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Audioblogging From Kilimanjaro Via Satellite Phone

GlucoPilot writes "Apparently a charity called Cops On Top is climbing Kilimanjaro as a memorial to the late Officer Isaac Espinoza of the SFPD. That in itself is pretty amazing, but the /. amazing thing is that they are AudioBlogging the whole thing via Satellite Phone by calling to an audioblogging site and having their MP3s automatically posted to their dasBlog (open source blogging system) at www.copsontop.com/climblog. Cool stuff. Their latest blog post is at 15,500 ft."

76 comments

  1. sat phone by juggle88 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The nice thing about sat phone is: the higher you climb the mountain, the clearer your audioblog.

    1. Re:sat phone by nijk · · Score: 2, Funny

      Our destruction of the ozone doesn't hurt either. :)

      One thing we can thank W for.

    2. Re:sat phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're right, blame him for all our and your woes. feh

    3. Re:sat phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Him? No.... The guy is too dumb to tie his shoe laces. I blame the morons who voted for him.

    4. Re:sat phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If Bush is "too dumb to tie his shoe laces", what does that make all those Democrats who keep losing to him?

    5. Re:sat phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Unable to dumb down messages to appeal to neocon drones with sub-100 IQs."

    6. Re:sat phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ah, LOSER. You'd just rather insult those who you disagree with. Deal with it.

    7. Re:sat phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ah, LOSER. You'd just rather insult those who you disagree with.

      Irony. Sweet, sublime irony.

      God I love halfwits with keyboards.

  2. Ambitious by Boronx · · Score: 3, Funny
    From the blog:

    "We plan to build a bridge between the two peaks."

    1. Re:Ambitious by ozbird · · Score: 1, Informative

      Obligatory Python sketch link for those who don't get the joke.

  3. ....and then... by gl4ss · · Score: 4, Insightful

    you decided to melt it with slashdot?

    audioblogs.. well. this is just about the only time where they actually DO make sense. otherwise the content if it were worth anything would have been better to write down..

    one other thing, audioblogs are bandwith heavy! very heavy! not only that, but people with automatised fetchers will make you hefty traffic.. even when they don't actually listen to the shit.

    (besides, if you want to run an internet radio just start one)

    --
    world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    1. Re:....and then... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey.. they're pigs. They're not able to think alone.

  4. "That in itself is pretty amazing" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What is amazing about this? Lots of people climb mountains much higher than this.

  5. I'll be impressed... by liangzai · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... when I hear about the first blog from the moon.

    1. Re:I'll be impressed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... when I hear about the first blog from the moon

      By the time that happens, 'blog' will be passe. Instead we might be able to virtually experience it, like tele-presence in real time or some such.

  6. Wait a second... by nijk · · Score: 1

    Didn't Neil Armstrong already do that?

    1. Re:Wait a second... by Hal+XP · · Score: 3, Funny

      But Neil didn't post it on his official web site so it could be /.ed.

      --
      I'm a sci-fi vegan: I don't want the aliens to think we have as much right to live as the fried chickens we eat.
  7. DasBlog by SpudGunMan · · Score: 0, Troll

    not a full on topic but i just implimented dasblog about 6 hours ago after finding it on a ASP skript kiddy page. I really like it so far easy set up and i like the UI better then .text not to bash the shit out my home site but i do want to get some traffic for people to check it out over at kellykeeton.com/blog mainly i wanna represent for dasblog and how good of a little out of box application it is.

  8. I've climbed Kili. by haeger · · Score: 4, Informative
    Most amazing thing I've ever done. It seems that the glaciers on the top (at 5895m) are melting, probably because of global warming.

    If You want to see what the "Cops on top" are seeing, have a look at these photos.

    Monkeys.
    Mandara Hut
    Our porters.
    Long way to walk.
    Kilimanjaro from a distance.
    Mountainrat.
    The summit.
    The summit.
    The crater.
    The Glacier.
    Gillmans point.
    Our feet after walking for a day

    .haeger

    --
    You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. -- Harlan Ellison
    1. Re:I've climbed Kili. by sffubs · · Score: 1
      The view is amazing.

      I would recommend it to anyone.

      (If you want to see those pictures for more than about 5 minutes, mirror them please!)

      --
      ݼ)s$æúßðíÊ'öX'îò5^àûßQç£
    2. Re:I've climbed Kili. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's the difference between a mountainrat and a chipmunk???

    3. Re:I've climbed Kili. by spacefight · · Score: 1

      Maybe the shape of the tail and the head?

