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Many Possibilities
Personal blog · manypossibilities.neteconomicssystems
Many Possibilities is a personal blog at manypossibilities.net about economics and systems. Since 2010, 7 different Hacker News readers have linked it 12 times, most often “African Undersea Cables”. The last post was in 2024, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Steve Song's blog for its coverage of African undersea internet cables and connectivity, and for its pointers to telecom resources such as the Mesh Potato and low-bitrate speech codecs.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
In the beginner's mind there are...
Most-linked posts?
- African Undersea Cables2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-07-10
What Hacker News says?
I'm confused by why they are calling this cable system "transformative" as the periphery of Africa is already well served by existing submarine cable: https://manypossibilities.net/african-undersea-cables/ It seems like getting terrestrial fiber into the interior of the continent would be much more impactful. For instance SEACOM was completed in 2008 with landing stations in Tanzania and Kenya but it took 2 years to…
Comment linking /african-undersea-cables/
on “Building a subsea cable to better connect Africa”Submitted Starlink and Inequality as a story · 8 points
HN discussionThat's out of date. Try http://manypossibilities.net/african-undersea-cables/ which has cables planned up to 2014
Comment linking /african-undersea-cables/
on “Why it's hard to love Google Plus in Africa”Submitted African Undersea Cables as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAh ok. I agree. Generalizations about Africa are generally wrong. There's a world of difference between Cairo or Cape Town or somewhere deep in the jungles of the DRC. There's really good map of planned and existing submarine cables to Africa at http://manypossibilities.net/african-undersea-cables/ which gives a fairly good idea of where the best and worst internet in Africa is
Comment linking /african-undersea-cables/
on “Why it's hard to love Google Plus in Africa”Submitted African Telecommunications Infrastructure in 2023 as a story · 1 points
HN discussionHere are some suggestions for further reading: http://www.villagetelco.org Steve Song's blog (Telecommunications Fellow at the Shuttleworth Foundation): http://manypossibilities.net/ http://openmobile.futuretext.com/ There was an article in Linux Journal last December that includes more technical details on the Mesh Potato.
Comment linking /
on “Codec2: GNU low-bitrate speech codec (2400 bits/second)”https://manypossibilities.net I write about affordable access to internet with a focus on Africa. Some recent-ish posts I am proud of: * A Game of Stones - https://manypossibilities.net/2023/01/a-game-of-stones/ - rethinking telecom regulation * A Penny Black Broadband Strategy - https://manypossibilities.net/2021/03/a-penny-black-broadban... - democratising access to backhaul * The 5G Fugazi - https://manypossibili…
Comment linking /series/africa-telecom-infrastructure/
on “Ask HN: Could you share your personal blog here?”