Baslinux mailing list

[Lee Forrest <lforrestster AT gmail.com>]

On Wed, Jan 10, 2007 at 09:15:26PM -0600, James Miller wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 10, 2007 at 03:52:26PM +0000, Lee Forrest wrote:
> > I've come to the conclusion that the only way to make the tiny
> > linux concept work (10 floppies or less) is to create a new
> > internet. M$ and the merchants rule the one that exists now.
> > 
> > We need one that is designed for tiny OSes and slow connections.
> > 
> > It would be easy to write simple servers and clients using bash
> > and netcat if you limited the files they sent/received to plain
> > language text, binary, or basic HTML.
> <snip> 
> 
> You have my support. And let's make the whole thing work as a nationwide 
> network via 
> packet/ham radio. When can we start? I've got several old computers to 
> donate that can act 
> as servers :)

Aha! Another Evil Genius 8-) after my own heart! I used to be a ham, but did 
mostly CW
(radio telegraphy/Morse code for the non-hams) and SSB (a type of voice 
transmission
related to AM) on the High Frequency bands (3-30 Mhz; you 'bounce' the 
signals off
of the ionosphere so you don't need repeaters to communicate around the 
globe).

_That's_ how you break free of the ISPs, isn't it?

Never did packet radio, and don't remember the questions from the General 
exam (an
intermediate ham rating).

Is it restricted to certain bands or sub-bands or emission types?
How much bandwidth is required to get, say, 1KB/second? (I normally get
an average of 1.3 on my dialup connection.)

Specifically, can you do packet radio using SSB on the High Frequency bands? 
That would be a must to make it work.

Of course, you can't do commerce via amateur radio, which is not something I
would exclude. I'd just make the merchants use ".com" names and obey the same
rules as everyone else regarding file types and protocols and such.

The good news in this area is that you don't any longer have
to learn Morse code to get a ham license. 

Although personally I think it is pretty neat. The original
digital communications network. _Very_ simple technology. I had a
little transceiver that would fit in my pocket (made it myself),
along with a small battery pack and wire antenna, and could
communicate all around the world on about 3-1/2 watts of power.

As a postscript to my original post: I don't think DNS servers
would be necessary. Just have the Net Directory include a white
pages as well as a yellow pages (so-to-speak) and IPs as well as
FQDNs.

Lee

-- 
BasicLinux: Small is Beautiful
http://www.basiclinux.com.ru