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Communications Technology

Morse Code Faster Than SMS 556

Posted by Zonk from the morse-rises-from-grave-and-goes-on-killing-spree dept.
mentalflossboy writes "Engadget is reporting that Morse Code is actually faster than text messaging. According to the article, 93 year old Gordon Hill transmitted a message faster than 13 year old Brittany Devlin, despite Devlin's 'liberal use of texting slang.' And the fabulous quote they were they sending: 'Hey, girlfriend, you can text all your best pals to tell them where you are going and what you are wearing.'"
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Morse Code Faster Than SMS More

Morse Code Faster Than SMS

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  • Newsflash! (Score:5, Funny)

    by EnronHaliburton2004 ( 815366 ) * on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:35PM (#12458814) Homepage Journal
    Newsflash:

    Voice is faster then either Text Messaging or Morse Code, it's already included with your phone plan, and it doesn't make you look like an idiot.

    • Re:Newsflash! (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:39PM (#12458849)
      No, it just makes you sound like one. :P

      Seriously, I'd rather be on a bus full of txters than people phoning.

    • Re:Newsflash! (Score:5, Funny)

      by wahsapa ( 767922 ) on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:40PM (#12458856)
      NEWSFLASH:

      Telepathy faster than speech... however it DOES make you look like an idiot

    • Re:Newsflash! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Capt'n Hector ( 650760 ) on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:48PM (#12458934)
      I assume from your post that you've never tried to call someone from a concert or a party (hey this is /. after all) where there's loud music. There really are times when you can't hear shit.

      • Re:Newsflash! (Score:3, Funny)

        by Chemisor ( 97276 )
        I assume from your post that you are unaware that exposure to loud music causes hearing loss. I would put your problem in the "Doctor, it hurts when I do this" category.

      • Re:Newsflash! (Score:2, Insightful)

        by pipingguy ( 566974 )

        If you're at a party or concert, shouldn't your focus be on what is happening there and not telling your friends how crappy/cool it is? Or is this what modern SMS "networking" is all about?

        It's all about the scene, man, and commenting on it, not the experience.

      • Re:Newsflash! (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Jozer99 ( 693146 )
        So true. I'm in a band, which means lots of concerts. At 100 dB+, I don't want to call anyone, or even take my protective earplugs out for that matter (call me a sissy, but I will be insulting you in ten years, but you won't hear it, or much of anything). Text messaging is a great way to contact people to tell them when our set it, tell people that to bring a forgotten cable or instrument, or even in some cases find out WHERE THE #$%#$ our base player is. Other than that, I usually use the phone for wha
      • It's also good for flirting with the opposite sex, but then again, this is /.

    • Re:Newsflash! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by DustyShadow ( 691635 ) on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:50PM (#12458946) Homepage
      - Texting is better when I'm in a situation where I don't want others to know what I'm talking about.

      - Texting is better when I need to tell someone something but I don't want to have to have a full conversation with them.

      - Since I travel a lot, I love using Google text (46645) when I'm looking for something like a restaraunt in the area

      - Texting saves minutes.

      • Not for real men! (Score:5, Funny)

        by Chemisor ( 97276 ) on Friday May 06, 2005 @09:40PM (#12459269)
        > Texting is better when I'm in a situation where I
        > don't want others to know what I'm talking about.

        Real men speak Klingon for this purpose.

        > Texting is better when I need to tell someone
        > something but I don't want to have to have a full
        > conversation with them.

        So call them, say it, and hang up. If it's important, they'll call back and use up their minutes.

        > I love using Google text (46645) when I'm
        > looking for something like a restaraunt

        Real men aren't afraid of asking for directions.

        > Texting saves minutes.

        Sounds like you need to work on your words per minute. Some people speak very slowly at as little as 15 wpm. With a little practice you can work up to 175 wpm. Not only will that save you valuable minutes (although real men buy unlimited calling plans), but it works as an excellent device for winning arguments. Just imagine, being able to say ten words for each one your opponent utters! He'll never be able to come up with a counter argument before you completely devastate him with an astounding verbal barrage and move through seven topics before he gathers enough wits to reply to the first one. If he tries, just sneer and invoke the three-second rule.

