Morse Code Still Beats SMS

Mike Grenville for 160characters.org reports that "morse code is still faster at sending text messages than using txt speak". Even when the morse code sender is 93 years old and the SMS challengers were teenagers!

"According to Times Online, an Australian museum staged a contest that pitted the oldest type of electronic text messages with the newest.

Not only was the technology a battle of ages, but so were the contestants. Tapping out the winning morse code message was 93-year-old telegraph operator Gordon Hill, who learnt to use the technique in 1927 when he joined the Australian Post Office.

In the competition, at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Mr Hill and his rivals were asked to transmit a line selected at random from an advertisement in a teenage magazine.

“Hey, girlfriend, you can text all your best pals to tell them where you are going and what you are wearing.”