Wet String Used For Broadband

Forget “how long’s a piece of string?” — the question now is “what’s its bandwidth?” That’s because an ISP has successfully carried broadband data over two meters of string.

It’s the work of an engineer at Andrews and Arnold who was presumably at a loose end in the office. He decided to test the theory that ADSL (the technology used to carry broadband over telephone lines) would “work over a bit of wet string.” That was never meant to be a serious proposition, but rather a turn of phrase to indicate how ADSL can adapt to work reliably, if slowly, over even poor lines.

The engineer found that ordinary string would indeed do the job, as long as it was soaked in salty water to help carry the electrical signal. While admittedly over an impractically short ‘cable’, the data was transferred at 3.5 Mbps. The set-up really did put the A into ADSL though, with an upload speed of 67 Kbps. (No word of the ping of the string.)

The company told the BBC that the set-up had “no commercial potential that we are aware of.” However, it said it’s a good reminder that some problems with a network that show up as a low connection speed may simply be the system adjusting to a poor quallity line.

Last Minute Geek Gifts: Up to 70% Off on HUNDREDS of Items, $4.99 T-Shirts, and MORE!

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George Lucas’ Original Vision of “The Star Wars” as a Movie Trailer [Video]

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away… we might have seen a version of Star Wars that featured a Han Solo with green skin and gills, Stormtroopers with lightsabers, and a female heroine named Luka Starkiller.

Many of these anomalies can be seen in concept artist, Ralph McQuarrie’s early illustrations of the Star Wars universe. While looking back at these early paintings we can’t help but wonder what Star Wars would have been like had it remained loyal to the concept art and early drafts of the script.

The DAVE School graduating class of August and October 2017 have answered that question by bringing Ralph McQuarrie’s paintings to life in a concept trailer for what might have been… The Star Wars.

[The DAVE School]

Ryan Reynolds Releases Classical Masterpiece for Deadpool II

Actor Ryan Reynolds just posted this classical masterpiece inspired by the artwork that can be seen in the Sistine Chapel showing God giving life to Adam. Behold:

A few things of interest:

1- Cable is coming out of a time-traveling portal
2- He has a teddy bear hanging from his belt, just like in the first picture that was released showing the character. This teddy bear probably plays an important part in Deadpool II.

[Source: Ryan Reynolds on Twitter | Via GT]