        Did I mention that women are really impressed by verbal prowess? Typing up these voluminous Slashdot comments is gonna pay off today!

        • Re:Not for real men! (Score:5, Funny)

          by Xzzy ( 111297 ) <sether@@@tru7h...org> on Friday May 06, 2005 @10:14PM (#12459380) Homepage
          I'm a guy, and I must admit I'm kinda turned on.

          rowr.

    • Re:Newsflash! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by zeromemory ( 742402 ) on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:55PM (#12458982) Homepage
      it doesn't make you look like an idiot

      Newsflash:

      Most people would rather have you text than yap loudly on the phone in public places.

      Don't get me wrong, voice chat is usually more efficient, but text messaging is a whole lot more discreet. My friends and I use it to schedule study-groups - that way, we can notify someone of a meeting later that day while they're still in class.

    • Re:Newsflash! (Score:5, Funny)

      by PsychicX ( 866028 ) on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:56PM (#12458995)
      In other news, some bratty teenager just got owned by somebody 80 years her elder.

    • Re:Newsflash! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by OrangeTide ( 124937 )
      Texting is asynchronous though.
    • I find T9 [t9.com] predictive input [t9.com] input a real help, much quicker than even the folks that use "u", "m8" and other abbreviations.

      Still annoys me when people (really had to concentrate and not type "ppl" then) try to use SMS to see if I want to go for a beer tho... I always end up calling 'em, it's far cheaper and quicker. Texts seem so impersonal sometimes too...

    • Re:Newsflash! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by jedrek ( 79264 )
      Having to look at my phone, punch in three numbers, put it back up at my ear, listen, pull it away, punch in three more, etc, when someone who "refuses to text" is dictating me a phone number doesn't make me look like an idiot at all though, right?

      Or when they want me to write down a long email/web/physical address.

      Good stuff, ludites.

    • Re:Newsflash! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Xugumad ( 39311 ) on Friday May 06, 2005 @10:26PM (#12459439)
      Texting is great for either messages that require no response ("I'll be in the pub from 6, feel free to join me", "It's <blah>'s birthday on Friday, thought you might want a reminder", "Arrrghh I hate Mondays/my boss/computers/the weather", etc.), or where a response is not time critical, and likely to be delayed ("Can you tell me <obscure information>", "Are you free next week sometime"), this sort of thing.

      In particular, you don't have to interrupt the other person to get your message across. I may notice a message arriving, and read it at the time, or I may leave it until I'm less busy, or more frequently I'll just not notice for a few hours. On the other hand, if someone calls me, I have to stop what I'm doing, respond to them, then go back to what I'm doing.

  • First message? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    What hath Woz wrought?

  • So did he ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by bigjocker ( 113512 ) * on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:36PM (#12458822) Homepage
    Get a first post?

    beeeeep beep beep beeeeep ....

  • Sell me an open phone (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Sloppy ( 14984 ) * on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:36PM (#12458823) Homepage Journal
    This is another reason I would like to someday see "open" phones. I always thought it would be great to build protocols on top of the phone system (e.g. if your phone and your friend's phone both have some sort of GPG extension installed, then go ahead and encrypt end-to-end). But this article shows that the possibilities for innovation (if you can call Morse code an innovation ;-) even extend to UIs. If we had open phones, then within a few minutes of this article, some people would add a morse input interface to the text entry part of their phone. And when you think about it, it does seem pretty ridiculous that a handful of companies could possibly come up with whatever UI happens to be the best possible.

    Electronics companies, go on making the hardware. But let us screw around with the software. If you remember a little something called "the internet" you'll realize that there are a hell of a lot of good ideas out there (as well as a hell of a lot of really dumb ones, but let's not talk about that).

  • Sweet (Score:5, Funny)

    by gordgekko ( 574109 ) on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:36PM (#12458824) Homepage
    A phone with only dot and dash buttons!

