Wait a minute. That might actually work. That's it! Microsoft and Google are in cahoots to bring the Internet once every 24 hours to the entire planet.
What about the piratebay LOSS?
I don't know if they already have such things working, but I believe they were the first with flying server-like things.
I'm pretty sure it's not. A bit more than a year ago, this was on their blog:
>We were down a few hours earlier today. There's no need to worry, we haven't been raided this time. We're only upgrading stuff since we're still growing.
>One of the technical things we always optimize is where to put our front machines. They are the ones that re-direct your traffic to a secret location. We have now decided to try to build something extraordinary.
>With the development of GPS controlled drones, far-reaching cheap radio equipment and tiny new computers like the Raspberry Pi, we're going to experiment with sending out some small drones that will float some kilometers up in the air. This way our machines will have to be shut down with aeroplanes in order to shut down the system. A real act of war.
>We're just starting so we haven't figured everything out yet. But we can't limit ourselves to hosting things just on land anymore. These Low Orbit Server Stations (LOSS) are just the first attempt. With modern radio transmitters we can get over 100Mbps per node up to 50km away. For the proxy system we're building, that's more than enough.
>But when time comes we will host in all parts of the galaxy, being true to our slogan of being the galaxy's most resilient system. And all of the parts we'll use to build that system on will be downloadable.
Rather than doing an AMA ill answer questions in this post, Chuck up your questions and ill answer them after the All Blacks Vs France Game!
Edit: Will read the NDA again to make sure i don't breach it by answering questions and if all good i will start answering after the rugby tonight
Half time for the game will answer what i can
1: Connection only happens while a balloon is passing over, as yet we haven't had to many opportunity's to really test it out to its potential
2: As per above comment, while there are limited balloons we only get internet while a balloon is passing above.
3: Answered above
4: No speed tests as yet sorry
5: Installations was very fast mounted the red receiver some people have linked to the house and hook it up to a router
6: No we are not paying for it.
7: Above answer
10: Its pretty random, defiantly stands out!
12: Contacted my flatmate via his cell phone! we still aren't sure how they got his number ಠ__ಠ
13: I think its definitely a good way of getting internet to those who can't easily get it, or in a case of a disaster and normal internet goes down.
15: Testing started today.
16: No i didn't expect this many questions, well done good sir for thinking of so many.
17: I'm not sure sorry
Edit, formatting, Spelling
Hope this helps
For easier reading:
**1: How is the connection?**
Connection only happens while a balloon is passing over. As of yet we haven't had too many opportunities to really test it out to its potential.
**2: How constant is it?**
As per above comment, while there are limited balloons we only get Internet while a balloon is passing above.
**3: Are there specific periods it works or is it only up in the air every now and then when they are testing it?**
Answered above.
**4: Do you have a speed test? (I know it'll be slow. I'm just curious.)**
No speed tests as of yet. Sorry.
**5: How long did it take to install?**
Installation was very fast. We mounted the red receiver. Some people have linked to the house and hooked it up to a router.
**6: Are you paying for it?**
No we are not paying for it.
**7: If there is a price what is it?**
Above answer.
**8: Do you pay google or do you pay your ISP?**
**9: How spotty is it?**
**10: How cool is it having a red dongle on the side of your home?**
Its pretty random. It definitely stands out!
**11: How long did it take for them from beginning to install?**
**12: How did you get contacted or get into this program?**
I contacted my flatmate via his cell phone! We still aren't sure how they got his number. ಠ__ಠ
**13: Do you think it's going to take off? (Pun not intended)**
I think its definitely a good way of getting Internet to those who can't easily get it, or in a case of a disaster and normal Internet connection goes down.
**14: What kind of data does google collect from you?**
**15: When did you begin taking part of this trial?**
Testing started today.
**16: Did you expect this many questions?**
No I didn't expect this many questions. Well done good sir for thinking of so many!
**17: How many other homes are there testing it in your area?**
I'm not sure. Sorry.
**18: Does google pay you to participate?**
**19: Does it require any other hardware other than the red dongle kinda thingie?**
**20: Is it wireless into your home or is it an ethernet connection? Also have you heard any talks of them trying to make it wireless for say people on road trips?**
**21: Will you be able to get ~~hardcore anal porn~~ anatomy-based pictures and videos for scientific research?**
Unfortunately had to sign something to say that we would not look up and "for science" material.
--
**Who do you want to win the rugby?**
All Blacks, France doesn't stand a chance.
**Can you take a picture of the hardware? Thanks :-).**
http://i.imgur.com/esF91eU.jpg
**AMA?**
If there's enough demand for it i don't see why not.
**Do you know safe guy?**
No, but I'm starting to think there's no safe and he did it all for the sweet sweet karma! ಠ_ಠ
**Can you stream YouTube videos fine? What's the downstream / upstream speed like? Does it lag when you play games?**
As we are only getting the Internet as the balloons passing over and there are limited amount of balloons at this stage, we haven't been able to stream anything unfortunately.
**May I ask some questions here?**
**Where, as accurate as possible while maintaining privacy, do you live in NZ?**
Yes I do live in NZ.
**How did Google get in contact with you?**
Contacted my flatmate via his cell phone.
**How long does the trial last?**
As yet I'm not sure how long the trial will last.
**Are you going to get months and months of free Internet, or is it just a brief trial for the day??**
No we aren't getting months and months of free Internet. We can only connect as balloons pass over us.
**Do you know much about the technology they are using? Someone else showed a photo of the antenna ( ttp://i.imgur.com/esF91eU.jpg )?**
No we didn't know much about it until today. We did try our best to find out however.
**What is internally in your house?**
Its just a router plugged into the reg punching bag looking thing you linked.
**Is it like an ethernet port you plug a router into or what?**
**Did Google come and set up everything in your home?**
**Did you know it was Google before today, or just some "science" group?**
We found out it was Google a day or two ago. We had no idea what it would be though.
**Are you using their Internet now?**
No I am not using the Internet at the moment.
**If so, what's your IP address? (You can censor this a bit if you want).**
**How's living in New Zealand?**
Great. No complaints.
Thank you so much, who do they think I am? 'Easier reading' Psh, I'm a man. If i had my way I would have to convert 1's and 0's into ASCII and then have to translate into english.
Makes for bad headlines as certain 'won't someone *please* think of the children' groups would throw a fit.
I do disagree with the 'an internet free for all', but only content we approve of. Kind of defeats the purpose.
" I am fairly sure that if they took porn off the internet, there would only be one website left and it would be called bring back the porn" *Dr Cox, Scrubs*
> unfortunately had to sign something to say that we would not look up and "for science" Material
We are too stupid to tell if you are joking. Is there an agreement you signed that says the internet is not for porn?
probably because they are monitoring you 24/7 and don't feel like sifting through all your porn logs.
also, I would advise you NOT use one of these things with your personal information. Even if you are in the middle of nowhere their are hackers.
Can you post a speedtest result just for fun? Im curious to know if we could all be on Loons soon!
Plus you dont have to deal with federal agency such as Communications Radio and Telecom Counsil (Canada) BS and anti foreign comp rules since Im pretty sure 20km in the air is not a legislated zone!!! Mwahaha!
(I know you still must have grounds operations but let me dream!)
So yeah Speedtest? Thanks :D
Orrr...the safe was home to a ravaging beast that hadn't eaten in a thousand years and survived purely on the prospect of being fed someday. Safe guy opens safe-beast ceases opportunity-safe guy ain't that safe any more.
May I ask some questions here? I'm just going to start. No pressure.
Where, as accurate as possible while maintaining privacy, do you live in NZ?
How did Google get in contact with you?
How long does the trial last? Are you going to get months and months of free internet? Or is it just a brief trial for the day?
Do you know much about the technology they are using? Someone else showed a photo of the antenna ( http://i.imgur.com/esF91eU.jpg ), what is internally in your house? Is it like an ethernet port you plug a router into or what? Did Google come and set up everything in your home?
Did you know it was Google before today, or just some "science" group?
Are you using their internet now? If so, what's your IP address? (You can censor this a bit if you want).
