Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Saint Helena Island Communications

sainthelenaisland.info

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 149 posts

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#81

Post by AlbertCory »

avgcorrection wrote: post #69
AlbertCory wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did a find on "Napoleon." what did I miss?

Oh, you meant that this site doesn't mention Napoleon. I don't see a reason for a how-to site on their site to mention whatever this island's claim to fame is? Sounds like someone putting a plaque at Milford Sound that says “You might have heard of New Zealand as the filming location of Lord of the Rings!”

I've been to Milford Sound. Actually, there are tons of LOTR tours in NZ, and it's got a lot more reasons for being famous than just Peter Jackson movies.

You AND the other guy could have just said,

"You missed the other pages on the site."

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#82

Post by KennyBlanken »

syndicatedjelly wrote: post #11

There is something to be learned from the simplicity and quaintness of this site - the information density is much higher than 90% of modern web sites. In a single page, by simply scrolling I learned so much about the communication infrastructure of a British island outpost.

There's nothing to be learned from the site's terrible organization, navigation, layout, or extreme density which makes it difficult to read. Density is not necessarily good; have you noticed that most hardcover and paperback books have pretty limited line length? Fairly generous inter-line spacing? Indented paragraphs?

There's so much "cruft" scattered around, too - tiny text "explaining" things. You shouldn't have to explain how to use your site's UI to visitors. And that UI incorporates incredibly tiny buttons that are impossible to use on mobile.

And then there's this absolute dumpster-fire: https://sainthelenaisland.info/communications.htm#q_navigati...

The author stopped learning about web design in the late 90's and seemingly doesn't give a damn about making his site actually useful and easy to navigate. It also doesn't come remotely close to passing HTML validation.

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#83

Post by gambiting »

mikeortman wrote: post #46

The fact there is an internet monopoly barring residents to use other internet providers is sad, especially given the impact on the GDP of the island if proper high speed internet and technological resources are available. I have a feeling the government is doing the cease and desist as a hand wavy thing to make the internet company happy, but will put little if any effort in actually enforcing it (if there is even s…

>>The fact there is an internet monopoly barring residents to use other internet providers is sad

I guess the deal was that if this company brings internet connectivity then they get exclusivity on the island for X number of years. I wish the article would get into more details about this deal.

Edit: on second read, the article does actually. It mentions the exclusivity deal was meant to expire in 2022, but because of lack of suitable replacement or alternative solutions it was extended to 2023 and it was just extended again to 2024.

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#84

Post by njarboe »

londons_explore wrote: post #76
quickthrower2 wrote: post #54

Looking forward to the new cloud region! > In July 2019 the Government of St Helena announced that it has issued a letter of intent to connect the island to Equiano. The 1,140Km branch to Saint Helena was completed in 2021 so this cable will provide the first fibre optic connectivity from St Helena to the outside world through both Europe and South Africa. Compared to the current satellite link the cable will bring a…

Does it have reliable supplies of plentiful and cheap electricity and water? Because without that, datacenters won't be showing up... And even if it did, big US companies don't really like to have data centers in places that are too remote, if only because staff have to visit from time to time and don't want to have to take an 8 hour seaplane ride to get there...

Communication hub. Probably just a downlink for Starlink for most of the South Atlantic.

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#85

Post by EA-3167 »

JetSetWilly wrote: post #48

> A search on Google™ for ‘Saint Helena’ will bring up many sites that are in California, which has a town called ‘Saint Helena’, or South Carolina, which has an area known as ‘Saint Helena Island’. For this reason it is best when using Google™ to append to your search ‘-napa -carolina -california’, which will remove many of these irrelevant results. Not any more! Since google "enhanced" their search to remove such o…

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

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#86

Post by mhh__ »

jakub_g wrote: post #77
cbsks wrote: post #56

Yikes! Internet is expensive! And there is only a single provider legally allowed to operate. 18£: 30GB. 5Mbps down, 1Mbps up 36£: 60GB. 5Mbps down, 1Mbps up 67£: unlimited. 10Mbps down, 1Mbps up 120£: unlimited. 20Mbps down, 1Mbps up https://www.sure.co.sh/assets/Banner-Links/Residential-Broad...

Sounds like a better and cheaper deal than in Berlin! (Semi-joking. Never lived in Berlin, but the mind-blowingly bad infra for such a big EU IT hub is a recurring meme).

IT hub isn't exactly the vibe you get from walking around Berlin IMO.

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#87

Post by secalex »

londons_explore wrote: post #76
quickthrower2 wrote: post #54

Looking forward to the new cloud region! > In July 2019 the Government of St Helena announced that it has issued a letter of intent to connect the island to Equiano. The 1,140Km branch to Saint Helena was completed in 2021 so this cable will provide the first fibre optic connectivity from St Helena to the outside world through both Europe and South Africa. Compared to the current satellite link the cable will bring a…

Does it have reliable supplies of plentiful and cheap electricity and water? Because without that, datacenters won't be showing up... And even if it did, big US companies don't really like to have data centers in places that are too remote, if only because staff have to visit from time to time and don't want to have to take an 8 hour seaplane ride to get there...

They aren't talking about general purposed datacenters, but satellite uplink stations. These new constellations of low-Earth orbit (LEO) internet satellites (like Starlink) can network with each other but eventually need to downlink into a big terrestrial dish where the traffic meets a fiber backbone. It's position in the southern hemisphere, middle of the Atlantic and political stability (still part of keeping the sun from setting on the British Empire) would make this an interesting place for downlink stations.

Not a ton of jobs, but some CapEx for construction and probably a couple dozen people year-round.

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#88

Post by wffurr »

Scoundreller wrote: post #78
Tijdreiziger wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily, we have wireless technologies. Stringing cables along poles could well be cheaper, though.

I’m thinking with 4G, 5g, one day 6g and one day 7g, physical data infra’s days are numbered or will become a premium product at the residential level. Except in Canada and elsewhere where the mobile and wireline providers are the same and deliberately keep mobile pricing high enough to disincentivize cord cutting.

None of those create more radio spectrum. I don't see a real replacement for wireline fiber and ethernet ever.

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#89

Post by scottlawson »

JetSetWilly wrote: post #48

> A search on Google™ for ‘Saint Helena’ will bring up many sites that are in California, which has a town called ‘Saint Helena’, or South Carolina, which has an area known as ‘Saint Helena Island’. For this reason it is best when using Google™ to append to your search ‘-napa -carolina -california’, which will remove many of these irrelevant results. Not any more! Since google "enhanced" their search to remove such o…

I typed St Helena island which worked grest

Re: Saint Helena Island Communications

#90

Post by chongli »

tomcam wrote: post #68
beowulfey wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did Google do this?

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.

Post reply on HN