I have sent numerous emails to the sysadmin as well as to my boss. The response is that they are working on constructing a second server (have been for at least 2 months now, perhaps longer). It's not expected to be up and running for quite a long time yet. I have kept all of those emails as well. The problem ends up being that:
a) nobody sees it as a big priority, and since "something is already in the works" that's good enough for them. b) I'm a student and I am arguing my case against a "professional staff member".
Perhaps that is scape-goatism and perhaps I do need to be more of a squeaky wheel but at some point it comes to the point that I'm just annoying, and since its easier to get rid of me because I'm just a student, thats the end of it. I would rather stick around, continue to squeak, and write code as well as possible (previous programmers have not paid any attention to the potential for exploit) with what is available and have a good idea of what does need to get fixed as soon as the proper tools are available.
I actually just came across PEAR's MDB2 package (thanks to someones mention in this thread of PEAR::DB, which is currently legacy and being phased out) and if I can get all of the dependencies to work on that and it can pre-compile queries for me without PHP 5, then that is a much nicer patch for the time being.
I'm a student web programmer for the webdevelopment lab in a major U.S. University. The platform they basically told me I had to program on is PHP with MySQL. The server doesn't support anything else and getting the server guy to update or add anything new is a major pain and usually impossible. Point in case: I'm still working with PHP 4.1.2 and MySQL 3!!!!!!!
I still have to write some fairly secure applications (if they get breached there won't be any terribly sensitive information, but there are some things that we would rather be kept private (such as an online-store system for one of the on campus labs.... no purchases online, but the entire store (4000+ items in inventory) is there, along with purchase records, etc). I tried to get the server admin to either upgrade PHP and install the mysqli library so I could actually do compiled queries and all of that, but no go.... Maybe by next year -_- (the guy thought SQL Injections were a local exploit and then thought that since we were running over HTTPS it was okay....)
My point is that sometimes it is not the programmers fault that they cannot make use of the some of available options to make their application supposedly more secure. You have to do the best you can with what you have and write code that is put together well enough that when new features do become available on the server or someone does get breached and it needs to be improved, it is easy enough to upgrade and maintain the code. Right now I'm stuck using mysql_escape_string and type checking (heh, not even _REAL_escape_string...... the PHP version is that old!) and keeping my fingers crossed (and continuing to pester the admin hoping for better results faster). So don't always blame the programmers!! We do have to work within limitations too!
Forgive me if I'm being naive, but wouldn't such a free and open, decentrallized system be very different from "democratized". It would be more arachical than anything, as it would be free of government control.
I dont think it was a joke. And even if it was, there are many people who honestly believe this. The problem is that few of them understand the actual politics, etc behind the progress of science. There are actually research projects involve Zero-G bases in new areas of cancer research (quick digging came up with this article, I've heard of others). The truth is that the development of any new technologies will provide new avenues in this research.
This Zero-G Sports League is awesome because if there is one seemingly pointless thing that people love to spend money on, it's sports. If you don't believe me look at statistics about the money spent on beer for the celebration of the Super Bowl and other such events. If we can get a successful space based sport then other things such as advertising will move to put money into space based work, which will motivate the market and give a major boost to research in that direction.
The moral of the story: this type of work really is indirectly contributing to research that could one day cure cancer.
Let's see... took billions of years to complete. Is very disorganized (although if you look at it from really far away it's kind of uniform....). It's got a lot of useless space hanging around. Nobody really knows how it ended up working at all, it just sort of went bang one day........ Man, given all of the patterns in nature it doesn't seem like nature made this one......:-P
While your comment seems to be intended as a joke it brings up an important point that many people try to use in favor of the US staying in charge of the Internet: the fact that the majority of it was created within or by the US. Other countries then use examples like yours saying then "well, since such and such was invented here, we're just going to keep it primarily ours". The major difference is that the documentation on how to create a different network of their own is openly available. If they really believe that the US is becoming to controlling then they do possess the ability to create a seperate Internet and have it under their standards for their own company. If it's hurting them that bad, then they have a solution. Obviously, the benefits of continuous usage of the network that the US is in control of far outweigh the creation of a seperate one right now. The US isn't forcing them to use "their" network, they are doing it by choice.
Turning it over the U.N. does not make it any freer than it is now. Read my previous posts to see why. Your analogy would be closer if it went more like:
I have a bird that I think SHOULD be free so I put a tag on it so I know where it's at and nobody else has captured and caged it.
I disagree on a number of points you base your argument on.