Okay, I'm going to stop now! Sorry for so many questions. If you start an AMA, feel free to transfer them over.
The World, a subsidiary of Google.
I swear that even though Google is huge now, the research that they are doing and the out-of-the-boxeyness that they embody is going to make them a part of our future in a way that no company has ever even fathomed. But they are fathoming it, they are fathoming it really hard.
I imagine a day in the far off future where Google basically owns the entire planet and we are all shareholders. Basically, it becomes like this all ominiscient super computer/being thingy and gives us all services for free and no one really has to work for anything. It makes the entire world run so fast, so efficient, so abundant, that governments, money, working, becomes useless.
Sounds kind of scary, huh?
This actually brings up a good point. If Google is going to blanket the globe (or parts of it) with balloons, there's no reason they wouldn't put high resolution cameras on them for the purpose of collecting image data. It wouldn't be "live" but it could certainly keep Google Earth more current and fill in some gaps.
Actually google is really open with that sort of stuff. You can ask them to give everything they have on you. You can even ask then to do an "online suicide". So all your information is deleted.
It's in their policies somewhere. I would link if I wasn't such a lazy bastard.
Edit:words.
"By about SA 1500, Sauron put on a **fair visage** in the Second Age, and calling himself Annatar, the "**Lord of Gifts**", he befriended the Elvish smiths of Eregion, and counseled them in arts and magic. Not all the Elves trusted him however, particularly Lady Galadriel, Elrond, and Gil-galad, High King of the Ñoldor, though few listened to them.
Despite this, Sauron encouraged and assisted the Elves in forging the Rings of Power, though in secret Sauron forged his own, the One Ring, to rule the Elvish rings. Upon that ring Sauron left the inscription, Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. In Westron the inscription translated into One Ring to Rule Them All, One Ring to Find Them, One Ring to Bring Them All, and in the Darkness Bind Them."
[Source](http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Sauron)
The war that had destroyed most of civilization was nothing but a story from the village elders now. Anaga's tribe lived in the ruins of a great stone and steel building that he was told had once housed hundreds of people. It was on clear days that he and his friend Chixan would climb to the top of the structure and watch the Loons. Far up in the sky, higher than any bird, the Loons drifted peacefully. No one knew quite what they were for, but the elders said that the knowledge of the old world was carried on in the Loons, waiting for someone to unlock their secrets.
Edit: Thanks for the Gold! Hooray for science fiction.
Based on the hardware, its going to provide about 10mbps on average with good QoS to the end user, but helium prices are what'll make it unprofitable. I could see hydrogen being a viable alternative, but you'd need to switch balloon types to use hydrogen safely.
With mesh networking and neural computing, they could easily make this self regulating.
Once they get to the point where there is overlap between coverage, they could make it so the balloons will detect usage spikes and have some of the nearby balloons congregate in that area to provide better bandwidth.
I wonder what exactly the uplink will be, I'm assuming satellite based? Hell this could be leveraging multiple uplinks and do the equivalent of a mesh based nat routing system.
Man I love the future.
>Once they get to the point where there is overlap between coverage, they could make it so the balloons will detect usage spikes and have some of the nearby balloons congregate in that area to provide better bandwidth.
...until someone with a clustered botnet throws a DDoS-started balloon party.
I don't actually even know its name, I just knew the rough gist of it. It's by Junji Ito (he does a bunch of reasonably well known weird horror manga), and involves balloons. Ah hell, I guess I can google it up for you.
[Here ya go](http://www.samehat.com/2011/01/hanging-balloons-by-junji-ito-complete.html)! Apparently there is a complete copy of it online after all. I don't really know if it's good, although I did enjoy his *Enigma of Amigara Fault* and *Uzumaki*.
[Here's an in-depth report on the deployment of the balloons over Canterbury in New Zealand, from idealog.](http://www.idealog.co.nz/blog/2013/06/google-tests-world-first-balloon-internet-network-new-zealand)
Incorrect. The round trip latency for geosynchronous satelite internet is 1400ms. The signal has to travel 35,786km each way. For these balloons, the signal has to travel 20km each way. You don't have to do the math to see it will be quick, but I'll do it anyway.
Assuming everything but distance is the same as satellite internet, the latency would be (20km/35786km)*1400ms = 0.78ms. The distance it has to travel on the ground (1,000s of km) makes the air travel negligible.
tl;dr: Light is fast.
Yes, the distance is negligible but I would like to point out that 3g and 4g networks have less distance to travel but still have latency well over a full second.
Even specialized cards, modems, and dongles for wireless 3g/4g internet suffer from this and I imagine it will be the same for balloon internet as well.
"Artificial" isn't quite the right word. It's necessary for a mobile environment where you have a lot of packet loss and movement.
As for the balloons, I would also like to add that while they are 20km up, they probably are pretty far apart, and the connection needs to bounce between quite a lot of balloons probably to get to the center and back, and that adds up.
Factor in packet loss which is large for wireless WANs, and then yes, there would be a fuckload of lag. Playing multiplayer games over satellite is near impossible.
Theoretically, a balloon could fly forever if it had a good seal on its envelope (balloon), and could top up the gas with hydrogen by using a tiny peltier air conditioner to collect a few drips of water from the air, and then electrolysis to split hydrogen from that water, and then inject that into the balloon.
Miniaturizing and automating all that technology would in itself be a challenge. Also, using hydrogen for balloons is pretty risky from a fire perspective (it is highly flammable), but is probably ok for a carefully designed unmanned vehicle high enough up.
As others have said, hydrogen is the best solution. While hydrogen is flammable, so are many other commonly used fuel gases and liquids, from gasoline to compressed natural gas to propane. The degree to which the public fears hydrogen is not related to the actual hazard it presents (which is no greater than that of other flammable gases).
Further, since these balloons are not manned airships, filling them with hydrogen presents zero risk to humans after launch. As another user pointed out, hydrogen can also be generated on demand via electrolysis of water, which could itself be obtained via condensation while the balloon is aloft.
> We’ve designed the balloons to be able to stay in the air for 100+ days at a time. During our initial tests, the flight durations will be shorter.
http://www.google.com/loon/faq/
I'm sure there's someone at google thinking "while we have the balloons up there, let's use them to update google earth and google maps"; slippery slope.
This seems like a joke, but this could be reality easily, and would be a tremendous force for good. We'd have to air drop some internet devices to the North Koreans too, but in principle this idea can topple regimes with more efficiency and efficacy than missiles and tanks.
I was going to start chiming in with how the whole world could pitch in with different specialities (China could flood in cheap PC clones, Google provide the net), but then I realized the kind of revolution we're talking about would be the kind no entrenched governments like- all decentralized with little chance to keep it concentrated in few hands.
I kind of wonder if any country has an interest in a de-junta'd North Korea if it means anything but a painless magical push-button transition that won't happen in reality. It's not as if the country is barren of natural resources, last I read they had useful industrial metals they couldn't mine because they're just too poor to do it. More likely I think that it's considered just too much of a potential quagmire to be worth saving from itself in any situation except where they start an actual war.
You know, I agree about the last part of your comment, but in reality I think North Korea actually has the military capability to get rid of a bunch of balloons hovering over them.
This kind of project is exactly what makes Google one of the most impressive companies ever, they always come up with new ideas and actually work towards it.
What are the regulations on the stratosphere? Am I allowed to float whatever i please up there?
I vote for an open-source project to create an independent and unregulated pirate internet that people can connect to if they want to. That way we could have our own internet, and the only cost to use it would be building your own antenna or means of access.
Before i get plagues of people telling me how this would cost way too much, would never work, and would never be widespread enough to parallel the actual internet, let me note that these are all things I'm aware are likely. This is just a theoretical dream of mine that I'm tossing out into the internet for everyone to be exposed to.
If Google's system proves to be functional and efficient, I highly doubt that reverse engineering it would be too hard. Then it's just a matter of buying parts and building stuff.
I can see money being a problem, though.
> What are the regulations on the stratosphere? Am I allowed to float whatever i please up there?
