Month: June 2020

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Shulz)

The Federal Communications Commission said it has "serious doubts" that SpaceX and other low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite providers will be able to deliver latencies of less than 100ms.

As we reported yesterday, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai backed off a plan that would have completely prevented SpaceX and other LEO companies from applying for rural-broadband funding as low-latency providers. But the FCC's full order was released today and suggests that SpaceX will have a tough time convincing the commission that its service will deliver latencies below the FCC standard of 100ms.

The final version of the FCC order acknowledges that LEO satellites have "intrinsic advantages" over geostationary satellites that operate at much higher altitudes. "Satellites in low-Earth orbit are not subject to the same propagation latency limitations as higher orbiting satellites," the FCC order said. But the order goes on to say the FCC has "serious doubts that any low-Earth orbit networks will be able to meet the short-form application requirements for bidding in the low-latency tier" and that companies like SpaceX thus face a high chance of being rejected when they apply for funding as low-latency providers:

Enlarge / Everything about this distribution—including the graphic-tee style default wallpaper—reassures users with a clear "simple, inviting, and friendly" brand messaging. (credit: Jim Salter)

The subject of today's Linux distro review is perhaps one of a kind—as far as we know, Pop!_OS is the first Linux distribution to be created and maintained by a hardware OEM manufacturer. At the very least, it's the first one anyone has taken seriously.

That hardware manufacturer is System76, probably the world's best-known Linux-only laptop manufacturer. Some larger OEMs offer Linux as an alternative operating system on a few models—but System76 sells Linux systems, and only Linux systems.

Until 2017, System76 sold its systems preinstalled with Ubuntu Linux. But Canonical left the company cold when it decided to stop development on its Unity desktop environment and move back to Gnome3—and, controversially, System76 decided that instead of merely adding its own private repository and a few packages to a stock Ubuntu install, it would create and manage its own Ubuntu-derived distribution.

Enlarge (credit: Johner Images / Getty)

The Internet Archive has ended its National Emergency Library programs two weeks earlier than originally scheduled, the organization announced in a Wednesday blog post.

"We moved up our schedule because, last Monday, four commercial publishers chose to sue Internet Archive during a global pandemic," the group wrote. The online library called on publishers to "call off their costly assault."

But that doesn't seem very likely. The Internet Archive isn't ending its online book lending program altogether. Instead, the group is returning to a "controlled digital lending" (CDL) model that it had followed for almost a decade prior to March. Under that model, the group allows only one patron to digitally "check out" a book for each physical copy the library has in stock. If more people want to read a book than are physically available, patrons are added to a waiting list until someone checks the book back in.

Enlarge / On June 4, 2019, people join the memorials for the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in Victoria Park, Hong Kong. (credit: LewisTsePuiLung / Getty)

On multiple occasions in recent weeks, Zoom has reportedly suspended accounts or disrupted meetings involving critics of the Chinese government. In an emailed statement, Zoom didn't deny the censorship. Instead, the company claimed that as a "global company" it was obligated to comply with the law in countries where it operates—including China.

"We regret that a few recent meetings with participants both inside and outside of China were negatively impacted and important conversations were disrupted," a Zoom spokesperson wrote. "It is not in Zoom’s power to change the laws of governments opposed to free speech." Zoom says it will "modify its processes" to better protect users.

Some of the people affected were in the United States, which has robust legal protections for free speech.

About 300,000 years ago before quarantine started, we sat down with YouTuber Mark "Markiplier" Fischback and had him talk to us about some of his most popular video comments and his path to millions of subscribers. (Lordy, was January really that long ago?) You responded positively, so today we have another video along those same lines: we're talking with the second-most-famous Linus on the Internet, Linus Sebastian of Linus Tech Tips.

We're big fans of Linus here in the Orbiting HQ, primarily because he does the kind of tech projects that most of us only joke about. Like, hey, how about building a 320TB NAS? Or upgrading your Wi-Fi network with enough capacity and gear to handle the crowd at Yankee Stadium? Or, my personal favorite, how about parting together a gaming PC so hilariously powerful that seven players can use it simultaneously? (And why stop at just seven?)

The signature Linus cheeky grin and devil-may-care attitude were both on display when we sat down (virtually) with Linus a couple of weeks back to shoot this video, the second in a series that we're tentatively calling "Personal History." We dug deep into the comments on some of his older YouTube videos to get his reactions, and we couldn't stump him even once—it turns out that like a lot of creators who really care about their creations, Linus really does read almost all of the comments.