can see I don't care about my karma.
maybe
This is good news for the Duke Nukem Forever team.
As I see it, they are sending an essentially digital signal via analog means, where digital means is available and easier to implement. You *could* use VoIP of course, but what really is the point if you can just use a standard TCP/IP connection?
Heck, you could get rid of all the hardware needed whatsoever; Use the space button!
wtf is OSO?
Ahhh, morse. The way to deal with a single key keyboard. All this just to save on desk space. Where will it end?
Dotdadotdotdot...etcetc
E-N-L-A-R-G-E
Y-O-U-R
P-E-hey!!!
You know somebody's gonna try it...
"Morse Code Migrating To .NET" ?
The unofficial
java morse code translator
;-)
... --- ...
;-(
follow the link if you are java-in-your-browser-hater anyways, because there is a cgi morse code translator there too (includes audio!
soon to be slashdotted into oblivion
wait...
slashdot you suck!
i tried to post some cryptic output for the uber-morse geeks to read and i got this:
"Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Please use fewer 'junk' characters."
oh well, i'm stuck with this titanic message then:
poo
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I was going to reply to this in Morse code. Unfortunately Taco's lameness filter vetoed it. Not to troll or anything, but it seems that filter causes more problems than it solves. The trolls just work around it, while real posts get punished. Sigh....
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
Isn't morse code basically a binary code? So let me get this straight, people want to use one type of binary code to be encoded in another(true) binary code? Thats the same as instead of using bits, use "0" and "1" characters for binary data.
Sometimes progress is just so cliche.
I'm all for technological nostalgia, and let's do something new with old technology just because we can, but this is a bridge too far. Morse code was outdated even 100 years ago!
Go Mares!!!
I would have written a big long reply in morse code, but slashdot's lameness filter prevents morse code replies. So it should be obvious that morse code on the web will never take off.
The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
I was suprised at all the negative comments this story has received. I guess it's easy for most people to forget where they come from.
Morse code, in my opinion, is an invaluable tool in opening the doors to the young in such fileds as electrical engineering, physics, computers and radio communications.
There is no way most parents could/would shell out 500 dollars and upwards for even a used HF rig for their kid to get started in their "hobby".
But I bet you that same kid would never foget his first QSO with his home built, 200mw, 9 volt battery operated rig and a wire antenna. Especially if he's chatting it up with another ham 2 states away. These kist are available for as little as 20 bucks online, minus the cost of the soldering iron.
As for the art of morse code "dying", the poster has no idea that there are hundreds of contests that take place yearly on a international level.
I guess it's easier for parents to sit their kids in front of a tv/interet enabled computer than to sit with them and help them learn their first morse charachters.
ooh! someone could hack a griffin powermate to be the world's slickest morse tapper!
Triv
Could the next must-have computer input device be brightly-colored flags?
The neat thing about morse ham radio is that you can make it out over long distances where you're receiving the signal that the other end is transmitting directly, without any protocol in between aside from what you do yourself and electromagnetism.
In order to do something similar online, the right solution is to use one and two byte ping packets.
A high-speed key, with weights on the back to allow the thing to send a string of dots or dashes just by holding the paddle one way or the other. Once you could send code using a key, using a bug was easily learned, and was necessary for speeds approaching 20 words per minute. The advantage of using code over voice was simplicity, no modulator needed, just break entire carrier on and off to send your message over short wave to the receiver, who then hetrodyned your signal locally in the receiver circuitry using an adjustable knob to produce an audible note. I was K5HLW in the 1950's, and used this form of communication in the 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands for a few years.
At the time, we had no idea that PC's such as we use today would be invented, even though we were the techies of the day. Could this happen again? Sure. Give it a few years, and everyone will be using something now unimagined.
I really don't think CW will ever leave the air. There is something amazing and compelling about two people thousands of miles away communicating at a fairly decent speed using only simple switches and a very small amount of power.
I only wish my Morse skills were better, but I'm working on it.
-John
I already have a morse key. It's called a Windows key/Start key. What else is it good for?
I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
The bandwidth of user-recognized Morse code is just to small compared to reading and typing text or speech. It made sense in the early days of radio and as a weeding-out process later on to separate the serious hobbyists from the casual ones in licensing.
These days I don't know. It's a cute little hack, and it still has limited applications in radio.
I just thought of an interesting possible application - steganography. You can only see a message if you are looking for it. IF you were using, say, a status flag as your signalling device a sharp BOFH might look for ASCII or Unicode. He would be unlikely to look for Morse code. Add in the slop that Morse has - distances between letters, the difference between a dot and a dash or the characters within letters can be pretty variable - and you might have an inefficient but harder to detect method of hiding messages.
