... another area able to get on ebay to buy the computers that they need to get onto ebay with. I think this is a good thing, win/win situation. Speed up information to those who lack it and help them make better choices.

Namster

@sarwatmj: @shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog: @schmere: @mrburglar: Thank you, headline typo. Fixed.

John Mahoney

mrburglar: that is absolutely true, Africa's population is estimated at around 1 Billion. What the hell with the 3 Billion claim? Unless its gonna serve not just Africa but other developing countries in the area!

sarwatmj

@donkill: Google had no intentions of buying a piece of the wireless spectrum. They just wanted to include the ruling for open leasing and open devices.

ripfire

"O3b stands for "other 3 billion," a reference to the world's population that still can't access the Internet [The New York Times]."

[blogs.discovermagazine.com]

shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog

I don't think it's just Africa.

schmere

WTF about us?Im still pissed off the bastards didnt buy the wireless spectrum when they had the chance.Where are our options?We pay more than anybody for the worst service because their is no real competition.

donkill

Wait, the Home Shopping Network has a satellite?

Oh, never mind.

EBone

"Google and Friends to Bring Satellite Internets To 3 Billion People in Africa".

Interesting, since there are only one billion people in Africa.

Is there a plan to move in a couple billion more from somewhere else?

mrburglar

Wow, it's nice to see big evil giant global mega-corp HSBC doing something like this.

s017jrs

Now instead of just spam mail from Nigeria we will get it from all of Africa.

The prince of *insert African country* has a large investment in the US and need your help to get it out!

uwwmatt

Something about seeing the word 'Internet' capitalized and plural bothers me.

My brother lives in Africa... the 'in the middle of nowhere' part of Africa. So I'm sure he'll be happy.

shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog

Watch out for the *Black* Hackers...
Coming soon, from Nigeria.. To nearby You!
Come on... I can't stop of thinking about an Ethiopian watching pizzahut.com or something alike!

madlogik

This is a good change. I hope so.. at least.

pardyhardy

@McLucky, @shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog: Oh

shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog

@McLucky: He says 'Developing Market', which is true. They are not yet a market for Google, Google brings the Internet and the market emerges.

shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog

Great! A billion more emails offering me large rewards for helping a government official move money out of his homeland!

mjsmith

@McLucky: Oops, correction to title noted!

McLucky

@John Mahoney: Also, the use of "third world" is pretty out of date and many in the "third world" find it insulting. We've been calling countries that fit the definition developing countries for a while now. (Part of my work is connected to aid and development as I used to get huge smack downs for accidently using that phrase). Perhaps we're all too worried about PC but this is a phrase that does bother those it refers to. Sorry for the lecture.

McLucky

Unfortunately, the EULA specifies that anything within the "range" of the satellite belongs to Google.

92BuickLeSabre

s017jrs: You do know that Google's corporate motto/saying/whatever is "Don't be Evil" Don't you?

And screw all you people that think the worst of someone just because they're in Africa. There's just as many crap scammers in the rest of the world, they just use better scams.

Enochrewt

@madlogik: Coming soon? Nigeria has been at it for a while, lol.

shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog

Judging by the way the OLPC turned into a huge business opportunity, I can very easily imagine this philanthropy being a pretense to develop the infrastructure for capitalistic goals.

Akibake-

Wow, internet. Whoop-dee-fucking-doo. Who needs food, clean water, and medical care, when you can check out what's new on eBay in the middle of the African savanna.

Somebody's priorities are mixed up. $750,000,000 could put in a lot of wells in the ground.

photophile

@Enochrewt:
"s017jrs: You do know that Google's corporate motto/saying/whatever is "Don't be Evil" Don't you?"

I was referring to HSBC as giant evil global megacorp. I bet they are going to open a bank in africa.

s017jrs

@photophile: But, if more people can get internets, more people can use Google. Google doesn't want to help they world, they just want money. We live in a capitalist society.

schmere

@schmere: its hand in hand... the only reason they make tv shows is to sell the advertising. The more popular a show is the more money companies pay to have there ads air during that show. even if you tivo out the commercials youll still see product placement.

google dose not care if you dont use anything from them and your on there internet. they make money off the advertising that they have in almost every other site that you go to...i could use yahoo even though most of the advertising on the sites that i go to will be from google adwords.

urbanturban666

Yeah, but can Google beam down condoms that don't break?

abemonty

@photophile: thats a pretty easy statement to make.

but why would google want to make wells? corporations arent around to help people, they are around to make money.

pevans34

@pevans34: "corporations arent around to help people, they are around to make money."

And thus end up helping many more people than would a billion dollars worth of do-good meddling. The "Third World" needs freedom and capitalism, not charity.

@McLucky: "Also, the use of "third world" is pretty out of date and many in the "third world" find it insulting."

Somebody get some lipstick for that pig!

GadgetPlay

@pevans34: Yes, it really is easy to say that. And it would be equally as easy for Google to write a big fat check to an aid organization.

photophile

@ripfire:Yeah i figured that out after they anouced that android would be coming to all the carriers.

donkill

um....not very usefull vs many commercially available systems.

[en.wikipedia.org]

grass gives off specific IR spectrum. Fabric does not. Adding a heater will not suffice since its not part of the Thermal IR spectrum.

Wouldn't mind this for paintball/airsoft though.

Kisar_Sosae

@photophile: OK coming from Africa (South Africa) I can tell you that a LOT of donating goes around, but if you just keep donating to us cool you know less people will be dieing from starvation or thirst but we'll still be a developing continent. Google is offering the opportunity for Africa to become more global which will in turn combat hunger and many other things such as education issues (just think of the many positives of having internet in a small township provides, programs could be created for children who would otherwise not be able to receive a education to receive it from the internet)

So Google in many ways is doing a good thing, I don't believe it would be logical to spend this amount of money for a money making ploy, they could launch much larger and more fruitful initiatives to make money.

I say great to the developing nations, I don't think this will help South Africa to much though, we already have internet access basically everywhere, although it might not be fast we've got it.

DJTripleRRR