TWeaK @ TWeaK @lemm.ee

Posts

14

Comments

3,713

Joined

2 yr. ago

Your phone talks back to the satellite to establish a connection, and during this exchange your phone will provide its unique IMEI, as well as you SIM card details and phone number.

Starlink direct-to-cell uses LTE, aka 4G. Starlink satellites with direct-to-cell capabilities are effectively mobile phone masts in space that travel all over the globe.

Starlink is a mobile internet platform by SpaceX. They currently have somewhere around 6,300 satellites up in low earth orbit, in complex shells covering most of the globe. These satellites aren't permanent, they're so low that they do experience some mild atmospheric drag, which causes them to eventually fall into the atmosphere and burn up. However SpaceX frequently launches more.

Over the last year or so SpaceX have been developing direct-to-cell capability, using 4G/LTE. This means you will be able to send and receive calls, texts and data over Starlink, direct from your mobile phone. This is only possible because of the low altitude of Starlink - conventional satellites are much higher up, and while they can send signals to your phone (eg GPS) they're too far away for your phone to reach back.

However, the flip side of this is that Starlink is effectively operating mobile phone masts up in space, globally. A network carrier on land already has the ability to triangulate your position using cell towers - they ping your phone from multiple towers, with this they can determine distance, and with 3 or more they can triangulate with increasing precision. This is kind of acceptable, because it's only the country you're in (or near to) that will be able to identify and locate you. However with SpaceX you have an American business that's effectively able to identify (through unique identifiers such as IMEI) and locate you via your phone almost anywhere in the world using their satellite constellation.

Fair correction, Palantir is only used by villains, it isn't evil in and of itself. However I'm pretty sure Thiel also had something called The Eye of Sauron - maybe a product made by Palantir.

If your phone can talk with a cell tower, the tower can work out how far away you are. With 3 or more towers they can determine your location by triangulation. When your phone talks with a cell tower, it identifies itself, including by providing your device's unique IMEI.

Starlink is effectively a bunch of moving towers in space. If 3 or more Starlink satellites can talk to your phone, then they can also determine your position. It's basically the same principle as GPS, except at a much lower altitude and over 4G/LTE bands, and the satellite receives signal back from your phone whereas with GPS it's one way from the satellite to your device.

Well the US has a pretty strong affiliation with SpaceX, given that they permit all their launches. Also, I can't imagine the US would get away with launching similar technology themselves as exclusively military satellites - other nations would object.

I think he leaves that kind of plagiarism to his old friend Peter Thiel, who seems to have an obsession with Lord of the Rings villains.

They also froze assets from Starlink.

Meanwhile Starlink's direct to cell capability is only growing. If your phone has 4G, Starlink knows where it is.

I hate this phrase because it assumes that copyright infringement was at one point the same as stealing - it never was.

Stealing is a crime, where you take with the intent to deprive. Copyright infringement is a civil offense where the original owner loses nothing.

but that is about the dumbest, most confusing way to word a statement that is so potentially contentious.

Have you only just started listening to what Trump says? :p

If this is what I think it is, the hard drives are used data centre drives that are sold as "renewed". They wipe the drives then use manufacturer's tools to reset the clocks, effectively the same as winding back the mileage clock in a car. They are sold cheaper than new drives, but not really at a price that reflects their age and true used status.

I bought 4x 14TB drives of this type, pretty sure they were listed as new, although some show as used. 1 drive was DOA and I'm still waiting on the refund.

You can see tons of them on diskprices.com

Edit: oh wait, this is a different scam. This is like a combination of the classic size scam with the data centre scam. Fun!

It's probably related to Amazon's practice of binning all products with the same barcode together. So when someone sells something through Amazon their products get bundled with everyone else's, and when someone buys they get one from the bundle. A counterfeiter basically poisons the stock, and you end up with counterfeiters selling legit products and legit sellers selling the counterfeit ones.

When someone asks her about settling Lebanon she smiles and says, “Yes, there too”.

Great, more war crimes.

You're right, Putin declined to meet with him.

Apparently Putin declined to meet with Durov.

Him turning himself in for safety is pure speculation at this point, however he was due to meet with Putin in Azerbaijan, until Putin declined.

I read it on a reddit thread about this arrest story. However, looking it up Putin declined to meet with him. That still kind of fits with him turning to France for safety.

Yeah his death is why people have been talking about him over the last week or so.

https://turan.az/en/politics/putin-refused-to-meet-with-pavel-durov-in-baku-783760

Apparently he didn't end up meeting with Putin, but that had been the plan.

He just left Azerbaijan after meeting with Putin. I think he decided he'd be safer in French custody.

Unlike WhatsApp, yet people seem to trust that more lol.