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SOS for SMS

June 2, 2005 › Sandy McMurray | comment

You just knew it was coming. After old school telegraphers beat the droopy pants off young text messengers, twice, a coder has created an application that lets you send Morse code on your cellphone.
Let's back up. In case you missed it, last month the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia pitted a 93-year-old telegraph operator against a 13-year-old text messenger. Even with the handicap of a Paris Hilton-esque message ("Hey, girlfriend, you can text all your best pals to tell them where you are going and what you are wearing.") the telegraph won, keying hands down.
Several days later, on the Tonight show, same contest, same result.
So, a programmer from Helsinki named Hugo hacked together a piece of code for a Nokia cell that allows you to tap out Morse. I love this. As Tom Standage points out in his terrific book, The Victorian Internet, the telegraph really was like the Web. Now, more than ever.

June 2, 2005 › Sandy McMurray | comment on this item