I’m fascinated by the ongoing soap opera about the mysteriously severed undersea telecomm cables. If you haven’t been following, here’s a good recap. Maybe we’ve been preoccupied with Super Tuesday, but I haven’t seen too much mainstream coverage. Or maybe it’s another reminder that the Interwebs isn’t as important as we think it is.
Nah, must be Super Tuesday.
I won’t rehash all the conspiracy theories. I do love the Wall Street Journal’s coverage, which included this sweet image of a shark with a frickin’ laser beam attached to its head, obviously a suspect in this nefarious plot to deprive the Middle East, India and 70 million other broadband users of iJustine.tv.
Oh wait, apparently there are millions of dollars being lost by businesses too. I remember a few years ago when a cable accident took India offline. At the time, I was working in product management with a project team in India. Needless to say, the project slipped a few days while my colleagues in India were without Interwebs. So, the business cost is very real.
Affected countries have implored casual users to stay offline to allow commerce-driven traffic to use the limited bandwidth. Can you imagine? How long would you last under those circumstances?
Anyway, what fascinates me is how low-tech the operations are and how susceptible the high-tech world is to low-tech accidents. The cable repairs are done by cableships that find the break (not sure howusing an Optical Time Domain Reflectometer, ftw! Thanks Tyler), bring it up to the deck of the boat, then splice on a new section. That’s exactly how the plumbers fixed a section of pipe in my backyard, except for the land vs. sea bit.
And check out this sweet map of undersea cables, how fragile is this the Interwebs? Sure, traffic can be switched seamlessly in the case of an accident, but apparently, cable wear and tear is common. These cables seem pretty fragile too, only 69 mm (about 2 3/4″) in diameter. Maybe I’ve seen too many sci-fi movies, but I guess I expected something more hardy.
Plus, the locations of these cables are known. So, even though it seems unlikely that the recent cuts were purposeful, aren’t we just feeding ideas to the Dr. Evil’s of the World by suggesting how easy it would be to cripple a large portion of the World’s economy? Talk about the most unkindest cut.
Anyway, the whole thing is weirdly interesting, and in an ironic juxtaposition, soon banks will be accepting deposits electronically in the form of scanned checks. Sounds like another great advance in Interwebs that I don’t really need, but might use. But when you look at how tenuous the Interwebs is, maybe not so much goodness.
Have a theory on the cable cuts?
Jake,
They use an Optical Time Domain Reflectometer to find the breaks. Seriously, how could you not know that?
Tyler
Jake,
They use an Optical Time Domain Reflectometer to find the breaks. Seriously, how could you not know that?
Tyler
@Tyler: Wow, color me embarrassed. In my head, I picture this device to be like the one they use in “Ice Road Truckers” to calculate ice thickness, fancy name, lots of colors and a flashy display.
@Tyler: Wow, color me embarrassed. In my head, I picture this device to be like the one they use in “Ice Road Truckers” to calculate ice thickness, fancy name, lots of colors and a flashy display.
I read about it on Gizmodo this morning and had the name of that stupid thing stuck in my head all day. When I saw your post, I couldn’t resist 😉
Tyler
I read about it on Gizmodo this morning and had the name of that stupid thing stuck in my head all day. When I saw your post, I couldn’t resist 😉
Tyler
Sweet, I’m glad karma allowed you to drop some knowledge. I’ll file that nugget away for future use.
Sweet, I’m glad karma allowed you to drop some knowledge. I’ll file that nugget away for future use.
Okay, I guess it’s time for me to fess up to the world (and give Jake the scoop). Last time I chartered a boat and went deep sea fishin’, I guess I wound up draggin’ my bait a little too deep. Thought I might have hooked the Mother of All Marlins, but wound up with a tangled mess of wire… Gotta say,though, that the cable put up one heck of a fight!
Okay, I guess it’s time for me to fess up to the world (and give Jake the scoop). Last time I chartered a boat and went deep sea fishin’, I guess I wound up draggin’ my bait a little too deep. Thought I might have hooked the Mother of All Marlins, but wound up with a tangled mess of wire… Gotta say,though, that the cable put up one heck of a fight!
@Floyd: I think you owe the Interwebs users of the Middle East, India, Pakistan and a whole bunch of other places a sincere apology.
@Floyd: I think you owe the Interwebs users of the Middle East, India, Pakistan and a whole bunch of other places a sincere apology.
Hmmm…maybe the severed undersea telecomm cables, last Fall’s Storm worm, today’s art theft in Zurich and tonight’s BlackBerry outage are all caused by an evil-doer
who’s quietly testing his plan to cripple the entire planet. I love conspiracy theories. And James Bond.
Hmmm…maybe the severed undersea telecomm cables, last Fall’s Storm worm, today’s art theft in Zurich and tonight’s BlackBerry outage are all caused by an evil-doer
who’s quietly testing his plan to cripple the entire planet. I love conspiracy theories. And James Bond.
@Margaret: Everything must be related, and it’s our job to connect the dots. Floyd has culpability for the cable-cutting, so now, we need to lean on him to uncover his co-conspirators. Although, he’s a pretty connected guy and could be at fault for all of the above.
That’s easier. Blame Floyd and meet for cocktails.
@Margaret: Everything must be related, and it’s our job to connect the dots. Floyd has culpability for the cable-cutting, so now, we need to lean on him to uncover his co-conspirators. Although, he’s a pretty connected guy and could be at fault for all of the above.
That’s easier. Blame Floyd and meet for cocktails.
I’m actually responsible for all those things Margaret mentioned – a result of my over-exuberance in a hunt for a particular trout that has the map to a long-lost Conquistador treasure stamped on his dorsal fin…or was it a snook? Anyway, apologies to all for everything.
Now that we have that out of the way and bygones are bygones, about that meeting for cocktails thing…
I’m actually responsible for all those things Margaret mentioned – a result of my over-exuberance in a hunt for a particular trout that has the map to a long-lost Conquistador treasure stamped on his dorsal fin…or was it a snook? Anyway, apologies to all for everything.
Now that we have that out of the way and bygones are bygones, about that meeting for cocktails thing…