The man who never alters his opinion is like the stagnant water and breeds Reptiles of the Mind -- William Blake
Would an rfc for morse code over ip be any stupider that rfc1149 & rfc2549
No, the next input device will be a "life detector". If the life detector fails to detect you have a life, it will not let you online until you successfully obtain one.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
but then found this gem ;-)
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
... is the Morse-Code column (after the oct, dec and hex columns) in the UniCode docs. We need Morse encodings for at least utf-16.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
everyone should know morze code ,
it might end up being the only comunication we can
easily use after a major disaster or a major war
and other situations
Could the next must-have computer input device be a morse key ?
No.
In an era of ADSL, I have just one question about Morse on PCs:
.-- .... -.-- ..--..
I wrote my own nokia ringtone to play "CQ CQ CQ DE xx6xx" (xx6xx is my call sign).
I am a geek.
If I had a better phone, I would setup a bunch of ringtones especially for other people i.e. "CQ CQ CQ DE MOM"
One other use, which I have been investigating as a personal project, is using the vibrating phone feature so you can get message without anyone else knowing. I did not look at morse code initially as a solution as it too slow, but if you can get phone to vibrate in way in which you can work out the message, you could receive message in secret..
-- Dr. Fu Ling-Yu, Internal Technology Consult; Tongji University, People Republic of China.
"Could the next must-have computer input device be a morse key ?"
Yeah because we sure don't have anything right now suited to clicking in pulses on a computer. Better come up with a new input device.
So, now we won't have any more "any key" to spaaz about if you can't find it. It'll be the "morse key"
Absolutely!
Then, I will create a filter to change my display to filter out all color and convert it to shades of CRT green! ~tres cool~
I've already replaced my CD-ROM drive with the tape drive from my VIC-20.
Hopefully someone can create a motherboard mod to replace my CPU with a programmable plug board so I can experience the fun of having to physically configure the computer for computational tasks.
Oh the joy of it all!!!
dash dot
dash dash dash.
Just raise the taxes on crack.
I've been working on an app for my Danger hiptop to play incoming SMS and email subjects/senders in code...
US aeronautical beacons (VOR and NDB) are still identified by Morse code signals, with the dot-dash IDs printed on all charts.
While the popularity and power of GPS has had people predicting the end of these admittedly old-school (NDBs are arguably a 1920's technology) for some time, most observers give them at least another ten years.
-cwk.
With all the technology we have we could type at each other. Now we can do it but via Morse Code.
. . .be called DashDot? Rimshot!
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
Could the next must-have computer input device be a morse key?
[Manic Laughter]
Next week, we'll discuss the trend towards rotary keyboards.
I can understand the interest in old things. I think it would be very interesting to learn some old obscure language and then seek out others to talk to. But morse code? It seems like it's far too simple and inefficient (each letter takes several clicks) to be interesting to very many people. Maybe it's because I'm a computer nerd and serial encoding is like second nature to me? It just sounds really boring.
Wouldn't be too hard to make a program to turn a touchpad into a Morse key, Windows users could use the code interfaces here, but there's also (of course) board-level specs for the necessary Linux drivers, as I don't think the (third-party) Synaptics Linux driver provides such direct interfaces, I can't speak to the Mac. *shrug*
I'm a nature photographer.
A friend of mine had an idea to write a program that beeps in morse code while you type in Windows applications. I was so intrigued with the idea that I had to try it, and wound up finishing it :)
Morse Code Beeper
Both the source code and compiled binaries can be downloaded from the above site. Enjoy.
Harold
Now we just need to string a tin can to the neighbor's house and use it for a data connection.
Pratical value -> Near Zero
Sentimental value -> high.
Looking for any old 8-bit Heathkit/Zenith software/hardware - http://heathkit.garlanger.com
On a serious note if morse could be encoded and decoded by an interface like teXt or saved as a file format, the possibilities are interesting. .=1 -=0 plus a separator could be the basis of very small file size with huge amounts of text. I should look into creating an ASCII triger based on this idea. The separator would need to be a simple new morse character for a space. The traditional morse rythym interpretation could not work as a file format.
If a new seperator character could be used for a space then text only message file sizes would be very tiny indeed.
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
GNU/Morse?
catch (HumourFailureException e) { e.user.send("You, sir, are a humourless idiot."); }
dash dot dash dash dot dot dash
Personally, I prefer to send my SOS to the World in a hundred billion bottles.