    4. Re:I've climbed Kili. by Solder+Fumes · · Score: 1

      I assume that your feet were just sweating out pigments from your boots or socks, otherwise we'd call you Stubby, right?

    5. Re:I've climbed Kili. by haeger · · Score: 1
      I assume that your feet were just sweating out pigments from your boots or socks, otherwise we'd call you Stubby, right?

      Actually, that's dirt from the road. It got through our boots. It was very dusty there. We had to open up the camera and clean it from dust too when we came home.

      .haeger

      --
      You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. -- Harlan Ellison
    6. Re:I've climbed Kili. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Neat!

      How much did you spend? Is it a dangerous area?

      I've heard that you can be kidnapped if you are outside of a group of people or compound in some areas of Tanzania.

      I'm thinking of doing Mt Elbrus or Mt Kilimanjaro

    7. Re:I've climbed Kili. by rollercow · · Score: 1

      I did a month in tanzania for £3k (all in from the UK) you should still be able to do it for that. (see my tz blog)

      As with everything in africa haggle on the price, and larger groups = cheaper

      Tanzania is safe, Just dont go out alone after dark, and keep a eye on your valubles... as always check your goverments recomendations on such things

  9. Insensitive Clods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Not every /.er lives in US, you insensitive clods!

  10. While you're there by upside · · Score: 1, Funny

    Don't forget to visit the Golden Shower restaurant in nearby Moshi. It's a ... refreshing experience.

    Greets to all waafrika. :)

    --
    I'm sorry if I haven't offended anyone
  11. Hurray by Lobishomen · · Score: 0, Troll

    We'll be able to listen to people freeze to death via Satellite phone? I've always wondered what that's like, and now I won't even have to die to find out.

  12. I'd be more impressed if... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'd be more impressed if speech recognition software were good enough to be able to convert their audio to text and blog it that way.

    Posting AC because my slashdot account gets blocked at work, probably a proxy issue.

  13. Hey that's a great idea by Illserve · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm going to take a vacation to Tahiti as a memorial to my recently deceased friend.

    I'm taking up a collection via paypal, email me for information.

    1. Re:Hey that's a great idea by nblender · · Score: 1

      thank you. I was wondering if anyone else was going to realize the pure ridiculousness of this idea.

    2. Re:Hey that's a great idea by Illserve · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's not ridiculous!

      I'm going to take a memorial plaque with me and everything. It'll be sitting right beside me on the beach while I sip expensive cocktails and watch topless women cavort in the water.

      It's what he would have wanted.

  14. 15,500 ft by myukew · · Score: 1

    15,500 ft... can someone tell what's that in rods?

    1. Re:15,500 ft by HerbieTMac · · Score: 1

      While realizing you are joking... 939.394 rods.

  15. The Audioblog Series Transcript by gbulmash · · Score: 4, Funny
    Entry 1: "Sort of cold here."

    Entry 2: "Getting higher, getting colder."

    Entry 3: "Damn, my nuts are freezing."

    Entry 4: "Holy f***ing sh**!!! Whose idea was this?"

    Entry 5: "Cabn't tabalk. Mah mowbouth ibis nubumb. Cobold! Cobold! Cobold!"

    Entry 6: "Found a sheltered valley where everyone lives in peace. It's actually warm and lush. Who would have believed it? The GPS is saying our coordinates are.... Hey! Put down that spear! Arrrrggghhhh!!!!!"

    No further entries.

    1. Re:The Audioblog Series Transcript by geeveees · · Score: 1

      Entry 5: "Cabn't tabalk. Mah mowbouth ibis nubumb. Cobold! Cobold! Cobold!"

      Holy shit! They're under attack by Kobolds!

      --
      I am a viral sig. Please help me spread.
    2. Re:The Audioblog Series Transcript by adeydas · · Score: 1

      And the sat phone become their God...

    3. Re:The Audioblog Series Transcript by gbulmash · · Score: 1
      Holy shit! They're under attack by Kobolds!

      AND they forgot their 20-sided dice. What a tragedy.

  16. Re:I've climbed Kili. (Me Too!) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  17. Highest dump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Went up a few years ago via the 'Umbwe' route. Very steep and some glacier work but far less people around. Walking round the glacier source in the caldera was a weird moonscape, a stunning experience. However, it was early morning and climbing the final couple of hundred feet to the summit, I had to have a dump. The highest I've been. So the guy I climbed with decided to go higher up still - purely as a matter of one-upmanship. Fortunately, camera phones were a thing of the future then...

  18. Interesting by dooby_Monster · · Score: 2, Funny

    Perhaps /. could introduce audio reply's for them times when only spoken words can express your true feelings.

