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Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa

wired.co.uk

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Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa

#101

Post by oblique63 »

nwzpaperman wrote: post #83
SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downvoted because your comment consists of an unsubstantiated assertion followed by a dismissive slur.

Assertion? Do explain your authority on Africa to me. As someone who has family in Africa, right now, and more going within a month, I am confident in my assertion that Africa is a failed continent. Everyone on earth has tried to civilize, ahem, "bring online" Africa and failed beyond resource extraction. It is a money pit and there are no rules. There is significant precedence for failure if you open any history boo…

> if you open any history book. It is arrogant to think you can influence anything meaningful there.

On the contrary, if you read any history book, you'll most likely realize the wonders of human progress, achievement, and optimism. The only arrogant conclusion to draw from that would be to underestimate human potential. Luckily, progress has historically come about thanks to the dismissal of such conservative presuppositions.

Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa

#102

Post by buyx »

South Africa's digital TV migration has been held up for a few years, for various depressing, third-world reasons. Google seems to have found a workaround, according to the article, by detecting unused parts of the spectrum. Perhaps that's what will replace the "digital-TV dividend" in SA.

Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa

#103

Post by Myrmornis »

rattray wrote: post #87
Myrmornis wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with your "Before this gets misinterpreted" sentence, your post is essentially saying: "Oh yes, well, internet in Africa would be nice, but those Africans, you know, they mainly use the internet to try to scam people in the first world". As such it is inaccurate, smug, racist and ignorant, and reflects an implicit assumption that the world should be organized so that it is benign to the interests of affluent wes…

I think that's a bit harsh; at least, I didn't interpret his anecdote as such. I've spent some time in West Africa, but not much in internet cafes and none in Nigeria (or Ghana, for that matter). I never saw anything like what he described, so I appreciated the anecdote. Basically, I took his observations as more an honest description than a judgement. Your accusations of "inaccurate" and "ignorant" beg the question;…

My comment was certainly aggressive, but intentionally so. That person's response to a discussion of increased internet access for Africans was to talk about the problem of spam email. I think I could have been harsher.

> are you speaking from a point of superior knowledge on the matter?

That seems to imply that you are in doubt about the truth value of the following proposition: `Africans mainly use the internet to scam people in the first world`.

Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa

#105

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

nwzpaperman wrote: post #83
SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downvoted because your comment consists of an unsubstantiated assertion followed by a dismissive slur.

Assertion? Do explain your authority on Africa to me. As someone who has family in Africa, right now, and more going within a month, I am confident in my assertion that Africa is a failed continent. Everyone on earth has tried to civilize, ahem, "bring online" Africa and failed beyond resource extraction. It is a money pit and there are no rules. There is significant precedence for failure if you open any history boo…

> Assertion? Do explain your authority on Africa to me. As someone who has family in Africa, right now...

If we're making comparisons of experience I lived in Africa for over 30 years. But that's not relevant. Changing the subject from substance to authority is not a good sign: appeal to authority is a logical fallacy for a reason.

But " I lived in Africa" is not right. Africa is big and diverse. Nobody lives in a continent, they live in a city in a country, and statements like "Africa is a failed continent" are too vague to even be wrong. They cannot be founded in anything other than blind prejudice.

Large parts of Africa are developing rapidly ( http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21572773-pride-africas... http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/01/11/sorry_but_a... http://www.vice.com/read/is-this-the-century-of-africas-rise...), and technologies like this could help - not just help, could be profitable commercial ventures.

> I am confident in my assertion

What I meant was, citation needed. More assertions of the same are not needed.

I couldn't care less if these blimps are deployed to Dakota, Wyoming, and other parts of America as well. Maybe it makes economic sense for google to do it there as well. But google has done the math and determined that it makes sense to do this in parts of Africa, and for some strange reason they aren't dissuaded by random afro-pessimist commenters on hn.

Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa

#106

Post by eranation »

eranation wrote: post #82
ok_craig wrote: post #9

That image of the Google blimp almost looks like the logo was photoshopped on. Any way to tell if that's real or not?

Sorry for the plug (if a not-for-profit campaign a friend is doing to build a school in Ethiopia is considered a plug) but this will help this school (if it gets built) get also internet http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ewb-lets-build-a-school-in...

Ok, wow, either I didn't get the article, or I got really misunderstood here, anyone cares to mention why this is so downvoted? is it the off topic plug? is it my choice of wording? Did I miss a major point in the article? Did I say something really stupid? (if so my apologies, and will be nice if you point out what exactly)

All in all it's a real nice charity project from someone I know, and I get nothing from it, not sure what's so wrong with a little good intentions.

Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa

#107

Post by eru »

eranation wrote: post #106
eranation wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry for the plug (if a not-for-profit campaign a friend is doing to build a school in Ethiopia is considered a plug) but this will help this school (if it gets built) get also internet http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ewb-lets-build-a-school-in...

Ok, wow, either I didn't get the article, or I got really misunderstood here, anyone cares to mention why this is so downvoted? is it the off topic plug? is it my choice of wording? Did I miss a major point in the article? Did I say something really stupid? (if so my apologies, and will be nice if you point out what exactly) All in all it's a real nice charity project from someone I know, and I get nothing from it, n…

Don't worry too much about downvotes. People have become more trigger happy in the last three years (or so).

Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa

#108

Post by MojoJolo »

spacemanaki wrote: post #12
ok_craig wrote: post #9

That image of the Google blimp almost looks like the logo was photoshopped on. Any way to tell if that's real or not?

Yep, I think it's photoshopped: http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4995227882/

And it's funny because Wired.com (not co.uk) used it in an article before. http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/army-wants-spy-blimp...

Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa

#109

Post by da3da »

primelens wrote: post #59
themstheones wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's clear, especially considering that these are meant to fly in some unstable countries in central Africa, that certain parties will be trying to attack these blimps. What kind of defenses to you think the blimps will have to defend against these strikes? Some sort of armor plating on the underside would seem to be the minimum. Hopefully they'll be equipped with some offensive capabilities as well to combat and dis…

> Hopefully they'll be equipped with some offensive capabilities as well to combat and dissuade guerrilla and terrorist acts. Um ... Google drones are the last thing we need. Enough problems with the military ones already.

Yeah, you have to think that was a joke, right? Can you imagine the headlines, "Google Drone kills 7 on Somali border"

Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa

#110

Post by vanderZwan »

nikatwork wrote: post #85
vanderZwan wrote: post #64

I suspect it will be more mobile internet than desktops - you do have to realise that these dayse the African economy practically runs on mobile phones, and land lines are uncommon to nonexistent. I wonder how that changes the way they'll use internet access. Speaking of how society uses the internet, I traveled through Ghana for four weeks last year and I heard that one of the reasons internet cafes aren't really wa…

So they were running a little internet startup. Perhaps instead of trying to segregate them from the internet, we could make use of their entrepreneurial spirit?

Oh, absolutely! I loved their ingenuity, it's just too bad it's spent on scamming. I don't think I ever implied they shouldn't have internet access, just that the locals are hesitant about adopting it, so I'm not sure where you got that from. My question is how these guys can be guided away from the scamming and towards more productive business practices.

And I don't think you can't really blame them in their position: the scams work, and from their point of view probably feel victimless: it's white collar crime since nobody gets physically beaten up, and all white people are rich so they can miss the money.

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