At the end of your comment you claim that globalizing control of DNS would be the solution to maintaining freedom of the Internet and in the first part you claim that it shouldn't matter what some senator does, the other nations should be able to control their own networks despite whatever one of our senators does. First of all, there is nothing preventing said foreign nations from generating their own DNS infrastructure right now. Anybody can set up a DNS server and map whatever URL's they want to whatever IP's they want. So changing the control of the Internet over the UN would not change this in the least. All transferring such control over to them would do is create a much larger body of "crackpot" politicians that could actually have the potential to do something to the Internet; the difference being that not all of them are from countries that believe in freedom of speech.
As for your belief that red tape will support freedom, I think you missed what I meant by "red tape" or perhaps I did not explain it too well. I don't mean that there will be lots of red tape for politicians trying to inhibit the freedoms of the Internet: I mean that there will end up being a lot of red tape for anyone trying to actually make use of these freedoms. Say someone in China trying to say something about his government: if you add red tape to that, he won't make it through to the Internet with his beliefs. This is loss of freedom. If the U.N. gains control, such problems will arise in any country whos government does not beleive in freedom of speech / press at the moment. This is why I say that the added red tape the U.N. will add is a bad thing.
And what is that whole section about other countries who don't believe in these things usign US technologies to make their own networks supposed to get at?? If you are trying to say that if the U.N. caused loss of freedoms then other countries could still just make their own networks, then I don't see the point. I assert that turning it over to the U.N. WILL lose freedoms. In your case, they are free to make their own networks right now, so that won't change a thing. If you are saying that the ability of other countries to make their own networks using US technology is a bad thing, then you're just wrong: the more networks there are in existence, the better the Internet is because of the wider range of views presented.
If you are saying that the US's inroads into censorship is bad and other countries can use our technology to make their own networks if they disagree with it, then you missed my entire point. If the Internet goes to the U.N. cencorship WILL increase and countries who would do this because of the US's censorship will do it because of the UN's cencorship. So again, giving it over to the U.N. will not improve this situation!
You also seem to make an assumption about my concerns about freedom and tell me that I'm more interested in waving stupid flags ("If freedom is your concern (it's not--it's waving stupid flags)...". I find this to be petty and far off base. While I support the traditional U.S. beliefs of freedom, I am by no means a stupid flag waver. I base my argument concerning the freedom of the Internet on who I believe would do a better job of handling it. As I said in my parent post, give me a better option and I'll be happy to go along with it. In fact, I hope a better option presents itself. As for the ones that are currently on the table, leaving the US in control is the one that best protects the freedom of the Internet.
So don't make assumptions about my motivations in petty attempts to debase my arguments; you have no idea who I am.
While I understand your problem with the fact that the US is essentially in charge of the Internet at the moment (at least as far as architecture), I challenge you to find a body that will do a better job of keeping it free, democratic and safe. The United States is a powerhouse when it comes to just about anything. Who would we turn it over to?
The Untied Nations? If we turn it over to them, then it's going to become so entangled with red tape and beauracracy that it will become essentially useless within a couple years. While the US is no model of perfection when it comes to limitting beauracracy, we at least have the luxury of being in general agreement on the fact that the Internet SHOULD be free. If the U.N. got put in charge, there would be so much conflict of interest that it would pretty much grind to a halt.
Another country? Why the hell would we give it up and give it to another country?? The only reason for us to give it up at all would be if it was freeing it more. Turning it over to a different country simply means that we are giving THEM the monopoly on it. Again, no progress is being made.
Are we going to invent a new body simply to manage the Internet? If so, who's going to have a say on who is in this group. Even if such a group were created, they would be under such incredible political pressure from every single direction that in the interest of compromise they would have to give up some of the freedoms of the Internet or else they might as well just be part of the U.S.
I see where problems exist now and where problems will arise in the future with the U.S. in control, but it is still the better choice. We can't turn it over to a different country. We can't turn it over to the only major recognized international body and we can't create a new body that will manage it without giving up these freedoms. So come up with a better solution to this problem rather than simply spouting propaganda about how the US has to control "EVERYTHING!!!!1010101010111".
If you want to make it easy, make a script that will do it for her... how hard is it to write something that grandma can double click on her desktop that will upgrade it for her from source? download the current tarball, unpack it, configure/make/make install. I was basing my example on his anyway, do you think it was grandma running rpm -f??
