FMAWG

My finger hurts.

I'm on a flight. Again. Flying economy. Trying to write a blog entry on my laptop. I took a picture out the window, and decided to beam it via infrared to my laptop to include in my blog. As I'm doing so, buddy in the seat in front of me decides to recline his seat. No big deal, it stops as the line of his seat to my laptop to my fingers to my camera to my body all connect and the seat motion is impeded. Apparently this isn't sufficiently reclined for him. He leans forward an slams back into his seat to move it more. Ouch. He didn't even look back to see if there was someone behind him. How rude.

"Then came the churches, then came the schools, then came the lawyers, then came the rules" - Dire Straits: Telegraph Road on my Karmic iPod. This is starting to get spooky.

Whatever happened to basic courtesy? Looks like there needs to be rules of behavior strictly enforced for air travellers.

It starts with my, err, I mean your, um better settle on 'one's' inalienable right to use one's laptop while travelling by commercial air carrier. I pretty sure there was an ammendment to the Constitution to cover this. Orville and Wilbur Wright passed it when they were co-Presidents. The Supreme Court can start from there.

What I was going to blather on about today was infra red as a communications channel.

When I was in grade nine I did a science project on communication of a voice over an infrared beam. Spent hours. Burned myself with the solder iron at least once. It worked well enough to get me to the city-wide science fair...only to lose to some kid who bred thousands of fruit flies and manipulated their DNA so they could talk (or something...I'm a little fuzzy on the details).

Also, I have an RF remote for my Satellite TV receiver (instead of IR). My neighbor apparently has the same unit. I've added attenuation on the antenna, but every now and then (usually in the middle of Star Gate SG1) my TV starts 'magically' changing channels to sports or something. Magic in an annoying kind of way.

My Airline file transfer reminds me of both of these things. Put them together and what do you get? Bibbity bobbity boo? A reminder that the very limitation of IR is its strength. It is line of sight, and highly directional. RF spectrum...not so much. As we get all hyped up about WiMax and other derivatives, let's all remember that spectrum is finite and radiates freely (directionality more a function of antenna design). Light beams (either guided within a fiber of glass or across the room from the old remote control I miss so much) are sufficiently constrained that the spectrum can be reused by different users/applications with no interference. It's a phyisics thing.