Article

2004-01-10 Latin America

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Posted by Steve White 2004-01-10 12:56:52 AM|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 With a careful record of names and phone numbers. Wonder if this will generate a blip over at the Democratic Underground?

Doubtful. The DU will just pull that new meme of theirs out of storage. You know, the one about the "common man" being "too stupid" to be able to or trusted to vote?

If they even comment on it at all - which I doubt - someone will no doubt deliver a speech/screed on how the average Cuban citizen is too stupid and has been too polluted by American popular culture to be trusted to use the Internet safely, and how the common rabble must be monitored for their own safety.

Ed.

Posted by Ed Becerra 2004-1-10 3:03:11 AM|| 2004-1-10 3:03:11 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 I say we place a big-ass dish in Key West, aim it south, and parachute in tons of wireless routers over Cuba. (BTW, this isn't a novel idea. One of the upcoming tech things this year will be a transmitter that will deliver the internet over a 30-mile radius.)

Posted by Rafael 2004-1-10 7:07:05 AM|| 2004-1-10 7:07:05 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 Jeez. Rafael... that's not a bad idea. It's an easy thing to do, especially on a small scale. Say around Habana and Santiago... Bad news is most PCs in Cuba are pre-pci. So gonna need to comeup with a heap of ISI wirecards... ;)

Posted by Shipman 2004-1-10 9:49:33 AM|| 2004-1-10 9:49:33 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Congratulations, Steve, in doubting that most Cubans have access to a "low-cost telephone service." In fact, only about 1% of Cubans have access to phones, and those who have access are screened for political desirability (the screening is far from perfect, however.) And, oh yes, this is NOT a political development in Cuba, but a technological one. Castro has always wanted absolute control over everything. It seems only now he got access to the technology to increase control over the internet.

Posted by Anonymous 2004-1-10 10:08:04 AM|| [http://www.forgottenfronts.com/] 2004-1-10 10:08:04 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 Why would we need to set up the Internet link for Cuba on Key West?

Guantanamo Bay, folks. That's where we should start providing the Cubans with free Internet access.

Posted by Robert Crawford 2004-1-10 10:43:49 AM|| [http://www.kloognome.com/] 2004-1-10 10:43:49 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 RC, Yep. And Blimps.... Never forget the blimps.

Posted by Shipman 2004-1-10 11:06:28 AM|| 2004-1-10 11:06:28 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 WiFi out of Guantanamo, exactly. Maybe collect old laptops, jam a card in them, and give them to anyone who wants one. Cause a silicon revolution down there.

Posted by 4thInfVet 2004-1-10 12:15:23 PM|| 2004-1-10 12:15:23 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 Fidel's been paying attention to what Papa UN is trying to do.

Posted by Charles 2004-1-10 1:09:17 PM|| 2004-1-10 1:09:17 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 Maybe collect old laptops, jam a card in them, and give them to anyone who wants one. Cause a silicon revolution down there.

Old? No way. We're all good Americans here. Let's do a contract with Dell for 1 million laptops with decent a decent battery and the Trafilo Stevenson screensaver. 1 billion $. Deliver via C-17 for an additional $200 per. Cost for receivers 1.2 billion $. Throw in a billion $ for blimps and wireless towers and viola Revolution!

Posted by Shipman 2004-1-10 2:51:31 PM|| 2004-1-10 2:51:31 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 BTW, this isn't a novel idea. One of the upcoming tech things this year will be a transmitter that will deliver the internet over a 30-mile radius.

Upcoming?! Already in place, and been there for some time, Raf. Out here on the rural Colorado plains, the local ISP has been offering (for at least three years now) Fixed Wireless Broadband using standard WiFi cards and _directional_ antennas that give a range of about 20 miles.
I pay $35 a month, and get a 256 kilobit connection (uplink AND down, a total bandwidth of 512K).

For just $25, you get a 128K connection. (still, almost three times faster than a phone line.)

And you can MAKE a directional antenna out of a Pringles can, as Bob Cringley has pointed out several times on his PBS column.

I'm not sure of the ultimate range, but I suspect it's somewhere between 20 and 30 miles. The ONLY problem I see here is the old one.. radio direction finding. A few trucks with RDF gear, and Der Bearded One could track down folks violating his internet ban. Dangerous, that.

Ed.

(Oh, if anyone's interested, my ISP once published a map of my local area, showing just how much of it they could reach with Fixed Wireless Internet. Impressively sized chunk o' land. I'd be happy to share the pic.)

Posted by Ed Becerra 2004-1-10 3:17:26 PM|| 2004-1-10 3:17:26 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 Go ahead.
I live in Rural Arizona,all I can get is is ph. lines.On a good day I get 21,500 k./

Posted by raptor 2004-1-10 4:43:52 PM|| 2004-1-10 4:43:52 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 I don't know how to get the photo onto Ranburg, Raptor, but if you're interested, the ISP just up the road from where I live, KCI.net, has a web page detailing all the glories of Fixed Wireless Internet, with a FAQ file, minimum system requirements, and whatnot. You can drop by and take a look, maybe get a feel for what's required.

You can see it here, at http://www.kci.net/ .

(posted as link and as text, just in case I bork this post.)

Who knows, once you get the info, maybe you can bully someone at your ISP to look into providing the service. The startup costs a bit, you have to buy the wireless card and a directional antenna, but hey, I can testify that it's worth every penny!

Ed.

Posted by Ed Becerra 2004-1-10 8:47:18 PM|| 2004-1-10 8:47:18 PM|| Front Page Top

07:20 Mark
15:47 ed
08:10 Faisal
08:01 Faisal
07:52 Faisal
00:40 ed
00:35 ed
00:22 ed
00:20 ed
00:10 Old Patriot
23:54 Tresho
23:30 Shipman
23:28 ed
23:25 Shipman
23:22 Shipman
23:16 Shipman
23:15 Old Patriot
23:10 Shipman
22:42 Old Patriot
22:29 Bomb-a-rama
22:26 g wiz
22:20 Pappy
21:51 Old Patriot
21:48 RussSchultz