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Experiences with DirecWay Satellite Internet
Since moving outside Ann Arbor almost 2 years ago, I've had only a 56k modem to tether my home to the net. Cable, DSL and ISDN are impossible in my location. DirecWay now offers the DW6000, which appears to be an operating system agnostic router for satellite internet access. I already use DirecTV, so this might work well.
I'm aware of the game crippling latency, but that's not a huge deal to me. The monthly price seems reasonable, but is there a catch? I'm abusing my power as Slashdot editor to ask for experiences with this (or similiar) services.
Does it bog down during the day? Not work with common hardware? Hidden costs? Does it cost a fortune for the required professional installation? Is ssh completely unusable?
The thing about satellite internet is that there is no reason to ever get it unless you have no other options. It is more expensive than DSL or cable, yet slower. And the higher latency as you mentioned. But it sounds like your kinda situation is the semi-niche market satellite internet aims at. As far as installion goes, since you already have a dish on your roof, any half-competent installer will be able to do the job in a half-hour.
Moderation Totals: Flamebait=2, Troll=1, Redundant=1, Insightful=6, Overrated=1, Underrated=1, Total=12. (not mine)
One of the advantages of the "Internet Lifestyle" is that it lets you do your work from more and more remote places.
One of the disadvantages of the "Internet Lifestyle" is that it lets you do your work from more and more remote places.
Places where broadband isn't available.
You might be surprised just how many geek gods are on dialup because they are geek gods. If they just lived in Altoona (or Ann Arbor) and delivered pizzas they could get cable service, but they can live anywhere they want and still work, so they go someplace nice.
Personally I like mountains and oceans, but dragging a few thousand miles of coax behind you is a bitch. The bounce to the bird is irrelevant for downloads and uploads (you only experience the lag once), but a bitch for real time interaction.
The geekiest people may well be the people with the worst internet service.
KFG
I think you would be surprised how many developers have 56k at home. I have looked into DirecWay also; as I happen to live just between two cities. DSL might come in a year or two, but I doubt cable will be available for the next five years.
The truth is that I don't need more than 56k. I work long hours, and our netadmin is cool at my employer. He doesn't mind if I d/l legal music or non-business ISO's. I can get pretty much whatever I want; his only rule is that we don't use any P2P programs and blocks the standard ports. And you know what, when I get home late at night or have the weekend off, I don't really want to sit in front of my computer very much. I'd rather talk to my fiance or go outside or do ANYTHING different from what I do 60 hrs/week.
I understand the great beauty of an always-on connection, and if broadband were cheaply available, I'd take it. My point is just that many of us here love computers and programming, but we get so much of it during the work week that we really don't care much about having broadband at home.
Having a good dev laptop also helps assuage the need for broadband.
You know, people make the statement that taco is out of touch with the slashdot community, and I dont think anything illustrates this point as much as the fact that he's on dialup.
I've got a better illustration. How about this:
I already use DirecTV?
I've vowed not to ever subscribe to DirecTV, because of DirecTV's policy of suing purchasers of smart card programming hardware, regardless of whether or not that hardware was used to intercept DirecTV's transmissions.
That's pure harassment and barratry by a company that knows that even if it loses it can ruin its victims by running up their costs to defend themselves.
And I know about this abuse of process and restraint of trade because I read about it, and the EFF's fight against it, on Slashdot: here and here and here.
But is CmdrTaco taking a stand? Hell no! At the same time the EFF files an amicus brief with the 11th Circuit appeal of DirecTV's suit, CmdrTaco is paying DirectTV $25.00 a month (or whatever the subscription fee is) to sit back and watch reruns of Die Hard II.
And people wonder why "Your Rights Online" keep getting trampled under by Big Corporations and Big Brother -- because even a so-called "geek leader" prefers sitting on his ass as a comfortable couch potato to standing up for a principle.
Really Taco, I expected better from you. Stand up for something -- show some leadership -- and ditch your DirecTV in the most public way you can.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Do *try* to recall that broadband isn't available everywhere. No, the right answer is not "move someplace else". There are huge numbers of people in suburban and rural parts of the USA where the choices are $100-a-month DirecWay (if you can get it. I couldn't due to "lay of the land" issues) or crappy dialup.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
By the same token if you have the $$$ you can get cable anywhere you can get a T1.
.Stop!
Well, perhaps you might be surprised that a good many geek gods don't have $$$ because they've been doing geeky things instead of amassing $$$.
I'm not a geek god. Maybe a Roshi. A grey ponytail. Larry can have fun playing with his Ferrari and Marchetti, but I'd slit my skinny geeky wrists before I'd do what he did to get them. I have just as much fun with my Schwinn and homemade scrounged bits and plastic sheeting hang glider.
Or maybe a boat.
Do you have a globe handy? You are a geek aren't you? Ah, well, they don't make geeks like they used to I guess. In my day. . . , well, nevermind.
You've at least seen a globe. So picture that globe in your mind, rotate it up a bit. A bit more, Now to the left, more, more. . .
You are now looking at a globe that for all practical purposes is painted blue.
Who is the local telco and will they run a T1 line there? Will they run another 100 miles away tomorrow?
You are looking at the ground. Lift your head and broaden your horizon. It's a big world and it ain't all wired, or even wirable.
Once upon a time, out in that patch of pure blue on the globe, a women alone in a small sailboat got into trouble. The only other person with any hope of coming to her aid was a man in another small sailboat. He was asleep at the time.
How was he notified of the situation?
Email.
The big world gets smaller all the time. It is possible in some way to get connected from anywhere (although if you have to carry that way on your back over mountains it might be better to just forget about it).
But that way will often have to eschew wires.
KFG
well, everybody has their hobby horse. i'll bet if i look at your credit card statements, i'll see a raft of purchases from amazon.com, one of the more morally corrupt net establishments. probably, some payouts or receipts from ebay, too. ditto for that group. you probably have a closet full of clothes made in china because they're cheap and you aren't too concerned about how they got that way.
i once went two years without a phone because i had a tiff with the phone company. all that did was make it hard for people to reach me. it's more important to pick your fights and win them than it is to go around thumping your chest and proclaiming your own "purity." i don't give a damn whether you're pure if you're a jerk -- i don't want to know you and neither does anyone else.
that's why, for example, the quakers are a religious body known the world over, even though they comprise a tiny fraction of the christian population. and that's why the eff doesn't pick up every case that comes along. they won't waste effort on a case they don't think they can win. there are plenty of moral causes that invite attention -- go to GreenPeace if you can't think of any. DirecTV isn't even on my radar.
just because you own a keyboard doesn't mean you're required to type on it.
mp
"The secret to strong security: less reliance on secrets." -- Whitfield Diffie