Morse code vs. SMS on the Tonight Show

They didn't mention that the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia held an almost identical contest earlier this month, but the other night the Tonight Show held a showdown between a Morse coder and "the fastest text messager in the country" to see who could transmit the message "I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance" in the shortest amount of time. You could really feel the tension in the room as each competitor raced to tap out the message first, but in the end the prize went to the dude dressed like an old school Vegas card dealer.

[Via Waxy.org]

[jon @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

This is a Leno re-run, it was on several weeks ago.

[Joe Henson @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

They didn't say it wasn't...

I hate that!

I saw it first... you are lame, I am better, I know everything, I watch everything, I am cool, I have skills, I go to geek blogs... and like I tell them when they say stuff that I think is so like old, they are lame, I have skills

[Henrooo @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

lol, Joe, you are too funny.

[Stoneman @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Folks, I have just been told by Bill Gates that the dealer's cap is really an XBOX 360 expansion device.

[Ashima @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Can you please tell me whether the reviews that u come out with are sponsored by the respective company or not?
this would greatly impact the credibility of these reviews for me and will help me to gauge the level of bias of the writer involved in them.

please take note of this query as it is very important for me and try to reply as soon as possible.

Thanx!

[chuck @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

So why doesnt anybody make morse to ascii conversion software for phones? Type morse, see ascii and send. Doing it all with one button makes sense, then you don't even have to look at the phone. Anybody see infernal affairs? The undercover protaganist communited secretly using morse. Way cool.

Chuck

[Faf @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

can you please shut the fuck up?!!

[DJCarbon43 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

OMG ROBL hahahahaha "Can you please shut the fuck up?" hahaha

[Will @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Ashima: This is not a review, it is a story about a late night TV show. There is no mention of a specific product.

Please direct your inquiries to the webmaster(s): http://engadget.com/contact/?Subject=0

[Hugo @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Please take not of this, All Your Base Are Belong To Us ! Ha Ha Ha Ha

[anthony @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Today must be weirdo spam Engadget day or something. Hopefully it's just a morning thing...

[lupinstel @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Which company could possible be funding this review on Engadget? Aside from the Gieco insurance quote (which was used by the contest holder, not Engadget) the only product which gets a good review is the telegraph. And I don't think the International Telegraph Consortium is going to be rolling out the new X-treme Portable Telegraph to sell to all the kids anytime soon.

[strider_mt2k @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Ashima,
To imply that Engadget is hyping any company for a profit is a joke.

To do it so BADLY is a downright shame.

[Justin @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

hello and gods wishes

my name is mubuto ngale and i am living in the warring country of nigeria. i would like make purchase of two (2) of your items and have them shipped by way of UPS to my home. these items, they are new or like-new yes? please contact me as soon as possible before my homeland falls into the sea.

thanks you and good day!

-- mubuto n.

[SteveK @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

All I know is suddenly, all I can think about is switching to Geico Car Insurance and text messaging while on my way to Vegas for some gambling.

I think it's working... :eek:

[Bill @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

In other news, insurance companies have been overwhelmed with medical claims by teens complaining of hand joint pain after a competition to locate the country's fastest text messager.

Meanwhile, Geicko reported record gains in the under 21 and card dealer markets.

[dan @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

http://n6tv.kkn.net/Text_vs_Morse_Leno_2005_05_13.wmv

[iceberg @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Question is if the text messenger was using T9, or some other equivalent predictive texting, or was it straight out "tap the number 7 three times to get the letter "s", pause 2 seconds so you can tap 7 once for "p, etc.

With T9, I bet that he wins, handsdown.

[Dolomite @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

--- � - �� ---�� -- ������-� -� !!!!!!!!

[Hugo @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

not even close, apparently the texter was even using abreviations like 'ur' for 'you are' and still didn't win. Morse is old and a well trained person could create and hear messages at insane speed, faster than you could write down, in the end morse-code is like a serial interface 1-0-1-0-0-1-1 ... :)

[Walter @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

iceberg - I think in the last thread about this they decided that morse code would STILL be faster: http://engadget.com/entry/1234000463042528

But you know what? SCREW all that-- why not just have a morse code input on your phone?! You send morse into the phone with one button and it translates into text characters and sends the text via sms to the next phone, reduces the time for morse code to simply the time it takes to input the message!

Morse code is easy to learn too-- I got a ham radio license at age 11 doing 5 words per minute with morse, I'm sure that if I could use it to send text messages I could get my WPM up.

Anyone know of any cellphones with morse code input for text messages?? ATTN PHILLIP TORRONE :P

[Peter Rojas @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Ashima,

Not sure what review you're referring to, but just to make this explicitly clear, Engadget does NOT sell its editorial. Our reviews are not sponsored by anyone, and we do not accept payment of any kind for the reviews we write (that includes returning or giving away products that are sent to us for review).

[DannyMac @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Well, that goes to show you how poor of a text input interface mobile phones have. I simply hate text messaging, and I'd rather call the person and leave a voice mail.

[jon @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Sorry if I came off like that, Joe, I was just commenting that I had seen it on a couple of weeks ago, I was not criticising engadget. Trust me, I hate pretentious idiots who spend their time posting trash just for the helluva it.

[George @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

What's, "All your bases are belong to us"? I've seen that a few times and have read people making reference to it. Is this some new hip internet teen language?

[Pete Jenkins @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

i'd love to see a morse code interface built into phones. it's of course going to be faster because it is based on the frequency table of the english language using huffman codes. the most frequently used letters take the least presses to write and the more frequently used letters take more. t9 or the tap method as it's frequently called don't make any sort of optimisations like that. if anyone knows of phones that would support this i'd love to hear about it. Maybe someone could write an app for a smartphone to do it. although it seems like if you're going to have a smartphone it's better to have querty anyways.

George,

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=all+your+base+are+belong+to+us&btnG=Google+Search

Pete

[DJCarbon43 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Umm, So in philly there is this place called the Franklin Institute. NE how, on the fourth floor they have an astronomy and communications section. I was up there one day as a kid, and this old guy offered to teach me morse. I'm kicking myself for not accepting. He demonstrated on bugged paddles hooked up to a machine running a decoder. I'll tell you now that morse will beat T9 every day of the week, and twice on Sunday.
Ich bin Cerberus der Teufulhund

[John Nowak @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

On the other hand, Morse is all caps.

[Jason @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Love the news story. Thanks to those who've posted clips. I've posted on the subject on my blog and included an image of something called a MFJ-461. It's a palm sized Morse Code Reader. You just pop it next to a speaker emitting Morse Code and voila - it's decoded in glorious old school LCD text. I've also got the MFJ-418 - identical looking unit but a box that generates code (for training people on Morse).

I'm all for the Morse/Mobile Phone interface. In fact, as the guy behind the 'Bluetooth Phone Glove' featured on this very site a few months ago - I should make a genuine Morse Code interface - a tiny knee Morse key that sends 'dits' and 'dahs' to a handset, which in turn translates them into English text for sending over SMS!!! Any ideas - gratefully received.

Jason

[Sigurd, LB3KB @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

It's not at all hard to learn - http://justlearnmorsecode.com