Posted on 04/03/2011 7:56:18 AM PDT by Brandonmark
CNN) -- Sunday is the anniversary of something that undoubtedly has changed your life.
Whether for good or for bad is a question only you can answer.
On this day in 1973 -- on April 3 of that year -- a man did something no one had ever done before.
You may bless him for it or curse him for it. At this juncture, it hardly matters. The impact of what he did is so enormous that judging it now is almost beside the point.
The man's name was Martin Cooper. He was 44 at the time.
He made a cell phone call.
The world's first. At least the first public one; the cell phone had been tested in the lab, but never tried in the real world.
"As I walked down the street while talking on the phone," Cooper once told an interviewer, "sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call."
There had been car phones before -- mobile radios, really. They were powered by heavy equipment that had to be stashed in the trunk of the automobile.
But Cooper, who was the general manager of Motorola's communications systems division, had the idea that people didn't want to be tethered to a stationary telephone, even if the phone could ride along with them in their car. He thought that the phone should be so portable that it could go anywhere they went.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
How do you play ketchup???? A pick, a bow, with keys?
I’m just wondering how you keep it from squishing as you try to play it.
They had commercial GPS 20 years ago?
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Early 90’s; the Gulf War (August 2, 1990 February 28, 1991 per wiki) was also the really first full-scale use by the military ... consumer products followed ... had an early Magellan ‘94 that took awhile to initially acquire and only showed Lat/Long speed, COG (Course over Ground) and some waypoint functions (distance, bearing) ... but, of course, no map!
Resorted to a Delorme mapping program on a low-powered laptop receiving data from the GPS for the ‘moving map’ function.
You’re SUPPOSED to squish the packet. It’s like a tiny accordion. Um, without the sound.
It’s like an accordian so the ketchup merely gets redistributed.
Can you feel me now?
-Peanut (Jeff Dunham)
Thanks for the info!
Or, if the call is genuinely that important, switch the fool thing to "excite" and leave the sanctuary to take the call.
There are at least two members of our congregation who do so. Unless you are seated close to them you wouldn't even realize what was happening. Both of them are business owners and a missed call might mean missed business. Understandable the way the economy is.
It’s absolutely amazing that we both came up with the concept of an accordian....and seconds apart!!! Sac
The first unit we ever used was IIRC, a Trimble. It was huge and was flown in for the week. The case was about 2’x2’x2’ and insulated so the equipment could survive a fall from a plane.
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system made up of a network of 24 satellites placed into orbit by the U.S. Department of Defense. GPS was originally intended for military applications, but in the 1980s, the government made the system available for civilian use. GPS works in any weather conditions, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. There are no subscription fees or setup charges to use GPS.
It’s better to play it with Relish.
The Cuban government wouldn’t permit us (the U.S. Interests Section in Havana) to operate a radio net as we do in most other diplomatic missions. For comms, we were restricted to using the Cuban cellphone system. They charged the Section exorbitant prices per unit. I don’t know if they’ve changed. This was in the mid 90s.
Wow! Not too suprising though.
¡Viva la Cuba!
So, the USA does have an offical presence in Cuba?
I did not know that. Thanks for the info.
LOL! That is TOO funny!
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