GPS about to fail?

[PottedMeat]

Originally posted by: daniel1113

Originally posted by: tk149
Isn't the EU working on their own GPS system?

Yes. It is called Galileo.

Weren't they bickering over who gets what share of the profits? With that many countries and companies involved there's bound to be tons of problems.

The US military would drop a shitload of programs before they let GPS fall apart.

And what the hell is with that article - it's an article written about another article written about a CNET original?


I thought this was strange: "Though Selective Availability still exists, on 19 September 2007, the US Department of Defense announced that the new GPS satellites will not be capable of implementing Selective Availability." Why remove the feature?

 

[nerp]

This will happen on the same day we run out of IP addresses.

FYI, that was supposed to happen a couple years ago. I guess these braniacs didn't realize everyone would use NAT.

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: nerp
This will happen on the same day we run out of IP addresses.

FYI, that was supposed to happen a couple years ago. I guess these braniacs didn't realize everyone would use NAT.

This. And Waffles.

 

[TruePaige]

Originally posted by: techs

Originally posted by: daniel1113

Originally posted by: techs

Originally posted by: daniel1113

Originally posted by: techs
I posted a thread in P&N a while back asking how much the government was charging for the use of the GPS. And people laughed.
Why the hell shouldn't the people who use it pay for its upkeep?

Like through taxes, for example?

No, thru royalties from devices that use GPS. That way the people who paid for developing and implementing it with their taxes would get their money back.
JVC developed the video cassette and they get a royalty. Philips (and others) developed the cd and they get royalties, etc.

Video cassettes and CDs were not developed as public goods by a public entity.

wtf? GPS was not developed as "public good". It was developed for the military. And it had a use in the private sector and has benefited people from almost every country on the planet.
Why shouldn't the users pay for it? What are you, a communist?

What the hell techs? You keep posting dumber shit.

You already said above The Taxpayers Paid For GPS!

We already paid for it, and it doesn't suddenly cost more because more of us use it. It has more or less fixed costs.

 

[fire400]

ATK gets millions of dollars from the gov. to fund research and build munitions, we're talkin' hundreds of millions in less than a single year?

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wtf?

 

[Modelworks]

Even if some of the GPS satellite were to fail they already have several satellites that are parked up there whose sole purpose is to serve as backups.
The main cost of upkeep on the system is syncing of clock data with the earth, since time on the satellites is different than time on the planet, there is a master clock on the earth that keeps the system in sync.

I do think we should be charging other countries for use of the service. Other governments should not be benefiting from money we spend for free. And it would be easy to do if we really wanted to. We can , with just a few minutes preparation , switch the GPS data to encrypted or change the resolution of the data so that it still works, but only down to things like 20 feet resolution. That would be a great tactic to use in a war, since most countries do not have their own system. We also do not have to encrypt the whole system. We can choose which ones to encrypt, meaning we could encrypt Europe, but the USA would still be free.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: ironwing

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: techs
I posted a thread in P&N a while back asking how much the government was charging for the use of the GPS. And people laughed.
Why the hell shouldn't the people who use it pay for its upkeep?

Because it's a broadcast carrier you freak.

I've clearly entered the universe with evil Spock and wimpy Kirk. Techs is arguing for user fees and Spidey is arguing for public goods. 😕

When the system of federal defense of the states and duty of the gubment as specified in our Constitution can provide something for nothing I'm fine with it.

Sorry to distract, but we got the consumer GPS as a bonus. The first goal was defense and some brilliant guy said "Hey! Consumers can use this as well!"

yeap. thats pretty much it. we already paid for it with tax's. This will get fixed (bailed out? wtf kind of idiot thinks its a bailout? its the fucking military you dumbass!) because it is to important to the military.

The fact i get to use it so i don't get lost (but hey sometimes thats fun!) is just a added bonus.

 

[LTC8K6]

I think Obama did decide to kill LORAN, which could have been a backup system should the GPS system fail. The latest LORAN system is pretty darn good. I think other countries still have it as a backup system.

 

[smack Down]

The system isn't failing it has the opposite problem the satellites are not failing fast enough and therefor we have a bunch of old satellites.

The air force has 7 spares in orbit in case some fail.