7 ms·

Cuba's Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify, all without the internet

50 points by comrh 11y ago

nickpsecurity 11y ago
I imagine this has implications for the debate where certain people think backdoors and censorship will stop covert communication among criminals or terrorists. Now, we can add to our list of replies, "Hows that working out for Cuba?"
- guard-of-terra 11y ago
  Then "certain people" are happy - at least they'll make you live in totalitarian dictatorship, it's a good achivement already. I came to conclusion that those "certain people" just hate everybody and want to harm us, and then hope to escape proposed punishment themself. Limiting your rights is not a "price to pay" for them, it's their target. Fighting crime and terrorism is just a front-end to get to their real target, namely to humiliate citizens.
  - nickpsecurity 11y ago
    I mostly agree. Except, I think their target is stability and control. Fits well into one of the better Theories of Everything I've seen: http://www.projectcensored.org/the-global-1-exposing-the-transnational-ruling-class/ http://www.projectcensored.org/the-global-1-exposing-the-tra...
danteembermage 11y ago
Just for fun! My thought was how about a HFT microwave style network: https://sniperinmahwah.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/hft-in-my-backyard-part-i/ https://sniperinmahwah.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/hft-in-my-ba... So I checked the distance from the Keys to Havanna: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=havanna+to+florida+keys+distance https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e... Which turned out to be 2500 meters via this: http://www.hamuniverse.com/lineofsightcalculator.html http://www.hamuniverse.com/lineofsightcalculator.html It's four times larger than the largest non-skyscraper (a TV tower in North Dakota): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_and_structures_in_the_world https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_and_... So sadly we cannot beam Netflix or anything else to our entrepreneurial hacker Mr. Weekly Packet. Added incentive to fund space elevator research?
- comrh 11y ago
  Repeater boat in international waters?
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    High bandwidth satellite spot beam down links would work.
- nickpsecurity 11y ago
  https://www.ceragon.com/images/Reasource_Center/Case_Studies/Ceragon_Case_Study_Evolution_Long_Haul_Links_Over_Water.pdf https://www.ceragon.com/images/Reasource_Center/Case_Studies...
- noselasd 11y ago
  You "only" need about 650m elevation if you place an equally tall tower at both places. Sadly neither Key West nor Havana has any tall mountains nearby either
oska 11y ago
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. —Tanenbaum, Andrew S. (1989). Computer Networks.
- nickpsecurity 11y ago
  A blast from the past. I mailed DVD-R's and flash storage because the price per GB was pretty good. No hackers, either. I later found that this wasn't a unique idea: supercomputing and big corporate players often mailed whole HD's of data to cut cost of WAN links. A trick that it pays to never forget in case one of the benefits appear.
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    Toshiba is predicting 128TB flash drives by 2018. You'll be able to ship all of Netflix in a box across the world in a day.
    - Houshalter 11y ago
      You can already fit all the Netflix movies into a space much smaller than a phone: http://memkite.com/blog/2014/04/01/technical-feasibility-of-building-hitchikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-i-e-offline-web-search-part-i/ http://memkite.com/blog/2014/04/01/technical-feasibility-of-... It's only 5-24 terrabytes. That's not including tv shows, which would make it much bigger. But even those would still be small enough to fit it in a small box.
      - toomuchtodo 11y ago
        I think the content addressable web is going to help the web bloom in places it's not currently accessible. Take something like the Netflix open connect appliance, preload with a couple hundred TB, plug it in and have it start announcing content in locations with poor network connectivity. EDIT: Thinking about this more, it becomes almost like S3 for all web content. Each piece of content can be addressed with its SHA hash, disparate nodes can increase the number of replicas based on demand, etc. IPFS, I'm pulling even harder for you now!
guard-of-terra 11y ago
I wonder why we're still having fans of communism, socialism and otherwise far left people if that's what the best communist states have to offer its population? I mean, it's pathetic to live like this. Also invalidates most of French thinkers of XX century.
- digi_owl 11y ago
  At the same time the place as better general health care than USA...
  - guard-of-terra 11y ago
    I would take internets over health care 99 times of 100.
    - sanoli 11y ago
      BS. If you meant 'quality' health care, I doubt you' take internet over terrible, third world health care.
      - guard-of-terra 11y ago
        Why not? I needed health care about 0.5 times to this moment. Without internet, I'll go and kill myself anyway, why would me need me?
        sanoli 11y ago
        Let me know if you ever get some serious, treatable disease, and you refuse to go to the hospital because they have crappy wi-fi.
  - zerg2k 11y ago
    Disclaimer: I'm Cuban. I lived there! The 'better health care' fallacy died in 1990 after the Soviet collapsed! Have you ever seen the hospitals 'normal people' go? It is depressing not only because of resources but total lack of incentive for all workers ( nurses and doctors alike) Same goes for their education system. It was second to none until the collapse. Now? ..OMG!!! Please never ever think that the castro's did anything other than whatever it takes to stay in power. Their own people can rot in hell, they couldn't care less.
noonespecial 11y ago
I'd say there is an internet going on here, it just happens to have really, really crappy latency.
- pepijndevos 11y ago
  Latency or bandwidth, or both? If it's just latency you could still stream things.
joubert 11y ago
I didn't see the article point it out, but earlier this year Netflix started streaming for Cuban customers: https://pr.netflix.com/WebClient/getNewsSummary.do?newsId=1896 https://pr.netflix.com/WebClient/getNewsSummary.do?newsId=18...
craig552uk 11y ago
"Most people I spoke to in Cuba work for the state and have zero incentive to deliver anything above the bare minimum. They get paid the same either way. Even the private restaurants lack the fervor of a competitive business, since the economic environment they work in is still completely controlled even if they themselves are private." Interesting article, but this statement is completely opposed to my own experience. I went to Cuba 4 years ago and nearly everyone I met had something running on the side. One guy said that "everyone has two jobs, they job you're given and the job you love" (he was a tour guide who did photography on the side). I a country where many (admittedly not all) basic needs are taken care of by the state, the people are able to pursue their own aspirations, as the guy featured in the article has done. "zero incentive" = neo-liberal bollocks.
- ChicagoBoy11 11y ago
  >One guy said that "everyone has two jobs, they job you're given and the job you love" (he was a tour guide who did photography on the side). That is because that's the only way to survive. The top positions in Cuba are those which face foreigners, as there is always a non-trivial chance of receiving dollar-based tips, which are far, far more valuable than the official Cuban currency. When I went to a Cuban resort town, my barman had been trained in Physics in Moscow, and considered himself very fortunate to be in the job he was in. Cubans are, undoubtedly, some of the most resourceful and entrepreneurial people I've met -- but by necessity. The statement that they have "zero incentive to deliver anything above the bare minimum" is absolutely right, because everyone knows that their well-being will depend on what else they can come up with on the side.
transfire 11y ago
What media are they using? DVD, tape?
karmakaze 11y ago
It's funny he said 'Suits'. Just before that I was thinking Junior looked like the Harvey character on the show.