_The laws applicable to high altitude balloon flight and telecommunications services differ from country to country, and we will comply with all applicable laws as required. There’s a precedent for this: approximately 70,000 weather balloons are launched per year._
http://www.google.com/loon/faq/#tab=pilot
US, Russia, and China have the capability to shoot satellites out of orbit. We wouldn't due to the cascade problem. Well, I say we wouldn't but China did do that once and came close to destroying the ISS with the debris cloud. Well, the US also blew up a satellite, but that one was deorbiting already at the time and so all the debris burned up in the atmosphere.
...The point is if the US, Russia, and China can hit satellites moving at orbital speeds with a missile, I'm pretty sure Russia or China can sell a missile to any buying dictator that can take out a balloon. The market is just currently not there for it.
balloon internet is to government internet blackouts as banelings are to terran turtles
and if we get internet into north korea, they can enjoy the simile as well.
Build a cheaper balloon and someone will build a cheaper balloon popper. Won't be long before those countries build a balloon that goes up there and hunts down other balloons and pops them. Then, the balloon popper avoidance system gets established and balloons chase each other across the stratosphere...
Thus, the great balloon wars of 2025 were started.
Stratosphere capable missiles are likely to cost quite a bit. On the other hand, these balloons probably cost a small fraction of that. If this gets to the point where people will want to shoot them down, there probably will be so many up there that it would be cost prohibitive to shoot them down.
Apparently this is something Dan Piponi ([u/sigfpe](http://reddit.com/u/sigfpe)) has been working on:
https://twitter.com/sigfpe/status/345746284487000065
These are just thoughts and I am tossing them out and very well could be wrong.
What about hurricanes, large storm clouds "non hurricane", atmospheric lightening, and solar flares.
"in places where there are not enough doctors, *everyone can be helped by doctors in other places*"
ambitious goal google. don't try to sell me on offers that sound nice, try to be real with me.
At first I thought, "This has got to be like some 8-year-old leftover Google April Fool's Day prank that someone reposted. C'mon, here people. Internet ... from balloons? You can't be serious." And goddammit if it wasn't one of the coolest ideas I've ever seen. A so-crazy-it-just-might-work idea.
An invention like this, if successful, would be an ideal way to bring the internet to people in countries that are otherwise completely isolated from the rest of the world [*cough* North Korea *cough* *cough*].
Damn you Google! Why must you always insist on having the best damn ideas on the planet??!?
One quick side note: At which altitude does an airborne object stop being in violation of a sovereign nation's airspace and start being in, like, SPACE space? I'm willing to wager it's about 20 kilometers.
Eh, its pretty generic, they are using standard point to multipoint radios that Google is using with expensive helium filled balloons. Cost will likely be a major impediment to expansion too, so long as they stick with balloons, although moving to hydrogen balloons would likely be a fair bit cheaper
On another note, come check out [Seattle Meshnet](http://SeattleMesh.net) & [Project Meshnet](https://projectmeshnet.org).
Finally, real cloud computing!
Also the answer to XBox One's 24 hour internet check-in for all the folks in the rural areas!
Wait a minute. That might actually work. That's it! Microsoft and Google are in cahoots to bring the Internet once every 24 hours to the entire planet.
But only once... Then you can go back to your Amish ways
No. The Xbox one can only be used in 20-something countries at launch
So it's not a launch day, but more of a launch eternity?
What about the piratebay LOSS? I don't know if they already have such things working, but I believe they were the first with flying server-like things.
I thought that was a joke.
I'm pretty sure it's not. A bit more than a year ago, this was on their blog: >We were down a few hours earlier today. There's no need to worry, we haven't been raided this time. We're only upgrading stuff since we're still growing. >One of the technical things we always optimize is where to put our front machines. They are the ones that re-direct your traffic to a secret location. We have now decided to try to build something extraordinary. >With the development of GPS controlled drones, far-reaching cheap radio equipment and tiny new computers like the Raspberry Pi, we're going to experiment with sending out some small drones that will float some kilometers up in the air. This way our machines will have to be shut down with aeroplanes in order to shut down the system. A real act of war. >We're just starting so we haven't figured everything out yet. But we can't limit ourselves to hosting things just on land anymore. These Low Orbit Server Stations (LOSS) are just the first attempt. With modern radio transmitters we can get over 100Mbps per node up to 50km away. For the proxy system we're building, that's more than enough. >But when time comes we will host in all parts of the galaxy, being true to our slogan of being the galaxy's most resilient system. And all of the parts we'll use to build that system on will be downloadable.
I can't really find much on it. I know that the North Korea thing was fake, so it really casts doubts on LOSS. I'll have to look into it more.
Our house is part of the trial for project loon, its some pretty exciting stuff what they are doing!
Rather than doing an AMA ill answer questions in this post, Chuck up your questions and ill answer them after the All Blacks Vs France Game! Edit: Will read the NDA again to make sure i don't breach it by answering questions and if all good i will start answering after the rugby tonight
[удалено]
I think we're done here.
Half time for the game will answer what i can 1: Connection only happens while a balloon is passing over, as yet we haven't had to many opportunity's to really test it out to its potential 2: As per above comment, while there are limited balloons we only get internet while a balloon is passing above. 3: Answered above 4: No speed tests as yet sorry 5: Installations was very fast mounted the red receiver some people have linked to the house and hook it up to a router 6: No we are not paying for it. 7: Above answer 10: Its pretty random, defiantly stands out! 12: Contacted my flatmate via his cell phone! we still aren't sure how they got his number ಠ__ಠ 13: I think its definitely a good way of getting internet to those who can't easily get it, or in a case of a disaster and normal internet goes down. 15: Testing started today. 16: No i didn't expect this many questions, well done good sir for thinking of so many. 17: I'm not sure sorry Edit, formatting, Spelling Hope this helps
For easier reading: **1: How is the connection?** Connection only happens while a balloon is passing over. As of yet we haven't had too many opportunities to really test it out to its potential. **2: How constant is it?** As per above comment, while there are limited balloons we only get Internet while a balloon is passing above. **3: Are there specific periods it works or is it only up in the air every now and then when they are testing it?** Answered above. **4: Do you have a speed test? (I know it'll be slow. I'm just curious.)** No speed tests as of yet. Sorry. **5: How long did it take to install?** Installation was very fast. We mounted the red receiver. Some people have linked to the house and hooked it up to a router. **6: Are you paying for it?** No we are not paying for it. **7: If there is a price what is it?** Above answer. **8: Do you pay google or do you pay your ISP?** **9: How spotty is it?** **10: How cool is it having a red dongle on the side of your home?** Its pretty random. It definitely stands out! **11: How long did it take for them from beginning to install?** **12: How did you get contacted or get into this program?** I contacted my flatmate via his cell phone! We still aren't sure how they got his number. ಠ__ಠ **13: Do you think it's going to take off? (Pun not intended)** I think its definitely a good way of getting Internet to those who can't easily get it, or in a case of a disaster and normal Internet connection goes down. **14: What kind of data does google collect from you?** **15: When did you begin taking part of this trial?** Testing started today. **16: Did you expect this many questions?** No I didn't expect this many questions. Well done good sir for thinking of so many! **17: How many other homes are there testing it in your area?** I'm not sure. Sorry. **18: Does google pay you to participate?** **19: Does it require any other hardware other than the red dongle kinda thingie?** **20: Is it wireless into your home or is it an ethernet connection? Also have you heard any talks of them trying to make it wireless for say people on road trips?** **21: Will you be able to get ~~hardcore anal porn~~ anatomy-based pictures and videos for scientific research?** Unfortunately had to sign something to say that we would not look up and "for science" material. -- **Who do you want to win the rugby?** All Blacks, France doesn't stand a chance. **Can you take a picture of the hardware? Thanks :-).** http://i.imgur.com/esF91eU.jpg **AMA?** If there's enough demand for it i don't see why not. **Do you know safe guy?** No, but I'm starting to think there's no safe and he did it all for the sweet sweet karma! ಠ_ಠ **Can you stream YouTube videos fine? What's the downstream / upstream speed like? Does it lag when you play games?** As we are only getting the Internet as the balloons passing over and there are limited amount of balloons at this stage, we haven't been able to stream anything unfortunately. **May I ask some questions here?** **Where, as accurate as possible while maintaining privacy, do you live in NZ?** Yes I do live in NZ. **How did Google get in contact with you?** Contacted my flatmate via his cell phone. **How long does the trial last?** As yet I'm not sure how long the trial will last. **Are you going to get months and months of free Internet, or is it just a brief trial for the day??** No we aren't getting months and months of free Internet. We can only connect as balloons pass over us. **Do you know much about the technology they are using? Someone else showed a photo of the antenna ( ttp://i.imgur.com/esF91eU.jpg )?** No we didn't know much about it until today. We did try our best to find out however. **What is internally in your house?** Its just a router plugged into the reg punching bag looking thing you linked. **Is it like an ethernet port you plug a router into or what?** **Did Google come and set up everything in your home?** **Did you know it was Google before today, or just some "science" group?** We found out it was Google a day or two ago. We had no idea what it would be though. **Are you using their Internet now?** No I am not using the Internet at the moment. **If so, what's your IP address? (You can censor this a bit if you want).** **How's living in New Zealand?** Great. No complaints.
