21–30 of 118 posts
Many engineers at tech companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc. report that they feel overqualified for their work. I imagine many yearn for the chance to work on moonshot projects like these - is there any reason why secretive research divisions at these companies are so small, when there is plenty of engineering talent to go around internally?
Planes that fly for 3 months at a time on sunlight, bringing the Internet to people isn't cool?
Just, no. This is frightening on many levels. A facebook plane? To get people on facebook, right? To get them on the internet is secondary to Zuckerbergs goals here, lets be honest. A walled garden? Come on. It should be the whole internet or they shouldn't even bother. A walled garden, with no security protocols, with the intention of getting the entire world on facebook? Not cool.
They are a public company, after all. They have to fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders, or at least appear to do so...
This video has given me a newfound respect for Facebook. Many engineers at tech companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc. report that they feel overqualified for their work. I imagine many yearn for the chance to work on moonshot projects like these - is there any reason why secretive research divisions at these companies are so small, when there is plenty of engineering talent to go around internally?
Not to mention that the monumental risk that a company takes on when they do moonshot projects. There are very lax expectations of any profitability in the near term, so there seems to be large disincentives to invest heavily ... esp when the company is public and facing quarter by quarter scrutiny.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. Most people and companies have to justify their extensive time and boat loads of money spent. He wants to grow his business and he's willing to invest to do it. If Coca Cola built roads to villages to sell their products, you would also be unhappy?
> If Coca Cola built roads to villages to sell their products, you would also be unhappy? If Coca Cola built roads to villages to sell their products , but only Coca Cola trucks could use the roads - FTFY Now that doesnt look so good, does it?
Just, no. This is frightening on many levels. A facebook plane? To get people on facebook, right? To get them on the internet is secondary to Zuckerbergs goals here, lets be honest. A walled garden? Come on. It should be the whole internet or they shouldn't even bother. A walled garden, with no security protocols, with the intention of getting the entire world on facebook? Not cool.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. Most people and companies have to justify their extensive time and boat loads of money spent. He wants to grow his business and he's willing to invest to do it. If Coca Cola built roads to villages to sell their products, you would also be unhappy?
> If Coca Cola built roads to villages to sell their products, you would also be unhappy? If Coca Cola built roads to villages to sell their products , but only Coca Cola trucks could use the roads - FTFY Now that doesnt look so good, does it?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They're likely not using something too exotic: 10Gbps free space optical links have been available commercially for a few years now (see products by AOptix). The tricky part is pointing them and getting the last bit of power on target. If they're actually forming links at 100's of km separation they're already on par with what APL was doing just 2 or 3 years ago [1]. Impressive that they not only have the data termin…
Agreed, this is very cool. How do free space optical links work in the rain though? Shouldn't be a problem for the link between aircrafts as they fly above the weather but might be for aircraft-ground link if that's optical. Hope FB will open source parts of this! I know NASA has been looking at optical links for high bandwidth space communication, this accurate tracking would really help
https://www.ll.mit.edu/news/LLCDachievesrecorddatadownloadsp...
This is not an effort to provide the full internet. See this critique by the EFF for more details: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/05/internetorg-not-neutra...
Someone has to pay for this. Providing the full internet isn't an option.