Slashdot Mirror
Millions in Middle East Lose Internet
Shipwack writes "Tens of millions of internet users across the Middle East and Asia have been left without access to the web after a technical fault cut millions of connections.
The outage, which is being blamed on a fault in a single undersea cable, has severely restricted internet access in countries including India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and left huge numbers of people struggling to get online.
Observers say that the digital blackout first struck yesterday morning, with Egypt's communications ministry suggesting it was caused by a cut in a major internet pipeline linking it to Europe."
Old news. Was reported and solved yesterday.
And this provided the finest example of the sole purpose TCP/IP was created.
Yes, the 'net access was down for an hour, but after that it came back up as before.
Guess TCP was able route the packets through alternate gateways after detecting the problem.
Goes on to prove that technology conceived of in 1960s still works magnificiently, and yet what's conceived yesterday (Patriot missiles, DRM, etc) fail miserably.
Well, in those days people actually spent good money on deep research, schools taught Real Maths and Science, and students wanted to pursue science careers rather than becoming a rockstar or a lawyer. More so, they were very very thorough with their research and thought of all possible implications in future rather than the next quarterly results.
Yes, today's pace is higher and more innovations are crawling out of woodwork, but how many of them stand the test of time? Most fail and even products like vaigra have liabilities.
If only the next president goes back to funding research in basic science, space exploration, mathematics, rather than giving the money to Blackwater and LTCM-clones...
But then this president has effectively demolished and destroyed whatever remaining last vestiges of advances we had in science and other research.
Now china and even korea [with its old people] are proving to be better at science and maths and more innovative.
While in the US, candidates bicker about evolution and creationism , the people gawk at Britney's antics, SAG awards to watch 'em sagging,
and where even a mention of higher grade mathematics leads to a lawsuit by parents.
Heck, even cutting up a real frog in labs is out of question because the animal rights activists camp at my door, while DHS and FBI come thundering to my house/school if i order testubes or chemicals like H2SO4....
In 20 years, USA would be the mightiest military power with no brains.
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
At least it's good thing that Slashdot posts dupes so often, so those poor fellows will have a chance to catch up later, when Slashdot reposts the same stories again.
Now I'm waiting for my +5 Redundant moderation!