On 2011-05-03 09:13, Joseph Apuzzo wrote:
full circle... What made the "Geek Trifecta" So powerful back in the day
was the three elements: Independent communication "the radio", Building
the modem, "the soldering iron", and that new device "the home
computer". I clearly recall watching the packet network for hours on my
DOS XT system.
But now, we have Android and hand held "hot spots"... so why bother?
Like almost all that posted to this thread, it was fun while it lasted.
It seems it's day is gone. Sure there are people creating cool stuff,
but who wants to be Gram Bell with no Watson?
Because in a DISASTER, the cellular network might be taken out, as well
as typically becoming overloaded. And keep in mind that your fancy
smart phones typically have an 8-hour battery life, and that you don't
have a solar charger for it. The cell phones won't communicate between
each other directly without the base stations being up and running.
This is the reason why ham radio is still often used during disasters.
It's still cool to be able to talk from the car over the radio, and it
works over a much longer range than cell phones do.
Being a ham today is still fun, and it still has a purpose -- it's just
that if your purpose is to send data at a high speed, the internet is
faster and will always be faster -- first because the internet uses
wires and optical, secondly because it uses unlicensed spectrum rather
than licensed spectrum with strict rules.
So again -- it goes back to what your specific goals are.
Another angle is the social angle. You can meet some very interesting
and bright people over ham radio that you may not meet otherwise. For
instance, why do you go to MHVLUG meetings? I know I mainly go for the
social angle -- it's an opportunity to discuss Linux-related
technologies with people that have similar interests. Same goes for ham
radio -- it's another kind of social group.
So now that you've leaped from one end of the spectrum to the other, try
to think about this as a whole so you can at least get some kind of
reasonable overall perspective. ;-)
--
-- Chris
--
Chris Knadle
[email protected]
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Jul 6 - Jul 2011