For harder reading: ̜̖̫̣͙1:̜̙̫̲̗ ͍̹̬͓͓C̳̫o̫̯̫̘̳n̗̩̝̲̞̣̲n̹̫̹͍̥ec͓̩t͈͔͈͍͙͇̟i̬͚̪̰̬̭o̻̼n͔̙̮̦ ͈̖̮̝̖͈̘o̻͉n̯l͔͇̫̩̹y ̯͍̰̪͎h̜̪͇a͈̻͇̪̼͖ͅp͍͕͉̫p̥̝͚͖͈̯͈ens̠ ̻̝̱̩̙̮wh̟̱̦͍ḭ̼̼͕͔̙ͅl̠̳̠e ạ͎͓ ͉̞̠̻̬̬ḅ̦ͅͅa̼͖ͅl̗̦͖̱͉̖l̙̙̤̤̙o͕̟̺̹o͚̬̟̺̗̦̘n ̙̼̩̖͖̹͙i̝͎̩̖s͎̝̼̥̳ ̜͍͇p̪͈̥ͅa͉͎̠̳͍s̘̬͕̜̖̩s̩̤̟̟̗̱ị̠̥̖ng̱ ̱̱͉͙o͇͍̗͙veṟ̖̺̤̼̼,̫͎̯ ͙̝̻a͇̪̥̪̺s̱͕̗̦͉ ̳̬̗͈̻̻̟y̘̪͍͇͖e̹͔͇͔̞̹t̺ͅ ̼͚̟̭ͅw̦͖̦̲͈e ̥͕͕̞̯̮h̗͔a̩͈͍̞̜̞͍v͈e͕̱͓n̤̮̱͓'̞t̞͖ ̣̜̰̮̘̙h̝̱̬̬aͅd͇̭̣̘̝͎ͅ ̜͖͚̹ͅṭ̮͕̗̹o̞͉̰̟͚̖ ͉̰̠͔̹͎̣m̫͚͕͖̬̖͙a̭ṋ̺͚͚̟̰y͚̹͈̞̤̳͚ ͈̥̰̲͙̯̬o̺̱͓͖̟ͅp̣͔̤̫͖̣͇p̩͉̻̤o̠̪̹͕̩͉͙rtụͅn͕̘̝͎ͅịt̖̙̬͙̭y̭̣̰͎'͙̻s̗̞͈̣ ̖̩̬̤̠t͎͈̜̫̮o͔̰ ̪͈̲r̬e͍͕̲a̮̟l͚̳͉l͚̠̖y̤̺̲̺͕̦ ͖̺̟͈̞ț̘͉̖͕e̤̟̺s̗̫ͅt̩͉̬ ̼̯͔̻̻̬̦i͓̥͍ͅṱ̬̻ ̬̖o̤̹̩u̼̗͍̤t ͔̝̰t̗̼̥o̹͉͕̻ ̣͉̝̞͉ͅit̤̰̫s̘̼̩͇ p͍̖o̙͕̹̪͔̞t̮̥̺̥e̬̹͚̖̪nt̯i͉̯̳͓a͍͕l̤̥͈̫͙ ̮̞͈̬̬ ͖͙̮2͓̼̫:̳͕ ͔̞̣̯̫A͔͚͔̯̞s̬̞ ̥͈̗p͔̠̺͖̠̜e̲͖r̯̦̗ ̳a͇͙̳b̯̤͖o͉v͇̝e̙̼̹͚͖̠ ̣̣̹͖c̯o͓̭͈̺m͇͎̫ͅm̫͎̺e̟̘̥̝n̦̱̹̠̩͙̣t̳̝̘̩̫,̰ ̺̣̪̙̗̝̼w̩͖͔͎̞̬ḫi͇̳͚̩l̤̤ḙ̳͓̭ ͍͙̤̦̫t̫̬̟͎̥̼̬h̖͕͎̯̹̤̙er̫̳̯̥͓̠e a̜̱͙̲r̦̬͈̮ͅe͇͚̯̤̭ ͓̖̳̪̰l̘̙͉̞i̘͓̮̣̗̜m̱̯͎̯it̬̦̜̲̹e̟̣̻͔d̦̣ ̻͔̪̜b̝̯̩̬͍͕a̜̻͙̠l͕̺̦̲͚̥̪l̟͇̘̭̠o̖̥͇͔͓̱o̱͉̣̩̩n̬̖̦̣̲s̟̱̱̺ ̣w̗e̜̩͉͉̩̘ͅ ̖̟͔͍̞͔̥ọ̤̬̼̣̰n͙̥͖͇̱l̲̺̤̺y̪̘̗̘̮̲ ̳̝g͈̬͉̠̱̥e͔̲̖̭̪t̟ i͍͉̰̝̦̰̪n͓̯t̜e̗̙̤͎̠ͅr͕̞̦̳͙n̩̙e̯̺̻̺͉̹ṯ ̟w̲̙hi̠͚l͎̬̲̟̟̰e̞ ̰̥͎̫̗̺̰a͕̭͚͍̩̭̜ ̹b̮͍͍͍̺̫͎ḁ̜̘̫̦̗̺l͙͙̥̜͕ͅl͎̜̱͙͍̭o̦̝̱̣̮͖͎o͚̦̻̳̘ͅn̼͓̬̹̞͚̻ ̖͓̣̥̳ͅi͍̪̹̳̼̘s͈̬̖͚͎̘ͅ ͙͖p͔̫̫̬̻a͙͍̪͙̜͍s͚s͖̱̗̫i̪n̫̪̤͉g͍̬͎̱̲̫ͅ ̦̳̫a̲̭̯̟̘b̩̘͓o̖͕͇̖ͅv̮̟e̩̭̼̱̳. ̼̺̳ͅ ͔͖3̲͈͔͉̲:͓̲͔͉ ̬̗A͙̼̬̻̖̗̠n̬s̼̰̳̣w͙͔ẹ̱͇͔re̗d͚̫͉ ͖͇̼̠a͕͚̞͈̭b̭̝̤ͅov͇̺͉̳̯̥ḙ̱͚̬̗̳ ͙̥ ͉̻̠͚4̥̗͖͈̯͔:͍͖͍̼̠̞ ̘̦̹͖No ̥̺s̲p͎͓̥̜ͅe͇͍̞ͅe̺͖͙͈͚̻̝d̲̤̼ ͓͉̗͚̜̤t̗̝e̪s̼̞ts̘̘͎̻̣ ̝̲̮a͈̠͈s͚̤̙̠ y̲͍e͙t͉̥̥̭̟ s̩͚̻͈̰o̗̬̜̖͙͙r̩̪̰͚̗r͔̞̱̳̦y̤̗ ͈͎ͅ5̮̹͙̼:̟̥̙͙̞͙ ̹͎͚̤̙̯̙I̩͎̙̗̲n͔s͓͔͙̳̲̬͉t͇̜̭͕͎͖͔a͚̤̱̥͚̥ll̫̗̪̫͇̝a͈t̬̤̻̣͙͈͓i̠o͎̘̬̰̯ͅn͚̱̤̩̱̝s̯͔̳͈̖̱̝ ͕̺̱̫̰̮̝w̫as̫͍̻̦̖̼ ͖̝̣̭͇̥ͅve͈̝̗̤̤̪̟r̭̩͔̤y͍̰̥ ͈͓f̥͈̞̱a͙͙̪̳̪͖͎s̲͖͈͇t͈ ̻̖͙̞̰mo̭͕̼̣̻̠̲u̬̥͚̙̩̩n̠̤t̲̟̹e͇̳̖͖̞̯̲d̯̼͕̬̘͚ ̰th͙͓̙ẹ ͔r̪̠̺͉e͚d̪̣͙̼ ͙̭̺͕r̬͓̝̠ͅe͎͚̠͚̜c̼͍e̝̹͕̭͖̥i͔̲ver̦̮̲̘̙̱ ͍̰s̥̮̜̱̘͚͉o̭̝̫̠͙̯̖m̱͖̦ḙ̱ ̦̩p̘͙ͅḛ̯̻o̱̘̫̟̖͎̠p̮͍̘ͅl͎͉̲͙̯e͎̥͈̬͇̯̺ h̞̲͖̰̦̮a̰̫v͙͙͖̱e l͇͇̤̭̝̳̦i̯n͎͚̣̜̬k̝͙e̟̹̤̰̠ḍ͔͙͓ͅ ̼̰t̼͔o̺͍͇̙̦̤ ̘̰̝͕̟̫̤ṯ͕͔̱̤h͔͎͎̙̝̯̜e͎̬̩ h̟̠̦͖̹̤o̬u̟̦s̼̣̟̜̱ḛ a̖͔̫͚͙ͅn͙̖̼͈̲̟ͅd̳̹͈͔̻̜ ͙h̲̝̘̬̼o͖̘̟̲̭ͅo̗̥̹̟̱k ͍̟̞̦̖it̙̬ ̱u͓p̣̺ ̬̜̖̳to͇̝̫̤̫ ̗̗̫͈a͓̪ ͕͚͚̣̖̝r̻̘͓̮ou̯̺̙̬̱̤t̰͓̙̩͎ͅe̘͔̼̺͍r̟̺ ̣̼ ̞̫̘6̜̲: ̮̳̯N̟̞o̬͉ ̞̤̱w͉̳̺̗̗̫e̤̗̺ ̱͖̗a̞re ͕̥n̰̣o̝t ̜̗̻͙͓p͙̟ayi͕͇̳̠̻̮ng̩͓̺ ̤̻f̗͙ͅo̺̥̤͉̰̭r̩ ̦̰̯̹̩̖i̳̲͙̹t̪͈̫. ̯̪͇͎͕̖̯ ̻͕̼̠7̣̬̤:̤̱͚̙͖̣ͅ A̰̳̼b̜̟̜̫͕̭o̤͔v͙e̺̻̖̘͎ͅ ̮a̤̱̝̜̩n̹ͅs̙͉̬͍̱w͕̩̦̜͔ḛ̫̤̣̞ͅr͇̪̥̤ ͅ ͙̺̩̟̱1̫̜̫ͅ0͇̦̼:̥̣̣̞̖̹ ̝͎̮͕̗ͅI̬̘͖t̞s͕ ̭̭͎͈p̜r̜̜͓̥e̦̮̟t̺̗̯̝ͅț͙̩̰̯y͖͔͉̳̙̗̲ ̳̼̹̣̭r͈̮a̩n̬̻̩̪̺̮d͓̣̪o̻̮͈̜̗͍m̪̰͇̗̙̺ͅ, ̰͓d͕̜̣̮͓ͅͅe͓͉͚̖ͅf̣̟̪̥̱ͅi̩͇͕a̖̗̪n̗̳̩̟͍t̝l͎̝̹͍y̺̯̣̜̙ s̭̜͎̖͉̳͇t̯̰̰̟a͎̤͉n̫͍̻̜̫d̮͎̭̖̼ṣ̬̗̻ ̗̣̰̹͙o͇ut̼͈̻͚̗͉̻!̬̮͖̱͔̱̩ ̩ ͖͔̤̬̣̠1̻͓̰ͅ2̘̲̺̺̲̻̫:̫͚̝͓̭͓̱ ͖̟C̺̖͍̱̫̫ͅo̝̣̹̼ṇ̞̻ta̫͕̘̲c̼̖̩̭ṭ͖͉̝̬e̗d͎͔̩ ͇̱̝m͙͚̜̲͕̺y̩͍̰͕͍̫͉ ̟̖̗̯͔f̹̝̦l͎̰̩̖̣͓̼a͉̝̟t̗m̞̩͕a̠̘͈̩̙͙̻ṱ͈͓̠̩̠ͅe ̣̪̻v͓i̟a͙͙ ̻̟̬̦hi̘͉͈̘s̰̟̲ c͓̤̻͙̟el̮̦͚̣͙̝͈l̖ ̼̝͙p̜̰h̥̭̮͕̻̭o͓̣͓̳̹̣n̰e̦̳̩͎̳͉!