Text File

Aucbvax.2359 fa.works utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!works Sun Jul 19 10:32:43 1981 Re: Office of Tomorrow, where is it? >From Joe.Newcomer@CMU-10A Sun Jul 19 10:21:44 1981 That's the silliest reason I've heard for not thinking about what is clearly a good idea! The point is: current EMI requirements are oriented towards ground-based equipment. The requirements for basing equipment on aircraft are NOT insurmountable; it is just that they cost more and there is not a market (do you really want to pay $75 for an FAA approved version of PONG instead of $4.95 for the standard version?). If the market is suddenly there, you can bet that appropriately rated equipment will be built. If fact, if the technology of ground-air communication becomes possible, there will be sufficient demand that soon a LOT of portable terminal equipment will be approved. After all, there is ALREADY a lot of terminal equipment on aircraft; it is just not available to passengers. (For example, what is in Air Force One? Several terminals, to start with...)

This is another case of saying that we are limited because of current cost-effective marketing. The REAL question is "What do we have to do to make terminals on airplanes practical?", find the answers, and DO IT!

(By the way, the 10MHz I.F. frequency of FM radios caused at least two midair collisions; you can be certain that the FAA will be VERY demanding in what they will let on an aircraft. It may be that for the first few years, only equipment installed by the carrier will be usable. But so what? We need to think about what such a mobile office needs, and then make what it needs!)

----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org> of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/

This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided:

1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles.

2. The following notice remains appended to each copy:

The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.