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Saint Helena Island Communications

sainthelenaisland.info

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Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#131

Post by mcv »

lxgr wrote: post #43
legitster wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a line, I believe in the Machineries of Freedom, that says the goal of "effective" libertarian politics is not to change laws - it's to design disruptive technologies that make existing laws irrelevant . We saw one version of this with Uber and Airbnb, essentially blowing up taxi and rental regulations, respectively. This is happening with AI, where regulation is hopelessly lost in its current state. We hav…

> Breaking existing rules and being unregulatable is probably an intentional point of Starlink. Looking at Starlink's coverage map (for stationary service at least), they seem to very much be playing by the rules (i.e. international laws and regulations regarding satellite communication services): https://www.starlink.com/map A "break rules and become unregulateable" approach would not have service boundaries corresp…

Don't these sats orbit the entire Earth? How is it possible there's anywhere on the planet (except maybe the poles) that they don't cover? Especially the eastern half of the US is particularly puzzling on that map.

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#132

Post by mcv »

bigbillheck wrote: post #10
kickofline wrote: post #6

> It has come to the attention of the St Helena Government that members of the public may have acquired, imported and be currently using terminals, such as Starlink, for the purposes of internet connectivity. Using such terminals is in contravention of the exclusivity of current telecommunications licencing arrangements made under section 3(4) of the Telecommunications Ordinance 1989. From 1 November 2023 anyone usin…

Alternate take: "the current licensee will sue us if we allow Starlink".

That could mean they don't plan to strictly enforce this ban, but are merely contractually obliged to officially ban it.

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#133

Post by brynx97 »

vjulian wrote: post #111
EA-3167 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched to Kagi and never looked back, it's like Google was before a decade of enshittification.

How curated and censored are the search results with Kagi? As someone involved with Tantra, for example, I rely on sites that are niche and not always SFW.

You can raise/pin the NSFW domains to curate the results yourself to what you'd generally prefer to see.

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#134

Post by NeoTar »

miohtama wrote: post #93
wizerdrobe wrote: post #4

> Note that the postcode (‘zip code’) ‘STHL 1ZZ’ applies to the entire island, and also that the ‘South Atlantic Ocean’, while strictly unnecessary, does seem to help prevent letters being routed to California, South Carolina or Australia! Took me several paragraphs to realize this wasn’t invoking my beloved Beaufort County

Seems that the post codes of British colonies follow a pattern. Gibraltar is GX11 1AA (the whole country).

I believe postal codes for the British Overseas Territories (etc.) were adopted in early 2000s to allow for more convenient online ordering since for the remaining British territories postal codes are probably overkill (having about 80.000 residents at most).

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#135

Post by intelVISA »

chongli wrote: post #90
tomcam wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least five years ago. Drives me crazy.

It’s their M.O. Relentlessly cut “power user” features. Relentlessly undermine the user’s wishes and redirect the user to Google’s preferred results. I don’t know why we continue to put up with it. Boiling frogs I guess.

The more direct their search the less opporunity to data mine, upsell you, or otherwise abuse your experience.

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#136

Post by lxgr »

mcv wrote: post #131
lxgr wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Breaking existing rules and being unregulatable is probably an intentional point of Starlink. Looking at Starlink's coverage map (for stationary service at least), they seem to very much be playing by the rules (i.e. international laws and regulations regarding satellite communication services): https://www.starlink.com/map A "break rules and become unregulateable" approach would not have service boundaries corresp…

Don't these sats orbit the entire Earth? How is it possible there's anywhere on the planet (except maybe the poles) that they don't cover? Especially the eastern half of the US is particularly puzzling on that map.

Satellite-to-satellite forwarding is still being rolled out with Starlink, and without that, every satellite needs to have a ground station within its view to work.

The initial constellation also lacked polar orbits, which limits the maximum latitude at which satellites are available.

But both are being addressed now, and then it’s really only a question of regulatory approval.

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#137

Post by rendall »

scroot wrote: post #52
higeorge13 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you spend your 10 days? Were the locals friendly to you?

I stayed in several guest houses during my time there. I also took some tours around the island. Wandering was probably the best part. The locals were extremely friendly and helpful, not to mention a riot during late nights at the pub...

Would you go back for an extended stay of more than, say, 6 months?

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#138

Post by Omroth »

scroot wrote: post #118
bibstha wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What made you choose St Helena for your travel? Did you feel like you got to see most of the island in 10 days?

Way back in 2006/2007 I worked a severely boring, soul draining desk job. I cruised Wikipedia deeply and often. On one of these online excursions, I came across the article for St Helena -- by some measure the most remote inhabited island at the time -- and read more. I learned about the RMS St Helena and how it was the only regular way to get to and from the island. I knew at some point in my life I had to make the…

I enjoyed your writeup.

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#139

Post by scroot »

rendall wrote: post #137
scroot wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stayed in several guest houses during my time there. I also took some tours around the island. Wandering was probably the best part. The locals were extremely friendly and helpful, not to mention a riot during late nights at the pub...

Would you go back for an extended stay of more than, say, 6 months?

If I was younger and my job allowed it, certainly. I think they are close to getting an undersea fiber optic internet connection, which could make it an ideal place for someone able and willing to due a stint working remotely.

St Helena is beautiful and the people are great, but there isn't "much to do." It's like living in the countryside. If that's your vibe -- or you have a novel you want to hunker down on -- it's an ideal place.

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#140

Post by alwa »

Symbiote wrote: post #42
capableweb wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems unlikely that Starlink would put a base station on Saint Helena just to be able to serve some percentage of ~4000 population. Most likely the base station is somewhere else.

I've no idea of the numbers, but it's possible they'd one one somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic — either St Helena or Ascension — for traffic from aircraft and ships.

Indeed, they recently announced a deal with OneWeb [0] as the first under their new Ground Station Policy [1]. From the incredibly slick (for SH) promo site [2], it looks like at least some contingent of Saints are really excited about the possibilities here.

[0] https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/2023/news/lease-signed-with-o...

[1] https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/2020/news/satellite-ground-st...

[2] https://www.earthstation.sh/

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