from the kiss-the-rest-of-your-privacy-goodbye dept.
Up in the sky, look! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a solar-powered internet drone!
Facebook has revealed that it has completed the first successful flight of it's Aquila drone, which it hopes will eventually be used to provide internet access to remote regions of the world. The company, which has been testing a one-fifth scale version of the drone for months, initially hoped to fly the full-sized aircraft for 30 minutes, but far exceeded that goal.
[...]
What exactly is Aquila? Just an unmanned, solar-powered, internet-providing drone from Facebook. Yasmeen Abutaleb shares the important background information:
Facebook...completed a successful test flight of a solar-powered drone that...will help it extend internet connectivity to every corner of the planet.
...
Aquila, Facebook's lightweight, high-altitude aircraft, flew at a few thousand feet for 96 minutes in Yuma, Arizona...The company ultimately hopes to have a fleet of Aquilas that can fly for at least three months at a time at 60,000 feet...and communicate with each other to deliver internet access.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 4, Insightful) by WizardFusion on Monday July 25 2016, @11:48AM
...to deliver internet access...
...or just facebook access.?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday July 25 2016, @11:59AM
Well, if it's anything like Free Basics... [theguardian.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday July 25 2016, @12:17PM
Yeah, it's likely their "Internet.org" bullshit. Basically it's whatever they feel like letting you see, a nasty combination of Apple and AOL.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2016, @12:47PM
As long as it's free, it's better than nothing. There are still parts of the good ol' USA that can't get anything but dial-up, unless you want the way overpriced satellite offerings. I happen to live in one of those areas, zero high speed offerings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2016, @01:13PM
Good for you then. You will be quarantined in your little garden...
Good for you that you think that that nice little zen garden is better than nothing. Let me know what your owners want you to think about that when you got a minute to look up what they want you see online...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2016, @01:21PM
Dry it up. Are you saying that nothing would be better than some level of internet service? I'm sure you're one of privileged ones that lives in a place with multiple providers available. Not everyone has that available to them. Try youtube on dialup, it's awesome.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2016, @02:02PM
If you claim youtube is a necessity, I think *you* are the privileged one here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2016, @02:03PM
You're funny!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2016, @03:36PM
That's the problem. Facebook has successfully framed the question as "some internet is better than none" but the issue isn't about internet access at all. It is no more "internet" than television is. You will be told what you can see and when you can see it. That completely misses the most important aspects of the internet - freedom to assemble and freedom to learn.
You wouldn't consider TV a substitute for the internet, but that is what faceplant is going to give you.
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday July 25 2016, @04:54PM
This fake internet may displace things like libraries with books.
Yes, that would be bad.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2016, @12:59PM
Up in the sky, look! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a solar-powered internet drone! ----- And that's retarded.
(Score: 2) by Zz9zZ on Monday July 25 2016, @09:06PM
It's only retarded because FB runs it. If it was legit open internet then this would be pretty awesome!
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 4, Insightful) by PinkyGigglebrain on Monday July 25 2016, @04:16PM
By the Alan Parsons Project
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_in_the_Sky_%28song%29 [wikipedia.org]
"
I am the eye in the sky
Looking at you
I can read your mind
I am the maker of rules
Dealing with fools
I can cheat you blind
...
"
Wow, who says life doesn't imitate art?
While I agree this kind of drone tech could be useful in some situations like air quality monitoring, providing communications and Internet access to rural and disaster area, etc.. I also know that this tech WILL be abused at some point and used against the average person. How many people want to bet that eventually these drones will have high res cameras added to their equipment list to "assist" LEO's in enforcing the Peace?
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."