    1. Re:Interesting by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 1

      I can't imagine anybody abusing something like that.
      After all, the trolls would never find a way to produce an audible version of goatse or, god forbid, tubgirl.

      Please excuse me, I feel queezy just thinking about it.

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
  19. Nice story, but is this really something for /.? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Surely there are other sites that this story would have been better placed? e.g. A mountaineering site or a police site? There isn't anything very nerdy about climibing a mountain even if there are blog entries going on. Maybe a link to a page where they describe their use of the blog would have been more appropriate? (Posted anonymously in light of recent comments).

  20. WHY IS THIS MODDED DOWN???? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    surely - this should be a +4 Informative at least.

  21. -1, Troll by Gothmolly · · Score: 0

    Why do you have to insert blatantly false trolls? And why do the mods approve of it? What is this, kuro5hin?

    --
    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
  22. We did that 4 months ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm part of an university student club who did that (audioblog) with a team of 25 persons who climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds for arthritis research in Canada. They used a Iridium sat phone to call us in Montreal to leave us news and their position. We conceived a website giving their position on a map of Kilimanjaro and posted their messages in MP3 format. Eager to see what is about that? Go to www.kili2004. There is english and french side but all blogs are on french side.

    1. Re:We did that 4 months ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry. The website is www.kili2004.com

  23. say that ten times fast! by Quazi · · Score: 1

    Audioblogging From Kilimanjaro

    Audioblogging From Kilimanjaro

    Audiokilling From Bloggi.. DAMN.

  24. charity and memorial excursions to disneyland by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    If people do this because they honestly just enjoy doing it, I am all for that, that is perfectly fine. But if they then claim altruistic inspiration and the wish to better society, that's just plain silly.

    How's this sound:

    • In honour of the poor and suffering I'm going to make my swim-team swim harder then ever tonight during training.
    and our next meet will be dedicated to them.
    credible?

    I sorry but I don't know who people are really doing a favor when they say they're

    • either doing it to raise money for a charity
    • or to honour somebody that's recently died.
    I get the impression that the picture they try to portray is that they are doing something they would not have done but for a greater cause. That they have no "selfish" or personal motivation in doing it.

    But climbing mountains is exactly the opposite. All the effort, time and work that is invested for mountain climbing is for personal reasons only. To have done it, to know what one can do, (to survive of course), to improve selfworth, to face a challenge and complete it. Directly no else but ones self gains from having climbed a mountain.

    It seems more like these persons are using these points as noble justifications for somethings that is actually very much a self-indulgement.

    For those that claim charity and hope to raise money this way:
    I mean how much money exactly does it cost for a group of people to climb these mountains? $100k, ..., $300k ? Do they actually raise more money this way than investing this much effort and money other ways??

    And the people doing this in honour of a dead friend. Great. If somebody dies, what would he think of that?

    If their chief motivation was to raise money or honour somebody shouldn't they be doing something that explicitly has these goals in mind?

  25. Macho Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    I was up Kili in 2001 and at one of the huts (we took the coca-cola route) we met up with some RCMP (canadian federal police) that were headed to the summit as some kind of similar fundraising/memorial deal. They had their sat phone, usb camera and laptop with them and thought they were the shit. Of course, being macho idiots they hooted and hollered all around the site and proudly proclaimed how they were all going to summit and have happy pictures to prove it. That two of them were part-time Elvis impersonators (seriously!) didn't help the scene.

    While we spent a day acclimatizing they took off for their summit attempt and sure enough, next day we saw 3 of them coming back with altitude sickness, 2 vomiting, 1 with severe headache, and only one made the summit, where he couldn't get the electronic gear to work.

    So fine, the current group of idiots made it to the top, where they "hit a few onto the glacier" with a fucking baseball bat they carried up there. But being macho idiots in Africa while carrying a local's lifetime's wages in gear around with you is not appropriate behaviour. Worse still, collecting money to go on a "mission" like this is almost as bad as the Tahiti posting guy suggests.

    Stop it!

  26. ten years of everest blogs by peter303 · · Score: 1

    Everestnews.com has been carrying blogs from Everestr since before the 1996 "Thin Air" disaster. The 2005 season is starting to prepare now. Typically the hoards arrive in early April, to acclimatize for an ascent assualt during a weather window in mid-May. About 300 summitted last year.

  27. the man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    fuck the police

  28. Amazing??! by prakslash · · Score: 4, Insightful
    What the fuck is so amazing about this?

    People climb the Kilimanjaro everyday on their vacations.

