X-no-Archive:yes
Wirt is not quite correct.  Iridium is named after the element with the Atomic
Number of 77.  It is usually, but not always the same as the number or
electrons.  Since electrons can be transferred from one atom to another, this
number may vary.  However, the atomic number, which is also the number of
protons in the nucleus, is constant for that element.  If the number of protons
changes somehow, the element is not the same as it was, whereas if the number
electrons varies, you have an ion, positive or negative.

The idea for Iridium is to provide communications anywhere on the planet.
 However, the target is quite small, since you would only be talking about
people climbing on Everest, right smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,
Tristan Da Cunha or in Antarctica.  Anywhere far from a cell.  With each
passing year, this area shrinks.  And now with multi-band cell phones, the
appeal of Iridium shrinks further.

The main problem is that you had to buy a satellite phone for several $1,000 a
copy and the beast weighs pounds, not ounces.  Further, when you use the phone
you are charged about $3-$5 a sentence, far more than the vast number of people
would ever pay.

Iridium was an elegant concept for a problem that was being addressed cheaper
and easier by another technology, cellular telephones.

This puts me in mind of the guy who invented a door latch to enable someone,
anyone trapped inside a refrigerator to be able to get out.  Some of you may
not remember these old appliances because the doors on refrigerators have been
magnetized a while back, completely circumventing the entrapment problem.

Kind regards,

Denys. . .

Denys Beauchemin
HICOMP
(800) 323-8863  (281) 288-7438         Fax: (281) 355-6879
denys at hicomp.com                             www.hicomp.com


-----Original Message-----
From:   Wirt Atmar [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Thursday, 02 September, 1999 5:28 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Re: More trivia yet

Barry writes:

> >Because no one else has mentioned it, I might as well. Today is the 30th
>
>  Actually, [log in to unmask] mentioned it in his sig file.

I didn't scroll down that far. My apologies.


>  >You never can tell what will become of small, simple ideas. Sometimes they
>  >even greatly surprise the people who thought them up and implemented them.
>
>  This sounds like a subtle reference to QCTerm!
>  ;-]

Actually, I didn't have that in mind. I simply enjoy collecting stories of
things that turn out to be quite successful, but not necessarily in the way
that the original implementors had in mind.

One such instance is the invention of the electronic spreadsheet by Dan
Bricklin during his time as a graduate student in the Harvard business
school. Dan, who was a bit of geek and an eager, early adopter of the new
microprocessor technologies, had to constantly put together pro forma ("what
if") analyses for his business classes -- and he simply got tired of erasing
holes in his class papers.

As a consequence of that irritation, Bricklin invented the electronic
spreadsheet so he wouldn't have to keep copying the same data over and over
again on to new, fresh pieces of paper. But more importantly, although it
isn't talked about as frequently any more, I, like many others, consider the
electronic spreadsheet to be the only truly novel computer language invented
since the first few procedural languages (ALGOL, FORTRAN, etc.) were put
together in the 1950's/1960's. All other computer languages are simply
derivations and restatements of some earlier language. The spreadsheet isn't
that. It's a true, non-linear, non-procedural language. You can start in the
middle and work your way out in any direction.

On the other hand, I'm also very much impressed by things that don't work
out. I was equally enthusiastic about Motorola's Iridium project from the
first time I heard of it seven years ago. The idea was to put 77 satellites
in low-earth orbit (Iridium is the element that has 77 electrons in orbit
around its nucleus) and be able to communicate with anyone, anywhere on the
planet for a relatively low per-minute cost, using a cell-phone-like device.
It was going to be possible to sit at the top of Mt. Everest and speak with
someone in downtown San Francisco for the same cost as dialing across town on
the devices.

Because of financial overruns, Motorola eventually scaled the project back to
66 satellites -- and last week filed for bankruptcy, walking away from a
$1.55 billion dollar debt. And just today, the second CFO this year resigned
from the Iridium project.

My partner in evolutionary ecology is Bruce Patterson at the Field Museum in
Chicago
(http://www.fmnh.org/candr/academic_affairs/collection_report/cv_patterson.htm
 ). Bruce is right at the moment somewhere on the eastern slope of the Andes
in Peru on a 10-week expedition collecting bats and mites in an attempt to
unravel their co-evolutionary histories.

While I sit here, glued to my chair day after day, Bruce has been in 22
countries this year, covering most of South America, Africa, and attending
symposia in Europe, Mexico and the US. Nonetheless, for all of romanticism
associated with field biology, it's also one of the most dangerous things
that any one does. More field biologists get killed or severely injured doing
this kind of work than almost any other profession (see e.g.,
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~varanus/plumb.html ). Because of that, Bruce has
had to endure 20 years of my lectures on safety, and one of the things that
I've been talking to him about for the last five years or so has been the
Iridium satellite phone.

By great chance, Bruce actually has two of these phones with him for the
first time now in Peru. Because Motorola is headquartered in Schaumburg, ILL,
just outside of Chicago, they recently gave five of these phones to the Field
Museum. As I mentioned to Bruce, I doubt that it was wholly an altruistic act
on Motorola's part. If he would be kind of enough to get into a significant
amount of trouble, such that he or one of his party would have to be
air-lifted out of the jungle, it could do wonders for Iridium's stock.
Indeed, it's fairly easy to imagine the advertising campaign already.

Nonetheless, I'm still pleased that Bruce has these phones with him. And I
still consider them a great idea -- that now seems destined to fail.

Wirt Atmar