Google to float wireless data? (and 99 videos)

You and IT Blogwatch (in a little toy shop): in which Google may (or may not) buy a bag of wireless data balloons (with the money it's got). Not to mention setting them free (at the break of dawn)...

Amol Sharma flashes the message, "Something's out there":

Space Data Corp. ... wants to bring wireless service to millions of rural Americans ... [by] beaming it down from balloons hovering at the edge of space ... [it] already launches 10 balloons a day across the Southern U.S., providing specialized telecom services ... balloons soar 20 miles into the stratosphere, each carrying a shoebox-size ... cellphone "tower" covering thousands of square miles below ... idea has caught the eye of Google Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. [more] [watch]

Duncan Riley opens up one eager eye:

Space Data Corp targets areas without existing internet access, such as rural areas and highways, providing wireless and internet services to truckers and rural folk. The company currently launches 20 balloons a day, and a single balloon can service an area equivalent to 40 cell phone towers. The balloons cost $50, however the transceivers attached to them cost $1500, but parachute back to the earth once the balloon is no longer in service. [more]

Sean Fallon has orders to identify, to clarify and classify:

The one major problem is that the balloons only survive for about 24 hours before they are destroyed in the upper atmosphere. However, if that shortcoming can be overcome, Google could build wireless networks using a 700 Mhz spectrum in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of traditional cell towers. And as a BusinessWeek article from last month revealed, Space Data believes it can cover the whole country with a WiMax broadband network with just 370 balloons. Compare that with the 22,000 or so towers that would be necessary using traditional methods. It may be non-traditional but it is a dammed good idea. My mind has just been blown. [more]

This is what Alex Halavais' waited for:

I’ve been talking about this for years, and people seem to just think I’m crazy, but it looks like Google doesn’t ... I still don’t see why a few dozen of these couldn’t be floated over Manhattan. At the very least, it would provide helicopter pilots with some entertainment. It also looks like it is seeding a new kind of extreme geocaching. [more]

This is it, Mike Masnick, this is war:

Say what you want about the Wall Street Journal, but they're generally pretty reliable on fact checking and not reporting baseless rumors. That's why it's strange to see [this] report ... For many years, we've seen all different reports about attempts to offer wireless data services using various types of floating devices ... All of these plans ... were basically all full of hot air... gullible reporters ... ridiculous in terms of practicality ... nothing to back that up other than "people familiar with the matter." [more]

Carlo Longino is on the line:

“Stratellites” — giant blimps that could supposedly deliver wireless broadband to land masses the size of Texas — were, for a long time, my favorite BS broadband idea ... A close second was the concept of putting reusable balloons in the air, where they’d stay for about a day, then fall to earth, where people would retrieve them for a $100 bounty ... The sourcing on this story is, uh, tenuous at best, but of course the CEO of the balloon company doesn’t do anything to downplay the “rumors”. [more]

Panic bells, it's Karl Bode:

Somebody might want to stick to ads and search lest that stock price deflates and falls to earth ... Dairy farmers launching sluggish telecom equipment via balloons packed with hydrogen on a mass scale, with random people recovering fallen equipment as latex bits cover the landscape? What could go wrong? [more]

[That's enough 80's German pop lyrics -Ed.]

And finally: 99-what?..

• Nena's original
• German version
• Goldfinger's cover
• Otto's spoof
  

Buffer overflow:

• Phil Windley: Utah May Reject REAL ID
• Alan Calder: Civil lawsuits start
• Coding Horror: There Ain't No Such Thing as the Fastest Code
• Erick Schonfeld: Microsoft-Yahoo Battle Getting Expensive. Should Microsoft Give Up?
• 1 Raindrop: Digital Natives and Digital Assets
• Philosophy of information: The informational nature of being
• Keith Combs: DreamSpark - I wish I had this when I was 15
• David Marshall: Virtualization Continues to Flow Through the Channels
• Owen Thomas: Cisco cuts mid-year bonuses
• Ryan Paul: Reviewing the RIAA's "Reefer Madness" for the digital age

Other Computerworld bloggers:

• Eric Lai: Starbucks' freeish Wi-Fi lets you use laptop and iPhone at same time
• Mitch Betts: Myths about business gadgets
• Martin MC Brown: New House of the Future coming to Disneyland
• Heather Havenstein: Just who are these 'superdelegates' and why do they matter?
• Preston Gralla: XP SP3 RC2 first look: Be prepared to be underwhelmed
• Mike Elgan: Christmas shopping at 35,000 feet
• Preston Gralla: Get XP SP3 RC2 with this Registry hack
• Robert L. Mitchell: The carbon neutral myth
• Preston Gralla: U.K. will investigate Microsoft for consumer rights violations
• Mark Hall: Hypermesh speeds streaming media
• Douglas Schweitzer: Students have distaste for "juicy" dirt
• Shark Tank: How to use technology
• Shark Bait: What Bugs You

Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You too can pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• HELO, Mozilla Messaging (and bad GPS, bad)
• WiMax across U.S., thanks to Intel cash (and geekTunes)
• Has Blu-ray won? HD-DVD R.I.P.? (and souvenir potpourri 2)