Comments on: Going wireless, parachute included

By: Phillep

Phillep — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:34:40 +0000

#12, you’ve never flown a kite? Lay out enough and the string goes more “out” than “up”.

#11, a hundred miles of flat tundra and no cash income? There’s a program to get the schools linked, I don’t know what the present status is.

By: MrBloedumpSpladderschitt

MrBloedumpSpladderschitt — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:14:54 +0000

#12 – Read the article. To get coverage the balloons need to be high: 65000-100000 feet. Well above commercial flight paths.

By: Joey B

Joey B — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:54:55 +0000

Why don’t they just tie the balloon to the ground so it doesnt drift and is easily recoverable?

By: MrBloedumpSpladderschitt

MrBloedumpSpladderschitt — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:12:05 +0000

#8 – Hope someone does do something like that in AK. Proves that if you’re not obsessed with 5 9′s of uptime, etc. you don’t need to break the bank to get remote areas online.

By: BertDawg

BertDawg — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:42:36 +0000

I’m sure someone out there can tell me why they couldn’t simply tether them to lower the consumption figures.

By: the answer

the answer — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:36:45 +0000

So when it falls back down, and clunks someone in the head we’ll know who to blame.

By: Phillep

Phillep — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:35:21 +0000

#6, That route would be more controllable, but it might be a couple of years for the cost to come down.

#7, Thanks for the link. We can use something like that in the Alaska interior.

Alaska is pretty 3rd world thanks to the fedgov sitting on the resources and blocking all road building. (Stupid condo-conservationists.)

By: MrBloedumpSpladderschitt

MrBloedumpSpladderschitt — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:17:58 +0000

Balloons, UAVs, use it all. Add in a ground infrastructure put together by Nepal Wireless ( http://www.nepalwireless.net/photos.php ). Let’s get ‘er done…

By: The Monster's Lawyer

The Monster's Lawyer — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:57:48 +0000

I would think that solar powered UAVs would be more economic and controlable than balloons. I could imagine a UAV with a loiter program being powered by the sun lasting much longer than a balloon.

By: Phillep

Phillep — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:42:26 +0000

The article commenting about dairy farmers being reliable employees reminds me of working for a start up company once. We started comparing notes and every single person in a responsible position had either been a farmer (one person) or had raised marijuana (the rest of us). Most of us had also brewed our own beer/wine.

Very few of the rest of the crew had done either, and none of them were responsible enough to handle anything without supervision.

By: Les

Les — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:56:04 +0000

Robert Charles Wilson used this in his Hugo award winning novel “Spin.”

By: jbenson2

jbenson2 — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:54:56 +0000

Jeeze Louise! Further into the article is the comment that 1,800 weather balloons are launched world-wide every day without problems.

By: Steve-O

Steve-O — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:54:30 +0000

I’ve always wondered about launching balloons like this. What about air traffic? I’m sure it wouldn’t take down a Boeing 747 but maybe a Cessna.

Looks like a good idea though other than that.

By: jbenson2

jbenson2 — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:53:03 +0000

So they stay in place for just 24 hours and then pop and fall back to earth?

Just think how many they have to launch every year?

Talk about a litter and trash problem!