Starlink

   / Starlink #3,231  
Down 21 minutes here in northeast PA as well.
 
   / Starlink #3,232  
19 minutes at 3:56 this afternoon, northeast NY
 
   / Starlink #3,233  
So that was the longest outage yet in my short 4 months use...
 
   / Starlink #3,234  
17 minutes 2:56 PM.
 
   / Starlink #3,235  
Every phase of our lives is becoming more and more dependent on having internet service. Sometimes I think of all the pitfalls in that (hackers, covertly designed, accidental or unforeseen interruptions in large segments of service, etc.) and I wonder if we might be a bit complacent. What an unbelievable mess we would be in if the world wide web was somehow interrupted for any extended length of time. Is that unreasonable paranoia?
 
   / Starlink #3,236  
Every phase of our lives is becoming more and more dependent on having internet service. Sometimes I think of all the pitfalls in that (hackers, covertly designed, accidental or unforeseen interruptions in large segments of service, etc.) and I wonder if we might be a bit complacent. What an unbelievable mess we would be in if the world wide web was somehow interrupted for any extended length of time. Is that unreasonable paranoia?

I don't think you need to worry about a global outage. Services are sort of decentralized.
 
   / Starlink #3,237  
Every phase of our lives is becoming more and more dependent on having internet service. Sometimes I think of all the pitfalls in that (hackers, covertly designed, accidental or unforeseen interruptions in large segments of service, etc.) and I wonder if we might be a bit complacent. What an unbelievable mess we would be in if the world wide web was somehow interrupted for any extended length of time. Is that unreasonable paranoia?
There is always a distinct possibility of wide spread failure.
Either from a natural or manmade EMP event.
| EarthSky
 
   / Starlink #3,238  
Is that unreasonable paranoia?
Not at all.

Years ago, the concentration of data was called "centralized architecture." Then came "distributed networking," from suppliers like Tandem, IBM 360, and then Novell NetWare for small businesses.

Distributed networking broke through the pitfalls of centralized architecture-- including the problem of having a single failure take everything down.

Now, we are right back where things started, except the more friendly name "cloud" is used. I try to avoid cloud-based products wherever I can. And it's getting harder and harder to do that.
 
   / Starlink #3,239  
Is that unreasonable paranoia?

Definitely not. It's a valid concern. What should scare us all more than that though is a cashless society. If all our money is tied up electronically then disruption of the ability to exchange it becomes very easy to do intentionally or via an unintentional Internet outage. Similarly, the transition to all electric powered vehicles... Having all transportation being reliant upon a centralized service like electric utility is also a huge risk.

I'm far less worried about an Internet outage than I am about the others. Being unable to electronically communicate is less impactful than not being able to conduct commerce or travel.
 
   / Starlink #3,240  
I don't think you need to worry about a global outage. Services are sort of decentralized.
"Sort of" covers a lot of territory. A co-ordinated attack that took down the biggest DNS servers would wreak much havoc.
 

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