Aardvark

[Bruce Simpson]

This column is archived at: http://aardvark.co.nz/daily/2010/0127.shtml

Does it make sense to build an orbiting network of IP routers?

Would this provide a valuable alternative/backup to the current terrestrial internet?

How could such a network be protected from the attentions of hackers?

Would the cost of such a network always restrict its use to military and government agencies?

Will this new "SkyNet" really have any impact on the internet as we know it today?

[cheetah100]

The most interesting feature of such a system would be that people in places with access to the Internet only through filters would be able to have access to unfiltered Internet. Very cool. Of course you would need the gear and the cash to afford the connection costs, but at the end of the day it would be a potential help to those without freedoms.

[Perry]

SkyNet has been with us before. That was
the name used in the early days of NZPO
e-mail provision. No - that's not right:
it was StarNet. I think the name Oasis
came first. No GUI and all CLI, back then.
Help? It came in a folder filled with paper.

TZQ054 was my first mailbox. Videotext
was the first attempt at on-line marketing.
Still have some of those pix made up of
ASCII characters and no more. Thems
were the days.

[roygbiv]

It is worth keeping an eye on this technology, the obvious relation is use of satellite phones, one piece of technology to do both, an iPhone derivative perhaps.
It will truly kill Telecoms grip on broadband and put the kybosh on the great 'global roaming' price ripoff.

[Sophocles]

Cool. Run it on Windows Windows in Space!! Can you imagine the fun when the malware takes over? Chicken Little wuz right!