Slashdot Mirror
Morse Code Enters The 21st Century
N8TWJ writes "The International Telecommunications Union has decided to bring
Morse Code into the 21st century by adding the loved (or hated?) - at (@) symbol. Lets hope the spammers don't start sniffing 20 meters for da-dit-da-dit-dah-dit..." According to the article, Paul Rinaldo, chief technical officer for the American Radio Relay League, says: "It's a pretty big deal... there certainly hasn't been any change [in Morse Code characters] since before World War II."
Obviously, morse code operators have had ways of getting around using 'at' signs for almost two hundred years, but it's a cool addition, and is as big a deal as they make out.
:-) If any Morse operators here have some good examples, do post!
I find morse code interesting because so many old timers complain about how the Internet makes 'ppl tlk lk this' and say 'nce 2 c u l8r', but that sort of abbreviation has been used in Morse Code for decades! The typical banter you see on IRC or in SMS cellphone text messages is pretty tame compared to what those operators could pump out on the wires
Now I can just plug my relay right into my ISP and just surf the web and get email through Morse code!
Playing ut2003 will be a pain though. Hopefully ut2004 will have a "Morse" input option.
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
I was going to 'First Post!' in morse but the lameness filter won't let me. Dang now I'll just get modded to hell and back.
--_- -- -_- --- _ A -__- ___ --- _ A _- ___ A -__ -_ -- _ A _-- -_ __ _-
) . Let's hope Slashdot's filter lets me post this.
(Check this link to translate: http://www.translatum.gr/converter/morse-code.htm
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Morse will truly have arrived in the 20th century when you can :) ;) and :)~
-G
It's not my fault! It was this way when I got here.
According to the article:
:)
The new sign, which will be known as a "commat," consists of the signals for "A" (dot-dash) and "C" (dash-dot-dash-dot), with no space between them.
This means that the @ is: dit-da-da-dit-da-dit so I don't mind the spammers listning for da-dit-da-dit-da-dit
Jeroen
Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
Well, given how illiterate today's generations of texters and emailers are becoming we can presumably look forward to ship bound soses such as ...
'OMG! U sUnK mY BatT13sH1p U Camp1ng fAg! Plz snd he1p! GG'
Great news for all fans of morse code. This now means that when we send an SOS we can supply an email address to let us know help is on its way!
...-....-.
Wouldn't spelling as a-t it out be shorter/faster?
at = dit dah, dah
@ = dit dah dah dit dah dit
Or does an inter-symbol pause really take as along as 3 symbols?
Just picture the scene, its the middle of a major terrorist attack, the control centres can only communicate via morse code, and suddenly...
Reading from piece of paper "Get The Cheapest Viagra now!"Oh dear, spam hit an all time low.
While it is cool and all that, forget sending your email address as morse code when your ship is in trouble because nobody is listening!.
Even more robust than UUCP !
The International Telecommunications Union has decided to bring Morse Code into the 21st century
All those morse code operators who have been unable to find it in this century can now breathe a sigh of relief! Morse code has made it to the 21st century, just four years late.
I recently saw it used in a movie...
I demand those insensitive clods make a new Euro code. It is vital now that I communicate with my stock broker by rapping morse code with my mug on the prison bars. Oh, and they had better reserve a code for the upcoming "Afro" currency too. Ta.
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
Since there is a hypen and a period in Morse, you can send Morse Code over Morse Code.
You know, er, just to be stupid or something.
graspee
Morse code is an early variable-length data compression stanard (similar to Huffman codes or Shannon-Fano codes). By representing common letters with shorter codes ("E = "," and "T" = "-") and rare letters with longer codes ("Z" = "--.." an "Q" = "--.-"), Morse code manages to encode the 26 letters of the alphabet in 4 bits maximum and much less than 4 bits per letter on average.
Although Morse did use letter frequencies in constructing his code, it is not a truely optimized code, from what I can tell. Numbers are encoded with a cumbersome 5 bits per digit. Also, the transmission time of messages might be further reduced with minor rearrangements of the code to use more dots (short transmission time) in more frequent letters and more dashes (long transmission time) in the less frequent letters.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Morse codes can be quite useful, even today.
There is a Linux kernel patch floating around (IIRC it was in -ac, don't know about mainstream) that adds the output of kernel panics via keyboard LEDs. Nice for early oopses.
The main character in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon uses his keyboards LEDs to read a set of documents about cryptography. He uses the LEDs to spell out the documents in Morse code and writes some code using his space key as a morse tapper.
;-)
However, looking at the Morse chart he would have a problem writing code and reading mathematical notations with the limitations of the Morse alphabet.
I'd never thought about that before! You're owned Stephenson
A little planning goes a long way...
...before the server gets dash-dotted?
from all you whippersnappers. You don't know nuthin'
.
We were talking across the world and making friends with strangers before Al Gore was a twinkle in his father's eye, and we were doing it for free. Not only did we invent 133t speak, we but we refined it
We had to deal with inteference from the neighbor's electronic organ, changing band conditions, sloppy handkeying, line interference, nests on the antennas, having to make our own equipment, the massive russian woodpeckers equipment problems that we had to fix ourselves, and having to log our operations.
And we were grateful
NA7E
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Yes and np. You cannot "declare obsolete" any particular code - if you wan't to count in Roman numbers, you are free to do so (and I'm pretty sure there is an emacs macro to facilitate this). However, in 1999 Morse code indeed was withdrawn from "officlal" maritime distress communication. When you find yourself in deep caca on a sinking wessel, you are no longer obliged to yell "dee dee dee daa daa daa dee dee dee" to your satellite phone. In twenty first century, you can just scream "heeeeellllp!". That's what I call progress!
