this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
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Tesla is facing issues with the bare metal construction of the Cybertruck, which Elon Musk warned was as tricky to do as making Lego bricks

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[–] CharlesDarwin 66 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Why does Space Karen still have all his fanbois? Do they really think he's some kind of software/technology/business genius, even after all that has come out about him?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I wouldn't say I was a fanboy, but I liked him before .. I don't know, he was always crazy. These days he's even more crazy and I'm not touching anything he does.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I can't stand him but Starlink is so fucking awesome. Having high speed internet fucking everywhere is a game changer.

[–] flucksy_bango 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Eh, not saying starlink isn't good, but it's not exactly novel. It didn't take a genius to come up with the idea, which I very much doubt musk did, but the work that needed to be done and the service provided is impressive.

Musk did very little in that effort beyond paying the bill. I don't really think that's something to be commended for. Bill Gates could've paid for it and the result would have been identical.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm definitely not praising Musk, I'm just saying that I've been really happy with my Starlink dish. I don't like that I'm supporting him financially in this small way but it fits my needs too well.

[–] flucksy_bango 1 points 1 year ago

I didn't think you were. The dude is so mind bogglingly rich that the concept of currency starts to unravel.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Bill Gates still doesn't get the internet thingamajig

[–] flucksy_bango 1 points 1 year ago

Nobody gets it, but that wasn't my point.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Nah, he caught on late but he got it. He's been out of the game for a long time, so people don't remember when he was running MSFT. Guy was the real deal.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

wow that was a really interesting article. the only thing impressive thing elon musk has done is getting the smart people together to form spacex, and i sure hope its out of his hands at this point so he cant drive it into the ground.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks for sharing this article. We're all at the mercy of the rich and powerful.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's not gonna be high bandwidth though, just low latency over long distances. It's primarily for stock exchange information.

[–] ApolloTanuki 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Mate, it's the opposite that's true. Satellite communications are high latency, low (ish, Starlink is actually not that bad in this respect) throughput.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I did more digging and:

  1. Starlink bandwidth is better than I was expecting.
  2. I can't find the video that did all the math, but basically by using a low Earth orbit network you can get information long distances faster than you can with cell towers and fiber because you're significantly reducing the number of repeaters you need without significantly increasing the distance the information has to travel.
    "Traditional" satellite internet uses satellites that are much higher up, which is where the high latency comes from. The LEO means comparatively lower latency, though the advantage over ground-based networks only works over significant distances. It also means you need more satellites to make a functional network and you need to replace them more often.
    The higher cost to orbit made the old model the correct way to do satellite internet, and now a bunch of billionaires are betting they can replace satellites cheaply enough to make money off a LEO network. Rural customers might be a happy accidental revenue stream, but the most enthusiastic customers will be people sending market information between servers on opposite sides of the globe. To them, billions of dollars can be made by getting information a millisecond before everyone else, so they're the ones who have the biggest interest in using the network.
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I also think signals travel faster through a vacuum (speed of light) than through a medium like copper or even fiber optic cables.

But I'm not a physics dude, so I don't know how much that impacts latency. But from I know about it, seems plausible.

I think there's a bit of a bandwagon kind of thing where everyone wants to say anything that Musk is associated with is a dumb idea. Starlink isn't a new idea, I remember reading about the idea of a LEO satellite constellation concept in Popular Mechanics back in the 90s. I think it was Microsoft that was considering getting in on that back then, but it never happened.

The "genius" of Elon Musk is that he simply has the resources to implement ideas found in old Popular Mechanics magazines. Just didn't really look into Hyperloop enough (not feasible) before going on about how great an idea it is. Starlink does make sense though.

[–] bugieman 4 points 1 year ago

Umm, high latency means slow reactions. I think you and OP meant the same thing, but you have the terms mixed up

[–] AustralianSimon 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Same. I think it happens with any billionaire the longer the media focuses on them the more of their crazy comes out.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

No you guys just got fooled by his very good PR team

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think they do , two of my school friends are his fanbois and even after his open goofup at twitter they be like , Elon musk , rocket boi , innovator and genius , first to invent sattelite internet ,he has enginnering degrees in making cars and rockets and should stick to it ! ( i was like no he does not have the degrees) 😏

[–] CharlesDarwin 2 points 1 year ago

Well, he did a cameo on Big Bang Theory, so he must be an engineer, right?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He is talented, just not at engineering or science particularly.

His talents lie in obtaining government subsidies and trolling.

[–] CharlesDarwin 1 points 1 year ago