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Right in the heat of the high-tech Everest Internet Experiment
expedition in 1999, the home-based Webmaster announced that he was
off for a weekend get-away vacation with his girlfriend. This would have
been fine, if it wasn't on the exact same weekend when the expedition
was going on its final
summit-push and crucial live tech transmissions to the web were promised
to the head sponsor!
 Necessity
is the mother of invention. The
acute situation was eventually solved, and ultimately gave birth to
the Contact self publishing expedition software.
Most explorers and backpackers have always wished to share their
adventures with pals and family in enthusiastic letters and colorful
slideshows. Today, most expeditions and many trekkers have Web sites,
allowing friends, family and sponsors to join
in on the adventure. The Web sites are simply modern versions of
yesterday's postcards.
Blogs have become popular lately. The word Blog
is derived from web-log, a daily log of your activities that's posted on
the internet for other people to see.
The CONTACT software was developed to update websites simple and easy
over slow satellite connections. CONTACT is more than a blog however
–
it's a full size web-publishing system that works with data bases and
flash sites.
Among the features that sets
CONTACT apart from regular blogs is that you are offline while doing
your updates (saving on expensive satellite time), you can send
pictures and video, and finally, you aren't locked to set layouts.
Features that sets CONTACT apart from the use of a simple script
–
where
your dispatch is attached to an e-mail and uploaded to a server
–
are
faster transmission times decreasing cost of satellite, easier handling
and increased control and flexibility of publishing.
Check out
expeditions using CONTACT software.
More on expedition Web publishing.
CONTACT works on Laptops, PDAs and Pocket-PC based smart phones.
Can you surf the net over a satellite phone?
It could actually prove faster to receive
information from the internet than in e-mails
– with some adjustments to
your browser: Determine what you are looking for; say, the weather
information from a
particular site. Bookmark the page and restrict your browser from
downloading pics and graphics.
The RBGAN or GAN/M4 terminals are fast enough to surf the net
unrestricted.
SMS Short
Messages (SMS) can be sent to Thuraya, Globalstar and Iridium,
and sent out from Globalstar and the latest Iridium units.
Use this
page to send a short message to any satellite phone system.
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