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Morse Code Faster Than SMS
mentalflossboy writes "Engadget is reporting that Morse Code is actually faster than text messaging. According to the article, 93 year old Gordon Hill transmitted a message faster than 13 year old Brittany Devlin, despite Devlin's 'liberal use of texting slang.' And the fabulous quote they were they sending: 'Hey, girlfriend, you can text all your best pals to tell them where you are going and what you are wearing.'"
Wrong! Have you checked the pricing of mobile operators lately? Virtually all of them charge more for a text message than they charge for a phone call lasting as long as it takes to say what you can type into a message.
For the Technician class license (the lowest one), no. For others (Technician Plus, General, Extra) there are still Morse code tests. Test requirements start at 5 WPM, if memory serves.
More info at http://www.arrl.org/
Damn, now you've got me wanting to order some study materials and upgrade my license, which I've been meaning to do for years . . . plus I could finally use the "use the keyboard LEDs to show data in Morse code" trick.
it seems that while SMS is shorter:2 #833555#844336#96668#88#777#3666444664#11#94433777 33#88777#4666444664#2663#96668#88#777#933277744466 41
;)
hey gf u can txt ur best pals 2 tel them wot u r doing, where ur going and wot u r wearing
SMS-TAP:443399#4333#222266#8998#88777#7223377778#
Compared to:
Hey, girlfriend, you can text all your best pals to tell them where you are going and what you are wearing. (translate that there - lameness filter
Morsecode is simply much more simpler to enter - only 3 different possible entrypoints opposed to 10-11 for SMS...
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Starts and ends at 5wpm. There is only one code test now. The 13 and 20 wpm tests were eliminated in favor of a single 5wpm test (in the United States.)
http://www.busyweather.com/
That was funny:)
I guess the joke is wasted on most here, so here's the explanation: it's "What hath God wrought", which is the first Morse code message ever sent, with God replaced by Woz to refer to computer stuff. Very a-propos.
73 de F8EJF
It's also good for flirting with the opposite sex, but then again, this is /.
Went through USN Radioman "A" school in the spring of '94. No Morse training at that point; can't imagine that the Navy has gotten a wild hair and decided to reintroduce it now.
Are you familiar with etymotics plugs? They probably wouldn't be good for using a cell phone, but (in theory) you can often talk to people even when you have them in and there's loud music in the background.
Bullshit. I pay $10 a month for unlimited SMS. And I live in the US.
You can get 1000 for $7 from T-Mobile, $9 from Cingular. Verizon charges something like $20 a month for that (disclaimer: it's been a year since I had Verizon so they may have changed the prices now). You really only get screwed on SMS/data if you use Verizon.
And overage is usually $.05 per message ($.10 for Cingular, but incoming is free...so it balances out). That's way less than the $.40 per minute I pay for voice overage. For the same price, I could send eight text messages. You can say a lot in 1280 characters.
HAL 7000, fewer features than the HAL 9000, but just as homicidal!
Morse Code Translator
WOW! What kind of cool plan do you have that you get free minutes if you don't initiate the call? I need to be on that one because neither Cingular nor T-mobile have that plan.
On any mobile phone plan in just about any country outside the US you don't pay for incoming calls, only outgoing. Paying for incoming calls would be stupud, because you don't have any control over whether someone calls you or not - so why should you pay for it?