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China's War Against Wires
hodet writes "On sections of Beijing Road, you can barely see the sky. On Tibet Road, they dangle in garden-hose rolls and knots intricate enough to confound a Boy Scout. Over on Hefei Street, one enterprising apartment dweller even used them to hang-dry selected cuts of meat.
Tech-happy Shanghai, the most wired city in China, has a problem: wires. Telephone wires. Fiber-optic wires. Electrical wires. Wires no one can seem to identify. Black wires. Blue wires. Magenta wires. They're everywhere, and they're gumming up the works."
I mean, compared to the mess of wireless in the US of A. Several technologies in handsets, numerous carriers, multiple standards, disparate services, lack of inter-operability etc. etc.
No wonder China is developing a home-grown wireless solution tailored to it's needs.
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If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Did you read the same article I did?
They are up in the sky, and they *aren't* instantly accessible. Above or below ground isn't the problem, so much as that they have intersections with 30+ pairs of wires running across them. Who do they belong to? Where do they connect? No one knows!
If no one comes to claim them, they will be cut. *That* is the heart of the article, the simplification, regulation, and control of the wires. Not whether it's above ore below ground. It's only written to seem that way.
GPL Deconstructed
I'd like to see you distribute AC house-current by IP. The problem there isn't just communication wires....
"Over on Hefei Street, one enterprising apartment dweller even used them to hang-dry selected cuts of meat."
Seriously, if the power/fiber/phone lines are that close to a building, there must be really old standards in place. You can imagine the fun someone would have if they tapped a fiber line for spamming.
Come to think of it, if someone pulled that off, he/she would never be found because all the wires are in such a mess. It would be like looking for a needle in a field of haystacks!
You are confusing me with someone who cares.
Fire alarm cable is *suppposed* to be in a red jacket for just this reason. But yeah, you have a good point.
Interesting story.
"with the attitudes of the day, you can make the case that had the blizzard of 1888 not happened, new york city to this day might resemble a rat's nest of wires like shanghai is now"
Right! Lucky that storm hit or New Yorkers would have missed 115 years of progress. Because of those damned corporations.I rather think that this was due to the fact that you _can't_ have those types of lines aboveground. Rather have 3 utilities toast during an earthquake than 6 (power, phone, cable TV.)
But your cost argument is most likely a big part of it.
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage