Elon & Twitter

[Buckminster]

Twitter has plenty of room to grow:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1625585485354618880

 

[bkp_duke]

$4500 per month is the retail cost that Starlink tried to charge the DOD for every single terminal back when they tried to threaten to cut off access. Those terminals were signed up for the $500 per month tier service. The actual costs are going to be lower than that $4500, but we don't hear much about it. After the backlash, they gave up trying to charge that price.

You can do a rough estimate of the costs by Elon saying by October they had spent $80M on Ukraine's service, and by then they had 20k terminals, so in that 7 months they spent about $80M / 7 / 20k = $571 per terminal. He also noted by end of the year they would spend over $100M, that works out to about $10M a month, which also works out to about $500 a terminal. No matter how you do the math the actual costs work out to about $500 per month per terminal, which makes sense given that was the tier Ukraine was signed up for. It's easy to see why the DOD balked.

While it should be noted a private enterprise isn't necessarily obligated to do charity or sell at cost like a nonprofit, Elon was able to piggy back on a lot of good will, with a large part (if not the majority) of the terminals being funded by others.

You do realize that Starlink sells different tiers of service, with different terminals and speeds? Yes, the RESIDENTIAL with a smaller dish is $500 up front and $110/mo in most places. However if you want 10X the connection speed you get the commercial terminal and service.

Starlink sent both kinds to Ukraine.


But hey, don't let the facts get in the way of the narrative you are trying to spin, right?



EDIT - there are actually a wide array of service types available, with different speeds, mobility, etc. Decent summary here:

Starlink Internet Plans Explained - Starlink Hardware

In this guide, we detail all the different Starlink internet plans, and recommend the best plan based on your specific needs.

www.starlinkhardware.com

 

[advocate8]

I don’t remember anyone saying that Twitter 1.0 shouldn’t have to at its bills….

Maybe he should explain what he thinks is propaganda or BS? I feel like he just wants to be a troll.
He could just say that he doesn’t want Starlink to be used to make weapons. That would at least be a defensible position. Though I wonder if the military version, Starshield, will be used to make weapons.

they’re doing stuff for the military with the new classified setup. Once you go down that road, you can’t say you don’t enable killing on a wholesale level... so he’s to a degree picking a side here. But... I do think he honestly believes he’s reducing the chance of terminal escalation, and if that is an honestly held belief -- whether we agree or disagree with how likely that it is -- his decision seems more reasonable.
Deciding to sit in a box with the genius-born-on-third-base son-in-law at one event and then Murdoch at another? not so much.

 

[Crutonius]

You do realize that Starlink sells different tiers of service, with different terminals and speeds? Yes, the RESIDENTIAL with a smaller dish is $500 up front and $110/mo in most places. However if you want 10X the connection speed you get the commercial terminal and service.

Starlink sent both kinds to Ukraine.


But hey, don't let the facts get in the way of the narrative you are trying to spin, right?



EDIT - there are actually a wide array of service types available, with different speeds, mobility, etc. Decent summary here:

Starlink Internet Plans Explained - Starlink Hardware

In this guide, we detail all the different Starlink internet plans, and recommend the best plan based on your specific needs.

www.starlinkhardware.com

The business plan appears to be $500, this tier seems to be the closest match for Ukraine’s use case.

 

[bkp_duke]

The business plan appears to be $500, this tier seems to be the closest match for Ukraine’s use case.

No, you need something with mobility in it. Those are fixed, stationary dishes (easier to lock on to the satellites).

Did you see the Maritime and Airplane versions and their costs?

 

[advocate8]

If they are talking about a "centre", I'd expect it to be the "centre" of the republican party, or the lack thereof.

Or who the next Twitter CEO could be.

Likely it’s the other way around.... Murdoch is trying to pull Elon back towards the centre from the ledge.
And....Murdoch is way too crafty to “invest" in Twitter.

 

[Crutonius]

No, you need something with mobility in it. Those are fixed, stationary dishes (easier to lock on to the satellites).

Did you see the Maritime and Airplane versions and their costs?

Ukraine does not have a navy. Maybe that tier is reasonable with what's left of their air force. There's a portability add on which is $25 so I guess the charger should be $525.

This is from what I can tell their section titled

Which Starlink internet plan should I choose?​

To be fair the list of situations in this list does not include "A belligerent country is attempting to invade our country".

 

[advocate8]

The guy with the funny laugh who used to wear a bow tie.

Wait wait.... let me run that through the nonsense decoder ring.
Oh!...you mean the current Qanon CEO.

 

[advocate8]

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

If an institution of note (or several) go heavy handed in opposition mode and or most are propagating the same talking point verbatim, you’d better bet it deserves a closer look.

The cover is always more obvious than the act itself and their reaction betrays their intention.

Where there’s smoke, there’s spin.

 

[advocate8]

And we thought Elon was getting a hard time from the media because oil companies etc.

