Fiber

Building a Gigabit Fiber Network Is Real Hard, Even for Google

The WSJ delves into the trials and tribulations of trying to build a gigabit fiber network out to even the 50,000 homes at the low ends of Google’s goals for their trial network. It could cost up to $1 billion, and Google’s already mentioning to people it’s asking for help, like Case Western Reserve University’s…

Tech News Matt Buchanan Mar 9

Mayor of Duluth, Minnesota Wants All Firstborns To Be Named ‘Google Fiber’

Hey, Topeka, Kansas! Duluth, Minnesota is calling you out for changing your name to Google in an attempt to get Google’s Gigabit fiber Internet. They’re announcing that all firstborn children shall be named Google Fiber. https://gizmodo.com/topeka-kansas-changes-name-in-attempt-to-get-googles-g-5483255 Ah, thank goodness for that lengthy disclaimer at the beginning of the video or I’d have thought they were…

Tech News Rosa Golijan Mar 4

Topeka, Kansas Changes Name in Attempt to Get Google’s Gigabit Fiber

Bill Bunten is the mayor Google, Kansas—formerly known as Topeka, Kansas. He signed a proclamation temporarily renaming the city in an effort to convince Google to make Topeka a test site for a gigabit fiber Internet connection. https://gizmodo.com/google-wants-to-test-gigabit-fiber-internet-for-up-to-5-5468670 According to Bunten, he hopes that changing the city’s name for the entire month of March “would…

Tech News Rosa Golijan Mar 1

Google Wants to Test Gigabit Fiber Internet For Up To 500,000 People

Since Google wants to control all forms of communication, the logical next step is being not just what you do on the internet, but how you access the internet as well. To do that, they’ll deploy 1Gbps fiber to you. https://gizmodo.com/google-wants-to-control-all-communication-5467199 The company is going to test this super high speed internet to “a small…

Tech News Jason Chen Feb 10

Broadband Is So Slow Amazon’s Import/Export Service Sends Data Using the Post Office

How crappy is the current state of broadband? Amazon Web Services’ new Import/Export data delivery moves files using the postal service because broadband is too slow. To move a metric crapload of data, you load it on a supported storage device—preferably with an eSATA interface—ship it to Amazon, and they upload it directly to Amazon…

Commerce Matt Buchanan May 21

Second-Tier FiOS Providers Undercut Verizon, Are Verizon

Verizon FiOS, which can pipe the internet into your home at 50mbps, is something like bliss. It’s also hideously expensive. Luckily, smaller ISPs are offering the same service for less. The exact same service. Midsize ISP DSLExtreme has announced that it will be offering a 50mbps service in 17 states at an introductory rate of…

Tech News John Herrman May 18

Google on How to Change the Internet: You Should Own Your Broadband Pipes

Google policy analyst Derek Slater—who’s so obviously related to Christian Slater—explains how to reshape broadband in the US. Step one: Own the actual pipes that run to your house. Click to viewSounds crazy, but he cites the historical example of rural telephony, where the public owned the wire, not private companies. It’d work like this:…

Tech News Matt Buchanan Apr 30

Apple May Shave Weight of Future MacBooks with Carbon Fiber Composites

Apple is looking into new ways to save weight on their MacBooks, a recent USPTO filing shows. They have patented a new way to create carbon fiber composites that—unlike traditional ones—look sleek, shiny, and lickable: A composite laminate having an improved cosmetic surface is presented herein. The composite laminate includes a plurality of sheets of…

Tech News Jesus Diaz Apr 30

Suck It, Fiber: America’s Fastest Internet 101Mbps Delivered by Cablevision

Holy. I knew the fruits of cable’s fiber-fast DOCSIS 3.0 standard would be delicious, but this is incredible: Cablevision’s going to sell the fastest internet in the US next month: 101 blazing megabits per second. https://gizmodo.com/100mbps-cable-modem-certification-testing-starts-showd-325990 The package includes 15Mbps upstream, and it’s $100 a month. And everyone in Cablevision’s service area—suburban New York—will be…

Tech News Matt Buchanan Apr 28

AT&T Bounty for Network Vandals Now $250,000

AT&T really wants the head of whoever cut the fiber optic cable leading to a network outage in the San Jose area: They’ve just bumped the bounty from $100,000 to $250,000. It says the reward is for is for info “leading to arrest/conviction of CA vandals,” which means “dead or alive,” right? [AT&T News] https://gizmodo.com/vandals-cut-at-t-fiber-optic-lines-in-san-jose-affectin-5205620

Tech News Matt Buchanan Apr 10

Australia To Stimulate Itself With Government-Backed 100-Megabit Fiber Broadband For 90% of Oz

Ozzie prime minister Kevin Rudd has announced what will be one of the biggest government-sanctioned nationwide broadband initiatives in history: an A$43 billion plan to bring a fat 100mbps fiber pipe to 90% of Australians. The plan, which costs $30.5 billion of our U.S. dollars, will rely on a massive infusion of government funds to…

Tech News John Mahoney Apr 7

Carbon Fiber Surface Table Is Thin, Really Thin

I don’t know that anyone goes around complaining that their table is just too darned thick, but this carbon fiber “Surface” Table has been fashioned to a scant 2mm. Sadly, there’s no stat as to its weight or tensile strength, but at 3 meters long (that’s almost 9 feet), I can’t imagine you could stand…