There are a number of morse code symbols that don't correspond to graphical letters, digits or interpunctuation; you may say that they are similar to ASCII control characters in denoting things such as "end of message".
Problem is, when you listen to and take down morse code by hand, you need an easy way to indicate those control symbols too. When I had some morse training in the 1970's (voluntary after-school classes), we used "+" to indicate "end of message" (.-.-.) and (surprise) "@" for "end of contact" (...-.-)...
I don't know whether "@" was in common use for that purpose or if it was just my teacher's idea. To me, @ thus meant "end of communication, time to do something else" long before I learned about spam!
...but what is a dot in Morse code? You know - loser@aol[.]com. For that matter, what about things like _ and / or \? How would you know that the username is big.loser and not big_loser @aol.com.
If they're just adding the @ now, what other symbols that are necessary for "communication in the 21 century"?
There are 01 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and me.
Of course, interesting it is!
;-)
Morse code - binary, it is!
-- "May the Source be with you!"
I have to ask: with so many thousands of glyphs in Chinese, what did they do to utilize telegraph lines when that was the only means for fast long distance communication?
I'm assuming they didn't create a different sequence for each one....
"Provided by the management for your protection."
The first thing I thought of was that they were going to start sending XML down the line.
Imagine that horror:
<message sender="Titanic">
<word>
<char>dot</char>
<char>dot</char>
<char>dot</char>
<char>space</char>
<char>dash</char>
<char>dash</char>
<char>dash</char>
<char>space</char>
<char>dot</char>
<char>dot</char>
<char>dot</char>
</word>
</message>
Thanks,
--
Matt
Morse code is the primary communication method during harsh conditions. From the 12 months I was in the navy, about 4 we practised morse code. The same goes for national emergencies, when cell phone networks and other electrical communications networks would be down.
Even in extremely bad radio wheather, and when all other communications networks are down, morse code is audible behind all the hiss and crackle (with good equipment).
Here in Finland, where extreme distances are a problem (our country is twice as big as England with a population of 6 million) radio amateurs have arranged a peer-to-peer network for emergencies. They have a yearly test of the network. Basically even the authorities have to trust this voluntary network when a bigger chrisis occurs.
Audio at http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=16805 29
Since email was one of the first things used on the internet, why would adding the @ symbol bring Morse Code into the 21st century? Wouldn't it just bring it later into the mid 20th century?
3 dots, 4 dots, 2 dots, dah
Radio, Radio RAH, RAH,RAH
It was never declared obsolete... It was just eliminated from the ITU rules for maritime radiotelephone operators. For us Hams, knowledge of it was also required for us to use any frequency below 30MHz. Since the ITU has eliminated it from the international treaties, most countries are eliminating it from their amateur radio requirements. The ARRL is also proposing a partial elimination of it for those of us in the US. It will be eliminated for every class of operation other than Extra (if the FCC approves it).
73 de Paul, KC4YDY
The number 1 problem of working in a cubicle - 23 power cords, 1 outlet...
Breaking news from www.telegraph.co.uk:
World Wide Morse Conference in Oxford
By Harold Banfry in Oxford
Filed 19 February 2004
World Wide Morse Consortium begins a week-long meeting today in Oxford. The distinguished but beleagurered coterie of academics from around the world will discuss the apparently dim future of Morse, its public perception, and paths for its future.
One of the most exciting developments planned for Spring 2005 is the roll-out of Morse Unicode, to accommodate the requirements of the international developer community. Each dot ("dit") or dash ("dah") in the previous scheme will be replaced with four dots or dashes.
"This enhancement is long overdue," says Dr. Davit Dannaugh. "Now we can represent any letter uniquely in any language. With the increasing availability of dedicated broadband Morse lines, there will be no practical impediments."
Also in the limelight for the Oxford meeting are Morse cryptography, Morse security, and Voice over Morse.
- rabs
I need a tilde, damnit! My unix-hosted web page address has a tilde! There go my hopes of reaching new audiences via morse...
I am Jack's witty signature line
It has to do with the relative length of time it takes to send morse characters. (Note in the following that "dahs" are three times as long as "dits".)
For example, "AND" is di-dah dah-dit dah-di-dit, while "ES" is dit di-di-dit. "AND" takes more than three times as long to send as "ES", so "ES" has become popular. Similar logic leads to the use of "FB" over "OK", although both are heard.
The letter "O", dah-dah-dah, is particularly troublesome, since it is a popular vowel in English, yet it is very long; other letters are often substituted for it when possible. On the other hand, "E", dit, is the shortest letter; it is often used to to substitute for other vowels. "FER" for "FOR" is the result.
At least there's still no code for "!", which should discourage most Morse spam.
Okay, now I'm all dizzy.
Second: it's inefficient. It's a binary code (dit and da) and yet it's redundant. The Shannon entropy for English is lower than the calculated average message length for Morse. They should be using a Huffman code.
Suggestion: Create a Huffman code from well-known English letter frequencies. When constructing this code, always put the more-common subtree on the left side of the new Huffman node. Then, when translating to das and dits, always use dit for a left-going branch and da for a right-going branch (dit = 0, da = 1). This accounts for the fact that the "da" symbol takes longer to transmit than "dit".
The result won't be Morse code, but we could name it something else... "Huffman-Morsoid," or say, "Horse code."