Quote:
Originally Posted by Molten
boomer, you are missing the point. The entire thought of this thread is that old technologies can be competitive with modern technology. Besides, to disregard the historical Morse code is to forget one's roots.
I honestly don't know where my family is from. I don't care either. To me, my roots are that of the Morse, Archimedes, Einstein, and Descartes. Any person that has dramatically changed the history of man deserves a spot in the history that he has changed.
As a fellow mentor, I believe it is our job to not only prepare students for the future. But to also to teach them a deep respect for the past. I sincerely hope that this message is passed on to all the students of FIRST.
Note: I am sure I have no biological tie to any of the great minds mentioned.
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In fact, the point of this thread is to nostalgically throw a bone to an old technology that was critical in its day and yet has very limited practical use today. The parlor trick is that the txt encoding on a 12 key cellphone was designed for simplicity and not for speed. A qwerty keyboard on a cellphone is many times faster, and snapping a photo or reading it over the phone is even faster and easier technology.
As far as I know, most people don't even use Morse code, but use continental code invented by Friedrich Clemens Gerke in 1848. Translating letters into codes had existed for centuries- Braille came out in the 1820s; I Ching had a systematic encoding scheme over 2000 years ago.
Don't get me wrong: Morse's mechanical inventions and his encoding scheme played a huge role in the growth of this country. I do not heard enough of Morse accomplishments to rate the significance of his science/engineering with the greats like Einstein, Bell, Edison, Marconi, Tesla, Newton, Descartes, Da Vinci, etc.
I found this online...
http://books.google.com/books?id=k3X...m=8#PPA2 5,M1
I never said it was appropriate to disregard the international Morse Code, as a piece of history and for its practical application if you are in to licensed radio.
Navajo code talkers had their place in history as well.
But gimmick parlor tests are easily seen as both contrived and irrelevant by students. Pretending that human operated single key coding is faster than two finger keying on a QWERTY keyboard is just a piece of propaganda.
Granted, for emergencies, some people at some point in their lives possibly could be aided by knowing Morse Code. I did know it at one point: maybe I'll keep a MC chart and a mirror in my wallet in case of emergencies next time I go through the wilderness... or I could get that SATphone or a Ham radio