For his purpose of upgrading it, which it sounds like he did himself anyway, doing it from source is no more complicated (and more likely to work) than downloading the RPM's which he is obviously having problems with. This isn't something bad about open source; in fact, I think it's one of its great abilities! How many windows installers do you have an option to do it by hand when the installer won't work?? You don't! With open source tarballs, you at least have an alternative option that you can do yourself.
I disagree with you on the point that you can't learn a language in an afteroon. Every programming langauge has its own set of syntax rules and functions. You can take an afternono and learn the basic syntax of the language, memorize a couple of the functions that you will use often, and find the best resources for help about the language. After that, your learning process will be just learning as you code. You said yourself it's going to be another 10 years before you would consider yourself really good at it. You aren't going to get there by just sitting and examining tutorials. You learn it by actually programming it and doing google searches / resource searches every time you come across something you need a tip on.
So while learning it in an afternoon won't make you a killer coder right away, it is enough time to set you up to be able to code just about any app and learn as you go. If you already know other langauges, then it will be fairly easy to apply the rules of good clean coding to this new language as you go.
Lol, I've been playing around with one for a little bit now, (just a coupla days actually). Here's the Convo:
Scammer: I lost the first email, but basically he's saying he's british and I have the same last name as somebody rich who just died, so he wants to split the multi-million dollar inheritance with me in exchange for me posing as a relative.
Me: I am interested in your offer. However, I'm not satisfied with the percentages. I required 60% to be transferred to me as I am the one taking the risk of legal reprisal by claiming myself as the next of kin. Please contact me for further information.
Scammer: Dear Justin, Why have I not hear from you again I have agrred for your 60 40 for peace to reing but remmber you are taking the chance since i can not make this claim alone so let me know your mind so that we can proceed immediately.
thanks and god bless ALFRED (caps removed for/. filter)
Me: I am sorry for the delay in communications, I am in the process of moving to a different place of residence and have an unreliable Internet connection. What would be the easiest method for you to transfer the funds? I know that such services as Paypal provide an anonymous bank transfer system. If you would rather work directly with a bank account number, I can open a new account in a few days and leave it empty for the convenience of easily keeping track of who gets what portion. Also, do you have a bank account number I can have so I can easily facilitate the immediate transfer of your portion of the funds upon your deposit of the complete sum in mine?
Scammer: dear justin,
i am glad to hear from you today and i must say that you should try to get back to me so that we can be fast to make sure we achieve this goal..as you said if you dont have an account already you can go ahead and open another but if you have i feel there is no needof opening fresh one because all you will do is to forward it to the bank fro the fund transfer.
before i will give you the bank contact address i will like if you have to know your datas as to know whom i am trusting this fund to his care pending when i come over for the disbursement.and i will also like you to send to me your direct telephone numbers so i can speak with you.
please try and get back to me as soon as possible so that we can proceed immediately.
thanks and god bless.
ALFRED CHINEDU.PHONE 2348033621506
That's it so far. You know you could almost love these guys if they weren't scammers, they're all so friendly and accomodating! A quick note: I dont know of any paypal method for anonymous transfers, I was just throwing that in there to see if he was dumb enough to give out HIS bank account information.
80 Years of practice my ass. My grandfather introduced myself and my younger brother to Morse Code by building us a pair of tone generators that could communicate over a long cable. Within a month of practice we had the code down to a damned fast method. I would honestly challenege your SMS with my push-button more code. It's more a matter of what you take the time to learn. Morse code has a higher potential.
It's similar to keyboards. Dvorak layouts are proven to have a higher potential speed, and logically it would have to be that way because it requires less finger movement. But for the simple fact that you are born and raised with QWERTY you will be slower on Dvorak unless you practice!
If you people want improvements in speed and ability you have to learn them! Not everything can be handed to you on a silver platter. What you choose to practice is your own business. Personally I'd say Morse Code is much more portable and versatile means of communication (let's see you use SMS on a flashlight!) and as such is much more worth my time to learn. SMS will pass on much faster than Morse Code has or will.
Definitely one of the more insightful posts I have seen lately. I personally believe that they are governing themselves far better than the US-constructed puppet government is ruling Iraq.
Slashdot Mirror
I have sent numerous emails to the sysadmin as well as to my boss. The response is that they are working on constructing a second server (have been for at least 2 months now, perhaps longer). It's not expected to be up and running for quite a long time yet. I have kept all of those emails as well. The problem ends up being that:
a) nobody sees it as a big priority, and since "something is already in the works" that's good enough for them.
b) I'm a student and I am arguing my case against a "professional staff member".
