OT: NASA, Bell Labs, NSA, and the Voynich Manuscript [Telecom]

Yes, but you missed the most important link where the truth behind the Voynich Manuscript is revealed:

Thad, I have also copied you personally on this email because I'm about to stray from telecom for a moment and it might not be relevant to the list. I've long been intrigued by personal archives. I turned

40 last year and have quite a collection of handwritten notes, notebooks, and computer files and it's all quite a mess. How do you organize yours?

My personal goal is to have everything digitized. But I'm also concerned about future-proofing my data, so I stick to well-supported open formats.

John

-- John Mayson

***** Moderator's Note *****

Organization: (n) The process by which dullards and Daddy's Boys require person capable of original thought to reduce their synapse rate to a level compatible with the aforsaid's mental capability. ;-)

OK, OK: I admit I'm no good at it. I don't know why. My basement is a cross between the annex to Tutankhamen's Tomb and the Smithsonian Exhibet on Rube Goldberg's forgotten failures: I have to pay young children who don't know any better to wade through the coaxial cables and 3C-509-Combo cards and Arcnet bridges and Token Ring MAU's and

80386-based computers in order to reach the hidden treasure trove of six-foot-long neon bulbs that fit the fixtures I dug out of a dumpster fifteen years ago. I *know* that I have a tape cartridge down there that contains the Great American Novel, and I'll be the toast of the talk-show circuit as soon as I can find it and re-install the drive and the software on the 80386-based machine I kept in case I ever found that tape.

Help! I'm drowning in te....

@@@Carrier Lost

On Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:07:02 -0600, Telecom Digest Moderator wrote: .......

And how many Internet kiddies today have no idea what used to pump out of old voice band modems or what the Hayes "AT" control set is (was?).......

Well, if they live in the middle of nowhere like my father does, they still have to use dial-up so there's a high chance they know how it works.

***** Moderator's Note *****

There's always the Clarke Belt: does he have too many trees around him?

I have a friend that still used dial-up, she is in a digital black hole.

You mean, "103" mode? With a USR Sportster it's S27=1 ("Enables ITU- T V.21 modulation at 300 bps for overseas calls; in V.21 mode, the modem answers both overseas and domestic (US and Canada) calls, but only originates V.21 calls. (Default Bell 103)")

***** Moderator's Note *****

Thanks, I'll try it out.

Some of us also travel to those digital holes. That's why a maintain a Juno dial-up account.

Having said that, between the embedded software modems in most laptops these days, and the good software of Juno or Earthlink, the AT command set is unseen and unknown by today's dial-up subscriber.

If you mean Bell 103 compatibility: ATS37=3

Note that it will normally attempt to autonegotiate speed, and it WILL usually lock up with a 103 modem but it can take a while for it to get around to trying the lower protocols. Using register 37 and locking it down will reduce your set-up time if you're talking to a 300 baud device.

--scott

-- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

***** Moderator's Note *****

Thanks, I'll add that to the list. Some explanation is in order, and I'll ask the readers' indulgence while I pursue a personal quest.

I'm a member of the Morse Telegraph Club, which is an organization dedicated to keeping the art of landline telegraphy alive. To that end, one of the members designed a "Dial Up Morse" circuits, which allows Morse Code Sounders and Keys to be attached to the PSTN for "Living History" demonstrations, so that a telegrapher can put on a green eyeshade and sleeve garters and give demonstrations of how messages were sent in the days before telephones, testing, or IM.

The point is that the circuit using extremely simple modems, ususally the Radio Shack DCM-3 or DCM-6, because many higher-speed units have automatic circuitry that will disconnect a line if the modem receives a "Spacing" signal for more than a few character-lengths. The problem is that the "Dial Up Morse" operators are used to "opening" the circuit to "Break" the other operator when they miss a word, and the resultant "Spacing" signal will time-out a lot of modems that use the AT command set and auto-negotiate their speed.

Ergo, my remark about looking for a certain AT command: I need to know which "modern" modems can be set so that they will *NOT* disconnect (or attempt to renegotiate their speed) when they receive a prolonged space signal at their input. If effect, I'm looking for the AT command(s) that tell the modem "103 tones, totally async, tolerate prolonged spacing signals, just convert tones to DC and nothing else".

I hope that makes the whole question more clear: let's move the discussion off-list, since it's about as far from the current state of the art as it's possible to get, so I've added a "[NFP]" (Not for publication) tag in the subject.

Bill Horne Moderator

I'm reminded of the sysadmin who connected a 300 bps glass teletype in Sacramento to a VAX in Palo Alto using a 4-wire data-grade circuit - RS232 Transmit Data and Signal Ground connected to the talk channel; Receive Data and Ground to the listen channel. After all 300 is within the specified passband. True story.

Maybe Ma Bell has fixed that bug by now ;-)

I have NEVER used the modem port on my laptop. Nor have I used the wired ethernet connector when on the road. Everyplace I've gone has had WiFi available so I just use that.

Even when I was in Elizabeth City, NC there's a cafe there called Muddy Waters - they had WiFi available.

The area I am talking about is pretty remote, the choices are dial-up,and satellite, I talked to a friend with AT&T who is over DSL and he said they have no plans for DSL, but U-verse is planned in most of the area, but some people still will not be able to get it.

Try staying at Death Valley, CA someday, where at&t is very limited by the National Park Service in piping in circuits, which must make a microwave relay over a remote high mountin within the park boundaries.

I apologize to Jack Myers: I wasn't supposed to publish his reply.

Bill Horne

I have worked in that area, [and] the company gave us Satellite Phones.

My father lives in Oklawaha, FL and there isn't any broadband there either. He's stuck on dial-up. He's thinking of moving back to the Ocala area (I actually like Ocala and imagine it's come up quite nicely since I was there over 15 years ago.)

And at least Ocala is served by Cox and they do offer broadband there.