50 points by comrh 11y ago

I imagine this has implications for the debate where certain people think backdoors and censorship will stop covert communication among criminals or terrorists. Now, we can add to our list of replies, "Hows that working out for Cuba?"

guard-of-terra 11y ago
Then "certain people" are happy - at least they'll make you live in totalitarian dictatorship, it's a good achivement already. I came to conclusion that those "certain people" just hate everybody and want to harm us, and then hope to escape proposed punishment themself. Limiting your rights is not a "price to pay" for them, it's their target. Fighting crime and terrorism is just a front-end to get to their real target, namely to humiliate citizens.
- nickpsecurity 11y ago
  I mostly agree. Except, I think their target is stability and control. Fits well into one of the better Theories of Everything I've seen: http://www.projectcensored.org/the-global-1-exposing-the-transnational-ruling-class/ http://www.projectcensored.org/the-global-1-exposing-the-tra...

danteembermage 11y ago

Just for fun! My thought was how about a HFT microwave style network: https://sniperinmahwah.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/hft-in-my-backyard-part-i/ https://sniperinmahwah.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/hft-in-my-ba... So I checked the distance from the Keys to Havanna: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=havanna+to+florida+keys+distance https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e... Which turned out to be 2500 meters via this: http://www.hamuniverse.com/lineofsightcalculator.html http://www.hamuniverse.com/lineofsightcalculator.html It's four times larger than the largest non-skyscraper (a TV tower in North Dakota): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_and_structures_in_the_world https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_and_... So sadly we cannot beam Netflix or anything else to our entrepreneurial hacker Mr. Weekly Packet. Added incentive to fund space elevator research?

comrh 11y ago
Repeater boat in international waters?
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  High bandwidth satellite spot beam down links would work.
nickpsecurity 11y ago
https://www.ceragon.com/images/Reasource_Center/Case_Studies/Ceragon_Case_Study_Evolution_Long_Haul_Links_Over_Water.pdf https://www.ceragon.com/images/Reasource_Center/Case_Studies...
noselasd 11y ago
You "only" need about 650m elevation if you place an equally tall tower at both places. Sadly neither Key West nor Havana has any tall mountains nearby either

oska 11y ago

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. —Tanenbaum, Andrew S. (1989). Computer Networks.

