

Mother Earth Mother Board (1996) - qb
http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html

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skmurphy
These are two great paragraphs that give a flavor

We first met Jim Daily and Alan Wall underneath that big Carlsberg sign,
sitting out in a late-afternoon rainstorm under an umbrella, having a couple
of beers – “the only ferangs here,” as Wall told me on the phone, using the
local term for foreign devil. Daily is American, 2 meters tall, blond, blue-
eyed, khaki-and-polo-shirted, gregarious, absolutely plain-spoken, and almost
always seems to be having a great time. Wall is English, shorter, dark-haired,
impeccably suited, cagey, reticent, and dry. Both are in their 50s. It is of
some significance to this story that, at the end of the day, these two men
unwind by sitting out in the rain and hoisting a beer, paying no attention
whatsoever to the industrial-scale whorehouse next door. Both of them have
seen many young Western men arrive here on business missions and completely
lose control of their sphincters and become impediments to any kind of
organized activity. Daily hired Wall because, like Daily, he is a stable
family man who has his act together. They are the very definition of a
complementary relationship, and they seem to be making excellent progress
toward their goal, which is to run two really expensive wires across the Malay
Peninsula.

Since these two, and many of the others we will meet on this journey, have
much in common with one another, this is as good a place as any to write a
general description. They tend to come from the US or the British Commonwealth
countries but spend very little time living there. They are cheerful and
outgoing, rudely humorous, and frequently have long-term marriages to
adaptable wives. They tend to be absolutely straight shooters even when they
are talking to a hacker tourist about whom they know nothing. Their openness
would probably be career suicide in the atmosphere of Byzantine court-eunuch
intrigue that is public life in the United States today. On the other hand, if
I had an unlimited amount of money and woke up tomorrow morning with a burning
desire to see a 2,000-hole golf course erected on the surface of Mars, I would
probably call men like Daily and Wall, do a handshake deal with them, send
them a blank check, and not worry about it.

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stblack
This article is listed high among the Best Magazine Articles Ever
[http://kk.org/cooltools/best-magazine-articles-
ever](http://kk.org/cooltools/best-magazine-articles-ever)

And rightly so.

Neal Stephenson has also written some of the best geek books ever. My personal
favourite: Cryptonomicon which is in the same general vein as the article.

~~~
ampersandy
Thank you so much for posting this! This was the list where I originally found
the Mother Earth Mother Board article, but I only just remembered that after
seeing your post.

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acheron
Fantastic article of course.

This has been republished in Stephenson's book _Some Remarks_ [1], which also
includes a bunch of his other non-fiction (as well as a couple fiction short
stories). Highly recommended.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Some-Remarks-Essays-Other-
Writing/dp/B...](http://www.amazon.com/Some-Remarks-Essays-Other-
Writing/dp/B00BJEMLJO/)

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nkoren
God that article was/is riveting. I still recall the first time I read it, in
one sitting, this ridiculous fat magazine in my hands. The world would be a
better place if it had more journalism like this.

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IvyMike
Current undersea cable map explorer:
[http://www.submarinecablemap.com/](http://www.submarinecablemap.com/)

I think this is the one from the article:
[http://www.submarinecablemap.com/#/submarine-cable/flag-
euro...](http://www.submarinecablemap.com/#/submarine-cable/flag-europe-asia-
fea)

They've added a few more.

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cju
It's a pity Neal Stephenson has not written more of this kind of "hacker
tourist" coverage.

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JunkDNA
Makes me nostalgic for the early days of WIRED. This article was one of the
best. It blew me away when I read it the first time-- so much so, I read it
twice just for the sheer enjoyment of it.

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fulafel
This is my favorite Wired article from its golden years.

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sedev
I was an Impressionable Teen when this article was published, and by howdy it
made an impression.

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zhte415
At a little over 42 thousand words, each of them documenting a fascinating
story, this is well on its way to a Masters (Research) thesis in a sociology
related field, and superior to many I've read.

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Gravityloss
Why don't they just put more light fibers in there while they're at it, as
they're small and cheap?

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secabeen
Definitely awesome. I have a signed copy of this article floating around my
house somewhere.

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liotier
Never gets old... I read it every decade !

