Ham radio, version 2.0, for the silicon era
Article Abstract:
A new generation of digitally-oriented hobbyists are revolutionizing ham radio operation. Their goal reflects cyberspace's original version in which users could meet, discuss ideas on the latest products and communicate with friends and strangers. Keith Baker is a Xenia, OH-based ham operator who sends E-mail voice messages at no cost over orbiting communications satellites that he helped construct. Delivery can take at least an hour, but Baker uses a $250 handheld radio to contact some of the satellites. The number of US licensed ham operators stands at 670,000 in Mar 1998, up from 497,000 in 1990. By comparison, there are 1.8 million active hams overseas. Contemporary hams rely mostly on much shorter radio waves than before, but these higher-frequency signals contain more data and are less subject to interference. Hams frequently can communicate with people on the other side of the world over amateur satellites despite transmitting with less power than a 15-watt refrigerator light bulb.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1998
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Voice technology appears ready to recognize bottom line
Article Abstract:
Speech-recognition may be ready to surpass directory assistance and primitive dictation software. Programming breakthroughs and faster computers since Jan 1997 are accelerating the decades-old technology. Some corporate users have begun to use speech recognition, while others are testing it in extreme conditions such as trading floors of brokerage firms and exchanges. Charles Schwab selected an automated phone system for taking customer calls on mutual fund trades and stock quotes in California, Oregon, Colorado and Washington. Experts say speech recognition must contain improved software, as well as smaller and less expensive hardware, before users can converse with computers, appliances or cars. AT&T has made the technology available since the late 1980s, when it began using it for its long-distance service.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1998
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
The beat goes on line, and sometimes it's legal; a guide to Web's profusion of music in MP3 and other formats: what, where, and how
Article Abstract:
Ten years ago the MPEG-1, Layer 3, or MPG3, format replaced earlier WAV and AU formats as a means of exchanging audio files between computers. MPG3 offered 12 times the compression of WAV. Faster modems and Internet connections broadened MPG3's appeal to those, particularly college students, wishing to exchange files containing the music of their favorite artists. In the last couple years, the recording industry, along with the group that developed MPEG, have adopted the Secure Digital Music Initiative, or SDMI, standard, which they hope will limit the spread of unauthorized copies of copyrighted music.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1999
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: An analysis of turnover among retail buyers. The effects of advertising on retail price competition under vertical restraint: a Japanese case
- Abstracts: Not yet over the hill. Go Kimberley! WA's north-west is remarkable and it would be a pity to miss out on exploring it-rough or smooth
- Abstracts: Values-based management. Voices from the firing line: managers discuss punishment in the workplace. Why Trafalgar was won before it was fought: lessons from resource-based theory
- Abstracts: Yeltsin's compromise man dithers on reform. The Asian crisis, an opening chapter of the year of living dangerously
- Abstracts: Recognizing and reducing transcultural ethical tension. Technology transfer and the spillover effect to local firms: Evidence from India