I think it's a little premature to be predicting that Northern Ireland will join the Irish Republic.
The question of leaving or staying within the EU is entirely different to that of a United Ireland.
The people of the Republic of Ireland have a say too. Not everyone would welcome Northern Ireland, its bigotry, unemployment, terrorists and financial headache with open arms.
... plugging a kettle into your 6-hour UPS is not a recommended way to make a cup of tea. This, however, is exactly what I did a long time ago. 10 or so seconds later, I had still-cold kettle of water and an entirely drained UPS. Oooops !
... in the situation where my girlfriend (I swear) was held up while at an ATM and forced at knife-point to enter her PIN and withdraw money. Otherwise, it sounds like a good idea.
Well, my setup at home is probably typical of the home Asterisk user.
I have a POTS line and I have a VOIP account, both of which terminate on my Asterisk box.
In addition to my normal house phone I have a GrandStream SIP phone. Either phone can make or answer calls and each phone can call each other. (Handy for calling downstairs from the office to order another beer!)
I get voicemail, call hold, call parking, music on hold.
Although I haven't set it up yet, I can have it answer my fax calls, convert the fax to a PDF and email it to me.
I get the ability to route my calls depending on where I'm calling. For example, calls to cell-phones, 1800 numbers and emergency calls go out my POTS line. All other calls go out on my VOIP account. As most of my family live in the US (I live in Ireland) I make a huge saving on the cost of those calls.
By way of a proof-of-concept for my employer (in the financial services industry) I even wrote a Telephone Banking application in Perl for Asterisk.
Although I make savings on my calls and get added functionality, the main reason I use Asterisk is for control over my telecoms. Apart from that, it's cool!
Perhaps my post was a little too black+white about the subject. Apologies.
When reading the written word, researchers believe that we see the word in its entirety (the shape of the word) rather than the individual characters. This is why we can have difficulty reading a sentence in all uppercase - the shape is lost.
However, it doesn't work like that with morse as the characters are received individually and, if the message is being written (or typed) as it's being received, the characters have to be written as they're received (and not when we recognise the word).
At lower speeds, when receiving messages in the clear, I found it possible to respond with a "yes" or "no" to questions but I wouldn't regard that as a conversation. At speeds of 25+ wpm I found it impossible to focus on anything other than the audio stream.
If someone tells me that they know of an operator who could hold a conversation while transcribing a rapid stream of morse then I will accept that. But I worked as an operator for years and knew many others in the same job and I never came across anyone with that ability (nice though it would have been to have!).
>Dude, do you think that the old guy doing Morse
code needs all of his concentration to receive it?
Well, receiving it doesn't take much concentration as it's an audible transmission and all that is required to receive it is the ability to hear it.
Translating it takes a lot of concentration. At high speeds it takes all of your concentation - to the point that, although you're writing down the individual letters as they are received, you have almost no idea what you're writing until the transmission ends and you can review what you've written.
>Most guys who are that good at Morse code can receive it in the background while carrying on a normal conversation. It's just like reading a screen or listening to a conversation in the >background.
Quite the opposite. You absolutely cannot carry on a conversation at the same time. You must apply your entire focus to the audio stream since if you miss a letter or group of letters while distracted, that's it - they're gone. Yes, you can request re-transmission of the missed characters but the texter would win hands-down in that case.
Liam
PS I speak from years of experience as a telegraphist in the military (a long time ago).
>For me the best part is the savings.
Absolutely! I spoke to my brother in the U.S. (from Ireland) for 45 mins the other day. Incumbent Telco cost would have been Eu6.80. SkypeOut cost was Eu0.90. He has now installed Skype so future cost : Eu0.00.
I suspect you had your tongue firmly-in-cheek but in case you didn't :
This is a means to an end, not an end in itself. The means is to detect and punish drivers who are breaking laws; the end is to modify driver behaviour.
The first one was as a developer with a company where the pace of life was so relaxed that in the afternoon I needed a few cups of coffee simply to stay awake (and I'm not a coffee drinker!). I felt unchallenged and useless.
The second was as a SysAdmin / Developer and the stress was at the other extreme of the spectrum. No matter how many hours I put in, I was never finished. No effort was good enough. If I had stayed there, I reckon I'd have been taken out in a box in the not-too-distant future.
The point I'm making is that a certain amount of stress and pressure is healthy. Too little is stultifying and too much is simply dangerous. The appropriate amount will vary from individual to individual.
Incidentally, my latest job is with people I had worked with in the past and I know that I'll get the right amount of pressure to deliver without having the last drop of blood squeezed out of me.
