In the news, here in Phoenix, the Iridium company lost its second CFO in 5 months.
They have already filed for reorganization

Denys Beauchemin wrote:

> 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