Lantern: One Device, Free Data From Space Forever

[sam_uk]

I just took a punt on one of these at $89. I don't imagine it will be all that much use to me (Probably 2Mb data a day initially) I'll keep mine on the boat in case I do any longer trips at sea.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lant ... r/x/431448

I got it mainly to support the project that I think could be useful in a global sense.

Like the water we drink or the air we breathe, the information we consume feeds the very essence of what it means to be human. Lantern establishes a new baseline of human knowledge. We are not fixing the world for people, we are giving them the information they need to fix it themselves.

Lantern continuously receives radio waves broadcast by Outernet from space. Lantern turns the signal into digital files, like webpages, news articles, ebooks, videos, and music. Lantern can receive and store any type of digital file on its internal drive. To view the content stored in Lantern, turn on the Wi-Fi hotspot and connect to Lantern with any Wi-Fi enabled device. All you need is a browser.

Oh, and Outernet is free to use, always.

[Snail]

What an amazing idea. Not sure I fully understand it (the 2mb limit without a satellite dish means the signal is like sw radio or something?). But damn interesting.

A new raspberry pi is out and costs just £15. Technology's amazing really.

[Snail]

I've been thinking about this. The technology's neat, but in reality this sort of thing will end up overwhelming and destroying local information.

Globalism, growing interdependence seems to bring about as many negatives as benefits.

[Little John]

There's something fishy about the this. They spend loads of site space rabbiting on but give little away about the details. But, when you cut away all the verbiage, it's a device that passively receives data at a a rate of about 200mb a day, which is basically shite. The third world has already largely passed this kind of thing by and is busy connecting itself up with mobile telephony which is not passive and can receive data streams far bigger than that. Some folks in poorer countries that don't have much internet infrastructure are even using software that can let smartphones, Wi-Fi routers, and other hardware link up without the need for a centralized Internet service. It's called "Mobile Mesh Networking".

Additionally, it is only right down the bottom of the page of this site that you discover that, at the moment, this device does not work unless it is connected up to a satellite dish and that the organisation pushing it are trying to raise the money to get it to the point where it can work portably on it's own. at the moment, it does not. but you'd have never guessed that from the front of house guff.

It's bullshit.

[adam2]

There's something fishy about the this. They spend loads of site space rabbiting on but give little away about the details. But, when you cut away all the verbiage, it's a device that passively receives data at a a rate of about 200mb a day, which is basically shite. The third world has already largely passed this kind of thing by and is busy connecting itself up with mobile telephony which is not passive and can receive data streams far bigger than that. Some folks in poorer countries that don't have much internet infrastructure are even using software that can let smartphones, Wi-Fi routers, and other hardware link up without the need for a centralized Internet service. It's called "Mobile Mesh Networking".

Additionally, it is only right down the bottom of the page of this site that you discover that, at the moment, this device does not work unless it is connected up to a satellite dish and that the organisation pushing it are trying to raise the money to get it to the point where it can work portably on it's own. at the moment, it does not. but you'd have never guessed that from the front of house guff.

It's bullshit.

Agree.