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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."

36 of 76 comments (clear)

  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: 1, Insightful

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

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

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

  5. 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.
  6. 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 spacefight · · Score: 1

      Maybe the shape of the tail and the head?

    3. 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?

    4. 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
    5. 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

  7. 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
  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. 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
  12. say that ten times fast! by Quazi · · Score: 1

    Audioblogging From Kilimanjaro

    Audioblogging From Kilimanjaro

    Audiokilling From Bloggi.. DAMN.

  13. 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!

  14. 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.

  15. 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 DrewCapu · · Score: 1

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

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

  16. 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.

  17. 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.

  18. 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!
  19. 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!"