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Facebook Secretly Explored Building Bird-Size Drones To Ferry Data To People With Bad Internet Connections (businessinsider.com)
Facebook recently explored building bird-size drones loaded with data to help improve people's internet connections. From a report: The Menlo Park, California-headquartered technology giant worked on a far-out project, called Catalina, in recent years that aimed to build tiny fixed-wing aircraft capable of ferrying media to communities to augment slow internet connections like 2G, Business Insider has learned. The efforts illustrate how Facebook has been exploring out-of-the-box concepts in its attempts to connect people around the world to the internet for the first time and grow Facebook's user base. And it shows that even amid Facebook's public retreat in June from building 747-size "Aquila" drones to provide internet connectivity to emerging markets, the company was also considering other, even less conventional aerial methods of providing connectivity solutions. Development of Catalina began in late 2017 or earlier, a source said, and work on it continued past June. Also in the story: Facebook has pursued some additional low-tech connectivity efforts. "Street Feet" was an internal effort that paid people in emerging markets to physically approach random people on the street and persuade them to sign up for Facebook.
http://montypython.50webs.com/...
Is this the next release of the standard "IP over Avian Carrier"?
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
Why would you want to do something sensible and robust like having hammy's create a shortwave mesh network when you can just waste time, energy, and materials by throwing drones at something? C'mon man, you gotta think like a millennial here!
RFC 1149 -- https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1149
A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers
Can they vote?
And by media, they mean advertisements.
What's the end goal here? I could see this for something like a compressed version of Wikipedia and similar websites, but FaceBook?
"Your message to your uncle was sent via RFC 1149. You can expect a reply no earlier than two weeks from now."
#DeleteFacebook
April 1st is Monday. I think /. 8 bit server is suffering from the Y2K bug.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
A couple days early for these stories, no?
Not all people who have bad internet connection are poor. It is just that they are not absurdly rich to get ISP's to get wires to their home. Some farmers who actually make a good living, may be miles away from the Internet Infrastructure, however will benefit getting information on weather, commodity prices, veterinarian results, bank account data, new on any new regulations, and communication with others.
There is a difference between East Coast rural, then mid-west rural. East Coast farms may have a few thousand acres, still small enough to be in rage of Cell Data, But in the mid-west a ranch are measured in square miles. Not profitable to put up Cell Towers to additional ISP wires (Cable/Fiber)
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Some areas are tough for Sneaker-Net. And with Drones we can have dozens of communication transfers a day vs. 1 or 2 with Sneaker-Net.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Why don't we have carrier pigeons with USB sicks? Are drones that much more reliable and affordable to maintain?
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
They must be trying to implement that. It's too early for April Fool's Day.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
I submit that those folks would be excellent candidates for satellite-based internet access. All of the activities listed would be well served by that technology. Drones? You gotta be kidding.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
> How would Facebook monetize these poor people?
Poor people can be extraordinarily profitable if you have the resources, infrastructure, and warped moral compass required to aggressively exploit them. Poor people generally have few options and no bargaining power, so the fact that you're willing to do business with them puts you in an extraordinarily powerful position to dictate "take it or leave it" terms.
Are we talking hummingbird or albatross ?
Or swallow?
A station wagon full of magtapes still have the largest bandwidth
Sadly, I would have to guess if you used this saying around anyone much under the age of 50yrs, their first response would be...
"What's a station wagon?"
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Facebook Secretly Explored Building Bird-Size Drones To Ferry Personal Data From People With Bad Internet Connections
Amirite?
April 1st is Monday. I think /. 8 bit server is suffering from the Y2K bug.
Yeah, my first thought was, "wait is this an April Fools joke?"
As incompetent as Facebook are, I wouldn't be surprised if this were released too early.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
IP over Avian Carriers (IPoAC) was initially described in RFC 1149, released on April 1, 1990. Waitzman described an improvement of his protocol in RFC 2549, IP over Avian Carriers with Quality of Service (1 April 1999). Later, in RFC 6214—released on 1 April 2011, and 13 years after the introduction of IPv6—Carpenter and Hinden published Adaptation of RFC 1149 for IPv6.
Show me on the 1st Amendment bobblehead where the moderator touched you...
