The Gang of Five
Beyond the Mysterious Beyond => Hobbies and Recreation => Computer and Electronics => Topic started by: pokeplayer984 on June 15, 2012, 08:53:14 PM
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I didn't want to alarm anyone, but...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuqmKg6QQTw&feature=g-u-u (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuqmKg6QQTw&feature=g-u-u)
Yeah, we're in trouble here.
Any thoughts on how to fix this problem?
We really don't want restriction to become the answer. -_-
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Can't the bandwidth just be expanded?
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I don't really understand what he means by this. Does he mean we're running out of frequencies?
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Well, if we're running out of space, there are millions of dead sites that can be wiped away and no one would care.
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Personally I'm not really concerned.
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Me neither. We have several options to work with. Hell, if we employ more than one we could practically give ourselves almost infinite net space.
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I really couldn't care less. And it's not the "internet" that's running out of bandwidth but mobile devices. Since I don't really have a use for mobile BS this won't affect me at all. I'll still be happily enjoying my master computer while the rest of the world is whining about cell phone apps that won't work anymore because there isn't any bandwidth left. Sucks for you guys. :p
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I don't really understand what he means by this. Does he mean we're running out of frequencies?
Yes. It was bound to happen sooner or latter. Radiowaves are the prefered spectrum for wireless communication because of the low energy necessary to produce them and wide area they cover, and the ease by which they penetrate most materials. They are the only electromagnetic spectrum suitable for wireless communication on Earth's surface. Their flaw is that they can't carry much information and there are physical limits to increasing the sensitivity of receivers.
And the authors of the video are uninformed or lying if they say that radiowave oversaturation is an unforeseen problem. I at least I have known about it for 10 years, ever since I started reading computer magazines. It was mentioned as a problem in a different context, that of hazardous effects of radiowaves on human health. And I suspect people have been thinking about oversaturation ever since Tesla invented the radio a century ago.
The solution is to limit the range of radio signal and build a denser network of radio transmitters in large cities (WLAN everywhere perhaps?), or restrict the amount of data transmitted, and leave the heavy duty work to optical cables.
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I really couldn't care less. And it's not the "internet" that's running out of bandwidth but mobile devices. Since I don't really have a use for mobile BS this won't affect me at all. I'll still be happily enjoying my master computer while the rest of the world is whining about cell phone apps that won't work anymore because there isn't any bandwidth left. Sucks for you guys.
That seemed kinda harsh. Was there really a need to say that?
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^He was honest. And a lesson can be drawn from it as well. It says: Don't get your self too attached to any form of technology. All technology will eventually reach its limits, and the more complex a technology is, the more knowledge and resources it needs (just think of all the skills, mines and factories necessary to transform various coloured (or transparent) rocks into a CPU, and to maintain that system regardless of how many CPUs it produces), the more likely it will be abandoned in a major crisis, regardless of how useful or efficient it is.
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Edit: I just didn't like the way he worded it. Plus, the regular internet could also run into problems as well, not just mobile. As the saying goes, nothing lasts forever.
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^I agree. And the lesson applies to him, and me, and everybody else as well.
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Post removed.
Above post fixed due to a misreading error.
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They may do bandwidth caps, I guess many isp's have, where they charge if you go over. I assume they will eventually get the technology to fix this, but I've no idea how long it may take to fix. The new way may be with everyone having caps where if you go over you pay increasingly expensive extra fees. or if the problem gets bad it may be where the caps may be more iron clad where it's hard or impossible to go over.
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Well, seeing as how this is coming from some guy on Youtube and not an official news source, I'm gonna call BS on the whole thing.
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Well, seeing as how this is coming from some guy on Youtube and not an official news source, I'm gonna call BS on the whole thing.
Unfortunately, I know the guy too well. In all truth, something like this, he takes rather seriously. In my 4 years of knowing him, I know he would NEVER joke about something like this.
So yeah, sad to say, we are running out of bandwidth in the air.
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Just because he's not joking doesn't mean that he's right. There is a chance that he could be wrong.
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It sounds like the typical "OMG there is this (insert massively overblown crisis here) and the only way to fix it is to A. limit use of (insert item or service here) or B. increase the cost of using (insert item or service here)."
I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if service providers are making the whole thing up just as an excuse to hike up prices on people. Either pay more for the service or we'll limit how much you can use it.
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The physical limits to the amount of information that can be transmitted over a given area in a given period of time are real. More info can be found in posts and comments on this page (http://phorgyphynance.wordpress.com/2009/12/).
When will we reach these limits? If data usage grows exponentially, dense urban areas will hit the ceiling in less than a decade. The Federal Communications Commission, the agency that regulates EM spectrum usage in the USA, predicted in 2010 that bandwidth limit will be reached by 2015 (http://www.fcc.gov/blog/crunching-numbers-behind-spectrum-crunch).
Does this mean the end of wireless communication? Of course not. It just means that watching videos and playing games over mobible Internet will be considered a luxury, not a necessity. Calling people, sending SMS, reading emails and posting on forums will probably never be restricted.
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I rarely watch videos over mobile internet anyway. Youtube is very slow and so far only played one video, which was one of my own. I download games sometimes but from the market. I don't know if that counts as "playing games over the internet".
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Since this also applies to cloud gaming, I think services like OnLive, Steam, WoW and others are going to be in quite a bit of trouble when we reach this limit.
Do you think this also applies to cloud storage like Mediafire? If so, I'm going to have to look at other options to share all my legit files I have in there.
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^Why would they be in trouble? Most people play games like WoW or access MediaFire over desktop computers, which are connected by metal and optical cables to servers. Electrons and directed beams of visible light can carry orders of magnitude more information than omni-directional radiowaves. Nobody mentions bandwidth limits with optical cables. Decades will pass until optical cables become a problem, if ever.
The wireless part of the Internet will be in trouble, and only in big cities. Rural areas will be much less affected. And the "wired" part of the Internet will continue to grow and grow.
If you don't rely completely on mobile phones or such, you have no reason to worry.
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This is ONLY affecting mobile broadband, nothing else. "Cloud" does not equate to mobile broadband. It just means you're paying some company to use their storage capabilities when you could use your own for FREE. Almost all cloud stuff goes through desktops and laptops right now. We've got a long way to go before we can be sending 5Mbps+ through wireless broadband in order to use any REAL cloud capabilities. And if this running out of bandwidth stuff isn't just BS, it's going to take even longer to reach that level.
So long as you're not a zombie that's addicted to his smartphone and can't live 5 seconds without using it (even while driving), this probably won't affect you. If you need to download anything big, just connect to WiFi and save yourself a bundle of cash. Why people are so addicted to these things I'll never understand. But it'll be funny when crunch time happens and they're stuck either paying $500/month for internet on their phone or going insane and crying in the street because they can't afford it. Others still will take out a second job. You don't think I'm being serious, do you? Well then you haven't seen how addicted some people are to those useless time-wasting gadgets. LOL. :lol
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The wireless part of the Internet will be in trouble, and only in big cities. Rural areas will be much less affected.
Good thing I don't tend to live in a big city. We live a little further out, outside of town.