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Microsoft and Facebook Just Built a 4,000-Mile Cable Across the Pacfic Ocean (popularmechanics.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Popular Mechanics:
Microsoft, Facebook and global telecommunication infrastructure company Telxius have completed the Marea subsea cable, the world's most technologically advanced undersea cable. The Marea crosses the Atlantic Ocean over 17,000 feet below the ocean's surface, connecting Virginia Beach with Bilbao, Spain. Over 4,000 miles (6,600 kilometers) long and weighing nearly 10.25 million pounds (4.65 million kilograms), the Marea can transmit up to 160 terabits of data per second, which Microsoft notes is "more than 16 million times faster than the average home internet connection, making it capable of streaming 71 million high-definition videos simultaneously."
The undersea cable -- about 1.5 times the diameter of a garden hose -- contains eight pairs of fiber optic cables encircled by copper, a protective layer of hard plastic, and then waterproof coating. Its 4,000-mile route had to avoid everything from earthquake zones to active volcanoes.
Cables under the Atlantic Ocean carry 55% more data than cables under the Pacific, Microsoft writes, adding that "the project highlights the increasing role of private companies in building the infrastructure of the future."
The undersea cable -- about 1.5 times the diameter of a garden hose -- contains eight pairs of fiber optic cables encircled by copper, a protective layer of hard plastic, and then waterproof coating. Its 4,000-mile route had to avoid everything from earthquake zones to active volcanoes.
Cables under the Atlantic Ocean carry 55% more data than cables under the Pacific, Microsoft writes, adding that "the project highlights the increasing role of private companies in building the infrastructure of the future."
NT
I guess the headline needs to be fixed.
Someone needs to read their own summary: this looks like the Atlantic Ocean, not the Pacific Ocean.
Ask me about repetitive DNA
These certainly are strange days. The Pacific is now in the Atlantic*. Next you'll be telling me that Cats are living with Dogs and that US is actually a reality show a la Truman.
How the fuck you get the Pacific I don't know. It's as if the last thing in the submission said "Pacific" and that's all the "editors" can remember - the last thing they saw.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Glad I took the time to read TFA. I would have been thoroughly confused given the headline and the summary text. Thanks for that.
Use a little common sense once in a while. --Book of Mooch Ch. 5 verse 14
What is that in hogsheads?
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Complaining about the "editors" is 28% of slashdot traffic. What is the incentive to change?
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Headline says Pacific, article says Atlantic
All the oceans are connected together, so arguably if you're crossing the Atlantic, you're also crossing the Pacific. :-D
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Only approved traffic will be allowed on the new cable. Anyone critical of Microsoft or Facebook will be banned from using it.
slashdot: A failed experiment.
#Trump will make the Pacific Atlantic again and make Mexico pay for his ignorance.
...4,000-Mile Cable Across the Pacfic Ocean ... connecting Virginia Beach with Bilbao, Spain
Microsoft maps claims another victim!
Microsoft and Facebook laid a giant cable across The Atlantic to keep them from posting any more mean things about them. This wasn't an accident, they did this pacifically because they heard bad things were going to be in the next issue.
I'm not sure how you guys got all confused about something so simple. ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Seems odd to build new cables with such a low strand count-- is it just a function of the optical amplifiers?
= 4650 tonnes. Which would have been a lot easier for most people to grog straight away. Still, at least they didn't measure it in elephants tho I suppose it won't be long before submitters drop to that dumbed down level.
I don't understand this comment.
Nevermind the failure at geography. The whole damn headline is wrong. Neither Facebook nor Microsoft did anything other than write a big fat check to the telecom company that runs undersea cables. If Amazon and Apple were to have the driveways of their headquarters repaved, would the slashdot headline breathlessly scream "Amazon and Apple Build New Highway!" or something similarly retarded?
They did not do this out of altruism. They expect to make a handsome profit over selling access to it. I find it hard to get excited about corporate giants that innovate. I get more excited when the little guy achieves something big.
They also moved pacific ocean between USA and Europe.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Holy Sh!t, EditorDavid - you either need more coffee, or more beer, or better weed (maybe all 3) - AND a $4.99 globe (with pencil sharpener) - to determine what the difference between PACIFIC and ATLANTIC mean to the REAL WORLD - - - - ooops, guess I forgot where I was posting, since /. does seem to make up it's OWN real world on occasion -lol-
I really, REALLY hope this was a spoofed sig, and not a post from one of /.'s REAL editors . . . . .
redneck geek
I wonder if the NSA has tapped it yet.