    Look up Google on hundreds of Kilimanjaro Vacation Climb Packages complete with transportation, hotels, hot dinners and a Satellite Phone.

    I wish someone could set up a charity for me to do this. I'll take whatever plaque they want me to take.

    Fucking stupid..

    1. Re:Amazing??! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's important because it was about audio web-logging. If you can buy that.

    2. Re:Amazing??! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kilimanjaro is the second easiest of the seven summits. I know a fat-and-fifty couple who climbed it last year.

    3. Re:Amazing??! by DrewCapu · · Score: 1

      see section after "but the /. amazing thing is"

      Sad that ppl don't even RTF submission any more :(

    4. Re:Amazing??! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which one is the easiest?

      do you have a ranking of them?

      thx

    5. Re:Amazing??! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    6. Re:Amazing??! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That doesn't list them in order of difficulty -- it does so by height :(

      A taller mountain may or may not be easier than a shorter one actually.

    7. Re:Amazing??! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No shit Sherlock. And two climbs with the same class rating may not be equally difficult - because of weather. If you are incapable of googling, I'll just tell you that under most conditions, Kosciuszko is easiest, then Kili, then Elbrus. Then it starts to get arguable.

  29. Future of Blogging and Reality TV Mixed? by filmmaker · · Score: 1

    It seems there's a conventional wisdom that audio-blogging is a bad idea, except for certain applications like this. I think that's crap. I think that the web was a bridge to blogs, which are a bridge to audio and video blogging, which is itself a bridge to a time in the near future where everyone has their own "channel" and it's as easy to blog your life as it is today to push-button publish on blogger.com. In other words, just extend all the metaphors of forums and blogs -- some are public, some require invitation or registration, et cetera -- to audio and video media and imagine that. Imagine SlashDot as an audio/video experience, if you wanted, where everything is automatically transcribed into text for later review.

    I also saw an interesting story on some new ways to look at the Sims game. One group had hacked it to become a foreign language learning tool. I was in Germany once for 14 days, and that kind of immersion is the only way to learn. In the Sims, you can get that immersion, plus, the best part, is your text boxes are in English if you aren't getting something -- it helps you automatically.

    The recent Sims story about a television show that's either being talked about or is in production now was also interesting. It'll end up just like reality television since the obvious popularity winners will be the zany, off-beat, amusing, and sexy characters. So producers will pay people to play a certain way just like they coax people in the shows today to act a certain way.

  30. Create your own audio blog server by Linuxathome · · Score: 1

    I thought about the tools to audio blog and have devised a free solution utilising a telephone, but haven't had the chance to do a proof-of-concept yet. It requires you to sign up for a free SIPphone.com account (via their free softphone download). To do a quick audioblog (or a voice memo for that matter): 1) you dial the SIPphone number---if you're on a PSTN network, you dial one of the access numbers and then your sipphone number; 2) you leave a voice mail; 3) under your sipphone settings, the voicemail is sent to a specific email address; 4) similar to blogging by email, you can setup your receiving email address to accept the wav files from SIPphone.com and have your server convert it to mp3 (or keep it as a wav) and publish it on your blog automatically. I also have a tip on how to record your sipphone conversations using Linux on my blog---it's a great way to do phone interviews that you want to publish.

  31. global warming atop Kilimanjaro... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The ice/snow on the top of Kilimanjaro has been thinning for at least 50 years, far too long for it to be global warming and us not notice the effects.

    The problem with the ice/snow on top of Kilimanjaro is simply that it doesn't get enough snow to maintain the snow cap thickness. There has been a climactic shift up there. But not one due to global warming.

    Take a look into it. There's plenty of real info out there if you just try to find it instead of assuming.

  32. Cops on Top by anon*127.0.0.1 · · Score: 1

    Sounds like a gay porno movie.

    That, or one of Theodore Geisels lesser known works.

    --
    I am NOT a man!
    I am a free number!
  33. IDIOT MODS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  34. Which Peak? by Ranger · · Score: 1

    Here is an excerpt of a recent Monty Python audio blog from one of the peaks of Kilimanjaro:

    GEORGE: Now, uh, let me fill you in. I'm leading theis expedition, and we're going to climb both peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

    ARTHUR: I thought there was only one peak, sir.

    GEORGE (covers one eye and looks at his map): Well, that'll save a bit of time. Well done. Now, the object of this expedition is to see if we can find any traces of last year's expedition.

    ARTHUR: Last year's expedition.

    GEORGE: Yes, my brother was leading that. They were going to build a bridge between the two peaks.

    --
    "You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"