Plastic Optical Fibre: Cheap and Bendy

Motivator_Bob writes: "The Sydney Morning Herald has an article on making optical fibres from plastic rather than the traditional glass."Advances in optical-fibre making at the Australian Photonics research centre could bring communications at the speed of light into Australian homes and businesses in the next few years. The advance - microstructured polymer optical fibres (MPOF) - allows the manufacture of optical fibres that are much smaller, cheaper, more rugged and easier to make than glass fibres..."

Comments

Deep inside the ISP boardrooms

[brogdon]

Exec 1: Gee guys, with this cheaper fiber, we could roll out much better speeds than what we get on the copper we use now!

Execs #2 & #3: Woo-hoo, that'll really help us get a leg up on the competition!

Exec #1: Oh, wait... We don't have any competition. We don't have to share our lines with anyone, so no one else can get their foot in the door here. I guess we'll have to bonus our expansion money out to ourselves, instead.

Exec #2 (holding plastic fiber up to his eye) : Hey, Dick, I think I can see you through this thing. Neato. Somebody get me a martini.

Privacy issues with optical fiber networks

[theonomist]

Sigh... So many people just can't seem to think at all.

The real problem with optical fibers is that they transmit light.. Light is what you see with. Now, let's use our heads for a moment: You've got an optical fiber running from your bedroom to your ISP. What travels along that optical fiber? Light. That's right, folks, light. That means that people at the ISP can SEE you when you're NAKED.

Is that what you really want? Are you willing to pay for the privilege of exposing your bare bottom to the prying eyes of the sort of acne-scarred, socially dysfunctional, unbathed loners who work at ISPs? These people are, if you'll forgive the slur, sysadmins. It's not a nice thing to say, but it's a fact.

And they're watching you.

Adult industry implications

[extra the woos]

As we all know, innovations in technology are picked up first by the adult industry. That said, perhaps this will allow inexpensive high-resolution cameras that can fit into "tight places" ?