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Morse Code on Cell Phones?
An anonymous reader writes "In a recent showdown, veteran Morse coders were able to send SMS messages faster via Morse than the fastest thumb-typists. What about embedding support for Morse code directly into handsets? This article on O'Reilly Network floats the idea of using Morse code to compose text messages, as well as tapping commands (i.e. answer call, forward to voice mail, etc) in hands-free mode by tapping on the handset case."
The supposed "showdown" on Jay Leno was a highly unscientific and inaccurate test which pitted the world's fasted morse coder using very expensive morse equipment against a teenager using a cheap cell phone with a membrane keypad.
If the pro-morser had been forced to enter morse on a phone keypad instead of his $200 morsing 'bug' then I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have won. It takes several keypresses to send a single character in morse and just because it's morse, it doesn't mean that you can press the keys any quicker. He could only key quicker because of the equipment he was using.
Add to that the fact that it takes ages to learn morse and only a few minutes to learn standard texting or T9 predictive text, I think you'll find that the take up on morse on phones would be pretty much zero.
I think anyone's efforts would be better spent designing better keypads or improving predictive text rather than wasting time trying to put morse code (designed for carrier wave) onto a phone (designed for voice and data).
The only part of his idea that I think is sensible is the idea that you can answer and redirect calls without having to look for the key to press (not that I find that hard after I've had my phone a few days, because you know where the main green and red buttons are without having to look). Having said that, most phones have any key answer if you enable it, and on a lot of bluetooth handsfree kits you can answer and make calls using a single button and voice tags (obviously requires phone support).
Also, the reason morse is as fast as it is is because you hardly have to move your finger at all. The article author is suggesting that you use your fingernail for a "dit" and the flat of your finger for a "dah". This would be ridiculously slow and very painful after the first few characters as it would be a very unnatural movement!
If you want to type seriously fast on your phone, then you need a way to plug in a standard sized keyboard (preferably Dvorak!).
it takes a lot of practice to use morse code at the speed that professionals do. i don't think there are enough people out there that would want to spend the time to make this a viable product. you could maybe sell it on think geek but not to the people that shop wal-mart and best buy.
Wrong. This is not a dupe.
The previous set of (duplicated) articles said that a veteran Morser beat a semi-"veteran" SMSer.
On the other hand, this article suggests a way to draw conclusions from that experiment and provide Morse as an input method for the cell phones, to have the best of those two world. It's a research -vs- application difference.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
That's a fair point, however if I'd written the story, I would have added something along the lines of "as previously reported on /." or "following up on article XYZ", just to make those who shout "it's a dupe!" look silly (or at least vulnerable to a RTFA counterattack) - it's not as if that reaction couldn't have been predicted.
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.