This episode of The 9pm Edict heads into a eucalypt forest in search of the internet, and encounters a dog.
You’ll hear about the National Broadband Network’s fibre-to-the-node trial, Russell Brand, Bertrand Russell, the 20th anniversary of a sarin nerve gas attack in Japan, the 25th birthday of the internet in Australia, the 60th birthday of nuclear power stations, Hillary Clinton and the mangoes, Google co-funder Larry Page’s threat to kill 100,000 people, and the arsehattery of Village Roadshow co-CEO Graham Burke.
And there’s the dog, of course.
And a cat. Sort of.
But don’t forget the dog.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:21 — 42.4MB)
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Welcome this month to new SCHOONER supporter Chris Neugebauer and new FLAT WHITE supporter Susan Rankin, as well as all the previous month’s supporters listed on episode 24’s web page.
[Credits: Photograph: The Internet of Trees, one of a series of images taken on 28 June 2014 to be uploaded tomorrow. The 9pm Edict theme by mansardian, Edict fanfare by neonaeon, all from The Freesound Project. Nyan Cat by Daniwell-P/Momone Momo UTAU. Photograph of Stilgherrian taken 29 March 2009 by misswired, used by permission.]
Later: “A dingo’s got my internet!”
I think the dog whistle politics came out in the podcast nice and clear.
Certainly the dog gave more answers than Turnbull has in the last few months.
If one of Malcolm’s Mystery Boxen were to be installed, where would it actually go? As in, which bit of the infrastructure is considered to be the Node in Fiber-To-The?
I suspect it would be at the concrete pit there in https://secure.flickr.com/photos/stilgherrian/14337607460/in/photostream/ but I’d really really like to be wrong.
@Jason (the commenter): That dog did look a bit dingo-ish…
@ Rant, Rot and Ruin: The node is the cabinet, and they can go pretty much anywhere, really. Except…
If their capacity is 384 lines like the ones in the trial, and they continue to be supplied at the rate of one for every 200 premises — a sensible choice, to leave room for future expansion — then that’s a cabinet for every few blocks down every suburban street.
It’d make sense to site them next to, or even on top of, an existing pit, because that’s where copper is already being patched and where fibre is perhaps already running. In any event, they’d need to be placed on the footpath where a Telstra van can get to them for servicing.
In a sense, they’re just a smart (and bigger) version of the pillars that contain patching frames.
In other words, the hypothetical beautiful spanking new VDSL node would still be lovingly connected (presumably via judicious use of a Polish Screwdriver) to Bunjaree’s Internet of Trees?
@Rant, Rot and Ruin: Oh yes. And given the low population density, a node to serve 200 premises along the rural and semi-rural roads is still likely to be a kilometre away — so there’d be little improvement in potential speeds unless the cooper were replaced.
That said, the Coalition policy is such that a more appropriate technology might be chosen. Fixed wireless might be a better choice. Except that the Blue Mountains City Council would have to approve the new towers, and I don’t see that happening in a hurry.
Ironically, in such an environment, given the amount of stuffing about in trucks required, just stringing some fibre could well end up to be the cheapest medium-term option anyway. This is why all the hand-waving in Canberra about what is and isn’t “best” is so pointless. Nothing can be sure until you go to the location and look to see what’s actually there — in terms of existing infrastructure, terrain, council views, resident views, the lot.