The Telecom Digest for Sun, 19 Sep 2021
Volume 40 : Issue 258 : "text" format
table of contents
New Direction For the Telecom Digest
Message-ID:
Date: 19 Sep 2021 01:52:16 -0400
From: Bill Horne
Subject: [telecom] New Direction For the Telecom Digest
A few days ago, I fell and broke my wrist in several places. Today, I
was released from the hospital after a five-day stay and major surgery.
The road ahead, I am told, will include about four months of mending,
physical therapy, and learning how to use a text-to-speech converter for
writing on my computer. I might have to take another driver's exam to
demonstrate proficiency at driving one-handed.
Men plan, and God laughs: I was on track to make 2021 the first year
during which I published an issue of the digest every day. I wanted to
have a banner year to look back on as I approach my 70th birthday next
February, when I was planning on taking a slower pace with both my other
activities and the Digest. That change must happen now.
It's probably for the best: as cellular technology and the Internet have
become commodified, there's been a lot less interest in the nuts & bolts
of the telephone network, and even less in its history. I think most
telephone users have come to regard their phones as, at best, a business
communications tool, an, at worst, as an electronic leash tying them to
their employer 24/7/365.
So it goes, and has gone before: the horseless carriage brought
pollution and a transportation monoculture that has saddled our
exurban workers with no other practical transportation choices, a
cadre of parts-swappers whose only real expertise is in gouging their
customers at every turn, and confiscatory taxation. The
telecommunications industry, like the auto industry, will have to
evolve into something better if it is to survive, but I can't keep
chronicling an industry that no longer serves the public.
Suffice to say, I won't be the one-man-band creating almost all the
content in the Telecom Digest going forward. I'll remain as the
Moderator for now, but the content must, and should, come from the
readers.
--
Bill Horne
