When the news of the purchase by COMPAQ went public, people began putting these little signs outside their offices and cubicles; "End of an Era" followed by how long they'd worked for DEC. Some had incredible tenures and were multigenerational.
I appreciated the thought then and do now with FCC Ends Morse Code Testing for Ham Radio, something Sweetness, one of my correspondents, sent me a while back.
When I was a kid, a friend of mine's dad had a ham radio set up in his house. It was in a little room off the TV room (back when having a TV was so special you gave it its own room in the house). There was a huge tower behind the house and my friend knew enough Morse Code to "talk" with folks around the globe when his dad let him.
I think this was the internet of its day, when I was a kid. Today we take the ability to correspond with someone thousands of miles away in real time for granted. Back then, only if the crystals and sunspots were right.
The passing of Morse Code is, to me, a true end of an era. SOS has made way for GPS enhanced 911. I wonder when there'll be an announcement that GPS enhanced 911 and email is making way for the next technological leap. For that matter, I wonder how we'll learn about it because if email goes away you can bet the 'net as we know it isn't far behind.
I'll be speaking at the San Francisco April '07 Emetrics Summit on Quantifying and Optimizing the Human Side of Online Marketing on May 7, 2007. Come on by and say hello.
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