Sunday night, not tonight. The scheduled time of 9:08 was still ahead as I sat to type this, as the launch was scrubbed with just over 37 minutes on the clock. This was before the SpaceFlight Now video feed for the mission started, and I only learned later, closer to 9:30 local that it was due to "a ground systems issue at its launch pad" and not the Falcon 9 or the payload.
Current schedule is Sunday 12/28 at the same time: 9:08 ET or 6:08 PT at Vandenberg.
We had something pop up today that was unexpected and brought a larger impact than I might have thought it would bring. No, it wasn't a major appliance failure, it wasn't even something bigger and worse than the sink faucet I had to replace. Our internet connection went down for around 4-1/2 to 5 hours.
What was bigger than expected was now much was affected by that. Since we "cut the cord" seven years ago and don't have cable TV, we've been getting our TV from streaming services (currently mostly Hulu). We're in a part of Florida that doesn't have much TV that can be gotten with the outdoor antenna. Of course, the streaming TV comes over the same cable as the internet. That meant the only diversionary entertainment we had was over the air radio. "Great wasteland" is a good descriptor for local AM or FM radio. Well, the ham radio station is still usable and I spent some time playing with that to ensure that it still worked and was still usable, as it was. It seems like it will take more effort to keep that going more than a day or two without the internet, though.
The computers were still fully usable, and I worked on research for some tech writing I've been making slow progress on. I can still use CAD, still use all the design software and other special software I have, but I still had issues with the mental side, of not feeling like working on that stuff. I wanted to do what I do most mornings and just cruise the net for a while.
For someone who thinks that they'd be ready for the SHTF event, it was a bit eye opening. I simply wasn't ready to change my life with no or even little warning.
The mission patch for the last launch of the year out of the US. Image credit: SpaceX
Losing the interwebs connection, which is also the cable connection (Yes, I am a neo-luddite,) is the reason we have been building a dvd library. Well, one of the reasons. The other was we went to watch "Blazing Saddles" on cable and half the words were censored or changed. On a movie channel. WTheck?
ReplyDeleteI've also built a reasonably large library of books in epub and .rtf format so when we don't want to watch movies we can read books. I'll get a book in .epub format and convert it to .rtf so I can do fun things like fix spelling and punctuation errors, put space between paragraphs to allow my old eyes to read better. That and scaling up the font size or the magnification size...
Off the top of my head, I'm not familiar with .rtf format. What/whose is that? I think I have one or two .epub books here, but then I'd have to remember where they are. Not enough coffee yet.
DeleteWe are transitioning to Starlink and currently have 3 data providers. Spectrum cable (data only), A cellular modem/router (in the RV), and the Mini perched on the gutter. The Mini will be portable for use at home, while camping, and mounted to the car for road trips. It has worked well in all three scenarios, so time to say goodbye to Spectrum and Verizon. Redundancy has been fun, though pricey.
ReplyDeletePart of the oddity here is I'm sitting in front of two 7' tall, 3' wide bookcases full of mostly hardback books, and there are two more in the next room, and a 6' tall by 4' wide back in the ham shack. Plus a small sample of Kindle books, an even smaller sample of Apple books and actually more eBooks around the house. The problem with Kindle books is you can only read what you've downloaded to your phone, tablet or whatever and not any of the others that are on Amazon when the net connection is down, but still...
DeleteThe Starlink stuff is getting more interesting. At Home Depot, they've dropped from like $450 to $230 since the last time I looked. With the caution that I have no idea if the capabilities are better, the same or worse.
You would get very good service with Starlink. I'm in the middle of nowhere and rates fluctuate between 140 and 200 Mbps. It should be 100 Mbps faster than that for you. Of course, at $100/mo it may be pricier than your current providers. It used to be that things were limited to the speeds of the uplink stations in your region, but the more inter-satellite laser links they get in place the less location will matter.
ReplyDeleteI completely get how it feels to have it go out. It's like not being able to find your morning newspaper because it's buried under the snow.