Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

A Twisty Maze Of Sewerbot Links, All Different

Posted by timothy on from the get-your-mind-back-in-the-gutter dept.

skids writes "Look before you sit! Sewer systems all over the world are under seige by robots laying fiber to the curb -- and beyond. There's even a standards body forming. (Doesn't that consitute a one-level recursion of 'pipes carrying filth'?)" It's been a while since we last mentioned these things.

11 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. It's all fun and games... by craenor · · Score: 5, Funny

    Until a wrong turn has a battlebot crawling out of your toilet with cable laying on it's mind.

    1. Re:It's all fun and games... by Bicoid · · Score: 5, Funny

      Think of it this way. They're laying fiber optics. What's the worst thing that happens? You get that colonoscopy you've been putting off?

      --
      If not all sentients are human, couldn't it be possible that not all humans are sentient either?
  2. And... by Cali+Thalen · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...when people tell you that the internet has gone down the toilet, NOW what do you have to say?

    --
    Chaos, panic, disorder...my work here is done.
  3. security by austad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The bad part about this, is that the fiber will be easy to access for people who would like to do bad things to it, like chop it in half. Right now, most fiber is buried and terminates in locked buildings/closets/etc. But simply lifting a manhole cover gives an attacker access.

    A few years ago, there was a guy in Fargo, ND who wanted to rob a stereo shop called Site On Sound. The shop had an alarm system, so instead of just chopping the wires on the outside of the building, he obtained some city blueprints and found where the largest bundle of phone wires went, and cut it in half with a chainsaw. Apparently, it was a 2 foot thick bundle of twisted pairs, and the entire city of Fargo was completely without phone service for nearly a week while the 2 foot thick cable was spliced back together.

    Hope they don't plan on running anything too important over sewer fiber. It's cheap, but it has far greater risk than burying it.

    --
    Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
    1. Re:security by Jordy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I fail to see how this is any less secure than burying fiber and placing big signs around it warning there is a fiber drop so someone with a backhoe doesn't accidentally dig it up. Even in a city where the cable is buried under the road, there are access points all over the place.

      In fact, many of these robots are built to run cable in piping that is inaccessible to humans so they are *more* secure than running fiber next to train tracks or under roads.

      --
      The world is neither black nor white nor good nor evil, only many shades of CowboyNeal.
  4. Robots in the sewers? by Tseran · · Score: 5, Funny

    Some say its an urban legend, the stories of robots flushed down the toilets when they were just mini-battle bots, all grown up to huge proportions and laying fiber all over the city. But I know its true! I accidentally flushed by Lego Mindstorms down the toilet one day and now I have high speed internet access when I crap!

    --
    .sig: It's what's for dinner.
  5. Why use sewer lines? by Jason+Pollock · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sewer lines are dirty, nasty confined places, do we really need the roto-rooter guy taking out our broadband connection?

    Everyone sees roads continually being torn up to lay cable. Why don't the municipalities lay a "data pipe" to go along with the gas and sewer lines.

    That way, there's a maintained pipe for power and data to run down. The city rents space, and you don't have roads being torn up anymore. Instead of once per carrier per service, it's torn up once period! New services become a _lot_ cheaper because you don't have to pay to repave the roads!

    Cities would love it because they get a steady income, companies love it because it doesn't involve insane amounts of capex... Win all around?

    Jason Pollock

  6. Steam Tunnel Repair Robot by coloth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    These robots reminded me of W.I.S.O.R., a robot built by Honeybee Robotics to repair the ancient steam pipes under New York's streets.

    Very interesting to anyone reading this would be a docudrama about the creation of W.I.S.O.R. This is a cross between Pi, 2001, and Junkyard Wars.

    Of peripheral, yet substantial interest is Honeybee's RoboTender, a robotic bartender.

    --

    Machines take me by surprise with great frequency. -A. Turing

  7. Way to go Bill and Al! by Nefrayu · · Score: 5, Funny

    It would seem that this is a convergence of policies for the former US President and VP. Clinton wanted to make healthcare more affordable and/or free, and Gore wanted to route the internet to everyone's home, business, or public meeting place. With this system you can get the internet and a free colonoscopy at the same time!
    Any of you who've been subjected to a sigmoid colonoscopy would know that you can't tell the difference between a robot shoving a fiber optic bundle from a physician shoving the fiber optic endoscope up there.

    --
    Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
  8. because... by malakai · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It cost more to dig up the streets and lay your 'data pipe' then the pipe can generate income over an acceptable period of time. Sure a city could amortize it over 100 years, and _might _ make a profit on the money equal to some other investment they could have done with the money, but there's no guarantee in 100 years this data pipe of yours will still be as usefull. Too risky, too costly, there are better ways to put tax dollars to work.

    -malakai

    --
    -Malakai
    A Dragon Lives in my Garage
  9. Lawyers by Catskul · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why should we put money into developing robots to do this work.

    Couldnt we just ask the lawyers to do it while they are down there ?

    --

    Im not here now... Im out KILLING pepperoni