http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaphore_line
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 ...
35K? Damn, you are old! :0) That there’s a 25U’s job these days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaphore_line
In 1977, the US and Cuba agreed to open “Interests Sections” in each others’ capitols. Only smart thing Jimmah Carter ever did. The US is in Havana under the aegis of the Swiss and the Cubans in DC under the aegis of the Czech Republic (used to be Czechoslovakia before 1991). They’re embassies in everything but name. Each mission is headed by a Principal Officer, not an Ambassador. When I left in 1997, there were about 40 American civilians and eight or nine U S Marine Security Guards. We got along famously with the Cubans on the streets. With the Official Cubans: not so much.
HAHA! Well, yeeeeeessss,I AM old. Somebody has to be, and I decided to volunteer!
:-D
Some of that stuff was HEAVY. I followed a 50 lb RT down the stairs once. I landed on top, so I counted myself rather fortunate. :-D
I think it was several lifetimes ago—in a galaxy far, far away.
;-)
I get a sense of wonderful freedom when I leave my cell phone at home, unless it's a work day, then I freak out.
The “Wow, look at that!” factor must be pretty high for the phone. There are instructions on how to DIY out there.
Carter 1, Soetoro 0.
When you got the opportunity to mingle with the regular people, did you get a sense that they were aware that Cuba was led by a mass murdering schmuck? Did you sense any anti-American sentiment? How were the cigars?
I don't relish the thought.
It was sometime in the early ‘80s, I was 12 or 13, riding in a car with a friend (her dad was driving) and she said, “hey, do you want to call your mom?” She handed me this huge handset-thinga-ma-bob and I was like, “huh?” Anyway, I dialed and spoke to my mother while riding down a little suburban road. I remember asking her, “Guess where I am! In Mr. Z’s car!!!”
I can still remember the amazement.... have no idea who Mr. Z worked for, but that was one cool gadget.
I just read “The Victorian Internet.” There were 1,000 such telegraph stations in Europe.
Sometimes I really miss beepers. They told you when someone was trying to get ahold you and you could call them back at your leisure. If it was an emergency, they just added '911' to their callback number and you knew to call them sooner rather than later.
- May I speak to Carmen? - I believe you've got a wrong number. - Oh. Can you verify the number I dialed? - OK. (Sucker me.) - 555- 5678 - That's correct. - Sir, may I interest you in this program, which will blah blah, blah... - No!
Just do what Danny DeVito did in ‘Ruthless People’.
- May I speak to Debbie?
- Debbie can’t talk to you right now, my —— is in her -——. I’ll have her call you back, when I’m through.
*Hangs Up*
- I love wrong numbers.
Cell phones are great but this stupid text messaging will never catch on.
In my “to read” list.
http://spinroot.com/gerard/hist.html
The Early History of Data Networks by Gerard J. Holzmann and Bjorn Pehrson.
What was the bandwidth on that thing? About 6 letters a minute? 1 Kbps?
Thanks — added to my “to read” list, too.
You’d enjoy “The Victorian Internet” — the history of the telegraph in a short form. I also liked “A Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable” by John Steele Gordon.
Both of these weave the business history with the technology history. It’s always fascinating learning about the inventors and the people who made fortunes — and they are often not the same people.
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