3 ms·

Starlink is a huge waste of money. Laying optical fiber from point A to point B will always be cheaper and faster and doesn't saturate valuable orbital space wh

Starlink is a huge waste of money. Laying optical fiber from point A to point B will always be cheaper and faster and doesn't saturate valuable orbital space which is a scarce resource. It's a service tailored to suit the needs of yacht owners, cabin owners and the RV enthusiasts. Quite simply: tech-bros, cryptomillionaires etc. Musk always targets these types because they are the ones having lots free time on their hands and the biggest social megaphone provided by their rich bank account. They can use such megaphone to shove down working class people's throats a marketing campaign and a stock promotion for a service they'll never use or need. Not to mention subsidies. Same identical thing happened with Tesla

panick21_ 4y ago
> valuable orbital space which is a scarce resource. It really isn't. There are lots of plans and each plan is way, way, way bigger then the surface of the earth. You could literally a single constellation of millions sats and still have lots of space left over. The actively monitored and controlled sats are not really the problem in orbit and Starlink are low enough that even if they fail, they will burn very fast. > It's a service tailored to suit the needs of yacht owners, cabin owners and the RV enthusiasts. Quite simply: tech-bros, cryptomillionaires etc. Nonsense. Its service tailed to literally everybody who doesn't live in a dense environment. In fact, its a of huge benefit to fringe communities such as some native americans. And I am sure all people in the Ukraine who use it are not 'tech-bros'. You can take 1 Starlink antenna and connect a whole village to the internet with decent speed. Its a huge advantage for farming, mining and lots industrial activity in low density areas. I am sure the workers in those place would like to watch Netflix and Skype their families. Same goes for people who work on all kinds of ships. > for a service they'll never use or need. All those poor dumb people who don't understand that they don't need the internet. They should just by happy not having video chats with their families.
- Bubble_Pop_22 4y ago
  > In fact, its a of huge benefit to fringe communities Anything that is "fringe" doesn't move the needle in any meaningful way in terms of global quality of life. Musk companies are synonym for fringe. You know what's not fringe? Pfizer, Moderna, Exxon, Shell, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, BP, JPMorgan, HSBC, VW, Toyota...you know the companies that you see everywhere and that everybody uses. They have the bad habit of doing it quietly instead of monopolizing the airwaves like mr.Musk does with his empty promises about the far future and pie-in-the-sky tweets. When you move the needle in terms of quality of life on a global scale you don't need to fool people telling about how you are gonna do so in the far future because duh you are already doing it today.
  - panick21_ 4y ago
    Yeah manufacturing companies that have existed for much longer are more likely to have sold more products so you see those products far more often. Amazing, how did you come up with that insight? And internet companies are of course different in terms of how easy it is to reach people. Tesla went from a few 1000s to now more then 10% of what Toyota does while producing far more next generation BEV then both of them together. Tesla are by far the most common BEV on the streets. In terms of yearly production they are getting close to companies like BMW who have 100 years of history. And they are continuing to grow for the next couple years at least and will end up being one of the larger automotive groups on the plant. While being the largest produce of grid batteries. And yes actually improving the lives of 1% of global people who live in places not easily reached with traditional infrastructure is actually a very large achievement for any single company. Not to mention changing the airline and shipping industry. And that isn't all that SpaceX does by a long shot either. > quietly instead of monopolizing the airwaves Given OneWeb, Kupiter and many other planed constellation are managed to share them and there is no monopoly at all. > When you move the needle in terms of quality of life on a global scale you don't need to fool people telling about how you are gonna do so in the far future because duh you are already doing it today. So nobody should ever start thinking about improving global quality of life because if they were going to do it, they would already do it. Great way to approach live. And given the absurd amount of advertisement and political influences the company you mentions buy and their long track record of breaking law your claim that those companies don't need to 'fool' people is hilarious. VW didn't need to fool people, the Disel-scandal never happened.
    - Bubble_Pop_22 4y ago
      > So nobody should ever start thinking about improving global quality of life because if they were going to do it, they would already do it. Great way to approach live. Thinking? Yes. Broadcasting and oversaturating the airwaves to fool people into believing you are doing way more than what you are actually doing if you look at the raw numbers, that's a totally different thing and also the problem that I have with the whole enterprise. > VW didn't need to fool people, the Disel-scandal never happened. VW committed fraud on consumers' behalf so that they'd have a cheaper and more reliable car instead of a more expensive and less durable ones due to the environmental regulations which raise costs to build a diesel engine (and also dramatically reduce their lifespan which can easily reach 500k miles if you get rid of all the envioronmental stuff). Huge difference, in my view VW is out there taking one for their clients so that they can sidestep ridiculous environmental regulations and enjoy a greater quality of life. Tesla is out there to screw their clients as much as possible with faulty features, an autopilot which crashes into things and misaligned panels all around which significantly deteriorate their clients' quality of life. VW takes a bullet for you, whereas Tesla pushes you in the line of fire to use you as a human shield. Huge difference.
wmf 4y ago
I guess we'll find out because RDOF is giving billions to rural fiber ISPs. Personally I'm skeptical.
rasz 4y ago
>Starlink is a huge waste of money. "By the end of 2014, America will have been charged about $400 billion by the local phone incumbents, Verizon, AT&T and CenturyLink, for a fiber optic future that never showed up." https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-book-of-broken-promis_b_5839394 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-book-of-broken-promis_b_5...

