

Mother Earth Mother Board - Neal Stephenson - rcrusoe
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html

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wesleyd
I read this every year or so. (Usually about the same time I re-read
cryptonomicon.) Best travel writing ever.

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knv
+1 for re-reading crytonomicon every year

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skmurphy
This was an oddly prescient paragraph. The lighthouse he refers to is the
famous lighthouse at Pharos. He wrote this in 1996, five years before
9/11/2001.

"The collapse of the lighthouse must have been astonishing, like watching the
World Trade Center fall over. But it took only a few seconds, and if you were
looking the other way when it happened, you might have missed it entirely -
you'd see nothing but blue breakers rolling in from the Mediterranean, hiding
a field of ruins, quickly forgotten."

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gchpaco
Old article, but I love it so.

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AndrewO
I used to work at a telcom research company. This was required reading for new
hires, eight years after its publication (probably still is).

Of course, the industry had changed since 1996. A lot of what he predicted
hasn't come to pass. And he certainly didn't see the bottoming out of the
market in the early 00's. But it is a great introduction to the world of sub
cables. I passed this along to many friends when they made the mistake of
asking me what I did.

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pchristensen
This was the first really long piece I read on the Internet. Really takes me
back.

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martythemaniak
tl;dr.

Ok ok, sorry. I love Neal Stephenson (I believe I've read everything he's
written, including Zodiac, Big U, etc, except for his newest one), but he is
one verbose guy and seems to be getting worse with age.

I hope to read this sometime in the future though.

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hernan7
Well, this article is from the mid-90's, so he was less verbose then.

Seriously, this is a great article (all you need to know about trans-Atlantic
fiber optics and the geeky hombres that lay them down at the bottom of the
sea). I remember the article came with some great photos; too bad they don't
include them in the on-line version.

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HalcyonMuse
It's kind of a Victorian writer thing, I think. (Getting more verbose with
age, I mean.)