Facebook has pursued some additional low-tech connectivity efforts. "Street Feet" was an internal effort that paid people in emerging markets to physically approach random people on the street and persuade them to sign up for Facebook.
This would have totally backfired. There was a start-up where I live, like 10 years ago. They had a series of what appeared to be small moving trucks that had been modified to show scrolling advertisements on all sides. Needless to say it was eventually banned by a city ordnance, but before that happened, people would cut the trucks off, brake-check them and just generally give them shit on the road. I imagine that if Facebook hired people to advertise to the general public like that, probably the same, or worse, would happen to them.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
It's not that hard to get data for a mile or two with a fixed parabolic antenna aimed at the cell tower.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Not all poors are stupid, only most. The dumb ones can be super profitable. Look at the 'Rent to own' industry.
There is nothing unethical/immoral about running an RTO or Lottery. Everybody involved is engaging in purely voluntary contracts. It's not your fault they are bad at math.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Not all people who have bad internet connection are poor.
In the early days of Usenet, a tape was sent to Australia everyday on a flight from the west cost of the US.
Sneakernet: Usage examples
"What's a station wagon?" ;)
Station wagons were effectively banned by the CAFE standards passed by congress in the late 1970s. People with a need for cargo space switched to less efficient and more polluting SUVs, trucks, or vans.
Yes, this was stupid and counter-productive, and yes, this is a great example of unintended consequences from poorly thought out regulation.
Nothing you wrote disagrees with the post you called "stupid" and allegedly made you sick (I really don't think so). Whining that someone dare to acknowledge that poor people have less choice and so anyone targeting them are in a powerful position, especially as consumer protection laws are generally weak in these areas?
Childish and naive.
they need to stop being so awful. Anyone still using facebook after all the crap they've been recently found to be doing is intellectually challenged.
the sensationalism and editorializing of a mundane 'news' item
many if not most companies have an R&D division/aspect in which they explore future possibilities; the fact that it isn't announced to the public in detail is not the same as it being done 'in secret'
clickbait journalism requires falsehood and misdirection.... the very opposite of the journalist's creedo
".... oooooo, let's call it "secret" so it appears full of controversy and we'll get the views to justify the ads...." of course this is much better than to headline it as 'Facebook pursued low-tech connectivity efforts' which brings fewer views
disgusting
I understand that, but Facebook is probably the furthest thing from a static website.
What would be their product to reach those people to push advertising on them, since it can't be Facebook?
#DeleteFacebook
Facebook has been funding service providers in developing countries for some time now.
One example is MPT, a mobile network in Myanmar. MPT provides zero-rated Facebook access, ensuring that Myanmar's populace will choose Facebook over any less-scummy competitors—and Facebook provides so many services at this point that there's little reason to ever leave the site, especially when doing so will cost you. Facebook is the primary—if not only—source for messaging, digital marketplaces, news, and more; in conversation, "Facebook" is used synonymously with "the internet".
Facebook corners emerging markets like this and ensures that they continue to add to their user counts and become the go-to marketing avenue for each—and it'll continue this way until they run out of markets.
It's also not my fault you can't make a coherent argument.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Headlines are usually full of crap. There's nothing in TFA about this being any kind of a secret. Now, maybe they didn't call up Business Insider ahead of time to tell them about it, that's not the same thing as a secret.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
First drone delivers "REQ".
Returns back with "ACK1".
Files again with "ACK2".
And - voila! Connection established!
How would Facebook monetize these poor people?
Hmm, there's a tough one...
yeah, no shit
Not to mention, most huge ranches, particularly those in the Midwest (the silly example given) are flat... thus allowing several methods for inexpensively extending range.
Fucking amen.
Mod the fucking-fuck up.
"What's a station wagon?"
My '15 Suburban is a body-on-frame station wagon with more ground clearance than any highway vehicle ought to have... but Eibach is supposed to be working on a lowering kit. :)
come early to Slashdot?
Never heard of that species of bird before!
before the discovery of their recent doings?
Exploiting the weak or stupid for profit is indeed immoral.
How will they ever become not stupid or strong?
Tell your state government the lottery is immoral, go ahead. RTO is no different.
A fool and their money were lucky to get together in the first place. It is an immoral act to let a sucker keep his money.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Yes, the state lottery is immoral. It's a disgrace to the people and an indictment of our rulers' wickedness.