Brrr….
Well, winter’s coming. No doubt about it. It hasn’t snowed yet here in Akron, but the frost was thick on the car windshield this morning. It’s only a matter of time, I suppose.
Here at Skycasters, the arrival of frigid temperatures can mean only one thing – time for preventative maintenance!
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Back when Skycasters was started in 2001, we understood clearly the markets we wanted to serve, and the quality of the product that we wanted to deliver. We wanted to deliver true broadband quality – the quality of service that would allow businesses to operate in areas underserved by traditional terrestrial connections.
We have since expanded that basic idea to include portable solutions and backup services that can keep your business running in the event of a landline failure – but our commitment to delivering an exceptional user experience has not wavered.
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Billionaire T. Boone Pickens recently scaled back his plan for massive wind farms – though he’s still taking delivery on those 667 wind turbines he has on order. One of the reasons he gave for the change, besides the price of oil, was transmission problems. High capacity transmission is simply not available.
The coasts consume the majority of the electricity, but some of the best locations for wind farms and solar farms is inland. Practical renewable energy solutions will remain tantalizingly just out of reach until high-capacity cross-country transmission is available. The best way to move high volumes of electricity is via 765 kV. The 765kV grid requires no new technologies, no scientific breakthroughs. We know how to do this today.
Bird bath. Gazebo roof. Flying disc. Solar oven. “Reduce, reuse, recycle” taken to extremes can mean some really wicked ideas for satellite dishes. Especially the C-Band dishes and the big TV dishes that were so popular in the 1970s.
My wife and I were visiting Kelley’s Island, Ohio, a couple weeks ago (those glacial gouges are groovy!), and we saw this old C-Band dish mounted upside down on found wood as a sort of cabana. That got me to thinking of all the other dishes out there. There’s got to be a million used dishes floating around out there.
Aside from WoundedMooseTV’s valued documentaries on YouTube, the web has dozens of examples of backyard entrepreneurs stretching their imaginations over dishes of every size and shape (did you see the skateboard ramp?).
If you have any great pics of satellite dishes creatively reused, and the story behind it, we’ll post them here for everyone to enjoy.
I was watching Discovery Channel’s “Ted Koppel goes to China,” and an interesting point came up about the benefits of a one-party political system.
I am not advocating communism or anything – far from it. I love my country, warts and all, and I still believe that there is no better place to live on the entire planet. But I’m not above taking my head out of the hole once in a while to see what other people are doing.
Skycasters is looking for technology and business partners. We provide IP connectivity to some of the most remote and inaccessible places on earth, and we provide backup solutions for businesses of all sizes.
We want to partner with complementary organizations that have expertise that is beyond our core, or those that need Skycasters’ services to strengthen their offerings.
In order to provide quality broadband via satellite, you need a few things. First, you need a superior Teleport facility, complete with earth stations and satellite hubs, a state of the art data center and network operations center, as well as the professional engineers and operators that make it all work.
Next, you need to deploy high-end equipment to the end user – professionally installed. Finally, you need a satellite in space to relay messages between the two.
We all understand that satellite-based broadband has some distinct advantages over terrestrial connections for certain applications. In addition to being a true diverse path option (our infrastructure is safely 23,000 miles in space, not strung along telephone poles), we have the advantage of being able to deploy practically anywhere.
Moreover, Skycasters is truly a broadband service. We can deliver the type of high speed, low latency connection that is vital for conducting the business of the 21st century (and the business of rebuilding this Nation).
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Short blog entry for today, but I want to take the opportunity to spread the word about Earth Hour. Here’s the deal. Next Saturday, March 28th, at 8:30 pm local time, turn your lights off.
At my house we’re going to go a bit further – we’re going to turn everything off – and we’re going to encourage our neighbors to do the same. For one hour, we’re all going to reduce our carbon footprint as much as we possibly can. (more…)
