But do they use vim or emacs?
As long as it’s with the vim keybindings, this is acceptable.
Houngan
5057
Would it be? Fiber optics are optimized pretty darned well, and atmosphere lasers have a bunch of side issues regarding signal loss and obviously much more expensive hardware and longer turnaround time. I don’t know so I’m asking, but my gut says that ocean cable is going to be much faster and fatter than orbital.
Romalar
5058
My very rough understanding is that fiber optic cables transmit signals at about 2/3 the speed of light and many undersea cables take somewhat indirect routes. The satellites should have a fairly short path through the atmosphere and spend the rest of the travel distance in vacuum.
I’ve seen analysis which points to this potentially balancing out to moderately-lower latency for sufficiently long routes between continents. I’m really not certain if I believe it’s practical or not, but it seems to me that if it could work for Starlink then Amazon could optimize such a solution around their datacenters as an additional service for AWS customers.
For reference, this older video talks about possibilities for Starlink latency with a somewhat older configuration from when SpaceX had announced what kinds of interconnections they would be using, but before they started launching and testing the actual lasers in space. I don’t think they’ve released enough info recently since they actually started using them to know how well these routes are going to turn out.
I also found an article talking about the value proposition of reducing the latency just by shortening ocean routes:
Menzo
5059
Elon Musk continuing on his apparently inevitable path towards supervillainy.
Ooh can I choose who the million people are?
Telephone Sanitizer training classes are now open!
Where’s the supervillainy in wanting to start a Mars colony? I think it goes beyond optimistic and into the realm of utopian nonsense to think we will have a Mars colony in the next 40 years, but there were no mentions of volcano lairs or overly-elaborate death traps.
Menzo
5063
Just a complete lack of awareness of what an average person’s life is like.
Huh, I thought his statement about average folks being able to afford $100k emigration tickets was pretty reasonable. It was the stuff about there being a viable Mars colony that people were motivated to save up and emigrate to that I found hard to swallow.
With a US median family income of 79k (most recent number I could find) and operating on the assumption that someone emigrating is going to sell their house/car and empty their savings, I think it’s reasonable to assume that a lot of people could swing it with some prep and planning.
Menzo
5065
39% of Americans can’t cover a $400 emergency. You have a dramatically incorrect feeling about what most Americans can afford.
Nobody is saying the average American has 100k in liquid reserves just sitting around. What I was talking about was an aspirational life changing purchase scenario. The sort of thing that people save up for, possibly for years. Like retirement or a home purchase.
Matt_W
5067
This is a pretty apt description of a Mars colony.
Point taken, I’m seeing the super-villain angle now :)
Why Americans? If the purpose is to secure the human race, wouldn’t it be better to send some of the people who where most succesful on this planet? Perhaps the most happy people, such as those from Finland or Iceland perhaps?
I pretty consistently hear that it cost around $10,000 for coyote to smuggle you across the US border from Mexico, so 10x from Europeans and Americans doesn’t seem crazy. Median house price in the US is 400K so $80K and twice that in the Bay Area.
Except once you buy a house, you still have the house. Also, you know, it’s been a very big theme of the last decade in the West that young people cannot afford to buy a home.
Well you don’t need house on earth if you move to Mars.
You might need somewhere to live once you get there.
