291–299 of 299 posts
Evading the censorship is a better idea but I am pretty sure China wouldn't allow such a thing to fly over their country. Or at least make it suffer with network attacks or DDOS or something.
I've often thought something like this would be good for providing internet access to the people of North Korea.
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Is it really a good idea to use Google even on the lowest layer, meaning the network itself, for the transportation of your data? In light of the surveillance state that the US has become and the collaboration of government agencies with the tech giants, I say: Support the small guys!
Google seems to be the only company that has even tried to stand up against surveillance.
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Google seems to be the only company that has even tried to stand up against surveillance.
Wasn't that yahoo?
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I think you're missing something - you don't need to be connected to the internet constantly in order for the internet to be very valuable to you. If you have access once a week for 30 minutes, that's a lot more than never. That's enough to send emails and keep in touch with the outside world in new ways.
If the balloons could be controlled accurately enough to provide internet access at a specific time each week, then you have a point. But if they fly over unpredictably, guided by the wind, then it's not going to be nearly as useful.
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If the balloons could be controlled accurately enough to provide internet access at a specific time each week, then you have a point. But if they fly over unpredictably, guided by the wind, then it's not going to be nearly as useful.
Utility is not binary. If they provide intermittent access to people who've never had it before, that's a huge deal.
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It does not have it now, because they want to focus on the basics. Once that is done, adding a camera is not a big deal.
But I feel like that would make the media -- followed by average people -- go crazy. Consider the current NSA news combined with "Google puts hundreds of cameras in the sky".
Now I wonder if that was a misinformation campaign intended to keep competitors and Wall Street guessing.
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While the geek in me acknowledges this is an awesome project and I'm really glad to see them giving it a try, the sarcastic cynic in me had the first thought that this was a great way to bring the the remaining 2/3 of the world under NSA surveillance.
Wasn't "NSA's free access to Google data" debunked, like, 3 days ago? Why people still keep talking like they give away all the data? That's the problem with mass media. Not only a lie spreads faster than the truth, it's also the only thing remembered after the dust settles.