Facebook Drones Hardly New Idea

I had to chuckle when I read about Facebook’s new venture.  Last week Facebook announced that it had successfully conducted the first test flight of an unmanned aerial vehicle. The drone, a small-scale model, was used to test the characteristics of a larger vehicle.  The proposed solar-powered drones with a wingspan of a commercial 737 aircraft, would fly for months or even years at about 80,000 ft.  If proven viable, the technology would provide affordable and reliable internet access to millions now unserved, especially in third world countries.  Google, Boeing and others have been looking at similar uses of high altitude drones.

The big benefit of such a system is that radio signals from a single aircraft flying so high can cover a tremendous area back on earth.  Using cellular technology to cover that same area would require hundreds or even thousands of cell towers, each requiring electric power and some hard-wired or radio connection back to the internet backbone. 

I had to laugh at the reports claiming this idea was so innovative because the concept and a working system, using basically the same components, was in operation right here in the tristate beginning in the 1960s. 

Dubbed MPATI (Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction) the initiative provided broadcasts of educational TV programs to schools unserved by a terrestrial station.  To accomplish this, the programs were broadcast from two DC6 aircrafts flying in a figure eight pattern about 25,000 ft. above Muncie, Indiana.  The planes, based at Purdue University, each had equipment on board capable of transmitting to an area of about 500 miles in diameter.  The local PBS station, CET, was a major supplier of programming for MPATI which operated from 1961 thru 1968.

Earlier experiments of this system were conducted by CBS.  The commercial network was investigating a way to provide pay TV and movies to viewers in the New York area.  Think of it as an HBO before satellites and modern cable.

Obviously the technology has improved exponentially over the 1960’s experiments conducted right here in our backyard.  But it does point out that innovation and creativity did not begin with the digital age.

Everyone is all a "Twitter!"

Spring is in the air, flowers and trees are blooming, the days are growing longer, but the “tweeting” may not be coming only from the birds.

Since it first was introduced in 2006, “Twitter,” a free social networking and micro-blogging service, has gained fans and noteriety worldwide. The list of those who post on Twitter seems to grow exponetially each month. Many of our elected officials regulary Tweet or should I say their staffs Tweet for them. You can follow the daily routine of our President and the First Lady on Twitter. Each of them tweets about what is happening in the White House. Well again, I imagine both have minions doing the writing and posting and they may not tell us everything that goes on in the Oval Office.

If you look closely at the first paragraph of this column, you will note that it has exactly 140 characters (letters and spaces included). This is the maximum length of a single Tweet or message that you can post on Twitter. If you are going to be successful using Twitter you need to write concisely.

The messages you write as a Sender are displayed on your Twitter Home Page and are delivered to other users who have subscribed to read them. These readers are called Followers. As a Sender you can share your comments with anyone who has a Twitter account or you can restrict your messages to only your friends, colleagues or family.

The messages can be distributed and read in a variety of ways. You can use a regular computer and an Internet connection, a portable device like a “Blackberry” or any mobile phone with text message capability. While Twitter is free, some of the message retieval may not be. Be sure to check with your mobile phone carrier before you have Twitter configured to send the Tweets to your phone. If you follow only a few of the more prolific users, you can get hundreds of messages in a single day. At 10 cents per message you may be tweeting a different song at the end of the month.

You can get a Twitter account by going to www.twitter.com and signing up. It is free and once you sign up you can search from millions of subscribers and choose which ones you want to follow. It is not only individuals using Twitter. Companies, organizations, TV and radio stations all use Twitter to stay in touch with employees, members, viewers and listeners.

Twitter is not for everyone. Some find the steady stream of information, from the ridiculous to the sublime, like drinking from a fire hydrant. Too much stuff. Others find Twitter a great way to stay in touch with friends and family separated by geography or hectic schedules. It is worth a look.