Perhaps that is scape-goatism and perhaps I do need to be more of a squeaky wheel but at some point it comes to the point that I'm just annoying, and since its easier to get rid of me because I'm just a student, thats the end of it. I would rather stick around, continue to squeak, and write code as well as possible (previous programmers have not paid any attention to the potential for exploit) with what is available and have a good idea of what does need to get fixed as soon as the proper tools are available.
I actually just came across PEAR's MDB2 package (thanks to someones mention in this thread of PEAR::DB, which is currently legacy and being phased out) and if I can get all of the dependencies to work on that and it can pre-compile queries for me without PHP 5, then that is a much nicer patch for the time being.
I'm a student web programmer for the webdevelopment lab in a major U.S. University. The platform they basically told me I had to program on is PHP with MySQL. The server doesn't support anything else and getting the server guy to update or add anything new is a major pain and usually impossible. Point in case: I'm still working with PHP 4.1.2 and MySQL 3!!!!!!!
I still have to write some fairly secure applications (if they get breached there won't be any terribly sensitive information, but there are some things that we would rather be kept private (such as an online-store system for one of the on campus labs.... no purchases online, but the entire store (4000+ items in inventory) is there, along with purchase records, etc). I tried to get the server admin to either upgrade PHP and install the mysqli library so I could actually do compiled queries and all of that, but no go.... Maybe by next year -_- (the guy thought SQL Injections were a local exploit and then thought that since we were running over HTTPS it was okay....)
My point is that sometimes it is not the programmers fault that they cannot make use of the some of available options to make their application supposedly more secure. You have to do the best you can with what you have and write code that is put together well enough that when new features do become available on the server or someone does get breached and it needs to be improved, it is easy enough to upgrade and maintain the code. Right now I'm stuck using mysql_escape_string and type checking (heh, not even _REAL_escape_string...... the PHP version is that old!) and keeping my fingers crossed (and continuing to pester the admin hoping for better results faster). So don't always blame the programmers!! We do have to work within limitations too!
Forgive me if I'm being naive, but wouldn't such a free and open, decentrallized system be very different from "democratized". It would be more arachical than anything, as it would be free of government control.
Well I'm glad I'm using a cracked version then.... O:-)
(noooooo, please don't turn my UID over to microsoft!!!)
A camera custom designed for Steve Ballmer!!!
;)
"Tell me it's not Kodak........"
I dont think it was a joke. And even if it was, there are many people who honestly believe this. The problem is that few of them understand the actual politics, etc behind the progress of science. There are actually research projects involve Zero-G bases in new areas of cancer research (quick digging came up with this article, I've heard of others). The truth is that the development of any new technologies will provide new avenues in this research.
This Zero-G Sports League is awesome because if there is one seemingly pointless thing that people love to spend money on, it's sports. If you don't believe me look at statistics about the money spent on beer for the celebration of the Super Bowl and other such events. If we can get a successful space based sport then other things such as advertising will move to put money into space based work, which will motivate the market and give a major boost to research in that direction.
The moral of the story: this type of work really is indirectly contributing to research that could one day cure cancer.
Let's see... took billions of years to complete. Is very disorganized (although if you look at it from really far away it's kind of uniform....). It's got a lot of useless space hanging around. Nobody really knows how it ended up working at all, it just sort of went bang one day........ Man, given all of the patterns in nature it doesn't seem like nature made this one...... :-P
While your comment seems to be intended as a joke it brings up an important point that many people try to use in favor of the US staying in charge of the Internet: the fact that the majority of it was created within or by the US. Other countries then use examples like yours saying then "well, since such and such was invented here, we're just going to keep it primarily ours". The major difference is that the documentation on how to create a different network of their own is openly available. If they really believe that the US is becoming to controlling then they do possess the ability to create a seperate Internet and have it under their standards for their own company. If it's hurting them that bad, then they have a solution. Obviously, the benefits of continuous usage of the network that the US is in control of far outweigh the creation of a seperate one right now. The US isn't forcing them to use "their" network, they are doing it by choice.
Turning it over the U.N. does not make it any freer than it is now. Read my previous posts to see why. Your analogy would be closer if it went more like:
I have a bird that I think SHOULD be free so I put a tag on it so I know where it's at and nobody else has captured and caged it.
I disagree on a number of points you base your argument on.
