64kbps @ 40,000 ft.

jumpstop writes "The NYT Technology section reports that 64kbps is now available on business jets. Sure, you can read your email and surf the web, but can you blast away at Wolfenstein?"

Comments

Mile High Club

[Squareball]

Wow so this could bring a new kinda mile high club.. Cyber Sex at 40,000 feet ;)

Re:Mile High Club

[Rude Turnip]

Yeah, now you can join the club all by yourself. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are at our cruising altitude of 35,000 feet and the captain has just turned the pr0n filter off."

precision in language

[tps12]

The NYT Technology section reports that 64kbps is now available on business jets.

I would also like to announce that 56mph is now available in my house.

Also, as a special favor, I am offering 92 degrees Celsius to any interested parties.

Flying first class with decent net connection

[Kasmiur]

And I still cannot get first post:-(

Each or between us?

[samael]

Does the whole plane have a 64k connection?

Or are we all going to have to share it between us?

And what happens when the 15 year old in row 27 loads up Gnutella and uses _all_ the bandwidth?

Re:Each or between us?

[benwb]

Sadly enough the dot com days are over, so there are probably not all that many 15 year olds tooling around in business jets anymore.

Re:Each or between us?

[jfedor]

And what happens when the 15 year old in row 27 loads up Gnutella and uses _all_ the bandwidth?

You setup some QoS rules at the router.

Or, you can just go and hit him in the head with something heavy.

-jfedor

On my next trans pacific flight...

[qurob]

I can download the latest Slackware ISO!

Re:er

[morgajel]

somehow I don't think they'll let you bring BFG's on board- the security guards I saw didn't exactly seem like they would be able to comprehend the difference:)

(btw, I know BFG isn't wolfenstein, so humor me)

Faster connections possible with same equipment.

[Peter Trepan]

An airplane traveling at 50% of light speed in a straight line towards the broadcast satellite should be able to provide access speeds of up to 128 Kbps. Faster even, if you include the effects of time dilation.

Arrested?

[tarsi210]

can you blast away at Wolfenstein?

And if you did, would you get arrested or attacked by the passengers for wielding a weapon?

Maybe arming pilots with a plasma rifle would be a good thing. Or maybe they just need Jabber:

SkieHighPil0t: Help! We're being hijacked!
Sl33pyGrndCtrl: Thanks, SkieHighPil0t, but I'm away from my computer right now. Leave a message! :)

Re:for luser tin hat types...

[realdpk]

Such speed offers white-knuckle fliers new possibilities: for example, it took no time at all to download a 238-kilobyte aviation safety manual.

I would hope they'd have such a manual on the aircraft already.

Jetstream

[africanswallow]

Actually, I heard that the 64kbps is the net of the 56kbps you get going west against the jetstream over the Pacific and 72kbps going with.

Awesome!

[Anonnymous Coward]

I'm finally going to get to join the mile-high club!

Re:Dont plan on playing Quake III while flying

[Kredal]

You could play MS Flight Sim, and see how much faster you could get from New York to LA than the plane you're actually on.

Hmmm.... terrorist actions...

[arkane1234]

I wonder though, with all the advents that have occured lately, (9/11, security tightening, civil right violations that are state sanctioned) how will the gov't get there hands into this? I know it sounds slightly stupid to think, but the cautious side of me *knows* beyond a shadow of a doubt there will be some kind of sniffer running. Hell, since you can't bring nail files onto the plane, whats to stop people from just turning off their freakin' laptop and cracking peoples skulls with it? (users of Dell Latitudes know what I'm talking about.. the thing almost looks designed for that)

But seriously... caution by the consumer cattle needs to be taken. I've wondered about the airplane phones for years, but at the price of those I seriously doubt anyone but a PHB or a PHB lacky would use one of those... or someone with a corporate card and no reason to hold back :)

Ahh, word problems

[sharkey]

An airplane traveling at 50% of the speed of light leaves Kennedy Airport in New York City at 10:16 AM EST, and is scheduled to land 4 hours 23 minutes later at Los Angelos International airport. At what Pacific Daylight Savings time will the 40-year-old pervert sitting in Seat 37C finish downloading his first 10MB S&M video clip from www.spankme.com, assuming he is able to utilize 80% of the available 64kbps bandwidth and with the satellite directly in front of him?

With the satellite directly behind him?

With the satellite in geosynchronous, low-earth orbit where it should be instead of directly in front of a jet flying at 40,000 feet?