141–150 of 294 posts
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Why copper? Heavy, thick, expensive, attractive for thieves. Lay fiber: thin, lightweight, less expensive per Gbps, future-proof, corrosion-resistant, lighting-resistant, worthless for thieves.
Worthless for theft, but subject to ransom and destruction by your local warlord.
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There are infinite examples. Right now I am in an overlanding vehicle, but I'm not an expert in offroading. I drove down a 5 mile trail that was very technical. The car can handle it, but it needs caution and the way back is much harder. I was extremely hesitant about going back up that way. If I get stuck, I am solo and I am hours from town via driving. So I just pulled out starlink, and with a combination of claude…
One would argue that pre-Internet people prepared more, started on easier trails or went out with experienced people first.
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Does ownership ever get assigned to people who aren't political cronies of the current government?
Yes, all the time, because it is a private arrangement between the foreign company and the local company. Private companies are in no meaningful sense "cronies" of the government, even if they were accredited by the formal regulating body. You cannot point to a single major case of B-BEEE favouritism, it is a legal framework that is almost always impartial.
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I’m not sure regular internet access is changing the risk like you say, but I agree that people like connectivity and hence will do more risky things because they think it’s safer. Rescues even with EPIRB’s can still be difficult.
I agree with your attitude. Technology can give false confidence. Self-rescue, and self-sufficiency are priority, not some sense that someone will come save you if things go wrong.
There’s enough to go from building any type of housing to building your own steel forge. It’s amazing.
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I have a Starlink shout out! My brother in law worked on a salmon fishing boat in Alaska a couple of summers ago. They are at sea for weeks and keep fishing until the boat is full. He's done crabbing trips before and was basically out of communication for a month. On this trip, they had Starlink and were able to send us pictures and even FaceTime. Starlink delivered a huge quality of life improvement to guys who work…
man I am happy to hear that. in Europe there is still widespread cynicism and vitrol against anything Elon Musk especially Starlink. I think that many people appreciate Starlink in rural parts but your story is one of many that are just amazing
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> it's not clear if StarLink shall be able to find customers rich enough to buy their services. Of course they will. If the prices are too high they can just lower them to whatever people can afford. It's not that expensive to cover Africa's customers.
It is not expensive to keep a massive constellation of satellites in a rapidly decaying orbit?
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I get that he is an ignoble dude, and I dislike him as much as anyone, but why do we judge an entire company by the largest shareholder's personal scruples? There are likely thousands of hardworking people making that ship sail, and it's really short sighted to just write them all off because he is a dumbass. We are SO ready to judge but so unwilling to THINK. Why?
Most judging isn't anything more than parroting other people, a mimetic reflex to help you fit in with the people around you. Thinking risks you forming an opinion that might not align with the zeitgeist. There was a student newspaper editorial not too long ago... I think maybe it was at Harvard?... the crux of the piece was there's no reason to debate or engage, because we know we are right. Having independent thoug…
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I only counted the cost of the satellite itself. I assumed you can get it into orbit for free, so if it costs a cent more than that, it's a further argument against.
Starlink is manufacturing the satellites at scale. They’re likely to cost not much differently from large ground based 5G towers at some point. The antennas are “digital” so no expensive mechanical systems needed.
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man I am happy to hear that. in Europe there is still widespread cynicism and vitrol against anything Elon Musk especially Starlink. I think that many people appreciate Starlink in rural parts but your story is one of many that are just amazing
Ontario ended a $100M contract with Starlink to help connect 15k rural and first nations households because Elon was connected with the US administration when tariffs were announced https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/starlink-deal-void-on... AFAIK there has been no replacement contract since it was killed in 2025
I am very happy my tax dollars are not going into his pockets.
It’s not a crusade. You send him your money if you want. It’s none of my business.
Pretty sure they are doing a bunch of AI training with your data now too. Opt-in by default. So yeah, no thanks.