Microsoft writes, adding that "the project highlights the increasing role of private companies in hobbling the infrastructure of the future."
More evidence of man-made "continental shift" and "ocean change". Unless the UN quickly acts, 97% of scientists think the Bering Sea will surround Tahiti in 15 years.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
"Private" is better. Always.
No it isn't, troll.
I don't respond to AC's.
Maybe it goes leftwards from the west coast all the way around to Spain?
You know the NSA can't wait to tap into that. https://www.wired.com/2016/09/...
At least you're not forced to pay for Microsoft/Facebook's cable; if you don't like their policies, then build your own damn cable. ... you're forced to pay for that Government cable.
"Private" is better. Always.
I've been forced to pay for Microsoft's pre-loaded operating systems several times. That or drop out the the modern world by having no PC. You can avoid paying any government too - by dropping out the the modern world and living on a rock. There are still a number of isolated rocks in the sea that are unclaimed, and if that sounds too barren and windswept you can always build your own damned infrastucture on it.
not M$ or FB. They paid for it.
My neighbor paid a contractor to build an extension to his house.
But he didn't do so much as lift a fucking brick. It's his house, he paid for it but he did NOT "build" it.
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
One of my favorite articles of all time from any source is the piece Neal Stephenson wrote for Wired about the Fiber Optic Link (around the) Globe, or FLAG, in 1996.
https://www.wired.com/1996/12/...
It went from England to Japan (about 28,000 km/17,500 miles) and carried "just under 8 Gbps of actual throughput". 21 years later, this new cable has TWENTY THOUSAND times the bandwidth. Nice.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
How? One of the biggest on the whole planet run south to north smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean separating the North American Plate from the Eurasian You may even have heard of it. Its called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The two plates are continuously pulling apart from each other, generating earthquakes all the time. You lay cable across the Atlantic west to east, you have to cross it
Have you wondered why it's always more expense to build a PC these days than buy one?
The crapware they load on the pre-loaded Windows OS more than pays for the OS license.
That bundled Windows is actually making your PC cheaper.
Well I never been to Spain But I kinda like the music Say the ladies are insane there And they sure know how to use it They don't abuse it Never gonna lose it I can't refuse it (you either have to be OLD like me, or love that music to know the group)
While you could have a trans-Pacific cable connecting Virginia Beach with Bilbao, Spain why would you go the long way round? In actuality this just shows that /. editors are dead between the ears.
Tunneled it Pacific over or under Atlantic just like ipv6 over ipv4?
I live in VB. Where is the facility located?
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
Journalism has taken a nosedive in the last five-years.
I wouldn't use "journalism" and "Slashdot" in the same sentence.
The Top secret 6 strands of Fiber Optic cable in there that is only available to certain agencies.
With headlines like this staying uncorrected on a 'smart persons' web site for hours, it is easy to see how just a little fake news could sway an election using the less-informed public.
Is the usage of obscure units some kind of inside joke that I'm unaware of. Here are all the units used in the summary:
* Over 17,000 feet below the ocean's surface [should be in meters]
* Over 4,000 miles (6,600 kilometers) long [Thank you for having a proper unit. But WTF is with the precision. Weight is given at least with three significant numbers.]
* weighing nearly 10.25 million pounds (4.65 million kilograms) [Million kilograms. Really? How about tons?]
* 160 terabits of data per second / more than 16 million times faster than the average home internet connection / streaming 71 million high-definition videos
* 1.5 times the diameter of a garden hose [Does this even deserve a comment?]
... then again it's not like our government let us say what's on our mind either anyway ..
So two of the world's most evil companies now control the largest data pipe between continents. This is very scary for Freedom.
I do build my own PCs these days, but I have bought ones too. In the UK you need to go a long way to find a PC not pre-loaded with Windows.
The crapware they load on the pre-loaded Windows OS more than pays for the OS license.
That bundled Windows is actually making your PC cheaper.
I am well aware of that. But, cheaper or not, MS and Gates still receive some money from me. I prefer to pay more to avoid that, and the crap & spy-ware.