Of course the coast guard is mad at me 'cause my hundred billion bottles tend to wash up on the shore.
Every idea has its Sting.
One of the things that makes international morse code unique is that is has been used as an international language for years. The Morse "Q" Signals have always helped folks to chat across traditional language barriers.
I agree with the other poster who said that hams' shorthand would put an IM kid to shame! It makes me laugh... (like this .... .. .... ..)
WD6CWR
"You can't have everything. Where would you keep it?" -- Steven Wright
Other countries are already moving to adopt the new international regulation. However in the USA the old men at ARRL are trying to drag out the demise of the 19th century requirement as they have for the last twenty years.
They have done this at their own risk, since none of the new ham radio operators will join a organiztion that has done everything they could to keep them out of ham radio.
To make a comparison between ham radio and computers it would be like all college computer training schools requiring all students to know how to operate and program a UNIVAC to get a degree.
Having grown up in a house with both parents as ham ops (and holding a licence myself),I remember in the early 80's we messed with the minds of other amateurs when we rigged up our C-64 to our HF rig. That puppy was capable of sending 180 WPM .... was a nasty trick to play on the guys out there sending by hand..increment speed,increment speed...
(C) Kaki Sain, 2011. By reading this, you have illegally copied my property to your brain.
>> Could the next must-have computer input device be a morse key ?"
Only if Apple releases a mouse that's shaped like one.
Back when I could still do 5 WPM, and hankered to build a homebrew PDA but didn't want to deal with a breakable LCD display, a Morse interface seemed to make a lot of sense. It might still make sense for hams, though expectations for PDAs are a lot higher than way back then.
WWJD for a Klondike Bar?
Why use existing Morse Code?
Just make up our own from this site
slash slash dot dot dot
I only learned morse to get my license, then forgot it. I don't have anything against code, just not my bag of tea. One good thing about it, at least it keeps some of the knobs off the air ;)
Or as I always say.... 3 dits, 4 dits, 2 dits, dahh (figure it out) ;)
Well, I have heard all your comments but would like to see some action. My name is ditdahdahdah dahdahdahdah ditditditdit dahdit and I think it would be cool to develop some kind bluetooth device that could be a portable for the MC_guru. Imagine sitting in a meeting sending a text message to your friend by just moving your fingers. Give the option to allow people to trun on/off features the have message displayed as code or text, sound or silent.
This would also enbale people to learn.
I bet the speeds would rival even those of the clunky handwriting, reco in all pda's on the market today.
Why should we do this, well, if you have ever worked for a large organization and have people that specialize in legacy systems, they will tell you that all these ideas that have sprouted up with XML have been thought of and accomplished already using legacy languages.
Well why not take one of the most primative forms of communication and make it into a useful tool.
regards,
ditdahdahdah dahdahdahdah ditditditdit dahdit
Example: 'VMS', 'EUMS' and 'SOS' are all encoded as ...---... The only difference is where the letter boundaries are.
This probably doesn't lead to any confusion when transmitting English (you just pick the interpretation that makes sense), but it would really suck for transmitting data.
Try out this program under KDE: Kmorse
You can grab it here...
http://www.emuit.com/kmorse/
This is a big mistake. Just 5 wpm for your first exam. Come on, someday knowing CW could save your life or someone elses.
I'm studying for my first HAM exam. You be surprised at the number of people that have laughed at me. "Why are you wasting your time with something thats outdated?". Well, in Canada. Anything which is north of Barrie, you can only communicate with radios. Forget the Rogers cell phone. Have you every gotten stuck north bound on highway 400 just before North Bay.
You are fucked.
Until wireless cell phones and Internet reach these areas (Cottage Country). You will need a handheld HAM radio. With a gps, you could give your co-ordinates by CW.
Thing about it. There is nothing in in this world today that should disappear.
The apprentice types morse, referring to a guide for each letter.
The journeyman types morse fluently from memory.
The master codes perl in morse.
Could the next must-have computer input device be a morse key?
*Fizzl shakes the magic 8 ball, and it reveals: 'My Sources Say No.'*
Bot Assisted Blogging
On the other hand, when typing with a keyboard my hand has to search around for the keys when typing single handedly. With morse code, I can pound out the cyber love code with one finger, or a toe. Imagine the possibilities!
Screw this, I'm getting a webcam...
Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.
Isn't decoding a morse message a violation against DCMA (Digital Copyright Millennium Act) ?
Just don't do morse over ssh console session and think it's safe!