At the end of your comment you claim that globalizing control of DNS would be the solution to maintaining freedom of the Internet and in the first part you claim that it shouldn't matter what some senator does, the other nations should be able to control their own networks despite whatever one of our senators does. First of all, there is nothing preventing said foreign nations from generating their own DNS infrastructure right now. Anybody can set up a DNS server and map whatever URL's they want to whatever IP's they want. So changing the control of the Internet over the UN would not change this in the least. All transferring such control over to them would do is create a much larger body of "crackpot" politicians that could actually have the potential to do something to the Internet; the difference being that not all of them are from countries that believe in freedom of speech.
As for your belief that red tape will support freedom, I think you missed what I meant by "red tape" or perhaps I did not explain it too well. I don't mean that there will be lots of red tape for politicians trying to inhibit the freedoms of the Internet: I mean that there will end up being a lot of red tape for anyone trying to actually make use of these freedoms. Say someone in China trying to say something about his government: if you add red tape to that, he won't make it through to the Internet with his beliefs. This is loss of freedom. If the U.N. gains control, such problems will arise in any country whos government does not beleive in freedom of speech / press at the moment. This is why I say that the added red tape the U.N. will add is a bad thing.
And what is that whole section about other countries who don't believe in these things usign US technologies to make their own networks supposed to get at?? If you are trying to say that if the U.N. caused loss of freedoms then other countries could still just make their own networks, then I don't see the point. I assert that turning it over to the U.N. WILL lose freedoms. In your case, they are free to make their own networks right now, so that won't change a thing. If you are saying that the ability of other countries to make their own networks using US technology is a bad thing, then you're just wrong: the more networks there are in existence, the better the Internet is because of the wider range of views presented.
If you are saying that the US's inroads into censorship is bad and other countries can use our technology to make their own networks if they disagree with it, then you missed my entire point. If the Internet goes to the U.N. cencorship WILL increase and countries who would do this because of the US's censorship will do it because of the UN's cencorship. So again, giving it over to the U.N. will not improve this situation!
You also seem to make an assumption about my concerns about freedom and tell me that I'm more interested in waving stupid flags ("If freedom is your concern (it's not--it's waving stupid flags)...". I find this to be petty and far off base. While I support the traditional U.S. beliefs of freedom, I am by no means a stupid flag waver. I base my argument concerning the freedom of the Internet on who I believe would do a better job of handling it. As I said in my parent post, give me a better option and I'll be happy to go along with it. In fact, I hope a better option presents itself. As for the ones that are currently on the table, leaving the US in control is the one that best protects the freedom of the Internet.
So don't make assumptions about my motivations in petty attempts to debase my arguments; you have no idea who I am.
While I understand your problem with the fact that the US is essentially in charge of the Internet at the moment (at least as far as architecture), I challenge you to find a body that will do a better job of keeping it free, democratic and safe. The United States is a powerhouse when it comes to just about anything. Who would we turn it over to?
The Untied Nations? If we turn it over to them, then it's going to become so entangled with red tape and beauracracy that it will become essentially useless within a couple years. While the US is no model of perfection when it comes to limitting beauracracy, we at least have the luxury of being in general agreement on the fact that the Internet SHOULD be free. If the U.N. got put in charge, there would be so much conflict of interest that it would pretty much grind to a halt.
Another country? Why the hell would we give it up and give it to another country?? The only reason for us to give it up at all would be if it was freeing it more. Turning it over to a different country simply means that we are giving THEM the monopoly on it. Again, no progress is being made.
Are we going to invent a new body simply to manage the Internet? If so, who's going to have a say on who is in this group. Even if such a group were created, they would be under such incredible political pressure from every single direction that in the interest of compromise they would have to give up some of the freedoms of the Internet or else they might as well just be part of the U.S.
I see where problems exist now and where problems will arise in the future with the U.S. in control, but it is still the better choice. We can't turn it over to a different country. We can't turn it over to the only major recognized international body and we can't create a new body that will manage it without giving up these freedoms. So come up with a better solution to this problem rather than simply spouting propaganda about how the US has to control "EVERYTHING!!!!1010101010111".
And all the pr0n should go on .fuck.us!!
If you want to make it easy, make a script that will do it for her... how hard is it to write something that grandma can double click on her desktop that will upgrade it for her from source? download the current tarball, unpack it, configure/make/make install. I was basing my example on his anyway, do you think it was grandma running rpm -f??
For his purpose of upgrading it, which it sounds like he did himself anyway, doing it from source is no more complicated (and more likely to work) than downloading the RPM's which he is obviously having problems with. This isn't something bad about open source; in fact, I think it's one of its great abilities! How many windows installers do you have an option to do it by hand when the installer won't work?? You don't! With open source tarballs, you at least have an alternative option that you can do yourself.
