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SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

arstechnica.com

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Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#361

Post by nannal »

anf wrote: post #270
hackuser wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think you're overstating the effect of fringe communities on the internet. Some believe that fringe information was a major factor in the U.S. Presidential election. A leader of a fringe community is the chief political advisor to the most powerful person in the world-elect.

Oy, give it a break. Not everything is about this election, and you can't just blame the internet for it. Yes, the internet allows people to be mis-informed if they don't care for being informed. Still, not being connected at all is basically equivalent to not being able to connect meaningfully with modern civilization. I literally don't know anyone who isn't connected to the internet. It's simply a prerequisite for…

Look I don't think you understand, the internet did this, so let's just shut it down and go home.

(Does anyone have a map?)

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#362

Post by shams93 »

manachar wrote: post #128
katzgrau wrote: post #7

Free, global internet access is the next step toward a smarter, more progressive planet. I don't even care about the speed - if the only thing users could access was wikipedia, I'd still personally donate to the project. I cannot emphasize how important democratizing knowledge is to me (and many others).

Spreading true (well, at least less wrong) information is a noble goal. Unfortunately, I'm not sure we're not seeing such information availability providing avenues towards a smarter, more progressive planet. Instead, the internet seems to be helping people create cocoons of ignorance and "evidence" to support even the most specious claims - such as the world being flat. Knowledge does not seem to be enough. Wisdom a…

Fake news targets people based on popularity if you look at the popular vote Hillary was actually more popular and thus the biggest fake news target. They're going to destroy Trump next it's not about politics it's about traffic and money , he's setting himself up perfectly to get torn to shreds if he can't deliver on practical issues like jobs and health care costs, if he brings in single payer he won't be so vulnerable but if he reverses his economic promises and goes for scapegoating vulnerable people the fake news will amplify his hypocrisy. Most likely he's planning in using scapegoating to have to cover for throwing his followers under a bus in order to please Wall Street.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#363

Post by tdkl »

dasboth wrote: post #355
babyrainbow wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, this is a naive view, and perpetuated by people who wants to push more ad channels in the name of "empowering" communities... Access to information does not mean consumption. If you give access to internet to 100 people, 99 of them will use it for Facebook or Porn. 1. If you have enough motivation, learning about anything was already possible even before Internet (local libraries and resources) 2. If you don't…

I agree with your key points, but I'm a bit skeptical about this: > If you don't have enough motivation, then providing access to Internet, is not going to make a difference. I'd argue that because the barrier to entry is smaller, you need less motivation to learn about things. Going to libraries, scanning huge books for the few pieces of information you want is much more effort than looking it up online. I'm not dou…

More effort needed is less free time for nonsense and procrastination.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#364

Post by the8472 »

flukus wrote: post #360
the8472 wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lasers are wireless and don't compete for spectrum. beam-forming with phased arrays is not quite as good, but still gives you more capacity than naively shared spectrum would.

This is laser based? Are the building ground stations everywhere too?

The links to end-users use beam-steered microwaves, sat-sat links use laser.

I was more making a more general statement: that wireless is not necessarily synonymous with shared medium.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#365

Post by akerro »

katzgrau wrote: post #7

Free, global internet access is the next step toward a smarter, more progressive planet. I don't even care about the speed - if the only thing users could access was wikipedia, I'd still personally donate to the project. I cannot emphasize how important democratizing knowledge is to me (and many others).

Where does it say it will be free?

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#366

Post by mnw21cam »

oillio wrote: post #288
cortesoft wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but that doesn't mean you can just put all the satellites right above the part of the world that is awake - so you are still going to not have a perfectly efficient system.

Why not? I wonder if you could construct a polar orbit that followed the daylight around the earth. Add higher concentrations of satellites to the orbits that correspond to the higher traffic hours of the day.

Yes, it's called a sun-synchronous orbit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-synchronous_orbit

The exact orbit has to be arranged so that it precesses once a year, keeping it aligned with a particular local time of day. "Typical sun-synchronous orbits are about 600–800 km in altitude, with periods in the 96–100 minute range, and inclinations of around 98°"

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#367

Post by lexicality »

thebooktocome wrote: post #195
ChuckMcM wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is simply brilliant. Faux bricks which connect together to create a phased array antenna that create a mesh network between connected homes. Now if it was low enough power to run on the heat differential between the flue gases and the ambient air I would know I was in the future.

If only phased array beamforming weren't so computationally expensive to get right.

Compute clusters that look like house walls?

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#368

Post by ansible »

metafunctor wrote: post #314
lvs wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can always jam whatever bands it operates on. They can make it illegal to tx/rx in those bands.

I'm imagining a super narrow directional beam pointed at the satellites. You cannot jam that, and even detecting it would mean you need to be really close. It can still be made illegal, of course.

A bad actor could also use a super narrow beam pointed at the satellite as a jamming signal that saturates the receiver, which prevents reception or even damages the satellite. Depends on the power.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#369

Post by aaron695 »

manachar wrote: post #128
katzgrau wrote: post #7

Free, global internet access is the next step toward a smarter, more progressive planet. I don't even care about the speed - if the only thing users could access was wikipedia, I'd still personally donate to the project. I cannot emphasize how important democratizing knowledge is to me (and many others).

Spreading true (well, at least less wrong) information is a noble goal. Unfortunately, I'm not sure we're not seeing such information availability providing avenues towards a smarter, more progressive planet. Instead, the internet seems to be helping people create cocoons of ignorance and "evidence" to support even the most specious claims - such as the world being flat. Knowledge does not seem to be enough. Wisdom a…

> Instead, the internet seems to be helping people create cocoons of ignorance and "evidence" to support even the most specious claims - such as the world being flat.

I've yet to see any evidence that it overall makes the world a worse place.

People give examples like immigration but leave out things like gay marriage acceptance which would have been unheard of pre-internet. Drug reform seems to be improving.

> Knowledge does not seem to be enough.

Correct, access to knowledge is useless, but the internet is more.

It's access to incredible AI machines and software, like Googles search engine. The ability for Uber to work. For free phone calls.

Re: SpaceX plans worldwide satellite Internet with low latency, gigabit speed

#370

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

anf wrote: post #270
hackuser wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think you're overstating the effect of fringe communities on the internet. Some believe that fringe information was a major factor in the U.S. Presidential election. A leader of a fringe community is the chief political advisor to the most powerful person in the world-elect.

Oy, give it a break. Not everything is about this election, and you can't just blame the internet for it. Yes, the internet allows people to be mis-informed if they don't care for being informed. Still, not being connected at all is basically equivalent to not being able to connect meaningfully with modern civilization. I literally don't know anyone who isn't connected to the internet. It's simply a prerequisite for…

> Oy, give it a break. Not everything is about this election

Very true, but not relevant: as a rebutal to the statement that "you're overstating the effect of fringe communities", they do have a point.

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