Comments on: Why text messages are limited to 160 characters

By: rguitphil

rguitphil — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:25:00 +0000

I assumed that it was because when most people reach 161 words they haven’t been paying enough attention to driving to avoid a major wreck.

By: jrlaredo

jrlaredo — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:20:08 +0000

Did you know that the amount of music available on the first compact discs was determined by the developer’s love of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony? He wanted to be able to put a complete recording of the symphony on one disc.

By: greatestpotential

greatestpotential — Thu, 28 May 2009 00:33:28 +0000

Why text messages are limited to 160 characters

The real answer is: TO ENCOURAGE LAZINESS

By: greatestpotential

greatestpotential — Sat, 23 May 2009 04:34:39 +0000

cafeteria staff uses those over at the hotforwords forums, cafeteria cards. you buy a meal card and each time you get lunch the staff punches a punch hole in the card. oh, and there’s also punch over there too, fruity drinks.

By: pedanticKarl - Click Here to Vote 4 Marina

pedanticKarl - Click Here to Vote 4 Marina — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:01:18 +0000

Hi buzzword,
The data is very reliable and accurate, but it depends on how the data is measured. For example, go to Quantcast, then enter “yahoo.com”. Notice above the graph it says, “Rough Estimate”. That means “yahoo” is not a customer of QC. Now, enter “hulu.com” See the difference? Hulu is a customer of QC and the data is measured directly via scripts, logs, cookies, etc.

The companies that provide data for free are few. You can check out Compete.com, Coremetrics.com, ShinyStat.com, AboutUs.org, Google and Yahoo. Buzzwords <– to search for is KPI which is “Key Perfomance Indicators”, web metrics and web analytics.

If you want to find out about a specific company, then look at the cookies as it will give a clue as to who they use for tracking. For example, go to Sears.com, then check the cookies. You’ll come across companies like Omniture.com and Hubspot.com and various advertising and marketing companies. Mostly, access to their data is not free.

Another source of stats is the big database companies such as Forrester, Hoovers, Forbes and many others. These companies issue reports for as little as $100s to well over $2000 for specific companies in a specific industry.

By: buzzword

buzzword — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:18:19 +0000

hey karl. sometime ago someone linked these sites that present hotforwords.com statistics. since you are much more familiar with statistics, how reliable is the data? are there other sites that you use that you could recommend?

quantcast
alexa

By: pedanticKarl - Click Here to Vote 4 Marina

pedanticKarl - Click Here to Vote 4 Marina — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:08:15 +0000

You are correct – Hollerith card.
So, you’ve been in the same situation as I have been where if you called it an IBM card, you got punched in the arm very quickly.

By: pedanticKarl - Click Here to Vote 4 Marina

pedanticKarl - Click Here to Vote 4 Marina — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:06:02 +0000

Hey Captain Jack,
I understand your criticisms, but I’m not sure that I agree.
Nowhere did I see the use of the words “father” or “creator” of SMS in the article and Hillebrand is getting no royalties.

I personally do not have a problem with the article as it needs to be taken into context. As the article states;
“Hillebrand… as chairman of the nonvoice services committee within the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), a group that sets standards for the majority of the global mobile market, he pushed forward the group’s plans in 1986.”

The article makes it clear as you stated that the 160 character possibility existed (punch card 80+80), but it was not clear if the 160 characters was useful form of communication. That is the crux of the article. Hillebrand and his team utilized three known pieces of data that convinced his team that 160 characters was sufficient.
1. Postcards – typically 150 characters
2. Telex – same as postcards
3. Email – subject line and a few lines of text

Perhaps the article was not written as precisely as you and I might write it and I would agree with you on that.

By: Captain Jack

Captain Jack — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:57:20 +0000

Punched card or punch card as some people called it. I learned is at the Hollerith card but it was much different from the Standard 5081 card… Or one could call it the “EVIL IBM CARD!” If we ever called it an IBM card one would get punched in the arm or slapped behind the head.
BTW as I was programing the card puncher to feed directly to the schools first ever Apple II computer. I’m so very glad our vice principle was a computer geek. I might not have gotten into computers if it wasn’t for him. Heck if it wasn’t for computers I would still be struggling with mathematics and English syntax. Oh that dreaded ‘Syntax Error’!!!! Wow, Im just remembering I learned so much information that is so useless and outdated. What a waste of brain cells.

Ok Im off to bed. I have a maritime organization meeting at about 9 am. I need some sleep.

By: pedanticKarl - Click Here to Vote 4 Marina

pedanticKarl - Click Here to Vote 4 Marina — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:33:47 +0000

Good morning Captain,
Quiz:
What are the other two names for “punch card” and which one is more correct. One of my customers many years ago insisted on calling the punch card by its correct name and it wasn’t the other popular name containing that big company name.