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Skynet Means More Bandwidth for British
pcnetworx1 writes "A new £3.6bn project to upgrade the space communications network for British forces including the Army, Royal Navy, and RAF has gone underway. The first craft, Skynet 5A was launched from Kourou in French Guiana on 11 March 2007. There will be a constellation of three satellites in total. This system is also not an exclusive project for the armed forces, it is actually outsourced to a company called Paradigm Secure Communications. They work with NATO, France, Germany, Canada, Portugal and the Netherlands. They are also seeking new business in the US, Australia, and the Middle East."
-1 for being a boring topic. +10 for a perhaps unintentionally fantastic name.
Guy Opening Anus To Show Everyone
The soldiers now can play Counter Strike really well with less lag!
(No terminator jokes this time though, that was when it was launched a few weeks ago)
liqbase
I for one welcome our new bandwidth providing Terminators
And laugh in Microsoft's face!
20.38: Skynet becomes aware
20.39: Skynet gives more bandwidth
20.40: ????
20.41: Profit!
"Oh boy"
Now we know why Skynet loses, the terminators were all searching for Bot-Pr0n!!
Service guarantees Citizenship! Questions Guarantee GITMO.... Amerika Uber Alles!
... some jokes just write themselves...
1969: Series of UK military satellites called "Skynet" first launched
1997: Skynet, a neural net-based artificial intelligence built by Cyberdyne Systems,
brought online and given control over the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal
2007: UK military ridiculed for choice of name for latest high-bandwidth series of "Skynet" satellites
Time travel's a bitch..
they get more bandwidth... everyone knows that North America is the first place that will go with the missles fly. They're just going to use what North American ISPs won't need anymore.
load "$",8,1
...90% of slashdotters are coming to this article to either make a terminator joke or to read other people's terminator jokes.
They are also seeking new business in the US, Australia and the Middle East.
I'm finally vindicated after all these years! Everyone kept claiming the Terminator's accept was Austrian, or some such rot, but I knew it was British.
Error:
Before we allow governments to completely control space, we really, really need to liberate governments from the shackles of history. Read: we need the Metagovernment.
Once they get control of space, humanity is locked into this ancient (prehistoric, really) form of tyranny forever.
It is very interesting to see this technology being used by several nations and across political spectra (free world, communist world..etc). Sure, China won't get it's satellite comm systems straight from the US, but I will bet you anything that western states allied against certain blocks of nations will direct limited amounts of tech into Chinese (and other) hands, through the French for example. The common tech may seem like an advantage to the enemy, but just think what could happen if all of China's ground coordination technology went offline during a major offensive against Vietnam, say. If I was a non-ally of the US of A, I would build my very own Skynet thank you very much.
Hm. Open source space program? I'd have to see it to believe it.
The interesting part is that it's ip aware and is basically a big router in the sky. This is new-ish stuff. It has other cool tech but software people wouldn't be terribly interested in e.g. the snazzy electronically steerable antenna etc.
It's a slight shame the Hollywood has given everyone unrealistic expectations of, among other things, the state of the art in military satellite systems. It's rather like the Stealth Fighter - an awesome achievement despite the fact that it was far from having the all-aspect stealth that it is generally portrayed to have. Another example would be those f***ng moronic films where someone breaks "128-bit encryption" in 60 seconds because he has a gun to his head (or whatever).
The interesting part of it is that Satellites of the Skynet 4 era need teams of people to fly them and make constant adjustments to their orientation and orbit but that commercial satellite tech has become so good now that one person can fly many satellites and each satellite can manage itself for up to 28 days. I never knew how much effort it was until hearing this.
This is all just my personal opinion.
Feck it, I can't resist! Skynet's first self-aware thought: "Where in the world is Sarah Connor?"
Reminds me of a Dilbert strip.
Anonymous meeting member: My project is a whole new paradigm.
Dilbert: What's a paradigm?
A: Heh-heh... "What's a paradigm"... funny.
D: Seriously, what is it?
A: You know... paradigm, paradigmish...
A: As in, "this project is a paradigm."
A: But enough about my project... tell us about your project.
D: It's a paradigm.
D (whispering to A): They bought it.
Anonymous meeting member 2: My project is a paradigm too.
I can scan it if anyone wants to see it.
Remember to duck and cover when they come
Arash Partow's Philosophy: Be a person who knows what they don't know, and not a person who doesn't know.
You're absolutely right - it's the ONE thing that makes that hacking different from the regular approach.
Personally, I think this is a completely overlooked field (which is understandable as they're all under the table). I think we should immediately seek Congressional funding and investigate if being in physical symbiosis with an attractive member of the opposite sex improves crypto and code breaking performance (I'm using 'physical symbiosis' to indicate that such research shouldn't be limited to just one specific approach - be thorough).
Who knows, Clinton may have simply been ahead of his time 8-).
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Skynet Means More Bandwidth for British
What happened to grammar? If it was about Americans, would it read "Skynet Means More Bandwidth for American"? I wouldn't have a problem with it if it said "the British", but that is not the case. It just reads as though the last part of the sentence (which would have been 'forces') has been sliced off.
Skynet actually EXISTS?!?!?!?! Yeah, it WOULD be built by the British...
of the company that created the Treminator? Great name! ;-)
smp