1 .p df1 1/08 /ssh_keystroke.html
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~daw/papers/ssh-use0
http://linux.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/linux/2001/
-- v --
Morse Code = Dots or Dashes = 1 or 0 = Binary = old news in the computer industry... I knew this was a dupe!
"Could the next must-have computer input device be a morse key ?" Absolutely! And it will come with a stack of complementary punchcards too.
...that Morse code is the kind of communication that is simpler to establish if you are in any extreme situation like a war? ...that Morse code needs the lowest signal/noise ratio among every digital communications? ...that if somebody decides to shut off the Net you can always talk with a guy near to you or maybe in the other emisphere? ...and finally... ...that, like somebody said before me, it is really fun to talk via CW in the middle of the night, with maybe 0.5W of power, with someone living in some strange unknown island in the ocean?
When the aliens knock out NORAD, we're going to need morse code to communicate. How else will we organize out counteroffensive?
Litigious bastards
The ARRL has not taken a position on the subject. I'm an amateur radio operator and life ARRL member who would like to see the morse code requirement deleted from the FCC rules. Morse code still has its advantages for HF communication with low power and simple/cheap equipment, although I expect it will slowly fade away as more efficient digital modes become widespread and standardized.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
True, the teachers may not appreciate the kids who secretly send messages back and forth during lectures, but it's not that much different from passing notes. If it really got to be annoying, the radio signals are probably easier to intercept and monitor than sheets of paper anyway.
The walkie-talkies I've seen tend to be 14 channels, but since Morse takes so much less bandwith it seems like a waste to use 1/14th of the available spectrum just for one QSO. Even worse, the only ones I've found are very poor at Morse communication. The buttons don't seem suitable at all for keying, and I'd like to be able to recieve the messages silently somehow instead of that annoying beep.
I tried a few Google searches for some sort of walkie-talkie type of system that was good at sending Morse silently, but to no avail. It seems like it would be a good market -- sort of like sending secret messages, but not really all that secret, since you're broadcasting. Does anyone know of something suitable for sending silent "instant messaging" in QW, over very short distances (walkie-talkie range or lower)?
William L. Dye ("willdye") ...at... willdye ...dot... com
zCW
Just turn the slash (in the slashdot name) about 70 degrees clockwise and you get dashdot. Or then again , you can turn the dash about 70 degrees counter-clockwise an the morse is turned slash. The for wxample S.O.S would look like ...///...
And slashdot woud be dashdot (i.e -. instead of /. )
Who will register dashdot.org (for Morse code enabled site)?
While the Morse code requirement for getting a ham license is going to be going away, I'm not so sure that the code will be 'disappearing off the air', at least as far as the ham bands are concerned. I'm certainly not stopping using Morse just because it's no longer a license requirement, and the same is true for a lot of other hams. The use of Morse isn't being banned, it's just no longer a license requirement. And in some segments of the hobby, morse is still a preferred mode (it's not unusual to see comments from contesters about having to hunt up the microphone when they occasionally operate a phone contest, simply because they primarily operate CW contests).
Story goes the Thomas Edison proposed to his second wife over morse code. He thought the telegraph was the best way to communicate with his wife, and taught her morse code.
And in more recent related news, in Kuala Lupur, it's possible to get a divroce with a mobile phone text message.
M@
Krispy Cream is people
Funny,
/. folks for always including articles about Amateur Radio and Field Day and stuff like this. Have any of you guys thought about getting your license?
I just made my first CW QSO on 40 meters last night. Woo-Hoo!!! Thanks Karl!!!
Having done that, let me say "CW ROCKS!".
Well, the subject is a bit misleading, I learned the code a while back and passed my test. I haven't really used it live on the air until last night.
I'd like to thank the
Thanks again,
Pete
(W4PRT)
Linux users could convert the unused windows key into a morse key.
Brian.
I just had to say it. I know I am a bad slashdoter....
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I kid you not. Consider this. The only reasons PDAs/cellphones/portables stopped getting smaller is that they still need to accommodate some sort of a display and input device(s). But, it will soon be perfectly feasible to have a very high-res display integrated into some sort of eyewear like regular looking sunglasses (actually, the only way to make a very small yet high-res screen readable is to put it right in front of your eye) and the rest of the device could be just a single button dangling off your keychain. Morse input is a natural for that. Palm graphitti (sp?) clearly demonstrated that a large number people can be moved to learn a new input mechanism if there is a clear benefit to it. In this case the benefit is being able to input without looking, eq while driving. You'd be surpised how much else you could do with a single button. (see www.xenote.com, now defunct :( , for an example)
In a related item, Ford announced that in addition to 0% financing, all new car buyers will receive a free saddle, feed bag and whip if they take delivery of a new Ford, Lincoln or Mercury by August 15th.
