Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Aqizzar]

Coax, on the other hand, is invincible. My electronics class acquired a bunch of lengths of 1.4" diameter triple-shielded cable, and we were tasked with ruining it. We tried arc-welding through it, but all we did was start a minor fire and blow a few fuses in the welding box. We ran over it with a truck, we repeatedly mauled it with saws and hammers, and we applied a jackhammer. It morphed a bit, but not once did it become immediately unusable. (Though the jackhammer exposed some copper, and the wire would need to be replaced eventually.)

Okay, let me rephase my question: Why does coaxial cable use connectors that are specifically designed to be impossible to attach, impossible to remove, and fuck up your fingers in the process?  I've seen coax cable with big easy-grip connections, or even plug connectors.  Why is the shitty 1880s version the standard?

[Neonivek]

Coax, on the other hand, is invincible. My electronics class acquired a bunch of lengths of 1.4" diameter triple-shielded cable, and we were tasked with ruining it. We tried arc-welding through it, but all we did was start a minor fire and blow a few fuses in the welding box. We ran over it with a truck, we repeatedly mauled it with saws and hammers, and we applied a jackhammer. It morphed a bit, but not once did it become immediately unusable. (Though the jackhammer exposed some copper, and the wire would need to be replaced eventually.)

Okay, let me rephase my question: Why does coaxial cable use connectors that are specifically designed to be impossible to attach, impossible to remove, and fuck up your fingers in the process?  I've seen coax cable with big easy-grip connections, or even plug connectors.  Why is the shitty 1880s version the standard?

Because if it was easy why would you hire someone else to do it? and if you did hire someone else, why would you hire someone who didn't take a class to do so?

It is that something little extra.

[PyroDesu]

Coax + Fiber = Invincible Fiber

[Greiger]

All that extra coax em shielding would do absolutely jack all for the fiber.  But it's probably partially what gives it it's resilience.  Maybe replace the copper or tin or whatnot (yes I took electronics I just don't remember what the weave is made of) with something sturdier like iron or steel.

Of course all fiber is is essentially just a price of glass thinner than a hair.  Even with all that extra stuff the wrong jolt will still mess it up.  It just wouldn't look messed up, and only be a little bit harder to break.

[PyroDesu]

It's copper. A copper wire weave, actually.

And, yes, the glass is very thin, but it's also flexible, to a point. You can bend the stuff more than 360 degrees without breaking it.

If you have enough of them together, it's quite hard to break, and the coax shielding would provide even more resilience.

[scriver]

1. Wrap fiber optic cable in coaxial cable.
2. Go bankrupt from the expense.
3.
4. Profit

This is the best use of this meme.

[Greiger]

It's copper. A copper wire weave, actually.

And, yes, the glass is very thin, but it's also flexible, to a point. You can bend the stuff more than 360 degrees without breaking it.

If you have enough of them together, it's quite hard to break, and the coax shielding would provide even more resilience.

Ah then indeed it could prove very effective.  We never got a chance to actually manipulate fiberoptic cable.  We saw some, we saw the teacher fuse some together in a fancy little machine that he claimed cost more than 2 year's tuition but still looked like it saw better days, and then we got buried under coaxial and used Ethernet cables.  Don't understand why, the fiber cable itself is pretty cheap isn't it?  It's just the connectors and installation labor is expensive if I read right.

So that might not be very expensive at all when compared to regular coax, you would probably just have to invent a new kind of connector for it.

[Rose]

yes, a connector that makes your fingers bleed to disconnect it.

[Greiger]

It will make you bleed disconnecting it, and then stab a tiny little shard of glass so deep into your finger you need surgery to remove it.

[Heron TSG]

It's copper. A copper wire weave, actually.

And, yes, the glass is very thin, but it's also flexible, to a point. You can bend the stuff more than 360 degrees without breaking it.

If you have enough of them together, it's quite hard to break, and the coax shielding would provide even more resilience.

You can bend the stuff 360 degrees eventually, but you can say that for most conductors. Fiber Optics cables can't make 90 degree or even 45 degree turns without a major length of cable, or the signal will just shoot right through the wall out of the tube.

Coax shielding is only economical because it helps the wire conduct. Armoring a fiber optic cable isn't going to help much. Coax survives everything because the central conductor is flexible and electrons will conduct as long as any connection remains, even if it's a snarled mess. Not so with photons and fiber optic cables.

[PyroDesu]

It's copper. A copper wire weave, actually.

And, yes, the glass is very thin, but it's also flexible, to a point. You can bend the stuff more than 360 degrees without breaking it.

If you have enough of them together, it's quite hard to break, and the coax shielding would provide even more resilience.

You can bend the stuff 360 degrees eventually, but you can say that for most conductors. Fiber Optics cables can't make 90 degree or even 45 degree turns without a major length of cable, or the signal will just shoot right through the wall out of the tube.

Coax shielding is only economical because it helps the wire conduct. Armoring a fiber optic cable isn't going to help much. Coax survives everything because the central conductor is flexible and electrons will conduct as long as any connection remains, even if it's a snarled mess. Not so with photons and fiber optic cables.

Hmm...

My (very little) experience with fiber is a couple of pieces I had that I could do anything to, as long as it wasn't broken the signal transmitted.

But you're saying that at too extreme of an angle, the signal will just go through the sides of the fiber if you bend it too much, even if it doesn't break.

[Heron TSG]

It's basically a mirror-lined pipe that photons bounce across. The mirrors have to be at an angle that they will reflect towards a mirror that is further along instead of back down the pipe where the data came from.

[Rose]

actually not quite. It's a glass strand, and due to refraction, as long as the light hits the sides at a narrow enough angle, 100% of the light is reflected inside.

but if the angle is too big, or if there's a scratch or something, then the light leaves the strand entirely.

[PsyberianHusky]

So I have been cutting my own hair for a while, but SOOOME days ya just mess up...

[Aqizzar]

The hopefully final chapter in the saga of Aqizzar vs. Time Warner Cable.  Everything except the phone is working.  The phone, for no explicable reason, will be turned on some time between now and hour fours from now.

And I missed out on talking to a cute and intelligent girl at the service center.  The one time the line is actually short and moving is the one time there's anybody there I would think to talk to.

Meanwhile, my new "boss" isn't responding to my calls.  I have a distinct feeling that all the bile I've spewed over this phone business is going to be for nothing, because it'll wind up being too late anyway and I'll have missed the one real job opportunity I've gotten since graduating college.

EDIT: Okay, turns out that part's probably not true.  But while I'm still waiting for my work phone to be turned on, I finally got a call from my boss's secretary.  I don't actually start working until later this week; in the meantime, they want me to call up resumes for interview times.  I haven't even actually started working yet, and they want me to convince people to come hear their recruiting pitch.  What the crap...