  • I think the US Navy stopped training (Score:5, Interesting)

    by geomon ( 78680 ) on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:36PM (#12458827) Homepage Journal
    But is Morse proficiency still required for amatuer radio licensing?

    • Re:I think the US Navy stopped training (Score:5, Informative)

      by Kaimelar ( 121741 ) on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:49PM (#12458936) Homepage
      But is Morse proficiency still required for amatuer radio licensing?

      For the Technician class license (the lowest one), no. For others (Technician Plus, General, Extra) there are still Morse code tests. Test requirements start at 5 WPM, if memory serves.

      More info at http://www.arrl.org/ [arrl.org]

      Damn, now you've got me wanting to order some study materials and upgrade my license, which I've been meaning to do for years . . . plus I could finally use the "use the keyboard LEDs to show data in Morse code" trick.

      • Starts and ends at 5wpm. There is only one code test now. The 13 and 20 wpm tests were eliminated in favor of a single 5wpm test (in the United States.)

  • Well... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fitten ( 521191 ) on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:36PM (#12458828)
    I'm a touch typist and what I think just goes to my hands. It's actually harder (and takes longer) for me to type "u" to mean "you" than it does to type "you" because I have to throw my brain into idiot mode and override my normal typing skills to get idiot-speak onto the screen.
    • Agreed -- I touch type as well. But show me a phone with a built-in full-sized keyboard and I'll show you a phone doomed to sell no more than 18 units worldwide.

      FWIW, I won't do text messaging. Typing is so easy and natural that the annoyance level involved in trying to make a word on a phone key pad is infuriatingly frustrating. I'd rather call, or wait and email later.
    • I'm a touch typist and what I think just goes to my hands.

      Using a phone keyboard? Your mind just automatically thinks to hit the 6 three times to get an oh? Man, you're way l33t.

      Are you using two thumbs, or just one? What's the secret? You gotta fill me in.

    • Re:Well... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Doppler00 ( 534739 )
      If your phone has it, which it should, use the T9 input method. It predicts fairly accurately what word you want to type when pressing keys. For example, to type the word "This" you would simply press 8447 on your phone and it predicts you meant "This". However, if you were to use standard text messaging you would have to do this:

      844,4447777
      T h i s
      Where , is a one second pause to wait for the cursor to return so you can type the next letter. Although T9 is not as fast as touch typing (I normally use

  • I'm sold on this idea ! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Adult film producer ( 866485 ) <van@i2pmail.org> on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:37PM (#12458832)
    After I learn morse code I'll have exactly zero friends to morse with, sort of like my current contact list.

  • Well of course (Score:4, Funny)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:37PM (#12458833)
    93 year old Gordon Hill transmitted a message faster than 13 year old Brittany

    Parkinson's disease helps...

    • Re:Well of course (Score:5, Insightful)

      by citking ( 551907 ) <jay.citking@net> on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:43PM (#12458878) Homepage
      Morse code takes way more talent than I've got. I give the guy props.
      • Not really.. depends what you are using to send it.
        If you use the old fashioned way with the trigger, then it's hard(unless you've trained and used to using it), but geeks should be able to hack their keyboard to echo pressed key as its morse code to the output.

        Morse is probably faster to "write" since you don't have to click send separately, it already transmits the letters once you push the trigger, unless you are using somekind of buffering.

    • Parkinson's disease helps...

      I hhhaavvvee PPPParrrkkiinnnsonnnnsss, yyyyouuu innnnseennnssssitiiivvee cccllllooddd!!!!
    • Lets seee... A 93 year old man using one hand to IM a 13 year old .... and he was faster...

      Either this is a viagra commercial in the making, or the FBI has been hanging out in #nanogenarians again....

      B
  • I can't write TXT messages for my life. It takes me a 1/2 hour because I'm a spaz and can barely operate my phone :P

  • Misleading article.. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by peculiarmethod ( 301094 ) on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:38PM (#12458844) Journal
    I feel jipped. I can't find what the 93-yr old was wearing ANYWHERE in tfarticle.