-Everyone laughs at lemmings but no one ever wants to admit to ever being one.
Like everybody else who tried posting in Morse:
"Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Please use fewer 'junk' characters."
Get with the program, Slashdot.
Its a friggen' standard!
Is that not the origin of the BREAK key? It seems that I read somewhere that the BREAK may be the oldes key on the keyboarad. It seems ithas its origins in the telegraph. When you would use the telegraph, it would "break" the connection in the circuit.
Googling is left as an exercise for the reader.
Give it a try!
It interoperates with the version of the client that runs on my T-Mobile Sidekick (aka Danger Device)... read about it and a concept for a dedicated device at this site
Sadly, since these phones are locked, there is no easy way for me to offer the beta quality Danger app for others.
tone
tone
Guess I'll have to dust off my dad's old 1947 Vibroplex bug Or go buy a new one.
http://www.vibroplex.com/origstd.htm
Aside from the cord and plug there haven't really been any design changes that I can see over some five and a half decades.
ok. so about 6 years ago these old guys, like my 99 y/o great grandfather, got board and decided to get nostalgic and broke out their version of the internet, telegraphy machines for the younger ones and then the manual ones for the "vets." so, when these guys would start it was fast, old rail signals and such then, at about 8:30 everything would go silent and the OLD guys would get on. 3 guys around the country, my gGrandfather and two others on the west coast. Blew everyone away with how fast they still were. These guys built the ancient infrastructure and they are almost ALL still doing internet stuff, at least until they die. Truly incredible.
Could the next must-have computer input device be a morse key ?
Yes! absolutely! That's why I'm selling turbo charged morse-keyboards. You get your own morse keyboard with various sized morse keys, arranged in several rows. You get 108 keys with this baby! An unbelievable deal for only $49.95!
Please check my other auctions on eBay, like the fabulous Golden Gate bridge and Eiffel tower combo. Satisfaction guaranteed. I prefer PayPal.
/* TAANSTAFL */
I'm a pilot and Morse Code is still heard over the air on radio Navigation Aids such as VORs (VHF Omnidirectional Range) and NDBs (Non Directional Beacon) to help identify them (make sure you tuned the right one on the nav radio) and also be sure they are working (don't hear the morse code? got it tuned right? well then, must be down for service, you can't use it no matter what the little nav needle says). Yes, these aids will be going the way of the dodo in favor of GPS but not for a while yet.
I'm probably waaaay too late to make a difference here, but it seems to me that to make it effective over the internet, there's going to have to be a protocol for carrying the content:
Design for Use, not Construction!
rearange...
feels better now
2501
I'm 24 and near-broke; in fact I'm supporting my mom at the moment. Feel free to donate to me actually being able to use my license :D
If that wasn't good enough, how about the fact that the FCC misspelled my name, making it a female one instead of a male one?
Sincerely yours,
KC2KOA
+++ATH0
Graffiti is to Morse as a DC-3 is to a kite.
"You might as well get your son a ticket to hell as give him a five string banjo." -unknown minister
How about replacing your ringtone with morse code of the caller?
-Zipwow
I don't know which is more depressing, that 2/3 didn't care enough to vote, or that 1/2 of those that did are crazy.
And?
Yeah, it works, but it was a serious pain and we have much better things now.
The current "one-button" interface [heck, you can fit a jog wheel+button in that space] would be Dasher in my not-so-humble opinion.
But wait for Moore's law to catch up with software and we may yet end up with the microphone+speaker interface to the computer.
"You might as well get your son a ticket to hell as give him a five string banjo." -unknown minister
Dasher is all right, I suppose. One way or another, there is going to be a need for a one-button interfa ce. I think we agree on that. There was also some German company that caused a bit of a stir at the last Cebit with their PDA/cellphone platform designed for one-handed input. (Linux based, too)
:)
OK, found it: http://www.invair.com/
As far as a voice interface as good as Star Trek one is concerned, I don't buy it. Human level understanding of human speech may very well require human-level AI, and we are no closer to that today than we were 30 years ago. I don't think Moore's law is going to help you any.
P.S. Don't go to Austria, Andy. This place is a dump and nobody here knows what Sound of Music is anyway
Didn't read the entire gamut of responses, so I don't know if anyone pointed it out ..
.. often the case when using low power on crowded bands. Some propagation modes are virtually unusable on phone .. like auroral.
CW has the advantage of being very easy to receive in noisy, low bandwidth channels