GreyEyedGhost

I had Starlink for over 2 years while waiting for my fiber to be installed. Worlds better than the marginal DSL I had available before (5 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up), but I'm far happier with the fiber I have now.

This makes no sense on the face of it. Let's say the satellites are 100 km (or miles) above the earth. If I was to connect to a server 10 km (or miles) away, my complete route over fiber is 10 km. My complete route over satellite is just over 200 km (assuming it's between those two points). Now, let's say the server is 500 km (we'll assume the earth is flat over this expanse, even though that's about 5° around the earth). So our fiber link has to go 500 km, more or less. Our satellite link has to go about 540 km, best case scenario. If we raise those satellites, it only gets worse (it's probably closer to 860, best case scenario, for satellites at 350 km).

I just did a quick check, and the curvature of the earth over that 500 km scenario is about 20 km (it won't be 20 miles for 500 miles).

Now, you might start to argue that were talking about straight lines, and that's true for satellites but not for fiber. And that might be true. But we've already shown that the hop to space and back is already increasing that distance by 60% or more. But those two or so straight lines are just til you get to the Starlink hub, so you aren't going to reduce this much more than the numbers above. And yes, fiber will have some extra distance due to following the grid rather than straight lines. But, again, that only matters to the ISP hub and then you're back to the same distances.

The other argument you listed is the speed of light in space/atmosphere vs. fiber, and it's a valid point. Not there are some interesting things done with guiding light to the center of the fiber, which is another way of saying there are multiple refractive indexes, but let's go with a refractive index of 1.5. That means the speed of light in glass is 2/3×_c_, or that light in space can go about 50% farther. And that's about the added distance for using LEO satellites.

tldr: All the benefits of transmitting through air or space are basically negated by the added distance, where the best-case scenario is only slightly better than the worst-case scenario for fiber.

Inflation isn't based on the cost of a single thing. You're confusing it with stocks.

Oh, this sounds like a ridiculously easy case to win. So where is that case where someone had a car that was being sold in an illegal manner and they won? Just one, anywhere in the world. And not the one about the VW emissions scandal. Most diesel vehicle drivers don't really care about emissions, and no one was paying less for a non-EPA qualifying option.

I find this irritating, and if this is the worst trolls were doing, life would be better.

It also means they can build fewer types of engine for the models they make, requiring less tooling, less spare parts, etc. I'm not sure if that is enough to balance the environmental cost of making slightly bigger motors, but a number of companies have come to the conclusion that it's cheaper than having more engine options.

My kids didn't see an ad connected to videos until the youngest was about 7 (outside of a movie theater, at least). When they first saw them, they were flabbergasted about what they were or why people would just sit there watching them, and absolutely refuse to put up with them. I'd say they are better off seeing how things could be, so when they see how things are now they recognize how utter shit it is.

Me too, when the meds haven't worn off.

Just kidding, I haven't been on meds for ^years^.

Assuming it's just a joke is a bit of a take.

The whole meta because he was in so many movies makes it required to be on the list, imo.

Crabs in a bucket.

Some people, and dogs, are more attractive than others. This is an objective fact. Some people, and dogs, make the world a worse place and therefore make it a better place when they die. This is more subjective, but most people would agree with that statement, if not who would qualify. As for my grandfather's dog, the qualities that caused it to make the world a worse place were not its physical features. I rarely comment on people's looks because I think that's generally the least important thing about people.