[hernan7]

For lots more on fiber optics and the colorful characters that lay them down under the sea, this old Wired article is a must-read:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html

("Mother Earth Motherboard" by Neal Stephenson, 1994)

"Everything that has occurred in Silicon Valley in the last couple of decades also occurred in the 1850s. [...] The only things that have changed since then are that the stakes have gotten smaller, the process more bureaucratized, and the personalities less interesting."