The General Technology Thread

[rob63]

I don't know how new this is, but this is a link to a Google Earth type photo of Shanghai. However, it is much, much higher resolution than anything I have ever seen before. The detail when you zoom in is astonishing!

Shanghai Lujiazui

Example: here is a screen capture of the city zoomed out:

And this is a screen shot of it zoomed in on people walking on the circle in the middle:

 

[WebSnyper]

Amazon employees analysing Alexa commands have been able to access the home addresses of users making them.


Not sure why this is breaking news right now... I figure if you own and use an Alexa, they know your address. Perhaps just certain employees that shouldn't have had access.

One would think that would be PII when connected to the Alexa command info. It's not that Amazon has it, it's that the analysts can access it that is the issue.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Elon Musk Will Launch 11,943 Satellites in Low Earth Orbit to Beam High-Speed WiFi to Anywhere on Earth Under SpaceX's Starlink Plan

He plans to use it to fund his Mars vision

 

[jamil]

Elon Musk Will Launch 11,943 Satellites in Low Earth Orbit to Beam High-Speed WiFi to Anywhere on Earth Under SpaceX's Starlink Plan

He plans to use it to fund his Mars vision

I bet latency is a *****.

 

[JettaKnight]

Elon Musk Will Launch 11,943 Satellites in Low Earth Orbit to Beam High-Speed WiFi to Anywhere on Earth Under SpaceX's Starlink Plan

He plans to use it to fund his Mars vision

You know, cause there's not already enough crap floating in LEO.

 

[KLB]

I bet latency is a *****.

Wikipedia says around 125ms, with speeds up to 1 Gpbs. That isn't horrible for most things.

 

[BugI02]

Elon Musk Will Launch 11,943 Satellites in Low Earth Orbit to Beam High-Speed WiFi to Anywhere on Earth Under SpaceX's Starlink Plan

He plans to use it to fund his Mars vision

Visualize trying to calculate a launch window through that to a higher orbit. Why are people allowed to do this kind of short-sighted stupid ****

 

[Herr Vogel]

Visualize trying to calculate a launch window through that to a higher orbit. Why are people allowed to do this kind of short-sighted stupid ****

In America we operate under the Golden Rule:
He who has the Gold makes the Rules.

That having been said, and this is just my uneducated layman's opinion, I don't think it's as much of a problem as it's being made out to be.
One, they're low enough that atmospheric drag will ensure that the satellites re-enter and burn up at the end of their usable lifespan. Remember that the ISS requires periodic boosts to assuage orbital decay. (The altitude they keep it at is actually the break even point between "costs too much in propellant to get ships up to it" and "costs too much in propellant to keep it in orbit", but I digress.)
Two, active satellites account for less than eight percent of all trackable space junk. The real problem is when satellite operators put decommissioned satellites in "parking orbits" instead of deorbiting them, because the difference in Delta-V means they can keep station for another year or two. That, and deliberate destruction of orbital assets via anti-satellite weaponry. China's test strike back in 2007 alone accounted for a 25% increase in orbital debris.

 

[BugI02]

Earth's radius is 3963 miles, add two hundred fifteen for the approximate on orbit altitude of the bulk of the satellites = radius of call it 4180 miles

Surface area of a sphere 4πr^2 = 219564654 sq miles of space at that orbit. Unless he will use polar orbits (which I doubt) then the satellites are likely to be clustered predominantly in the middle 45% of that space (40° N to 40° S latitude)
so let's say 9880409 sq miles

About 4400 of the satellites will go into higher orbits between 700 and a little over 800 miles, which leaves about 7500 LowSATs

Thus, using uniform distribution for ease of calculation, each satellite could be said to be allotted 1317 square miles. That means each satellite sits in box 36 x 36 miles and are effectively 36 miles apart

Now picture the uncontrolled variables of a lift such as high altitude winds and tell me it will not take a sharp shooter (or a maneuvering capability during boost) to thread that (Tholian?) web

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Google to drop support for Huawei devices including Play Store, Gmail and Google Play Service

Google has responded:

For Huawei users' questions regarding our steps to comply w/ the recent US government actions: We assure you while we are complying with all US gov't requirements, services like Google Play & security from Google Play Protect will keep functioning on your existing Huawei device.

 

[HoughMade]

Elon Musk Will Launch 11,943 Satellites in Low Earth Orbit to Beam High-Speed WiFi to Anywhere on Earth Under SpaceX's Starlink Plan

He plans to use it to fund his Mars vision

To put this in perspective, in the history of space exploration, about 8,300 have been launched into space. Just under 5,000 remain in orbit. About 2,800 of these are "space junk". Only about 2,000 are "useful" satellites.

Over 11,000 is....ambitious.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Huawei lodges legal challenge for US ban to be declared unconstitutional

 

[KLB]

Huawei lodges legal challenge for US ban to be declared unconstitutional

I'm not sure how they figure that the US government doesn't have the constitutional authority to buy or not buy from a foreign company.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

To put this in perspective, in the history of space exploration, about 8,300 have been launched into space. Just under 5,000 remain in orbit. About 2,800 of these are "space junk". Only about 2,000 are "useful" satellites.

Over 11,000 is....ambitious.

 

[Phase2]

I'm not sure how they figure that the US government doesn't have the constitutional authority to buy or not buy from a foreign company.

Simple. They file the suit in the 9th district. Nothing Trump does is constitutional there.

 

[WebSnyper]

https://www.pressherald.com/2019/05...tomatic-weapons-or-lose-tech-giants-software/

 

[ArcadiaGP]

The Justice Department is preparing a potential antitrust investigation of Google

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Apple is killing iTunes. I'm sure all your digitally-rented goods will be safe

 

[BugI02]

View attachment 77543

 

[BugI02]

Apple is killing iTunes. I'm sure all your digitally-rented goods will be safe

The worst day on OS X is still better than the best day running Windows

Edit: But I miss coverflow so much that I might hack Mojave to restore it. Waiting to see which way they're gonna go with .15