Tech News Mark Wilson Dec 17

Wing Man Baby Seat: Carbon Fiber Gets Knocked Up

For anyone with a child, that bond you feel with your offspring is the most powerful in nature. And your protective instincts demand the absolute best in child safety, like this $4,000 Wing Man baby seat prototype. It’s constructed of strong, lightweight carbon fiber—the same material used in performance cars and airplanes across the world—that…

Tech News Mark Wilson Nov 19

Dealzmodo: Free Home Media HD-DVR For a Year With Verizon FiOS

Sign up for some sweet, sweet fiber pipes via Verizon FiOS between now and October 4th and you can bag a year’s worth of free Home Media multi-room DVR-the nifty recorder that can play three different saved shows on up to six TVs simultaneously, with individual pause/play controls on each set. You know, the one…

Television John Mahoney Aug 12

Disgruntled Computer Engineer Hijacks San Fran’s New Computer Network: Jail Not an Obstacle

Terry Childs, a 43-year-old computer network administrator in Pittsburgh, is in the midst of a legendary computer hack that has denied administrator access to San Francisco‘s new multimillion-dollar network. Apparently, Childs was recently disciplined at his job for poor performance and his supervisors unsuccessfully attempted to fire him. So, as an “insurance policy,” he hacked…

Tech News Sean Fallon Jul 15

Verizon Plans to Expand FiOS to the Boonies By Using Less Fiber (¡Que!)

PC Mag is reporting that Verizon is looking at a couple different ways to spread the good word of FiOS beyond the projected 18 million homes it’ll reach in 2010, maybe by using less, um, fiber after that, according to tech chief Mark Wegleitner. Update: Verizon’s Policy blog has a post that makes it clear…

Tech News Matt Buchanan Jun 18

Verizon Pumping FiOS Bandwidth to 50Mbps Down, 20Mbps Up Across Whole Footprint

Verizon FiOS’s blazingest 50Mbps downstream/20Mbps upstream package is no longer confined to the pit of the tri-state NY/NJ/CT area and select other locales. Starting next week, it’ll be available across Verizon’s entire, growing FiOS footprint in 16 states. (Though it’ll run $139.95 a month to NY and VA’s bargain $89.95/month.) Also, everyone who got 15/15…

Tech News Matt Buchanan Jun 18

Comcast Rolls Out Japan-Fast Cable Internet, But Can You Afford It?

DOCSIS 3.0 is the next-gen cable internet standard that allows crazy fast bandwidth of up to 160Mbps downstream and 120 up. The lucky first city to get a piece of that action from Comcast—which plans to cover 20 percent of its market with the awesome by the end of this year—is St. Paul, Minnesota. Denizens…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan Apr 2

Time Warner Says Verizon Is a Constipated Gay Man with Magic Fingers

This Time Warner ad taking on Verizon FiOS is so ludicrously hilarious it almost does make want to sign up with Time Warner. In the spot, Verizon is a constipated (wait for it), overly enthusiastic gay-coded dude with magic fingers shooting red lightning and flying Vs (for Verizon!), touting “THE FIBER.” It’s so ridiculous it…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan Feb 8

Comcast Getting 100Mbps Cable Modems Next Year, Fiber Scared?

Comcast confirms we’ll see the rollout of DOCSIS 3.0—the next-gen data over cable standard allowing bandwidth of 160Mbps down and 120Mbps up—starting next year, with 20 percent of its footprint expected to be blanketed in bandwidth goodness by the end of 2008. Even though Comcast isn’t saying where it’ll fall, markets where there’s FiOS are…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan Nov 29

Building a Gigabit Fiber Network Is Real Hard, Even for Google

Mayor of Duluth, Minnesota Wants All Firstborns To Be Named ‘Google Fiber’

Topeka, Kansas Changes Name in Attempt to Get Google’s Gigabit Fiber

Google Wants to Test Gigabit Fiber Internet For Up To 500,000 People

Broadband Is So Slow Amazon’s Import/Export Service Sends Data Using the Post Office

Second-Tier FiOS Providers Undercut Verizon, Are Verizon

Google on How to Change the Internet: You Should Own Your Broadband Pipes

Apple May Shave Weight of Future MacBooks with Carbon Fiber Composites

Suck It, Fiber: America’s Fastest Internet 101Mbps Delivered by Cablevision

AT&T Bounty for Network Vandals Now $250,000

Australia To Stimulate Itself With Government-Backed 100-Megabit Fiber Broadband For 90% of Oz

Carbon Fiber Surface Table Is Thin, Really Thin

Wing Man Baby Seat: Carbon Fiber Gets Knocked Up

Dealzmodo: Free Home Media HD-DVR For a Year With Verizon FiOS

Disgruntled Computer Engineer Hijacks San Fran’s New Computer Network: Jail Not an Obstacle

Verizon Plans to Expand FiOS to the Boonies By Using Less Fiber (¡Que!)

Verizon Pumping FiOS Bandwidth to 50Mbps Down, 20Mbps Up Across Whole Footprint

Comcast Rolls Out Japan-Fast Cable Internet, But Can You Afford It?

Time Warner Says Verizon Is a Constipated Gay Man with Magic Fingers

Comcast Getting 100Mbps Cable Modems Next Year, Fiber Scared?

Amazon Drops Kasa Smart Light LED Bulbs (4-Pack) to Around $6 Each as Stock Clears Out

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LA Has a Big Flea Problem. Typhus Cases Reached Record High Last Year

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‘The Testaments’ Cast on How Their Show Mirrors Our Real-Life Dystopia

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