this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
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Basically the title. The fact that we can read an encyclopedia entry on the economic history of the Netherlands from our phone is crazy. Scrolling over to a random island in the middle of the Atlantic to experience a virtual street tour is insane. There are even websites that let you see live security camera footage (shoutout to EarthCamTV). We have so much information that we take for granted.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Yeah that feeling hit me hard when I was playing with web SDRs. To keep it simple and not boring people can set up an antenna, hook it to a computer and you can go to their website to remotely listen to anything the antenna can hear. A univeristy in the Netherlands has one set up. You can hear regular radio, cell tower data, morse code, you name it.

So I was able to listen to a Cuban propaganda broadcast, that somehow skipped between the ocean and atmosphere just right to get picked up by that antenna, turning into digital data sent through their website, going through cables under the ocean to my isp, through wifi, to me in near real time. Bonkers.