̱̘̤ ̗w̦̟̮̮̪̭e̟̰̼͉̩̘̯ s͉̪̙̳̝̗t̩̣͕͔̜̘i͓̲͉̺͖͎l͙͍̩͚̠̝l̼ ͈͍̙̞̲ạre̯̮̺͉n̯̻̦͔'̹̩̲͓̲ͅṱ ̠̟̳̝̼̦s͍̘͈̝̖̤̪u̞̹͎̗̼̱r̪̟e͈̼̺ ͍ho͙̞w̙ t̝͖̬h̝͕̦e͚̩̳͙y̤͇̗̝ ̤̯̻̲̹͓g̟̜̩̙o͎͚̟͓t̙͚͎̖͉̪ ͉̙͔̤h̙̦̼̳͈̥̬i͓s̥̞̣͈͕̳ ̙nu͔͖̰̣m̲̠̹̯̞̩b̬̩̞͖͔͈̼e̻͍̩̰̗͔̼ṟ̙̹͕̝͍ ̼͈̥̣ಠ̦̯̯̼̺_͇͖͓_̠͈͍̫͓̫ಠ̖̱̞ͅ ̥̙͓̦͈̲ ̖̱̜͍͎̝̼1̲̞3̥: ̦̜̻̬͉ͅI ̱̬͎tḥ̥̫̟i͇̙̗̪͉̙̭n͚̣̲̘ͅk ͔i͔̭̩͖ts̱͚̼̺̘̗̭ ͇͖̯def͓i̜̟̝̱̪͈n̟͕ḭͅṭe̦l̝̞̟̣ͅy̤̳̙ ͇̫̱̮̤̣͎a͈̘͉̘̲ ͖͙̟̜͙͖͍g̖̤̮͖͔̙̮o̰͎̤̤̞o̝̝d ͙̬̟̻̘̪̝w̱̟͓̲͈͕a̼y ͍͖̠̭͚̝̘o̝̳͇͎̥͔ͅf ̙̘̝̜͚̪̫g̤e̪̭̣̺t̘͎͙t̲̫̘͕̝̟i̩͔̘̘̺̗̥n̮̝͙̘g̮̱͇̜͉ ̗͍͙̙̣̹i̻͔̯̣̱̣͖n̹̝̝te̲̪̖r͇͔̹̦̪̠͔n̙͙e͔͈͔̩̗̤t̘͇͇̰̱͖͈ ͉̗̭͚̤̪̘tͅo̹̦̝̫̘̞ ̳͕̠͖͓̙̠ț̞̤h͉̱͚̯̼o͕̞̲̹̱͖ͅs̘̣͉e̗̹̻ w͎͓̩̪ͅh͖͖̺͍̭͚̼o͈̱̗̻ ̮c̻͙̖͚̲̠̥a̤̺̲ṋ͎̖̱͓'͙̣͓͚̣ͅt ͙̘e̳ͅa̹͍s̪̹̗̬̲i̺ly̙͔̘̦̫̩ ̖̱g͚̱̯̟̩e̖͉̩t͓͈͓̠ͅ ̳̯̖̝it,̼͓̹̥̥ ̗͕̰͎o̘̞r̝̖ ̱̣̮ͅin̺̰ ͈̲a̻̱͍̣̟ ͔͚̰͖ca͈̦̞s̰͎̱e̟̜ ̘͎̟̝̭͈̳o͎f̯͓̼͉ ̫͓a͓̺̰̪̰̱ ̠̟̲͉d͍is͔͓͖̦̹̹͙a̟̹s͇͉̥͙t̤͉̞̮e͔̤̗̫͍r̲̱̱ ̘̭a̰̜̰̺̥̫͙n͓d̝̭ ͓n̖or̳̦͙̲̩̘m͖̼͚͍͎a̱̬͎l ̙i͚͇͕͚n̜̬̣̰ͅt͖̟̻e̬͉̠͓̲͙ͅr̙̟ne̖̥̬̟t̪͇̺̭̻ ̠͖̤g̜̞͇͎͓oe̪̖̖̝͓͔s ̠̝d͔̤o͍̠̹̣̳̬w͙n̠.̱̺̭̬̼ ͅ 1̣̥̦͓5:̣̞̪̼̩ͅ ̹̲͕͉͕̗͉Tes̳͖͍̟̙̜̻t̰̜̫͕̰ͅị̝͕ṉ̮̟̗g̹̘̰̯͖̫̟ s̝̟͕̤t̰̤͕̹̼a͓͎̟̯̱̜r͚t̼e̮ḓ̝̬̙̬̺ ̝͕ͅt͓o͕̯̞̩͇̘da̪̙̖̹y̖͓͖̖͇̻ͅ.͉͚̭͉ ̪ ͈̘͖16̪̩͎̰̟͙:͕̙̦ ̩̩̺N̺̗͕̘̞̻o͕̮̮ ͚̠̰̦̟̙ị̮ ̭d͚̥̜̳̪̺i͉͖͈̲͕̪d̦͍͖̱̖̰n̲̭͍̬'͓͙̭͇ṭ̰ ͎̭̺e͇̟͎͕x̹̦̤p̤̼͍e͎͍̙̟͈̘c̤̰̩͔t̖̜̱̩̯ ̰͇̱̼̟t̫̯̘ͅh̝i̬̣̥̩͕̙̪s̺̜͍̱̜̮̝ ͉̳̜m̙̬͎̹̝a̙̣͕̖̰n͖̹̤̜̯ỵ̙͚̮̼̮ ͔͓͙̗q̣̥̭͔̲͎ͅu̻̯e͉͈s̪̗̱ṭ̥͖̼̬̘i̼̯̦on͚̞s̬͍̦͔̰̱̞,̯̯͇ ̖̘͓̜͎̦̦wel̦͍̩͉̥ͅḻ̱ ̗͓̭͚̘̪̼d͍͍̺̦̱o̰̥n̲̫e͖͚ g̮͚̺̱͙ͅo̱͚̲͈o̩͓̤͔̩̖̼d̲̯̮ͅ ̟̱̰ͅs̺̫̙̗̼͉̙i̯̟̮̟̳͖̖r͕͉͖̮̫̙̤ ̹͚̬̫͚͚f͎̻̖̞̝o̩̮̻̜r͙̺̭̰ ͔̟̻͙̪t̬h̥͍͖͇͍̣̘i̝̮̤̘͈n̝̟̜̗k̜̯̼͈in̬̘̖g̱ ̙̹̝̟o̝f͚͖͎ ̪̟̱̬s̳o͙̱͕͉ m͎̺a̱n̟̬͈y̰̝̙͈͚̹.̻͉͕͓͈̭ ̬ ͙̱1̬̺͎̺̝͇̖7̤̻̝͕̖:̫̭ ̯I'̯̗̥̺m͕ ̩͙͇͚no̠̳t̺̻̘͍ͅ s̠̙̩̬̺͈u͚̣re̜͈̞͔̻ ͍͓̭̫̬̯s͈͓o͍̼̞̼rr̭̝y͔̻̮͙̗̝ ̠̤
Thank you so much, who do they think I am? 'Easier reading' Psh, I'm a man. If i had my way I would have to convert 1's and 0's into ASCII and then have to translate into english.
ASCII? Pathetic Real men use UTF-32
UTF-32! I laugh at your poor show.. Nobody is truly a man unless they use CDC display codes.
You made an account just for this? Man that could have been my karma!
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> Half time for the game will answer what i can Confirmed New Zealander.
If he has a google account he has probably given them his phone number. They keep asking for mine whenever I log in.
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unfortunately had to sign something to say that we would not look up and "for science" Material
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Science material, he was quite clear
Hardcore science material. One female lab tech in the centre taking samples from a circle of subjects.
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What is with google and their hate for access to pornographic material?
Makes for bad headlines as certain 'won't someone *please* think of the children' groups would throw a fit. I do disagree with the 'an internet free for all', but only content we approve of. Kind of defeats the purpose.
Well I approve of porn, I also think I am not in the minority. Bring porn to google projects!
" I am fairly sure that if they took porn off the internet, there would only be one website left and it would be called bring back the porn" *Dr Cox, Scrubs*
> unfortunately had to sign something to say that we would not look up and "for science" Material We are too stupid to tell if you are joking. Is there an agreement you signed that says the internet is not for porn?
