Where are you? 1908, and today.

I liked this article. It seems to be foreseeing the mobile phone doesn’t it?

Ayrton, who appears to be an authority on wireless telephony, posits that advances in technology will mean one day we can call a friend even if we don’t know where he is (not ‘she’ I notice, obviously the location of women should be controlled at all times ;)).

Your friend could be in the depths of a mine, out at sea, or at the top of the Andes, as long as you are both in possession of the same kind of electrical ear, communication will be possible.

The Queenslander 14 Nov 1908 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23595130

As this article was published in 1908 Ayrton was about 80 years ahead of his time. These days we all have mobile phones and use them to call our friends, mostly for no reason at all. We are rarely calling from such exotic locations as he had hoped, usually the reply to a ‘where are you?’ is ‘on the train’ or ‘ at the shop’ and the call is for unimportant exchanges of information such as ‘do we need milk?’

If only we had as good coverage as he expected, there is no hope of getting a call down a mine, and really, the telcos are kidding themselves if they really think phone coverage in Australia is as good as they tell us, I expect that goes for the rest of the world as well!

When I started writing this post I thought I’d better not have a whinge about bad phone service if I was going to be wrong (even if that is my own experience) but a quick look on the (Australian Government) Department of Broadband and blah blah blah website told me that only 25% of the Australian landmass has mobile phone coverage and suggest buying yourself a satphone if you want it to be better.

Interesting. I know that the Australian population is mainly confined to cities but it is not like 75% of the country has been abandoned. Our population is pretty well spread out! People live everywhere and many of us like driving around for a look. Too bad if we want to use our phones or get internet access while we are doing so!

Sorry about that rant, I will clamber down off my soapbox now and go on with the rest of the post…

The thing that got me on the ‘Where are you?’ train of thought was the world map on my stats page*.

I love looking at my map every day and seeing who in the world is looking at my blog, but I want to know more! Each time I get a view from a new country I am full of questions. Who are you? What bought you to Buried Words and Bushwa? Is there something you were looking for? Please tell me!! I MUST KNOW!!

I have a natural and overwhelming tendency to investigate everything around me, regular readers probably don’t need me to point that out ;), and not knowing why you are all reading is driving me crazy! I really appreciate you reading, don’t get me wrong, I just want to know more!

I understand why Americans, Canadians and those of you from NZ and the UK might read my little Aussie blog, our countries are quite similar and we are all English-speaking. (That said, I would still love to know what part of your country you are from. Do you live in a big city or a town so tiny that even your countrymen have no idea it exists?)

What really makes me crazy is you, person from Iceland, Moldova, Brazil or Indonesia. Are you an expat Aussie or an Aussie on holiday? What about you Egypt, Taiwan or Colombia? I desperately want you to leave a comment so I can satisfy my curiosity!

Cotton Boll did a post on this very subject a while ago called Are things that slow in Monaco? wondering the very same thing. If my pathetic grovelling has moved you to leave a comment here telling me the information I am so hungry for please don’t leave the type of comment I suggested in the comments there :). If you must though, please include an English translation!

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*If you are not a WordPress blogger, in this stats window individual countries are highlighted when your blog gets a hit from that location.