Slashdot Mirror
I think it's a little premature to be predicting that Northern Ireland will join the Irish Republic. The question of leaving or staying within the EU is entirely different to that of a United Ireland. The people of the Republic of Ireland have a say too. Not everyone would welcome Northern Ireland, its bigotry, unemployment, terrorists and financial headache with open arms.
... plugging a kettle into your 6-hour UPS is not a recommended way to make a cup of tea. This, however, is exactly what I did a long time ago. 10 or so seconds later, I had still-cold kettle of water and an entirely drained UPS. Oooops !
... in the situation where my girlfriend (I swear) was held up while at an ATM and forced at knife-point to enter her PIN and withdraw money. Otherwise, it sounds like a good idea.
until the battery explodes!
Over at voip-info.org they have a bounty on Skype functionality for Asterisk.
I have a POTS line and I have a VOIP account, both of which terminate on my Asterisk box.
In addition to my normal house phone I have a GrandStream SIP phone. Either phone can make or answer calls and each phone can call each other. (Handy for calling downstairs from the office to order another beer!)
I get voicemail, call hold, call parking, music on hold.
Although I haven't set it up yet, I can have it answer my fax calls, convert the fax to a PDF and email it to me.
I get the ability to route my calls depending on where I'm calling. For example, calls to cell-phones, 1800 numbers and emergency calls go out my POTS line. All other calls go out on my VOIP account. As most of my family live in the US (I live in Ireland) I make a huge saving on the cost of those calls.
By way of a proof-of-concept for my employer (in the financial services industry) I even wrote a Telephone Banking application in Perl for Asterisk.
Although I make savings on my calls and get added functionality, the main reason I use Asterisk is for control over my telecoms. Apart from that, it's cool!
When reading the written word, researchers believe that we see the word in its entirety (the shape of the word) rather than the individual characters. This is why we can have difficulty reading a sentence in all uppercase - the shape is lost.
However, it doesn't work like that with morse as the characters are received individually and, if the message is being written (or typed) as it's being received, the characters have to be written as they're received (and not when we recognise the word).
At lower speeds, when receiving messages in the clear, I found it possible to respond with a "yes" or "no" to questions but I wouldn't regard that as a conversation. At speeds of 25+ wpm I found it impossible to focus on anything other than the audio stream.
If someone tells me that they know of an operator who could hold a conversation while transcribing a rapid stream of morse then I will accept that. But I worked as an operator for years and knew many others in the same job and I never came across anyone with that ability (nice though it would have been to have!).
Well, receiving it doesn't take much concentration as it's an audible transmission and all that is required to receive it is the ability to hear it.
Translating it takes a lot of concentration. At high speeds it takes all of your concentation - to the point that, although you're writing down the individual letters as they are received, you have almost no idea what you're writing until the transmission ends and you can review what you've written.
>Most guys who are that good at Morse code can receive it in the background while carrying on a normal conversation. It's just like reading a screen or listening to a conversation in the >background.
Quite the opposite. You absolutely cannot carry on a conversation at the same time. You must apply your entire focus to the audio stream since if you miss a letter or group of letters while distracted, that's it - they're gone. Yes, you can request re-transmission of the missed characters but the texter would win hands-down in that case.
Liam
PS I speak from years of experience as a telegraphist in the military (a long time ago).
Or you could copy e to 10,000 places
>For me the best part is the savings. Absolutely! I spoke to my brother in the U.S. (from Ireland) for 45 mins the other day. Incumbent Telco cost would have been Eu6.80. SkypeOut cost was Eu0.90. He has now installed Skype so future cost : Eu0.00.
Tinfoil is just so passee these days.
... the pinnacle of the science of precision bombing. Can't really see it catching on.
I suspect you had your tongue firmly-in-cheek but in case you didn't : This is a means to an end, not an end in itself. The means is to detect and punish drivers who are breaking laws; the end is to modify driver behaviour.
Hmmm. I wonder if Sun expected this response from SCO, allowing them to say "Well, we offered" without actually opening anything.
The first one was as a developer with a company where the pace of life was so relaxed that in the afternoon I needed a few cups of coffee simply to stay awake (and I'm not a coffee drinker!). I felt unchallenged and useless.
The second was as a SysAdmin / Developer and the stress was at the other extreme of the spectrum. No matter how many hours I put in, I was never finished. No effort was good enough. If I had stayed there, I reckon I'd have been taken out in a box in the not-too-distant future.
The point I'm making is that a certain amount of stress and pressure is healthy. Too little is stultifying and too much is simply dangerous. The appropriate amount will vary from individual to individual.
Incidentally, my latest job is with people I had worked with in the past and I know that I'll get the right amount of pressure to deliver without having the last drop of blood squeezed out of me.