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hiker1
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PostTue Apr 15, 2014 10:17 am 
News item about Google purchasing drones to provide internet access to remote areas of Earth.
Quote:
Google is reaching for the sky. On Monday, the company said that it had purchased Titan Aerospace, a maker of high-altitude drone satellites, which Google says will be used to take photos of the earth and to connect people to the Internet.
Much as we like internet access, I think there are places where it's not necessary. Like wilderness areas. One reason we go to them is to put aside the usual urban scene and connect with nature. Yes in rural areas with poor internet access, these drones would be useful. But in the Pasayten? if you want security there you can bring a PLB or similar device. No need for more radio and other electromagnetic waves to bombard us in wilderness.

falling leaves / hide the path / so quietly ~John Bailey, "Autumn," a haiku year, 2001, as posted on oldgreypoet.com
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Randito
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PostTue Apr 15, 2014 10:28 am 
If you really want to update your facebook status while hiking in the Paysaten -- satellite internet service providers are already available (and have been for sometime) Hard to figure how Google would make money flying drones over wilderness areas as an ISP -- unless they got a cut of Amazon Prime Air purchases.

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wolffie
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PostTue Apr 15, 2014 10:29 am 
How can you get into the wilderness if you bring the city with you? Saw a cartoon about a fellow who retreated the the wilderness, a la Henry David Thoreau, with nothing but a tent, a knife, and his filing cabinet. I do plan to get a rescue beacon -- mostly as a courtesy to anybody who has to search for my sorry carcass -- but I do not like what this electronic communications capability does to the experience. Radios, cell phones and helicopters change everything. Read C.E. Rusk's Tales of a Western Mountaineer, stuff like that, and think about it.

Some people have better things to do with their lives than walking the dog. Some don't.
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Schenk
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PostTue Apr 15, 2014 12:02 pm 
Yes, there should be places you cannot access the internet. The noise the wireless signal makes drives me CRAZY and I can't shut it off!

Nature exists with a stark indifference to humans' situation.
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hiker1
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PostTue Apr 15, 2014 1:59 pm 
Schenk wrote:
The noise the wireless signal makes drives me CRAZY and I can't shut it off!
Can you get wired internet? Then you could cancel the wireless.

falling leaves / hide the path / so quietly ~John Bailey, "Autumn," a haiku year, 2001, as posted on oldgreypoet.com
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tigermn
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PostTue Apr 15, 2014 2:33 pm 
hiker1 wrote:
Much as we like internet access, I think there are places where it's not necessary. Like wilderness areas. One reason we go to them is to put aside the usual urban scene and connect with nature.
That may not be the same reason "everybody" goes into the wilderness. I just go because I like to be there. If I can occasionally send a picture or post something on facebook and I feel like it, why not. Besides with satellites it's a moot point since anybody that want's it bad enough can get it anyway.

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Stefan
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PostTue Apr 15, 2014 3:03 pm 
We all have the option to turn off the internet at anytime, anyday, anywhere. It is up to you to connect.

Art is an adventure.
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trestle
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PostTue Apr 15, 2014 3:43 pm 
How can we have the "internet of everything" without drones? That way every cairn and lookout can have an IP address.

"Life favors the prepared." - Edna Mode
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fourteen410
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PostTue Apr 15, 2014 6:43 pm 
Stefan wrote:
We all have the option to turn off the internet at anytime, anyday, anywhere. It is up to you to connect.
up.gif

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cairn builder
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PostTue Apr 15, 2014 7:56 pm 
I don't care and I don't know why anybody else does either. I won't use it hiking in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, I won't even know whether it's there.

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boot up
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boot up
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PostTue Apr 15, 2014 8:13 pm 
Since I am currently working for a startup whose motto is "Connected Anywhere" , I dang well better be pushing for internet everywhere. agree.gif On the serious side, you might not care about internet connection anywhere, until you have a remote emergency, natural disaster, medical emergency, or really need to play that HD game while streaming an HD movie on you $30million Dollar yacht in a remote spot in the ocean. Priorities!! cool.gif

friluftsliv
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puzzlr
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PostTue Apr 15, 2014 9:31 pm 
Long term this is a losing battle (preventing connectivity in Wilderness). It's going to happen. I agree with those that say use your device's off switch. At least until you or someone you meet breaks a leg or worse. I bet the reckless-and-didn't-prepare accident rate goes up when people know they can call for help anywhere.

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hiker1
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PostTue Apr 15, 2014 10:23 pm 
Stefan wrote:
We all have the option to turn off the internet at anytime, anyday, anywhere. It is up to you to connect.
But the wireless etc waves are still there, frying whatever brain cells i have left. And the knowledge that i can connect makes it less of a wilderness. How about the other item in the article I quoted: High resolution photos taken by the drones every day, higher maybe than the government's: the knowledge that you could be photographed and even recognized by these photos, doesn't bother anyone? At the moment there is a FAA guideline for aircraft to avoid flying below 2000' above the highest point of federal wilderness areas, NPs, etc. As this article points out, this rule was put into place when aircraft were low-level flying through places like the Grand Canyon, below the rims. If aircraft flew below 2000' a lot now, the 2000' limit would likely be increased again.
Quote:
“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”
We all probably know this famous quote from the wilderness act. Seems to me that constant wireless transmissions at ground level in a wilderness area would fit into the general meaning of the act. If not, maybe an amendment is in order. Yes, it's impossible, or at least very difficult, to keep out all transmissions, but at least unnecessary and constant ones could be curtailed or forbidden.

falling leaves / hide the path / so quietly ~John Bailey, "Autumn," a haiku year, 2001, as posted on oldgreypoet.com
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tigermn
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PostWed Apr 16, 2014 8:16 am 
hiker1 wrote:
Yes, it's impossible, or at least very difficult, to keep out all transmissions, but at least unnecessary and constant ones could be curtailed or forbidden.
Forbidden? Just what we need, more government control/rules... No thanks.

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hiker1
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PostWed Apr 16, 2014 10:59 am 
tigermn wrote:
Forbidden? Just what we need, more government control/rules... No thanks.
Might as well throw out the wilderness act then. All that land could go to much better use. Condos in the Enchantments! Ski resorts in the Pasayten! Think of all the money that could be made!

falling leaves / hide the path / so quietly ~John Bailey, "Autumn," a haiku year, 2001, as posted on oldgreypoet.com
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