    Aside from that, this doesnt suprise me, as the bottleneck was not the tech itself, but the input methods. And having 3 or 4 letters per key is NOT efficient.
    • And having 3 or 4 letters per key is NOT efficient.
      You mean unlike morse, which has all letters on the same key? Or unlike a computer keyboard, which just has a single letter per key?

  • Translated (Score:5, Funny)

    by citking ( 551907 ) <jay.citking@net> on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:38PM (#12458845) Homepage
    "Sup g/f? U can txt all ur homies 2 tell dem wats da haps and wut u waring"

  • I have a Motorola A630 with a full QWERTY keyboard. Your telling me he can type faster then I can with my keyboard over SMS? I don't think so...

    • Re:Phone? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by twostar ( 675002 )
      Absolutley, I know a Ham that is "down" to 60 wpm with morse code after peaking 100+ while serving with the Navy. I've seen this guy decode and he's faster and more accurate then the computers we had doing the same thing.

      Now I just need to go get a slow 5 wpm to upgrade my license.

  • The young and the restless (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:40PM (#12458857)
    So, a 93 year old morse code veteran beat a 13 year old novice-at-typing child? Wow...good story!

    In other, seemingly unrelated news: Big marbles are larger than small ones.

  • Allow me to be the first to say (Score:5, Funny)

    by Brento ( 26177 ) <brento.brentozar@com> on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:41PM (#12458868) Homepage
    -.. ..- .... .-.-.-

    (Damn Slashdot's filters. Telling me to use less junk characters. Morse code isn't junk! It's top quality characters!)
  • That 94 year old granny can SMS things faster than mind reading... b.t.w. Morse still tops them all says 144 year old mr. Jones.

  • Morse IS fast (Score:3, Insightful)

    by f8ejf ( 755486 ) on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:44PM (#12458891)
    Starting from scratch, one can reach over 20 words per minute solid copy in a matter of months, with only, say, an hour of regular training every day. 20 wpm isn't considered particularly fast amongst morse code operator: the EHSC [dutch.nl] for example requires its members to copy 60 wpm for 30 minutes. While this is at the extreme end of the spectrum, 20 wpm is attainable by anybody with a little patience and time.

    Go here [easyconnect.fr] and try it out yourself, over the internet. You'll see 20 wpm is waaay faster than any SMS messaging.

    • Re:Morse IS fast (Score:3, Interesting)

      by imsabbel ( 611519 )
      You are telling it exactly:
      20 WPM isnt exactly fast (absolutely), and it requires months of training to get there...

      Morse can be fucking fast, but only of you have a) the talent (some people like me never get it) and b) spend a good part of your life into perfecting it.

      I had morse (as a basic) when i was in the army, and i just didnt get it right. But some of the older guys there (who started in the 50s or 60s) were faster than i could type at that point.
  • Sure, maybe this guy can type in morse code faster than the teen, but how long does it take for the other guy to translate it?

    Then again, it's hard to translate "rofl, i luv wat u wearing gurlfrnd!" as well.

    • > Sure, maybe this guy can type in morse code
      > faster than the teen, but how long does it take
      > for the other guy to translate it?

      The other guy "translates" it in real time as it is sent.

  • Calculating it... (Score:4, Informative)

    by thrill12 ( 711899 ) * on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:50PM (#12458943) Journal
    it seems that while SMS is shorter:
    hey gf u can txt ur best pals 2 tel them wot u r doing, where ur going and wot u r wearing
    SMS-TAP:443399#4333#222266#8998#88777#7223377778#2 #833555#844336#96668#88#777#3666444664#11#94433777 33#88777#4666444664#2663#96668#88#777#933277744466 41

    Compared to:

    Hey, girlfriend, you can text all your best pals to tell them where you are going and what you are wearing. [csgnetwork.com](translate that there - lameness filter ;)

    Morsecode is simply much more simpler to enter - only 3 different possible entrypoints opposed to 10-11 for SMS...

