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Starlink Is a Big Deal

sneak.berlin

181–190 of 365 posts

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#181

Honestly I hope someone figures out how to shoot these down. I feel like the planet isn't getting a say. In fact only a few people are getting a say that this network should even exist. Astronomy is dead. A dark sky with just stars, yeah dead.

Aren't the satellites in LEO only visible for a short time after sunset?

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes this was my immediate thought. Especially if I want to check multiple locations for e.g. family. When I declined to share location I got an exception. ...suddenly I'm shy about listing my finger printable browser details online. I'll tell you I'm using brave. I still can't use the app because the location denial is permanent, so I'll have to clear something in the browser...might be a bug worth addressing. Edit 2…

hmmm, I'm in Firefox with NoScript. I received no warning about trying to use my location. According to the the street view, it placed my location at city hall in downtown. I actually live about 10 miles from there.

I'm confused about the reports of showing street view without entering a location. If you deny the location permission, it won't show street view unless you explicitly type in an address. Are you sure you didn't do that? Or maybe you visited the site sometime in the past and already granted location permission?

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#183
post #165

> Billions of people, blocked from accessing the Internet due to lack of infrastructure or local greed or fraud related to same, are presently kept from participating in the global knowledge economy. Starlink will remedy this, to some extent. Isn't covering the world in a blanket of satellites from a single company the epitome of a global Monopoly? I'm worried about such a future controlled by SpaceX...

I wouldn't worry about it.

If SpaceX does become a monopoly it will simply be treated as a utility and forced to offer FRAND wholesale pricing to anyone who wants it.

And the fun part is that SpaceX being global will have to negotiate with each country that it wants to operate in. Good luck with that.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#186
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding the social impact, while likely overstated it has the possibility of making a real impact. Rural communities in upstate NY (Catskills, Adirondacks) have had their tourist season drop to ~6 weeks in the summer, basically because people can't take so much time off while being out of contact (there is limited internet and cell phone service. Not having either is the norm). Being able to work remotely from thos…

What is stopping cell providers from adding more towers/capacity to that area? Are there geographic reasons or just a matter of time and economics?

Lots of nimbyism, for a start.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#187
post #34

"HFT firms will be the first customers, seeking a few-millisecond reduction in the transmission of realtime data between markets. Starlink has already said as much, and I think they rely on this as their first and primary source of revenue." I am not sure this is a good prediction ... the shaving of milliseconds that has been pursued by HFT firms (and other such actors) has progressed to the point where they are meas…

A couple things: 1. Signals travel faster through the air and vacuum of space than they do fiber optic cables or electrical cables. 2. If there is an HFT trader based in the U.S. looking to trade based on events happening in Spain or Japan, they still want to get data across continents in the fastest way possible. EDIT: Apparently other posters traded on the information arbitrage opportunity of replying to your post…

Traveling twice as fast three times as far isn't a win.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#188

Honestly I hope someone figures out how to shoot these down. I feel like the planet isn't getting a say. In fact only a few people are getting a say that this network should even exist. Astronomy is dead. A dark sky with just stars, yeah dead.

I really can't fathom the reasoning behind this much passion about astronomy tied to this much hatred of putting things in space.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are scant details about what the launched product will look like in practice, but keep in mind that urban and suburban areas are spoiled by high-speed 4G LTE and wired gigabit. The vast majority of the US, by land area, has to chose from dial-up and very expensive pre-Starlink satelite Internet service. Even 1 Mbit is a huge improvement over 56 kbps. I'm haven't looked into the economics of running fiber everyw…

I live in the greater Washington DC metro area (Census-defined) and don't have internet access at my farm. No cable and no DSL available. I connect through a wireless 4G hotspot. This is really inadequate, my kids can't get online and we can't do any connected household stuff like Alexa or Ring. Our entire community is praying for Starlink!!!

> my kids can't get online and we can't do any connected household stuff like Alexa or Ring

Any houses for sale nearby?

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#190
post #175
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am not sure this is a good prediction ... the shaving of milliseconds that has been pursued by HFT firms (and other such actors) has progressed to the point where they are measuring cable lengths inside the datacenter. You're conflating optimisation of latency within a colo - how quickly can you send an order in response to seeing an event on that exchange - with latency between colos - how quickly can you send a…

The thing is people have already built most of those microwave tower paths here on earth and in addition SpaceX probably isn't going to set it up as a mesh where intra-Starlink traffic stays goes directly. And even if they do you have to go up then across (probably in a zig zag) then back down which will always be higher latency than the point to point microwave distance.

I don't know enough about their infrastructure, but presumably SpaceX could offer that as a premium service? "Most direct" path for your data at a much higher dollar-per-MB cost vs the mesh offering?
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