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Loon?How cute. I don't like it. That is all. Blob Edit: I guess it beats 'Ball' | |
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Re: Loon?said by workablob:How cute.
I don't like it.
That is all.
Blob
Edit: I guess it beats 'Ball' Is it the name alone you don't care for, or do you have globophobia? | |
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Re: Loon?said by EdmundGerber:said by workablob:How cute.
I don't like it.
That is all.
Blob
Edit: I guess it beats 'Ball' Is it the name alone you don't care for, or do you have globophobia? LOL. No, Just the name. It's like: Some egghead at Google: What should we call it Other egghead: Well we are using Balloon so how about Balloon? First egghead: How about loon? Get it. BalLOON. It evokes the image of a loon flying around providing Internet access. It's Cute. People will like it. Well, most people. Blob | |
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| RockCake Premium Member join:2005-07-12 Woodbridge, VA |
to workablob
I've got it: Google...balloon ---> Gloon! | |
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Re: Loon?said by RockCake:I've got it: Google...balloon ---> Gloon! Balloogle anyone? Blob | |
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| | | tshirt Premium Member join:2004-07-11 Snohomish, WA |
tshirt
Premium Member
2013-Jun-17 6:45 pm
Re: Loon?there is Boogle not to be confused with boggle (word game) or boggles the mind.
Loon makes me think loonie Canadian slang for the Canadian dollar, not to be confused with luntic, us slang for Canadians. | |
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Re: Loon?said by tshirt:there is Boogle not to be confused with boggle (word game) or boggles the mind.
Loon makes me think loonie Canadian slang for the Canadian dollar, not to be confused with luntic, us slang for Canadians. That's it! Call it LoonToonie! Eh? Yep. Blob | |
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SunnyD join:2009-03-20 Madison, AL |
SunnyD
Member
2013-Jun-17 11:35 am
So low pressure systems are the place to be?Inherently, a low pressure system is a "vortex" of sorts. So therefore you'll get the best bandwidth in a low pressure system? Hurricaine Google! | |
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Re: So low pressure systems are the place to be?Powered by Hurricane Electric, of course | |
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camperjust visiting this planet Premium Member join:2010-03-21 Bethel, CT 1 edit |
camper
Premium Member
2013-Jun-17 11:36 am
Radio astronomy interference concerns | |
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Re: Radio astronomy interference concernsI get a 404 Not Found. | |
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Re: Radio astronomy interference concernsThank You Blob | |
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| tshirt Premium Member join:2004-07-11 Snohomish, WA |
to camper
Not to mention the pollution factor as the attrition rate out of the millions of required for full global coverage must be substantial. If it doesn't catch a plane on the way up or down, or just go walkabout as satellites tend to do from time to time. | |
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StillLearn Premium Member join:2002-03-21 Streamwood, IL |
No way its a hot air balloonThe project is almost certainly using helium balloons , but it could be hydrogen. Safety issues would be minimal with hydrogen for this, but the public would be frightened. A lighter-than air hydrogen would be much safer than a hot air balloon, in addition to being much more practical. | |
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Re: No way its a hot air balloonsaid by StillLearn:The project is almost certainly using helium balloons , but it could be hydrogen. Safety issues would be minimal with hydrogen for this, but the public would be frightened. Yes, because Hydrogen implodes rather than explodes. But, yes the tin foilers will freak out. Blob | |
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| | John Galt6Forward, March Premium Member join:2004-09-30 Happy Camp |
Re: No way its a hot air balloonI hear the balloons are going to be used for chemtrails and HAARP redirection. | |
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| | Liberty Premium Member join:2005-06-12 Arizona |
to workablob
said by workablob:Yes, because Hydrogen implodes rather than explodes.
Blob Oh, like clean coal I get it | |
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Re: No way its a hot air balloonsaid by Liberty:said by workablob:Yes, because Hydrogen implodes rather than explodes.