  • Dit dit dit Dah dah Dit dit dit (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Guyle ( 79593 ) on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:51PM (#12458951)
    Has anyone else ever tried to tell someone that the beeping that their Nokia phone makes when they receive a text message is Morse code for SMS? I have yet to meet a single person who's known that. I swear, Morse code is a dying language that will soon go the way of languages such as Latin and Aramaic - famous, scholarly, the old guys like it, but no one else gives a crap.

  • A radio operator I knew had an interesting idea (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    On some Nokia phones a ring signal for messages is the morse code for SMS, that is:
    ... -- ...

    The radio operator I knew said that one killer feature for him would be if the phone instead of that could play the whole message in morse code when it came - no need to pick up the phone to see it, you could just hear the message (and obviously annoy everybody else).
  • 'Hey, girlfriend, you can text all your best pals to tell them where you are going and what you are wearing.'

    Yeah, but I was born a Mr Microphone man and I'll die a Mr Microphone man: 'Hey good lookin', we'll be back to pick ya up later!'

  • This wasn't morse code against sms. This was the older generation (93 year old) against the younger generation (13 year old). And the younger generation sucks. Although I'm sure that even at the same age, a person using morse code can beat a person using sms.
    • This wasn't morse code against sms. This was the older generation (93 year old) against the younger generation (13 year old).

      It's the comparison of a 93 year old who is of the generation that still had the patience to spend many years to learn and get perfect at something like Morse code, and a 13 year old who just happens to be good at thumb-thumbing a cell phone after several months of intensive and expensive messaging of her daft teenage friends.

      Which means the article compares a hard-to-learn but eff

  • Don't tell me.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Mac Degger ( 576336 ) on Friday May 06, 2005 @08:56PM (#12458992) Journal
    ....and Gordon Hill dropped dead from exhaustion right after he was done :)

    BTW, if you think that's a nasty comment, you really don't get the 'quote'
  • ...many mobile phones already come with Morse support. Just dial the person you want. Most phones already have the Morse protocol activated at this point so you can launch right into it. To send someone a dot say "DIT" into the microphone. To send a dash say "DAH". Remember to put short spaces between your words. For example if you're having an emergency you can say DIT-DIT-DIT DAH-DAH-DAH DIT-DIT-DIT. With a little practice you'll find that this is much faster than texting, something you'll appreciate if you are ever in a real emergency.

  • history.. (Score:2, Funny)

    by Kaisum ( 850834 )
    At his success, Gordon started dancing around and waving the apparatus screaming, "This is what god hath wrought, bitch." he then proceeded to throw the telegraph at the insolent child but was taken down by spectators.
  • [dash dit / dash dash dash / dash
    dit dash]
    dit dit dash dit / dit dit / dit dash dit / dit dit dit / dash
    dit dash dash dit / dash dash dash / dit dit dit / dash / dit dit dash dash dit dit

    Silly lameness filter...

  • Yes! (Score:2)

    by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )
    Ok, so when can I get morse code recognition built into my phone?

    I've long thought, "Wow, that's useless" when it comes to SMS messaging due to having to basically peck out each key. However, I've known morse code since I was about, oh, 11. You wouldn't have to pick your finger up at all - just alternate between pressing and not pressing - and wouldn't need to look at the phone.

    Plus, it has real-life (ie, survival) applicability in many situations. I suspect that most of the armed forces know it as well
  • The article linked in the story actually goes to a slashdot-like gadget news site, which linked to an SMS/text messaging news site that had a link to the actual article [timesonline.co.uk].

    The girl lost partly because she mistakenly added 4 extra words to the message, among other things.

  • I generally send my sms messages from web services if I am at home or close to a computer connected to the Internet. Do not try to tell me that morse code can be done faster than I can write on a keyboard. OK, I write a lot of useless information like this comment here on Slashdot, so I have the advantage of writing fast, but still.. Morse may be faster than using those user-unfriendly mobile phone keyboard, but not faster than typing on normal keyboards..!
  • Determining the relative speed of chordic Baudot and Stenotype methods, in particular Baudot code was intended as a acceleration of Morse

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