I've never had a single problem with GAIM, just compile it from source and it works just fine every time.
I find it interesting that if you google for "search engine", AltaVista and Lycos rank higher than goole......
A dead Lois?
I disagree with you on the point that you can't learn a language in an afteroon. Every programming langauge has its own set of syntax rules and functions. You can take an afternono and learn the basic syntax of the language, memorize a couple of the functions that you will use often, and find the best resources for help about the language. After that, your learning process will be just learning as you code. You said yourself it's going to be another 10 years before you would consider yourself really good at it. You aren't going to get there by just sitting and examining tutorials. You learn it by actually programming it and doing google searches / resource searches every time you come across something you need a tip on.
So while learning it in an afternoon won't make you a killer coder right away, it is enough time to set you up to be able to code just about any app and learn as you go. If you already know other langauges, then it will be fairly easy to apply the rules of good clean coding to this new language as you go.
"The idiots are taking over"
Uhhhhhhhhh. Where's the rest of the story? lol
Lol, I've been playing around with one for a little bit now, (just a coupla days actually). Here's the Convo:
/. filter)
Scammer:
I lost the first email, but basically he's saying he's british and I have the same last name as somebody rich who just died, so he wants to split the multi-million dollar inheritance with me in exchange for me posing as a relative.
Me:
I am interested in your offer. However, I'm not
satisfied with the percentages. I required 60% to be transferred to me as I am the one taking the risk of legal reprisal by claiming myself as the next of kin. Please contact me for further information.
Scammer:
Dear Justin,
Why have I not hear from you again I have agrred for your 60 40 for peace to reing but remmber you are taking the chance since i can not make this claim alone so let me know your mind so that we can proceed immediately.
thanks and god bless
ALFRED
(caps removed for
Me:
I am sorry for the delay in communications, I am in the process of moving to a different place of
residence and have an unreliable Internet connection. What would be the easiest method for you to transfer the funds? I know that such services as Paypal provide an anonymous bank transfer system. If you would rather work directly with a bank account number, I can open a new account in a few days and leave it empty for the
convenience of easily keeping track of who gets what portion. Also, do you have a bank account number I can have so I can easily facilitate the immediate transfer of your portion of the funds upon your deposit of the complete sum in mine?
Scammer:
dear justin,
i am glad to hear from you today and i must say that you should try to get back to me so that we can be fast to make sure we achieve this goal..as you said if you dont have an account already you can go ahead and open another but if you have i feel there is no needof opening fresh one because all you will do is to forward it to the bank fro the fund transfer.
before i will give you the bank contact address i will like if you have to know your datas as to know whom i am trusting this fund to his care pending when i come over for the disbursement.and i will also like you to send to me your direct telephone numbers so i can speak with you.
please try and get back to me as soon as possible so that we can proceed immediately.
thanks and god bless.
ALFRED CHINEDU.PHONE 2348033621506
That's it so far. You know you could almost love these guys if they weren't scammers, they're all so friendly and accomodating! A quick note: I dont know of any paypal method for anonymous transfers, I was just throwing that in there to see if he was dumb enough to give out HIS bank account information.
80 Years of practice my ass. My grandfather introduced myself and my younger brother to Morse Code by building us a pair of tone generators that could communicate over a long cable. Within a month of practice we had the code down to a damned fast method. I would honestly challenege your SMS with my push-button more code. It's more a matter of what you take the time to learn. Morse code has a higher potential.
It's similar to keyboards. Dvorak layouts are proven to have a higher potential speed, and logically it would have to be that way because it requires less finger movement. But for the simple fact that you are born and raised with QWERTY you will be slower on Dvorak unless you practice!
If you people want improvements in speed and ability you have to learn them! Not everything can be handed to you on a silver platter. What you choose to practice is your own business. Personally I'd say Morse Code is much more portable and versatile means of communication (let's see you use SMS on a flashlight!) and as such is much more worth my time to learn. SMS will pass on much faster than Morse Code has or will.
He's given her all she can handle. RIP.
Hey, just warming up. After all, today's story is tomorrow's dupe!
Hah, the Japanese are so far behind. Computer Science people already knew that goto was obsolete!
Definitely one of the more insightful posts I have seen lately. I personally believe that they are governing themselves far better than the US-constructed puppet government is ruling Iraq.