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World’s first SMS sells for over $150,000
The world’s first text message from three decades ago has been sold as a “non-fungible token” (NFT) for over €130,000 ($146,852) at an auction in Paris, with the proceeds benefiting the United Nations Refugee Agency.
The “Merry Christmas” SMS was sent on December 3, 1992 by Vodafone engineer Neil Papworth to company director Richard Jarvis. Jarvis received the text on his Orbitel 901 mobile phone.
“After countless attempts and iterations of the code, the sending and receiving of text via Vodafone’s mobile network finally worked,” marking “a pivotal moment in the history of mobile communication technology,” Aguttes auction house explained.
The SMS, which was provided by Vodafone for sale in the form of an NFT, fetched an impressive €132,680 ($150,000). The sum was offered by an unnamed buyer, reportedly a Canadian working in the tech sector.
The lot included “a detailed replica of the original communication protocol” proving the sending and receiving of the message, and its animated version – a digital frame with a 3D animation showing the moment the cellphone received the SMS – plus a certificate signed by Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read guaranteeing its authenticity and uniqueness.
NFTs have recently become a popular way of trading artwork and non-tangible items, with encrypted codes verifying the ownership and integrity of the items.
A health worker takes a break in front of a fan in New Delhi, August 2020. Photo: Reuters Even before COVID-19, protests by health workers in India were on the rise. According to one database, India had the most such protests in 85 countries between March 2019 and 2020. Most of them concerned unpaid salaries, poor management, contracts and regularisation, and patient overload, followed by protests around lack of supplies and equipment. Health workers have often faced uphill battles in having their demands met – but the underlying problem has been a lack of attention to health workers’ basic needs. One of the biggest casualties of the governance problems were medical entrance exams – a sphere in which NEET replaced the erstwhile faulty system with new problems. By now, many have watched the dramatic footage of junior doctors and police clashing in New Delhi or heard about ongoing demonstrations by resident doctors around India. These events have been taking place against the b...
But Kerala CM says protests are orchestrated and that the state cannot concede to fisherfolks’ demands to stop the project. from The Wire Science https://ift.tt/lNMCeqi
Twenty years ago, NASA's space shuttle fell apart on its return to Earth. The crew perished. It could have been avoided. from The Wire Science https://ift.tt/OxeWCDR
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