The Sound of a Pin Drop
by Stormy on August 23, 2001
We take the internet for granted, but putting it together is a lot of very hard work. Have you ever wondered what makes the internet tick?
Today I got to visit a local Sprint Internet Center being built in Denver. My host was Lisa, a Sprint engineer from Washington, DC. Lisa is very smart. She gets to travel all over the country, wiring cities up for internet service, so when an opportunity came up for me to spend a day with her, learning the trade, I didn't hesitate for a second!
Because this is a construction area, I had to wear a hard hat. Finding one in my size was a pain in the butt. The closest Sprint had that would fit me I could take a nap in, which I later did.
We spent some time in the POP room. Construction there was mostly done, so I was allowed to leave the hard hat behind for a while. I helped checking the installation of big routers and then I found a deep dark burrow. They called it a conduit, but a burrow is a burrow. I was off in a flash! For some reason there was a lot of panic. People were yelling, "There's a marmot in the cable management system!" Humph!
I came out after my nap and was offered a job making holes. They had a large heavy machine that would do these for you. I didn't even have to try using my teeth! What a day!
| |
