...And Google continues
to impress
Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
41–50 of 125 posts
Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
What happens when local militants/vandals shoot them down?
I don't know what altitude they'd fly at, but this quote from the Wikipedia article on Airships says: "In November 2006, the U.S. Army bought an A380+ airship from American Blimp Corporation through a Systems level contract with Northrop Grumman and Booz Allen Hamilton. The airship started flight tests in late 2007, with a primary goal of carrying 2,500 lb (1,100 kg) of payload to an altitude of 15,000 ft (4,600 m) u…
I'd quibble. While I agree it wouldn't be vulnerable in practice, I don't think the longest sniper kill is relevant at all. A battle rifle caliber can definitely break 10,000 feet fired straight up. The issue would be whether it has enough energy left to penetrate the skin of the blimp, and whether it winds up anywhere near where you aimed at.
They're definitely not at risk to the odd potshot, but massed small arms/crew-served rifle fire could potentially be effective in the lower altitudes.
Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#43I thought when they hired Eric Brewer as VP of Infrastructure it was for his general CAP and high-scalability expertise. Maybe they hired him for his experience bringing wireless internet to developing nations / the third world...or both!
Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because they photoshopped a stock image??? Seriously? You understand how journalism and blogging works, right?
Photoshopping an image and not captioning it as an "artist's concept" or something similar is absolutely a violation of traditional journalistic integrity. This is not a picture of a "Google Blimp." It's not even a picture of a blimp in Africa.
Wired should have just posted an abstract sketch, something that says "blimp" but is clearly not pretending to be a "GBlimp".
Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#45Does broadcasting an unwanted wireless internet across a nation's borders count as an act of war? If the US broadcast open Wi-Fi across North Korea's or China's borders, they would be unhappy. Something like Radio Free Europe.
Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#46This article comes pretty close to plagiarizing the source article it's based on - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732397500457850...
Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#47Pretty sure google should deploy wifi blimps to south/north Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, etc. before throwing resources at African wifi.
I guess google plans to inherit Nigerian family fortunes and such and only needs the coms infrastructure to obtain it.
Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#48And so it begins. There is a new age coming, one where we realise surveillance is ubiquitous and more importantly carries benefits for us as well as loss of what we thought of as privacy. This is probably a good thing. These blimps will not be the last of atmospheric and LEO orbitals that will criss cross the globe and provide always-on services we suddenly cannot live without. We do need to manage who holds and uses…
Why are you assuming this is automatically a surveillance tool? It's not a drone with the explicit intent to search for something. It's a way to get Internet to people.
High resolution ground photography and mobile location tracking came to mind.
Google often cooperates with government and police.
Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#49Too bad mesh networking hasn't got off the ground in a big way (?). Couldn't individuals hoist weather balloons with mesh transmitters and build these sorts of networks bottom-up?
Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why are you assuming this is automatically a surveillance tool? It's not a drone with the explicit intent to search for something. It's a way to get Internet to people.
High resolution ground photography and mobile location tracking came to mind. Google often cooperates with government and police.
> Google often cooperates with government and police.
Next you're going to tell me that they're considered a legal entity in many countries.