> This message beamed to space from an undisclosed location

Just as undisclosed as the location I posted this message from, also distributed globally. For Starlink, and therefore for the authorities, your position is well known.

> the technological miracle and marvel that it is

Its not a miracle or a marvel, its basic physics.

LEO satellites will provide better internet experience than traditional satellites because they are closer to the earth.

Now, whether you want to blow smoke up Mr Musk's backside because he was the first to market with Starlink is a different subject. But it also not a subject worthy of the "miracle" or "marvel" title.

Personally I look forward to the day where there's a competitor product available, its merely a case of when not if.

Most Western countries are also busy improving fibre coverage to rural areas as old copper networks get decommissioned.

Not a time to get philosophical when your drone team on the zero line in Ukraine loses comms

Maybe I'm missinformed, but doesn't starlink have to comply with rules made by local authorities? Afaik, when the internet goes down, like it happened in Thailand, Starlink can't be used too, because it always roots traffic to a ground station near the source.

If this would not happen, I would agree that Starlink is the future. But as it is right now, I don't see the point, unless you are living in or travelling to remote places.

Or one could just not be weird about it.

> appreciate the technological miracle

What part of the solution is a technological miracle?

The Suns 11-year cycle is hitting the ionosphere hard right now.

Great for Ham Radio bounce contacts, but a lot of space equipment won't do well. =3

People are still unsure why the sun hasn't accidentally cooked us thus far:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r5ZCESOpP0

Which funds the dreams of a disgusting man-baby. No thanks.

I guess it's a branding problem more than anything.

The solar flares in the 11-year cycle are at their peak activity.

There will be random outages for any space based equipment for awhile. =3

The funny thing with the community status page is that stations can't report they're down when they're down :P There's big holes in individual stations' history and it looks normal.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/ paints a different picture

Perhaps due to geomagnetic storms, though stronger ones have not caused outages. Possibly just because.

I see just 2 users with dead comments at the moment, one of them (a brand new account) just spammed a bunch of posts.

I choose to believe HN flame wars are still 100% organic. It is "just" immigration from Reddit. Ars Technica also has more trolls in comments under any Musk related topics.

it's just 2 users, no?

The technology, or the business owner?

Because the fickleness and unreliability of the latter is a serious concern. Once other LEO constellations come online, who is going to stick with Starlink, knowing they may pull the plug at anytime on a whim of "Space Karen"?

Really, everyone I've talked to has loved it. Granted they've all either live or work in remote areas where it has completely changed their lives. Those who live in remote areas can now actually work from home reliably and those who work on ships or in remote parts of world can now call home daily.

It's probably down to your expectations. Starlink won't replace a fiber connection, but if you only have a satellite connection or dial up, I can't see it being anything other than an improvement.

One concern I do have is if Starlink is down, there aren't really any backup. On the other hand I also only have one fiber connection at home. It's just that I could get a COAX hookup by tomorrow.

Not my experience or people around me (rural area so it's common). WFH with no fibre and patchy mobile so starlink is a godsend.

The most common outage is a regular 3am reboot. Otherwise outages are infrequent and typically a few seconds.

Also the latency is surprisingly good, it's not fibre but can game FPS on it.

Maybe this is what you wanted to hear?

Because that is not the general experience at all. For a service whose necessary parts (the satellites) move in a rather hostile space environment, Starlink doesn't have that many outages.

I am on a Vodafone backbone buried optic cable here in CZ and yet there are a few unplanned short outages each month. Sometimes as short as 10 seconds, but working on a remote screen like my wife does, you definitely notice it.

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Not sure if sarcasm or flame bait.

I like the Bladerunner reference in your about.