Spare a thought for MrBeast:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1624249112588865538

1. Stay in your lane TECHcrunch
2. More than any other example, the use of an ism like "Ableist" here obfuscates shear cruelty
3. Woke movement is largely correct but needs to slow down massively to achieve its goals as it is leaving the majority behind and appears to be anti the most good

I’ll spare a thought for Mr. Beast: He has made a fortune off wasting vast gobs of humanity’s time by crafting ever-more-compulsive videos of drivel. That’s all he does.

 

[ElectricIAC]

Where there’s smoke, there’s spin.

Is that a “fanning the flames” joke?

I’ll spare a thought for Mr. Beast: He has made a fortune off wasting vast gobs of humanity’s time by crafting ever-more-compulsive videos of drivel. That’s all he does.

Because only daddy guvmint is allowed to do for the people. ‘Kay.

 

[stopcrazypp]

You do realize that Starlink sells different tiers of service, with different terminals and speeds? Yes, the RESIDENTIAL with a smaller dish is $500 up front and $110/mo in most places. However if you want 10X the connection speed you get the commercial terminal and service.

Starlink sent both kinds to Ukraine.


But hey, don't let the facts get in the way of the narrative you are trying to spin, right?



EDIT - there are actually a wide array of service types available, with different speeds, mobility, etc. Decent summary here:

Starlink Internet Plans Explained - Starlink Hardware

In this guide, we detail all the different Starlink internet plans, and recommend the best plan based on your specific needs.

www.starlinkhardware.com

You didn't read my post clearly. They are paying for the tier of service that is $500 per month, not talking about the upfront cost.

The upfront cost terminals were $1500 and $2500 versions, which were paid for largely by governments and private organizations (even though a lot of media initially made it seem like SpaceX donated all of them). There were no disputes over terminal costs.

On the monthly service SpaceX is using the age old argument that the demand calls for higher tiers of service when the customer can probably make do with a lower tier. It's kind of like the switch from dial up to DSL to cable internet to 1 Gbps fiber. Through each step, once the customer switches they typically do end up using the increased capacity (due to induced demand, for example steaming higher quality video), but they didn't really need to.

 

[RSpanner]

"
Elon Musk’s concern about the dwindling number of people seeing his tweets prompted the zillionaire to convene a group of engineers last Tuesday to discover why his engagement numbers were tanking. When one of the company’s two remaining principal engineers explained it was likely due to waning public interest in Musk’s antics, Musk fired the engineer."

Elon Musk fires a top Twitter engineer over his declining view count

Inside Twitter 2.0, turmoil leaves employees stretched to the max

www.platformer.news

 

[bkp_duke]

You didn't read my post clearly. They are paying for the tier of service that is $500 per month, not talking about the upfront cost.

The upfront cost terminals were $1500 and $2500 versions, which were paid for largely by governments and private organizations (even though a lot of media initially made it seem like SpaceX donated all of them). There were no disputes over terminal costs.

On the monthly service SpaceX is using the age old argument that the demand calls for higher tiers of service when the customer can probably make do with a lower tier. It's kind of like the switch from dial up to DSL to cable internet to 1 Gbps fiber. Through each step, once the customer switches they typically do end up using the increased capacity (due to induced demand, for example steaming higher quality video), but they didn't really need to.

This isn't like using service elsewhere.

SpaceX has to constantly overcome jamming attempts and shut down access by the Russians to terminals they have acquired.

There is no "deploy it and forget it" like basically everywhere else.

 

[Ogre]

Probably.

If you are going to mention something which is negative about your boss, you should be absolutely certain you are right. Doing it in front of a bunch of co-workers, in particular tends to be a CLA. Musk is notorious for firing people when he's angry.

 

[Crutonius]

This isn't like using service elsewhere.

SpaceX has to constantly overcome jamming attempts and shut down access by the Russians to terminals they have acquired.

There is no "deploy it and forget it" like basically everywhere else.

I'm not seeing a whole lot of evidence for this. I saw some reports around April of last year that Russia had some success jamming it but SpaceX did a few changes and that seems to be the end of it.

 

[STS-134]

I'm not seeing a whole lot of evidence for this. I saw some reports around April of last year that Russia had some success jamming it but SpaceX did a few changes and that seems to be the end of it.

You really think they'll talk about everything they're doing? Do you know how espionage and intelligence gathering works?

 

[Hurricane4911]

Agreed...
No one thinks your brave or a leader calling out a boss in public.

As for the antics...
I'm too am personally tired of this. And none of his outside activities beyond Tesla or SpaceX works to improve his standing.

And, as for SpaceX, Musk is more the face. Shotwell runs the shop.

 

[Crutonius]

You really think they'll talk about everything they're doing? Do you know how espionage and intelligence gathering works?

Well, yeah. They were pretty open about it when it was happening.

 

[STS-134]

Well, yeah. They were pretty open about it when it was happening.

To some extent. But it's probably not a good idea to give your adversary a good idea of what works and what doesn't.