A look at the nonstop acceleration of Internet technology

Nieman Watchdog (Sep 20 2009) Carbon Footprint , Cloud Computing

1. Seems simple enough: Click on a link to read [a Nieman Reports print] article online. But behind the scenes, matters are more complicated. Your click doesn’t connect to the Nieman Foundation’s offices in Cambridge. In fact, the computer servers with this and other Nieman Reports articles aren’t even in Massachusetts; they are in Arizona. The click breaks up tiny data packets that then travel across the Internet by different routes—down copper wires, along fibers of optically pure glass, and through air—to reach your computer in San Francisco, New York or London, where the packets are reassembled and displayed as text. Dozens of machines are involved in every online mouse click, executed so quickly that you’re completely unaware of them. Perhaps you think you don’t care, but I hope my words will convince you otherwise. (Read Full Article)

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