Blob Oh, like clean coal I get it LOL Good one. Blob | |
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| Wyngs join:2010-02-20 Coos Bay, OR |
to StillLearn
Safer? They mentioned solar power, so I assume the balloon stores electricity from photo cells and uses a heating coil at night to keep the air temp up. It wouldn't take a lot of heat in a sealed enclosure. If the balloons are painted a flat black, then sunlight alone should keep them aloft during daylight hours as the air heats inside. | |
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FFH5 Premium Member join:2002-03-03 Tavistock NJ |
FFH5
Premium Member
2013-Jun-17 11:50 am
Only 3G speedsThe test, at least, is only using 3G speeds. Depending on what Google means by 3G, that is kind of slow and no better than satellite broadband. » www.google.com/loon/how/ | |
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Re: Only 3G speedssaid by FFH5:The test, at least, is only using 3G speeds. Depending on what Google means by 3G, that is kind of slow and no better than satellite broadband.
»www.google.com/loon/how/ Maybe the 3G is to test the waters. Then when they do better they will give away the 3G for free and charge for the faster tier. Blob | |
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to FFH5
said by FFH5:no better than satellite broadband Lots of difference in latency between 24 miles (round trip) and 46,000 miles. | |
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| | silbaco Premium Member join:2009-08-03 USA |
silbaco
Premium Member
2013-Jun-17 12:34 pm
Re: Only 3G speedsLatency won't matter if your speeds are too slow to be useful. | |
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Re: Only 3G speeds1 Mbps is useful for basic stuff. I'll take a low-latency 1 Mbps connection over capped, latency-pegged satellite any day of the week, and I have parents on Verizon DSL rather than exede to prove it. | |
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| | | elray join:2000-12-16 Santa Monica, CA |
to silbaco
said by silbaco:Latency won't matter if your speeds are too slow to be useful. Useful to whom? What if you're talking about a population that has to walk five miles with a gourd balanced on their head to fetch fresh water, and survives on millet. They have no electricity - and pay a kiosk vendor to charge their shared (MultiLineAppearance) cellphone. Even QNC or GPRS would be "useful" under these conditions. Not everyone "needs" to stream Netflix or videoconference. | |
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| Jim Kirk Premium Member join:2005-12-09 49985 |
to FFH5
said by FFH5:The test, at least, is only using 3G speeds. Depending on what Google means by 3G, that is kind of slow and no better than satellite broadband.
»www.google.com/loon/how/ When taking latency into account, you are incorrect. Doing some quick calculations, a 10Mb satellite connection will deliver roughly .09Mbps throughput. A 1Mb 3G connection using the distance Google specifies gives you roughly .35Mbps throughput. | |
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Re: Only 3G speedssaid by Jim Kirk:said by FFH5:The test, at least, is only using 3G speeds. Depending on what Google means by 3G, that is kind of slow and no better than satellite broadband.
»www.google.com/loon/how/ When taking latency into account, you are incorrect. Doing some quick calculations, a 10Mb satellite connection will deliver roughly .09Mbps throughput. A 1Mb 3G connection using the distance Google specifies gives you roughly .35Mbps throughput. Why on earth (or not on earth) would you expect distance/latency to affect throughput? FWIW, it does not. | |
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Re: Only 3G speedsLatency sure as heck does affect throughput when using a protocol like TCP. This comes from experience using a point-to-point connection from Guam to the USA. I see the same affect on the Internet when routing is taking me across the country and back. I think the math is: (TCP window size in bits)/(latency in seconds) = maximum bits per second | |
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Re: Only 3G speedssaid by mlcarson:Latency sure as heck does affect throughput when using a protocol like TCP. This comes from experience using a point-to-point connection from Guam to the USA. I see the same affect on the Internet when routing is taking me across the country and back. I think the math is: (TCP window size in bits)/(latency in seconds) = maximum bits per second For data that is large (for example a video, or large image), the negotiation typically sets a very large window. A typical formula: Bandwidth-in-bits-per-second * Round-trip-latency-in-seconds = TCP window size in bits / 8 = TCP window size in bytes. Those of us using satellite are well aware that we can stream data down (via almost any protocol) at near full bandwidth allowed by the account during times when there is low congestion. Congestion definitely affects speeds, just as it does on any other system that has more users than available bandwidth, but at 3am you can usually get full speeds. Exede and Gen4 customers can routinely see in excess of 10Mbps, real speeds. Latency only seriously affects protocols that are verbose. SMTP for example, where there a ton of pseudo-english exchanges between client and server for each message in the list. Websites have latency issues because there are so many elements to request, with latency involved in every request (unless there is an aggregating proxy). Each element, though, even if it is a multi-MB image, comes down at near full speed with little effect from latency. | |
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Longevity?Won't they all get shot down over places like Iran, N. Korea and China? | |
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Re: Longevity?Google might agree to switch them off when they move over those countries.
