Don't forget about such practical "details" as large overhead of air travel (especially on shorter journeys; also how it spends comparatively large amount of time in dangerous flight modes), plus how you need to somehow get to/from the airport using other means of travel - which on shorter distances would get you a large part of way already...
So why exactly both of you haven't realized the easiest possible solution to this "problem"?
(namely: focus on promoting hard science & engineering degrees... as happens at my place, which generally does have free education - but, on top of that, recently many students of engineering studies can count on additional scholarship virtually just because of what they chose to study, as long as their results are decent)
Hydrogen is actually the norm for weather balloon usage (because it's much cheaper). But makes only few percent of difference (in the absolute terms of buoyancy, and this means even less than it sounds like due to the rapidly dropping air density), and only theoretically - because what actually kills the balloon is disintegration due to structural failure (after being greatly expanded).
I just used "helium balloon" because the term seems to have become customary in EN (I don't call them like that in my language), especially in the case of amateur launches.
The whole thing about "individualism" and being an "individual" appears to mean something different from what it sounds like - comes with an evaluation of how much (?!) of an individual you are.
The view appears to be: since we cherish the perception of how everyone has the opportunity to excel, we should honor those who do so since they are the representation of true individualism (which gives the word a whole new meaning)
It follows that those who don't excel need to recognize that and pay deference to those who do = where the "leadership" comes in, which appears to be not far off from conforming to your place in the society (say, a follower displays leadership when recognizing that he is expected to follow and then doing everything possible to please the (actual) leader - individualism and leadership as top-down hero worship)
And this care haven't started, by chance, just after the recent decision about Pluto?
("deserve"? Yup, certainly doesn't appear to be emotionally driven, not at all... NVM that we have yet to establish with certainty that Vesta shape is due to hydrostatic equilibrium - and what about the Sun? It is big enough to be round too, was considered one)
It seems likely that T-Mobile might be very similar or even notably better in DE - but relatively to the state of the market in a given place, they would look either obnoxious or quite nice...
And you know, Verizon is largely Vodafone - a revenge?;)
One could not really argue it like that, if remembering NMT...first 1G, first widely deployed and largest cellular network for some time - which in itself is not that crucial anyway, there were very many concurrent early efforts. But NMT was established under regional cooperation, with roaming and openness in mind - things which probably set framework for GSM and methodology of its creation. Things which were probably crucial in its success.
You might check 405-line system BTW, regarding broadcast television... (and remember, the situation was also one of more direct byproducts of WW2) Generally also many efforts, in many places, coalescing into something here and there (819-line system is curious)
As for your original question, there is something similar, W-SIM. Evidently not very popular, not very inexpensive if I had to guess, not very practical & needlessly complex - thing is, most of the world doesn't need it. Places that could find a good use - don't really want it, I guess (c'mon, how many people at your place like to have shiny toy early and often? The class of phones for which it would be most useful are probably replaced most often anyway)
Have you considered that the number of phones was also a status symbol? Especially Slovakia back then... (and the situation changed, it's not uncommon to see even cheap prepaid which gives the same rate when calling to anywhere in the EU)
Hmmm... (not even close to the only one, just fastest link to get to) you were saying? (generally, I find your description of situation in Europe imprecise)
From my experience, changes of "human nature" aren't necessary (if they were even possible, as you point out) to make some place nicer. It's small things, details, which add up in the end.
Please stop being so confused by one consortium choosing as its trademark what is also the name of one (quite old) basic radio method...
CDMA(tm) is simply younger from original GSM - so you're arguing "newer standard uses more complex method" (duh), CDMA radio method in this case...which was also concurrently being developed by GSM association into UMTS (*), over most of a decade (that's how long those things take, there was no "showing the light" by one private company - again, the method is old, much older than Qualcomm)
BTW, 2G GSM achieves as good transfers as basic CDMA2K, and 3G GSM achieves much higher bandwidth than the latest CDMA(tm).
(*)but there was less of a hurry, they had a good working standard already which now still dominates the world - also in places where there even isn't much gov to speak of, nobody to "force" supposedly suboptimal standard as you claim in the other post; and where bang-for-buck is actually very important. Also in places with much lower population density (where I still don't remember ever noticing losing signal - except in places lake a pub in the dungeons of a castle)
Really, a notably older standard (which means a lot more in this case, also when it comes to mobile phone processing power & batteries - maybe one of the reasons why it is dominating) uses less complex radio method? Who would have thought...
And please stop being so taken by what is arguably a very poor marketing of one group choosing the name of the radio method as its trademark - "CDMA" (the product, about which you evidently talk about - otherwise you would compare it to TDMA) doesn't have monopoly over...CDMA. Isn't more "true it" than UMTS.
And LTE is definitely/not/ built on CDMA in any rigorous sense - it uses OFDMA; which at most could be called TDMA of CDMA, or CDMA of TDMA, in a way...
...(thus some Blackbird pilots are actually Astronauts). Why do these articles keep, with such huge inaccuracies, keep getting posted?
X-15. Pot, kettle, et al;) (I guess too many, to use the description from the headline, nerds like to think they're doing something similar to space agencies)
Slashdot Mirror
Don't forget about such practical "details" as large overhead of air travel (especially on shorter journeys; also how it spends comparatively large amount of time in dangerous flight modes), plus how you need to somehow get to/from the airport using other means of travel - which on shorter distances would get you a large part of way already...
So why exactly both of you haven't realized the easiest possible solution to this "problem"?
