This Wired article made me realize the impact of the physiscal components of a internet connection. The importance of these wired connections usually never came to mind when thinking about a wireless connection. I like the historical context that the article started off with. Thinking about wires that strech as long as from England to Japan is a crazy thought and it was seen that way when it was completed in 1997 as well. The article went on to discuss various geographic regions and how their strategical placement has an effect on bigger cities across the world. The FLAG system was very interesting to read on how it creates a wired connection of a grid between cities around the world. It also discusses about how hackers can take advantage of wired connections in once city to affect others world wide.
This was another great article that shows the vast amount of physical storage needed by these top companies / organizations. I always knew it needed a lot of storage for a Google size company but I never realized that it was on par with the NSA and the CIA. Its crazy how they have data centers spread all through out the world. The best part was the visual representation of how many punch cards it would take to display googl'es storage amount it a fantastic way to represent this data visually. Its also important to consider that moat of this information on this article is the public info released by Google so they might have a lot more to offer with thier information that they keep hidden.
From all the Resources that was listed this was my favorite one becuase I always wanted to know what those markings on the sidewalks in my neighborhood meant. I didnt realize that there was so much that went into these markings such as color and specific locations even if they are not near the actual location of the specified area. Sometimes I would see the CATV marking on sidewalks and sometimes even on the sides of buildings and I just thought it was some one tagging but the article made me realize that it actually had an important message which was cable for TV. There was also the T | V sign a lot around my neighborhood but I never seen them outside of Queens and the article made me realize that it was also for TV but specific for comapnies that bundle TV with phone and internet which is more popular in boroughs out side of Manhattan. The manhole covers were also interesting which made me realize why some of them have different markings . This article mabe me realize my surroundings better and thier importance. The best one was the Subway connectors and how they have ebeen in use for a long time. Underground level helpes me realize the hardware equipment aroumd the city thats unseen.
Museum of wifi was another one of my favorite Resources that was linked due to the various interactions on the site that help promote the overall message. As someone that keeps the standard NETGEAR wifi name I do come across different and funny wifi names which was interesting to see. Sometimes you would see them in in places that you dont even expect them to like a hospital or library. My favorite ones were "TellYourWifiSaidHi" , "Hide yo kids hide yo wifi" , and "How I met your Router". It shows the interactions with internet connection without actually being on the internet. It was a unique was to have a connection using the physical wifi connection ability to change the connections name in lrder to provide a message.
This great article shows the evolution of them web on how it was first made to display specific information and now it is open for everyone to show whatever they want. Its funny how various information based on politics and cat videos are all collectively held all together on the internet. Using this platform to post important and sensitive information it showed how specifics on how there is the ability to block specific information on the internet. It shows there is no perfect platform to voice your message since they can all be easily blocked. This article explained how sofisticated the Chinese control on the internet is by allowing specififcs for a certain topic (such as cats) but they will monitor any other additional inforamtion that is attached to the cats (such as additional text).
This journey of creating thier own server to set up multiple accounts allowing people to post whatever they want was a great way to show the background statictics and data that goes into soemthing like this and how the storage and hardware come into play along side the financial needs. It was amazing how the small community grew so much allowing people to come together allowing them to come together.