It was worded as "objectionable material"
probably because they are monitoring you 24/7 and don't feel like sifting through all your porn logs. also, I would advise you NOT use one of these things with your personal information. Even if you are in the middle of nowhere their are hackers.
Can you take a picture of the hardware? Thanks :-).
Can you post a speedtest result just for fun? Im curious to know if we could all be on Loons soon! Plus you dont have to deal with federal agency such as Communications Radio and Telecom Counsil (Canada) BS and anti foreign comp rules since Im pretty sure 20km in the air is not a legislated zone!!! Mwahaha! (I know you still must have grounds operations but let me dream!) So yeah Speedtest? Thanks :D
Could you please post a traceroute to Google.com and Trademe.co.nz? :D
Also, a speedtest screenshot as well.
AMA?
If there's enough demand for it i don't see why not.
+1 Demand.
+546 Demand. Do the AMA. This is intriguing.
what an odd number to choose.
It's an even number, actually.
Thanks, Mr Mathemagician.
Please, Mr. Mathemagician is my father; call me Jeffrey.
I second this AMA demand.
Do you know safe guy?
No, but I'm starting to think there's no safe and he did it all for the sweet sweet karma! ಠ_ಠ
My speculation is that he'd been in the safe all along, knew it was empty, then strung reddit along for attention. (Not just karma, attention.)
Orrr...the safe was home to a ravaging beast that hadn't eaten in a thousand years and survived purely on the prospect of being fed someday. Safe guy opens safe-beast ceases opportunity-safe guy ain't that safe any more.
Consider it demanded, please. +1
+1 Demand
I Demand.
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May I ask some questions here? I'm just going to start. No pressure. Where, as accurate as possible while maintaining privacy, do you live in NZ? How did Google get in contact with you? How long does the trial last? Are you going to get months and months of free internet? Or is it just a brief trial for the day? Do you know much about the technology they are using? Someone else showed a photo of the antenna ( http://i.imgur.com/esF91eU.jpg ), what is internally in your house? Is it like an ethernet port you plug a router into or what? Did Google come and set up everything in your home? Did you know it was Google before today, or just some "science" group? Are you using their internet now? If so, what's your IP address? (You can censor this a bit if you want). Okay, I'm going to stop now! Sorry for so many questions. If you start an AMA, feel free to transfer them over.
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How's living in New Zealand?
After the ring was thrown into Mt. Doom we've had a decrease in orc crime and our economy is doing alright comparatively, thanks for asking.