panick21_ 4y ago

> valuable orbital space which is a scarce resource. It really isn't. There are lots of plans and each plan is way, way, way bigger then the surface of the earth. You could literally a single constellation of millions sats and still have lots of space left over. The actively monitored and controlled sats are not really the problem in orbit and Starlink are low enough that even if they fail, they will burn very fast. > It's a service tailored to suit the needs of yacht owners, cabin owners and the RV enthusiasts. Quite simply: tech-bros, cryptomillionaires etc. Nonsense. Its service tailed to literally everybody who doesn't live in a dense environment. In fact, its a of huge benefit to fringe communities such as some native americans. And I am sure all people in the Ukraine who use it are not 'tech-bros'. You can take 1 Starlink antenna and connect a whole village to the internet with decent speed. Its a huge advantage for farming, mining and lots industrial activity in low density areas. I am sure the workers in those place would like to watch Netflix and Skype their families. Same goes for people who work on all kinds of ships. > for a service they'll never use or need. All those poor dumb people who don't understand that they don't need the internet. They should just by happy not having video chats with their families.

Bubble_Pop_22 4y ago
> In fact, its a of huge benefit to fringe communities Anything that is "fringe" doesn't move the needle in any meaningful way in terms of global quality of life. Musk companies are synonym for fringe. You know what's not fringe? Pfizer, Moderna, Exxon, Shell, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, BP, JPMorgan, HSBC, VW, Toyota...you know the companies that you see everywhere and that everybody uses. They have the bad habit of doing it quietly instead of monopolizing the airwaves like mr.Musk does with his empty promises about the far future and pie-in-the-sky tweets. When you move the needle in terms of quality of life on a global scale you don't need to fool people telling about how you are gonna do so in the far future because duh you are already doing it today.
- panick21_ 4y ago
  Yeah manufacturing companies that have existed for much longer are more likely to have sold more products so you see those products far more often. Amazing, how did you come up with that insight? And internet companies are of course different in terms of how easy it is to reach people. Tesla went from a few 1000s to now more then 10% of what Toyota does while producing far more next generation BEV then both of them together. Tesla are by far the most common BEV on the streets. In terms of yearly production they are getting close to companies like BMW who have 100 years of history. And they are continuing to grow for the next couple years at least and will end up being one of the larger automotive groups on the plant. While being the largest produce of grid batteries. And yes actually improving the lives of 1% of global people who live in places not easily reached with traditional infrastructure is actually a very large achievement for any single company. Not to mention changing the airline and shipping industry. And that isn't all that SpaceX does by a long shot either. > quietly instead of monopolizing the airwaves Given OneWeb, Kupiter and many other planed constellation are managed to share them and there is no monopoly at all. > When you move the needle in terms of quality of life on a global scale you don't need to fool people telling about how you are gonna do so in the far future because duh you are already doing it today. So nobody should ever start thinking about improving global quality of life because if they were going to do it, they would already do it. Great way to approach live. And given the absurd amount of advertisement and political influences the company you mentions buy and their long track record of breaking law your claim that those companies don't need to 'fool' people is hilarious. VW didn't need to fool people, the Disel-scandal never happened.
  - Bubble_Pop_22 4y ago
    > So nobody should ever start thinking about improving global quality of life because if they were going to do it, they would already do it. Great way to approach live. Thinking? Yes. Broadcasting and oversaturating the airwaves to fool people into believing you are doing way more than what you are actually doing if you look at the raw numbers, that's a totally different thing and also the problem that I have with the whole enterprise. > VW didn't need to fool people, the Disel-scandal never happened. VW committed fraud on consumers' behalf so that they'd have a cheaper and more reliable car instead of a more expensive and less durable ones due to the environmental regulations which raise costs to build a diesel engine (and also dramatically reduce their lifespan which can easily reach 500k miles if you get rid of all the envioronmental stuff). Huge difference, in my view VW is out there taking one for their clients so that they can sidestep ridiculous environmental regulations and enjoy a greater quality of life. Tesla is out there to screw their clients as much as possible with faulty features, an autopilot which crashes into things and misaligned panels all around which significantly deteriorate their clients' quality of life. VW takes a bullet for you, whereas Tesla pushes you in the line of fire to use you as a human shield. Huge difference.

wmf 4y ago

I guess we'll find out because RDOF is giving billions to rural fiber ISPs. Personally I'm skeptical.

rasz 4y ago

>Starlink is a huge waste of money. "By the end of 2014, America will have been charged about $400 billion by the local phone incumbents, Verizon, AT&T and CenturyLink, for a fiber optic future that never showed up." https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-book-of-broken-promis_b_5839394 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-book-of-broken-promis_b_5...