SpaceX's new project Starlink

On February 22, 2018, Elon Musk's SpaceX launched two communications satellites to test the company's proposed internet access from low earth orbit. The service will be known as Starlink. As a former satellite internet user, this really gets me excited.

Once upon a time, there was a young high tech redneck fed up with the limitations of his dial-up internet access. (Guess who?) He found that there weren't many options available. One service he remembers used the satellite to download data, but still needed a dial-up modem to upload data. This seemed less than desirable. He persevered in his search and finally found a service called StarBand.

The service worked as advertised! It gave him downloads of over 500Kbps which was over 10 times the speed he had previously. The only drawback was the horrible latency. Ping response was >1500 ms. Imagine the path the signal had to trace. First 22,000 miles from his dish to the satellite. It was actually 22,236 miles, but who's counting? Then 22,000 miles to the ground station.  Then out across the internet to the destination and back to the ground station. 22,000 miles back up to the satellite and then the final 22,000 miles back to his dish. Just the 88,000 miles is a significant portion of a light second. 88000 miles /186000 miles per second is approximately 0.473 seconds or 473 ms.

StarBand gave this high tech redneck the speed he wanted. However, the latency made using some applications difficult or impossible. Online games were in the impossible category, but most applications worked.

Starlink plans to address this latency. With the satellites in low earth orbit at between 684 and 823 miles, which should only take 8ms rather than the previously mentioned 473 ms.

In addition, there will be more than one satellite. This launch included the first two of a planned 800 satellites in the first phase of the project. Assuming all goes well there could be as many as 7,000 launched into very low earth orbit at about 211 miles.

If Starlink can deliver on its promises of 1 Gbps download speed at a competitive price, this could be a big change. Many people live, whether by choice or circumstance, where there is little or no internet access. Two such areas that I have experience with are rural Alaska and small islands off the mainland. This could give such areas a much-desired link to the rest of the world.

Good luck to Starlink, SpaceX, and Elon Musk!

My Two Cents - School Shootings

I guess, like so many others, I need to get this off my chest. Here goes . . .

Banning firearms of a particular style, raising the age to buy a long gun, repealing the second amendment, or other such ideas will not work in this country. Why not? For one reason, there are too many guns, both legally and illegally possessed, in this country for any of these to ever work.

I am one of those "old farts" who remember going to school and walking through the student parking lot. It seemed as if every other pickup had a gun rack in the back window with one or more firearm in it. You could be assured that they were loaded. And no one got shot.

Why?

Because our families raised us differently than it seems most children are being raised today. We were raised to respect our elders. We raised to say "Yes, Ma'am" and "No, Sir". We were raised to treat others as we wished to be treated. We were raised to respect human life. We were raised to understand and apply the four rules of gun safety. All of these beliefs and ideas shaped what we thought of the world and those around us.

Today, I see little of this being taught. I saw this in our schools when I worked as a teacher. I see this in my encounters in public.

Again, why?

I can theorize as well as the next guy as to what the possible contributors might be. The breakdown of the nuclear family and the resulting lack of male role models. The "Me First" mindset that seems to permeate our culture.

So, what do we do about it?

Ultimately, it is going to take our society addressing some of the factors listed above. Then we need to consistently apply the numerous gun laws that we already have on the books.

So what do we do in the interim as these changes slowly make their way through our society? I have one suggestion. It is not new or original. It comes from my time spent in teaching. Train and arm those teachers and administrators who are willing to volunteer for this duty. Just as many teachers feel it is a duty to teach the following generations, many of them feel that same duty to protect their students.

I'm reminded of a quote from Benjamin Franklin, "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" This applies just as well to this situation.