The weakest (Internet) link - Asia

Reported here, here and elsewhere:

"Telephone and internet services were disrupted across Asia after a powerful earthquake struck near southern Taiwan"

Apparently 40%-60% of capacity was initially lost due to damage to two undersea telecommunication links.

People affected have my sympathy, but its funny as isn't this the type of thing the "net" supposed to survive? Hmm - well according to sources quoted in Wikipedia this is just a myth:

"The ARPANET was not started to create a Command and Control System that would survive a nuclear attack, as many now claim... Rather, the ARPAnet came out of our frustration that there were only a limited number of large, powerful research computers in the country"

It certainly makes you think twice about the Web Office concept and utility computing, or at least if they are based on the public internet communications infrastructure.

Technorati tags: Asia, Taiwan, Earthquake, ARPANET, Internet, Web Office, Utility Computing