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Starlink Is a Big Deal

sneak.berlin

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Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#231

Post by p1mrx »

CrazyStat wrote: post #161
sprash wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh that's great. Now I can better aim my Elon-Sattelite-fryer device. I already collected 25 old microwave ovens which I plan to operate as phased array to produce a collimated beam of microwaves directed at the satellites to fry their electronics. I might have a better chance If know the exact frequency their receivers are tuned to. Does anybody know more? The reckless littering of our precious LEO must end here!

Frying perfectly good satellites so they can't be maneuvered or deorbited sounds like a great way to recklessly litter LEO.

The nice thing about LEO is that everything deorbits automatically.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#232

Post by modeless »

jcims wrote: post #226
modeless wrote: post #16

Just going to plug my Starlink tracker here: https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/?special=starlink It tells you when to go outside and look up to see the satellites as they pass over your house. It's a cool sight to see because there are up to 60 of them crossing the sky at the same time in a line.

SMS or email alert would be sweet. I wonder if you could just make an ical file available to avoid having to pay any costs for the messaging.

I'm working to implement alerts via calendar events right now actually. I already have alerts based on web push, but frankly the web push notifications API sucks. You only get the notifications on one device, they are delayed by random amounts of time (hours in some cases), the UI for enabling them is spammy and lame, and Safari doesn't support them.

Calendar events suck too because there's no standard way to add an event to a system calendar across platforms. Even the same browser on different platforms acts differently.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#233

Post by mirimir »

> SpaceX will be pressured by the governments in the jurisdictions where their staff reside (where their physical threats of enforcement can be carried out) to selectively censor/blackout or otherwise wiretap use of the system, ostensibly for military purposes, in another tragic case of stupid, outdated nationalistic thinking trying to force its way into outer space and cyberspace. They will comply, silently and without fanfare, as all of the other telecommunications carriers have, excepting with great recognition the brave Joseph Nacchio, because they don’t want to suffer the same fate he did.

Anyone remember the SWANsat project,[0] which was going to use a VPN service[1] as its client gateway? They called it "SWANSAT LIBERTY™ Suite".

Somehow, I doubt that Starlink has anything like that in mind. But still, one could use it with any anonymity network, unless that was somehow blocked.

0) http://swansat.com/

1) https://web.archive.org/web/20100813004230/http://www.swansa...

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#234

Post by esjeon »

tachyonbeam wrote: post #208
apatters wrote: post #167

Is the optimism about being able to bypass censorship really valid? SpaceX may be resistant to the censorship demands of some governments, but a lot of other things need to happen to get someone online. To begin with you need to acquire Starlink's receiver, which probably makes it inaccessible to North Koreans for example, and difficult to acquire for citizens of any country that has efficient import controls. Then y…

So, I think you're mostly right, but not for these reasons. People have been sneaking forbidden things past borders for a long time. Think of the drug trade. Every country has a chemical drug trade it seems, even countries where the penalty is death such as Thailand. Then you also have to think that countries like China... Will be the countries making those Starlink receivers, so Chinese people looking to bypass the…

> You need specialized equipment to triangulate receivers, multiple vehicles

It's not "specialized", more like just dedicated, because those devices are pretty simple to create. Also, mathematically, one "running" vehicle is enough, but two is minimum for the sake of precision and efficiency.

> AFAIK Starling satellites use phased array antennas,

Phased arrays do leak signals all over the place ("side lobe"). If transmit power is high enough, this can be detected miles away. Say, during military exercise, activating phased-array based FCR randomly rings RWRs of nearby jets (if the signal is not whitelisted beforehand).

> maybe he will leave some kind of backdoor... Maybe it will be surprisingly easy to "crack" your Starlink receiver and set it to a fake country code, and suddenly have access to unfiltered US-region internet from anywhere

I don't get where people get this kind of blind optimism. The reality is that traffic control can be imposed based on physical location of satellite. Plus, VPN is cheap and works just okay, except occasional take downs. This new internet won't cause any kind of paradigm shift that some people desperately try to push.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#235

Post by pault »

allovernow wrote: post #227
oarsinsync wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Edit 2: Jesus Christ man I had no idea I was giving you my fucking address. That's a little too granular for my taste So the accuracy of the location being provided depends entirely on your device. From a website (or any other app) perspective, they simply request the client provide it's location. Now if you happen to have a strong GPS lock on your device with 5m or less accuracy, that's not something the website (…

As a matter of fact I default to explicitly turning off all location permissions. I've gone to great pains to practice clean opsec. This is effectively a forced breach. I clicked on something cool expecting to be promoted for a zip code.

That's fine, but as GP said, the browser geolocation API asks for location data from the device, and this is what it gives you back. Every app and website that has a "use my location" button will provide your latitude and longitude as accurately as possible, which is usually high enough to know not only your address, but also that you are currently in your downstairs bathroom. I'm also a bit surprised that you are technically savvy enough to maintain strict opsec but you didn't know how geolocation services work on a smartphone. Regardless, the developer of the website does not deserve your ire for using a common browser API. The app could be improved by offering a UI for entering a zip code, but they didn't set out to steal your PII.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#236

Post by unnouinceput »

njarboe wrote: post #49
cmarschner wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What entity give them this approval? Isn‘t airspace over countries to be approved by these countries? Did countries opt out?

I don't think there is a treaty about it. These satellites are in space, not in the air. Around 100km usually is used as the boundary or, more practically, as high as your anti-aircraft missiles can go. It does not really make sense to claim everything up in a cone from your country to infinity. Multiple countries claiming different planets at different times would be weird. SpaceX got approval to launch these satell…

Wasn't some time ago a Chinese satellite blown from their orbit by a missile? I think current technology allows you to blow stuff up from sky quite more then just 100 Km.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#237

Post by King-Aaron »

modeless wrote: post #16

Just going to plug my Starlink tracker here: https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/?special=starlink It tells you when to go outside and look up to see the satellites as they pass over your house. It's a cool sight to see because there are up to 60 of them crossing the sky at the same time in a line.

That's really cool! Added a reminder.

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#238

Post by virgilp »

midnightclubbed wrote: post #95
Retric wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have approval for up to 42,000 satellites, most internet connections are shared at homes and businesses, and broadband is over subscribed anyway. One way to look at it is up to 42 million 4k streams at the same time. But, a significant fraction of the constellation will be over the ocean or other minimally inhabited regions so something like 25% of total bandwidth is likely utilized at any one time. However, tha…

I wonder if they will charge less for bandwidth over minimally inhabited regions?

Why? Market forces dictate that they should charge _more_ (likely have less competition there; will also be able to provide better service than in densely-populated areas).

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#239

Post by [deleted] »

shaklee3 wrote: post #217
swiley wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pre-starlink stuff isn’t just expensive. It’s slow, has crazy high latency, and low transfer caps (the biggest you can get for geosynchronous might be 20GB a month no matter how much you want to pay.) Really anything is better than what’s currently available in the rural US. Having grown up there I’m kind of mad that we give so much spectrum to cell companies who block people from setting up terrestrial radio net…

That's completely false. Several providers have over 100GB/mo plans.

[deleted]

Re: Starlink Is a Big Deal

#240

Post by DangitBobby »

shaklee3 wrote: post #225
baq wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Latency is completely true. Can’t be otherwise because speed of light is a thing.

The latency part is true, but the cap is not: https://www.satelliteinternet.com/resources/unlimited-satell... We can argue about whether latency matters for most people, but it's not going to go anywhere.

Whew $150/mo for 100 GB of data
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