Comments on: Internet-powered people networks

By: Bruce Hoult

Bruce Hoult — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:14:46 +0000

Yeah, I’m from a farming background myself. I still have plenty of relatives out in the middle of nowhere.

Satellite internet is great for bulk data such as videos. I used to have it myself for a few years back around 2000. The 30 Mbps burst speed was great at the time, but you had to wait about 650 mS for the first bytes to come in. So web browsing was ::click:: .. wait … *bang* (the HTML) … wait … *bang* (the images). Annoying interactively, but perfect for youtube. I hear they even made it 2-way these days.

By: Miraz

Miraz — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:00:42 +0000

I’ve also had house guests who were people I knew only through a mailing list or similar.

As for the farmers wanting broadband — it would certainly make a difference for videos and photos. Remember too that in some remote locations even dial-up is fraught with difficulty and cellphone coverage may not exist.

By: Bruce Hoult

Bruce Hoult — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:26:59 +0000

Oh .. not to mention my current house-guest, a student from Berlin who recently finished his Masters’ thesis and will be starting a PhD in Copenhagen next northern summer. He wanted to come to a NZ summer, and is doing some part time work as a research assistant at Vic. We’re not too sure, but think we’ve known each other on the internet for 5 or 6 years.

By: Bruce Hoult

Bruce Hoult — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:22:26 +0000

Facebook and Twitter hardly need broadband! I probably do the majority of my use of those two sites on my phone in odd moments here and there.

But my spread of friends is certainly wide. When I become active on my computer in the morning, as likely as not a friend in St Petersburg or Bucharest will be the first to say “good morning”.