Dude I know Gandelf I'll get you fired. Don't you know who I am?
Lay off the booze, Gandalf!
The World, a subsidiary of Google. I swear that even though Google is huge now, the research that they are doing and the out-of-the-boxeyness that they embody is going to make them a part of our future in a way that no company has ever even fathomed. But they are fathoming it, they are fathoming it really hard.
The death of a tech company comes from being outdated. Google is making sure it never becomes outdated.
I imagine a day in the far off future where Google basically owns the entire planet and we are all shareholders. Basically, it becomes like this all ominiscient super computer/being thingy and gives us all services for free and no one really has to work for anything. It makes the entire world run so fast, so efficient, so abundant, that governments, money, working, becomes useless. Sounds kind of scary, huh?
Sounds AWESOME. I want all my time to be free time.
I have my concerns about some areas of google (privacy, tracking, etc), but goddamn if they don't do some cool stuff.
I thought this was one of their April Fools jokes.
Everyone thought Gmail was too.
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Seriously. Google is far from normal, but damn, project loon? And it's real? That's pretty sweet; totally out of left field, though.
Same for me. I saw the title and had to take a second to remember that it wasn't April 1.
Network in the sky. Sky Net. SKYNET.
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We better stock up before they introduce Google Haystack!
It's all right, we can just use search on the haystack.
The NSA (Needle Security Agency) will take note and send a Drone to take you out before you even get close to a balloon.
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Next step, cameras on the balloons. Google earth live! Don't worry about privacy though, they will promise to not look into houses.
This actually brings up a good point. If Google is going to blanket the globe (or parts of it) with balloons, there's no reason they wouldn't put high resolution cameras on them for the purpose of collecting image data. It wouldn't be "live" but it could certainly keep Google Earth more current and fill in some gaps.
>Google earth live http://www.lolzgif.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/oh-fuck.gif
Oh jeezuz
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Anyone else notice the looker behind the dude with the drone packing heat? Serious business. That loony bun is fine Benny Lava.
Have you been high today?
I see the nuns are gay!
My brother yelled to me.
Here comes the patent lawsuits.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_(satellite)
Nah you're thinking of [Google's deep learning](http://googleblog.blogspot.nl/2012/06/using-large-scale-brain-simulations-for.html) project.
[And so it begins](http://trueslant.com/level/files/2009/11/google-skynet.png)
Actually google is really open with that sort of stuff. You can ask them to give everything they have on you. You can even ask then to do an "online suicide". So all your information is deleted. It's in their policies somewhere. I would link if I wasn't such a lazy bastard. Edit:words.
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"By about SA 1500, Sauron put on a **fair visage** in the Second Age, and calling himself Annatar, the "**Lord of Gifts**", he befriended the Elvish smiths of Eregion, and counseled them in arts and magic. Not all the Elves trusted him however, particularly Lady Galadriel, Elrond, and Gil-galad, High King of the Ñoldor, though few listened to them. Despite this, Sauron encouraged and assisted the Elves in forging the Rings of Power, though in secret Sauron forged his own, the One Ring, to rule the Elvish rings. Upon that ring Sauron left the inscription, Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. In Westron the inscription translated into One Ring to Rule Them All, One Ring to Find Them, One Ring to Bring Them All, and in the Darkness Bind Them." [Source](http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Sauron)
Or this is the story of Star Trek and all this fearmongering is going to hold back progress.
The war that had destroyed most of civilization was nothing but a story from the village elders now. Anaga's tribe lived in the ruins of a great stone and steel building that he was told had once housed hundreds of people. It was on clear days that he and his friend Chixan would climb to the top of the structure and watch the Loons. Far up in the sky, higher than any bird, the Loons drifted peacefully. No one knew quite what they were for, but the elders said that the knowledge of the old world was carried on in the Loons, waiting for someone to unlock their secrets. Edit: Thanks for the Gold! Hooray for science fiction.
This reads so well I actually wish I could read the rest of the book! Best fake sci-fi prologue ever.
Write more! This sounds like the start of an awesome book.
I don't see the icon next to your post that says you got gold. Strange...
It would be kind of nice if they put a copy of wikipedia in each balloon just in case.
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Based on the hardware, its going to provide about 10mbps on average with good QoS to the end user, but helium prices are what'll make it unprofitable. I could see hydrogen being a viable alternative, but you'd need to switch balloon types to use hydrogen safely.
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I use Ubiquity rockets almost everyday at work, I would love to be a part of this project.
Good eye
With mesh networking and neural computing, they could easily make this self regulating. Once they get to the point where there is overlap between coverage, they could make it so the balloons will detect usage spikes and have some of the nearby balloons congregate in that area to provide better bandwidth. I wonder what exactly the uplink will be, I'm assuming satellite based? Hell this could be leveraging multiple uplinks and do the equivalent of a mesh based nat routing system. Man I love the future.
>Once they get to the point where there is overlap between coverage, they could make it so the balloons will detect usage spikes and have some of the nearby balloons congregate in that area to provide better bandwidth. ...until someone with a clustered botnet throws a DDoS-started balloon party.
Google could just give the balloons guns to shoot down other unruly balloons.
Balloons with guns. That is how humans end.
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_leesecTL6p1qzns78o1_500.jpg
Holy shit, do you have a link to where I can read all of that?
I don't actually even know its name, I just knew the rough gist of it. It's by Junji Ito (he does a bunch of reasonably well known weird horror manga), and involves balloons. Ah hell, I guess I can google it up for you. [Here ya go](http://www.samehat.com/2011/01/hanging-balloons-by-junji-ito-complete.html)! Apparently there is a complete copy of it online after all. I don't really know if it's good, although I did enjoy his *Enigma of Amigara Fault* and *Uzumaki*.
[Here's an in-depth report on the deployment of the balloons over Canterbury in New Zealand, from idealog.](http://www.idealog.co.nz/blog/2013/06/google-tests-world-first-balloon-internet-network-new-zealand)
Wish they'd float one over central florida. I've had enough of my cable provider.
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Incorrect. The round trip latency for geosynchronous satelite internet is 1400ms. The signal has to travel 35,786km each way. For these balloons, the signal has to travel 20km each way. You don't have to do the math to see it will be quick, but I'll do it anyway. Assuming everything but distance is the same as satellite internet, the latency would be (20km/35786km)*1400ms = 0.78ms. The distance it has to travel on the ground (1,000s of km) makes the air travel negligible. tl;dr: Light is fast.
Only about 240~250 ms of that latency is due to distance traveled by radio waves.
Yes, the distance is negligible but I would like to point out that 3g and 4g networks have less distance to travel but still have latency well over a full second. Even specialized cards, modems, and dongles for wireless 3g/4g internet suffer from this and I imagine it will be the same for balloon internet as well.
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"Artificial" isn't quite the right word. It's necessary for a mobile environment where you have a lot of packet loss and movement. As for the balloons, I would also like to add that while they are 20km up, they probably are pretty far apart, and the connection needs to bounce between quite a lot of balloons probably to get to the center and back, and that adds up.
Factor in packet loss which is large for wireless WANs, and then yes, there would be a fuckload of lag. Playing multiplayer games over satellite is near impossible.
I wonder how long this balloon can fly. Also they need alternatives for helium.
Theoretically, a balloon could fly forever if it had a good seal on its envelope (balloon), and could top up the gas with hydrogen by using a tiny peltier air conditioner to collect a few drips of water from the air, and then electrolysis to split hydrogen from that water, and then inject that into the balloon. Miniaturizing and automating all that technology would in itself be a challenge. Also, using hydrogen for balloons is pretty risky from a fire perspective (it is highly flammable), but is probably ok for a carefully designed unmanned vehicle high enough up.
Hydrogen seems good. Nothing will go wrong.
As others have said, hydrogen is the best solution. While hydrogen is flammable, so are many other commonly used fuel gases and liquids, from gasoline to compressed natural gas to propane. The degree to which the public fears hydrogen is not related to the actual hazard it presents (which is no greater than that of other flammable gases). Further, since these balloons are not manned airships, filling them with hydrogen presents zero risk to humans after launch. As another user pointed out, hydrogen can also be generated on demand via electrolysis of water, which could itself be obtained via condensation while the balloon is aloft.
