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Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

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Re: Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

#251

Post by temp0826 »

dwighttk wrote: post #243
proaralyst wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ukraine's drones are already partly automated because of the jamming environment: they can visually lock the drone onto a target from up to 10km away.[0][1] They're also using drones that trail a fibre optic over several kilometres to avoid jamming.[2] [0] https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2025/03/12/... [1] https://www.csis.org/analysis/ukraines-future-vision-and-cur... [2] https://www.forbes.com/site…

Dang what does a drone carriable several kilometer fiber spool look like?

I was pretty shocked to find out that wire-guided missiles were(/are?) a thing. This seems easier than that.

Re: Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

#253

Post by dwighttk »

temp0826 wrote: post #251
dwighttk wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dang what does a drone carriable several kilometer fiber spool look like?

I was pretty shocked to find out that wire-guided missiles were(/are?) a thing. This seems easier than that.

Pretty sure they were in the thousand feet range, not multiple kilometers…

Re: Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

#254

Post by bprater »

pjc50 wrote: post #250
dwighttk wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dang what does a drone carriable several kilometer fiber spool look like?

The lower canister in the last of the three links, https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2024/11/07/ukrain... Difficult to judge scale, maybe the size of a drinks can or food can? Fiber is pretty thin.

Half a can of soda. The main electronics controller visible in the photo is likely 20x20 or 30x30mm, the standard for FPV style drones.

Re: Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

#255

Post by dwighttk »

dwighttk wrote: post #253
temp0826 wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was pretty shocked to find out that wire-guided missiles were(/are?) a thing. This seems easier than that.

Pretty sure they were in the thousand feet range, not multiple kilometers…

(Welp… 3 km range… though to me wire that long seems like it’d be easier than optical cable back in the 70s)

Re: Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

#256

Post by anshorei »

pzo wrote: post #252

> overcoming the stubborn connectivity gaps that prevent nearly 3 billion people from accessing the internet. I doubt it's really that big number. There will always be a gab because... toddlers and kids <5 years old don't use internet.

> toddlers and kids that's wishful thinking

Re: Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

#257

Post by timerol »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #140
pclmulqdq wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fire-and-forget drones already exist. They are called missiles.

Missiles generally go from point A and then blow up point b. Are there any missiles that leave base, fly around for a bit trying to identify targets, and if they can't identify any targets then return home?

The term you're looking for is loitering munitions. From Wikipedia: "Some loitering munitions may return and be recovered by the operator if they are unused in an attack and have enough fuel"

Re: Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

#258

Post by inkcapmushroom »

gloosx wrote: post #202
pclmulqdq wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said that somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but the line between "drone" and "missile" seems to have gotten pretty blurry with the Ukraine war featuring FPV drones holding a hand grenade that are effectively a human-piloted missile. Some modern missiles can fly around to identify targets, but they can't return home. They can blow up harmlessly if nothing is a target, though. They can also dodge and weave the way FPV pilots…

Missle is a projectile, propelled by rocket motor. Drone is an aircraft vehicle, capable of transporting explosives or whatever. There is a fat line between drone and a missile, there are different in everything: control, speed, trajectory, weight, flying principles. I don't know how you can say they are even close. Just because both fly and do boom? Then you can say there is a thin line between cow launched from cat…

A cow launched from a catapult is indeed a missile, if we want to be pedantic.

Re: Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

#260

Post by ethbr1 »

dataviz1000 wrote: post #212
ethbr1 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The phrase you're looking for is OODA loop, popularized in the 80s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boyd_(military_strategi...

> Boyd’s Law of Iteration: speed of iteration beats quality of iteration [0] [0] https://blog.codinghorror.com/boyds-law-of-iteration/

Also, Patton's classic 'a good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week'
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