Eighty-six percent of the world's land mass and all of its oceans are in areas with inadequate landline service. I am not sure what that exactly means. I can phone many small villages all around the world. Is my phone company using satellite technology? Or a combination of satellite and cellular? Or is wireless also part of it? I guess it means there is no phone "coverage". I didn't know the "phone footprint" was so small.

"Iridium addresses these situations by providing coverage in all ocean areas, air routes and all landmasses - including the Poles. Iridium delivers essential communications services to and from remote areas where no other form of communication is available. If you work, live or travel in areas outside cellular coverage or in areas with inadequate landline service, Iridium is for you." Cellular coverage of the USA is only 40% on land, and around the world, the figure is probably less. Not so anymore. If you're on a ship at sea or a hermit on a mountain, you may want to check out the video at Forbes.com about Iridium's 60+ satellites.

Do you climb mountains or row boats across the ocean? You need their software, the leading expedition update software, especially designed for mountaineers, polar skiers, ocean rowers, trekkers, science and relief missions.

All of these technologies illustrate the doing-more-with-less principle, emphasized by R. Buckminster Fuller. We are using less material (in a satellite) and reaching more people than was used in the TransAtlantic cable. Fiber optic cables are and will help connect millions with news, views, spews, clues, and hues.

Mommy, I shrunk the screens!


It will be interesting to see what small LED screens emerge in the near future.

YouTube is just now available on handhelds.

More on solar panels for your cellphone or laptop, plus other wired nomad equipment.

The One Laptop Per Child project is still forging ahead with outreach goal of serving every child on the planet. Opera, a company that makes a fast and efficient browser, are on the bandwagon designing a browser that will work on this low-power-consuming, streamlined knowtbook. The Opera browser has a voice function (highlight the text, then tell it to speak it), using Microsoft's gravelly Sam or Mary voice to read the selected text. If only we could install a better voice. Their OperaMini version is a browser for a cellphone — you've got the whole wired world in your hands.

Opera for Mobile also tips the scales as one of the best.

Opera browser also lets you make Powerpoint-type presentations online, and run them through the browser. It is called Opera Show. It is worth a whirl.

The human imagination never fails to amaze me: where do all thos ideas all come from? I mean, our creativity, our invention, innovation, ennervation. In design improvement, problem-solving insights, and sheer contemplative enjoyment, that Great Open Source just keeps on pouring [Credence Clearwater Revival: Big wheel, keep on turnin'].

Apart from almost runaway technological perpetual upgrading, there are now widgets. Widgets are wizard gadgets that are added to and then can be run from your browser. Opera comes with a long list of widgets, including the novel Neon Degree Clock by Tangent128 . The clock gives the time in degrees based on position the earth makes in relation to the hypothetical line from the earth to the sun.

They set midnight as the 0 degree mark. I guess if you used geomapping or put in your GPS coordinates, you could know how directly or indirectly the sun is overhead. Actually, it is the earth that is "underray" the sun, rather than the sun being "overhead" the earth. Well, it is overhead — true — but it is not the object really that is moving in relation to us: we are moving in relation to it.

I would suggest that once one's longilatitude is entered, they have the option of putting some tick or hash marks along the arc to indicate sunsee (sunrise), sundirect (high noon), sunclipse (sunset) and sunhide (midnight). These new words are an attempt to be more accurate in our understanding of ourselves and the life on our planet as being "offspring" of the Sun.

These changes would be acceptable in the western world, where the 24-hour "day" start at midnight, and the Muslim and Bahá'í worlds, where the 24-hour day technically starts at sunclipse (sunset) and goes through 12 hours of night followed by 12 hours of day (but in practicality, it starts and finishes at six o'clock). Even though Islam uses a lunar calendar, they still gauge their day based on the Sun. The Bábí and Bahá'í calendar is based entirely on the Sun; as well, it is modular.

So, as I learned in Tanzania, 7am is actually saa moja or one o'clock (daytime), and saa mbili tatu would be hour three night or 9pm. The change from day to night or night to day is at 6 o'clock western time. The clock change from day to night (the beginning of nighttime) or vice versa (the beginning of daytime) is not the same as (but it may be close to) the times for sunsee and sunclipse. The latter changes according to your latitude. Thus, the clock could also have arc marks for the beginnings of daytime and nighttime, as well as the sunsee and sunclipse arc marks. The latter are useful during Ramadan or the Baha'i month of fasting, but are also significant in terms of recommended times for the recitation of some prayers.

posted by spincaster on 07 Oct 10 1:00 am permalink