Of course, these things are going to be over 60,000 feet up. Would these countries have missile systems that could hit a target that far up? China could probably do it using an aircraft, but could the others? | |
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wistlo join:2003-01-04 New Orleans, LA |
wistlo
Member
2013-Jun-17 12:05 pm
April 1?This seems like an April Fools' project at first glance, but but don't listen to me; in 1998 I would have scoffed at the idea of indexing the entire Internet and returning search results in milliseconds. | |
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silbaco Premium Member join:2009-08-03 USA |
silbaco
Premium Member
2013-Jun-17 12:33 pm
Air Balloon780 square miles is a lot of area to cover with a single balloon. That won't leave much bandwidth per user. | |
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| Jim Kirk Premium Member join:2005-12-09 49985 |
Jim Kirk
Premium Member
2013-Jun-17 12:46 pm
Re: Air BalloonYou gotta start somewhere... | |
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When you compare it to the size of a spot beam on a satellite, the balloons win out. You're talking about a radius of ~16 miles...yes, that's a long ways, but you're looking at rural areas as the application for these, not urban ones. This works well for areas where 700MHz LTE is flakey due to coverage, rather than capacity, issues. | |
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whateveranon
Anon
2013-Jun-17 1:15 pm
why?Is it just me, or why does every tech company think they will solve the world's problems by bringing Internet?
Remember the one laptop per child thing, it was a "durable" green laptop, I'm sure it fostered some good learning, but what the kids really ended up using it for was a flashlight ...cause they were in a "town" with no or unreliable electricity.
Couldn't Google just, you know, provide some good clean drinking water, or vaccines ...cause that's really more important than Internet.
This is a nice publicity stunt, but the whole system seems "high maintenance" at some point you have to ask yourself, shouldn't I just run a wire. | |
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Michail Premium Member join:2000-08-02 Boynton Beach, FL |
Michail
Premium Member
2013-Jun-17 1:20 pm
Sci FiThis reminds me of the steam punk science fiction movies that have the skies full of zeppelins. | |
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milnoc
Member
2013-Jun-17 2:59 pm
Re: Sci FiOr a two part episode of Doctor Who that's set in an alternate Universe gradually being populated by Cybermen. | |
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| | Michail Premium Member join:2000-08-02 Boynton Beach, FL |
Michail
Premium Member
2013-Jun-17 3:19 pm
Re: Sci Fisaid by milnoc:Or a two part episode of Doctor Who that's set in an alternate Universe gradually being populated by Cybermen. Love that show. That's actually the vision I had in mind. But it's kind of a reoccurring theme. You could probably combine google glass and the ballons together as some sort of plot to convert humanity to some collective mind control. | |
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michieru Premium Member join:2009-07-25 Denver, CO |
michieru
Premium Member
2013-Jun-17 2:39 pm
HmmWe laugh this off as a joke however when a natural disaster hits and you can deploy a floating "cell balloon" tower in the sky all the sudden it becomes a important matter.
It's an interesting idea and could serve a more important purpose than just providing internet access especially if they can make it self sustainable. | |
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GlennLouEarl3 brothers, 1 gone Premium Member join:2002-11-17 Richmond, VA |
We're not in Kansas anymore...or Missouri, or Texas... Too much fiber can give you gas? | |
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Power budgetThe Loon site says that the solar panels produce 100 watts in full sun. That means, on a winter day the average power over a 24-hour period is no more than 25 watts. Is that really enough power to provide internet service for 1200 square kilometers? | |
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True
Member
2013-Aug-8 5:16 pm
Re: Power budgetremember at 12 miles up cloud cover is no longer an issue it kinds stops around 10 miles up. main issue is hours of sunlight that varies from 14-10 hours a day for most of the civilized world depending on time of year. In the far north or south where you can get days/weeks/months of darkness or light this will not work | |
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