Internet Censorship.

[Gulo Blue]

We can't even maintain bridges right now. Way ahead of it's time. Not until the allocation of funds isn't weighted so heavily towards military funding anyways.

Its true purpose is probably underground habitation on Mars anyway.

 

[Spartanmack]

Not my money so my opinion is irrelevant.

But I would argue that pushing the auto industry towards electric, continuing the exploration of space, pushing solar to be more viable, changing the way we think about infrastructure, and bringing quality internet to the masses are certainly efforts worth pursuing.

I just think it's a bad look, maybe even hypocritical of those that seek to tax the shit out billionaires and yet also be cranky when they're spending money on endeavors such as these. It's not that they're super rich that's making liberals mad, it's that they don't get to decide where the money goes.

A big reason why Musk is so wealthy is his companies get billions of dollars from the government - and his extremely rich customers get their Tesla purchases subsidized as well. He's spending taxpayer money on this stuff, not necessarily his own. Granted, I'd probably rather have a private sector company with at least some accountability and profit motive than a government entity spending it with zero accountability and no concern for costs but it's not like he's spending his personal fortune which again, comes largely from government largesse on top of questionable accounting practices and a massively overpriced stock to make the world a better place.

 

[Spartanmack]

We can't even maintain bridges right now. Way ahead of it's time. Not until the allocation of funds isn't weighted so heavily towards military funding and entitlements anyway.

fify

 

[Spartanmack]

Mars doesn't have a magnetic field. The Sun's UV radiation fries the surface.

with our technology, the only way we could live there is underground.

you can live underground here for a lot cheaper. not sure there's point in transporting the same life support shit all that way through space... just dig a hole and bury it here.

But Mars hasn't soaked up billions of tons of RoundUp, so there's that.

 

[Michchamp]

But Mars hasn't soaked up billions of tons of RoundUp, so there's that.

I suppose. Mars also doesn't have some number of bitter, "lazy" humans resentful of Musk's amazing success, who'd stoop to blocking the air intake vents on his underground bunkers, swapping his X tablets for laxative pills to ruin his orgies, or put steel cable across his private road to interrupt his Sunday Tesla drives

 

[Spartanmack]

I suppose. Mars also doesn't have some number of bitter, "lazy" humans resentful of Musk's amazing success, who'd stoop to blocking the air intake vents on his underground bunkers, swapping his X tablets for laxative pills to ruin his orgies, or put steel cable across his private road to interrupt his Sunday Tesla drives

Musk has orgies? I take back everything bad I said about him.

If they're doing all those things, I don't think it's fair to call them lazy. Bitter, envious and probably criminal but not lazy.

 

[Gulo Blue]

probably criminal but not lazy.

It ain't illegal until they establish Martian Law

 

[sggatecl]

fify

Meh. I don't know about fixed.

By GDP we're 23rd in the world in public social spending and 4th in military spending.

What we spend on those two things is proportionate only through American eyes.

 

[Thumb]

I think I heard they're doing well for the small number of test users. Something like 100 MB/s which is great for the target market.

But regarding why the government isn't doing it, I thought the value might lie in spy satellites that couldn't be avoided through scheduling.

I'm signed up for it, have paid a $99 pre-order fee, and just waiting on them to ship and bill me the $500 unit so I can use it. Where I live there is no hardline broadband, so I have to use a WiMax type wireless ISP and they suck balls. Constant outages, slow speeds (Netflix will either drop resolution to finger-paint quality, or just buffer endlessly) and the customer service is terrible because they know they're the only game in town. When Starlink first started getting heard of my ISP started teasing 5G, that was almost 2 years ago, I'm done. Let Elon launch more satellites, get me that 150Mb less than .45 ms ping service and im happy to pay for it

 

[Thumb]

It ain't illegal until they establish Martian Law

In my Starlink user agreement, there is a provision saying by accepting the agreement you agree that Mars does not fall under the juridiction of any nation or nations, and it a free planet whose laws will be established by the people who will eventually live there.

 

[Michchamp]

In my Starlink user agreement, there is a provision saying by accepting the agreement you agree that Mars does not fall under the juridiction of any nation or nations, and it a free planet whose laws will be established by the people who will eventually live there.

Ha, that's funny he put that in there. He's only going to get away with that if he has the means to get to Mars & the U.S. government doesn't. And if that's the case, he wouldn't really need the clause there in the first place, he could make whatever laws he wants.

 

[Michchamp]

I'm signed up for it, have paid a $99 pre-order fee, and just waiting on them to ship and bill me the $500 unit so I can use it. Where I live there is no hardline broadband, so I have to use a WiMax type wireless ISP and they suck balls. Constant outages, slow speeds (Netflix will either drop resolution to finger-paint quality, or just buffer endlessly) and the customer service is terrible because they know they're the only game in town. When Starlink first started getting heard of my ISP started teasing 5G, that was almost 2 years ago, I'm done. Let Elon launch more satellites, get me that 150Mb less than .45 ms ping service and im happy to pay for it

I'm not anywhere close to doing this right now, but have been kicking around the idea of buying some rural property in Michigan, most likely to retire to.

