If you’re hitting a paywall, here’s a CNN link to the same story: https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/07/politics/elon-musk-biography-walter-isaacson-ukraine-starlink/index.html
random people having this kind of influence on international conflicts because they have a lot of money is good and healthy and okay
The free market will create another satellite network if musk’s isn’t right! /s
This but kind of unironically, him doing this makes it much more likely the US government will blow some of its military budget to fund some sort of competitor.
That’s kind of how we all get to use and enjoy the GPS today
That would be pretty cool considering they have tons of military budget obviously and more competition is a good thing.
It wouldn’t be free market then.
If Musk doesn’t learn to play ball, the us government might well take control of the tech for the remainder of the war. Geopolitics is the game that is played with all the pieces.
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This is behaviour that gets you killed. Musk may be rich, but not “weapons manufacturer” or “oil magnate” powerful.
I’m starting to think Mr Musk might actually be a CIA asset. If he was doing this shit without signoff he’d turn up dead.
“One of the advantages is the huge amount of innovation coming out of the private sector, which the government wants to leverage to stay ahead of China and others,” said Brian Weeden, the director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation, a think tank.
Well if the government had invested in its space and innovation programs they wouldn’t have to rely on the private sector.
Honestly I’m kind of glad that they didn’t. Imagine if the US government had even more control and surveillance potential over the internet. I know they already basically have 100% but, I dunno, a network of low-Earth-orbit satellites constantly hovering overhead, covering every square centimetre of the earth, is a bit scary.
I don’t think the same network in the hands of an unstable billionaire is an improvement. Given the choice I’d rather the U.S. have control of the network.
You make a good point… what a choice, huh?
I think this one is much easier to look at if I restate the choice:
"A single individual billionaire who has only his self interest in mind has control over the internet "
vs.
“An organization consisting of more than one person, who are voted to power, who must hold their own interests in mind as well as their doners at minimum”
Personally, even if it’s a whole bunch of different billionaires fighting for power, the government ultimately has to answer to more than one person. That makes it an inherently better choice.
Which government? Do you imagine that the vast network of live-feed surveillance satellites run by the various arms of the US intelligence services and military is under the slightest control of the elected government?
That’s how you put yourself on the CIA and KGBs watch list
I’m guessing that as a supervillain (as @bionicjoey@lemmy.ca pointed out), Musk expects the CIA and NSA to have nice thick dossiers on him. Since Musk has Putin on speed dial, the KGB probably shares their file and asks him for updates.
FSB not KGB
In this case, he got on the KGB’s “thank you and we’ll send you some flowers, luvya ❤️” list
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I don’t think Ukraine has the resources to create, deploy, and operate its own satellite Internet network.
Surely the US has a satellite network they clould be making use off? Maybe there’s political reasons why they cant be given access.
The US does have its own satellite network, but it’s unlikely they’d let anyone else use it, even allies, because of the risk of leaking information, or even because it would let other people derive more information about its capabilities and limits.
There are certainly more secure options but better is unlikely given how revolutionary starlink is.
there’s nothing revolutionary about satellite internet
The revolutionary aspect is the quantity of the satellites and the affordability of access due to reduction in deployment costs.
Wow he is so subtle. What a genius move that no one expected. /s
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I mean… that’s what the government, more so the political self interest in those of power wanted. Funding for NASA reduced and that easily could have done what SpaceX has accomplished, to pandering and almost begging Elon to get things done.
The system is beautiful.
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Literal supervillain behaviour
Paywalled articles are such a bummer. I understand why they exist, but hoarding knowledge sucks.
Sorry, I almost never hit their paywall so I forget it’s there. Here’s another article:
What extension do you use ?
Two that reduce the number of paywalls. Cookie Autodelete to clear cookies after a tab is closed, and NoScript for blocking Java scripts. NoScript can be a real PITA, but when it’s turned off there so many more popups, ads and paywalls that I always end up turning it on again.
I could never work with no script. Suprised that helps with paywalls though.
I’ve removed it more than once and ended up reinstalling. It blocks the full screen paywall notice on many sites, at the cost of regularly being infuriating.
If that works for you good.
If you are hitting a paywall, remember to turn off scripts for this particular site on ublock origin
I have Unlock Origin. How do I turn off scripts for a particular site
pin it, click on the extension, you will get this box
Click on to make sure it’s crossed out. Now reload, if you were successful, you would see purple on
ubextensionThanks I’ll try
TIL
Waiting for him to have an “accident”
That is a very unflattering photo. lol
Elmo is a very unflattering person
People have a lot of family over there. A lot of folks are really upset.
I wonder how much more before people have an extreme reaction to him personally.
All Musk has to do to answer this is to say outages occur in satellite networks all the time. But, I’ll suppose he’ll remain silent until someone charges him with something. Would be nice to have a witness on this stupid SOB
Cut those juicy government assets and seize StarNet. The US military dumped money in and now it conflicts with national security.
