The Cost of Text Messaging
A couple weeks ago there was a post in a New York Times blog about the cost of text messaging that I would like to briefly recap here. A British space scientist, Nigel Bannister, ran some quick numbers and concluded that
"The maximum size for a text message is 160 characters, which takes 140 bytes because there are only 7 bits per character in the text messaging system, and we assume the average price for a text message is [about 10 cents]. There are 1,048,576 bytes in a megabyte, so that's 1 million/140 = 7490 text messages to transmit one megabyte. At 10 cents each, that's [$734] per MB - or about 4.4 times more expensive than the 'most pessimistic' estimate for Hubble Space Telescope transmission costs [of $166 per megabyte]."
So basically, consumers have allowed mobile phone companies to charge literally astronomical rates to send a text message: we pay at least 4.4 times as much to send a text message than NASA does to download data from the Hubble Space Telescope (in cost per unit data, anyway). I can't believe we put up with that. Disgusting, I think.
The Uselessness of Public Transit, thanks to Google
I don't know how long Google Maps has been able to give directions using public transportation, because I'm sure Detroit has been late to that party. Now that there are some places in my area that Google tells me I can get to by bus (the only form of public transportation we've got, not that I've ever used it), it's been really interesting to compare how long they estimate it would take to drive a route versus riding the bus.
With the perfect storm of peak oil, climate change, and enriching some unsavory characters (i.e. funding both sides of a war), I would love to be able to take the bus. Here's why I don't:
- From my house to the local college
- Driving: 10 minutes
- Bus: 55 minutes, including a 35-minute walk
- From my house to my yoga studio
- Driving: 6 minutes
- Bus: 42 minutes, only 2 of which are on the bus
- From my house to my dad's workplace
- Driving: 17 minutes
- Bus: 2 hours, 48 minutes
Pretty pathetic.
Newsletters-be-gone
Email is for correspondence; RSS is for news. That's why I've been on a bit of an unsubscribe kick lately. Every time I get an email newsletter, I check to see if there's also a syndicated version. If there is, I unsubscribe and add the feed to NetNewsWire. What a difference! Now the emails that I get are (usually) actually relevant, and I can read through Science @ NASA and other such cool-people stuff at my leisure.
So remember, kids: email is for correspondence, syndication is for news.