* Morse Code gets a slight e-update
From the inception of this newsletter, we’ve maintained a dedication to covering a wide range of convergence topics in the broader sense – not just as euphemism for VoIP. And a couple of weeks ago, we heard about one of the more interesting twists on convergence.
It turns out that one of the legacy forms of digital communications – Morse Code – recently was revised to add the @ (the “at” sign) to the code set. Why? Ham radio operators need to exchange e-mail addresses.
According to stories in the popular press, the new character is the first to be added in several decades to the code set. And, in case you’re curious, the actual code for the @ sign, which is called a commat, is a combination of “A” (.-) and “C” (-.-.).
Unfortunately, upon our further reflection, we think the folks at the ITU Radiocommunication Sector still have some work ahead of them. The @ sign works fine for e-mail addresses. And many Web addresses will also work fine – at least at the domain name level – because the colon (:) and slash (/) are defined, even though the slash is called a “fraction bar.” So it’s a piece of cake to send a simple URL.
However, things get a bit dicey when you’re sending a complex URL and the server happens to be Unix-based. You see, Unix servers are case-sensitive. And Morse Code doesn’t have a “shift bit.” So even though you can get to the upper layer domain for the page referenced below equally well at http://www.soton.ac.uk and at HTTP://WWW.SOTON.AC.UK, when you try to go to the actual code page you must enter http://www.soton.ac.uk/~scp93ch/morse/ and not http://www.soton.ac.uk/~scp93ch/Morse/
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