nickpsecurity 11y ago
A blast from the past. I mailed DVD-R's and flash storage because the price per GB was pretty good. No hackers, either. I later found that this wasn't a unique idea: supercomputing and big corporate players often mailed whole HD's of data to cut cost of WAN links. A trick that it pays to never forget in case one of the benefits appear.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  Toshiba is predicting 128TB flash drives by 2018. You'll be able to ship all of Netflix in a box across the world in a day.
  - Houshalter 11y ago
    You can already fit all the Netflix movies into a space much smaller than a phone: http://memkite.com/blog/2014/04/01/technical-feasibility-of-building-hitchikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-i-e-offline-web-search-part-i/ http://memkite.com/blog/2014/04/01/technical-feasibility-of-... It's only 5-24 terrabytes. That's not including tv shows, which would make it much bigger. But even those would still be small enough to fit it in a small box.
    - toomuchtodo 11y ago
      I think the content addressable web is going to help the web bloom in places it's not currently accessible. Take something like the Netflix open connect appliance, preload with a couple hundred TB, plug it in and have it start announcing content in locations with poor network connectivity. EDIT: Thinking about this more, it becomes almost like S3 for all web content. Each piece of content can be addressed with its SHA hash, disparate nodes can increase the number of replicas based on demand, etc. IPFS, I'm pulling even harder for you now!

guard-of-terra 11y ago

I wonder why we're still having fans of communism, socialism and otherwise far left people if that's what the best communist states have to offer its population? I mean, it's pathetic to live like this. Also invalidates most of French thinkers of XX century.

digi_owl 11y ago
At the same time the place as better general health care than USA...
- guard-of-terra 11y ago
  I would take internets over health care 99 times of 100.
  - sanoli 11y ago
    BS. If you meant 'quality' health care, I doubt you' take internet over terrible, third world health care.
    - guard-of-terra 11y ago
      Why not? I needed health care about 0.5 times to this moment. Without internet, I'll go and kill myself anyway, why would me need me?
      - sanoli 11y ago
        Let me know if you ever get some serious, treatable disease, and you refuse to go to the hospital because they have crappy wi-fi.
- zerg2k 11y ago
  Disclaimer: I'm Cuban. I lived there! The 'better health care' fallacy died in 1990 after the Soviet collapsed! Have you ever seen the hospitals 'normal people' go? It is depressing not only because of resources but total lack of incentive for all workers ( nurses and doctors alike) Same goes for their education system. It was second to none until the collapse. Now? ..OMG!!! Please never ever think that the castro's did anything other than whatever it takes to stay in power. Their own people can rot in hell, they couldn't care less.

noonespecial 11y ago

I'd say there is an internet going on here, it just happens to have really, really crappy latency.

pepijndevos 11y ago
Latency or bandwidth, or both? If it's just latency you could still stream things.

joubert 11y ago

I didn't see the article point it out, but earlier this year Netflix started streaming for Cuban customers: https://pr.netflix.com/WebClient/getNewsSummary.do?newsId=1896 https://pr.netflix.com/WebClient/getNewsSummary.do?newsId=18...

craig552uk 11y ago

"Most people I spoke to in Cuba work for the state and have zero incentive to deliver anything above the bare minimum. They get paid the same either way. Even the private restaurants lack the fervor of a competitive business, since the economic environment they work in is still completely controlled even if they themselves are private." Interesting article, but this statement is completely opposed to my own experience. I went to Cuba 4 years ago and nearly everyone I met had something running on the side. One guy said that "everyone has two jobs, they job you're given and the job you love" (he was a tour guide who did photography on the side). I a country where many (admittedly not all) basic needs are taken care of by the state, the people are able to pursue their own aspirations, as the guy featured in the article has done. "zero incentive" = neo-liberal bollocks.

ChicagoBoy11 11y ago
>One guy said that "everyone has two jobs, they job you're given and the job you love" (he was a tour guide who did photography on the side). That is because that's the only way to survive. The top positions in Cuba are those which face foreigners, as there is always a non-trivial chance of receiving dollar-based tips, which are far, far more valuable than the official Cuban currency. When I went to a Cuban resort town, my barman had been trained in Physics in Moscow, and considered himself very fortunate to be in the job he was in. Cubans are, undoubtedly, some of the most resourceful and entrepreneurial people I've met -- but by necessity. The statement that they have "zero incentive to deliver anything above the bare minimum" is absolutely right, because everyone knows that their well-being will depend on what else they can come up with on the side.

transfire 11y ago

What media are they using? DVD, tape?

karmakaze 11y ago

It's funny he said 'Suits'. Just before that I was thinking Junior looked like the Harvey character on the show.