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The Men Who Fix the Internet
An anonymous reader writes "Remember all those undersea cables breaking? PopSci.com introduces John Rennie, who '... has braved the towering waves of the North Atlantic Ocean to keep your e-mail coming to you. As chief submersible engineer aboard the Wave Sentinel, part of the fleet operated by UK-based undersea installation and maintenance firm Global Marine Systems, Rennie — a congenial, 6'4", 57-year-old Scotsman — patrols the seas, dispatching a remotely operated submarine deep below the surface to repair undersea cables.' The article goes on to outline the physical infrastructure of the Internet, including some of its points of vulnerability."
How do we know its not actually the women?
I suggest we leave them that way. It will reduce spam, and make Dell hire locally for their call centers.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
Grounds keeper Willie of the undersea cables, at your service.
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed H
WTF are people dragging anchors around for? I would presume (and could be entirely wrong, as usual) that shallow water cable runs wouldn't be located next to anchorages. Do these sea going vessels have to stop for lunch or something?
And why to we even allow fisherman to drag crap along the sea bottom? I thought industrial level trawling went out years ago?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Because anyone can still whoop Aquaman's butt.
If each mistake being made is a new one, then progress is being made.
Upon being advised that the North Atlantic cable had been cut by another fishing boat, Rennie exclaimed "I dinna cry when me own father was hung for stealing a pig. But I'll cry now!"
While there is loads of critical data that goes through these cables, I feel bad when these guys are working their asses off to make sure that 4chan or youtubes of a chimpanzee riding on a segway gets to its proper place.
Aren't there enough satellites up that we wouldn't need undersea cables anyway?
but my gut says your wrong.
Delay young padawan... delay.
What's faster: radiowaves or data that travels the speed of light?
This is yet another example of the jobs which we rely on everyday but don't give much thought to. Also, this make me really think there is a great job out there to fit everyone. (When the economy improves that is.)
Douglas Whitaker
Aye Captain, but I don't know if my poor cables will take more.
... and the article couldn't even get that right.
Blech. For much more interesting reading, check out this classic:
Mother Earth Mother Board
Holy crap! The Internet *is* a series of tubes! Evidence:Image from TFA
Just in case some of you haven't yet read Neal Stephensons article "Mother Earth Mother Board" - you can read it here in the archives of Wired: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html
It is one huge mother of an article - more like a smallish novel - dealing with the laying of the then longest undersea-cable and the history of cable-laying from the very beginning to 1996, when it was written. It is also a hugely enjoyable and highly fascinating read featuring, among others, some "Supreme Ninja Hacker Mage Lords of global telecommunications" (i.e., Kelvin and Graham Bell), a by now slightly nostalgic seeming hacker attitude and lingo and locales ranging from Malaysia to Egypt to Cornwall with general local weirdness included. Plus it answers just about any questions you might have about this whole business mentioned in the original post.
...is a cool article up on Wired (look for the printable link option so it's all on one page) detailing an interesting adventure around the world and some of the history of undersea cables. Definitely worth a read.
"The article goes on to outline the physical infrastructure of the Internet, including some of its points of vulnerability"
Sean Gorman mapped out the US fiber-optic telco fiefdoms.
Parts of his dissertation where "removed".
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/01/70040?currentPage=2
Getting back to the popsci 'news'
The part I find interesting is the use of 'hubs'
Are hubs (fiber locations?) for cost savings, lazy design, best design for a shareholder when burning tax payers re nation building, collusion between telcos, easy NSA access ?
What do other parts of the world do ?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Fixed? Isn't the internet perpetually broken and therefore needing more investment in hardware and expertise?
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
And tell my wife hello if I don't make it.
Bot Assisted Blogging
...That Dell techs fix his computer ...
Slashdotters ain't what they used to be.
I'd swap with this man if job is somewhere in South Pacific. Present location is a bit too cool.
Um, it's a UK Company for starters.
Everytime we have a connectivity hiccup I am flooded with calls from our users asking "Is the Internet broken?"
It takes everything in my power not to say "Yes. The Internet is, in fact, broken"
As I looked at the photo in the article of this brave warrior-engineer, I thought "So this is the man who keeps the porn flowing."
And I couldn't help but notice his underwater robot seems to have a mech penis. He even calls it "The Beast".
From TFA:
"If terrorists managed to gain remote access to a facility's command-and-control system, they could, for example, cause the generators to overheat and explode."
If you can make a generator explode on command, you really are doing it wrong. Backup generators may be able to be remotely started, stopped, switched in/out and checked but you should not be able to do the equivalent of burnouts with them.
Additionally, the article states that catastrophic failures would start to creep in after ~2 days of no human maintenance. WTF? Most exchanges and data centres I've been in are ghost ships 350 days a year aside from upgrades and config changes, how is it that such critical hardware can't tick over by itself for a month or so without going nipples skyward?
Hell, the average telephone exchange, if you nuked everything around it, would be giving dialtone and DSL to the skeletons for at least a week, probably more depending on how much diesel is in the tanks.
There is no music - home taping killed it.
Really cool article. I wish there were more ones like this one instead of "What features would you like in new Apple toilet brush" or "Microsoft is still being ghey".
I find it pretty amazing that it is possible to manage such complicated, global structure without any serious problems (yet). However, I still don't quite get it how they find where the cable got broken and how they fix it in the first place.
My Windows is NOT slow, it's special!
Just wondering.
Mayvbe they don't need them if they just install the 'upgraded' repeaters at suitable points.
I have a shortwave radio, I use it.. sometimes.
Trouble is, BBC, radio netherlands, etc.. have pretty much stopped broadcasting to the the US, which means there are fewer english programs. (still a few) but I do get HAM operators, who, I trust, will relay anthing important.
If something critical should happen, I'll still be informed, shortwave works when cables AND satelites are down. (albeit, I won't be able to watch "youtube")
Indeed, 8 years ago, I had no tv or internet (hard times..) shortwave saved me from a lot of boring nights.. at least WBCQ, CBC (Canada) and the VOA are still on.
I guess this is why spies still use it, it's reliable. (and yes, I've heard a few spy transmissions.)
We depend too much on frail technology.
Makes me Fix the internet twice a week.
"Who is the idiot who put the brits in charge of such critical infrastructure?"
Obviously not someone who drove a car with Lucas electrical systems...
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
I agree. The electrical systems on British cars refuse to work when damp or even vaguely moist, so why are they in charge of something that has 10,000V running on it for the amplifiers and will be _submerged_ in seawater???
Grin 8-)
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
The guy from India's accent was so thick, the vowels were not pronounced correctly and he was using words that I'm sure were not english.
What makes you think he was Indian?
All the Indians I know speak better English than the average American. In fact they sometimes use English words most Americans don't know, but should. Like "obviate" and "simplex" for example.
The Philly B-boys on phone support around here always tell people they are in India. Cracks me up, they don't sound anything like Indians.
WTF are people dragging anchors around for?
They are doing it to piss you off and wreck your Internets. It has nothing to do with a ten thousand year old industry that feeds millions.
And why to we even allow fisherman to drag crap along the sea bottom?
Dammit, Aqua-TSA should be monitoring every meter of sea-bottom! Stupid Obama is soft on terror!
Don't take it personally, I'm just goofing on you.
That machine looks awfully like a backhoe. Are you really sure that they are just fixing the cables?
...I've always wondered how they put large cables in the seas in the first place..? A transatlantic cable for example, do they have a really really really long one or connect many shorter? ..Or do they manufacture it on the fly as they go?
Anyone got a link with information about how these things work?
...is: THANK YOU GUYS!