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Morse Coders Beat SMSers

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the wheel-reinvented dept.

dgnicholson writes "Jay Leno did a text off between two text messengers and two Morse coders. The Morse coders handily beat the young whippersnappers with time to spare. It might be a fun phone app to make a Morse code messenger, if you kept your headset in and had an external sender, could be interesting. Perhaps a Morse code Skype device."

3 of 483 comments (clear)

  1. no surprise... by professorhojo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Anyone using morse code on an even occasional basis should have guessed that it would cream the text messagers! There are three simple reasons: (1) A single character of Morse can be keyed in less time than a single character can be entered on the cell phone with the "TAP" method. (2) With the bug, there is no delay created by moving the finger from button to button. (3) Most importantly, however, the text message is time-shifted, whereas morse transmission is real-time. When the sender is done, the recipient is done also.

    1. Re:no surprise... by wallitron · · Score: 5, Funny

      Granted, but let's see them repeat the experiment with a device that has a full keyboard on it.

      Or what about get the guy holding the SMS device (phone) to type in a specially crafted 10 digit number allowing a two way audio connection between two devices.

      Every person on the planet has a wife, sister or mother than can talk faster than 250+ WPM.

  2. Well, yeah. by msmercenary · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Morse code was created for the purpose of sending text over REALLY low bandwidth. Cell phones were created to talk to people. The idea of entering text with a numeric keypad was a wart they hung on the side of the phone when they realized that a full keyboard wouldn't work.

    Personally, I just don't understand the appeal of text messaging. Maybe that marks me as an old fogey (27), but I just don't need my tendonitis to get any worse, TYVM.