I feel like I can solve for a lot of issues, but maintaining connectivity to the web (or really connectivity to other people, period) was one I was not sure about. I was thinking I could get a satellite phone, (possibly to use as a hotspot, if that's a thing they can do), but the ones I looked at online had pretty pricey rates for calls and texts.

 

[Gulo Blue]

I'm signed up for it, have paid a $99 pre-order fee, and just waiting on them to ship and bill me the $500 unit so I can use it. Where I live there is no hardline broadband, so I have to use a WiMax type wireless ISP and they suck balls. Constant outages, slow speeds (Netflix will either drop resolution to finger-paint quality, or just buffer endlessly) and the customer service is terrible because they know they're the only game in town. When Starlink first started getting heard of my ISP started teasing 5G, that was almost 2 years ago, I'm done. Let Elon launch more satellites, get me that 150Mb less than .45 ms ping service and im happy to pay for it

That sucks. I'm developing an irrationally strong anger for anything taking 10 or 20 seconds that should happen in less than 3. Or flipping channels. It's not as fast as it was before it was digital and I hate it. Flipping channels has been ruined.

I hope this hardware ships soon.

 

[Gulo Blue]

In my Starlink user agreement, there is a provision saying by accepting the agreement you agree that Mars does not fall under the juridiction of any nation or nations, and it a free planet whose laws will be established by the people who will eventually live there.

That's incredible. Kind of BS to wrap something so unrelated into terms of service. But I've heard this idea before. There's more too; until travel to and from Mars is common/easy, anybody going there should have to give up their nationality for Martian citizenship and adhere to the Martian Constitution, which will be written by the founders. The concern is that life there will be too difficult for the people living there to be worried about split motivations caused by missions that brought with them from whoever sent them.

Of course, if you accept these terms, when you get to Mars these terms can no longer apply.

 

[Gulo Blue]

Here it is again. What is it with voices on the right trying to wrap their arguments or jokes in the language of the left that they disagree with?

It's not compelling as an argument and it's not funny as a joke. The implication that objecting is hypocritical just shows you can't make whatever distinction applies.

https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1367562330515660801

Marco Rubio@marcorubio
President Biden?s use of an old stereotype is hurtful to modern Europeans, Asians & Americans who inherit about 2% of their genes from Neanderthal ancestors.

https://cnn.com/2020/01/30/africa/africa-neanderthal-dna-scn/index.html

He should apologize for his insensitive comments and seek training on unconscious bias.

 

[Thumb]

I'm not anywhere close to doing this right now, but have been kicking around the idea of buying some rural property in Michigan, most likely to retire to.

I feel like I can solve for a lot of issues, but maintaining connectivity to the web (or really connectivity to other people, period) was one I was not sure about. I was thinking I could get a satellite phone, (possibly to use as a hotspot, if that's a thing they can do), but the ones I looked at online had pretty pricey rates for calls and texts.

Just to point out, the Starlink satellite service is to the existing satellite services as fiber cable is to dial-up. I put up with this crummy WiMax for going on 20 years because I wont use HughesNet, Viasat, Excede, etc. You get a massive ping, a very low data cap (with huge overage charges) and unless you ca mount the dish within 10 feet of your router/modem, significant signal degradation unless you pay for very expensive double-shielded coaxial cable.

BTW I have no issue with cell phone coverage in my area, and I would think 90% of Michigan would even be LTE covered, so I doubt you would need to resort to a Sat phone

 

[Thumb]

FYI this is an actual copy+paste from my own terms of service agreement:

10: Governing Law.

For Services provided to, on, or in orbit around the planet Earth or the Moon, this Agreement and any disputes between us arising out of or related to this Agreement, including disputes regarding arbitrability (“Disputes”) will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California in the United States. For Services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other spacecraft, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities. Accordingly, Disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement.

 

[tinselwolverine]

Here it is again. What is it with voices on the right trying to wrap their arguments or jokes in the language of the left that they disagree with?

It's not compelling as an argument and it's not funny as a joke. The implication that objecting is hypocritical just shows you can't make whatever distinction applies.

https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1367562330515660801

I dunno, I think the Rubester has a point.

If I did the Twitter, I would retweet and add this:

If J’Biden, th’ol’ joke don’t croak,
he needs t’git woke.

 

[Gulo Blue]

I dunno, I think the Rubester has a point.

If I did the Twitter, I would retweet and add this:

If J?Biden, th?ol? joke don?t croak,
he needs t?git woke.

Waking Joe Biden might be a good reboot/re-set film.

 

[Spartanmack]

It ain't illegal until they establish Martian Law

For Mars, yes but I took his post to mean that's what is currently happening on earth that he would avoid on Mars (the shenanigans and sabotage, not the orgies of course).