History [was Re: strangest systems I've sent email from]

[Swift Griggs]

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016, Mouse wrote:
> Well, I think "Sun god" is a significant overstatement, and I'm pretty 
> sure I never capitalized the "der", but yes, that was me.

It's not an overstatement to me, sir. You would probably be very surprised 
if you knew how many fixes you've helped me out of. I don't know how many 
times I'd come across one of your posts on Sunhelp or elsewhere that'd 
provide the key bit of info I needed etc... So, thanks! Not to mention 
that IIRC, you've carried the torch (magnesium flare in your case) against 
top posting for as long as folks have done it!

> I stole the "der" from German before I knew enough German to know what I 
> was doing.

Heh, that reminds me of living in Norway and learning to speak Norsk 
(bokmal). I'd sit and watch TV (as long as it was in Bokmal, and most was 
in Nynorsk) in Norsk with English subtitles. Then I'd flip over and watch 
English shows with Norsk subtitles. Then I'd unleash myself upon the small 
town folk in Moss, Norway and they'd be either greatly amused or 
occasionally horrified by my grammar (but they were always cool and 
helping me learn). I slowly got better by talking to older folks. They 
spoke slower and were more patient with me (but I'd still often butcher 
things or say things they thought were hilarious).

> The crazy patchwork quilt of regulations applying to amateur use of 
> radio spectrum, is my guess.  Now, I would add the depressingly high 
> chance of being invaded by the masses if/when we build something big 
> enough to be useful.

I wonder if there would ever be a chance of having something like a set of 
digital-only FRS frequencies but on a bandpass that's got better range (or 
one with perhaps better penetration). My guess on that is that those are 
so valuable that the FCC (and industry) wouldn't want to risk having 
untrained apelets near their frequencies.

> We've already built one network only to have it invaded and overrun; 
> why would we expect anything different to happen to the new one?

I'm with you, Mouse. However, perhaps if it wasn't enough bandwidth for 
video and the masses already got satiated via Comcast + Netflix, maybe.... 
just maybe they'd stay away. Bah... who am I kidding, they'd just adapt 
the next gen of phones to hork whatever they could from the "civilian 
internet" frequencies if they were available. You'd be stuffed to the 
gills with facebook and twitter. Ahh... despair. 

> Many of them demand that the ham accept responsibility for all traffic 
> sent by that ham's equipment, which would be death on forwarding packets 
> for anyone else.

Ewww. I didn't think that. The pedos start freeloading and then the man 
comes down on the operators to satisfy the merchant outcry "Will no one 
rid me of this troublesome free network!" (to misquote Henry II).

*sigh* Yep. 

-Swift