Broadband for All in Europe Thanks to ESA

Great news.

...and meanwhile Oz is still faffing around with how it's going to implement it's National Broadband Network (aka NBN)

Satellites are an obvious choice when you have big areas to cover with lots of empty space in between.

<...big areas to cover with lots of empty space in between....>

Not applicable to Europe.

...and meanwhile the US is waiting until someone who thinks they can make enough money, with little or no capitol at risk, steps up. Then the gov't can start "faffing around".

Maybe US satellites are too busy working for the NSA.

Depends upon the latency of delivery. While satellite is undoubtedly faster at this time (than land lines) and has benefits of not relying on wires, it is not a perfect solution.

Due to the distance signals travel there is a noticeable delay in the reception of any new screen, which can be annoying.

Watching continuous screening, such as films, is no problem as the screens follow one another seamlessly and with no delay. However, if you say, jump from one web site to another, i.e. change your information source, there is a very real delay in the download. Admittedly only one or two seconds, and one can get used to this delay, but, it is not the fast speed, instant view image, as sold to the customer.

At the moment it seems nothing can be done to improve this, due to the distance the signal has to travel and, as land line and local wireless speeds develop, a much less than satellite but improved current speed with no latency, then this can provide a far more enjoyable internet use. (so before jumping in to panacea buyer be aware, of latency.)

jt.

On July 20, 1969, as commander of the Apollo 11 lunar module, Neil Armstrong
was the first person to set foot on the moon.

His first words after stepping on the moon, "that's one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind," were televised to earth and heard by millions.

But just before he re-entered the lander, he made the enigmatic remark -
"good luck, Mr. Gorsky."

Many people at NASA thought it was a casual remark concerning some rival
soviet cosmonaut. However, upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either
the Russian or American space programs.

Over the years, many people questioned Armstrong as to what the -
"good luck, Mr. Gorsky" statement meant, but Armstrong always just smiled.

On July 5, 1995, in Tampa bay, Florida, while answering questions following
a speech, a reporter brought up the 26-year-old question about Mr Gorsky
to Armstrong.

This time he finally responded because Mr. Gorsky had died, so Neil Armstrong
felt he could now answer the question. Here is the answer to "who was Mr Gorsky":

In 1938, when he was a kid in a small mid-western town, he was playing baseball
with a friend in the backyard. His friend hit the ball, which landed in his neighbor's
yard by their bedroom window.

His neighbors were Mr. and Mrs. Gorsky. As he leaned down to pick up the ball,
young Armstrong heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky, "Sex! you want sex?!
You'll get sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!"
(supplied as a true story)

Your getting latency mixed up with propogation delay.

The propogation delay for a geo sync satellite is only about 250ms (up then down, around 64000km at c) and doesn't change. (V_p is a little less than c but near enough for this discussion)

That 1 to 2 seconds of latency you are observing is an artifact of digital transmission and switching on the internet.

Do you think Mrs Gorsky kept her promise or did Mr G bolt for the door when he heard the news?

Hi Wal. Thanks for the correction.

I'm not any expert on Sats, (went out with Stroweger switching) only found out
when complaining about the persistent download delay I experienced. (felt I should tell others)

Also, I forgot to add, like many internet services who state xGb. speeds - and then supply slower,
Satellites have channels which can be switched later to supply a much slower speed.

Not sure what Gorsky did, but I know what I would have done!

jt.

I was telling a girl in the pub about my remarkable ability to guess what day a
woman was born - just by feeling her boobs.
"Really" she said, "Go on then...try."
After about thirty seconds of delightful fondling she began to lose patience
with me and said.
"Come on, what day was I born"?
I said, "Yesterday?"