(namely: focus on promoting hard science & engineering degrees ... as happens at my place, which generally does have free education - but, on top of that, recently many students of engineering studies can count on additional scholarship virtually just because of what they chose to study, as long as their results are decent)
For example (not the case of "well-known choice" is the point with false perceptions)
Hydrogen is actually the norm for weather balloon usage (because it's much cheaper). But makes only few percent of difference (in the absolute terms of buoyancy, and this means even less than it sounds like due to the rapidly dropping air density), and only theoretically - because what actually kills the balloon is disintegration due to structural failure (after being greatly expanded).
I just used "helium balloon" because the term seems to have become customary in EN (I don't call them like that in my language), especially in the case of amateur launches.
Isn't it mean to say that without providing a link? ;)
The whole thing about "individualism" and being an "individual" appears to mean something different from what it sounds like - comes with an evaluation of how much (?!) of an individual you are.
The view appears to be: since we cherish the perception of how everyone has the opportunity to excel, we should honor those who do so since they are the representation of true individualism (which gives the word a whole new meaning)
It follows that those who don't excel need to recognize that and pay deference to those who do = where the "leadership" comes in, which appears to be not far off from conforming to your place in the society (say, a follower displays leadership when recognizing that he is expected to follow and then doing everything possible to please the (actual) leader - individualism and leadership as top-down hero worship)
Good thing those Russian tanks never advanced, they would have plenty of jamming equipment available everywhere around them...
And this care haven't started, by chance, just after the recent decision about Pluto?
("deserve"? Yup, certainly doesn't appear to be emotionally driven, not at all... NVM that we have yet to establish with certainty that Vesta shape is due to hydrostatic equilibrium - and what about the Sun? It is big enough to be round too, was considered one)
Yeah, few spots frequented by tourists totally change the equation...
It's called new company, or daughter one at most...
(and I'm sure for railways the biggest surprise was with how ridiculous amounts of subsidies and bail-outs airlines can get away with)
It seems likely that T-Mobile might be very similar or even notably better in DE - but relatively to the state of the market in a given place, they would look either obnoxious or quite nice...
And you know, Verizon is largely Vodafone - a revenge? ;)
One could not really argue it like that, if remembering NMT...first 1G, first widely deployed and largest cellular network for some time - which in itself is not that crucial anyway, there were very many concurrent early efforts. But NMT was established under regional cooperation, with roaming and openness in mind - things which probably set framework for GSM and methodology of its creation. Things which were probably crucial in its success.
You might check 405-line system BTW, regarding broadcast television... (and remember, the situation was also one of more direct byproducts of WW2) Generally also many efforts, in many places, coalescing into something here and there (819-line system is curious)
As for your original question, there is something similar, W-SIM. Evidently not very popular, not very inexpensive if I had to guess, not very practical & needlessly complex - thing is, most of the world doesn't need it.
Places that could find a good use - don't really want it, I guess (c'mon, how many people at your place like to have shiny toy early and often? The class of phones for which it would be most useful are probably replaced most often anyway)
Only in very few places where are Apple is common...
Mobile phone chargers are not a commodity at your place, inexpensive 3rd party ones not available for virtually any kind of handset?
That's not a problem anymore.
Have you considered that the number of phones was also a status symbol? Especially Slovakia back then... (and the situation changed, it's not uncommon to see even cheap prepaid which gives the same rate when calling to anywhere in the EU)
Hmmm... (not even close to the only one, just fastest link to get to) you were saying? (generally, I find your description of situation in Europe imprecise)
From my experience, changes of "human nature" aren't necessary (if they were even possible, as you point out) to make some place nicer. It's small things, details, which add up in the end.
Please stop being so confused by one consortium choosing as its trademark what is also the name of one (quite old) basic radio method...
CDMA(tm) is simply younger from original GSM - so you're arguing "newer standard uses more complex method" (duh), CDMA radio method in this case...which was also concurrently being developed by GSM association into UMTS (*), over most of a decade (that's how long those things take, there was no "showing the light" by one private company - again, the method is old, much older than Qualcomm)
BTW, 2G GSM achieves as good transfers as basic CDMA2K, and 3G GSM achieves much higher bandwidth than the latest CDMA(tm).
(*)but there was less of a hurry, they had a good working standard already which now still dominates the world - also in places where there even isn't much gov to speak of, nobody to "force" supposedly suboptimal standard as you claim in the other post; and where bang-for-buck is actually very important. Also in places with much lower population density (where I still don't remember ever noticing losing signal - except in places lake a pub in the dungeons of a castle)
Really, a notably older standard (which means a lot more in this case, also when it comes to mobile phone processing power & batteries - maybe one of the reasons why it is dominating) uses less complex radio method? Who would have thought...
And please stop being so taken by what is arguably a very poor marketing of one group choosing the name of the radio method as its trademark - "CDMA" (the product, about which you evidently talk about - otherwise you would compare it to TDMA) doesn't have monopoly over...CDMA. Isn't more "true it" than UMTS.
And LTE is definitely /not/ built on CDMA in any rigorous sense - it uses OFDMA; which at most could be called TDMA of CDMA, or CDMA of TDMA, in a way...
The amount of effort and precedences counts, too... This one is nice, and more than a bit similar to TFA (though better)
You know, some of us were lurking a bit for a few years...too bad really, considering it started perhaps in the times of 5-digit UIDs.
...(thus some Blackbird pilots are actually Astronauts). Why do these articles keep, with such huge inaccuracies, keep getting posted?
X-15. Pot, kettle, et al ;) (I guess too many, to use the description from the headline, nerds like to think they're doing something similar to space agencies)
You mistyped "the wrongly perceived alternative: no phone service and no handheld device" there...
It's in a f****ng 2:3 orbital resonance with it...