By: Bert Rackett

Bert Rackett — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 22:48:45 +0000

When will we realize that SMS is a toy. Whip
it out of your pocket, press 160 keys (or 200 if
your thumb is too fat). WHEEEEEE!
It’s turning the world into hordes of haiku
scribblers, destroying the English language and
replacing it with a dictionary of perversions.
The sad part is that almost by definition the
messages are too short to really communicate
anything. “Hi Joe! I’m at Walmart.” How did we
ever do without it?
Why are the messages so short? The people
selling the service have tower control channels
that are always active, and have lots of extra
capacity. So much that more than a trillion
micromessages can be carried without adding
communication costs. And the service providers
will make thirty billion dollars in 2010
providing the service. Average cost per message,
14.7 cents.
I don’t have a PhD, but I’ve done most of
the engineering design for a desk landline
telephone stand. It has a forty character
display, a little drawer containing a folded
full size keyboard, and software that allows
creating and editing text of any length. When
you like what you’ve written (with ten fingers),
place a call, press a function key and HMMMMM,
off goes your text, perhaps 900 words per minute.
Is it private? Press another function key and
only someone with your key can read it. The
message is sent with audio signals,
and a voice channel can carry it without any
additional fees. You purchase the device, and
never have to pay an additional dime. If you
have “Moby Dick” on a USB memory stick, plug it
in, press a button, and it’s sent to someone’s
memory. All this with no computer and no
internet access. A five dollar microprocessor
does all the work.
My question is, why isn’t such a device
available? It could have been built in the
sixties. My second question is, why can’t I
interest anyone in developing it?

Comments on: 63% Use Text Messaging

By: Bert Rackett