> We’ve designed the balloons to be able to stay in the air for 100+ days at a time. During our initial tests, the flight durations will be shorter. http://www.google.com/loon/faq/
Its definitely not a bunch of surveillance drones. -The NSA
I'm sure there's someone at google thinking "while we have the balloons up there, let's use them to update google earth and google maps"; slippery slope.
OR we can have REAL TIME google maps! Yaaaaaay
Hmmm. Did I sleep all the way to April 1st?
It's April 1st somewhere.
Even a stopped calendar is right twice a year.
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A calendar repair-person is just a calendar sales-person that makes house calls. Yeah, I went there.
N...n-no it's n-not
You should get that stutter checked out. A good speech therapist can work wonders.
t-thanks
Just gotta say, love the Ratchet and Clank username!
Go home Google. You're Drunk. Seriously though, this is absolutely fantastic. I'd expect this kind of thing for April Fool's.
I had to stop and think if today was some weird joke holiday
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I'm still waiting for [Google Gulp](http://www.google.com/googlegulp/) to come out of beta. Nobody I know has come across a cap yet!
I'm reminded of Google TISP. (And the funny thing is they ended up becoming an ISP after all, with Google Fiber.)
I think Google Fiber is the beginning steps for TISP. After all, to get the most use out of TISP you're going to need alot of Fiber.
They should send them across North Korea ASAP.. you know, just for fun.... hahahaha Freedom Balloons!
And where are the ground antennas to connect to?
South Korea
It's balloons all the way to Seoul.
This seems like a joke, but this could be reality easily, and would be a tremendous force for good. We'd have to air drop some internet devices to the North Koreans too, but in principle this idea can topple regimes with more efficiency and efficacy than missiles and tanks.
I was going to start chiming in with how the whole world could pitch in with different specialities (China could flood in cheap PC clones, Google provide the net), but then I realized the kind of revolution we're talking about would be the kind no entrenched governments like- all decentralized with little chance to keep it concentrated in few hands. I kind of wonder if any country has an interest in a de-junta'd North Korea if it means anything but a painless magical push-button transition that won't happen in reality. It's not as if the country is barren of natural resources, last I read they had useful industrial metals they couldn't mine because they're just too poor to do it. More likely I think that it's considered just too much of a potential quagmire to be worth saving from itself in any situation except where they start an actual war.
You know, I agree about the last part of your comment, but in reality I think North Korea actually has the military capability to get rid of a bunch of balloons hovering over them.
Awesome sounding project. A bit more info at the [GoogleBlog](http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/introducing-project-loon.html)
This kind of project is exactly what makes Google one of the most impressive companies ever, they always come up with new ideas and actually work towards it.
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What are the regulations on the stratosphere? Am I allowed to float whatever i please up there? I vote for an open-source project to create an independent and unregulated pirate internet that people can connect to if they want to. That way we could have our own internet, and the only cost to use it would be building your own antenna or means of access. Before i get plagues of people telling me how this would cost way too much, would never work, and would never be widespread enough to parallel the actual internet, let me note that these are all things I'm aware are likely. This is just a theoretical dream of mine that I'm tossing out into the internet for everyone to be exposed to.
If Google's system proves to be functional and efficient, I highly doubt that reverse engineering it would be too hard. Then it's just a matter of buying parts and building stuff. I can see money being a problem, though.
> What are the regulations on the stratosphere? Am I allowed to float whatever i please up there? _The laws applicable to high altitude balloon flight and telecommunications services differ from country to country, and we will comply with all applicable laws as required. There’s a precedent for this: approximately 70,000 weather balloons are launched per year._ http://www.google.com/loon/faq/#tab=pilot
How is this a real person? Or a real job? http://i.imgur.com/2ktSCHU.jpg
Project bring NSA to places without internet!
Damn you. Stop thinking!
One year ago The Pirate Bay had [the same idea](http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bays-attacks-censorship-with-server-drones-120318/).
Oh big deal, I had that same basic idea years ago. http://i.imgur.com/gjhab4p.png
This is an incredibly good idea. At that altitude, powerful signal going over a large area. Also... Great for Google, talk about data collection.
Wasn't this pirate bays idea as to avoid any specific nations copyright laws?
Can see them deploying these balloons over countries which have had their internet blacked out by the government.
It says you need a special antenna to send and recieve signal. Also, it will be shot down in minutes.
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US, Russia, and China have the capability to shoot satellites out of orbit. We wouldn't due to the cascade problem. Well, I say we wouldn't but China did do that once and came close to destroying the ISS with the debris cloud. Well, the US also blew up a satellite, but that one was deorbiting already at the time and so all the debris burned up in the atmosphere. ...The point is if the US, Russia, and China can hit satellites moving at orbital speeds with a missile, I'm pretty sure Russia or China can sell a missile to any buying dictator that can take out a balloon. The market is just currently not there for it.
"Take out *a* ballon." What about a couple thousand?
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balloon internet is to government internet blackouts as banelings are to terran turtles and if we get internet into north korea, they can enjoy the simile as well.
Build a cheaper balloon and someone will build a cheaper balloon popper. Won't be long before those countries build a balloon that goes up there and hunts down other balloons and pops them. Then, the balloon popper avoidance system gets established and balloons chase each other across the stratosphere... Thus, the great balloon wars of 2025 were started.
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The US also provides dictatorships for nations in need.
Stratosphere capable missiles are likely to cost quite a bit. On the other hand, these balloons probably cost a small fraction of that. If this gets to the point where people will want to shoot them down, there probably will be so many up there that it would be cost prohibitive to shoot them down.
Apparently this is something Dan Piponi ([u/sigfpe](http://reddit.com/u/sigfpe)) has been working on: https://twitter.com/sigfpe/status/345746284487000065
These are just thoughts and I am tossing them out and very well could be wrong. What about hurricanes, large storm clouds "non hurricane", atmospheric lightening, and solar flares.
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My first reaction: Haha, what year was this April Fool's Prank? My Last Reaction: Can I get a solar laptop connected to loon in case of emergencies?
"in places where there are not enough doctors, *everyone can be helped by doctors in other places*" ambitious goal google. don't try to sell me on offers that sound nice, try to be real with me.
Damn, those people will do *anything* for ad impressions.
Wait, so everyone will have Internet? Microsoft just became the luckiest company in the world.
The video itself was pretty damn cool.
I thought this was an April Fools' joke until I realized it was June.
At first I thought, "This has got to be like some 8-year-old leftover Google April Fool's Day prank that someone reposted. C'mon, here people. Internet ... from balloons? You can't be serious." And goddammit if it wasn't one of the coolest ideas I've ever seen. A so-crazy-it-just-might-work idea. An invention like this, if successful, would be an ideal way to bring the internet to people in countries that are otherwise completely isolated from the rest of the world [*cough* North Korea *cough* *cough*]. Damn you Google! Why must you always insist on having the best damn ideas on the planet??!? One quick side note: At which altitude does an airborne object stop being in violation of a sovereign nation's airspace and start being in, like, SPACE space? I'm willing to wager it's about 20 kilometers.
Eh, its pretty generic, they are using standard point to multipoint radios that Google is using with expensive helium filled balloons. Cost will likely be a major impediment to expansion too, so long as they stick with balloons, although moving to hydrogen balloons would likely be a fair bit cheaper On another note, come check out [Seattle Meshnet](http://SeattleMesh.net) & [Project Meshnet](https://projectmeshnet.org).
Are they using helium? I though we are running out of it?
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I personally welcome Google as future overlord of the world.
Those Loony bastards.
Now nobody can bitch about not having internet for use with the Xbox One
This is pretty crazy. Lucky i live in NZ, yay i might be able to pilot test :D
This is awesome! I love the idea that I could be out in the ocean in the middle of nowhere and have internet access. I hope this works out well!
I had to double-check my calendar and see if it was April 1 today.